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"The July Storms" is a dialogue about the first mass protests in Soviet Ukraine in a long time. The two parts of the dilogy "Strike" and "Outburst" are devoted to two unprecedented waves of miners' strikes in Donetsk in 1989 and 1990, respectively. Several hundred thousand miners took part in these historic strikes. The events themselves became an important factor in the history of the region of the Soviet communist system.
The protests in Donbas began in July 1989, with over a hundred mines ceasing operations. Within a week, the miners’ strike became the subject of a special television address by Mikhail Gorbachev. Representatives of the Strike Committee were invited to Moscow for negotiations, where all their demands were temporarily met. Alongside the unfolding strike and miners’ speeches in Donetsk’s square, the filmmakers observe the impoverished living conditions of the miners and the harsh working conditions at the Mine of Lidiievka.
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An accident at the Pochenkov’s Mine in February 1990 resulted in the death of 13 miners. Since the summer protests, the real situation on the ground in the mines had not changed, leading to a second wave of miners’ protests in 1990–1991. This time, the miners’ slogans included political demands, such as the decommunization of power and the independence of Ukraine. Representatives of the miners met with Communist officials, including the last First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Stanislav Hurenko, and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Nikolai Ryzhkov. The August coup and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union were met by the Donbas miners in strike committees.
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