Abstract

The implementation of legislation on social provision for industrial workers injured in workplace accidents in the South of Russia has received little sustained attention in the scholarly literature. Drawing on the published proceedings of the Congresses of Mining Industrialists of South Russia, pre-revolutionary periodicals, and materials from the State Archive of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the author identifies the categories of enterprises involved in providing assistance to the population of the region and reconstructs a number of industrial accidents. The article also delineates the measures taken to support injured workers and their families, offering concrete examples of how claims for accident benefits were examined at the 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses of Mining Industrialists of South Russia (1913, 1914, and 1915). From 1903 onward, the Congress played an active role in establishing a special fund intended to aid workers affected by mass accidents. The fund was financed through the proceeds of a dedicated levy paid by all enterprises extracting bituminous coal and anthracite. On the basis of documentation submitted by victims and enterprises, pension payments were assigned to injured workers; disputes and misunderstandings were adjudicated by the Congress Council in consultation with the interested parties. From March 1907 the statistical bureau of the Council organized the registration of all disabled workers in the Donets Basin by creating personal cards for mining and metallurgical workers of the South of Russia who had been injured after 1 January 1904, that is, after the entry into force of the law of 2 June 1903 on workers’ insurance. Workers suffering from diseases of the respiratory system were monitored in a sanatorium. In addition, funds allocated by the 29th Congress were used to pay pensions and allowances to the wounded and to the families of those killed during the Russo-Japanese War. Numerous protocols drawn up by police supervisors and medical certificates relating to accidents at the Berestovka, Amur, Ital’yanaka, and Sofia mines between 1911 and 1916 further attest to efforts to secure pensions for injured workers and their families.