Where was the terrorist attack north east. "Nord-Ost": how was it in reality? hours under the gun

4 years and 7 months after the tragedy at the Theater Center on Dubrovka, the Moscow prosecutor's office suspended the investigation into the hostage-taking case "due to the failure to establish the whereabouts of the accused." Allegedly, some Derikhan Vakhaev and Khasan Zakaev are on the wanted list. Practice shows: this means one thing - forget it, no one else will understand anything.

The main suspects have been eliminated. The chief, according to the prosecutor's office, the accused - Shamil Basayev - also for technical reasons will not tell anyone anything, but it is to him that the lion's share of fiction, which is presented as an investigation, is devoted. The rest is an excursion into the history of the Chechen conflict. Only one person was convicted on highly controversial grounds - Zaurbek Talkhigov, who, at the request of the special services and in their presence, talked with the terrorists. For this, they were imprisoned.

The investigation went on for almost five years. The prosecutor's office not only did not answer a single question on the merits, but in every possible way prevented others from doing so: relatives of the dead and injured, journalists, among whom was our Anna Politkovskaya. It was her that the militants demanded for negotiations, and she went to the captured Theater Center many times. And then - was engaged in journalistic investigation.

Who is Khanpash Terkibaev

On October 26, 2002, officials from the headquarters for the release of the hostages updated the numbers of the dead on the air every hour. With the terrorists, officials immediately decided: "All the terrorists have been destroyed." (Why is another question, we will return to it later.) The number of killed militants was later called 40. Later, information appeared that one of the group of terrorists who seized the Theater Center on Dubrovka was alive. Anna Politkovskaya found this man. And not somewhere in the mountains of Chechnya, but in the very center of Moscow, on Leninsky Prospekt, in the Sputnik Hotel (please pay attention to the name of the hotel).

A young man of about thirty, Khanpash Terkibaev, confessed to Anna in April 2003, that is, six months after the Dubrovka tragedy, that he really was in a group of terrorists in Nord-Ost. Moreover, from Anna's interview with Terkibaev, published in Novaya, it followed that he played some important role in the terrorist group. As Anna wrote, “a mishandled Cossack”, “provocateur”. Who did Terkibayev work for, who was photographed with high-ranking officials, who had numerous cover documents that could not be obtained without going through the special services, how could he leave the Theater Center, who introduced him into a group of terrorists?

After that publication, Anna Politkovskaya convinced the official investigation to interrogate Terkibaev. They didn't interrogate. They said that they were looking at the Cosmos Hotel (?!), but they did not find it. But he did not hide: he communicated with senior officials of the presidential administration, traveled as the head of the Chechen parliamentary (Ichkerian) delegation to Strasbourg together with Rogozin, at that time the chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. A participant in the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, Terkibaev, under his last name, according to legal documents, after the tragedy in Nord-Ost, traveled half the world: Dubai, Turkey, Jordan, Strasbourg ...

And only this important witness and participant in the Dubrovka hostage-taking was unavailable to the investigation. Or rather: not needed. Just as other witnesses were not needed: for example, Novaya journalists who repeatedly went to the captured Theater Center or talked to the terrorists on the phone, intelligence officers who carried out the “cleansing” of the hall after the Alpha group. Apparently, extra witnesses were not needed at all ...

Another six months after that Anina's publication, Terkibaev played tricks around the world, across Russia and Chechnya ... And in October 2003, he died in a strange car accident.
However, why in a strange? What happened to him was what should have happened to any intelligence agent who knew too much and violated the law of omerta. It was used as a disposable syringe. “The agent should not have spoken - and he did not,” Anna wrote about this in the publication “Witness Protection Program” (“Novaya Gazeta” No. 96 of 12/22/2003). And in that publication, Anna noted: “The time when the car accident happened is also significant: exactly on the eve of how Terkibaev could still open his mouth, the CIA became interested in him.” (A US citizen died among the hostages in the Theater Center, and the special services of this country are conducting their own investigation into the death of their citizens.)

Testimony of Akhyad Baisarov

I have known Akhyad Baysarov since April 1998. He then acted as an intermediary in the sale of 13-year-old seriously ill child Andryusha Latypov, who was held hostage in Chechnya. Baysarov Akhyad (not to be confused with Movladi Baisarov, an FSB agent killed by Kadyrovites in the center of Moscow on November 4 last year) demanded 500,000 US dollars for the child. Andryusha we then managed to pull out from the bandits without money, and Akhyad Baisarov soon got a term for kidnapping an entrepreneur from Armenia. The term was short. And on the eve of "Nord-Ost" Baysarov lived freely in Moscow.

Why do we need this character? In addition, there are witnesses: on the eve of the hostage-taking at Dubrovka, Akhyad Baysarov warned the leadership of the Russian FSB about the impending terrorist attack. There was no reaction. Is it because there was already a man among the terrorists - Terkibaev - and someone was preparing holes for orders, hoping that everything was under control? However, they received orders and Stars of Heroes anyway.

As for Akhyad Baysarov, a bandit who received the minimum sentence for one of his grave crimes and did not receive it for trafficking in a hostage child, he also disappeared, like Terkibaev. Even his former owners, once high-ranking Chechen security officials who have close contacts with Russia's special services, know nothing about his fate.

Apti Batalov. Call from London

Saturday evening October 7, 2006 is one of the worst days for Novaya employees. Politkovskaya was killed. Employees of the prosecutor's office and operatives work in the editorial office, the phone is torn. Late in the evening - a call from London. Apti Batalov, who was a field commander in 1994-1996, is calling, then for several months of 1997 he was the head of the DGB (department of state security) of Ichkeria, and from the second half of 1997 until September 1999 - the head of the apparatus of the President of the Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov.

“I want to make a statement,” says Apti, “several years ago I met Anna in London and gave her material about how the terrorist attack in Moscow in October 2002 was being prepared. And about a month ago, she was supposed to be given a cassette with video materials about who and how prepared the hostage-taking at the Theater Center. When investigating the Politkovskaya case, you should pay attention to this.”

Some time after this call, Batalov sent us the text of those materials that, as he stated, he had given to Politkovskaya in the summer of 2003.

Batalov testifies that his friend and comrade-in-arms during the first Chechen campaign, Lema Dagalayev, was recruited with the assistance of Khanpash Terkibaev by the colonel of the FSB of Russia Arkady (Igor?) Dranets*. Dagalaev testified his testimony in March 2002 on a videotape (in the presence of Batalov), where he spoke about the planned, with the active participation of Terkibaev and his (Dagalaev) campaign against Moscow in order to capture one of the government institutions. And he demonstrated special passes issued by the FSB. A few days after that video recording, Dagalaev dies in a car accident.

Batalov was interrogated about his contacts with Dagalayev by the FSB of the Naursky district of Chechnya. On March 23, Apti Batalov fled to England, having previously hidden a video cassette with a recording of Dagalaev's testimony. And it was this cassette, according to Batalov, that he wanted to send to Politkovskaya. As far as we know, Anna did not receive the cassette.

---
* Colonel Dranets is not a fictitious, but a real figure. An officer who has been involved in Chechnya for a long time. It is he who is mentioned in an open letter allegedly written by former members of the gang of FSB agent Movladi Baysarov, who was killed last autumn in Moscow, as a person who maintained contact with them in Moscow.

Exactly fifteen years ago, Moscow experienced the largest terrorist attack involving the taking of hostages. Members of the "Islamic Regiment of Special Purpose" group, led by a native of Chechnya, Movsar Baraev, seized the theater center near the Dubrovka metro station. At that moment there was a musical "Nord-Ost". More than 915 people were taken hostage.

Random people are real deaths

“I planned to go to this performance, but I handed in the tickets the day before. Of course, I and many Muscovites were then frightened by the explosions of residential buildings in September 1999. But why exactly I decided not to go to the musical, I don’t know, intuition or something. But some of my friends got to the theater center on that ill-fated day. Fortunately, they survived,” Ekaterina Adenina told Gazeta.Ru.

Among the hostages were not only the performers and the audience. “October 23, 2002, we had a regular class. We were in a completely different wing of the theater, but apparently the invaders were well aware of what was located there and where. They came to us, fired a shot at the ceiling from a machine gun and herded me and my students into the auditorium, told me where to sit and told me not to talk or smile,” recalls Iridan Irish dance school founder Igor Denisov. According to him, the terrorists at the same time allowed the captured people to call close relatives from mobile phones.

“We immediately called the parents of our students to say the main thing: “everyone is alive and well.” Everything else people will hear and so, on TV, so I then thought,” said Denisov.

According to other hostages, the militants forced them to call home and say that for every killed hostage they would shoot 10 victims.

The group of terrorists who broke into the theater center included both men and women. They were armed with submachine guns, pistols and machine guns, and, in addition, they mined the auditorium. The invaders placed explosives in the center of the passage, on the balcony, and, in addition, some of the female terrorists had suicide belts on their bodies. “Shahidkas were placed around the hall very competently, so that in the event of explosions, the maximum number of people would die. Moreover, if all the explosive devices worked, it is possible that the nearby metro would be damaged, which could lead to serious consequences. And then part of the group of terrorists would have a non-zero chance of hiding, ”said Sergey Militsky, a colonel of the FSB of the Russian Federation, a veteran of the Alpha special forces unit, who took part in the hostage rescue operation in the theater center, to Gazeta.Ru.

From the very beginning of the seizure of the theater, several incidents occurred that influenced the further course of events. “Journalists began to cover events in great detail. The movements of special forces and police were filmed directly online. And the terrorists also had a TV, and they watched it all carefully,” recalls Militsky. At the same time, the militants did not take into account all the circumstances, and several actors and employees of the center managed to leave it through windows or emergency exits.

In addition, an officer of the Moscow special forces SOBR of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation suddenly turned out to be among the hostages. “This man went to the play with his girlfriend. He immediately called the base to his own and told about what had happened. Then the Soviets were sitting on the 2nd Kolobovsky Lane in the city center. In full readiness, they arrived at the building of the theater center in just 40 minutes and were ready to immediately begin to storm. At that moment, the terrorists had not yet had time to complete the mining of the hall, so the commandos had a chance to carry out this assault successfully, ”Mikhail Pashkin, head of the metropolitan police union, told Gazeta.ru. According to him, Vladimir Pronin, who headed the Moscow police department in those years, did not give the green light to such an operation. “And the SOBR officer who reported the capture later died from gas poisoning,” Pashkin added.

Shortly after the seizure of the center, Al-Jazeera broadcast a recorded address by the head of the terrorist group, Baraev, who demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, as well as negotiations between the Russian authorities and the head of the Chechen militants, Aslan Maskhadov. Later, the invaders demanded that the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmat Kadyrov, arrive at the building. “It seemed to me that they were young guys who do not decide anything on their own. All the time they called somewhere abroad and consulted with someone,” Denisov, a former hostage, recalls.

From the start of the hostage-taking on October 23 until the storming of the building, various people came to the theater and tried to negotiate the release of some of the hostages. So, on the first day of the attack

Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian Army Konstantin Vasiliev with his service certificate passed through the cordon and offered himself as a hostage to the militants, and in return asked to release women and children. However, the terrorists decided that the FSB sent him and shot the officer.

Photo report:"Nord-Ost": 15 years of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka

Is_photorep_included10586603: 1

The next day, 26-year-old Olga Romanova entered the building of the center, who, having entered the hall, entered into a skirmish with Movsar Baraev. She was quickly interrogated, taken to the corridor and killed with three machine gun shots. And shortly before the assault, Muscovite Gennady Vlakh broke into the rear, who mistakenly decided that his son was among the hostages. The terrorists killed him too.

Such famous people as pediatric surgeon Leonid Roshal, politicians Irina Khakamada, Grigory Yavlinsky and Yevgeny Primakov, director Stanislav Govorukhin and People's Artist of the USSR Iosif Kobzon tried to negotiate with the invaders. The latter managed to achieve the release of several women and children.

While the hostages were still in the hall, rallies were held in front of the theater demanding that the Russian authorities withdraw their troops from Chechnya. Relatives of the hostages also took part in these speeches. On the third day of the attack, early in the morning of October 26, the Alpha fighters launched an assault. “In fact, the operation was prepared very carefully. Various options were worked out, we took into account that in no case should an explosion be allowed, since then the vast majority of the hostages would have died. The option of entering through the sewers was being worked out. As a result, they settled on using a special gas that has a paralytic effect, suppresses a person’s will to do anything. It was pumped into the building through air ducts. When the fighters of the assault group entered the premises of the theater, they were horrified: a huge number of people just lie and do not move! ”, Militsky recalls.

During the operation, all 40 terrorists were destroyed, and none of the suicide bombers could detonate the explosives. However, already in hospitals, immediately after the special operation, former hostages began to die en masse.

In total, at least 125 people died from the consequences of the use of gas. According to the public organization Nord-Ost, 179 people became victims. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the doctors initially did not know what kind of gas the security forces used, and also by the fact that the hostages were weakened by poor nutrition: the terrorists gave them only juices, chocolate, chewing gum, which were in the theater buffet. Many of those who survived after the use of gas still complain of various diseases: memory loss, vision loss, oncology and others.

The killer gas is still unknown

“I lost my son there. He got gassed. In general, of all the victims, only five were shot dead, and the rest died because of this substance, which was used by the attackers, ”Sergey Karpov, who is the victim in a number of criminal cases related to the terrorist attack, shared with Gazeta.Ru and got acquainted with their materials. He stressed that he had no claims directly to the special forces soldiers: Alfa worked perfectly, although its soldiers risked their lives. But the evacuation was organized ugly. For example, the 15th hospital, which is located next to the theater center, was prepared to receive the victims. But only seven people were brought there. Not far from the theater there was also the 13th hospital, but for some reason 300 people are brought there. In principle, it is impossible to accept so many in one medical institution, ”he said.

Karpov noted that the Russian authorities have not yet disclosed the composition of the gas, which also causes outrage among the relatives of the victims of the attack. “The conclusion of the forensic medical examination says that there is no direct connection between the use of gas and the death of people. But how can this be argued if its composition has not yet been disclosed ?! ”The victim is indignant. Alfa veteran Militsky, in turn, explained that the security forces and the Russian authorities had their own reasons for doing just that. “Gas is a special combination of substances that was made for this operation. Nobody discloses such things anywhere. As for the evacuation, it was being prepared. Yuri Luzhkov, for example, who was then mayor, drove 100 ambulances to the scene of the assault. Can you imagine how you can find so many of these cars at once? But they couldn’t drive close, because then the terrorists would have guessed that an assault was being prepared, ”said the veteran of the special forces.

At the same time, Militsky admitted that certain mistakes were made during the evacuation. “Those who got into the ambulance survived. But those who were evacuated by other vehicles died. You need to understand that the officers of "Alpha", other structures, policemen are taught to detain and destroy, and not to save. Sometimes the victims were put on the asphalt or on the floor of the bus incorrectly: their tongue would sink, they would vomit, and they would choke,” Militsyky said. In general, according to him, during the awarding ceremony for the security forces in the Kremlin, then President Vladimir Putin received a personal call from NATO Secretary General and congratulated him on a brilliant operation.

“Although this does not justify us. I was taught like this: if at least one of the hostages dies during the assault, then it means that we didn’t work somewhere, ”

Militsky concluded.

After the events at the Dubrovka metro station, a series of high-profile lawsuits took place. In 2003, the Moscow City Court found Zaurbek Talkhigov guilty of aiding terrorism and taking hostages in the House of Culture on Dubrovka, and sentenced him to 8.5 years in prison. And in 2004, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow sentenced Igor Alyamkin, a police major of the Nizhny Novgorod police department, to seven years in prison, who registered Chechen terrorist Luiza Bakueva, a participant in the seizure of a theater center, in the capital. In 2014, 41-year-old Khasan Zakaev, suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack, was detained in Crimea. The Moscow District Military Court found him guilty of organizing the delivery of weapons and explosives to terrorists, Zakayev received 19 years in a strict regime colony.

But for a long time, Russian courts refused to compensate the relatives of the victims and the hostages themselves. “We started with the Tver Court, and we sued Moscow, since it was not the state as a whole that should be responsible, but the subject on whose territory this fact occurred. We reached the Supreme Court, then went to the Single European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. 12 years of litigation and victory, Strasbourg forced Russia to pay compensation and properly conduct an investigation, but it is still not being conducted. Although the Ministry of Finance paid us compensation for a total amount of 1.3 million euros, ”Karpov explained. This lawsuit was the first large-scale trial of Russian citizens against the Russian Federation in the ECtHR.

However, some victims have a different attitude to this issue. “Exactly one month after the terrorist attack, we had a big concert at the Moskvich Center.

If we thought only about what happened, what would happen in our life? We must live in the present moment and think about the future.

I have since had three children - what else do you need? Although on October 26 we meet with my students and celebrate our second common birthday, ”said Denisov.

Adhesive memory tape

15 years ago, on October 26, 2002, at 5:10 a.m., special forces began an assault on the Dubrovka Theater Center seized by militants, where 916 people were taken hostage. Previously, sleeping gas was pumped through the ventilation.

130 people, including 10 children, from among the spectators who came to the performance of the popular musical "Nord-Ost", died.

According to the official statement of the FSB, a gas based on fentanyl derivatives was used in the House of Culture. Its composition has remained secret. The main causes of death of the hostages were the exacerbation of chronic diseases, as well as dehydration.

MK was told about 57 hours of hell by those who went through the terrorist attack on Dubrovka and found the strength to live after the loss of loved ones.

Memorial "In memory of the victims of terrorism", which was opened in 2003 in front of the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. Photo: mskagency

We did not plan to go to the musical Nord-Ost, - says Victoria Kruglikova. - Sister Irina bought tickets for a performance with the participation of Valentin Gaft in a month, but mixed up the numbers. When we gathered at the theater with the children, it turned out that the performance had already been played a day ago, on October 22, and the tickets were gone. And I worked as a teacher at a college in the service sector next to the Moscow Bearing Palace of Culture, where the musical Nord-Ost was on. It was a weekday, the weather was rainy, we didn’t want to go anywhere, but we decided: since we’ve already gathered, let’s go to the musical. I took my 18-year-old daughter Nastya, my sister - 15-year-old son Yaroslav. And the guys escaped with great difficulty. The daughter had to prepare for a French language test: she studied at the Maurice Thorez University. Nephew postponed tennis practice.

My husband was on a business trip. By the way, he did not approve that a musical was staged based on such a serious work. Then he said that if he had been at home that fateful evening, he would not have let us go anywhere ...

A lot of strange things were noticed before the performance. On the way to the House of Culture, a man of Caucasian appearance with a characteristic guttural accent asked for an extra ticket. I thought then: “Thank God, there are no tickets, now we will reach the ticket office and return home.” But the cashier offered tickets both to the stalls and to the balcony. Then we saw that swarthy man who asked for an extra ticket among the militants ... Probably, that evening he either counted the people, or identified the security forces among the spectators.

The hall was almost completely filled. We got tickets in the eleventh row, on the right, closer to the side aisle. The performance was good. But I caught myself thinking that I would gladly leave after the first part. I subconsciously felt something unkind. And then in the lobby, during the intermission, we saw women in all black. I also thought: there is such a patriotic performance, what are they doing here? .. Nastya and Yaroslav were telling something to each other and laughing. And the Chechens literally incinerated them with their looks. I especially remember one of the women in black: she looked at point-blank range, her pupils were absolutely black ... I just shuddered, I again wanted to go home. But as disciplined people, they decided to sit through to the end, not to offend the artists.

The second part began with the dance of the pilots. The artists famously tapped off when a man in camouflage and a mask jumped onto the stage from the audience. I thought that our special services wanted to detain someone. Then we heard: “We are from Grozny, this is not a joke! The war has come to Moscow, you are hostages!” And the militant fired several shots upwards.

The terrorists blocked all entrances and exits to the auditorium. The artists were driven to the cars to carry backpacks with equipment and ammunition. And then they started mining the hall ...

It was very scary. The militants went along the rows to identify the military, intelligence officers and policemen among the spectators. Many security forces tore out photographs from their IDs and threw away the “crusts”. In our aisle, they found the identity of a woman - an FSB officer, who, like me, was called Viktoria Vasilievna, the year of birth coincided - 1960. Only the last name was different. The terrorists walked along the rows and asked all the women for documents. I only had my driver's license with me. The militant took them and began to stare intently: are they not fake? The minutes seemed like an eternity.

The nephew at the age of 15 behaved like a real man. Hugging me, Yaroslav said: "If they take you away, I will go with you." I, in turn, began to convince the militants that I was working at a college here in the neighborhood, on Melnikova Street, building 2, next to the war veterans hospital ... Hearing the address, the militants tensed even more. It turns out that this building housed the headquarters of the operation to free the hostages. The terrorist narrowed his eyes and said, “That says a lot. Let's go to the commander."

Memory action. Photos of the dead, candles and flowers are brought to the steps of the center. Photo: mskagency

Miraculously, I didn't get shot. The guys who were sitting behind us started shouting: “She is a teacher!” They worked as stewards: they met and seated guests in the hall. And in the summer, one of the guys in our training center was celebrating a wedding - my students and I set tables for them.

The terrorist took my documents and left. Then he came back and said: "It's all right, we found this woman." Surprisingly, I later found out that she had survived. The militants did not shoot her: their plan was to take her with them when retreating to Chechnya and exchange her for one of their field commanders.

Next to us in the aisle stood one of the terrorists, just a girl - Aset. We asked her: “Well, why did you come? We are here with children, peaceful people!” She said: “I have a child in Chechnya who is not even a year old. My husband was killed, my brother was killed. We live in a basement. Old people and children are dying under the bombings. This must stop." I knew they would be killed anyway. But she repeated: "There is no other way out." We offered to find her child, take her with us. She smiled and said, "Allah will help him." They were all like zombies.

Young female terrorists were constantly approached by an aged woman who did not take off her veil. She was sitting in the center of the hall, next to a metal cylinder, inside which, as it turned out later, was a 152-millimeter high-explosive fragmentation artillery shell lined with plastic. When the command came, all the women in black stood up, lined up in the aisles with grenades, took detonators in their hands ... Our interlocutor Aset “reassured” us: “Don’t worry, if there is an order to explode, I will shoot you. You won't suffer for long."

On the third day, October 26, we noticed that the militants were in high spirits. They were told that there would be talks tomorrow. We were told: "We will let you go, take a small number of hostages with us and leave." My sister and I were ready to go with them, if only they would let our children go…

Iosif Kobzon was the first to enter into negotiations with the terrorists and managed to negotiate the release of Lyubov Kornilova and three children: her two daughters and one child, whom she also called her own.

For the first time in all days, we relaxed. And in the morning I suddenly felt a sweet smell. One of the militants jumped off the stage, started running around, shouting: “Where is the electrician?! Turn off the ventilation!" I took a deep breath to take in the scent. And when I started to lose consciousness, I thought: “This is a killer gas.” I tried to exhale gas, out of the corner of my consciousness I noted: “I can’t“ leave ”- what about the children ?!” And then blackness came.

How events developed further, I know from the words of my husband. Returning from a business trip, he learned about the capture of the theater center. We lived nearby - all the days before the assault, he was near the House of Culture. When the assault began, in the confusion he managed to seep through the police cordon. Special forces and rescuers began to carry the first hostages onto the steps. Sergey recalled that it was scary to look at people: many had bared teeth, facial muscles were cramped ...

We were lucky: we were sitting close to the aisle - we were carried out among the first. First, my husband found me. I wheezed terribly, and he thought that my spine was broken. Then he noticed Nastya too. With me in my arms, my husband rushed past the buses to the place where the ambulances stood. He handed me over to the doctors and returned for his daughter. In the place where she lay, there was already a mountain of human bodies. He hardly got Nastya. It seemed to her husband that she was not breathing. He took his daughter in his arms and did not know in shock what to do next. A doctor jumped up to them, felt his daughter’s weak pulse, shouted to Serezha: “What are you standing, she’s alive, turn your face down and run!”

The husband then returned several times to the House of Culture. He took out my sister Ira, who was covered in blood. It seemed to him that he had endured Yaroslav as well. It was predawn, and it was still quite dark. The boy he handed over to the ambulance was as tall and blond as his nephew. But the guy was in a white shirt - most likely one of the stewards. And Yaroslav went to the musical in a green shirt ...

Nastya and I ended up in the war veterans hospital, which was next to the theater center. When I came to my senses, I immediately asked: “Did anyone die?” The nurse, fearing for my condition, hastened to assure: "Everyone is alive." I was so happy! .. And the next morning we learned that many could not be saved.

Soon the sister's husband called - he said that Yaroslav was in the morgue, and Ira threw herself off the bridge ... Upon learning of the death of her son, she pulled out all the droppers and left the hospital. In the morgue, she asked to be left alone to say goodbye to her son. In the theatrical center, holding Yaroslav by the hand, she promised her son that they would always be together ... Ira went out through the back door, stopped the car. My sister had no money with her - she took the ring off her finger, gave it to the driver and asked to stop the car on the bridge in Kolomenskoye. I would very much like to look into the eyes of this person ... or subhuman. Seeing the condition she was in, he took the ring, dropped his sister off in the middle of the bridge, and calmly left. And Ira threw herself into the water ... But, fortunately, a guy and a girl were sitting next to the shore in a car - they pulled their sister ashore.

How Yaroslav died, we never found out. The wound on his forehead was smeared with wax. In the registration book for admission to the morgue, next to his name was written in pencil: "Gunshot wound." There was an autopsy. But in the column "Cause of death" there was a dash. We have this evidence. I still cannot accept that my nephew is no more, I convince myself that Yaroslav is alive, he just left somewhere. He would have turned 30 this year.

I was saved by the work in which I plunged headlong. My colleagues supported me in every possible way. I remember a student who had served in the army came to college and shared: “I stood in the cordon when the House of Culture on Dubrovka was stormed.” I say: "And I was there inside." He admitted that they thought that all the hostages were dead and loaded them like corpses...

No one explained to us what the consequences might be. My daughter began to be haunted by fears, and they do not go away. I suffered a heart attack, it turned out that there was an inflammatory process in the liver - the doctor said that this was the result of poisoning, but warned that no one would officially confirm this conclusion.

Sister Ira did not recover soon. All subsequent years, she dreamed of having a child. After the terrorist attack, on the bridge, she crashed badly - no one believed that she could get pregnant. But God heard: she had a son and a daughter. Now she has someone to live for ...

We received tickets for the musical "Nord-Ost" as participants in the census - in our Izmailovo district there were 250 such lucky ones, - Sergey Budnitsky says in turn. - I took my daughter Ira and sister-in-law Ksyusha with me to the performance. One girl was 12 years old, the other was 13.

When we were going to the musical, the hot water suddenly turned off - I had to wash off the soap with cold water. Then the light went out. 4-year-old granddaughter suddenly began to cry a lot. Something kept us at home that evening… But we packed up and left.

We got tickets in the first row. The performance was colorful, we liked everything, during the intermission I took the girls to the buffet ... And in the second part, a man in a balaclava came on stage and announced that we were hostages. All the exits were blocked by militants, female shahids went along the ranks ...

Movsar Barayev was at the head of the militants, he looked to be no more than 25 years old. He declared: "We will release you when the hostilities in Ichkeria are stopped and negotiations with Maskhadov begin."

During the special operation, 36 terrorists were killed, including female suicide bombers. Photo: reyndar.org

The terrorists freed small children, foreigners who were of the same faith with them ... They began to check the documents of the rest. I worked as the head of a printing house at a plant of automotive and tractor electrical equipment. On my pass it was written: "ATE-1". The militant considered the certificate for a long time, suggesting that it could be some kind of military facility.

I tried to talk to Baraev, told me that, while in the army, I served in the regiment of Dzhokhar Dudayev in long-range aviation. He asked: "Let go of my girls." He said that 13-year-olds are no longer considered children and often already fight.

The terrorists immediately disliked my daughter. Ira came to the musical in a velvet suit trimmed with feathers. They didn't even let her go to the toilet. One of the female shahids, who called herself Sveta, helped us.

Everyone was shocked by the murder of Olga Romanova. The girl voluntarily came to the House of Culture to turn the tide. Stepping on the militants, she shouted: “What kind of farce are you doing here?! Free the people, get them out of the hall!” The terrorists began to shout: "She's drunk!" Baraev remarked: “She is a KGB agent. We already went through this in Budyonnovsk,” and ordered her to be shot.

On the second day, the militants brought food from the buffet. They began to throw chocolates and juice bags into the hall. We ate one sandwich for three. Soon Dr. Roshal appeared, he began to provide medical assistance to the hostages: he measured the pressure of someone, gave injections, distributed medicines ...

Dr. Roshal brought 3 boxes of medicines to the captured center, provided medical assistance to the hostages, took 8 children aged 8 to 12 out of the captured House of Culture.

In the evening before the assault, Movsar Baraev was very pleased, saying: "Tomorrow at 12 o'clock Shamanov arrives." I thought it was a distraction: I had a premonition that the assault would soon begin.

The back of the stage was lit, and at 6 o'clock in the morning I saw a white swirl coming out of the ventilation above, like smoke. Two militants on the stage began to shoot from two machine guns into the ventilation ...

And I, foreseeing that they might let gas into the hall, hid a small bottle of mineral water. Pushing the sleeping girls aside, he wet his handkerchiefs. He also began to breathe through the wet cloth. Then a stun grenade exploded and I blacked out.

I came to my senses at the Sklifosofsky Institute at three in the afternoon. There is a tube in his nose, droppers in his hands ... He gave his last name and switched off again.

Then I found out that among 23 people I was brought to Sklif by bus. When they had already been pumped out, they transferred to the box, spent the night there with a 74-year-old homeless man. I remember him swearing all night and running around the intensive care unit naked...

The next day I was fed with carrot soup and transferred on the bed to the general ward. There were 6 other people there. I remember conductor Maxim Gubkin and trumpeter Volodya Kostyanov. In the evening everyone was already walking. The doctors were surprised: “We have never had the whole resuscitation walk!” They did everything they could for us. Even at one in the morning they brought kefir at our request.

People died because the evacuation was poorly prepared. Trucks filled with sand stood next to the theater center: everyone was preparing for the explosion, the ambulances could not get close ... Only 58 people were brought to the veterans' hospital, which was located across the street from the House of Culture. There were 23 hostages in Sklifa, and 367 people were taken to the 13th hospital.

By one in the morning, Ksyushka was found, who ended up in the 13th hospital. And then they reported about the daughter, who ended up in the veterans' hospital. After the assault, Alpha fighters came to them, brought cake and champagne. And the hostages started screaming: they thought they were being taken again.

When I went to work after the sick leave, I walked 300 meters along the corridor, probably for almost an hour. Everyone flew out of the offices, hugged, kissed ...

15 years have passed since those events. But I still can't hear when the tape is being torn. On the first day, the militants constantly tore the adhesive tape and strapped explosives to the backs of chairs.

On October 23, 2002, terrorists seized the building of the Moscow Bearing Palace of Culture, where the musical Nord-Ost was playing. 916 people became hostages. As a result of the assault, up to 174 people died three days later, the exact number is still unknown. Some details of the attack and the assault are also unknown.

How many people died. The official version is 130 people. The lawyer of the hostages and their relatives, Karinna Moskalenko, based on the data of the investigation, stated that 174 people were killed. The head of the investigation team Vladimir Kalchuk, in response to claims about the difference in estimates of the death toll, said: “Well, you think so, but I think so, what do you want from me?”

Why did they die. From the actions of terrorists killed only four. In the death certificates of some of the victims of the terrorist attack, a dash in the column “Cause of death. President Vladimir Putin, a year after the attack, said that people died due to "dehydration, chronic diseases, the very fact that they had to stay in that building." Vladimir Vasilyev, at that time the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and deputy chief of the operational headquarters at Nord-Ost, said that the main reason for the death of the hostages was "untimely provision of medical assistance." Experts and relatives of the hostages believe that people died due to poisoning with an unknown gas, which the special forces used during the assault on the Palace of Culture. Vladimir Putin claimed that the gas is harmless.

"The other day" on NTV after the terrorist attack. This episode and the talk show "Freedom of Speech", where the relatives of the victims criticized the actions of the authorities, are believed to have led to a change in the leadership of the channel

What was the gas. The formula of the substance is a state secret. It was a "special formulation based on fentanyl derivatives," the FSB reported and confirmed Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko. According to the doctor of chemical sciences, president of the Union "For Chemical Safety" Lev Fedorov, this information is "about nothing at all": "You can hang a thousand tails on fentanyl - and you get a million different substances." According to Kommersant, the gas was "either hypnotic or nerve agent".

According to Anatoly Yermolin, the former head of the Vympel operational-combat department, a lieutenant colonel of the FSB in the reserve, some of the special forces who inhaled gas during the assault "then had big health problems." “I’m very bad at remembering text, people’s faces. This is not only for me, for almost all the guys with whom we worked, so. Severe headaches never went away,” said actor Marat Abdrakhimov, who was injured in the attack.

Tatyana Karpova, head of the Nord-Ost public organization, told New Times magazine that doctors were not told anything about the substance. One of the doctors saw in people “a condition that occurs with a drug overdose. The doctor tried to use naloxone, which brings people out of a coma in case of drug poisoning. It worked." Then they took a non-disclosure agreement from the doctors who worked with the hostages.

Why was everything so organised. The gas did not put all the terrorists to sleep - those who were still awake could detonate bombs and bury both the hostages and the commandos. The victims of the attack were carried out of the building and laid in piles on the ground. They were transported in a bustle to hospitals on buses: policemen demanded "immediately load [the victims] into bulk and drive off." For a day after the assault there was no information about almost a hundred people, the hospitals did not want to give information about them. Doctors “were preparing to receive patients with mine fragmentation wounds and were not ready to accept people with poisoning by an unknown substance,” said the father of Kristina Kurbatova, who died in the terrorist attack, Vladimir Kurbatov.

According to Kurbatov, these investigations into the attack are classified. The full list of members of the headquarters of the rescue operation is also classified. How well the headquarters planned and carried out the rescue operation was not officially investigated or evaluated by the Russian authorities. The European Court of Human Rights in 2011 considered that the operation was carried out improperly, and collected compensation from Russia in the amount of 1.3 million euros for 64 victims.

fifty eight hours

The nightmare on Melnikov Street in Moscow lasted so long, which kept the whole country in suspense

October 23

21.15. Armed people in camouflage burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, on Melnikova Street (the former Palace of Culture of the State Bearing Plant). At this time, the musical "Nord-Ost" is going on in the Palace of Culture, more than 800 people are in the hall.

The terrorists declare all people hostages and begin to mine the building. In the first minutes, part of the actors and employees of the theater center managed to escape from the building through the windows and emergency exits.

22.00. It becomes known that the theater building was seized by a detachment of Chechen fighters led by Movsar Baraev. According to eyewitnesses, there are 30-40 terrorists, among them there are women, all of them are hung with explosives. According to the first reports, they are demanding an end to the war in Chechnya. Units of the special forces of the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and internal troops continue to arrive at the building of the Palace of Culture.

October 24

00.15 . First attempt to establish contact with terrorists. State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov is walking into the building of the center.

02.20. Terrorists release 17 people without any conditions.

03.00–9.00. The special services are unsuccessfully trying to establish contact with the militants. By this time, FSB officers knew that the hostage-taking was planned on the instructions of Aslan Maskhadov and international terrorist organizations.

9.30. Foreign diplomats come to the building of the Palace of Culture. It is known that among the hostages there are about 60-70 citizens of foreign countries. Negotiations with terrorists break down.

11.30–12.20. The militants demand for negotiations Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada and Grigory Yavlinsky, as well as journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

13.00. State Duma deputy Iosif Kobzon and Red Cross doctors are walking into the center. Half an hour later they take a woman and three children out of the building.

15.00. Iosif Kobzon and Irina Khakamada are again negotiating.

18.30. Terrorists shoot from a grenade launcher at two women who escaped from the recreation center. One commando was wounded. The hostages were not hurt.

19.00. The Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera shows the appeal of the militants of Movsar Barayev, recorded a few days before the capture of the Palace of Culture. The terrorists declare themselves suicide bombers and demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

19.00–00.00. Unsuccessful attempts to persuade the militants to accept food and water for the hostages.

the 25th of October

01.00. Terrorists let Leonid Roshal, head of the emergency surgery and trauma department of the Center for Disaster Medicine, into the building. He brings medicines to the hostages and provides them with first aid.

5.30–6.30. The militants release seven people.

11.30 - 12.30. The militants release eight children, including one girl from Switzerland. After that, the negotiations are terminated.

15.00. In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. Following the meeting, FSB director Nikolai Patrushev said that the authorities were ready to save the lives of the terrorists if they released all the hostages.

20.00–21.00. An attempt to establish contact with the militants is made by the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Primakov, ex-president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, State Duma deputy Aslambek Aslakhanov and singer Alla Pugacheva.

21.50. The terrorists free three women and a man.

October 26

Three explosions and several automatic bursts are heard near the building of the Palace of Culture. After that, the shooting stops. The special forces begin to regroup forces around the Theater Center. Journalists are pushed out of the line of sight, but there is no official confirmation of the start of the assault.

5.45. Representatives of the headquarters report that in the past two hours the terrorists have killed two and wounded two more hostages.

6.20. Several more powerful explosions are heard, and shooting resumes. Two hostages run out of the DC building. Representatives of the headquarters report that six more managed to escape earlier.

6.30. The official representative of the FSB, Sergei Ignatchenko, reports that the Theater Center is under the control of special services, Movsar Baraev and most of the terrorists have been destroyed. Nothing is reported about the victims among the hostages.

6.30 - 6.45. On command, dozens of emergency vehicles and ambulances, as well as buses, drive up to the building of the Palace of Culture.

6.45 - 7.00. Rescuers and doctors begin to take the hostages out of the building, they are transported to hospitals.

7.25. Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially declares that the operation to free the hostages has been completed, most of the explosive devices in the building of the recreation center have been neutralized. He reports that the special services are looking for some of the terrorists who managed to escape.