The July Storms. Strike

Directed by Viktor Shkuryn

The July Storms is a dilogy about the first mass protests in Soviet Ukraine in a long time. The parts of the dilogy, Strike and Outburst, are dedicated to two waves of miners' strikes in Donetsk, in 1989 and 1990, which were unprecedented in scale. Several hundred thousand miners took part in these historical strikes. The events themselves became a significant factor in the history of the collapse of the Soviet communist system. While recording the unfolding of the strike and the miners' speeches on the square in Donetsk, the film's creators also observe the miners' miserable living conditions and hard working conditions at the Lidiyevka mine.