Provoditsia nabor rabochikh na stroiki ministerstva ugolnoi promyshlennosti...(Workers Are Being Recruited for the Coal Mining Industry...)

Kiev (Kyiv): Tip. otd. Transzheldorizdata, 1954. Very good. Lithographed poster; 22 x 15 1/2; off-white stock with text and illustration in red and blue; very thin discolored spot to bottom edge and a few minor nicks; three punctures with small loss of paper to right margin, not affecting the image, but the edge of the decorative border; in very good- condition.A striking recruitment and propaganda poster, it featured a smiling coal worker, proferring a lump of coal in his hand, with mining equipment and railroad tracks in the background. It stated that the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union's Department of Recruitment was seeking workers in the coal mining industry and listed some of the benefits with a potential contract. They included free transportation to and from work, a daily allowance of 10-15 rubles, a one-time cash bonus of 150-600 rubles, comfortable housing and bedding, and training.The Donets Basin, also known as the Donbas Region, has been the most important fuel source of Ukraine, since coal mining began in the 1800s, although it went through several disastrous periods. The industry collapsed during the 1917 Revolution, recovered in the 1920s under the five-year plans, then during WWII the whole region was heavily damaged and almost all coal mines were closed. Production ramped up and stabilized in the early 1950s, thanks to the modernization of equipment and the tremendous increase in work force (que the poster).