The Raspadskaya tragedy: a chronicle of the largest accident in the history of Russian coal mining
May 2010 was a dark day for the Kemerovo Region. Two explosions at the Raspadskaya mine on the night of May 8-9 destroyed 300 kilometers of mine workings and claimed the lives of nearly 100 people. However, archival data shows that the tragedy was no accident, and the fatality rate at the mine had been rising for decades.
On the anniversary of the tragedy, we recall the key facts about it: the taped-over sensors, the inconvenient self-rescuers, and the fatal court cases that were closed 10 years later due to the "statute of limitations."
