USSR SOLID-FUELS INDUSTRIES, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1954

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700200028-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 31, 2011
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: August 30, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION C ?O -N-F-I-D-E_-N-T-I-ta-L
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic - Mining, solid fuels, coal,
sha).e, peat
HOW
PUBLISHED Daily newspapers; bimonthly, monthly
periodicals
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED Jan-Feb 195k
LANGUAGE Russian
REPORT
CD N0,
DATE OF
N0, OF PAGES 1?
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
USSR SOLID-FUEIS IhIDL6TRIJ5
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 195
(This report is based on articles crhich have appeared in the USSR
press and ueriodicals published during January and February 1954 and
which deal with o11 phases of the solid-i'uels industries, including
coal, shale, and peat.
llumbcrs in parentheses refer to appended sources.]
General Aspects of the Coal Indu try
.During the past 3 years of the Fifth Five-Year plan, the hiinist
Industry USSR as a whole completed the plan for coal output. preliminoarYCoai
data for this period indicate that the coal output has risen 25 percent (1 ),
amounting to more than j20 million tons in 1953.(2) During the same period,
she production of machine-buildi7g plants has increased 34.5 percent and the
yield of cool-cleaning plants, 78 percent. At the same me, labor produc-
tivity has gone up 15 percent, and production costs have uropped 10 percent.
miniPteliminary data for 1953 Point to accumulations by enterprises of the
ry more than 3 times as great as those of 152. Among tY.c m~si 1;?0~_
il~aui.e combines were the following? bioskvougol', Tulaugol', Chelyabirsrcu of
erdlovskugol , Kuzbassugol', Kaz?agandaugol', Sredazugol', and IntauJ;ol'.g ~
At present, more than 2,000 faces have been converted to the cycle ;cork
schedule, and it is aimed to complete one cycle each 24 hours. At faces which
have been converted, file advance of the fc^c is b5 percent greater than at
the ordinary Faces -- 3'(,l meters and ^_2.4 meters, respectively. Every per-
cent of increase in the advance of the face assures an increase of 0.~-0.4
percent in labor prouuctivity,
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STATE NAVY {I'-NSRB T- DISTRIBUTION
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After the uar, more than 11x0 types of new machines and mechanisms were
created for the coal industry. As a result of the introduction of these machines,
mechanization of a number of labor-consuming processes in the mines xas completed,
and a practical solution was achieved in the field of coal loading at the face in
extraction operations and of coal and rock loading during development work, l,roc-
esse: which comparatively recently were carried out-exclusively by manual iaoor.
lr, 1y~3, the level for coal loading at the face was 27 percent and that for coal
and rocY, loading during development work, 43 percent.
1'n the construction of coal mines in 1953, rock loading was mechanized 82.3
percent in cutting vertical shafts and 37.6 percent in cutting horizontal workings.
In 1953, the rate of sinking vertical shafts was 49.5 percent faster than in
1951; the rate of cutting passages with blasting of rock was 78 percer:t faster;
the speed of cutting crosscuts and mine-field passages was 48 percent greater;
and that of cutting inclines, 88 percent greater. However, the rate of develop-
ment work achieved up to now is still inadequate.(1)
~deDasbadestartiinm1954 f Particularlin for coal output, the USSR coal industry
Voroshilovgradugol', q'ula , aggards in January were the Stalinugol',
number of mines in other ombine~d the k?:olotovugol' combines. A considerable
also are failing to meet their quotas.(2)
Re~ional'Performance
The Chistyakrn??ntratsit Trust (Stalinugol' Combine) completed the 1953
Plan on 22 December, increasing its average daily output in the course of the
year almost n percent. The Mine imeni Lutugin doubled its labor productivity
and raised the coal output 1.,250 tons per day as a result of convertin3 all
faces and rill development xorl: fronts to the cycle work schedule. The miners
completeu LLB 1953 year plan. far ahead of schedule and, by the end of the year,
gave t:,e country about 40,000 tons of anthracite above the plan.
The Zuyeva:aratsit Trust (atalinugol' Combine) the Gorlovskvgol' Trust
(Prtemugol' Combine), and the Bokovantratsit Trust (Dorfiassantratsit Combine)
completed the 1953 plan ahead of schedule. In the ndddle of December, about 40
mines of the Stalinugol' Combine acre already working on their 1954 quotas.
The work of some Donbass mines, :which was successful in December, de-
*?riorated ir: January. Among mines so affected were the Kochegarka, Komsomol-
ets, Kondrat'yevka, imeni Kalinin, and kJo 8.(3) The Stalinugol' and the
Vorosuilovgradugol' combines were lagging in Februazy. However, in February,
more than 50 minee in the Voroshilovgradugol' Coribine were shipping above-plan
fuel daily. Dline No 7-7_bis of the Bokovantratsit Trust far more than ful-
filled its pledge in February, and Mine 1Jo 153 of the Krasnoluchugol' Trust ful-
filled its pledge ahead of schedule and daily extracted 75 tons more than in
January~(4)
The l+Iine imeni OGPU of the Rosto:vgol' Combine delivered 180,000 tons of
coal above the plan in 1953; the Zapadnaya Kanital'naya Mine, 52,000 tons; and
the Novo-Azovskaya Mine,'26,000 tons?(5) [The fulfillment of the 1953 Plan by
the Rostovugol' Combine as a whole was reported in Pravda on 29 Pecemb__
?" 1953.1
Zapadnaya ,Mine of the Kuybyshevugol' Trust completed the 2-month plan
for January and February 19511 with an average daily output 20 percent higher than
in 1953 and an increase of 15-5 percent in labor productivity.(6)
2. bfoscow Basin ,
[in an article in Maskovskaya Pravda of 19 December 1953, which appeared
prior to the indicated sources of this report, it was stated that t}~c Dloskvougol'
Combine as a whole was successfully meeting production quotas as of that date.
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However, about one thirduof~allrthe mines wereunotCi'ulfillinglthe atatesplan.
Reports on coal production in the Moscow Basin have been exceedingly meager
during January and Febr~.ary 154,]
Mine No 36 and the Second Granovskaya Mine
Trust (bloskvougol' Combine) were distin ~'~nogorakpgol'
in 1953 and are working even -:..re succes~ully in 195~~y productive work
During 8 days of January ~.~54, bone 170 42 of the Donskoyugol' Trust,
also of the Moskvougol' Combine, extracted more than 200 tons of ccal above
th? plan, and bfine No 2G of the same trust produced about 250 tons of above-
P1~ coal in the first week of January,(7)
Mine No 12 of the''Shchekinugol' Trust of the Tulaugol' Combine, the
second great combine in the b'b~scow Basin, extracted 20,000 toms of coal above
the plan in 1953 aid saved 2 1/2 million rubles. This mine is equipped with
the most modern installations and employs cutting machines, coal-loading
machines, scrapers and ~.~ conveyers.(8) [The Tulaugol' Combine and/or some
of its enterprises have been frequent winners in quarterly competitions.]
3? Georgian SSR
In 1953, the Georgian coal, industry extracted almost four times as
much coal as in 1940? However, the Gruzugol' Combine fulfilled the 1953
state plan for coal output only 97.1 percent.
fulfill its December-1953 and Janu 1r (9) The combine as a whole did
January was 13.8 percent higher thar~i in9JanuuarY 1953 (10)e dai]y output in
Despite the fact that the requirements for coal are steadily growing,
the bliniFtry of the Coal Industry USSR and the Gruzugol' Combine are not
adopting suitable measures to accelerate the construction of a3nes in the
coal regions of the republic, and this was largely responsible for the creation
of a coal shortage in 195J.(u)
?;>~' The Tkibulugol' Trust is at present fulfilling the plan fcr coal out
put.(10) Seme of the outstanding mines of this trust completed 1953 with
success; for era?~ple, the Mine imeni Molotov completed its 1953 quota on
14 December 1953?(121 The Gelati Mine ai' the ,line imeni Lenin, also of the
Tkibulugol Tryst, fulfilled the 1953 plan ahead of schedule. The Mine imeni
Stalin did not fulfill its 1953 quota (13) and, in fact, this mine has been
lagging in its coal output for a number of years.(12)
To increase the coal output in 1954, new faces and working fronts have
been prepared. In sections of the Mine imeni Stalin, new conveyers have been
set up. Loading of coal onto railroad cat's has become completely mechanized.
New coal fields have been developed in the btine imeni Lenin and anew coal
level is to be~put in operation in the second quarter of 1954 in the Mine imeni
blolotov.(13)
If the defects which now exist in mines and enterprises of the Gruzu-
gol' Combine can be eliminated, it will .Rfe:possible for active mines to
achieve their planned capacity in the next 2-2 1/2 years, and the coal output
ran +_hen be raised 25-30 percent above its present level.(10)
4. The Urals
T~ S~esYl]AVSkugil' Conbine completed the 1953 plan on 11E December, with
an increase over ly7U ot',jd percent it coal output and of 35 percent in labor
productivity. Production costs per ton oi' coal extracted had dropped several
rubles,
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In enterprises of the Sverdlovskugol' Combine, working of coal seams
is carried out mainly by the open-pit method, and excavators are the chief
mining equipment. Transport of rocY. is carried out by heavy steam locomotives,
electric locomo?ives, and automatic railroad dumpcars. The majority of ex-
traction sections have a two-shift schedule for coal extraction and devote the
third shift to repair and development worl;.
The Vakhrushevugol' Trust, the outstanding trust of the Sverdlovskugol'
Combine, completed 1953 with good quality indexes. This trust save3 millions
of rubles by lowering the production costs of coal.(14)
On 29 January, Open Pii Tv'o 5. one of~-the largest in the Vakhrushevtt;ol'
Trust, delivered the last tens o" coal on its January quota. This was the
fifth enterprise in the Sverdlovskugol' Combine to complete the January program
ahead of schedule. Open Pit No 5 is yielding 500 tons more coFii daily than in
1953?(15) Open Pit No 1 of the Volchanskugol' Trust was the first enterprise
of the Sverdlovskugol' Combine to complete its January quota and to start de-
livering coal above the month plan.(1o)
The Yegorshinugol' mrn,t exceeded the [19537 plan for production costs
and expenditures by several million rubles. Rigid control of the consmm~tion
of naterials and electric power has been established in mines of tkaa trust.
Construction organizations of GlavvostoY.uglestroy (Main Administra-
tion for the Construction of Coal Entr:~rises in Eastern Regions) are doing
a poor ,job as regards putting new coal pits in operation, building housing
for the miners, and constructing cultural public buildings. The Sverdlov-
skuglestroy Trust is completing the plan for the utilization of capital in-
vestment not more than 60 percent.
In 1953, it wns planned to put a new pit in opa~Ation. However, be-
cause of the long lag in construction operations, the pit is being put in
operation according to a temporary technological scheme and at half its
planned capacity. The construction of two other pits is proceeding ver,~ slowly.
It is very important to work the high-grade coal of the Bulanashskiy
deposit in the Urals so as to free such larEe industrial centers as Sverdlovsk,
Nizhniy Tagil, Kamensk-Urals::iy, and others from the necessity of having to
transport fuel for great distances, but G1avGeologiya (Main Administration of
Geology) of the Dlinistry of Coal Industry USSR and its trust, Sverdlovskgeol-
ogiya, are delaying exploration of new mine fields of the Bulanashskiy de-
posit.
T'~ch~e builder hate dcne-mudi in equipping open pits with perfected in-
stallations. To increase productivity in open-pit operations and reduce their
costs, it is necessary to employ excavator^, with a E-8-cubic-meter capacity
and with a lengthened boom, as well as machines with s 1G-cubic-meter capacity
for moving waste rock to the worked-out area.(14)
The Afine imeni Stalin of the Stalinugol' Trust (bblotovugol' Combine)
in the Urals completed the 1953 Flan ahead oi' schedule and assumed increased
obligations for 1954.(17)
Many groups of miners of the KopeysY.ugol' Trust of the Chelyabinskugol'
Combine exceeded the 1953 plan for coal output. Pcirticularly great success was
achieved by Mine Mo 42, which, slready at the beginning of December, wns work-
ing on its 195~t quots. One outstanding brigade completed its 1953 quota in 10
months and gave the country more than 5 trainloads of coal above the plan.(3)
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5? Central Asia
pleted thepTe~s report on 3 January 1954 states thai the
6 Februa X9'3 plan for coal output on 31 December. ~'zyl-rya Trust cow-
ry issue of the same newspaper, it is (18) However, in the
led theed the 1953 plan for coal output onl stated that the
trust in erfo y 99.7 percent. 1 2(Yzyl-Kiya Trust
of the P rmance, delivering 2,000 tons of above9plan coal, 4Miners
fifth section shipped to the country nearly 15 trainloads of above-plan
coal.(18) Dzhal Mine
No 1-1-bis and also gave a good performance, On the other hand, hHne
thou Komsomol'skaya Mine lagged greatly in their coal deliveries, al_
gh their geological conditions were no worse than those of the other
and although they were equally well equipped.(20)
mines
The Sulyuktaugol' Trust and the Kok-Yangakugol' Trust each co
the 1953 plan for coal output 105 percent; the Tash-Kumyr Mine
104 percent.(lo) Administration,
The Uzbekugo919 Pros nt ` 231ed the 1953 plan 105 percent'(21); the
Tadzhikugol' Trust
[In an article on 31 December 1953 in Kaz
Feared prior to indicated sources of this ~hstanska?a Pravda, which ap-
gerugol' Trust had completed the 1 report, it was stated that the Ien_
increase over 1952 of 12 percent in5theldailydoutpu1e]~ of schedule, with an
6. Karaganda Basin
Karaganda miners fulfilled the 1953 plan for coal output 101.
and the plan for coking coal, 113 percent,(23) A report on 1 Janu
that labor productivity for the Kerandau oi' S Percent
but later reports gave the fi g Combine has risen 8. ~' stated
that this is the first time in 1Ee ~ 7'~ percent.(23, 25) It is alsorstated24),
filled the plan for labor productivity tht the Karagandaugol' Combine has ful-
y.(26)
although the Karagandaugol! Combine fipisl~ed 1952 with a loss, it en-
joyed profits in 1953, variously reported as more than 10
22 million rubles above the plan during 11 months 24
million rubles (26),
plan rubles,(23) [The last-mentioned fi. ~ )' and 21 million above-
Karagandaugolr Combine in a ~'e was giver. by the chief of the
Kazakh SSR,) speech at the 7th Communist Party Congress of the
During 1953, 16 mines in the Karaganda Basin failed to f
for coal output and owed the country more than 300,000 tons of coal. Seventeen
mines did not meet the u1fi11 the plan
failed to reduce production costsatorthe~uctivit
y, 18 mines and tyro open pits
not achieve their planned ca Prescribed amount
pacity.(?5) , and 13 mines did
cent in In 1953, the level of mechanized loading at the face increased
Karaganda and the productivity of the coal_minin 11 Per-
cent.(23) In 1954, it is intended to raise the level of me hanizedoloadingeat
the face to 70 percent of all coal extracted. Additional Donbass combines will
be introduced at 22 faces, and half of all faces in the basin will Se conversed
to the cycle wort: schedule. New measures are planned also for the mechaniza-
tion of development work, for the delivery of empty cars to the face
other labor-consuming processes.(21+)
and for
The Karagandashakhtostroy (Karaganda Mine Construction) Combine has been
dealing inadequately with the tasks set for it. It is not nutting new structures
in_use prompt],y, and those which are being put in use have great defects. The
combine is well set up to carry out construction, but it exploits its advantage
poorly. It finished 1953 with great losses. The most important task of the con-
structors of t
(26) ~~raBanda Basin is to overcome the lag in capital construction.
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7? Kuzbass
The Kuzbassugol' Combine as a whole had completed the 1953 plan by
29 December. In 3 years, thr_ average daily productivity of the combine had
risen 20 percent.
Among the mines in the Kuzbass which fulfilled the plan ahead of
schedule were the following; Dune imeni Dmitrov, Mine imeni Kirov, Zl~urinka-4,
Anzhero-Sudzhenskaya bfl nc No 9-15, Chernaya Gora Mine, Komsomolets 2?iine, Fiz-
kul'turnilc, Bachatskiy and the Krasnobrokskiy coal pits,
However, 31 mines in the Kuzbass and more than half the sections did
did nottriselabovetl~'' mod' in come Kuzbass mines, labor productivity not only
~~2 but even fell below that year.
During the first 10 da s of January, not one of the trusts of the
Kuzbass fulfilled its quota.(l~ However, the situation improved during the
month to such an extent that 45 Kuzbass mines and open pits completed the
January plan.(!+) The first enterprise in the basin to achieve this goal, was
the Bachatskiy coal pit of the Belowgol' Trust, which completed the January
Alen on 27 January.(27) Other Kuzbass rynes which delivered their January
quotas ahead of schedule were the Polysayevskaya-1 Aline of the Leninugol'
Trust, which mined 4,000 tans of above-plan fuel and considerably decreased
production costs (4); the ShushtalepsY,iye Shtol'ni Mine of the Molotovugol'
Trust, xhich delivered three trainloads of coal above its January obligations
(28 ); and the Mine imeni Kirov of the Leninugol' Trust, which shipped ten train-
loads of above-plan coal Yn January, Other coal enterprises which. were giving
skaya~, andfKa~~al'nayahl mines andnthae Krasnobrodsl,iy OpenyPitk(~)y' ~tov-
8. last Siberia and the Far East
Mine No 5 of the Cheremkhovu~;ol' Trust of the Vostsibugol' Combine ex-
tracted more than 5,000 tons of coal above the plan in 1 1/2 months of 1954.(1;1
(It was reported in Sovetskaya Kirgiziva of 27 December 1953 that the
Khabarovskugol' Combine had completed the 1
schedule and that its output oras 10.3 percent3above thatoof 1952pbutathat its
production costs had dropped 5;1 percent ]
9?' Pea}nrra Basin
crease the coal of Dhne T7o 25 of the yprkutugajl,~`Combine have determined tp in-
yield from one face considerably and to raise the performaneC'
of the Donbass combine to 17,000_18,000 tons per mgnt~. Discharging their
obligations, sections No 2 and No 5 are extracting 50_60 tons more of coal daily
in January than in preceding months.
At ?esent, the mine is worlting out measures to improve the utiliza-
tion of machinery and increase labor productivity. Considerable attention is
being devoted to reusing mine t?.mbers.(28)
Miscellaneous MM
1Lle~lems of Coal Indust
1. Coal Cleaning
The rapidly increasing Soviet industry requites not only increasingly
large amounts of coal but also coal of hig-fier grade. There is still much to be
achieved along this line. A number of mines in the Moscow Basin and coal-clean-
ing plants and mines of the Donbass supply coal to consumers which fails to
meet requirements for size of lumps and for ash, sulfur, and moisture content.
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skugolnsplal~eyevugol'nand Kuybe h~as9roluchugol', Krasnoarmcyskugol', Pervomay-
to established standards pnrtir_ularlyooftenkJylnin ti,e Donbass i'ni1 to conform
Stal.inugol' and the Voroshilov ad 5 months of 1953, clines of the
of-th>- gr' ugol' combines shipped large amounts of run-
mine coal without any sort.[ng. About 50 percent of the coal supplied to
the Ministry of Railways is run-of-t.he-mine coal and anthracite.(29)
[Despite the above criticism, the Soviet press and coal periodicals
frequently publish articles on the operations of outstanding coal-cleaning
plants.) all phases of coal cleaning are completely mechanized at the rrovo-
Uzlovskiy Central Coal-Cleaning Plant It is equipped with huge vibrating
screens, where large lumps of coal are reduced to the required size under the
influence of constant vibration; n pneumatic cleaning shop, where more. than 200
tons of coal can be freed of rock in sn hour witrCc~e aid of compressed air;
coal-caching installations which remove rock from the bulk of the coal received
by the plant; and a i'iotation shop which recovers valuable coal dust.(30)
The Kospash Coal-Cleaning P.lanL at Thne rIo 2438 of the biolotovugol' Com-
bine is the first coal-cleaning plant to bc: put in operation in the Kizel Basin
by the Ministry of Coal Industry LrSA.
A fractionalianalysis ofmtnc coalhwaspmade~bysimmersingeitiintwaten Mi'ne No 2438.
of zinc chloride with a specific gravity of 1,5 and 1.8, respectiv le ysol`~ainn~he
coal was cleaned to a depth of 13 millimeter;, the fuel concentrate obtained
amounted to 1r2.9fi percent cf the original rurr_cf-the-mine coal, and it had an
ash content of 17076 percent. ;dlrr.?n +,he cleaning ;reut to a depth of 6 millimeters,
53.79 percent-of concentr-ate was obtained, with an ash content of 17.Tf percent.
In the process, the ash content of the concentrate ass reduced 11.75 percent,
u?50 percent below that of run-of-the-mine coa1.(1)
2. Tra'!spcri.
a. Underground Transport
Increased efi'iciency in underground transport plays, an important role
in steppi~a up the coal output., About 200 trains per day, loaded with coal, rock,
and other materials, move along the main underground railroads of the Mine irneni
Abakumov of the Stalinugol' Trust.
M STsE (Signalization, Centralization, aid Blocking) installation has
been set up in the mine workings, ann with the aid of this, one dispatcher can
regulate trafi'ic in all dire~+9ons. This un-to-dote apparatus permits remote
throwing oi' switches and giving si~uls to operators of electric locomotives in
any section of the road.
automatization of undergrouu.d transport is being introduced in many
coal enterprises of the Donbass,. Thirtee^ mines of the Stalinugol' Combine have
autorrutic control of the movement of trains, and by the end of;l95k, this figure
will be raised to 30,(j1)
b. Transport of Backfilling iiaterial
The principal process in the total complex of backfilling operations
in a mine, excluding the e: