ABSTRACT
MINERS IN SIBERIA and in other parts of the country were the first to respond to Boris Yeltsin’s call for a national strike after the coup in August 1991. Since July 1989, a historic month in the lives of many Soviet miners, they became known as the branch of the working force that was willing to fight for their rights in the Soviet Union. At that time they went on strike to demand better living and working conditions. After the first strike others followed, and my interest in the miners grew. This group, I thought, could eventually paralyze the economy.
