Leninakan earthquake 1988 number of victims. Tears of Armenia

A series of tremors in 30 seconds practically destroyed the city of Spitak and caused severe destruction to the cities of Leninakan (now Gyumri), Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan. In total, 21 cities were affected by the disaster, as well as 350 villages (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-magnitude 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 danger of the region, imperfect regulatory documents on earthquake-resistant construction, insufficient preparedness of rescue services, slowness of medical care, and low quality of construction.

The commission to eliminate the consequences of the tragedy was headed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Ryzhkov.

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, led by USSR Minister of Health Yevgeny Chazov, flew from Moscow to Armenia on the same day.

On December 10, 1988, after 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 Union ministries and departments, priority tasks for providing the necessary assistance to Armenia were discussed.

In just 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 operations; more than three thousand units of military equipment were used to clear the rubble. The collection of humanitarian aid was actively carried out throughout 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 carrying 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 material, financial and labor capabilities of the USSR were mobilized for restoration work. 45 thousand builders from all Union republics arrived. 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 USSR Council of Ministers for Emergency Situations was formed, and after 1991, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

In memory of the Spitak earthquake on December 7, 1989, the USSR issued a commemorative coin of 3 rubles, dedicated to the people's 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 using raised public funds, it is called “For Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts.”

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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The Spitak earthquake is a catastrophic earthquake of magnitude 7.2 (according to the US Geological Survey - magnitude 6.8, with subsequent aftershocks of lower magnitude), which occurred on December 7, 1988 at 10:41 Moscow time (11:41 local time) on north-west of the Armenian SSR.

Powerful tremors destroyed almost the entire northern part of the republic in half a minute, covering an area with a population of about 1 million people.

In the epicenter of the earthquake - Spitak - the force of the tremors reached 11.2 points (on a 12-point scale).

Tremors were felt in Yerevan and Tbilisi. The wave caused by the earthquake circled the Earth and was recorded by scientific laboratories in Europe, Asia, America and Australia.

The earthquake disabled about 40% of the industrial potential of the Armenian SSR.

As a result of the earthquake, the city of Spitak and 58 villages were completely destroyed; The cities of Leninakan (now Gyumri), Stepanavan, Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and more than 300 other settlements were partially destroyed.

According to official data, 19 thousand became disabled, at least 25 thousand people died (according to other sources up to 150 thousand), 514 thousand people were left homeless.

In total, the earthquake affected about 40% of the territory of Armenia. Due to the risk of an accident, the Armenian nuclear power plant was shut down.

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Gorbachev, who was at that moment on a visit to the United States, requested humanitarian assistance and interrupted his visit, going to the destroyed areas of Armenia.

All republics of the USSR took part in the restoration of the destroyed areas.

111 countries, including Israel, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, France, Germany and Switzerland, provided assistance to the USSR by providing rescue equipment, specialists, food and medicine. Assistance was also provided for restoration work.

USSR Minister of Health Yevgeny Chazov arrived in the republic. Providing assistance to the population was complicated by the fact that medical facilities in the affected cities were destroyed. For example, in the city of Spitak, the wounded were taken to the city stadium “Bazum”, where they received medical care.

Yugoslav and Soviet planes crashed while delivering aid. The Soviet plane was an Il-76 from a military transport aviation regiment stationed in Panevezys (Lithuanian SSR) and taking off from Azerbaijan. The cause of the accident was an incorrect pressure setting at the transition level, as a result of which the plane crashed into a mountain.

The Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I made an appeal on republican television.

A cemetery was built on the hill where earthquake victims are buried.

Photo gallery

Helpful information

Spitak earthquake
Arm. Սպրաշարժ)
also known as Leninakan earthquake
Arm. երկրաշարժ

Ratings and opinions

N. D. Tarakanov, retired major general, head of earthquake relief work:

“Spitak turned out to be much worse than Chernobyl! In Chernobyl you grabbed your dose and be healthy, because radiation is an invisible enemy. And here - torn bodies, groans under the ruins... Therefore, our main task was not only to help and pull the living out of the rubble, but also to bury the dead with dignity. We photographed and recorded all unidentified corpses in the headquarters album and buried them under numbers.

When people who suffered from the earthquake returned from hospitals and clinics, they began to look for their dead relatives and turned to us. We provided photographs for identification. Then we removed those identified from their graves and buried them in a human, Christian way. This went on for six months...

At the end of last year, when it was ten years since the tragedy, we visited Spitak and looked at its current wretched state. Armenians understand that with the collapse of the Union they lost more than anyone else. The union program to restore Spitak, Leninakan, and the Akhuryan region, destroyed by the elements, collapsed overnight. Now they are completing what Russia and other republics of the USSR built.”

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and Moscow provided significant assistance to hundreds of families who lost their homes. They were placed in empty apartments from the resettlement fund, in hostels and even in luxury hotels.

Memory

In 1989, the Soviet Union issued a coin with a face value of 3 rubles, dedicated to the anniversary of the tragedy.

• Pour toi Arménie is a song written in 1989 by Charles Aznavour and Georges Garvarentz, and recorded by a group of famous French artists. The song was written and recorded to help those affected by the 1988 Spitak earthquake. The Trema-EMI label sold more than a million records with the single (on the other side was the song “They Fell” in memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide). The song spent 10 weeks at number one on the SNEP (France) singles chart and entered the Guinness Book of Records as it reached number one in its first week. The video for the song was directed by Henri Verneuil.

Powerful tremors destroyed almost the entire northern part of the republic in half a minute, covering an area with a population of about 1 million people. In the epicenter of the earthquake - Spitak - the intensity of the tremors reached 9-10 points (on a 12-point MSK-64 scale). Tremors were felt in Yerevan and Tbilisi. The wave caused by the earthquake circled the planet twice and was recorded by scientific laboratories in Europe, Asia, America and Australia.

The earthquake disabled about 40% of the industrial potential of the Armenian SSR. As a result of the earthquake, the city of Spitak and 58 villages were completely destroyed; The cities of Leninakan (now Gyumri), Stepanavan, Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and more than 300 other settlements were partially destroyed.

As a result of the earthquake, at least 25 thousand people died (according to other sources - up to 150 thousand), 19 thousand became disabled, 514 thousand people were left homeless. In total, the earthquake affected about 40% of the territory of Armenia. Due to the risk of an accident, the Armenian nuclear power plant was shut down.

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, led by USSR Minister of Health Yevgeny Chazov, flew from Moscow to Armenia on the same day.

General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee M. S. Gorbachev, who was at that moment on a visit to the United States, requested humanitarian assistance and interrupted his visit, going to the destroyed areas of Armenia. All republics of the USSR took part in the restoration of the destroyed areas. 111 countries, including Israel, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy, Lebanon, Norway, France, Germany and Switzerland, provided assistance to the USSR by providing rescue equipment, specialists, food and medicine. Providing assistance to the population was complicated by the fact that medical facilities in the affected cities were destroyed. For example, in the city of Spitak, the wounded were taken to the city stadium “Bazum”, where they received medical care. In just 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 operations; more than three thousand units of military equipment were used to clear the rubble. Throughout the USSR, humanitarian aid was actively collected.

All material, financial and labor capabilities of the USSR were mobilized for restoration work. 45 thousand builders from all Union republics arrived. After the collapse of the USSR, the restoration program was suspended.

Yugoslav and Soviet planes crashed while delivering aid. The Soviet plane was Il-76 number USSR-86732 from a military transport aviation regiment stationed in Panevezys (Lithuanian SSR) and took off from Azerbaijan. The cause of the accident was an incorrect pressure setting at the transition level, as a result of which the plane crashed into a mountain.

The Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians Vazgen I made an appeal on republican television.

A metal church was built on the hill of the cemetery where earthquake victims are buried.

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 Emergency Situations was formed, and after 1991 - the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia.

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) and Moscow provided significant assistance to hundreds of families who lost their homes. They were placed in empty apartments from the resettlement fund, in hostels and even in luxury hotels.

On December 7, 1988, at 11:41 a.m. Moscow time, an earthquake occurred in Armenia. The cities of Spitak, Leninakan, Stepanavan, and Kirovakan were destroyed. About 60 villages in the north-west of the republic were reduced to ruins, almost 400 villages were partially destroyed. According to scientists, during the earthquake in the zone of rupture of the earth's crust, energy equivalent to the explosion of ten atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima was released. The wave caused by the earthquake circled the globe and was recorded by seismographs in Europe, Asia, America and Australia.

500 thousand people died, tens of thousands were wounded, missing, traumatized for life. The pain of the Armenian people was felt by people all over the world. The bell of the tragedy was heard by all humanity. In those days, Armenia became a place of heroism. And together with everyone else, this feat was accomplished by the rescue team of the Peoples' Friendship University. Soldiers of the student detachment of the UDN named after. Patrice Lumumba took on the responsibility of helping people in trouble. And God knows, we did everything possible for this.

We bring to your attention 2 interviews with eyewitnesses of the earthquake in Armenia who were clearing away the rubble.

Earthquake in Armenia

Yuri Aleksandrovich Reznikov, a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Russian Peoples' Friendship University, was part of a detachment that was sent to Armenia in 1988 in connection with a tragic event.

Yuri Alexandrovich, tell us,please, about the squad. What were you doing there?

There were two detachments, they were sent in turns, one after another. I was in the first one. There were many brigades within the detachment: rescue, medical, humanitarian aid, and a corpse brigade. I was in the corpse brigade. Only guys worked there. Each brigade needed a representative who would resolve organizational issues; I was such a representative. This was at the beginning of the first year. I just recently returned from the army (I served in Afghanistan), perhaps this is one of the reasons why I was chosen as a brigadier. When we arrived at the scene, we immediately began digging and searching. We looked for the living, but, unfortunately, we didn’t find any living ones... We walked around the objects, collected, cleaned, and loaded dead bodies.

Ruins, dead bodies... YouIt was scary?

Was. Not without it. But my partner was a Marine, a very good person, in any troubles it was not so scary with him. It was still difficult, of course. The boys screamed at night in their sleep and woke up. After seeing enough during the day, falling asleep was not so easy.

How many days did you stay at the site?

About two weeks, but every day there passed like a year. There were a lot of unpleasant things.

How did the city residents behave? Did they help you?

They helped as much as they could... But they were in a completely different situation. How were they supposed to dig? What if they find one of the relatives? It turned out that they were sitting near the ruins, lighting fires, and waiting. We cleared out the rubble. There were children and old people there - everything in a row. They were also broken. After we found the bodies, they called them meat, there was a lot of cynicism there on purpose, in order to make it easier to relate to what they saw, they put them in a coffin and either gave them to relatives, or took the coffin to the square, from where their relatives soon took them . There were cases when people simply fainted when they recognized one of the dead.

What mark did this tragic event leave on your life?

This is a huge mark on my life. These two weeks turned my life upside down. I began to look at the world differently. By that time I already had army experience - these were not the first dead I had seen in my life.

What is important in this incident is how living people behaved in the midst of all this nightmare. The way the local residents, who miraculously retained at least some sense of reason, behaved was something incredible for them. The way our squad guys behaved, we can be proud of each of them.

Do you remember your state whenreturned to Moscow?

We got together often, especially the first few weeks: it was impossible to separate. It felt like we were different from other people. We have become different. We were looking for meetings with each other, because some kind of pain settled inside that no one would understand except the one who was there. You just have to approach, look into each other’s eyes, say some words... and you understand the person completely differently. No one will understand you like someone who has gone through this.

Do you often remember this event?

Yes. It's less common now. It was too painful and scary to remember. In the early years it was a huge block of its own history. These two weeks were very concentrated. I have never seen so many deaths in the army, in Afghanistan. Due to the fact that we saw many dead people, we could smell life very keenly. Many people live and never think about death, they avoid thoughts about it. After this story, everyone present there had a different outlook on life.

What would you, having gone through such a difficult life path, wish for us, the youth of the 21st century?

Probably look at your life with your eyes wide open, even if they are open. Open them again and again. Evaluate life based on death, knowing that death is inevitable, it will happen to everyone.

Earthquake in Armenia 1988, video

Senior lecturer at the Department of Foreign Languages ​​of the Faculty of Law, Kamo Pavlovich Chilingaryan, shared his memories, and this is what I managed to find out.

I know that 20 years ago, immediately after the tragic events in Armenia, RUDN University students went to the scene of the incident, and you were among them. Tell me how many students succeeded go to the rescue and what united you?

At first there were 33 of us, then 33 more arrived, then 13. 7 more people arrived individually, for a total of 86. All were united by one desire to help people in trouble. RUDN University students came to help my people, although many of them only heard about Armenia in geography lessons.

Who took part in this trip?

Among us were guys from different faculties, even graduate students. I was a student at that time. There were not only Armenians, but also Russians, Georgians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Azerbaijanis, and Uzbeks. There were many people who wanted to go and help, but the issue of obtaining visas played an important role here.

How did you manage to go to Armenia almost immediately after the earthquake, because there weren’t enough tickets for all the people who wanted to help?

I remember it was December 10th. On this day, from the very morning, donors went to donate blood. About an hour later the food was ready to be sent, but the question of the detachment had not yet been resolved. Organizational issues were resolved quickly, on the run. Everyone was involved: the party committee, the trade union committee, the Komsomol committee. After another couple of hours, we were given the go-ahead, but it was unknown whether all the volunteers were going or only half of them. Everyone was in a hurry. They loaded the bus with blankets and food. We acted like a capture group. We went to Vnukovo airport. To get to the ticket counter, you had to push past the crowd. We were offered an option: to act with a policeman. Finally, late in the evening everything was settled: our detachment flew out the next day in the morning.

Debris clearance in Armenia

What did you encounter at the airport?

There were a lot of people at the airport - real pandemonium. All these people listened and watched the “Time” program with faces petrified from emotions. There were tears in their eyes. People tried to fly there, but there were no tickets. I remember that everyone considered themselves the most necessary. One woman argued that she had the right to fly first, since she works in a hospital, and rescuers are not the main thing.

With what thoughts did you go to Armenia, to the scene of the incident?

I thought: tomorrow we will see the pain and the depth of the tragedy with our own eyes. From tomorrow we will be fighters.

And what did you see upon arrival?

We arrived in Leninakan. We entered the city at midnight and searched for headquarters until two o’clock. There was no water in the city, fires were burning. It was a ghost town. In the darkness of the night, in the light of the headlights, we saw the horror with our own eyes. Corpses, ruins, coffins, coffins, coffins... We pitched two tents on Lenin Square. Night. Dirt. Rain. Cold. Faceless people. There were also looters among them: before our eyes, unknown people stole toys, pens from the former “Children’s World”...

What problems did you face?collide?

Infection had spread throughout the city, so the main problem was the lack of water. You can't drink water. Only mineral water. The city was paralyzed. And an incredible thing was happening in the square: there was a line for diesel fuel, bread, and water. However, there was still no mineral water. We approached other groups, asked for at least one bottle, and they did not refuse us. Sometimes the army provided food. After several days it became very cold: 20 at night, 10 during the day. The newspapers wrote that there were bathhouses, but at headquarters they only promised to take us there. Armenian students took several children with them and went home to wash themselves. Everywhere, in all the yards, there are coffins. Large and small, plywood and planks, hastily knocked together. The presence of such a huge number of corpses could cause an epidemic within a few days. I remember how our doctor said, our health is in our hands. But this was not a slogan. This is a fact of life. I was a supply manager, and that meant a lot of work. Every day it was necessary to get bread and mineral water. I remember one day the French gave us a bag of concentrates and a bag of biscuits. "Will live!" we thought.

Did you have a specific object,and what was your squad involved in?

The desire to work did not leave us, despite everything we saw. We helped everyone. The next day, as soon as we arrived there, in the afternoon, some people approached us and asked us to remove the children from the rubble of the school. Even now it’s hard to talk about it. That day we returned to camp tired, frightened... Then for the first time in our lives we shook hands with death.

What remains of the city of Leninakan?

The Flower City has turned into a Dead City. From everywhere there is only noise, fuss, smoke, stench. Ironically, next to the ruins there was an exhibition “Leninakan Today”, although empty. At times the landscape resembled a surreal painting. The house, as if cut by a powerful cutter, with all its sofas, baths, hangers, stands in front of you and silence...

What feelings took over you?returning to another world, to Moscow?

A strange feeling gripped everyone who came from the earthquake site. It seemed like what he saw there was just a nightmare. The withdrawal was slow. Our detachment fulfilled its duty to the Armenian people, to the Motherland.

What did this trip change in your life?

I began to appreciate life more. “Friendship” has transformed from an ephemeral concept into a real concept. We then lived in an overly politicized state. But here, in Leninakan, we saw Americans, Swiss, Poles and many other volunteers from different countries, ready to help people in trouble and the country as a whole.

We began to feel differently about Israel when we saw their rescuers with dogs. There were no more enemies, imaginary or real. It was the unity of peoples, which we sometimes lack so much today.

In 2016, the film “Earthquake” was released, telling about the events of the Spitak earthquake in Armenia in 1988. The city of Spitak was completely destroyed in half an hour, and along with it the settlements of Gyumri, Vanadzor, Stepanavan. This film tells directly about the city of Leninakan, which is now called Gyumri. We came here to see the remains of the ruins and talk with the locals who lived through this terrible time.

In the city center, everything was rebuilt a long time ago; the city hall stands on Vardanants Square.

And in the center of the square, the monument to Vardan Mamikonyan is the national hero of Armenia, the leader of the Armenian uprising against the Iranian Sassanids, who tried to impose the Zoroastrian religion.

When asked by locals in a cafe: “What to see here?”, everyone answered: “We have beautiful churches.” There are even two of them in this square.
Church of the Virgin Mary.

And the Amenaprkich Church, which is still being restored.

By the way, this is what it looked like after the earthquake.

But this is not entirely interesting to us. Having learned the direction of movement to the area where the devastation of those times remained, we went to look for the ruins.

To be honest, even without the earthquake the city is not in the best condition, although it is the second largest city in Armenia.

An electrician's nightmare

Little by little we reached that area, destroyed but never restored.

It feels like the earthquake here happened not 29 years ago, but yesterday.

The government set a period of 2 years for restoration, however, after 3 years the Soviet Union collapsed, and therefore the period was postponed. Actually, the consequences of the 1988 earthquake have not yet been eliminated. What is noteworthy is that the Union threw all its financial and labor forces into helping those affected by the disaster in Spitak: more than 45 thousand volunteers came from the republics. Tens of thousands of parcels from all over the Soviet Union arrived in the city and surrounding settlements as humanitarian aid.

During this earthquake, about 30,000 people died and more than 140,000 people were disabled.

And someone dropped everything and left.

Here you can see how one strong wall of the house was preserved, but a completely different wall was built on it from the remains of bricks.

This house just had a wall propped up

There are also beautiful buildings nearby.

This memorial square

There is a memorial sign installed here, but its meaning is almost impossible to understand.

And on the other side of the square is a new monument to “Innocent Victims, Merciful Hearts,” depicting a pile of people and concrete blocks.

The inscription on the stone slab nearby in Russian and Armenian reads:

“At 11:41 a.m. on December 7, on a foggy and gloomy December day in 1988, the mountains trembled and the earth shook with great force.

Cities, villages, schools, kindergartens and industrial enterprises were instantly destroyed. More than a million people were left homeless.

In this tragic hour, 25 thousand people died, 140 thousand became disabled, 16 thousand were rescued from the rubble.

And the living looked for their loved ones among those buried under the ruins.

And the children called their parents, and the parents called their children.

And thousands with merciful hearts were with them in this grief.

And all the republics of the USSR and many countries of the world extended a helping hand to the Armenian people.

The people's grief for the innocent victims of the Spitak earthquake is deep.

May God rest their souls.

Eternal memory to them!”

Along the square there are tombstones for the dead.

In front of the church you can see a fallen dome.

One of the interesting acquaintances happened at a gas station on the way out of the city towards Yerevan. I was surprised by the very strange method: when refueling, they counted not liters, but kilograms of gas. First, the guy filled the bottle, which was standing on a scale, then poured it from the bottle into the car. This whole procedure took about half an hour. During this time, we managed to communicate with him about the earthquake. At this time he was about 10 years old, but he remembers these events perfectly like a bad dream. Then he told how many people from the fraternal republics came and helped rebuild the city, and then they were given a new apartment. He spoke with great warmth about the USSR and was very sorry that this country no longer existed.