It happens like this: I am sure that some events have long been forgotten, and suddenly you suddenly begin to remember.
Although 20 years have passed. After the earthquake in the Armenian city of Spitak, I went there as a volunteer rescuer.
Now I remember what was there. And what was not. I'm sorting my memories into two piles, what was and what wasn't.
There were no stoves in the tents, and the tents themselves, bulldozers, excavators. There were no jacks. There were no respirators. I tried to make gauze, like surgical masks - but I couldn’t work in them, I need special ones. Dust is harmful as such, and dust mixed with cement, asbestos, etc. is toxic. Did not have.
There were no cranes.
There was water. Of course, there was no washing, but there was drinking. Mineral. Local. You can drink, but the tea turns out - the muck is unbearable.
The coffins were free. Need - come, take it. They immediately appeared, there were no volunteer rescuers, fires were still burning, and military coffins were already laid down at the stadium. Such long stacks. Almost on the first day.
There were no sappers, there was no one to organize directed explosions for clearing. The military gave us some packages, and one of the rescuers made cords (a hole in the rubble, where the charge is laid, and around it is filled with sand). I asked him - where did you study? and he says: what are you doing! I've been since childhood! In general, I entered the Technological Institute, I didn’t get half a point. But in general, our wall of collapse is cut in a wrong way. I feel. So if we don’t get screwed over now, I will do it again, for sure.
There were construction helmets. A lot of. But this is for dismantling the rubble outside, the rescuers do not need them. It is still impossible to work in a blockage in a helmet.
There were a lot of marauders. If they don’t cover the dead with a tarpaulin, there’s no strength to watch, fingers stick out in different directions at wild angles, marauders removed the ring.
There were no rescue ropes, carts, emergency sleeves. There were no jacks - I already said that. There were no boards to strengthen the galleries, drifts and manholes. Soldiers chopped furniture for this, and collected all kinds of fittings. It turned out badly: there is not enough furniture that survived, it is immediately taken away for firewood, and if there is, it is too thin. But there were no boards, there was nothing to strengthen. You crawl, the blockage lives its own life, as if breathing. Scary.
There were soldiers. A lot of. With machine guns at the ready, as in war.
There were no geophones - devices capable of picking up sounds made by people; there were no trained dogs to search under the rubble.
Alcohol was. A lot of.
There was humanitarian aid. A lot, good. It was sold in all city markets. The military were busy guarding it, the authorities were busy distributing it, the bandits were taking it away.
There were no lights or spotlights. But they also worked at night. How - now I can not even explain. Somehow. Partly because it's cold to sleep: -10 degrees, not everyone has sleeping bags, there was no heating.
There were no diesel generators.
There were Austrian rescuers with specially trained dogs, which they carried over the rubble in their arms. A man in my life only once carried me in his arms, like they carry their dogs.
There were pseudo-victims of the earthquake, in Yerevan knocking out money in various instances.
There was no “hour of silence” when they turn off all the equipment and listen - suddenly they are alive under the rubble. Because you need to listen to it with equipment, but it was not there. It was suitable for these purposes from the military, but on the third day they were forbidden to give it because of secrecy. But sometimes you hear it.
There was an elderly woman, she knocked on the surviving pipe with a piece of brick, she was clearly audible on the surface. We dismantled 14 hours. When a part was dismantled, a part was collapsed, a hole was made, and I went down to it into the rubble, because it was necessary to fix it on a stretcher. I sat there with her for about three hours - it was somehow embarrassing for me to leave, but when you say “I will come back for you”, they do not believe, they immediately begin to howl. There were no jacks, there were no proper stretchers, there was no crane, only a makeshift winch. They dragged it hard. So she told me: baby! You can’t say such words to a young girl, no one will marry you!
The board was not given back either, there was none. We flew for our own money, through Krasnodar, the devil knows how.
I did not see the volunteer rescuers with whom I was there again. To write, call each other - this was not the case.
It's good that we were there.
I think so.
A catastrophic earthquake in Armenia occurred 27 years ago, on December 7, 1988. It destroyed the city of Spitak in thirty seconds and caused severe destruction to the cities of Leninakan, Kirovakan and Stepanavan. In total, 21 cities, 350 villages and settlements. Only according to official figures, 25 thousand people died. One of several thousand volunteers who worked in the earthquake zone, Gennady Kirilenko shared his memories with Sputnik Armenia.
black months
We learned about the tragedy in Armenia in the morning at a lecture at Rostov State University. The Internet did not exist, there was too little information in the news, but rumors about the scale of the disaster spread instantly. In the afternoon, without any command from above, students and teachers lined up to donate blood. In the main building on Bolshaya Sadovaya, people carried canned food, jars of Don pickles, Azov bream, pasta and cereals, in general, everything that they had in store in the pantries of Rostov Khrushchev for a rainy day. And "black" then were not days - months and years of empty store shelves, coupons for oil, washing powder, sugar.
Everyone considered it their duty to help wounded Armenia at least somehow. The decision to go to the earthquake zone was born spontaneously, in the same place at a lecture. For several years, we, students of different faculties, traveled around the godforsaken corners of the international construction team, so we quickly gathered. Armenians, Russians, Dagestanis, Ukrainians, Chechens, Azerbaijanis, Abkhazians, Georgians… Who could have known then that in just a few years we would be separated by borders, and someone would look at each other through the sight of a machine gun.
Lost bus
University "Ikarus" could take about forty people, but there were five times more applicants. We had to weed out the people through a medical board - bespectacled, hypertensive patients and just nerds remained in Rostov.
Early in the morning, when rescue work was already in full swing in Armenia, we set off. All the food collected at the Russian State University was loaded into the luggage compartments of the bus. Behind us was a cargo ZIL of a military department with tents, tools, medical equipment. In the evening we reached the border with Abkhazia, where we spent the night in the bus. The first serious incident happened near Tbilisi - we lost ZIL. The truck driver fell behind the bus and got lost at the entrance to the city. We decided to wait for him at the Tbilisi bus station.
Now there are mobile phones, but then, according to the logic of our driver, all those who got lost had to look for each other at bus stations. On the windshield of the "Ikarus" there was a sign "Special flight Rostov-Spitak" attached, so as soon as we got off the bus, we were surrounded by drivers of the same old Georgian ikaruses, lions and paziks. We drove almost a thousand kilometers on Rostov fuel - the hoses of all gas stations along the way were tightened into a knot. We needed diesel. The Georgians silently dispersed and returned after a while, each with a canister of priceless fuel drained from their cars. And we stood, smoked and did not know what to do next. To go to Spitak without tents and tools seemed absurd to us.
Several nervous hours passed. It seemed that the entire Tbilisi bus station was looking suspiciously at our bus, which was in no hurry to go where help from all over the country flocked. The way out came by itself. On foot, in a shabby sheepskin coat, a hat with earflaps and with thick stubble on his face - like everyone else in those parts who mourns for the dead. I did not remember the name of this Armenian, who was on the bed-post to get home to the ruined Kirovakan. He approached us with a request to take him with him, and in five minutes we were already leaving towards Armenia. By the way, the ill-fated ZIL, having circled around Tbilisi, eventually left for Leninakan. I am sure that everything that we carried with us was not superfluous there either.
© Sputnik / Alexander Grashchenkov
Why do I hate the cold so much
When they say "an earthquake wiped the city off the face of the earth", this is about Spitak. Ruins, fittings, people black with grief, coffins on the streets, in the yards, the stadium, everywhere. It was very cold. There was a sweet, cloying smell in the frosty air. It's through the streets former city, almost to the ankle, spilled molasses from the tanks of the collapsed factory.
Builders, the military, and just those who survived the meat grinder warmed themselves round the clock around the fires. The commandant of the site gave us summer double tents, put us on allowance and divided into brigades. The place for the camp was found in the yard of the destroyed kindergarten. Toys, furniture, mattresses from cribs were scattered around. We lined the floors of the tents with them. We slept without undressing, four of us, so it was warmer, synchronously turning from side to side. Everyone woke up silvery from frost. Maybe after that I do not like the cold, winter and everything connected with it.
Igor Mikhalev
There were no problems with food and tools - at every intersection, or rather, where they were before December 7, 1988, there were field kitchens, canned food, boxes of butter, bread. About a week later, not far from us, a canteen appeared. Well, as a dining room - these were tables and benches hastily knocked together from a picket fence in the open. On the tables are a mountain of bowls, mugs, spoons. Nearby is a huge cauldron and the smell of pilaf. An elderly Uzbek fussed around him with a ladle. I asked who he was and how he got here. What he answered me very accurately reflected the essence of relations between people a quarter of a century ago.
You know, I was a kid when the same tragedy happened in Tashkent. I remember well how the entire Union was restoring our capital. And when it happened here, I thought that now it's my turn. I have a cauldron, a wife and children, so I took them all with me on the train and arrived in Spitak. The military gives us food and we feed everyone who is hungry. I couldn't do it any other way, you know?
last hope
The first object where our team worked was a garment factory. All the living, wounded and dead, who could be quickly found, were taken out on the very first day. We had to go through the rubble again in search of bodies not found. It is clear that there could no longer be living people there, in such a frost. We had nothing but hands, crowbars and shovels. Therefore, it was impossible to "untie" the reinforced concrete structures of the factory, woven into knots by the elements. Nevertheless, hour after hour we dismantled bales of fabrics, accessories, mangled sewing machines.
© Sputnik / Alexander Makarov
Builders from the Baltic States, crane operators from Ukraine, paratroopers from Ryazan worked nearby. And rescuers from Poland. At that time, we did not have any Ministry of Emergency Situations, special equipment, thermal imagers and other equipment with the SPETS prefix, which could quickly help find and save people. But the Poles had it. Bulgarians, jacks, some other devices. And dogs. It was they who accurately indicated the places where you need to look for people under the rubble. Come, sniff and sit down. So, you need to look exactly here.
That day we were dismantling the freight elevator shaft. In the morning the Poles came, three rescuers and a dog. The dog turned around and sat up. For the whole day, on a patch of three by three meters, we could only go one and a half or two meters deep. By dusk we reached and removed a piece of the ceiling of the mangled elevator. The body of a dead young girl was also found there. An old woman, all in black, came to the identification. Weepy eyes. On the day of the earthquake, her entire extended family went to work. And in the evening none of them returned home. And this girl was her granddaughter. And the last hope that at least someone survived ...
© Sputnik / Igor Mikhalev
Leninakan, or Gyumri, as this city is now called, was the very starting point of my trip to Armenia. More precisely my desire to go there. Neither Armenian cuisine, nor ancient temples, nor ripe armenian fruits and even the people that exist in this country, namely the tragedy of December 7, 1988, the Spitak earthquake, which destroyed this city, like many others, settled forever in my childhood memories.
We arrived in Leninakan (I can’t call it Gyumri, and many older Armenians also use the old names) already at the end of our journey through Armenia from the town of Ayrum, which is located almost on the border with Georgia. But if you fly to Armenia from Moscow or St. Petersburg directly to Gyumri, or arrive in Armenia via Tbilisi, then you can’t just take it and immediately leave for Yerevan. It is more logical to start the tour from the north of the country, including Gyumri. And then go to Yerevan. How to do this is written at the end of the article.
You can see the route in the north of Armenia here, and in this article my guide to this amazing country and the route for 7 days.
Freedom Square in Gyumri
On the square in the very center stands a monument to St. Vardan Mamikonyan and his associates. With a sword and a cross, he is embodied in bronze and it is not difficult to guess where such a neighborhood comes from. The national hero of Armenia is canonized as a saint. He defended Christianity and fought against the Iranians.
Near the square is the Church of All Saints and the memorial of the tragedy of 1988.
Church of All Saints
The temple was badly damaged after the earthquake. It is being restored, but the matter is not being argued very quickly. As you can see from the photo on the information board, only two walls survived after the earthquake.
But the temple is not entirely new. It is literally collected from the wreckage, like a valuable broken vase. The photo below shows that what is with the relief, these are old particles, but what is smooth is already a remake. We decided to restore like this, and not literally copying the missing parts. I think this is correct. So the memory will live longer.
Nearby lies the old dome of the cathedral. Since this is a roof, and badly damaged, it was decided to make a new one.
Now the cathedral looks like this. We were not inside.
Memorial to the victims of the 1988 earthquake
Memorial plaque to the victims of the earthquake.
Statue of the lifeguards.
I was most touched by the dog here, well, that's obvious. In general, thousands of people from all over the country, our former common one, took part in rescuing the victims.
In the summer of 2016, the memorial looked abandoned. Perhaps in December on the 30th anniversary, things will be different.
And then we went to wander through the streets of the old city, which started right from the Freedom Square. If it were not for cars and people, then the city in some places looks like from the last century. Paving stones, low houses made of black tuff.
Old Gyumri
Abovyan street.
Looking closely, you can see the cracks left by the earthquake.
Intersection of Abovyan and Mayakovsky streets: Drampyanov House, XIX-XX centuries.
And such old houses, at least partially, survived.
Doors of an old house on Abovyan street.
Forging on the balcony also survived.
The house at the intersection of Abovyan and Teryan streets is the building of a former hospital later turned into a luxurious house for fun. And now here.
We turned the corner and looked into a typical courtyard in Gyumri.
Only the wall remained. 
And right next to it. 
And people live in the neighborhood.
Some houses were partially destroyed. Where you can live, people live. For example, the second floor is destroyed, but they live on the first.
And this is already 30 years old. It is most likely impossible to demolish these houses, they are monuments. But, of course, there are no funds to repair and rebuild while preserving history. 
And these are residential buildings. So that they do not collapse, unstable and weak walls are supported so that the house remains standing. Because on one side it can be destroyed, but on the other side everything has more or less resisted that it is possible to live. And where to go...
Here are the remains of the house on one side.
I looked through the door of the abandoned and abandoned house, inside.
In general, the old Gyumri is a mixture of Art Nouveau, houses made of red and black tuff and wood. How handsome he must have been then.
Well, at the end of the walk through the old city of Gyumri, here is such a neighborhood.
Hospital on Shirakatsi street
And then we went to Shirakatsi Street, where the remains of the destroyed children's infectious diseases hospital still stand. To imagine what it was here in those days is simply scary, even after 30 years.
How to get to Gyumri from Yerevan and from Gyumri to Yerevan
I wrote in detail about how and what to travel throughout Armenia and transport from Yerevan around the country.
Bus or minibus
From Yerevan to Gyumri, there are no official city buses, but minibuses, or private traders, will be happy to take you. In Yerevan, minibuses can be found on a patch, the so-called "Bus Station", next to the Yerevan railway station. The cost varies from 1200 to 1500 AMD depending on the type of car.
electric train
An electric train runs between Gyumri and Yerevan three times a day: at 8-25, 11-45 and 18-05. Travel time 3 hours 10 minutes. During the tourist season, from April to October, additional trains and schedule changes are possible.
Taxi or transfer
If for some reason you are afraid to communicate with the locals and that you will be deceived or you will need to bargain, and this will certainly be the case, you will have to bargain, then you can order a transfer in advance.
Car for rent or with a driver
If you have rights and love freedom of movement, then rent a car, for example, in. The road to Gyumri is not the best, but in any case, whether it’s a bus or a minibus, I’ll go along it. And if you are by car, then along the way you can see many beautiful views and stop.
How to get to Gyumri from Georgia
Another option for how to get to Armenia cheaply, in principle, is by plane to Tbilisi.
The cheapest tickets from Moscow to Tbilisi and back
And then take a minibus on the spot, or a taxi, or pre-order a transfer from Tbilisi airport to Armenia. Gyumri is located near the border. This route has already been run by many tourists and just Armenians. Georgia is friends with Armenia, and the border crossing (we were there on a “kindred” excursion) is not very stressful.
Also in Armenia there is an opportunity to take a car with a driver. The price in rubles is 2-2.5 thousand for the whole day. You can also take a driver with a car for a few days, while the driver himself decides where he will sleep. But if you didn’t book anything in advance, you can find accommodation on the spot. If you need contacts of "your" drivers - write, I'll throw them off.
Where to stay in Gyumri
Flying here and going to Yerevan on the same day is not the best option. So stay for one night. There are hotels in the city. Traditionally search on roomguru and book on booking.com
Or here, hotels in the center with discounts. Information changes and is updated.
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 1988 Spitak earthquake, energy equal to an explosion of 10 (!) atomic bombs simultaneously. 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 working 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 were sent to the scene armed forces USSR and the KGB Border Troops. 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 test. hydrogen bombs 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.
A series of tremors practically destroyed the city of Spitak in 30 seconds and inflicted severe destruction on the cities of Leninakan (now Gyumri), Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan. In total, 21 cities and 350 villages were affected by the disaster (of which 58 were completely destroyed).
In the epicenter of the earthquake - the city of Spitak - its strength reached 10 points (on a 12-point scale), in Leninakan - 9 points, Kirovakan - 8 points.
The 6-point earthquake zone covered a significant part of the territory of the republic, tremors were felt in Yerevan and Tbilisi.
The catastrophic consequences of the Spitak earthquake were due to a number of reasons: underestimation of the seismic hazard of the region, imperfection of regulatory documents on earthquake-resistant construction, inadequate preparedness of rescue services, slow medical care, and poor quality of construction.
Nikolai Ryzhkov, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, headed the commission to eliminate the consequences of the tragedy.
In the first hours after the disaster, units of the USSR Armed Forces, as well as the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR, came to the aid of the victims. On the same day, a team of 98 highly qualified doctors and military field surgeons headed by USSR Minister of Health Yevgeny Chazov flew from Moscow to Armenia.
On December 10, 1988, interrupting his official visit to the United States, Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, flew to Leninakan with his wife. He got acquainted with the progress of the ongoing rescue and restoration work on the spot. At a meeting with the heads of allied ministries and departments, the priority tasks for providing the necessary assistance to Armenia were considered.
In a few days, 50 thousand tents and 200 field kitchens were deployed in the republic.
In total, in addition to volunteers, more than 20 thousand soldiers and officers took part in the rescue work, more than three thousand units of military equipment were used to clear the rubble. Humanitarian aid was actively collected all over the country.
The tragedy of Armenia shocked the whole world. Doctors and rescuers from France, Switzerland, Great Britain, Germany, and the USA arrived in the affected republic. Planes with a cargo of medicines, donated blood, medical equipment, clothing and food from Italy, Japan, China and other countries landed at the airports of Yerevan and Leninakan. Humanitarian assistance was provided by 111 states from all continents.
All the material, financial and labor capabilities of the USSR were mobilized for restoration work. 45,000 builders arrived from all Union republics. After the collapse of the USSR, the restoration program was suspended.
The tragic events gave impetus to the creation in Armenia and other republics of the USSR of a qualified and extensive system for preventing and eliminating the consequences of various emergency situations. In 1989, the State Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for emergencies, and after 1991 - the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.
In memory of the Spitak earthquake on December 7, 1989, a 3-ruble commemorative coin was put into circulation in the USSR, dedicated to the nationwide assistance to Armenia in connection with the earthquake.
On December 7, 2008, a monument dedicated to the tragic events of 1988 was unveiled in the center of Gyumri. Cast on public funds collected, it is called "Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts."
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources