How do people who survived the “Nord-Ost” live: relatives of the victims take care of the lamps

20 years ago, on October 23, 2002, militants led by Movsar Barayev in the Theater Center on Dubrovka captured and held 916 hostages for 3 days. These were workers, spectators and the cast of the musical “Nord-Ost”. On October 26, an operation was carried out to free the hostages. To neutralize the terrorists, who had weapons and explosive devices, sleeping gas was launched into the hall. According to official figures, 130 people died. The chairman of the regional public organization Nord-Ost, Dmitry Milovidov, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Nina in the terrorist attack, told MK about how people who survived the attack and the relatives of the victims live.

“20 years have passed, but from time to time I have to dive into all this again, a lot of problems remain,” says Dmitry Milovidov. “Our main requirement is to complete the medical rehabilitation of the victims. Immediately after the tragedy, it was expected that antitoxicological measures would be taken, some kind of specialized treatment. People received ordinary vouchers to sanatoriums, they thought that a liver cleansing would be carried out, but they were not offered this. When the victims discharged after the terrorist attack began to return to hospitals again, a consultation room was opened at the city hospital No. But people were offered to do routine tests, and in order to get a computed tomography or MRI, they had to go to a paid clinic.

Dmitry Eduardovich tells how the victims called the psychological help “hot line” and heard: “The gas has dissipated, everything will be fine with you.” And the same social services offered buckwheat to the victims, while people needed specialized medical care.

The main cause of death for most of the hostages who survived the fentanyl-based gas attack was called “exacerbation of chronic diseases.”

Six months after the tragedy, on April 26, 2002, Dmitry Eduardovich installed a wooden cross in front of the Theater Center. The relatives of the victims wanted a chapel to be erected on this site later.

– After the repair of the Palace of Culture, there was money left, which they decided to give for the installation of a monument to the victims of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka. He immediately “heavier” from 3 million to 8. And moved to the place of our wooden cross. Although it would be logical to erect a monument on the square, and the chapel – where the cross stood, near the road. We wanted the names of the dead to be on the monument. They sent relevant requests to various authorities, and received answers saying that this place is not a burial place, it is a cultural and memorial object, so installing a plaque with the names of the dead is considered inappropriate.

The monument with three bronze cranes, which was erected in 2003, is not considered by the relatives of the dead and the injured. They say: “He is impersonal, there is only one inscription: “In memory of the victims of terrorism.” Not a word about the events at Nord-Ost.”

– In March 2003, we united in a public organization. They found each other, leaving notes on the graves. A year later, the authorities nevertheless installed a memorial plaque with the names of those who died at Dubrovka on the building of the Theater Center. She was hidden at the corner of the building. The list of the dead appeared on it only once, when at night the first person of the state arrived at the seven-meter stele. There were TV cameras, there were flowers, and this list was on a piece of cardboard. In the morning he was gone. He is not there yet.

But it is important, according to Dmitry Milovidov, to emphasize the civil position of individuals.

– At the concert of Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Igor Krutoy in the Kremlin Palace, after the great words of the poet of Ancient Rome Virgil about the futility of evil in the background, they put on the screen a list of the dead on Dubrovka.

The Church of Methodius and Cyril on Dubrovka in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in the Theater Center was founded in April 2011.

– These were years of long correspondence, visits to the patriarchate. We were told: “Well, you find a sponsor.” One provocative statement helped. Once, at the traditional Christmas hearings, one caring person on the sidelines asked: “Are you not afraid that another denomination will build a temple here?” The walls, as they say, have ears. And soon a stone was laid in the foundation of the temple on Dubrovka.

The next step, according to Dmitry Milovidov, was the work on the Book of Memory.

– We collected materials for it for a long time, hard. Relatives, relatives, friends and colleagues shared stories about the dead. And then the question arose, who will publish it? And then a caring person, Lyudmila Ivanovna Shvetsova, joined in. She has been with us all these years, doing everything she could for us. In 2011, with the support of the Moscow government, the Book of Memory was published with a circulation of 3,000 copies.

As Svetlana Gubareva, who lost her daughter Alexandra and fiancé Sandy Alan Booker in the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, told us, the Book of Memory was handed out on the square in front of the Theater Center on the anniversary of the tragic events for free. This was the common position of the relatives of the victims. And then they began to sell it on the Internet. Svetlana Gubareva, who lives in Kazakhstan, in Karaganda, sent us a link. The book of memory in Moscow is now offered to buy for 300-350 rubles, in Barnaul – for a thousand.

According to Dmitry Milovidov, their public organization is now deprived of a legal entity.

“Maybe it’s for the best, it’s easier to work that way. There was an informal group of like-minded people. We maintain contact with people. Over the years, many relatives of the dead have gone to another world after their children. 69 children who were orphaned in 2002 have already grown up, but all, as one, categorically refuse to communicate with the press.

This year, commemorative events dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the tragic events in the Theater Center on Dubrovka will be held on October 26 from 10.00 to 12.00. The address is the same: Melnikova street, house 7. A requiem will sound – a dedication to “Nord-Ost”. 130 white balloons will be launched into the sky. There will be a requiem concert and a church memorial service.

– On October 23, when the Theater Center was seized, it was not our day, then all our relatives were still alive, there was hope. We are going on October 26, when the assault took place. Unlike the events in Beslan, no one pays for our relatives of the dead and former hostages to come to Moscow. But in 2002, coffins were transported to 35 cities, and the hostages dispersed to 42 cities. It is not easy for people to come to Moscow from the same Lesosibirsk or Snezhinsk. On one of the anniversaries, they bought lamps for us, which we take away every time, we save, because there is no other help.

Dmitry Milovidov says that a whole generation has already grown up that knows nothing about the terrorist attack at the Theater Center on Dubrovka in 2002.

– On one of the anniversaries, when we were cleaning up after the mourning events, shooting posters with photographs of the dead, a guy came up to me and asked: “Who are these people?” When I began to talk about the dead, he was quite surprised that he was standing on the steps of the same hall where the tragic events unfolded in 2002.