Soviet state policy to ensuring the safety of coal mining and mine rescue in the Donbass in 1922-1927

The formation in 1922 of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is one of the most significant events in Russian history, the influence of which on the course of the further development of Soviet society is comprehensive. The construction of a new Soviet state in accordance with the socialist principles of federalism had a comprehensive impact on the development of the national security system, an integral part of which was the provision by the state of industrial safety of hazardous production facilities in the coal mining industry of the USSR. The topic remains relevant for us even 100 years after the formation of the USSR, which is confirmed by the recent tragic events related to the accident in Kuzbass in November 2021, which killed 46 miners and 6 mine rescuers. All mining enterprises are under constant fire from the Ukrainian armed forces and are a source of accidents that can lead to mass deaths On the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic. The issues of the development of the Soviet nationwide system of safe underground mining and mine rescue in the period of 1922-1927, including in the Donbass, did not become the subject of historical research by domestic scientists, thereby denoting the scientific novelty of this study.

Only in the memoirs of veterans of the mine rescue service there are facts pointing to the significant role of the Donbass mine rescue school in the process of establishing the foundations and principles of the Soviet mine rescue business.

The purpose of the research is to study the causes and consequences of the measures taken by the Soviet government to regulate the system for ensuring the safety of mining operations and mine rescue in the USSR for the coal mining industry of Donbass in the period 1922-1927.

II.    DISCUSSION AND RESULTS

New methods of economic management in the RSFSR and related to this in the early 1920s. changes in the organization of coal mining directly entailed transformations in related industries, including mine rescue, the importance of which in the general cause of restoring the coal economy of Donbass, grew every day. We can say that by the beginning of 1922 a new workable system of Soviet mine rescue was restored and built in the Donbass, thanks mainly to the efforts of B.F. Grindler, and the Donbass became an experimental platform in the development of scientific foundations and techniques for saving people, and the introduction of new forms and methods of providing preventive and operational assistance to mine rescuers in case of underground accidents in coal mines. The organizational, technical and production departments of the Central Administration of Mine Rescue Stations (CAMRS) of the RSFSR were created in the Donbass, numbering 49 employees, and the administrative department of the CAMRS was located in Moscow under the Main Directorate of Mining Industry (MDMI) of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (SCNE) of the RSFSR already in November 1921 [26 ].

The result of the great organizational work of the Soviet government to bring the situation with the safety of miners and the state of mine rescue in the coal basins of the country, including the Donetsk coal basin, to the current standards, was the creation in 1921 of a special committee, called the Mining Supervision, on which the Council of People's Commissars The RSFSR assigned the responsibility of exercising strict control over the observance of safety regulations at mines and industrial enterprises, as well as managing the activities of mine rescue and testing stations throughout the RSFSR, among which the rescue stations of Donbass were ranked. In 1922, all the rescue stations of the Donbass and Krivoy Rog, as well as the school of instructors and fitters of mine-rescue named after N.N. Chernitsyn, which operated on the basis of the Central Makeevskaya rescue station, were united under the leadership of mining engineer V.M. Shevelev. By order of the MDMI SCNE of the RSFSR, the CAMRS was abolished, and the Mine Rescue and Testing Department was formed under the Main Directorate of Mining Supervision (MDMS) under the leadership of B.F. Grindler [27]. The entire structure of the mine rescue and testing stations of Donbass, in accordance with the new Regulations on Mining Supervision in the RSFSR, approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Council of National Economy on 04/06/1922, passed to the local heads of the mountain districts, and the Central Makeevskaya Mining Rescue and Testing Station was reassigned directly to the Central Administration of Mining Supervision (CAMS) RSFSR.

The mining districts that were part of the Donetsk province were later formed according to industrial division, and their distribution by districts was carried out by the Ukrainian Department of Mining Supervision. On the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, and, in fact, on the territory of Donbass, on the basis of paragraph 4 of the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars on Mining Supervision, 12 mining districts were established: Bakhmutsky, Lisichansky Almaznyy, Slavyanoserbskiy, Dolzhanskiy, Grushevskiy, Chistyakovskiy, Krindachevskiy, Gorlovskiy, Makeyevskiy, Yuzovskiy, Grishinskiy [7]. The mine rescue stations of Donbass by this period were not only restored, but also carried out work to eliminate underground accidents. The basis of the new organization of mine rescue was the introduction of an "active system", that is system with a permanent staff of people professionally trained in rescue business. This transformation was a significant achievement compared to the pre-revolutionary order of the formation of rescue teams. Before the October Revolution, permanent teams located at rescue stations were available only at central and group stations.

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At other stations, only 1-2% of workers and employees were trained in rescue business, who were divided into two shifts and in the event of disasters had to come to the rescue work sites [23]. The beginning of the organization of the Soviet and Russian, including the mine rescue service, is considered to be 1922, when the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR on 07/06/1922 adopted a resolution "On the mine rescue business in the RSFSR". This resolution laid the foundation for the organization of an active (professional) mine rescue service, built on the principles of centralized management. On July 13, 1922, the Regulations on the Mine Rescue and Testing of the RSFSR were put into effect [16]. The normative legal acts on mine rescue in the RSFSR developed and put into effect made it possible to organize the provision of assistance on the ground by the forces of mine rescue teams with the involvement of vehicles of state institutions and individuals. The centralization of the management of rescue stations led to the rapid growth of the network of mine rescue stations: in the territory of the Donetsk coal basin, by 1924, there were 21 units (1920 - 14), with an active staff of 426 people [14].

However, the well-coordinated work of mining enterprises to ensure safety during mining operations in the period 1922-1927 was hampered by problems that arose as a result of improper redistribution and duplication of supervision functions between state structures of the USSR. After the October Revolution, a situation arose when the functions of labor protection of workers were transferred into the hands of the workers themselves -trade unions, which gradually formed an inspection that received the right to conduct technical and sanitary inspections, as required by the prevailing working conditions in all industries, including mining. The specifics of coal mining and the danger of underground works itself required additional security measures from the heads of mining enterprises, which resulted in the organization and implementation of supervision by two departments -the technical inspection of the People's Commissariat of Labor (PCL) and the Mining Supervision (MS) of the USSR Supreme Economic Council. Both people's commissariats independently obtained from the Council of People's Commissars the rights and powers to oversee the safety of mining operations: by the Decree on Mining Supervision of January 30, 1922, by the Supreme Council of National Economy, and the PCL was guided in its activities by the provisions of Article 134 of the Labor Code (Labor Code) RSFSR edition of 1919 and Articles 146, 150 of the Labor Code of the RSFSR edition of 1922 [18]. It should be noted that there was no actual division of functions between the two departments, which significantly worsened the implementation of supervision orders by the heads of enterprises and the miners themselves. Enterprises often had to comply with orders that contradicted each other, the same was true in terms of execution and in bringing to responsibility for failure to comply with the instructions of supervisory authorities. Enterprises found themselves in a situation where even a small demand sometimes had to be repeated several times or resorted to litigation. Under such conditions, it was impossible to build the right relationship with business organizations to improve the state of safety [10]. Thus, the conditions for double supervision of safety in the mining industry were created, and in all other sectors, supervision over the safety of work was carried out only by the technical inspection structures of PCL.

The development of nationwide regulatory measures to ensure the safety of underground mining and mine rescue, especially during the period of the New Economic Policy, was reflected in the resolutions of sectoral economic congresses of mining workers, which were organized by the Supreme Council of National Economy in order to clarify the situation of industry, to establish close ties with national, regional and local associations and enterprises, and also contributed to the development of the necessary measures in the restoration of the mining industry and the prospects for its development [16, p. 106-108]. The problems of Donbass were main on the agenda of such congresses. Only during the period of August-November 1922 in Moscow, two congresses were organized by the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR, which considered the results of the work and production programs of the coal industry in the difficult conditions of transition from the situation of "war communism" to the NEP - the III All-Russian Congress of the Coal Industry and the First All-Russian congress on the mining industry [22]. The materials of the First All-Russian Congress on the mining industry are especially interesting and which considered the organization and implementation of mine surveying and mine rescue, mining and technical supervision carried out by the head of the CAMS V.F. Shkumatov in the summer of 1922, who examined the mines of Donbass [5].

The inspection revealed violations that contributed to the occurrence of accidents and injury to miners: non-compliance with the gas regime (Novo-Smolyaninovskaya mine of the Yuzovo-Makeevskyy district); poor mine lighting; violations during the fastening of mine workings (3rd state mine of the Grushevo-Donetskyy district); neglected condition of haulage ways, underground lifting devices and equipment; depreciation of the rolling stock of mines; unsatisfactory condition of electrical equipment; violations in the use of the boiler facilities of mines; violations during the extraction of coal and the preparation of new mine fields (the Natanson mine and the Voznesensky mine of the Yuzovskyy district); unsatisfactory condition of technical and residential premises at the mines. The relatively small number of accidents, the insignificant severity of injuries received by the victims as a result of them, was explained only by the small development of production, as well as the fact that some of the accidents were not taken into account in the reporting [12]. Analyzing the activities of the mine rescuers of Donbass at the beginning of the recovery period, we can say that the mine rescue business was completely in the hands of the state and was maintained by it, and the network of mine rescue stations of Donbass was the most numerous in the RSFSR: Central Makeevskaya station; regional - Krindachevskaya, Orlovo-Yelenovskaya, Aleksandro-Grushevskaya; 13 subdistricts of the first category and 7 subdistricts of the second category. In the Krivoy Rog basin - 1 district of the second category (Shmakovskaya), which was also served by the Donbass rescuers. The management of the rescue stations was as follows: the sub-district ones were subordinate to the district ones, and the district ones - to the mine rescue departments of the Mining Departments. There were difficulties in financing the mining industry, which were expressed, among other things, in wage arrears to employees, the lack of normal social and living conditions for employees of mine rescue stations significantly affected the turnover of qualified personnel of mine rescuers, led to mass layoffs, which in turn reduced the combat capability of rescue stations and weakened the activity of mining supervision [12].

In addition, the lack of means of transportation had a negative impact on the efficiency of providing assistance to mine rescuers: rescue stations had 47 horses with a need of 130 horses; the chiefs of the mining districts had no transport at all, which nullified the work of supervision [28]. The resolution developed and adopted by the congress contained the necessary solutions to the problems of the industry: the training of mine rescuers for the entire RSFSR through strengthening the role of the Makeevka School of Instructors and Mine Rescue Fitters named after N.N. Chernitsyn; purchase of new equipment abroad; expanding the network of rescue stations through the development of a plan for their construction; using the potential of higher and secondary mining and technical educational institutions for the training of highly qualified rescue managers; removal of social tension among rescuers and payment of wage arrears; ensuring uninterrupted supply of rescue stations through the economic bodies of the district administrations of mountainous regions; the establishment of international relations of the Soviet republic with the countries of Western Europe and the USA in matters of mine rescue business through the organization of business trips of specialists abroad to study the current state of mine rescue and testing equipment and collect materials on improvements in this area; expansion of research and experimental work of the Central Makeevskaya and regional rescue stations, especially on the study of the issues of explosibility of dust and gas, the properties of coal seams [17].

The formation in December 1922 of the soviet federal union state, which included the Ukrainian SSR on equal terms, did not changed the significance of the Donbass as the main coal-mining base of the country. The mines of the Office of the State Coal Enterprises (OSCE), the Yugostal South Metallurgical Trust, the Khimugol State Trust, the Koksobenzol Joint-Stock Company, the Yuzhnorudnyy Trust, the Gorpromtrest of the Don Regional Economic Council continued to be of paramount importance in the total gross coal production in the country. Decree of April 10, 1923 on state industrial enterprises operating on the basis of commercial calculation (trusts), the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR legislatively put into effect the rules governing the organization and life of trusts of national importance, directly subordinate to the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, which included the OSCE, Yugostal, Koksobenzol [16, p. 45-50]. A similar situation developed in the mine rescue of Donbass. Conducted in May-June 1923 by the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate (WPI) of the Fuel Industry of Donbass, an audit of the current state of the mine rescue stations of Donbass, it was found that in the workshops at the Makeevka rescue station, work is actively underway to repair mine rescue equipment, not only for the needs of Donbass.

So, in April 1923, 7 Draeger breathing apparatuses were repaired for Moscow, 15 pieces mouthpiece breathing bags were manufactured, 30 pcs. keys for Draeger devices and 25 pcs. copper buttons for connecting Draeger breathing bags were manufactured y[29]. For the period 1924-25 Donbass mine rescuers carried out 70 trips of rescue teams to the mines and mines of the country, of which: 32 - to eliminate explosions and other underground accidents; 22 - technical assistance to mines when working in a suffocating atmosphere; 16 - trips to eliminate surface fires, in which 15 people were rescued [21].

All this testified to the strengthening of the importance of Donbass in the all-union cause of the development of mine rescue. Sectoral economic congresses on the problems of the mining industry continued to play a leading role in developing measures to prevent accidents at mines and the growth of injuries among the miners of Donbass. So, in February 1924, in Makeevka, a congress of engineers from the mines of the Yugostal trust (Makeevskyy, Petrovskyy, Yuzovskyy mines) was held, which was urgently convened by the management of the trust in connection with the deterioration in the state of ensuring the safety of mining operations in the gas and dusty mines of the trust. The participants of the congress stated that it is not possible to ensure the process of restoration of mines and at the same time the safety of work in them, since with an increase in load there is a threat of possible catastrophes with mass casualties. The state of mining safety revealed by the congress was not specific to the mines of the Yugostal trust and characterized the entire Donbass [8].

The current situation required the government to take more decisive measures to ensure the safe conduct of underground mining, and the Mining Department of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR initiated in the Donbass in the spring of 1925 an examination of all gas and dust mines and mine rescue stations, the results of which were presented at the First Donetsk Mining Safety Congress. This was the first special congress that brought together representatives of: the Mining Departments of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the North Caucasian Regional Council of National Economy, Mining Supervision, trade unions of miners and metalworkers, Engineering and Technical Sections of the trade unions, trusts of Donugol (former OSCE), Yugostal, Khimugol, Transportkopi, Moscow Mining Academy, Leningrad and Yekaterinoslav Mining Institutes, Stalin Mining Institute, Donskoy Polytechnic School, People's Commissariat of Labor, People's Commissariat of Health, heads of mining districts and regional mine rescue stations of Donbass, the Scientific and Technical Council of the Supreme Economic Council, mining scientists. The total number of participants in the congress was 91 people. The program of the congress included reports on general issues of safety in coal mines, special reports on mine rescue and on the use and testing of explosives, safety lamps, etc. The participation of mine rescue stations in the protection of the life of miners, their role in the elimination of disasters and the provision of technical assistance to mining enterprises when working in a suffocating atmosphere are important factors in protecting the safety of work, therefore, a significant place was given to issues of mine rescue at the congress. The improvement of the system of organizing mine rescue stations, as an integral part of the entire system of mine rescue, was also included in the congress's agenda [4].

Special attention of the delegates of the congress was attracted by the reports made by the representatives of the State Council of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR - prof. A.A. Skochinsky "On the statistics of accidents in the coal industry of the USSR and in the Donbass in particular", D.G. Levitsky "Study of the flammability of coal dust and explosives and the test program of the Makeevskaya rescue station", B.F. Grindler "Tactical moments in disaster management and the work of respiratory teams in mines." Mine rescuers of Donbass raised the most topical topics in their reports: I.M. Pechuk "On regenerative cartridges for mine-rescue apparatus and the organization of their production in the USSR"; R.A. Seletsky "On the organization and state of mine rescue in the Donbass and the prospects for its development in the USSR"; A.I. Garmash “Fundamentals of the design of mine rescue apparatus and the selection of respiratory teams; prof. A.P. Nechaev "On the experimental psychological examination of mining workers based on the experience of testing members of rescue teams"; I.A. Peshekhonov "On the forms of practical work of rescue stations"; V.D. Talalaev "On revitalizing devices and their use in the work of eliminating disasters in mines"; F. Shebunin "On work at high temperature, in relation to the tasks of mine rescue" [24].

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The congress pointed out the need to take urgent measures to restore equipment and fixtures, to train employees to ensure the safety of work in the mines; creation of rational conditions for the work of technical personnel of mines on safety; strengthening local mine safety supervision and developing scientific methods for recording accidents and investigating them in state supervision bodies; the involvement of the broad masses of miners in the protection of their labor; measures were planned to strengthen mine rescue and create a central and Ukrainian Security Councils - an advisory body to unite all state supervisory bodies [24, p. 428-429].

The main outcome of the work of the congress was the rallying of the broad masses of the Soviet public in the Donbass around the problem of safe underground work and mine rescue, as an integral part of the system of state control and supervision. The implementation of measures to improve the safety of mining operations, outlined by the Donetsk Congress, depended on the well-coordinated work of all interested departments. Already on September 14, 1925, the first meeting of the Council for Mining Safety under the Supreme Council of National Economy took place (chairman - V.M. Sverdlov, deputy - Prof. A.A. Skochinsky), at which B.F. Grindler, head of the Department of Mining Supervision initiated a survey in October-November 1925 of the gas mines of Donbass by a commission of representatives of the People's Commissariat of Labor, the Central Committee of the Union of Miners and the People's Commissariat for Health and simultaneous familiarization with the organization of medical care, mine rescue and sanitary conditions. On 10/05/1925, at a regular meeting of the Mining Safety Council, the issue of implementing mining safety measures that had been outlined by the Donetsk Congress was presented: amendments to the Safety Rules for Mining Operations as amended in 1915 and the creation of a working group to prepare a new editions; business trip of two mining specialists abroad to exchange experience in the search for methods of dealing with coal dust, research on the properties of explosives, the use of electric motors in mines, the purchase of new respirators for mine rescue stations; introduction of a system of proposals for safety at mining enterprises [20].

After the death of V.I. Lenin, the policy of curtailing the NEP was purposefully pursued, which was due to the growth of the influence of I.V. Stalin and his administrative-command methods of state administration, including in the economy. In December 1925, the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) decided on the need to develop heavy industry at an accelerated pace. This required the construction of heavy industry enterprises, including the mining industry. The rapid growth of the national economy made new increased demands on the coal industry and mine rescuers in the Donetsk Basin. The plan for 1925-26 provided for the extraction of coal in the amount of 1 billion 520 million pounds. in the USSR, in the Donbass - 1 billion 197 million pounds, which gave a total increase in production compared to 1924-25 by 51%, and in the Donbass - by 55% [25]. For the 1925-26 business year, taking into account the implementation of mining safety measures, the following activities were planned: to expand the network of USSR rescue stations - 6 new ones, including 2 in the Donbass; providing rescue equipment and transport; reconstruction of the Makeevka Oxygen Plant; overhaul of mine rescuers' housing; allocation of funds for scientific research of the Central Makeevskaya rescue station. In general, the financing of mine rescue and testing in the USSR was calculated in the following figures: 1924-25 -704 thousand rubles, and in 1925-26 - 1 million 200 thousand rubles. [17]. The increase in the cost of maintaining mine rescuers almost doubled the interest of state economic structures in strengthening the mine rescue service, as one of the safety factors for mining operations and, as a result, ensuring uninterrupted fuel production [6]. On 01/06/1926, according to the report of the commission of the Mining department of the main economic department of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR, which examined in the fall of 1925 112 mines that were part of 22 mining departments of Donugol, 3 - Yugostal, 2 - Khimugol and the Nikitov group of Transportkopi, instructions were made at a meeting of the Council on Mining Safety on drawing up a general work plan to bring the mines to a safe state with the establishment of calendar dates for the implementation of activities and the preparation of cost estimates for enterprises in addition to loans provided for by the production programs of the current operating year, including for rescue stations [3]. On February 23, 1926, the Second Makeevka Congress on the safety of gas mines, convened by Yugostal, took place in Makeevka, at which the results of a survey in November 1925 of gas mines in the Donbass by two commissions of the State Council of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR and the People's Commissariat of Labor of the USSR, as well as the progress in implementing the decisions of the First Makeevka Congress on safety of gas mines of Yugostal and the First Donetsk congress on safety of mining operations.

The congress stated the absence of positive dynamics in eliminating shortcomings in ensuring safety at mines, as well as in the work of mine rescue stations. The thesis about the need to periodically hold such congresses was reaffirmed. In addition, one of the most important moments of the work of this congress was the decision made during the discussion of the report of V.L. Bilenko on granting the right to convene congresses of the Interdepartmental Council for the Labor Protection of Miners under the PCL of the USSR, established on February 9, 1926 on the initiative of V.L. Bilenko and with the support of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR [1].

The experience of holding the First Donetsk and Makeyevka Congresses proved that such events pave the way for the safety of mining operations and the development of mine rescue business not only in the Donbass, but throughout the USSR.

It should be noted that in the exchange of views on scientific and technological achievements in mining, the format of the congress, held under the patronage of the state, was used even in pre-revolutionary Russia: the congress of mining, metallurgy and mechanical engineering (1910 Yekaterinoslav) and the congress of the society of mining engineers (1913, St. Petersburg). In the USSR, the first such event of this level was the first All-Union Mining Scientific and Technical Congress convened in April 1926 by the State Economic Directorate of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. As early as December 1924, the Congress was convened by the Central Committee of the Union of Miners of the USSR together with the Central Bureau of Engineering and Technical Sections (CB ETS). Previously, congresses of economic, departmental, industrial and trade unions were held, at which certain issues of the mining industry were considered.

As the chairman of the NTS of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR V.M. Sverdlov, its main task is to determine the prospects, improvements and methods of mining, liberation from foreign dependence, including in the field of labor protection, where the main principle is the very protection of the health and life of workers [19]. Especially brightly at the First All-Union Mining Scientific and Technical Congress, which was held in Moscow in April 1926, the confrontation between the State Council of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR (B.F. Grindler) and the PCL of the USSR (V.L. Bilenko) in the struggle for the leading role in overseeing the safety of mining operations, as in February 1926, the Interdepartmental Council for the Safety of Miners under the PCL of the USSR was organized, and the Council for the Safety of Mining Works under the Mining Department of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR was abolished with the complete transfer of its functions.

The First All-Union Mining Scientific and Technical Congress passed a resolution on leaving the functions of supervision over the safety of mining operations exclusively in the structures of the Supreme Economic Council [13].

Duplication of supervision over the safety of mining prevented its clear organization and implementation of the planned measures to bring safety in the mines of Donbass and mine rescue in the proper state. The first step towards solving the problem was adopted on May 25, 1926 on the initiative of V.L. Bilenko Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the delimitation of the functions of mining supervision and labor inspection." It was an attempt by the government to adopt an agreement between the Supreme Council of National Economy and the PCL in matters of supervision, as a result of which the PCL was assigned the functions of bringing to justice violators of safety regulations and mining enterprises that allowed accidents. Mining supervision was vested with the right to hold economic agencies liable for improper conduct of mining operations, which entailed economic losses for the state.

The instructions issued by the mining supervision to eliminate violations could be challenged and canceled by the labor inspectorate, which had the effect of belittling the importance of supervisory authorities for enterprises, which, in turn, took the side that was more loyal to them in this dispute [2].

III.    CONCLUSION

In the context of the growth of coal mining for the needs of the Soviet Republic, the negative factors for ensuring the safe conduct of underground mining, established at the coal enterprises of the Donbass, became decisive in the implementation of the planned production programs. Strengthening state supervision over the growth of injuries at mining enterprises accordingly strengthened the position of the PCL in protecting the life and health of miners [11]. The legislative work of the PCL of the USSR to eliminate duplication of supervision functions ultimately led to an agreement between the PCL and the Supreme Council of National Economy and the adoption of the Council of People's Commissars on 05/19/1927 of the Resolution "On the transfer of the PCL of the USSR, the Union Republics and their local structures of the functions of supervision over the safety of mining and mine rescue business ".

In accordance with this resolution, all functions assigned to the bodies of Mining Supervision of the Supreme Council of National Economy and the Union Republics in the field of supervision over the safety of mining, general management of the work of mine rescue and testing stations, control and supervision of these stations were transferred from April 1, 1927 to the PCL of the USSR and union republics to local labor departments and labor inspections according to their affiliation. The operational management of mine rescue stations remained under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the USSR and the union republics according to their affiliation. Budget appropriations issued to mining supervision structures for general management of the work of mine rescue and testing stations were transferred from the estimates of the Supreme Council of National Economy of the republics to the estimates of the PCL with the simultaneous transfer of the mining supervision apparatus. From April 1, 1927, the PCL of the USSR was transferred all the functions assigned to the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR for the management and supervision in the field of mining safety with the simultaneous transfer of part of the personnel, the Central Makeevskaya Rescue and Research Station, and monetary loans of the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR [ 15]. The date of issue of the resolution is considered the birthday of the Main Mining and Technical Inspectorate, the regulation on the activities of which was soon adopted, and headed by V.L. Bilenko. Similar inspectorates were created on the ground in July-September 1927, including in the Ukrainian SSR and in the Donbass [9].

Thus, we can say that during the recovery of the coal industry of the USSR in 1922-1927 Donbass was the center of concentration of the main productive forces and was the main scientific platform in the creation of the foundations of state policy to ensure the safe conduct of underground coal mining and mine rescue.