On April 17, 1912, at the Lena mines, government forces shot at a demonstration of workers protesting against the harsh living conditions.
The strike of the workers of the Andreevsky mine of the Lena gold mining partnership - "Lenzoloto" began on February 29, 1912. Created in 1855, "Lenzoloto" by 1911 concentrated in its hands over a third of all Siberian gold mining, united 423 mines and was the monopoly owner of gold deposits in the basin of the Lena, Olekma, Vitim, Bodaibo and other rivers.
The immediate reason for the strike was the “meat story” at the Andreevsky mine, which was retold in the memoirs of the participants in many versions:
the worker of the mine (sometimes specific names are called) were given rotten meat;
the workers' inspection found a horse's leg in the cook's cauldron;
a woman (the wife of one of the workers, or one of the "mothers") bought a piece of meat in the shop that looked like a horse's sexual organ.
The versions in the sources sometimes partially combine, but agree on one thing, the workers received meat that was unusable for food.
Promotional video:
The strike began spontaneously on February 29 (March 13) at the Andreevsky mine, but then workers from other mines joined it. By mid-March, the number of strikers exceeded 6,000.
In addition to the harsh climatic conditions and a 16-hour day with one day off, low wages were established, which were partly given in the form of coupons to the mines, where the quality of the products was extremely low at rather high prices. In addition, fines for many violations were withheld from salaries, and there was practically no safety precautions: for every thousand people, there were more than seven hundred injuries per year.
Low wages of miners, 11-11.5 hours working day (taking into account overtime - up to 15 hours), constant shortcuts and fines, selling low-grade goods at inflated prices through mine shops, a ban under the threat of dismissal to purchase products outside the Lenzolota retail chain many times increased the profits of shareholders, reaching over 7 million rubles annually. Departure from the mines after the end of the term of employment was almost impossible.
At the first request of the administration, the members of the workers' families were obliged to go to auxiliary work for a meager payment. In 2 barracks, 103 hostels, of which only 15 were equipped, the family lived next to the single. Mass injuries and illegal dismissals of the crippled were aggravated by the rudeness of the administration. The maturing conflict was finally aggravated by the issuance of unsuitable horse meat to the worker of the Andreevsky mine Bykov.
The demands of the outraged workers were rejected by the administration, and it was decided to dismiss the protesters. In response, the gold miners of the Andreevsky mine left their jobs. As a sign of solidarity with them, the workers of Utesisty, Vasilievsky, Aleksandrovsky, Varvarinsky, Propoko-Ilyinsky, Nadezhdinsky, Ivanovsky, Feodosievsky and other mines went on strike in March. By March 5, about 6 thousand miners from most of the "near taiga" mines were on strike.
By agreement with the administration, delegates from the workers were selected to negotiate with the authorities and hold a general meeting at which a central strike committee was elected, later the Central Strike Bureau (CSB) was formed from its composition, which developed the document "Our Demands", approved at the meeting of the elected.
Among the demands were: an 8-hour working day, an increase in wages by 30%, the abolition of fines, refusal to replace money with coupons when making payments, recognition of the working commission on labor protection, immunity of the elected from workers, non-forcing women to work, improving medical care, overtime agreement, replacement of 27 administrative persons, placement of married people separately from singles, etc.
Lenzolot's management refused to meet these demands, promising not to fire anyone if the strike was broken. But the strike continued, taking on an organized character. The Cabinet of Ministers, the State Duma, the Mining Department and the most famous newspapers were notified of these events.
The strikers turned to the Exchange Committee with a request for assistance, as a result of which on March 7, the Lenzolot administration agreed to some concessions on the condition that the miners immediately go to work, but the strike continued again.
Then a military team, an investigator for especially important cases, an assistant prosecutor of the Irkutsk district court, an official of the Lensky mining district arrived at the Nadezhdinsky mine. The prosecutor accused the elected officials of incitement and agitation for the strike and demanded from the dissatisfied individual statements about the reasons for refusing to work. The miners denied the authorities' assertion about incitement to the strike, pointed to the reduction of family rations to the minimum of hunger. Nevertheless, the elected ones were outlawed, several people were imprisoned in the Bodaibo prison.
On the morning of April 4, according to the old style, more than three thousand workers moved to the Nadezhdinsky mine in order to submit "conscious notes" to the prosecutor, to secure the release of those arrested and to take the payment. But not far from the mine, a detachment of Captain Treshchenkov killed 270 demonstrators and wounded 250.
The march was peaceful, but by order of the gendarme captain Treshchenkov, the soldiers opened fire on the workers.
At the request of the Lena workers, the Social Democratic faction of the State Duma demanded an investigation of the tragedy in Yakutia. The Duma faction of the Octobrists came out for bringing the perpetrators of the massacre to justice. Strikes and rallies against the arbitrariness of industrialists and the police took place in the largest cities of Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Siberia and others. The Minister of Internal Affairs tried to take the punishers under protection, but Nicholas II ordered to investigate the causes and circumstances of the incident.
On June 4, a commission of members of the State Council left for the mines, establishing the facts of the flagrant lack of rights of workers. A new employment agreement was drawn up, the direct perpetrators of the tragedy were removed from office, and activist workers were released from custody. All strikers, without exception, were reinstated at work, the coupon system for distributing food was canceled, and an increase in salary was promised. The management of "Lenzolot" was obliged to strictly observe the norms of the law and the Mining Regulations. On June 7, the mines resumed gold mining. However, there were no fundamental changes in the situation of the workers. Soon their massive outflow from the mines began.
In 1925, using the concession decree, Lena Goldfields again received the right to work in Siberian (including the Lena) gold deposits for a period of 30 years. The following companies were also transferred: Revdinsky, Bisserdsky, Seversky metallurgical plants, Degtyarskoye, Zyuzelskoye, Yegorshinsky coal mines. Given that the share of Soviet power was only 7%, and the share of Lena Goldfields - 93%. In 1929, the company was forced to cease operations. In 1930, an arbitration tribunal recognized Lena Goldfields' claim against the Soviet government for $ 65 million. In 1968, the Soviet government acknowledged the claim.
On May 28, 1996, the newspaper "Vostochno-Sibirskaya Pravda" published an article "Two Lena shootings", in which, with reference to case No. 7912 from the FSB archive in the Irkutsk region, it stated that in 1938 in the city of Bodaibo, 948 were shot by Troika's sentence. workers of the Lena mines.
Interesting Facts:
In the Western press, the misconception is still widespread that V. I. Ulyanov began to use the pseudonym Lenin after the Lena events. In fact, the pseudonym “N. Lenin appeared long before these events - at the end of 1901.
In connection with the exchange speculations in the shares of the Lenzoloto partnership, the names of two businessmen have become widely known in Russia: the stock trader Zakhary Zhdanov, who became a millionaire playing on the rise in shares, and the banker A. N. - why he went broke and committed suicide.
For more than 160 years of the existence of the Lena mines, about 1300 tons of gold have been mined.
In the novel "Gloomy River" by Vyacheslav Shishkov, a strike is described, similar to the Lena events of 1912.
100 years after the execution, the state of the Lena mines again became unattractive for the life of miners. Therefore, in recent years, despite the growth of gold mining in the region, there is a steady downward trend in the population of the region.