The truth about the earthquake in Armenia. Tears of Armenia
On December 7, 1988, at 11:41 local time, an earthquake occurred in Spitak with a magnitude of 11.2 on the Richter scale. Spitak was destroyed in 30 seconds and during this time 25 thousand people died.
The lot of troubles, suffering and unsupported disgusting attitude fell to the lot of the Armenian people. The well-known killer over 1.5 million innocent people, persecutions, massacres, earthquakes, wars and conflicts on religious and territorial grounds (Nagorno-Karabakh) - all this the people of Armenia and nearby villages endured with dignity and with their heads held high. The number of victims and deaths is difficult to calculate, and the pain for one's people and for one's ancestors, which is born and dies with every Armenian, is unimaginable.
Undoubtedly, in the history of every nation there have been and are turning points and injustice, but not in such a seemingly short period of time. Many Armenians who survived Armenian Genocide And earthquake in Spitak, in prayers to God they asked why their people were so objectionable to him, for which he sent such tests.
Spitak was a city of Armenia and was located 100 kilometers from Yerevan. Translated from Armenian, "spitak" means white, light. During its existence, it changed its name several times, and the last one was received in 1960.
It should be noted that Spitak earthquake also has the name Leninakan earthquake, because not only Spitak, but also such cities of Armenia as Leninakan, Stepanavan, Kirovakan and about 400 villages, villages and towns. According to some reports, as a result of this disaster more than 40% of Armenia was destroyed. The main blow fell on Spitak.
Many who are interested and not indifferent are still wondering what this catastrophe is connected with and why such grief again overtook the Armenian people. Let's try to figure it out.
In 1899 and 1940, Armenia was already overtaken by such sudden earthquakes, but it was more or less calm. Everyone knows the fact that at the site of earthquakes fractures are formed in the earth's crust, which in consequence can provoke new shocks and, at the same time, new disasters. Depending on the location and terrain, only the magnitude of the disasters and their scale will change. Given the location of Armenia, namely the location on the Armenian Highlands, and a certain pattern of past earthquakes, the Spitak earthquake was quite predictable and expected. After the last earthquake recorded by seismologists in 1940, the 37 km fault and just in the place where December 7, 1988 at 11:41 am according to local time, the most terrible and destructive earthquake in the entire history of Armenia occurred.
It can be said that the Armenian people are somehow accustomed to tremors and earthquakes. In different years and with different magnitudes, earthquakes took place in such cities as Yerevan, Leninakan, Garni, Zangezur and, directly, Spitak. The latter was the most tangible, destructive and led to irreversible consequences.
It should be noted that at that time in Armenia, as in many states, the issues of urban planning, the nuances of the soil and the permitted buildings on a particular site were rather negligent. There was no record of faults and the conclusion of seismological services for permits. Houses, churches, schools, hospitals, kindergartens and various city buildings were erected where it was convenient, acceptable and, often, the issue of operational safety in the future could not even be considered. According to many experts and witnesses of the earthquake in Spitak, it was noted that the city was doomed and even shocks, weaker than what happened, would have destroyed the city and destroyed many of its buildings.
According to the recorded data of seismologists, at 11:41 a.m. there was a powerful and destructive shock of magnitude 11.2 points on the Richter scale (maximum value 12). Tremors and an earthquake wave circled the entire globe and were felt in Asia, America and Australia. Spitak was destroyed in 30 seconds. The whole city with its infrastructure, many buildings, local residents was simply buried under countless tons of construction debris. This construction debris, a couple of minutes ago, was quite a developed and rather big city. Of course, thinking about it, it becomes scary.
Until now, scientists and experts shrug their shoulders when they learn about the following fact. Aftershocks were recorded a couple of days before the devastating event. Local authorities did not betray any significance to this, because given the location of the city, such an event was not uncommon. But the shocks were very tangible and should have warned of the terrible. But either because of a lack of information, or relying on "just maybe", or maybe even then knowing that they could not help or interfere in any way, the local authorities, together with the population of the city, preferred to forget about it. But nature itself reminded of itself and subsequently hinted at human helplessness before the elements. Here is what a local resident writes on one of the forums, who miraculously survived the elements: “The first tremors my family and I probably felt on December 5th. All the dishes in the cupboard fell and broke. Dad was very wary then, and despite our mockery of him, he sent us, the children, and his wife to relatives in Tbilisi. We never saw dad again."
After the push that destroyed from above 25 thousand people left homeless and in a situation of complete helplessness more 500 thousand people the city plunged into thousands of groans and into pitch darkness. This darkness was artificial - the bitterness of loss, fear and pain created this state.
Immediately learning about what happened, thousands of Armenians, whose relatives lived not only in Spitak, but also in nearby cities, left everything and tried to fly away to help their loved ones. At the airports of the cities there was some kind of ringing silence, once again hinting at something terrible. Arayik, retired soldier: “My brother and his family lived in Spitak. The news of this event caught up with me at work. Then I don’t remember anything: how I left work, how I even bought a ticket and got to the city. I remember when I arrived in the city. More precisely, of course, not the city, but what was left of it. Terrible, I still can not hold back tears, remembering this. I found my brother already in one of the Moscow hospitals. He was taken there by helicopter or plane, I do not remember. When they called me and said that my brother was alive, I didn’t even specify what condition he was in, the main thing was that he was alive.”
It should be noted that by coincidence, the winter of 1988 in Armenia was the coldest. And even those who managed to survive during the earthquake could be killed by weather, cold and the inability to hide from the terribly low temperature, which reached 35 degrees below 0. 17 thousand were provided with all possible medical assistance. Feasible because the elements did not spare the doctors, medical staff, did not leave medical institutions intact and intact.
Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, who was on a government visit to the United States at that time, interrupted his trip and immediately flew to the ruined city. Following, Minister of Health Chazov arrived in Armenia.
After a day, it became clear that the local authorities were unable to cope with the catastrophe that had befallen them. Both high-ranking officials, Gorbachev and Chazov, assessed the situation as extremely critical and requested humanitarian aid, helicopters and planes to transport the wounded. Also, M.S. Gorbachev issued an order to settle those in need of asylum and hotels in Moscow. Due to the inability to provide first aid to the survivors of the earthquake, the condition of the people worsened and became critical.
In many cities not only in the USSR, but also in Europe, humanitarian supplies were collected, almost continuously delivered to the epicenter of the tragedy. Upon learning of the tragedy, ordinary people in the cities began to collect humanitarian aid. Parcels were collected in schools, higher educational institutions, hospitals, bureaus. There was no need to ask people for help, mutual assistance, solidarity and sympathy did their job. Many housewives came to the aid collection points and asked to enter the addresses of their houses, offering the victims and those who lost their homes to move in with them.
Charitable organizations and foundations have also been established. Among them are "Aznavour for Armenia", founded by a French chansonnier of Armenian origin,
The whole world rallied to help Armenia. Countries such as Belgium, Norway, France, Germany, Italy were the first to respond and offer their assistance. High-ranking officials were faced with the task of restoring the city in a short time, with which they coped. Spitak was restored in a place near the previous location of the city. At present, the population of the city is more than 30 thousand people.
Soon the drama "Earthquake", which was filmed by filmmakers from Russia and Armenia, will be released on the screens. The film is based on real events and tells about the tragedy that shocked the whole world. The event is tragic, but it must be remembered, because then it rallied many peoples. What can not be said about the modern world.
On December 7, 1988, a catastrophic earthquake occurred in Armenia. A series of tremors in just 30 seconds wiped out the city of Spitak and destroyed another 300 settlements. 25,000 people died, 140,000 became disabled, and half a million lost their homes.
The creators of the picture managed to recreate one of the last moments in the history of the USSR, when all the Soviet peoples - Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Kazakhs, Belarusians - united to help bloodless Armenia. People collected help, carried what they could: money, clothes, food and medicine. And someone, without hesitation, went to the destroyed cities in order to save someone's life.
And it seemed that the world was not indifferent to that terrible tragedy: help came from all over the Earth - from the USA and France, Germany and Latin America, Switzerland and Great Britain.
Therefore, the very appearance of this film on the big screens has become a significant event for the whole world. And it is no coincidence that the picture "Earthquake" was nominated for the Oscar film award in the nomination "Best Foreign Language Film". Moreover, despite the fact that the film was shot together with Russian filmmakers, it will represent Armenia at the film awards. Because for Russia this picture is a tribute to the memory and respect of the Armenian people.
December 7, 1988, 11:41 am
The morning of that fateful day did not seem to portend anything terrible. Residents of Leninakan went to work in the morning, others were in a hurry to do household chores. The city market opened. The students were already at their desks. The city woke up slowly, when suddenly the cities and villages shuddered from powerful tremors, which literally threw houses into the air. People who were on the street during the earthquake could not stand on their feet: the earth seemed to be trying to throw them off its surface.
Roads and squares resembled the sea during a dead swell. Later, seismologists found out that the strength of the tremors in the epicenter of the earthquake, the city of Spitak, reached 10 points out of 12 possible on the Richter scale. And in neighboring Leninakan, 9-point earth movements were recorded. More than half of the territory of the republic was shaking, and tremors were felt even in Yerevan and Georgian Tbilisi.
Surprisingly, few people immediately realized that this was an earthquake. Many thought that the war had begun and the city was being bombed. Indeed, since the beginning of the 20th century, Armenia has had a territorial dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh with neighboring Azerbaijan.
But the worst of all had to those who at that time were in their homes. Literally, an entire quarter of new high-rise buildings has formed like an accordion. At the same time, private houses and even Khrushchevs mostly survived. The houses turned into crypts, burying both the living and the dead under their rubble. As experts later found out, the energy that was released in the region of the rupture of the earth's crust during the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 was comparable to the explosion of 10 atomic bombs dropped on Hirashima by the Americans in 1945. Moreover, the underground wave went around the Earth and was registered by scientific laboratories in Asia, Europe, Australia and even North America.
That day, about 5,000 children died in Spitak… A whole generation. All telephones fell silent at once, radio communication was cut off, the image on the TV screens went out, there was dead silence. The city was numb with terror. Few knew what to do. Just 30 seconds of hell and the tremors stopped. The roar of collapsing buildings was replaced by an ominous silence. Leninakan was covered by a thick cloud of dust, or rather what was left of it.
The tremors in Leninakan lasted only 30 seconds, and ended as suddenly as they began. After that, deathly silence reigned. But it didn't last long. Very quickly, the city streets were filled with screams and groans. People rushed to look for relatives, asking those they met about their children, old people, husbands and wives. And they stumbled upon the ruins on the site where the native house used to stand, or heaps of bricks instead of the school where the children were sent in the morning.
Those who managed to survive and had a chance to see the terrible tragedy with their own eyes, talk about a courageous boy from the village of Nalban, where the earthquake fracture passed right on the surface of the earth, swallowing the village. The 14-year-old boy found the strength to dig up the bodies of 11 members of his extended family and bury them all. And only then, on fresh graves, he allowed himself to sit down and mourn the dead.
December 7, 1988, 12:40 pm
It was hard to believe that just an hour ago, measured life was going on in the Armenian cities and villages. On that day, the elements destroyed several hundred schools and kindergartens, more than 400 clinics and hospitals, 230 industrial enterprises, 600 kilometers of roads and 10 kilometers of railways. Just think about it, the catastrophic earthquake disabled about 40 percent of Armenia's industrial potential. But the worst thing is that thousands of people were buried under the rubble, many were alive, while they were alive, and were waiting for help. Ruben Dishdishyan, the producer of the film, is one of those who went to the cities destroyed by the earthquake in 1988, so this tragedy became personal for him.
Emma Hakobyan, a resident of Leninakan, found herself under the rubble, and even with her daughter, who was barely 3 months old. It is difficult to even imagine what the condition of this woman was. Around pitch darkness, almost complete silence, and next to the most expensive and absolutely defenseless person. Together with her little daughter, in the stuffy darkness of a stone bag, Emma lay for 7 days before they were found by rescuers. When the milk ran out and there was nothing to feed the baby, Emma cut her finger and fed the baby with her own blood.
People in the rubble were waiting for immediate help, but rescuers did not arrive immediately. The roads near Spitak and Leninakan were destroyed, airfields were de-energized. People lived on the streets, afraid to return to their homes. There was not enough drinking water, food, warm clothes. At the same time, it seemed that aftershocks were about to repeat.
The earthquake in Armenia united people of various nationalities, religions and classes: from ordinary workers to party functionaries. The general grief and even the emotions of Soviet politicians were the most sincere, not ostentatious.
Two days after the disaster on December 9, 1988, planes began arriving at the airports of Yerevan and Leninakan with a cargo of medicines, donated blood, medical equipment, clothes and food not only from the Soviet Union, but also from Italy, Japan, China and other countries. Humanitarian assistance was provided by 111 states from all continents. Moreover, tens of thousands of volunteers did not stand aside. 45 thousand builders from all Union republics came to the restoration work
The city retold the story of a professional rescuer from France, whose heart could not stand the terrible pictures of people under the rubble. The soldiers who participated in the rescue operations refused food day after day. The kitchens were smoking, but a piece did not climb into the throat.
It may seem incredible, but at the hour of the national tragedy, the Armenian leadership decided to take an unprecedented step. Relatives of the victims and the dead were released from colonies and prisons.
It is amazing how the world has changed in just 30 years, and the once responsive Europe is especially striking. When a catastrophic earthquake struck Italy this summer, killing 278 people, the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo reacted to the terrible tragedy with such a mocking cartoon. The picture shows two people covered in blood, who stand against the background of people under the rubble, depicted in the form of ... lasagna. The mocking drawing is complemented by the inscription: "Pene with tomato sauce, foam with a crust and lasagna."
It is impossible even to imagine that then, in 1988, someone could do something heinous.
Unlike enlightened Europe, after 28 years in Armenia and Russia, the bright memory of those tragic events is kept to this day. Today, several monuments have been erected to the courageous rescuers and victims of the earthquake in Armenia in modern Gyumri. The most famous of them was opened on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy. It is called “Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts” and depicts a heap of concrete blocks and people: here is a Soviet army soldier helping a child out of the rubble, and a French volunteer with a search dog. It is symbolic that a monument was erected opposite the restored temple of the All-Saviour.
Then, during the 1988 earthquake, the elements destroyed it almost to the ground, leaving only a couple of walls. For a long time, few believed that the temple would be able to be revived. The most amazing thing is that the fragments of the church that survived the earthquake returned to their places again. Except for the huge dome that collapsed from the tower, which today is kept in the courtyard of the main church of modern Gyumri. This stone block was specially left here as a reminder of a terrible tragedy. And in its place, the builders erected a new dome and installed a new cross, as a symbol of the Christian faith, eternal life and unbending human stamina!
On December 1, 2016, the premiere of a new film based on real events took place in Russia. The 1988 earthquake in Armenia lasted only 30 seconds, but caused severe damage to almost the entire country. In the epicenter - Spitak - its power reached 10 points on the Richter scale.
"Ten Hiroshima"
arm worldSpecialists involved in the investigation of the disaster found out that during the Spitak earthquake in 1988, energy equal to the explosion of 10 (!) atomic bombs at the same time was released in the region of the rupture of the earth's crust. Echoes of the elements spread all over the planet: scientists registered a wave in the laboratories of Asia, Europe, America and even Australia.
In just half a minute, the prosperous republic of the USSR turned into ruins - 40% of the country's industrial potential was destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people were left without a roof over their heads.
How it was
At home they won't understand The stories of eyewitnesses of the 1988 earthquake in Armenia cannot be heard without shudder. It all happened on Monday, the first day of the week. The first shock occurred on December 7 at 11:41. Survivors of the terrible disaster say that in the first moment, from the strongest movement, high-rise buildings literally jumped into the air, and then folded like a house of cards, burying everyone who was inside under their rubble.
TVNZ Those who were caught outdoors by the quake were a little more fortunate, but it was almost impossible to stand. People in a panic fled to the nearest squares and squares in the hope not to fall under the rubble.
After a long 30 seconds, the roar was replaced by deafening silence, and a huge cloud of dust hung over the ruins. But the worst has just begun...
Waiting for help
TVNZ Although most often the government of the USSR was silent about the disasters, in 1988 the earthquake in Armenia was discussed in all the news. Rumors spread quickly - and this is not surprising, because at one moment half of the republic was destroyed.
Cell phones and the Internet did not exist. The victims tried to recover. Someone hurried home to save loved ones, but it was almost impossible to get the survivors out of the rubble without professional rescuers.
Routes Unfortunately, help did not come immediately. Everything had to be prepared. In addition, the infrastructure was almost destroyed. And when the earthquake was reported on television, thousands of those who wanted to help rushed to Armenia. Many rescuers simply could not get there, as all the roads were clogged.
Those who, during the earthquake of 1988, found themselves under the rubble of their own houses suffered the worst. The whole world knows the story of Emma Hakobyan and her daughter Mariam. The woman miraculously survived. Under the rubble of the building, she spent 7 whole days with the baby. At first she breastfed the child, and when the milk ran out, she pierced her finger and gave her own blood. It took the rescuers 6 hours to rescue Emma and Mariam. However, most of the stories ended much more tragically - most people did not wait for help.
rescue work
DeFacto Parts of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the Border Troops of the KGB were sent to the scene of the incident. In Moscow, a team of 98 doctors of the highest qualification and field surgeons was urgently formed and sent by air. The Minister of Health himself, Yevgeny Chazov, took part in the operation.
Having learned about the earthquake in Armenia, he interrupted his official visit to the United States and flew to the place of the tragedy in order to personally supervise the rescue work.
Tent camps and field kitchens were built throughout the republic, where the victims could find warmth and food.
Vesti.RU Rescuers had to work in conditions of terrible cold and human panic. In these terrible days, people were ready to fight for cranes in order to lift heavy slabs and save their relatives. Mountains of bodies accumulated near the ruins of high-rise buildings, the smell of decay was felt.
More than 100 countries from all over the world sent humanitarian aid to Armenia. To revive the infrastructure, more than 45 thousand builders were called up from all over the USSR. True, after the collapse of the Union, work stopped.
One sorrow for all
BlogNews.am In those difficult weeks, almost every inhabitant of the country considered it his duty to somehow help Armenia. Without any orders from above, students lined up to donate blood. People emptied their pantries and basements to give the victims of the 1988 earthquake canned food, cereals and other products stored up for a “rainy day.” And this despite the fact that the store shelves were empty.
Scale of the catastrophe
Routes Spitak - the city that became the epicenter of the terrible earthquake of 1988 - was almost instantly destroyed, along with 350 thousand inhabitants. Enormous destruction befell Leninakan (now Gyumri - Ed.), Kirovakan and Stepanavan. In total, 21 cities and 350 villages were affected by the disaster. According to official figures alone, the disaster claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people.
“Blank Spots” in the History of the 1988 Earthquake
Arhar For modern scientists, the main question remains - why were there so many victims during the earthquake in Armenia on December 7, 1988? After all, a year later, an earthquake occurred in California, almost identical in strength, but 65 people died in the United States - the difference is huge.
The main reason is considered to be that the seismic hazard of the region as a whole was underestimated during construction and design. Many years of violation of building codes and savings on materials and technologies only “added fuel” to the fire.
However, there are still adherents of alternative versions - for example, some argue that the 1988 earthquake did not occur naturally, but as a result of a secret underground testing of hydrogen bombs by the authorities. How it actually happened is anyone's guess. One can only offer sincere condolences to those whose parents and loved ones were killed by one of the largest disasters of the 20th century.
On December 7, 1988, something happened that shocked the whole world: the monstrous murder of 350 thousand people - representatives of the civilian population of the north of Armenia, as a result of testing four types of geophysical bombs that caused an artificial earthquake, which the Soviet leaders tried to classify and pass off as a natural earthquake.
In the summer of 1988, Defense Minister Dmitry Yazov appeared in Armenia, accompanied by a group of generals, officers, technical military officials. On the Sevan road, several tightly covered trucks entered Yerevan at a slow pace, which proceeded non-stop to the north of Armenia (the locals remembered that the military escorting the mysterious cargo had “bomb” stripes on their sleeves).
In August 1988, rocket launchers, tanks, self-propelled guns were hastily removed from the firing ranges in the regions of Spitak and Kirovakan. The vast majority of command personnel received leave and left Armenia with their families.
In September 1988, Boris Shcherbina, Deputy Presovminister of the USSR, appeared in Armenia, who dealt with the issues of testing nuclear weapons, military construction and the planting of scientific and technical devices in the explosion zone.
In October 1988, Dmitry Yazov reappeared in Armenia with a group of military specialists, senior officers of the General Staff of the USSR Ministry of Defense.
At the end of October 1988, Yazov and his retinue left Yerevan for the north of Armenia, where he personally inspected the redeployment of military equipment, the dismantling of stationary missiles and mobile missile launchers outside of Armenia.
In early November 1988, rumors spread around Yerevan that "A terrible test awaits Armenia." word "trial" not a direct, but a figurative meaning was attached: no one, of course, had any idea about the tests of geophysical weapons.
From the summer to the end of November 1988, in an urgent but organized manner, under the leadership of the military and representatives of the KGB of the USSR and Armenia, all Azerbaijani villages were resettled to Azerbaijan and Georgia, starting from Kapan in the south, to Stepanavan, Kalinino and Ghukasyan - in the north .
In November 1988, the wife of a Russian general, who was resting in the Arzni sanatorium, reported confidentially (in the ear!) To the wife of Academician S.T. Yeremyan - Ruzan Yeremyan about what awaits Armenia in early December
"terrible disaster" and advised her to leave Armenia.
In mid-November 1988, pianist Svetlana Navasardyan received a call from her friend from Leningrad who advised all Leninakans to urgently leave the city of Leninakan.
At the end of November 1988, a telephone operator in the city of Hrazdan overheard a conversation with Moscow of a Russian general, where he told his wife literally the following: “I'm delayed! I'll come after the test."
In late November - early December 1988, dozens of cases were noted in Leninakan when the military, while remaining in the city themselves, sent their wives and children from Armenia to Russia without explanation.
On December 4, 5 and 6, 1988, powerful explosions thundered in the Spitak-Kirovakan region, causing an earthquake with a force of 3-4 points.
The earth trembled, glass rattled; fleeing snakes and all living creatures appeared in the mountains - rats, moles. Residents said: “What are those damned soldiers doing to us? If it goes on like this, they will destroy our houses!”
On December 7, 1988, at 10:30 am, Turkish workers working on the right bank of the Arpa River near Leninakan left their jobs and hastily retreated deep into their territory.
At 11:00 a.m., a soldier came out of the gate from the territory of the landfill located not far from Spitak and said to the peasants who were working in the field picking cabbage: “Quickly leave! Now the tests will begin!
At 11:41 a.m., in the area of the city of Spitak and the village of Nalband, two powerful explosions were heard with an interval of 10-15 seconds: after the first explosion, the earth set in a horizontal direction, a column of fire, smoke and burning erupted from the ground to a height of over 100 meters.
One peasant from the village of Nalband was thrown up to the level of the power transmission line. At the top of Spitak, near a grocery store, a Zhiguli car was thrown to the side of the fence at a distance of 3-4 meters. Before the passengers had time to get out of the car, the second terrible explosion thundered, accompanied by an underground rumble. This is the energy of the bowels released! The city of Spitak went underground in front of the passengers of the car.
In Leninakan, 75 percent of the buildings were destroyed. High-rise buildings after the first impact turned around their axis and after the second impact, having settled, went underground to the level of 2-3 floors.
After testing geophysical weapons, the cities of Leninakan and Spitak were cordoned off by troops. Under Nalband, which was completely destroyed, the military cordoned off ... a wasteland where the ground sank 3-4 meters. It was forbidden not only to approach, but also to photograph this area.
Special military brigades that arrived in Leninakan were given the task of cleaning up the hostel for the military. They refused to rescue the civilian population from the ruins, referring to the fact that: "There was no such order."
They were soldiers of the Tomsk Airborne Division, airlifted to Yerevan in the summer of 1988, where Armenian girls greeted them with flowers.
In the absence of any rescue equipment, the surviving population of Leninakan and relatives who broke into the city raked the ruins of houses with their hands, from where the groans of the wounded and calls for help were heard in the bitter cold.
In an instant, in peaceful conditions, half a million city died in which, in addition to the townspeople, refugees from the Azerbaijan SSR lived in almost every house.
An angry crowd greeted Mikhail Gorbachev, who arrived in Lininakan on December 12, 1988, with angry exclamations: "Get out, killer!" After that, people who loudly expressed their indignation were arrested. They arrested those who, starting from December 7, raked the ruins of houses day and night, saving their compatriots and removing the bodies of the dead!
December 10, 1988 Seismologists from Japan, France and the USA came to Leninakan. But they were never allowed to participate in research, forbidding them to carry out dosimetering of the territory as well. As a result, Japanese and French seismologists and geophysicists refused to sign an act in which the incident was called"natural earthquake".
On December 15, 1988, a military plane crashed while landing in Baku, en route from Leninakan with military geophysicists on board. 20 specialists were killed along with the pilots. Data on the circumstances and causes of the death of the aircraft are still classified.
On December 9, 1988, the seismogram of the "earthquake" was shown on Yerevan television by Boris Karpovich Karapetyan, an employee of the Institute. And already on December 10, 1988 seismogram mysteriously disappeared from the director's safe of the Institute.
After December 7, 1988, the Armenians call Northern Armenia the "Disaster Zone". Today there are already few frank slow-witted people who consider what happened - "natural earthquake".
Until now (after 20 years!), the once green slopes of the mountains, as a result of an atomic explosion of an underground (vacuum) nature, have not restored their forest cover.
When Shevardnadze was asked by New York newspaper correspondents on December 8, 1988 how he could comment on "earthquake" in Armenia, followed by a stunning truthful answer: “We did not expect the consequences of the earthquake to be so catastrophic”. A logical question arises - if the "earthquake" was natural, then how could the Kremlin leadership "expect" it?!
But geophysical tests on the territory of Armenia, the Kremlin certainly could have planned and deceived in predicting the degree of catastrophic results.
The geophysicists who made the calculations of the tests, the only ones who could certainly shed light on the terrible catastrophe, died under unclear circumstances, in the same plane landing in Baku.
In February 1988, during a visit to Japan by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, to the question: "Does the Soviet Union have geophysical bombs?", Georgy Shevardnadze replied: "Yes, we now have four types of geophysical bombs." It was these four types of bombs that were tested on December 4, 5, 6, 7, 1988 in Armenia!
On December 29, 1991, the same geophysical ("tectonic") weapon was used in Georgia. Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia said in an interview with CBS correspondent Jeannette Matthews that "does not rule out the possibility of causing an earthquake in Georgia by the Soviet Army."
In December 1996, Bagrat Gevorkyan published an article under the heading “Investigation” in the newspaper “Yusisapail” (“Northern Lights”) under the heading: « On December 7, 1988, geophysical weapons were used against Armenia» . The preamble to the article says: “Geophysical (tectonic) weapons are the latest type of weapons that cause artificial earthquakes. The principle of operation is based on the precise direction of acoustic and gravitational waves of an underground nuclear explosion.
... And, after 26 years, I see the same terrible picture - an old man with a bloody face and crazy eyes is standing on the ruins of his own house. Holding the body of his dead grandson close to him, he shouts at the top of his voice: "Oh my God! Why?! No no no! Lord, no! It's not an earthquake!"
This terrible earthquake began on December 7, 1988 at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. The seismic stations of Armenia and other nearby countries recorded several earthquakes of destructive force. Without having time to realize what was happening, the Armenian capital lost telephone connection with Spitak, Leninakan and other cities and towns of the republic. In an instant, almost the entire northern part of Armenia fell silent - 40% of the entire country with a million people.
But 7 minutes after the earthquake, a military radio station suddenly appeared on the air, thanks to which junior sergeant Alexander Ksenofontov said in plain text that the population of Leninakan urgently needed medical assistance, since the city had undergone very great destruction, as a result of which there were too many wounded and dead. It sounded like a terrible SOS signal!
As during the Chernobyl disaster, the authorities remained silent for a long time. They, as always, pretended to try to comprehend what was happening and take the right measures, and, realizing the scale of the disaster, did not want to realize their helplessness. And the trouble at that time did not wait for their comprehension: at this time it was necessary to provide assistance to the victims as quickly as possible, to dismantle the rubble and save barely alive people.
In addition, it was winter outside, and thousands of people were left without shelter, clothing, water and food. And just imagine that only in the late afternoon the radio announced with a meager message that an earthquake had occurred in Armenia in the morning. Why scarce? Because it did not say a word about the scale of the disaster, nor about the approximate number of dead and wounded.
But still, it should be recognized that the plane, along with surgeons and medicines on board, took off on the same day from Vnukovo airport. Having transferred to the helicopter in Yerevan, the brigade was in Leninakan by the evening. The arrivals were able to fully appreciate and understand the scale of the disaster only in the morning, when the first rays of the sun ran over the ruins and the bodies of the dead. Everything was plowed up, broken, as if someone with his huge hand was trying to mix the city with the earth. Leninakan was no more - instead of it - ruins and corpses.
Nearby towns and small towns were also affected by the earthquake. Everywhere one could see only heaps of rubble and walls with empty eye sockets of windows. And only the day after the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 destroyed part of the country, helicopters and planes began to arrive with essentials. The wounded were taken from Leninakan and sent to Yerevan hospitals.
A lot of people came to the aid of Armenia. About 50 thousand builders and several dozen doctors arrived. In that terrible month, the media did not give data on the number of victims in Armenia. And only 3 months later, the Council of Ministers provided journalists with official statistics, which stated that the earthquake that occurred in Armenia in 1988 destroyed 21 cities, 350 villages, among which 58 were completely destroyed and became uninhabitable. More than 250 thousand people were killed and the same number were wounded. More than 17% of the entire housing stock of the country was destroyed: 280 schools, 250 hospitals, several hundred preschool institutions and 200 enterprises were found to be unusable. In the end, 500,000 people were left homeless.
It should be said that she did not remain aloof from the tragedy, and which was famous throughout the world for its charity. She periodically brought clothes and medicines necessary to save people who fell into this terrible misfortune.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union negatively affected the fraternal restoration of Armenia, as a result of which the construction gradually began to subside. As a result, the once flourishing region of Armenia turned into a desert zone: hundreds of thousands of inhabitants left those places, leaving ruins and bitter memories in their native “homes”.
The earthquake in Armenia reminded of itself, with its ruins, for another ten years, and even now the country has not fully recovered from the consequences of the tragedy. After all, until now, about 18 thousand people still live in wooden temporary huts, having completely lost faith that the government has not forgotten about them.
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