Virtual tour of the Soledar Salt Mine

Headframe and hoist house

The history of the mine begins with a borehole, which in 1876 near the village of Bryantsivka, penetrated powerful layers of pure rock salt. In 1879, a private industrial company led by mining engineer M. M. Letunovsky began the construction of the first salt mine, "Bryantsivska Mine."

The first headframe building was constructed in the historicist style, resembling a medieval tower.

During World War II, the headframe buildings, the hoist house, and the salt factory of Mine No. 1 were destroyed. According to Soviet records, the buildings were demolished by retreating German forces.

Kind Shubin

A mythological character from the mining folklore of Ukrainian Donbas, a mining spirit resembling a gnome, the "master of the mine," and the protector of miners.

The beliefs about Shubin were recorded by folklore collectors and writers Boris Gorbatov and Leonid Zharikov. Such beliefs are known to be prevalent in the Donetsk Basin (mines of Yenakiieve, Makiivka, Horlivka, Torez, Snizhne, Kadiivka, Chervonyi Promin, Krasnodon, Lysychansk, Soledar, Myrnohrad).

According to the most plausible version about the prototype of the character, Shubin is a gas burner, a worker whose duties included preventing gas explosions by eliminating methane accumulations in the mine. His work was highly risky as he had to ignite the gas-air mixture in the workings with a torch. To protect themselves, gas burners, or "shubins," in the 19th century wore fur coats with the fur inside and degreased leather outside or walked in wet coats. There is also a belief that Shubin is the soul of a deceased miner wandering through the workings, which does not contradict the version of the soul of a deceased gas burner.

Bryantsivska salt mine

In 1879, a private industrial company led by mining engineer M.M. Letunovsky began the construction of the first salt mine named "Bryantsivska Mine" ("Bryantsevskaya Kop"). The mine is connected to the Donetsk Railway by a broad-gauge rail line, built by M.M. Letunovsky at his own expense. Bryantsivska Mine produced 4.2 million poods in 1884, starting with 250,000 poods in 1881.
* 1 pood = 16.38 kg

Salt was extracted using galleries 7 sazhens high and 6 sazhens wide (1 sazhen = 213.36 cm). Gunpowder was used, boreholes were drilled, and cartridges with fuses were laid. The mine employed foremen, blasters, loaders for iron wagons (each holding 50 poods of salt; 1 cubic sazhen of salt weighed 1,200 poods), and drivers to the shaft. The salt extraction process utilized McDermott and Lize drills, augers, crowbars, pickaxes, and shovels.

These richest mines were transferred in 1889 to the French company "Society for the Development of Rock Salt and Natural Soda in Southern Russia," which bought them from M. Letunovsky for 2 million rubles. Since 1896, the Society also began coal mining and was renamed "Society for the Development of Rock Salt and Coal in Southern Russia" ("Société des Sels Gemmes et Houillères de la Russie Méridionale"). The chairman of the Board of the Society became Count d’Ossonville, and its members included 10 entrepreneurs and bankers from France. In 1894, the Society made a net profit of 698,519 francs. By 1910, 509 workers were employed there, annually extracting 12 million poods of salt. The Bryantsivska mine was one of the leaders in salt extraction and the largest in Central and Eastern Europe.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the mine was named after the German communist revolutionary "Karl Liebknecht No. 1."

Horse-drawn haulage

Before electric locomotives and conveyors were used in the mines, the extraction of salt was carried out manually. Later, horse-drawn haulage became widely used for moving wagons. Miners who worked underground with horses were called "konohony" (horse drivers).

Horses were lowered into the mine only once. They lived permanently in underground stables, never coming up to the surface.

Scraper installations

Scraper installations are designed for loading salt into wagons. Since 1932, manual salt loading at all salt mines was replaced by scraper loading, which allowed for a twofold increase in labor productivity.

Fossil wood (Lignite)

Dark inclusions in the salt are lignite. These are weakly carbonized parts of fossil wood, predominantly conifers. The preservation of plant structures in lignite is explained by their rapid burial in an anaerobic environment, where the processes of biochemical decomposition are significantly slowed down.

Founder of the mine M. M. Letunovsky

Mykola Mykolayovych Letunovsky, mining engineer, State Councillor. He graduated from the Institute of the Corps of Mining Engineers in 1860. From 1864 to 1871, he was the manager of the Luhansk Iron Foundry, and from 1871 to 1875, he managed the Luhansk Mining District.

In 1879, M. M. Letunovsky founded the "Society on Faith," which consisted of industrialists and leased the Bryantsivka deposit, beginning the establishment of the mine. In 1881, the mine reached a 117-foot layer of rock salt and started its extraction.

In 1886, all shares of the Bryantsivka Society were acquired by M. M. Letunovsky, who became the sole owner of the Bryantsivka Salt Mine until 1889. In 1889, M. M. Letunovsky sold the Bryantsivka Mine to the French company "Société des Sels Gemmes et Houillères de la Russie Méridionale."

According to legend, as a farewell, Letunovsky gifted workers and employees significant bonuses for that time, ranging from 30 to 500 rubles, from the capital he received. The workers organized a touching farewell for the former owner, and Yegor Dormidontovych Popov, a self-taught sculptor and carpenter, carved a full-length figure of Letunovsky from a block of salt. The sculpture was installed in the mine. In 1958, it was brought to the surface and transported to the Donetsk Regional Museum of Local Lore.

The sculpture of Letunovsky that we now see in the mine under the Salt Stairs was created in the 2000s by one of the employees of the "Artyomsol" enterprise.

Salt Stairs

The steps are made of oak wood, and the entire structure rests on massive salt pillars connected at the top by arches. At the top of these stairs is a long passage leading to the Ivanivska mine, which serves as an emergency exit from the mine (the next point of the route).

The opening of these Salt Stairs took place at the beginning of winter in 1885 and was accompanied by an entire underground feast organized by the management of the Bryantsivska Mine.

Emergency exit to the "Ivanivska" Mine

In 1881, next to Mykola Letunovsky's mine, mining engineer Petro Ivanovych Ivanov established his own mine (the "Ivanivska" mine).

As the technical director of the Bryantsivka Joint Stock Company, P. I. Ivanov established and developed the "Ivanivska" mine, initiating the exploitation of Bakhmut salt. However, he later sold it to M. M. Letunovsky, who connected the acquired mine to his own, creating a single mine with two exits to the surface.

Some facts about Pyotr Ivanov's biography:
In 1872, Pyotr Ivanov graduated with honors from the Mining Institute, and his name was inscribed on the institute's marble board. After completing his studies, in 1873, he was appointed to oversee drilling operations in the Kingdom of Poland aimed at discovering deposits of rock salt. In 1876, at the initiative of Mining Institute professors V.G. Yerofeyev and O.P. Karpinsky, investigations for rock salt in the Slavyansk-Bakhmut basin were planned, and Pyotr Ivanov was appointed as the executor of these works. Pyotr Ivanov was the first to extract and confirm the rich deposits of rock salt.

The Chapel of the Ascension

The work of the early miners was heavy and dangerous. It is no surprise, then, that in one of the largest and most visually stunning galleries, an icon with a lamp was installed.

In the description of a visit to the Bryantsev salt mine in the 1899 issue of the journal "Young Reader," the following memories remain:

«Finally, we arrived at the largest and most beautiful gallery of the Bryantsev mine, about 120 sazhens long. At one end, the entrance is framed by a semi-circular arch, above which, in a relief frame carved into the wall, hangs an icon of the Mother of God; a lampada burns before it. Both the arch and the icon frame are polished. This polished treatment gives the striped Bryantsev deposit a unique beauty; the smooth, mirror-like surface of the polish reflects the small gleams of the lights we brought.»

In 2001, to mark the 120th anniversary of the state enterprise "Artemsil," a church dedicated to the Ascension of the Lord was built and consecrated on the site where the icon of the Mother of God had been. For nearly 80 years, during the Soviet era, this space had been in complete disrepair.

Interesting fact: if you look at the vault directly under a certain angle — you can see the outline of a face. And if you look directly at the altar, you can see the outline of a horse above it, to the right.