When coal miners in Siberia's Kuzbass region walked off the job in early March, they vowed not to return until Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned. Last week, with Gorbachev still in office, the miners ended their strike, but only after he ceded Kremlin control of the coalpits to the Russian republic.
The deal, seen by some Soviet observers as the beginning of the end of central control over major industries, stemmed from a pact signed three weeks ago by Gorbachev and his sometime rival, Boris Yeltsin, head of the Russian republic. Criticized by miners and fellow reformers for his accommodation...
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