UkrEthnoExp. Part VIAugust 2930, 2009 A wildfire was the only thing lighting up the evening landscape. ![]() A lone farmer was using a shovel to try and extinguish the part of the fire that had crept up too close to his house. «Not in my back yard!» ![]() People mine coal illegally all over the Luhansk region. A private mine is called a kopanka (from the verb that means «to dig»), because its usually dug with improvised tools. A government inspection had just passed through here, so all the kopankas had paused their operations, and the ones with people inside had turned all their lights off. Everyone was gathered in Donetsk for the opening of the new stadium. I was about to descend into one of the largest kopankas. ![]() The coal-mining methods used here are comparable to 1914 (other kopankas still use early-18th-century technologies). ![]() The safety posters on the walls are a wry illegal miners joke. A teenager operates the hoisting mechanism. Miners who are just starting out often use an upside-down scooter or something else with a motor as a hoist. ![]() The only recollection of workplace safety anyone has here dates back to when they worked at state-owned mines. To enter the kopanka, you have to crouch and squat-walk about half a kilometer down. ![]() The work of an illegal miner is arduous and financially unrewarding. A ton of coal sells for 200 hryvnas (25 dollars). An experienced miner might produce five tons a day. Or he might not return home. ![]() Coal. ![]() The ceiling is slightly slanted because thats how the coal seam runs. ![]() The coal rolls down the metal chute to the bottom, where its loaded into a baby bathtub (there are no mine carts to speak of here) and then pulled up to the surface. ![]() People crawl when theyre coming back up, because the bathtub is unsteady and dangerous. An 800-meter-long descent (to a depth of 200 meters) and then ascent with a heavy camera and a long lens is a more than unconventional recreational activity. As I was sliding down into the mine, I wore a giant round hole the size of my ass in my utility pants. My underwear took the hit of the anthracite, turning me into a baboon. A miners shower after coming back up is better than catharsis. ![]() The Luhansk region cares about cleanliness. You regularly see signs indicating a garbage disposal site 200 m ahead. ![]() Indeed, in two hundred meters, garbage containers appear. Theres some hope that people will get used to them and stop tossing out bottles in random places along the roads. ![]() The Luhansk region also cares about old airplanes. You get the impression that all of the countrys decommissioned aircraft has ended up here—theres a fighter jet outside every city, town and village. ![]() LuhanskMapIts hard to say why, exactly, Luhansk was built. ![]() No More Patience. Save and Protect. Perhaps they needed something to break up the monotonous rural landscape. ![]() Instant payment terminals are installed right on the lampposts here. ![]() Payment terminal. 2 Hryvnas and up. Zero commission for 20 hryvnas and up. The only interesting urban feature is the bracket used to support street signs. ![]() Lenin has already been replaced with Shevchenko here. The latter serves as an excellent replacement for the former in many Ukrainian cities: hes also bald, but has a hat instead of a cap. There are no other differences. ![]() A hot topic. ![]() Russian heritage. Give our native language official status! An unexpected artifact. A sign that recommends driving at 50 km/h to get a wave of green lights. ![]() «Green Wave» KrasnodonMapWere not in Giza; were still in coal-mining country. These are futile attempts to conceal that fact under decorative panels. ![]() The city is ill suited for normal life. ![]() Even the traffic lights on the streets are old enough to have witnessed the German occupation, and its unlikely theyll ever be replaced. ![]() Employment options here are limited to mining or smuggling contraband. The guy on the poster has done his time and now works as a miner. ![]() The Russian border is a fifteen-minute drive from the city. Krasnodon is Eastern Ukraines largest contraband hub. I walked into a saloon, found the chief mobster and asked him to give me a tour of his domain. The mobster kindly obliged. Semi trucks bring the merchandise (say, Turkish jeans for the Russian market) to depots—areas surrounded by concrete walls where loading and unloading take place. The truck with the merch will be unloaded by bums. All the goods will be weaseled through (transported to the depot on the other side of the border) in small batches on special action vehicles, because crossing the border in a semi is just asking for it at this point. ![]() Koreans and Lada Nivas are used as action vehicles. Many drive without plates. Just to be on the safe side, they use a bunch of different country roads rather than one specific route. This minimizes the risk of getting caught in case of an inspection. And inspections happen all the time—everyone needs to put food on the table, not just the customs agents. ![]() There are several checkpoints on this small stretch of the border. The main checkpoint has a customs office, and all official freight vehicles, as well as all citizens with passports for travel abroad, pass through there. But there are several other checkpoints that have been set up for the convenience of the locals, and only the residents of nearby towns and villages can pass through those. ![]() I walked up to one such checkpoint to check it out. A fair maiden sat inside, bored, with her braid hanging out the window. Locals walk over to Russia simply by showing their domestic passport, which lists their official place of residence. Nothing else is required. ![]() There are posters promoting the «standards of border control culture» on the checkpoints wall. Even on the staged promotional photograph, the woman looks apologetic as she shows her paperwork to the smug officer. ![]() Standards of border control culture: lawfulness, politeness, reciprocity, competence Its through checkpoints like this that most of the overland smuggling takes place. Every old lady in a border village is cared for by the bootleggers in ways that a regular old lady couldnt even imagine. Plumbing, gas, digging a well—everything gets taken care of and repaired, no questions asked. The old lady, in turn, wears a mike under her collar, through which she reports on the situation to the operational headquarters positioned on the outskirts of the area. There are special people, spotters, crouching along the roads, whose primary job is also to assess the situation and provide up-to-the-minute reports to headquarters. The mobster and I showed up on a taxi whose plates were unfamiliar to the locals. As a result, operations were paralyzed for an hour, just because of the presence of a new car. As we were only approaching, the last cars with merchandise whizzed past us in the opposite direction. All the critters were hiding in their burrows by the time we arrived at the border. ![]() Using vehicles to transport contraband isnt the only kind of smuggling practiced here. For example, there are inconspicuous sheds standing on opposite banks of the river—on the Russian and Ukrainian side. Each contains a hidden pumping station. In the evening, a tanker truck with gasoline pulls up to the Russian shed, and an empty one pulls up to the Ukrainian one. Theres a hose running across the bottom of the river, through which the cheap gasoline is transferred across the border, with its price instantly increasing by a third. Readers can easily picture the smuggling volumes and opportunities that exist just by glancing at what the border between the two countries looks like. No barbed wire, no dogs, no fences. One pillar of the abandoned bridge is standing on Ukrainian territory; the other is already in Russia. ![]() Only five meters of creek separate our two countries. How can you possibly resist temptation in these circumstances? ![]() Top: Russia. Bottom: Ukraine. ShchastyaMapDespite its name (which means «happiness»), this is one of the most depressing places on earth. ![]() Someone has laid fresh carnations at Lenins feet. This is East Ukraine. ![]() StarobilskMapA Soviet newspaper kiosk (exactly like the one in Chernobyl) has survived here. ![]() Soyuzpechat/Luganskpechat Theyve also invented a new way to support collapsing buildings here. ![]() |
august
UkrEthnoExp. IV. Vinnytsia, Odessa, Izmail, Vylkove, Kherson |
august
UkrEthnoExp. Part V. Sevastopol, Simferopol, Feodosia, Kerch, Zaporizhia, Donetsk |
august 2009
UkrEthnoExp. Part VI. Illegal Coalmine, Lugansk, Krasnodon, Contraband, Shchastya, Starobilsk
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