Mines and Magnates*
Abstract Coal was sustenance for the belated industrialization of the Soviet Union. Coal mining is inherently a megaproject that requires access to vast deposits, removal of millions of tons of overburden, and the treatment of workers as expendable, including the families of workers who live in prox...
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| Format: | Book Part |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University PressNew York
2024
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| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197698396.003.0003 https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/58152039/oso-9780197698396-chapter-3.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract Coal was sustenance for the belated industrialization of the Soviet Union. Coal mining is inherently a megaproject that requires access to vast deposits, removal of millions of tons of overburden, and the treatment of workers as expendable, including the families of workers who live in proximity to the dangers, dusts, and din. Coal fed the Bolsheviks’ dreams, stoked Stalin’s iron and steel mills with miner-prisoners, supported Brezhnev’s fossil fuel regime, and in the twenty-first century continues to support oligarchs of Russia. So important was coal that mine bosses in the USSR declined to provide adequate safety protections for miners. Ultimately, the Kremlin’s insatiable need for coal and oil was reflected in the determination to extend imperial control over fossil fuels in Chechnya, Kazakhstan, Siberia, and Arctic regions—at great human cost. |
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