In what year was the stampede in the puddles. “It was a real meat grinder”
On October 20, 1982, a tragedy occurred at Luzhniki Stadium, which was included in the list of the most nightmarish disasters at stadiums in the world. In a terrible crush after the UEFA Cup match Spartak - Harlem, a tragedy occurred: according to official figures, 66 people died. Among the spectators of that match was Alexander PROSVETOV, now a columnist for SE. A few years ago, he told the truth about that story by talking to the parents of the victims.
SNOWBALLS AS A TOOL OF PROTEST
We could very well be in their place. We are three 26-year-old friends who went on October 20, 1982 to the Spartak-Harlem match. On November 1, the author of these lines flew to work as a TASS correspondent in Benin, and it was a farewell trip for me to football together with Artem and Mikhail. Human memory does not store all the details. But much of that evening sunk into her forever.
Almost all the spectators were placed on the East stand, which later became the C stand. It was crowded, but the police did not have to disperse their forces. The sliding bars at the entrance to the sector were suddenly closed, leaving a small opening the size of a gate. This "rationalization" made it easier for law enforcement officers to check the passports of young people. Minors unaccompanied by adults were then not allowed to evening events, and only a mouse would slip through such a slot. It was forbidden to shout at the stadium. From the podium for all sorts of exclamations, one or the other was taken out. In response, since the sleet had just fallen, snowballs flew at the policemen. At first there were timid single attempts, but gradually the shelling intensified. The police had not yet switched to winter uniforms, so their employees were wearing caps. After well-aimed throws with different parties they flew off their heads to joyful laughter.
- The police were really confused - and the unthinkable happened: they retreated from the podium, - said Artem Petrov, a scientist working in America. The people began to celebrate the victory over the tyrants. But most importantly, I remember that after the final whistle I convinced you and Misha: "There is no need to rush, let the crowd dissipate." When we finally went down to the corridor under the stands, you were indignant that the policeman grabbed the teenager by the scarf. He answered: "Yes, look what's going on there!" And for some reason he let the boy go.
I honestly don't remember this. But he did not forget how two policemen carried a soldier who sagged lifelessly in his greatcoat, like in a hammock.
“We were returned to the podium, where we sat for another quarter of an hour, and then went out into the street through another sector,” Artyom continued. - From a distance they saw that people were lying on the handrails of the stairs, bending over with their bodies. And we realized: they are dead. Nothing was reported in the newspapers the next day. We later learned what had happened by "enemy voices" from various acquaintances.
- The weather was nasty, and the game as a whole was dull, - said Mikhail Snyatkovsky, a businessman. - Everyone is cold. Some viewers secretly drank - then it was much easier to carry with you than now. They even threw ice at the policemen. The second goal against “Harlem”, scored in the last minute by Shvetsov, caused incredible rejoicing. Everyone was euphoric. People who had already left the sector rushed back to find out what had happened, and maybe, if they were lucky, to watch the replay on the light board.
Sergei Shvetsov told me that he learned about the tragedy the day after the match from Nikolai Petrovich Starostin. At the same time, the author of the famous phrase: “It would be better if I didn’t score that goal,” admitted that it was unpleasant for him to mentally return to that day.
- Why don't they ask how I scored four goals against Neftchi? No, everyone is interested in the "fatal goal". I had such a job - to score goals. And the sediment nevertheless remained for life.
“Leaving the stadium, we saw a nightmarish sight: lifeless bodies hung on the railing, and there was only one ambulance next to it,” Snyatkovsky specified.
- Then on the way to the "Sportivnaya" we met a whole convoy of medical vehicles ...
- I don't remember that. But we were definitely shocked. We rode the subway in silence - they forgot about the match at all. And when they arrived home, they began to call each other and ask: "Well, how are you, gone?" The condition was terrible. It's still scary to remember. But we, in fact, did not fall into that hell.
I stated our impressions, really, not out of boasting. It is not a merit to be in the epicenter of an earthquake and survive, because heavy beams and slabs did not fall on you. But there is still a picture before my eyes: a pile of bodies lies on the stairs, heads down. Some people get up with great difficulty and hobble, limping, away from this horror ...
COMMANDANT AS A SWITCHMAN
...Mikhail Zazulenko after the match "Spartak" - "Harlem" was waiting at home for a laid table - the guy turned eighteen.
“The police are definitely to blame for the death of our children,” his father, Yuri Leonidovich Zazulenko, told me. - I myself worked in the KGB at that time and had the opportunity to get acquainted with the circumstances of the case in great detail, I saw photographs from the scene. The key to the lattice gate was with the major, who locked it and left. There was a small hole left. And the crowd pressed on, so much so that the railing 20 millimeters thick under pressure turned around. People were literally compressed. Everyone has the same diagnosis - asphyxia, that is, suffocation. Of course, 200 - 300 victims, which I heard about, and then it was impossible to hide, but I doubt the figure of "66 dead".
There were so many corpses in three morgues, and they were taken to four. Even if only one person got into the fourth, then already 67. At the trial, they found a switchman, and whitewashed the police. The Minister of the Interior, Shchelokov, was still in power. When Andropov came to power (an ardent opponent of Shchelokov, he was elected General Secretary of the Central Committee on November 12, 1982. - Approx. A.P.), I hoped that he would spin this case. But Andropov was not up to us. On the other hand, we should have written to him, in which case he might have taken up our business closely, but we did not realize.
Questions remain. Some talk about two colliding streams of people, and Vladimir Aleshin, for example, who headed the Luzhniki spot complex in December 1982, at a meeting with SE journalists, said that the police wanted to pull out the intruders throwing snowballs from the crowd, but the fans firmly took up hands. Someone slipped on the icy stairs... It is indicative that everyone blames the law enforcement agencies today, but the same ones remained as if they had nothing to do with it.
On the dock were the leaders of the stadium: the director, his deputy and the commandant. The first two escaped the sentence (according to Aleshin, the deputy, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, was helped, in particular, military awards). For everyone, the commandant, sentenced to three years, but in connection with the amnesty, served half the term. I met this man at a reception at the Dutch embassy. We talked, although he noticed that he had not communicated with compatriot journalists for 25 years. The wife intervened decisively in the conversation: “I don’t want my grandchildren to read this. We already suffered. With a mark on the criminal record in the passport, they didn’t take any responsible work.” I promised not to give my last name in the newspaper.
- When the tragedy occurred, the police were not on the spot: they were sent to the bus of the Dutch, - said the ex-commandant's wife. - And they made my husband the scapegoat, as the youngest - he was then a little over thirty.
“They brought ridiculous charges against me,” the former commandant emphasized. - One of the points said that I could not establish the right relationship with law enforcement. In fact, the trouble happened due to the fact that the police escalated the situation from the very beginning, its employees behaved tactlessly towards the fans.
The labor collective was ready to take me on bail, as was customary then, but Alyoshin refused to sign the letter.
LIFE FOR "SPARTAK"
It is noteworthy that the relatives of the victims do not hold a grudge against the commandant. “We, the parents, do not blame him,” Raisa Mikhailovna Viktorova, who lost her only son in 1982 and headed the informal committee of fathers and mothers, told me bluntly.
“When the prosecutor's office was called for the first time, we formed a core of five activists,” she said. - Later, others joined - there were about twenty people. After all, not only Muscovites were among the victims, but also residents of Kuibyshev, Tambov, Ryazan, Chekhov, Serpukhov near Moscow.
- After that match, I spent the whole night looking for my Oleg, a 3rd year student at the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation. He turned 20 in August. She called the hospitals, contacted the police. “Yes, he is with some girl, and you are worried,” they told me. Oleg entered the morgue at six in the morning. So, he lay all night near the monument to Lenin, where the corpses were piled up. I learned this from the materials of the case, which the investigator suggested reading.
- My Volodya was not allowed to play football alone - he was still in the 8th grade, - Svetlana Grigoryevna Anikina shared her memories. - So his friends advised him: ask one of the adults to say at the entrance that you are with him. In the morning I rushed to Sklif and suddenly met Andropov there (by that time he was the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Andropov left the leadership of the KGB in May 1982. - Approx. A.P.). He was talking to the head doctor in the corridor. He asked what I was doing here. She replied that she heard that dead children were brought here. Andropov gave instructions to help. And threw the phrase: "There are a lot of corpses."
- Husband, leaving, said: "I will give my life for Spartak," said Guzel Talipovna Abdulina. Who would have thought that his words would be prophetic. I stayed with my four and a half year old son in my arms.
- Oleg was not particularly interested in football, - Nina Maksimovna Borisova noted, in turn. - He played hockey. But the Komsomol committee of the technical school issued tickets for the match with parting words: "You must support our Soviet team." And the son said that he could not go. And then they began to deliberately make hooligans out of our children.
“They demanded to bring characteristics from the place of study, the dead were analyzed for alcohol content, and the husbands who were members of the CPSU were told: “Take off your wives,” they threatened with expulsion from the party, held them back during promotion,” Nina Aleksevna is still indignant Novostruev, whose son Mikhail was also a student at a technical school.
The court session, originally scheduled in the center of Moscow, was moved to the area of the Molodezhnaya metro station, at that time a distant outskirts of the city. The women said that they walked like criminals through a long line.
“The authorities were not afraid of us, but of the performances of Spartak fans,” Raisa Viktorova noted. “They didn’t let me go to court at all, because the summons was sent only to my husband’s name. I made a scandal. I didn't care at the time. Not much time had passed, and we were ready to tear all the police to pieces. The case consisted of 12 volumes. Nevertheless, one day was enough for the court. They came to the conclusion that it was just an accident, and one commandant was punished. Many years later, an investigator named Speer, who handled our case, fell seriously ill. He was tormented by his conscience, and he wanted to apologize to us, his parents, for following the authorities' lead, but he did not have time. And we knew from the first day that the police were to blame. When a year later they came to the place of death of our guys to honor their memory, KGB officers with impenetrable faces in black jackets and ties were standing around. We were not even allowed to lay flowers. We threw them over the fence. All sorts of obstacles were repaired for almost ten years. A memorial was erected in Luzhniki for the tenth anniversary, and I bow low to the people who paid attention to us and found sponsors.
Yuri Leonidovich Zazulenko, my question about help aroused stormy emotions:
- We were compensated only for the cost of clothes that were on the dead, and also paid for the funeral. What help could there be? Alyoshin did not allow us to erect a monument for ten years. Luzhkov was caught while he was playing football. Also recoiled.
MONUMENT STRONG AS OAK
In the 80s, Georgy Sergeevich Lunacharsky, an architect by training, headed the Spartak fan club. Together with the sculptor Mikhail Skovorodin, they became the authors of the monument in Luzhniki.
“The decision to create a monument was made by our fan association,” said Lunacharsky. - When I was at Luzhkov's, I said that we want to make a commemorative sign. Thus, we lulled the vigilance of the authorities: they thought that we wanted to attach a memorial plaque. Prepared two dozen options. At the same time, they tried to give the monument an international sound. Therefore, the inscription "To the dead in the stadiums of the world" is made in four languages.
Who financed the monument?
- Moskhlebprodukt and Mosles provided a little help, but most of the money was given by private individuals, Spartak fans. The Kaluga Sculpture Factory, whose director Skovorodin knew, completed the order almost free of charge. The monument was brought to Luzhniki on two KAMAZ trucks when the 10th anniversary of the tragedy was just celebrated. This is a huge structure - the monument goes six meters underground so that it stands strong, like an oak tree that cannot be pulled out. It was installed by two specialists and five or six members of the fan club all day long - from six in the morning to six in the evening. Having finished the work, we managed to watch the Cup Winners' Cup match "Spartak" - "Liverpool", in which our team confidently won - 4:2.
... That day the first snow fell in Moscow, and the temperature dropped to "-10" at night. It is not surprising that so few tickets were sold for the match at Luzhniki - just over 16,000 out of 85 available. By the beginning of the game, only two stands, A and C, were cleared, and the fans were assigned to them. Most of them were sent to the East Stand: there were about 14,000 people there. After the goal Edgar Hess Spartak fans did not hide their joy, and the police immediately got involved in the work - they began to pull out the most active from the podium and drive them inside. In response to this, snowballs flew at law enforcement officers. But the policemen were more angered by the chant: "One-two-three, all the cops goats!". According to some fans, they were led under the stands and beaten, mostly in the kidneys.
At the 85th minute of the match, the people reached for the exit: there are restless police, and vile weather, and Spartak is already leading 1-0. But of the four stairs leading to the street, only one was open. The fans were slowly moving down, when they suddenly heard the roar of the stands - 20 seconds before the final whistle Sergey Shvetsov scored. A terrible mess began, because some decided to rush back and find out who scored after all, and someone stopped in the aisle. Two waves converged, and people began to fall like dominoes. This is the semi-official version. But what really happened?
Famous Spartak fan Amir Khuslyutdinov was at that match, but left the stadium before the stampede began, because the police tried to take him, like other fans. Then he just turned 17. He went to the match with friends and his girlfriend Vika - his first love. Amir never saw her again.
The police were pushing the people who were coming out in the back,” he said. - We threw snowballs at them during the match, so they were angry. I do not want to pour dirt on the police, because we are probably also to blame for something. Law enforcement agencies indicate that the two streams allegedly met when Shvetsov scored a goal. But all this is nonsense. As well as the fact that a girl fell on the steps, and because of this, a stampede began. You see, any tragedy and any situation that happens at the stadium is a flaw in the forces of law and order. Someone overlooked, and someone just didn't think. The problem is always in the mind.
Fan of Spartak Vladimir Kubasov got crushed, but survived. He told a terrible thing - you won’t wish it on anyone.
The most truthful version is the one told by Amir. One on one it was. True, they pushed me in the back ... I didn’t have children for a long time, and then my son was born, I went to the match happy. I was lucky - I was lying at the very top of this crush, only my legs were crushed. There are corpses around me, crippled, legs and arms are intertwined ... When they found me, they put me on a concrete pillar, because I did not feel my legs. But I quickly recovered, the next day I went to work.
But the fan Svetlana was less fortunate: for a long time she was under a huge pile of bodies. At that time she was only 18 years old.
We were well aware that we would “choke” a little on the way out. But I walked and thought that the crush did not resolve. And at one moment I realized that I was no longer walking, but lying. I couldn't get up anymore. Shock... She began to turn her head around - it was a terrible sight. I was lucky that I was lying near the railing, so all the main load was concentrated on them. It was very difficult to breathe...
The day after the tragedy, only one publication wrote about what happened. In the issue of "Evening Moscow" dated October 21, 1982, in the corner of the newspaper page there was a small note: "October 20, 1982 after football match at the Grand Sports Arena Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin at the exit of the audience as a result of a violation of the order of movement of people, an accident occurred. There are victims. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway." And that's it. Not a word more - neither about the dead, nor about the injured. But in Europe, as it turned out, they knew about it.
The next year we played Aston Villa on the road, in the program for this match there was a spread where they represented Spartak, - said Amir. - And there was such a paragraph, very capacious, it sounded almost verbatim like this: “According to unofficial reports from Moscow, last year a tragedy occurred at the Spartak-Harlem match, over 70 fans were killed and more than 150 were injured. And then a phrase that describes why this happened: "If the fans were more organized in the stands, then the tragedy might not have happened."
For the first time the whole country learned about the tragedy at Luzhniki in 1989. On the whole, it is understandable why they kept silent about this: how could such a thing happen in a country with a bright future? The dead were even forbidden to bury in one place. And when a year later people arrived at the cemetery, each tree had an operational officer.
According to official figures, 66 people died. 61 more received severe injuries. But, as Amir said, in fact there were many more victims.
There was a guy there who stamped paperwork to organize funeral supplies, a grave, a bus without a queue. So he said that he had 102 documents in his hands. Our official statistics are misleading. If I die before 12 noon, I get in, but if I'm in the hospital two weeks later, I don't.
***
On a cold Friday morning, people were rushing to the monument near the Luzhniki Stadium. The reason is simple - 35 years since that terrible tragedy. There was a kind of ringing silence: not even birds could be heard. Somewhere in the distance, fans shifted from foot to foot, fiddling with carnations, and veterans and Spartak players were talking near the monument.
Despite the evening training in Tarasovka, Andrey Yeshchenko, Dmitry Kombarov, Artem Rebrov and arrived at Luzhniki. There were Sergei Rodionov and Rinat Dasaev, who played in that ill-fated match, as well as Spartak-2 in full force.
After a minute of silence, the club's management, together with the players, laid flowers at the memorial: all red and white, as if for selection. Someone was baptized, someone just stood silently and read the names engraved on the monument.
- Spartak plays for the fans, because a great club has just as great fans. We all know about this tragedy. And it's good that they remember it. You can dedicate our match with Sevilla to the fans who died then, ”Glushakov said in the end.
... When all the representatives of "Spartak" dispersed, the fans were drawn to the monument one by one. Some of them remember everything that happened at the stadium. Because they were there, in that crush.
In the history of every football there are days of success and glory, and there are dark days. October 20, 1982 was a black day in the history of Spartak. Fans who came to Luzhniki to watch football died 27 years ago. Only according to the official version, 66 people died. Today, those who remember and mourn the dead have come to lay flowers at the monument to the victims of that tragedy. It is still unknown how many people actually died then. There is an official version of the authorities, according to which the death toll was sixty-six people. In fact, as those who were there say, the exact number of victims, most likely, was higher ... God is the judge of those who hid the facts, but then there was a different country and a different life. Those who then dared to declare the tragedy at all were given ten days of arrest.
Much is now known about those events. It became possible to tell people the truth.
On October 20, 1982, Spartak Moscow hosted the Dutch Haarlem as part of the UEFA Cup. It was cold outside, frost about 15-17 degrees. In 1982, frosts began early, and the steps of the eastern sector of the stadium. Lenin was heavily iced over. Since only 15 thousand Spartak fans and about a hundred of the most persistent Dutch fans came to the match, the sports arena management decided to push everyone into one sector. This decision became fatal. The seats of the remaining three-quarters of the stadium were empty and covered with pristine snow.
Shortly before the final whistle, several hundred fans decided to leave the stadium in order to leave early for home from the Leninskiye Gory metro station. But in added time the player of "Spartak" Sergey Shvetsov scored one more goal. “I wish I hadn’t scored,” he later said.
And then many of those who were already about to leave and descended the icy steps in the aisles, trying to quickly get into the dark tunnel, did what the majority would have done in their place. Hearing the roar of the fans on the occasion of the second goal, they hurried back to participate in the celebration - and ran into a wall of Spartak fans who were about to go outside.
Some eyewitnesses claim that the police did not let those who wanted to return to the stadium, and they got stuck in the tunnel, unable to move forward or backward. The panic began. As the stadium authorities ordered the other exits to be closed, hundreds of people were trapped on the slippery steps. They stumbled and slid into the darkness. It was terrible: people were trampled to death. Those few who were lucky enough to be away from the stands plunged into darkness, could watch what was happening.
Foreigners were quickly escorted out of the stadium through hastily opened side exits. There were muffled screams, panic-stricken Spartak fans, who rolled, slipped and fell from the stands, there was a cluster of ambulances that drove up to the eastern sector. But no one seemed to know what was really happening and how serious the consequences would be. Rumors spread, but at that time Moscow was full of rumors. One of those who survived and subsequently told the truth was 16-year-old Andrey Chesnokov, a future star tennis. He talks about what he saw with his own eyes: “People fell down the slippery steps, knocking others to the ground like dominoes. To escape, I jumped over the fence and began to make my way between the bodies, which lay in several layers. Some raised their hands, shouted : "Save! Help!” But they couldn’t get out from under the pile of bodies. I managed to pull out one boy, I took him to the doctors of the ambulance. But he was already dead. at least a hundred bodies."
The next day, the Moscow newspaper Vechernyaya Moskva published an article about the match, at the end of which there was a short, indistinct postscript: "An incident happened at the Luzhniki stadium yesterday. Several fans were injured after the football match." And that's it. Not this day, not the next, not in a week, month or year. Under the ailing President Leonid Brezhnev, who died three weeks after those events, the Soviet elite felt the precariousness of their position and could not force themselves to admit the bad news. So the news, like the victims of the tragedy, was hushed up.
As the relatives of some of the victims say, the bodies were evacuated as quickly as possible, and the families were given at least forty minutes to say goodbye, after which the victims were buried en masse. Some of the relatives claim that the police, under pain of prison, ordered them to tell no one - and especially foreigners - not to tell about this tragedy. So that the families of the victims would not come with flowers or somehow express the pain of loss, no new matches with the participation of Spartak were planned for the end of October. Four months later, on February 8, 1983, a trial took place with the aim of distributing responsibility for the events, or rather, finding a scapegoat. The commandant of the stadium Panchikhin, who managed to work there for only two and a half months, became the last one. He was given a year and a half of corrective labor.
Despite the fact that eyewitnesses testify to the fatal mistakes of policemen, there was no examination of their actions. For several years there was not a word about this trial in the press. Only in 1989 did the truth become known - or some fraction of the truth. Not everything in this story converged. The end of the era of Gorbachev's glasnost was approaching. The Soviet regime has already made a fatal mistake by trying to hide from its people and from the whole world the fact of the explosion at the nuclear reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 24, 1986. By 1989, the communist system began to collapse in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic republics fought for independence from the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was rapidly losing control over the country and, even if he wanted to, he would no longer be able to prevent the removal of rubbish from the hut. Against this backdrop, seven years after the events of 1982, the details of the tragedy that took place at the stadium were revealed for the first time.
In an unfortunate coincidence, just this year, almost a hundred Liverpool fans were crushed to death in the Leppings Lane sector of Hillsborough Stadium before the start of the FA Cup semi-final. Football fans from all over the world expressed their condolences to the families of the victims and Liverpool FC. Trampled Spartak fans, who also came to cheer for their favorite team, did not receive any international sympathy, because their government was afraid of "bad news" like fire. In 1992, when communism fell in the USSR and the country split into 15 independent states, Spartak fans raised money for a modest monument, which was erected at the exit of the tunnel in which the tragedy occurred. When visiting fans are told this story, they often leave red carnations at the foot of the obelisk.
On the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, which today is simply called October 20, a memorable match was played at the stadium with the participation of veterans of Spartak Moscow and FC Haarlem, after which an important meeting between Spartak and FC Moskva took place. The management of FC "Harlem" transferred 3,500 pounds to the relatives of the victims, in addition, they received part of the proceeds from ticket sales for both matches. Martin Haar, captain of Haarlem in 1982, admitted that the Dutch fans and footballers were tormented by a guilt complex because, unlike many Spartak fans, they did not know anything about what happened after the match.
But Haar was not alone in this ignorance. Spartak player Edgar Hess said: “We didn’t know anything about the victims. After the match, we sat in the locker room and had no idea that such a tragedy was happening very close. We later heard that the Voice of America radio station that evening gave broadcast an urgent message about what happened. But we learned about the tragedy only the next morning, when the head of Spartak, Nikolai Starostin, told us about it. If you are going to Moscow for the Champions League final, then when you see Olympic Stadium think about the events of the past. If you have free money, buy a bouquet of flowers and put it at the monument to fans who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Today, 27 years later, people again bring flowers to the monument and remember the dead. I was able to talk to one of those who were rescued that day. He is already an adult and asked not to shoot. In a new conversation, he honestly admitted that the police could have saved people, but did not. The tragedy, which unfolded due to the fact that the fans threw snowballs at the police, ended in hundreds of ruined lives. Mostly they were young guys who were not even twenty years old.
According to official figures, 66 people died in the stampede, but judging by subsequent investigations and according to eyewitnesses, the number of victims reached 350 people. Thus, the events of 1982 turn into the worst tragedy in the history of world football, surpassing in the number of deaths even the misfortune that occurred in 1964 at the National Stadium of Peru in Lima, where 318 people died during the riots, and which became the nightmare of English football fans. stadiums in Bradford and Hillsborough.
Today, Valery Karpin, general director of the Moscow Spartak, came to pay tribute to the memory of the dead. The events of those years will forever remain in the memory of thousands of people. We must remember this tragedy so that it never happens again. So that there is no revenge on the part of the police officers at the stadiums, because it was they who closed additional exits, hoping to catch those who threw a snowball at them ...
At the very end of the match 1/16 of the UEFA Cup between Spartak and the Dutch Haarlem, a crush arose in the stands, in which, according to official figures, 66 people died. According to unofficial data, collected mainly by the relatives of the victims, there are significantly more than 300.
On October 21, 2017, in the match of the 14th round of the RFPL championship, Spartak hosts Amkar. In memory of the terrible tragedy that happened 35 years ago, a memorial plaque will be installed at the Otkritie Arena stadium, and the meeting will begin with a moment of silence...
How it was?
October 20, 1982 in Moscow was not just cold, but very cold. For mid-autumn, it is extremely cold. Even the day before, the city was covered with snow, by evening the temperature dropped below minus 10. Many have become somehow not up to football. The match, which on a good day could have collected a full house (the playoffs of a European club tournament, after all!), lost its original attractiveness, and the stands of the 82,000-strong “Puddle” eventually did not even fill a quarter. Which in the end, no matter how blasphemous it sounds, affected the scale of the tragedy.
"Spartak" in this pair was considered, of course, the favorite, and already at the very beginning of the match confirmed its status: at the 16th minute Edgar Hess opened an account. It seemed that it would go on and on, just have time to follow the scoreboard, but that was not the case. The match suddenly took on a viscous character, and the fans had to entertain themselves with winter fun in order to keep warm. Snowballs flew all over the perimeter, and the police also got it, which reacted extremely negatively to the "aggression" ...
Not everyone had the strength and patience to wait for the final whistle. Toward the end of the match, the stiff fans moved out, creating a dense stream at the so-called "first" stairs of stand C, for some reason the only one left for the passage. According to one version, because of the negligence of the stadium workers. On the other hand, because of the revenge from the police officers for the snow shelling during the match.
Be that as it may, in this artificially created "pipe" a dull crush gradually arose: there were too many people who wanted to quickly dive into the subway and the corridor was too narrow, leaving no room for maneuver.
And it must happen that 20 seconds before the end of the match, Spartak forward Sergei Shvetsov managed another accurate blow - 2:0! The reaction of the crowd was as predictable as it was unexpected: a dense mass of people moving in one direction suddenly stood up and swayed back. The front rows slowed down, the rear rows continued to move by inertia ...
“When I saw a strange, somehow unnaturally upturned face of a guy with a trickle of blood from his nose and realized that he was unconscious, I was scared,” one of the eyewitnesses of the tragedy later recalled. “The weakest were already dying here, in the corridor. Their limp bodies continued to move towards the exit along with the living ones. But the most terrible thing happened on the stairs. Someone tripped and fell. Those who stopped in an attempt to help were immediately swept away, knocked down and trampled on. Others continued to stumble over them, the mountain of bodies grew. The stair railings failed.
It was a real meat grinder. Creepy, unreal picture...
Top secret
In our time, when every fan has his own media in his pocket, it’s impossible to think that the authorities have kept information about the terrible Luzhnikov tragedy as secret as possible. On October 21, Vechernyaya Moskva published the following information in small print: “An accident occurred at Luzhniki yesterday after the end of a football match. There are casualties among the fans." And for a long time it was the only mention of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the Soviet press.
About what happened in Moscow on October 20, 1982, the country found out only after 7 years, when the journalists of "Soviet Sport" took up the investigation. Yes, and very quickly, literally after the first publication, they shut their mouths.
Who is guilty?
Special services carried out “work” with the stadium workers and eyewitnesses, officials were carefully instructed, the investigation was kept as secret as possible. That is why it is still unclear how, why and through whose fault the terrible tragedy became possible.
“I was among the police officers who ensured public order that tragic evening,” recalls police colonel Vyacheslav Bondarev. - Many, over time, blamed the police for the tragedy, but, in my opinion, it is the administration of the Grand Sports Arena that is to blame for what happened. It so happened that the bulk of the audience gathered in the East and West stands, each of which at that time could accommodate about 22 thousand. The North and South stands were completely empty. When the game came to an end, the people gradually began to leave their seats and head for the exit. And suddenly Spartak scores the second goal. General rejoicing began, and the fans, who were about to go home, moved in the opposite direction. Confusion, crush. Here to let people on south stand, and even open the exits there ... Then the flow of people would pass through the exits from the four stands. Alas, this was not done.
Then everything happened like in a nightmare. I saw how the ambulances arrived, how the evacuation of the victims began. There was no blood. People received so-called non-mechanical damage. In a crazy stream, some fans fell to the ground, others immediately fell on them. Those who found themselves at the very bottom of the resulting pile of bodies, apparently, died from the stampede, some simply suffocated. The stairs leading to the exit were covered with ice and snow, the stadium workers did not even bother to sprinkle them with sand. People slipped and fell, at best they got injured ...
- These are all cop stories, - retorts the famous "Professor" - Amir Khuslyutdinov, one of the most respected Spartak fans, who found himself at the epicenter of the events 35 years ago. - How many times it happened. People leave the podium, and then Spartak scores a goal. Everyone shouts, rejoices, but continues to move. Nobody ever returned. This version was invented by the police so that no one could see their guilt in what happened. Like, two threads collided, and they could not do anything about it.
I had a ticket to stand B, but since the opponent was not very significant, and there were not many people for the match, a thousand spectators were placed in stand A, the rest were sent to stand C. The rest are 14 thousand 200 people. Two mid-flight stairs from the upper sectors led to one so-called common balcony. And of the four exits, only one was open. The snowballs also played their part. The people who were supposed to keep order in the stadium and obey the law got really angry with us because of this snow shelling. There was evidence that fans were being pushed to exit. In a dense stream of fans moving towards the gate, pushing each other. One sharp push, another, and now someone who was weaker fell, someone walking behind him stumbled on him and also found himself underfoot ... But people continued to move, trampling the weak. The instinct of self-preservation is such a thing that sometimes completely turns off conscience and compassion. People, surrounded on all sides by the crowd, suffocated, lost consciousness, fell ... Panic grew, no one was able to take control of the situation.
On the very balcony where the two streams joined, there were railings. Well-welded railings. However, they could not withstand the pressure of a large number of people. Those who fell from the balcony escaped with fractures. Those who remained at the top, were under the rubble ...
Found the extreme
The tragedy was investigated by the investigative team of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, and according to purely external signs - interrogations of 150 witnesses, more than 10 volumes of the case - there seem to be no questions for the investigation. But it is clear that an objective investigation of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the conditions of that time was completely impossible. The culprits were simply named.
The sword of "justice" fell in the end on commandant of the Panchikhin Big Sports Arena, who, in essence, had nothing to do with the organization of the match, and indeed worked in this position for a couple of months. It is known that Panchikhin was discharged for 3 years of corrective labor, of which he worked one and a half. BSA Director Kokryshev, sentenced to the same 3 years, was amnestied. And about other punishments, even if they were, history is silent.
“The authorities were not afraid of us, but of the performance of Spartak fans,” she recalled in an interview with Sport-Express. Raisa Viktorova, mother of 17-year-old Oleg who died in Luzhniki. - They didn’t let me go to court at all, since the summons was sent only to my husband’s name. I made a scandal. I didn't care at the time. Not much time had passed, and we were ready to tear all the police to pieces. The case consisted of 12 volumes. Nevertheless, one day was enough for the court. They came to the conclusion that it was just an accident, and one commandant was punished. Many years later an investigator named Speer, who was engaged in our business, became seriously ill. He was tormented by his conscience, and he wanted to apologize to us, his parents, for following the authorities' lead, but he did not have time. And we knew from the first day that the police were to blame. When a year later they came to the place of death of our guys to honor their memory, KGB officers with impenetrable faces in black jackets and ties were standing around. We were not even allowed to lay flowers. We threw them over the fence. All sorts of obstacles were repaired for almost ten years. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, a memorial was erected in Luzhniki, and I bow low to the people who paid attention to us ...
And now about football
In the return match, Spartak beat the Dutch no less confidently - 3:1 - and made it to the 1/8 finals, where they could not cope with the Spanish Valencia (0:0 and 0:2).
But who cares now?
On October 20, 1982, a 1/16 Cup match between football clubs Spartak Moscow (USSR) and Haarlem (Netherlands). The day before, the first snow fell, and the day of the match itself turned out to be surprisingly frosty, the temperature dropped to -10°C. So out of 82 thousand tickets for the match, only 16 thousand were bought.
Snow covered the stands, by the beginning of the game only two of them, C (east) and A (west), were cleared and opened for fans. However, together they accommodated almost 50 thousand people, so there was enough space for everyone.
Most of the fans, about 12,000, preferred Stand C, which was closer to the metro.
The match began at 19:00, the first goal against Haarlem was already scored in the 16th minute. Toward the end of the match, most of the fans decided that the outcome was obvious, and did not wait for more goals. The crowd moved down one of the grandstand stairs, the one closer to the subway.
20 seconds before the end of the match, the footballer scored another goal against Haarlem. And at the same time, a stampede began under the podium, which became the most tragic event in the history of Soviet and Russian sports.
Football match "Spartak" - "Haarlem", 1982. Spartak player Sergei Shvetsov (center) attacks the Dutch goal
Valery Zufarov/TASS66 people, mostly teenagers, were crushed to death. Almost the same number were injured.
According to a widespread version, the tragedy was caused by the reaction of the crowd to the second goal - allegedly, part of the fans turned around and tried to go back, as a result of which a crush arose.
“Oh, I wish I hadn’t scored that goal! ..”
— football player Sergey Shvetsov lamented years later in conversations with journalists. However, the investigation found that the stampede was not related to the goal and began earlier.
According to eyewitnesses, a girl fell on the stairs, several people wanted to help her up, but the crowd pushing from behind knocked them to the ground and trampled them. Others stumbled over them, the pile of bodies grew. People could not go any further, the railing of the stairs arched, the fans began to fall to the concrete floor.
Goal, on the contrary, probably improved the situation - some of the fans, who had just started to descend, rushed back, weakening the pressure.
The authorities tried to hide the scale of the tragedy. The next day, the only message appeared in , which came out with a note in a couple of lines on the last page: “On October 20, after a football match at the Grand Sports Arena of the Central Stadium named after V.I. Lenin, when the spectators left, as a result of a violation of the order of movement of people, an accident occurred. There are victims. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway."
A few days later, the Futbol-Hockey newspaper published an article “Score for seconds”, and in the newspaper “Cold weather - a hot game”. They colorfully painted the course of the match, but not a word was said about the tragedy.
The court found guilty of the stampede the director and deputy director of the Grand Sports Arena of the stadium V. Kokryshev and K. Lyzhin, the chief commandant Y. Panchikhin and the commander of the police unit that ensured the protection of public order on the stand "C" S. Koryagin. The deputy director, a WWII veteran, ended up in the hospital with a heart attack, and the commander of the police unit was seriously injured in an attempt to stop the stampede, so the materials regarding them were separated into separate proceedings.
Subsequently, all of them were granted an amnesty and were either released from punishment or their sentences were significantly reduced.
Publications began to appear one after another only in 1989. The first to open the veil of silence was the same Soviet Sport, publishing the article “The Black Secret of Luzhniki”.
“We knew and did not know about this tragedy,” the article said. They believed and did not believe.
And how could you believe that dozens of people could die in a matter of minutes at the main stadium of the country with its experience in holding the largest events?
In the same article, the first estimates of the number of victims appeared, although they were incorrect: “The court did not name the exact number of victims at the time. It is practically impossible to determine it: even today, as you know, our archives are closed and guarded, perhaps, stronger than defense factories.
Therefore, we have only an unverified figure - 340 people. It was named to us by the parents of the dead children, and we have no reason not to believe them.”
Alexander Shpeer, an investigator for especially important cases of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, spoke about the exact number of dead and injured a few weeks later in an interview.
“I didn’t make a secret of what happened,” he said. - The fact that only Vechernyaya Moskva reported on the tragedy is more than sparingly, as you understand, the fault is not of the investigating authorities, but of the socio-political situation that existed then in the country ...
Our past holds many dramas. The incident in 1975 at the capital's Sokolniki stadium did not receive publicity. After hockey game between the youth teams of the USSR and Canada, Soviet fans rushed to the bus with foreigners, from the windows of which multi-colored chewing gum plates flew in a hail. As a result of the stampede that occurred at the gate, closed to people by the police, more than twenty people died ... The investigation revealed those responsible for the incident. The court determined their punishment. But the country did not know about all this. As she did not learn about many other tragedies.
