Social Attitudes to Miners’ Protests during the Transition to Market Relations (1992 – 1999)

Abstract

On the ground of numerous archive documents and literature the paper provides consideration of the attitudes of different social and professional population groups to protest movement of Russian miners during transition to market relations. The stages are determined; their common and different features are analyzed. The reasons and factors of contradictory relations of Russians to protests of miners are demonstrated, as well as their connection with domestic and foreign policy processes. The struggle of coal industry workers for consolidation of their positions in such an important sphere as public opinion is characterized. The forms of worker and retired employer solidarity are determined. A comparative analysis of attitudes and actions of population to miners’ protest movement is carried out and the period of “perestroika” and “shock therapy” are considered. While mass and radical protesting the increasing international solidarity with actions of Russian coal industry workers is emphasized. The activities of bodies of power aimed at decreasing of miners’ movement authority in the society are revealed. The key reasons of negative dynamics in public attitude to miners’ protest are studied. A conclusion as made that the negatively changing public attitude to miners’ protest was one of factors influencing on its dynamic decline.