Riots in Temirtau in 1959
The riots in Temirtau were violent riots in the Soviet city of Temirtau in the Kazakh SSR between August 1st and 4th, 1959. It was sparked by protests by workers who denounced the poor working conditions and lack of basic services in the construction of a metallurgical combine . During the three days of unrest, 16 people were killed and several hundred injured.
background
In 1942 Temirtau was designated as the location for a new metallurgical combine. The new plant was to be built near the Karaganda power station . Numerous young workers from various regions of the Soviet Union were recruited to carry out the project . Most of them were between 17 and 20 years old. The work was seen as a Komsomol project , for which workers of the next generation were to build communism within the next 20 years. With the influx of workers, the population of Temirtau grew strongly. In 1939 the place still had 5,000 inhabitants, 20 years later there were already 54,000 people living in the city.
Most of the workers were housed in the simplest of conditions. Many of them lived in simple tents , train wagons or in barracks without drinking water or toilets. Then there were the climatic conditions of the region, where it gets extremely cold in winter and always very hot in summer. In addition, there were no employment opportunities in the workers' free time, and Temirtau did not have any cultural facilities. The working conditions themselves were also bad. This often resulted in work interruptions, technical problems and accidents on the construction site. Due to these conditions, the change in labor was also very high. Among the workers, the poor working and living conditions led to alcoholism , gambling and violent clashes.
Although party officials knew of the bad conditions on the construction site, they portrayed the situation as positive outwardly. The local leadership either did not want to or did not know how to improve conditions for the workers. She also often refused to address the complaints about it. Due to the lack of care for the people, embezzlement and embezzlement on the construction site were frequent .
course
On August 1, 1959, workers in one of the tent camps came home and found no water to drink or wash. If this was not uncommon, this time an angry reaction from the workers followed. A group of young workers broke into an outbuilding of the cafeteria and began drinking the kvass that was stored there . As more and more workers arrived and there was nothing left of the drink, the crowd broke into the cafeteria and started looting. At around 3 a.m., the police arrived and began to disperse the crowd. Two young men were arrested, but they were not involved in the looting .
On the morning of August 2, hundreds of workers again gathered to free the two comrades who had been arrested. The crowd moved through the city to the police station, which at the time was manned by few. The angry men ravaged the building. At the same time, the manager of the combine and the local party official arrived at the tent settlement and met with the workers to calm the tense situation. When apparently contaminated drinking water was made available in the afternoon, the situation began to escalate again. The angry crowd again went to the police station, where they requested the release of the two prisoners. There they met soldiers who had been deployed to protect the building. After the mob started throwing stones at the soldiers, they withdrew into the building. The crowd again demanded the release of the two young men, which the police agreed to after negotiations. Soothed by this promise, the crowd began to withdraw and made their way back to the tent settlement. Some of the men ransacked a shop along the way. At midnight, men rioted on the construction site and again attacked shops. There were clashes with soldiers in which dozens of workers were injured.
In the early hours of August 3, the situation in the city deteriorated again. The city's market was attacked and the cafeteria and other buildings burned down. Fighting broke out between the now armed workers and members of the military, the police and volunteer police supporters who wanted to restore public order. It was not until evening that the situation in the city had calmed down again. In the evening, more soldiers arrived in Temirtau, who were flown in from Barnaul , Novosibirsk and Omsk , among others . A total of around 5000 soldiers arrived.
consequences
According to official figures, 16 workers lost their lives as a result of the unrest. A total of 109 security guards and 27 workers were injured. 190 people were arrested during the riots, most of whom were released after a short time. 42 people were charged. Seven people were charged as the main culprits in the unrest. Two men were sentenced to death as alleged leaders. In December, the USSR Supreme Court commuted the death sentence to 15 years in prison.
On August 5, 1959, Leonid Brezhnev and Nikolai Belyayev , first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR , visited the city. Two regional party cadres were indicted at Belyayev's urging. Belyayev himself was dismissed in January 1960 as the first secretary of the Central Committee.
literature
- Vladimir Kozlov, Elaine McClarnand: Mass Uprisings in the USSR: Protest and Rebellion in the Post-Stalin Years (= The New Russian history ). Sharpe, Armonk 2002, ISBN 0-7656-0667-4 (English).
- Erik Kulavig: Dissent in the Years of Khrushchev: Nine Stories about Disobedient Russians (= The New Russian history ). Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2002, ISBN 0-333-99037-4 (English).