1991 Reports

Lessons of Soviet Coal Miners' Strike of Summer 1989

Cook, Linda J.

The most dramatic and significant labor unrest of the Gorbachev period erupted among coal miners in the summer of 1989. Beginning on July 10 in the Western Siberian Kuznetsk Basin (Kuzbass), the unrest spread to the Donetsk Basin (Donbass) in the Ukraine, to the Arctic city of Vorkuta, and to other regions, involving some half million Soviet miners by late July. The strikes spawned grassroots leadership and organization, including oblastlevel committees which coordinated actions, worked out unified demands, and bargained on behalf of the strikers. The miners largely bypassed local trade union and party cadres, and apparently eschewed efforts of other political groups to assume a role in the strikes. Their movement was self-mobilized and thus gives us rare access to authentic workers’ voices, largely unadulterated by official formulations. The record of their grievances and demands provides important information about miners’ attitudes, both toward Gorbachev’s reforms and toward broader issues of social and economic policy.