"A siren sounded, the whole city was crying..." The last mine was closed in the city of Krasny Luch

Alexander Sherstyuk

August 29th was Miner's Day. It happens every year, on the last Sunday in August. And I became a miner exactly 66 years ago, in 1955, when I came from a Bryansk village to the Donbass as a schoolboy yesterday, entered a mining technical school - the mastery of the profession began. 6 of my young years were given to Donbass, mining. Then I had many other lives, but she left such a mark that of all the holidays I celebrated with a shudder only this one - Miner's Day.

What do you mean celebrated? Well, there was certainly a glass, and congratulations from loved ones, and calls back with former colleagues.

This time everything went differently. After a stroke and resuscitation, my wife is undergoing rehabilitation in Lytkino - there is a federal center, there, because of the strict severity, visits are not allowed. The daughter went, drove something, passed it through the service staff, she does it every day, the engine is not idle. Then I clinked my 20 gram glass with her teacup. Whom to call, congratulate - began to think. No one! The last friend we worked with died a year ago. And I'll call his widow! I remember her as a young girl, there, at the mine, my friend was carried away by her, and for the rest of his life. Now she lives alone, sons who are where.

And then Lidushka informs me of the news: the other day in Krasniy Luch (this is such a city - mine, ours, where there was a technical school and mines) they closed mine No. 16 named after Izvestia. All mines were closed earlier, Izvestia - the last. And now Izvestia was gone. The city said goodbye to the last mine with a siren. The siren howled all day. The siren was howling all day! Can you imagine it? The whole city knew that the last mine was closing. And the city burst into tears. The whole city was crying.

I happened to work at Izvestia. There the layers are called "Sadovy" and "Khrustalsky". Their thickness (thickness) is 60 cm. Lava is 120 m long. The layer is almost horizontal, with puddles. I had to crawl every shift along the lava, which had sat down due to the pressure (the wooden racks were braced or broke, and the gap decreased). The shift lasted 6 hours, but often, when repairing equipment, it was delayed, and then two shifts were recorded in your report card. Work off a shift - it was called a "team". Once I had 32 teams in a month - with 25 standard ones.

The mine was named Izvestia because the central newspaper Izvestia, where Bukharin, who was shot later, was the editor-in-chief, took over the newly-made giant mine under patronage. The head of the mine in my time was Kazachenko, a man in uniform. He was appointed here after, through his fault, 5 people died at the nearby mine 17-17bis, whom he sent to cut coal at the same time as planting lava - contrary to the Safety Rules. I also worked at 17-17bis - before, when I was undergoing pre-graduation practice. The diploma project was called "Automated skip hoisting unit in the conditions of the 17-17bis mine." And this was also under Kazachenko.

Memories can last forever. But let's leave them for other cases. And now you can remember the poems written by me a long time ago, to the anniversary of mine №16 named. Izvestia. This anniversary was at the height of the Cold War.

...And I want to end with the topic of the siren blaring all day. In the myth of Odysseus, when sweet-voiced sirens sang seductive, but destructive songs for listeners, he ordered the rowers to cover their ears with wax. It saved them.

When the siren howled over the Red Beam, no one covered their ears. People also howled..."

Note from Novye Izvestia: In 2016, by the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the city of Krasny Luch was renamed into Khrustalny, however, the authorities of the LPR, as expected, did not recognize this renaming.