| Primitive
illegal mines (or "holes,” as they are usually called by miners) were
until recently a kind of an open secret of the Donbas coal basin. Everyone,
from top officials in the regional government to schoolchildren from a working
village, knew about their existence. However, all pretended that there was no
problem. Perhaps sometimes officials would let it slip for some impudent
reporter to hear: saying there are some drawbacks, but the significance for the
region’s economy is too great, so there is nothing to talk about.
Now the situation has changed. Directors of big mines in
Shakhtarsk, Yenakiievo, Krasny Luch, Torez, Kirovske are raising a ruckus
together: there is nobody to mine the coal — qualified miners leave for illegal
mines which are in abundance. One can stop this outflow only by increasing
salaries, but to do this the ministry of coal industry must adopt a new grid
for production salaries. This, in its turn, is determined by the state budget:
currently it is possible only for the budget of 2011. In the meantime,
mines cadres quickly vanish. In addition, the orotund director’s hubbub is not always
sincere. THE CASE STUDY The first "holes” appeared in Donbas about 12 years
ago, in the period of the infamous restructuring of the Ukrainian coal industry.
In fact, it was a real mecha nism of destruction, when the surface complex of
mechanisms of the mines, recognized by officials as "unpromising,” was cut
by gas welders for scrap metal, while shafts leading to industrial excavation
were slightly, just formally, exploded by ammonal and covered by surrounding
junk. However, local miners, almost all of whom were laid off,
quickly realized that there was a lot of coal which could be excavated
literally under their feet. And hoisting "the black gold” to the surface,
despite the difficulties, was the only way they knew to earn a living. These
"pioneers” went underground again, at their own peril. I knew from the very beginning about the idea of my neighbor
and classmate to excavate the old ventilation shaft and create a self-made mine
there. Coming from the city to visit relatives to the slowly disappearing mine
village, I listened to detailed local news, and Petro with his illegal mine was
always in the center of it: once he got an odd idea to use his old motorcycle
as a compressor to supply power for a pneumatic pick; then the inexperienced
"businessman” was deceived for money by rogues who claimed they were
investors. Later (when the self-made mine was actually ready) gloomy
"tough guys” appeared in the forest to conduct a unequivocal conversation
about their cooperation and their gua ranteed percentage of future profits. It really
took a long time to arrange a showing of Petro’s illegal mine (which, as it was
mentioned, was not difficult to reach without guides and in slippers). Having
apologized a dozen of times, my school buddy explained that now he had to ask
his "boss” about such things, he can’t sell a sack of coal he personally
cut without him. After all,
here we are on the old glade, which the locals quite naturally still call
"Ventilator.” The heavily used automobile track attracts attention, it
roams between trees and iridescently sparkles in the sun for it is richly
covered by small particles of first-sort anthracite. A heap of coal of about
seven to ten tons rests nearby. Without guards. "Won’t
it be stolen?” I ask naively, estimating in my mind that a big bucket of coal,
according to local retail prices, costs 10 hryvnias. "They
don’t steal over here,” explains the old friend, suddenly becoming serious. "Someone
tried to, so they are still looking for him. You haven’t changed your mind
about going down, have you?” The test
pit leading to the mine is carefully fixed by thick logs. There is no sense
asking where the timber is from, for it is "nobody’s.” The metal crank
with a steel rope and pail at the end, a little bigger than the well, gives no
hope to see the wide world again, but it’s too late to retreat. I sit down,
hold on tightly, trying to make a Gagarin-style joke before the start. Below, it’s
quiet and peaceful, as if you were walking down the cemetery and fell down into
someone’s grave. The air is damp, but the water from the ceiling, despite my
fears, doesn’t pour behind my collar. Only the tip of the tongue tastes a
little sweet (what, according to signs of experienced miners, signals the
presence of methane in the air). Somewhere above a shred of the real world
dimly appears. And here — away from the old ventilation shaft, goes a low, as
high as a coal layer, self-made drift. If you light with a miner’s flashlight,
which I was providently supplied with on the surface, then among the posts of
roofing an anthracite layer alluringly gleams, for the sake of which my
childhood friend and his "employees” descend here. There, in the cling as
high as a kitchen stool, they chisel the pillar in turns — a massif of coal
deliberately left untouched so that the building of the ventilation station
didn’t collapse and fall through. As the pneumatic
pick starts working, it becomes, to say the least, uncomfortable. Miners change
every two hours, the overall duration of the work shift is not limited. When
they lack air for breathing, miners have to disconnect the hose leading to the
surface from the compressor and continue excavation somehow. The rest: the
emission of dangerous gas, the probability of collapse, the acrid coal dust
that tightly accumulates in one’s lungs, and even, as they say, a high level of
radiation have to be ignored. DOLCE VITA
FOR SOME According
to the recent statement of the militia service on the struggle with economic
crimes, there are about 400 secret mines on the territory of the Do netsk
region. However, according to the statistics of the independent trade union of
miners of Ukraine, there are much more illegal mines in Donbas — over six
thousand. Where the "tails” of the coal layers actually reach the surface,
they sometimes arrange self-made mines sacrificing their own dwelling. In
"difficult” cases illegal undermining is done under housing buildings or
railway tracks. Just around
the small town of Perevalsk there are so many "holes” that owners
sometimes fight for a few square meters of attractive territory. As Lu hansk
human rights activists who monitor the illegal work claim, every night a train
fully loaded with illegal coal departs from the local railway station. Where
does it go? The
question, by the way, is crucial. Let’s try to estimate. An average capacity of
one "hole,” according to the conclusions of independent experts, is 15
thousand tons of coal daily. Consequently, overall they get to the surface (15
x 6,000) 90,000 tons of fuel. You won’t bring this amount in sacks to
surrounding yards to sell it to elderly people "for the winter.” For
comparison, in the press-releases on the website of the Ministry of Coal
Production regarding the daily summary extraction at the state mines figures of
100,000-110,000 tons are mentioned. Thus a parallel, illegal coal industry
confidently catches up with the official one. As informed
people in the region state, the connection between the "right” and
criminal coal in Donbas is very tight, they are almost identical. The main
buyers of the counterfeit fuel are the same state mines. Reselling the coal
afterwards, they get a double profit: a mediator margin due to the difference
in prices, and, in addition, budget subsidy for each ton of minerals, as if
they were extracted there. Let’s
calculate once again, this time in financial terms. The owner of the illegal
mine, paying workers no more than 100 hryvnias per ton, resells the coal
(through a number of mediators) to the mine storehouse of ready product for
200-230 hryvnias. Then the coal is shipped to consumers for the average ta riff
of 570 hryvnias per ton. That is every day Donbas illegal coal industry amounts
to: (570-100) x 90,000 = 42.3 million hryvnias. Over 15 billion a year! It is
difficult to estimate the subsidy from the state budget, for costs are actually
distributed in a "manual mode.” They are also "disguised” in
different items of the budget expenditure. However, the overall subsidies scale
of the current year is stated, they are predicted within the range of 9-13
billion hryvnias. We
naturally remember bearded Marx with his eternal (there is no escape from it)
definition that beyond some limit there is no terrible crime one wouldn’t dare
to commit for the sake of profit. A STATE ORDER? The number
of "holes” has increased geometrically in recent months. In
Yenakiievo, the homeland of the current President Viktor Yanukovych, the owners
of illegal mines literally sieged the working village of Olkhovatka, digging
under dwellings, roads, and even the cemetery. In the Shakhtarsk district and
the natural park "Donetsk steppe” hunters for coal by means of powerful
excavators arrange self-made quarries, mercilessly damaging the landscape. As a
result of the process intensification at "holes,” accidents with lethal
implications became more frequent: thus, dead workers are just left on the
territory of hospitals. Illegal miners ceased hiding in forest belts and faraway
steppe gullies, they impudently arrange their illegal business near highways,
on the outskirts of big cities. By the way, the recent fashion is to decorate
the hut over the "hole” with the flag of Ukraine. There is some sense in it, after all. As specialists
suggest, the Ukrainian economy is about to feel a severe lack of solid fuel. While
the economic recession lasted at Ukrainian coal mines, no new drifts were cut,
cutting and erecting fundamental underground hollows "for tomorrow” were
ignored. It’s impossible to catch up with the lost time quickly, at the same
time the severe deficit of three to five million tons of coal will be felt
already at the beginning of winter. Next year the situation will get even
worse. Here the government, which is helplessly buried in problems,
unexpectedly makes use of exactly these self-made mines: the "black gold”
is provided right now and cheaply, they don’t claim social protection, medical
insurance or even official salaries, they fear miner’s strikes on the
capital’s pavement. In addition, they ideally fit the criminal scheme of
acquiring state subsidies which were for years elaborated and improved in
Donbas. Today the illegal miners feel they are kings of the Donetsk steppe,
they are sure: no one will hurt them. Perhaps
soon, just for fun, they will start placing red stars over the self-made mines,
as during the Stakhanov times. For our state currently turns completely to the
direction of the past. However, one has to walk there in some strange,
partially criminal way.
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