As a result of the tragedy at Listvyazhnaya on November 25, 51 people died - 46 miners and five rescuers.
The bodies of the 13 dead have not yet been recovered from the mine.
According to the unspoken mining code, until the bodies are lifted to the ground, a person is not considered dead, say the relatives of the miners.
Accidents have already happened at Listvyazhnaya before.
In 2004, a methane explosion occurred there, killing 13 workers.
After the tragedy of November 25, 2021, the management of the mine promised to pay the families of the dead miners 2 million rubles each, while each family member will personally receive another 1 million rubles.
“On average, each family will receive more than 6 million rubles,” the press service of the mine calculated.
Death in the mines
On December 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the reason for the accident at Listvyazhnaya was the lack of control from the management of the mine.
The head of the Russian Federation also accused the management of the enterprise of falsifying meter data.
According to preliminary data, the explosion in the mine occurred due to a high concentration of methane.
After the tragedy in the Kemerovo Region, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov said that the safety indicators at Listvyazhnaya met the standards only “on paper” - in fact, there were many violations at the enterprise.
The miners themselves, in conversations with reporters, claim that the methane concentration indicators before the tragedy rose above the norm.
RIA News
© Press service of the administration of the government of Kuzbass
The long-term program for the development of the coal industry in Russia assumes that by 2030 safety at enterprises will be increased so that the mortality rate per ton of coal mined was no more than 0.05
Since 1992, more than ten major accidents have occurred in Russian mines, the largest of which killed 110 people.
RT talked to the families of the miners who died in these mines to find out what kind of help the relatives of the victims receive from the state and how their life turned out after the tragedy.
"Three days of obscurity"
At the end of February 2016, due to a methane release at the Severnaya mine in the Komi Republic, two explosions thundered, a rock collapsed.
In that accident, 36 people died, including five rescuers.
Among the miners who never made it to the surface was the husband of Vorkuta resident Natalya Tryasukho Vyacheslav, who had worked at Severnaya for 17 years.
“I learned from the accident from a friend, she worked at this mine that day, and called to find out whether Slava was on duty or not,” recalls the widow of the deceased miner.
- Then she said that there was an explosion in the mine.
They called the mine until evening, and received no information.
Three days of uncertainty, sleepless days and nights, tears, panic, despair and fear. "
On February 28, Natalya was informed that her husband was killed along with the rest of the workers from his brigade in the first explosion.
Because of the rubble and a strong fire, the bodies were never raised to the surface: "They all remained in the mine."
According to Natalia, after the death of her husband, she received the promised payments from the state, but now the family lives "like everyone else."
“We have lived together for 22 years, not on average.
Now our daughters are already adults, the eldest is working, the youngest is completing her studies.
I plow like a galley slave to stay afloat and help the eldest to provide for her child, ”says the woman.
The mine where her husband died was closed and flooded long ago, but, as far as the miner's widow knows, maintenance of the surface facilities continues.
The investigation of the accident at the "Severnaya" was completed in 2019, 14 people became involved in the criminal case.
The court hearings are still going on, says Tryazukho.
She also expressed condolences to the families of miners who died in the Listvyazhnaya accident on 25 November.
According to the woman, the reason for this and other tragedies is always the desire of mining companies to make as much money as possible.
“Taking into account the information that I saw, read and heard from an interview with one of the wives of the deceased miner, I can conclude that nothing has changed in this area.
Companies prioritize profit.
At any cost, ”concluded Natalya.
Mine with advanced equipment
14 years have passed since the accident at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region, but pensioner Vladimir Prokopyev, who lost his son there, still talks about the tragedy, barely holding back his tears.
Roman Prokopyev worked as a chief engineer at the mine, at the time of his death he was 29 years old.
His wife and seven-year-old son were left without a breadwinner.
© Photo from personal archive
The explosion at Ulyanovskaya - the locals also call it Esaulskaya - occurred on the morning of March 19, 2007.
The accident became one of the worst in the history of the mining industry in the Russian Federation - 110 people died then.
“I was at work that day.
I came home from work - I found out, everyone in the yard was already talking about it.
The only thing they didn’t know for sure was whether someone died there or not.
The tragedy happened in the morning, "Roman Prokopyev's father told RT.
On the day of the accident, Roman first went to work in a new position, he was promoted to director, his father recalls.
According to Vladimir, the mine was “new, with advanced equipment,” and on March 19 guests from England were there - they came to launch the advanced gas system they had installed.
“They paid so much pounds sterling for this system ... They bought it in England, and the commission went to accept this system.
The translator died there, too, "says the interlocutor of RT.
Vladimir also explained the large number of victims - the explosion occurred during the shift shift, "a fresh shift together with the commission just entered, people have not yet left the mine, and new ones have already entered."
The Ulyanovskaya mine is still working, but since the accident, Vladimir has not appeared there - according to him, after the incident, he “cannot look at the mines at all,” although he himself was once a miner.
“I worked at the Abashevskaya mine.
It was like this: no one lowered the sensors underground, no one covered anything, they worked exactly within the permissible limits.
The gas went off - it turned off the electricity - they took people to a fresh stream or stopped working altogether.
People were somehow responsible for this, ”explains the father of the deceased Prokopyev.
"Only fair punishment"
Svetlana Morozovskaya lost her husband in 2010 during an accident at Raspadskaya.
The tragedy happened on a holiday, on May 9 - a powerful explosion thundered in the mine, and then, four hours later, another one.
91 people died, including Sergei Morozovsky.
© Photo from personal archive
“Seryozha and I lived for 9 years, it was my second marriage, daughters from the first, Seryozha they were stepdaughters.
In April I had a miscarriage, and on May 9 my husband died ... ”- the woman recalls.
She said that the bodies of many miners from Raspadskaya, as in the case of Severnaya, were never brought to the surface.
The woman still recalls the events of that period with a shudder - she expressed condolences to the wives and relatives of the victims of the recent accident at Listvyazhnaya.
“As for Listvyazhnaya, I try not to follow the news, it's hard for me to see it.
I can only say that I understand these women - our bodies have not yet been raised, we have not buried anyone yet!
We all then grabbed our hair "Don't drown the mine!"
It's hard to remember.
We lived there for a week, spent the night at the mine.
I haven’t seen my daughters, ”says Svetlana.
Together with other women who lost their husbands in the accident at Raspadskaya, Svetlana erected a monument to the miners who died there - the relatives did it at their own expense.
At the same time, according to Morozovskaya, the issue of money and compensation never worried either her or the families of other victims - they all require only fair punishment for those responsible for the tragedy.
“The point is that not only the mines are working, but also no one was imprisoned.
Apalkov (the commander of the Novokuznetsk mine rescuers detachment (VGRS). After the explosion, he was, among others, accused of “violating safety rules at explosive facilities, which inadvertently resulted in the death of two or more persons
.
”
- RT
) both worked and still works.
It seems that he also works at Listvyazhnaya now.
And the rest are also working on whom the investigation was.
No one was imprisoned, everyone is free, ”the RT interlocutor is indignant.
Svetlana emphasized that people who manage work at mines should be aware of their responsibility for the lives of people and be responsible for their actions.
Wives and mothers went to the courts for a long time, demanding fair punishment for those guilty of the tragedy.
“No one was imprisoned even on probation, even for negligence,” says the widow of Sergei Morozovsky, who died at Raspadskaya.