Miner's day

Abstract

The work of mining workers has always been associated with dangerous and harmful working conditions, but it is difficult to imagine the modern world without this industry and the people who contribute to its development. At the proposal of the ministers of the coal industry of the western and eastern regions of the USSR, an annual holiday was established in 1947, Miner’s Day, which is still celebrated to this day on the last Sunday of August. Not only miners are involved in it, but also tunnellers, engineers and maintenance personnel. Interest in mining in Russia arose in the second half of the 15th century, when in 1491 the first expedition set off to the Pechora region to search for minerals. However, the industry received the status of the basic sector of the future industry under Peter I after the establishment in 1700 of the “Order of Mining Affairs”. At the end of the 19th century mining occupied first place among other branches of Russian industry. The construction of coal mines began in the Donbass, the Urals, the Moscow and Kuznetsk basins, and the Far East. By the middle of the 20th century for the base of domestic mining engineering, which had already begun to form, a “golden age” started, which lasted more than three decades. At this time there was an increase in coal mining volumes, an increase in the production capacity of enterprises, an increase in the technical level of mining processes, an improvement in methods of mining deposits and a change in the approach to labor and production management systems. In modern Russia, the largest producer and supplier of coal is the Kuznetsk basin – in the first quarter of 2023, more than half (51 %) of all coal mined in the country was produced here. The import of Russian coal is also gaining momentum – China and India are Russia’s main partners in this area.