Coal deposits in the area were first discovered in 1721. The late 19th-century industrialisation of Russia prompted rapid growth in the area’s industries, which was further boosted by the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Under Joseph Stalin’s first five-year plan, the Ural-Kuznetsk industrial combine was formed in the early 1930s.
It became a centre for the production of iron and steel, zinc, aluminium, machinery and chemicals, with raw materials and finished products being shipped to and from sites in the Kuzbass and Urals.
The Kuznetsk Basin (often abbreviated as Kuzbass or Kuzbas) is one of the largest coal mining areas in Russia.
It possesses some of the most extensive coal deposits
anywhere in the world; coal-bearing seams extend over an area of 10,309 square miles (26,700 km2) and reach a depth of 5,905 feet (1,800 m). The region’s other industries are based on coal mining.
The Kuzbass now extracts ca. 60 percent of Russia’s total coal production and is the main fuel and energy base for eastern Russia.
“We must be able both to maintain and to significantly extend our presence in the market”
Vladimir Putin
2018
Source: fern
Coal is abundant – there’s over 1.06 trillion tonnes of proven coal reserves worldwide. This means that at current rates of production, there is enough coal to last us around 132 years. The biggest reserves are in the USA, Russia, China, Australia and India.
“The coal industry is choking people out of the region, soon we will be like rats, leaving a sinking ship… An official expert came to assess the environmental pollution caused by the mining activities. We showed her the 10 centimetres of coal dust left by the melted snow and she responded that it was coming from our stoves and chimneys even though we had the Court’s judgement certifying otherwise. In the spring when children are coming back from playing outside in the lawn, they’re covered in soot from the knees down”.
Valentina Mitrochina, Myski resident.
Photo: Sally Low
Source: fern
Coal mining and burning are generally known to be polluting atmosphere with loads of CO2 and causing climate change. But people of Kuzbass have little concern about global problems. They get used to open-cut mines operating and huge trucks roaring right
out of their windows. Shot operations destroy houses, and spoil piles grow up around. Air and rivers are contaminated with coal dust, and fertile land is being devastated. These particular problems can be discovered only by visiting surroundings of Novokuznetsk. Bad
news about violations over environmental rights in Kemerovo Oblast would never reach Moscow themselves. They are hidden behind companies’ ambition to get coal at any cost.
Russia has the largest area of tree cover in the world with 882 million hectares of forest, which amounts to about a fifth of the global forest area. Between 2001 and 2016 Russia lost more forest than any other countries in the world. Coal is the single biggest contributor to
man-made climate change. Deforestation accounts for up to a tenth of current carbon dioxide emissions. So destroying forests to make way for coal mines in Kuzbass is a ‘double whammy’ in climate terms. Russia increased coal production in 2017 by three per cent
compared to the previous year, and is now the world’s third largest coal exporter. The damage has been incalculable: to the climate, to forests and peoples.
"All the forests have been cut down... Animals can leave but people can’t”
Alexander Myzhakov
Photo: Sally Low
Source: fern
“It feels like these souls have turned their backs on me”
Valentina Boriskina
Photo: Sally Low
Source: fern
“No tree can survive without roots. If they destroy Chuvashka, what is our reason to live?”
Larissa Mizhakova, Chuvashka
Photo: Sally Low
Source: fern
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