How it was 05/22/2001 (2001)

Miner unrest in the USSR, 1989.

The striking movement of the miners did not begin on July 11, as it is commonly believed, but on April 2, 1989, when the miners of the 8th section of the mine named after the 60th anniversary of the USSR refused to go up.

Slaughterhouses demanded to bring quality food to the buffet and provide soap with soap.

On the night of July 11, the miners of the third shift at the Shevyakov mine presented the administration with economic demands.

A "chain reaction" began and soon the whole Kuzbass rose.

Of course, at first they were afraid of reprisals, but fear, according to the miners themselves, in many ways played an organizing role - the discipline of the strikers was iron.

There were strike committees, in the region banned the import and sale of alcohol, volunteers from among the striking miners organized people's druzhiny to help the police.

The result: a protocol with economic and political requirements, handed over to the authorities, and, most importantly, a collective sense of "we can", which was passed on to the whole country.

In the studio there are members of the strike committee Vyacheslav Golikov and Pavel Metelitsa, chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers in 1989 Nikolai Ryzhkov, first secretary of the Kemerovo regional committee of the CPSU in 1989, Alexander Melnikov.

Personnel chronicles: a strike in Mezhdurechensk, miners in the face, an interview with miners at a rally in Prokopyevsk.