Kurenevskaya tragedy of 1961 in Kiev: history, description

A little more than half a century has passed since the day of the technogenic catastrophe that occurred in the capital of Soviet Ukraine. It is possible to assert with full confidence that almost to anybody from modern youth the Kureniv tragedy of 1961 is unknown.

What was silent about Kiev

Due to various reasons, first of all in order not to disturb the public, the exact number of dead was classified. It is known only about the official figure - within 145 people. There is nothing surprising here, the true consequences of the catastrophe were long and carefully concealed. For several days in a row Kiev was silent in the literal sense - they switched off the phones, it was impossible to get anywhere. Even passenger planes were forbidden to fly over the site of the catastrophe for several weeks. Kurenevskaya tragedy happened suddenly, and they tried to keep silent about it.

Almost no mention was made of this event. Presumably, the death toll is in the range of 1.5-2 thousand people from Kiev, none of whom suspected that the March day of the 13th of 1961 would be the last day for them in life. It's time to find out how the Kureniv tragedy happened and what was hidden for so many years!

How it all happened

Monday morning. It would seem that the usual beginning of the working week of the country of developed socialism. Soviet citizens rush to their jobs, to study. Public transport, as always, is full.

First, in Kurenivka, one of the metropolitan areas, the sudden appearance of a small stream of water made it impossible to move through the streets. Soon a wave of pulp 14 meters high poured from Babi Yar, every second passing 5 meters. Literally just a few minutes it was difficult to find out the territory of almost 30 hectares. Thus began the Kureniv flood of 1961.

The oncoming gray-brown mudflow avalanche filled the streets, turning over cars and dump trucks, destroying buildings, dragging pedestrians along. Everything around was covered with mud, which included clay, sand, pellets and other mud. The fall of electric poles led to a fire of passengers, trolleybuses and buses crowded with passengers. People were actually caught unawares: someone was having breakfast, someone was trying to get through the phone booth in the booth, etc. Then they would write that it was a real Kiev day of Pompeii. The Kureniv tragedy of 1961 claimed many lives, but they did not want to talk about it.

Eerie picture

The chronology of the terrible event in Kurenivka has survived. The destruction of a threatening character occurred approximately from three o'clock in the morning. The critical moment came at six o'clock forty-five minutes (in other sources - at half past nine in the morning). It was an eerie picture. Escaping from imprisonment 700 thousand cubic meters of pulp, accelerating, demolished everything that was in their way, including buildings. In the general flow, which had a width of about 20 meters, were not only living people who were unlucky. Water dug graves in the cemetery, from where they extracted corpses and not decayed fragments of coffins.

Kurenevskaya tragedy of 1961 was terrible and frightening. Everything that happened was difficult to tell. Surviving people do not want to remember that day, as many have lost someone.

The destructive flow of water passed along Frunze Street

Most of all got from the raging elements to the enterprise "Ukrpromkonstruktor", tram depot Krasin, medical institution, stadium "Spartak". Affected area of the street Frunze, as well as residential buildings that are located in the area of Yar. In total in the flooded area of 5000 square meters. There were 53 buildings, including two dormitories. More than half of the affected buildings are single-storey houses. Kurenevskaya tragedy in 1961 in Kiev caused multiple destruction.

Thanks to bold and prompt actions of employees of the tram depot, the power substation was disconnected. Thus, it was possible to prevent further fires in electric transport and a potential risk of electric shock. Gradually, the wave lost its power, already on Frunze Street, its height became half the size. Nevertheless, she managed to kill several hundred of Kiev.

Monday is a heavy day

Pulp, which filled the territory, pressed, almost inferior in density to the stone. Liquid substance mixed with dirt clay thick layer covered the stadium "Spartacus", adjacent to Podolsky descent. Even the high fence was absorbed, because the layer thickness reached three meters.

The Podolsky hospital sustained a blow, on the roof of which it managed to climb and thus saved a part of the patients. For many Kurenivka residents, the fateful Monday was a kind of "Pompeii day".

For a long time the Kureniv tragedy remained a secret. As it was, recall the immediate eyewitnesses, in whose eyes are seen tears.

Strange order

Received a secret order of the authorities to carry out the funeral almost secretly without civil funeral services at various cemeteries in Kiev. Some graves are even within the area. Such measures are aimed at hiding the real number of deaths, thereby avoiding political resonance.

Still, we must pay tribute to the leadership - the unfortunate citizens, whose housing was in the disaster zone, handed the keys to the new apartments. In addition, it was possible to buy in installments household appliances for issued special coupons.

Qualitatively concealed this large-scale Kureniv tragedy in 1961 (Kiev, Ukraine), which claimed dozens of times more lives than was announced for other countries.

Excursion to the recent past

A natural question arises about the causes of the Kureniv tragedy. Did everything happen suddenly and nothing, as they say, did not foreshadow troubles? Should we blame only the elements in the technogenic catastrophe ? Perhaps, the disaster became possible because of the human factor (engineering miscalculations, someone's irresponsibility)? Or was there an interference of otherworldly forces? To answer such questions, it is necessary to make a digression into the recent past and conduct a small investigation. It's not for nothing that this Kureniv tragedy happened. "The Curse of Indian Yar" is called by its locals. Why so? This will become clear if we continue reading the article.

During the Great Patriotic War, when Kiev was under the occupation of the Nazis, mass executions took place in Babi Yar. In total, more than 260,000 innocent people have found their death there, of which almost 150,000 are Jews. The Germans, of course, did everything possible to hide their terrible crimes, afterwards burning the corpses.

Terrifying facts

After the victory over fascism, Babi Yar attracted marauders to himself. With the onset of twilight, "black archaeologists" poked around in the ground, trying to find there gold rings and teeth.

The problem was solved blasphemously. On the place where the human remains were buried, there was to be a park of culture and recreation, attractions and a dance floor. At the same time, the city council executive committee proceeded from the following reasoned principles: the bodies of the executed Jews do not deserve human treatment, it was necessary to avoid captivity.

The end of the 40s - the beginning of the 50s of the last century was marked by a large-scale erection of residential multi-storey buildings in the outskirts of Kiev, which people christened as "Khrushchevs." The capital of the Ukrainian SSR expanded due to new microdistricts. The construction industry felt an urgent need for a large number of bricks. In order to meet the demand already existing brick factories had to work around the clock.

The roots of man-made disaster

The Kureniv tragedy (March 13, 1961, Kiev) did not happen overnight, the prerequisites should be sought in 1950. In Moscow, the Ministry of Industrial Building Materials has developed a project to organize a hydrotechnical facility in Babi Yar to store waste mainly from the Petrovsky brick factories. Its implementation was to be started after the adoption of the corresponding decision at number 582 by the executive committee of the Kyiv City Council. Soon the "bright" head of some official decided to correct the original version. Therefore, another decision No. 2405 was adopted, according to which? After raising the level of flow, he had to reach the extreme line of the ravine.

At the site of the sand pit in 1952, the construction of the hydro-dump began. In the beginning around it around the perimeter poured earthen dams. After this, with the help of dredgers in the quarry began to receive waste in the form of pulp from the enterprises that produced clay for the production of bricks. But one thing soon became clear. For security reasons, the protective dam should be made higher by ten meters. A potential danger was also the fact that the enormous earth capacity, filled with waste products, was 60 m above the level of one bp of the metropolitan areas, where there were many residential buildings and significant enterprises. The Kureniv tragedy was due to human negligence, it has been proven repeatedly.

Mistakes at the cost of life

Summing up, we can distinguish the following main errors:

• Not fully thought-out design of hydroscheme was finally disfigured by amendments of the local "connoisseur".
• The authors of the project, apparently, miscalculated with the water content of the soil at the bottom of the former quarry.
• In the winter time, heavy snowfalls occur, which is important.
• It was necessary to erect a more reliable and durable concrete structure instead of earth dams.
• Saved on drainage pipes. Because of their small diameter, the system did not function properly, the water with the ground brought in did not have time to retract. In addition, the pulp was supplied continuously in an amount that exceeded 3 times the value contained in the initial calculations. Brick factories tried to overfulfill the plan, not stopping production, with a three-shift work schedule.

Even when anxiety symptoms became too obvious, no measures were taken. Literally four years before the fateful day, the head of the Special Inspection reported to the administration of Petrovsky brick factories and the head of the city department of Hydromechanization about the current deplorable state. The situation worsened in the winter. Even then it often happened that the ravine could not contain a mixture of water and sand, because of which the surrounding areas were partially submerged. This was the beginning of the Kureniv tragedy (Babiy Yar, March 13, 1961).

For ten years in the enclosed dam ravine about 4 million cubic meters were gathered. M pulp in the liquid state. All responsibility should be entrusted to Alexei Davydov, who since 1947 served as the head of the city council (mayor). It is believed that it is he who owns the blasphemous in its essence the idea of destroying the Babi Yar due to the continuous release of bricks. In the future it was supposed to build on the bones and ashes entertainment facilities, including attractions with restaurants! If the Kureniv tragedy did not happen, laughter would be heard over the remains of the captive Jews.

Instead of an epilogue

The stories of those who were then among the liquidators of the consequences survived. Never, probably, the following picture will not be erased from memory. Bulldozers, raking the layered mud, their steel shovels extracted corpses and at the same time dismembered them. Those affected, who were lucky enough to survive, were taken to the medical institutions of the suburban area. If a person was dying, they betrayed him to the ground near the hospital. Such people were no longer included in the list of victims.

The Kureniv tragedy of March 13, 1961 is a black spot in the history of Ukraine. All this could be avoided, but sometimes the desire of untold wealth makes us make unforgivable mistakes.