The Ereğli-Zonguldak coal basin has been Turkey's source of hard coal since the second half of the nineteenth century. The region emerged as a coalfield over the last quarter of the nineteenth century and became one of the biggest industrial centers of Turkey in the early Republican era. The male population of the basin, who formed the main source of underground labor power in the pits, allocated their working time between mining and agriculture sometimes by force, sometimes willingly. Although these workers witnessed many political, economic, and social changes in the history of Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey, their part-time work patterns remained unchanged. The “national economy” policy and state-led industrialization attempts of the single-party rule compelled the government to restructure the capital and labor aspects of coal mining, which resulted in the nationalization of coal mining under state ownership and the adoption of the compulsory labor system in 1940. The compulsory labor system, in turn, caused difficulties in the relationship between the state and the residents of the coalfield. The Ereğli-Zonguldak coal basin was a microcosm of the labor-capital-state relations during the single-party era. The study at hand offers a comprehensive analysis of this microcosm, by focusing on the contentious relations between mine workers, private and public coal mining enterprises and the single-party rule during the period between 1920 and 1947. It aims to uncover the historical agency of the mine workers in making their own history.