The self-made Apaches
of Kyrgyzstan
PHOTOS AND TEXT: MAGDALENA BOROWIEC
In the south of Kyrgyzstan, locals work in old Soviet-era coal
mines with horrific conditions and little hope of improvement.With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economies of many states of the for-
mer Eastern bloc found themselves in shatters. Soaring unemployment and pov-
erty engulfed all the countries of Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan, people lost their
jobs overnight, while Russians hastily abandoned the former Soviet republics to
return to the fallen mother Russia. As they fled, they left behind their homes, jobs
and factories. What remained was soon looted, including the railway tracks which
were sold to Chinese scrap metal dealers.
The local people, left on their own, did not possess the adequate skills and tech-
nical know-how in order to continue operating the abandoned factories. Helpless
in the face of the sudden gift of regained freedom and independence, they followed
the Russians through the gateway to Moscow. But instead of striking it rich, what
awaited them in Russia were low salaries, high living costs and racism. They were
the “Other”, disdained by Muscovites; many accepted the most humiliating work,
and lived in appalling conditions, far away from their communities. As soon as they
earned enough money, many Central Asians returned home. Some of them managed
to renovate the old Soviet machinery and recreate past skills to become miners again.
Homemade minesThe mines are being worked in a manner one does not normally associate with
modern mining. An unsophisticated network of underground corridors is found