Kovtun A., Kovalenko A., Yarovaya M.

He has been working for about

30 years in the

Yuzhnodonbasskaya mine #1 in

Ugledar.

- Well, it’s a very hard work. The preparations and the transportation

take a lot of time, so that we spend ten hours per hour in the mine.

And besides physical burdens, our job is very risky.

You know, every time you're going down to the mine, you understand

that you may not come back this evening. Of course, it is much better

when you don't think about it, but it is really hard not to think of it in

real life. You say "hello" to people and in an hour you understand that

by this words you've already said "good bye". If you try to think detailed

about this job you'll become more than scared.

- Of course, I didn't work in

mine for pleasure. I didn't

have another possibility to

earn money. You know, it was

much more harder for my

family to put up with my

work. They were praying for

my life while I was working.

- Some people don't return to work after accidents. They are

both scared and tired. You know, one thing is to suppose the

possibility of accident, and the another one is when it happens

in close vicinity of you.

- As I've said before this job takes a lot of time and energy,

but all my free time I try to spend with my family. They're

waiting for me every day and I really love them.

- Yes. In such conditions, which we have underground the

friendship is highly valued, so our best friends are our

workmates.

- Unfortunately, now our government doesn't think much of our

work, so we don’t have high wage or pension. Earlier people

had more serious attitude to it.