The Soviet Union has always striven to maintain the image of the safest and happiest country in the world. It was impossible to write some accidents that occurred on the territory of the country.
The Soviet press literally "forgot" about accidents with mass casualties. It took decades to declassify the memories of the following events.
1. The ramming of an apartment building in Novosibirsk on September 26, 1976
On an early Sunday morning, a civil aviation pilot stood up with a real thirst for revenge. Being overwhelmed by the desire to take revenge on the former wife for divorce and unwillingness to give him a common child, 33-year-old Vladimir Serkov decided to unauthorized take off to An-2 from the city airport. The purpose of it was a dwelling house located along Stepnaya Street, to which his wife moved after quarrel with him. Ramming the entrance between the third and fourth floor, the plane ignited because of the spillage of aviation fuel. In addition to Vladimir himself, four residents of the house were killed, but his wife was not among them: for fear of revenge, she spent the night with relatives at the other end of the city.
2. The collapse of the escalator in the Moscow metro on February 17, 1982
In the evening hour of the peak at the metro station "Aviamotornaya" broke one of the escalators. Jumped the right handrail - they say that the reason for this were the shortcomings in the design. Accelerating under the weight of passengers, the staircase rushed down, because the emergency lockout device for some reason did not work.
Standing downstairs people tried to run up the steps, there was a real crush. People fell under their feet to each other and from the escalator. Under the metal steps, bags, clothes and shoes were tightened: most of the victims and dead were not only injured due to crush, but also open fractures, cuts. Only two minutes later, it was possible to stop the death conveyor manually.
3. The death of cosmonaut Bondarenko March 23, 1961
24-year-old Valentin Bondareko was the youngest in the list of potential candidates for the first flight into space. He was the fourth on the list after Yuri Gagarin and was preparing to fly around the Earth on the ship "Vostok". Three weeks before the start of such a fascinating journey, he tragically died during the next test. In the surdobarokamere he had to spend 15 days: in it, the pressure was lowered, but the oxygen level was raised. The purpose of such compelled loneliness was a check of health - mental and physical.
Bondareko wiped the place of fixing the sensors on the body with an alcohol swab and unintentionally dropped it on the tile. Vata broke out, and the oxygen atmosphere promoted the spread of fire through the cell. When the cell door was opened, 80% of Valentine's body was covered with burns. The doctors fought for 8 hours for his life, but Bondarenko died of a burn shock.
4. Kureniv disaster on March 13, 1961
Under the dam, overlapping Babi Yar, for 10 years, the waste was drained from the nearest brick factories. On March 13, it began to collapse at 6.45 in the morning, and at 8.30 it broke: mud flows of incredible power rushed through the streets, washing away people, buildings, trams and cars. Spreading through the streets, the spent pulp instantly froze, turning into stone because of the high clay content. In an area of about 30 hectares, the gray mass destroyed all living things. The press insisted on 150 dead, but eventually managed to prove that not less than 1,5 thousand people fell victims of the man-made disaster.
5. Tsunami on Sakhalin on November 5, 1952
The main source of information about the natural cataclysm is to this day the report of the chief of the North-Kuril police department. It says that at 4 am on November 5, 1952, an earthquake began on the Kamchatka Peninsula, but the damage caused by it was small and became a harbinger of further terrible events.
A few hours later, a water shaft 6-7 m high rose to Severo-Kurilsk. Most people managed to run out of houses, but they did not realize that the second wave of the tide would be several times stronger than the first. When city residents started returning to their homes, the water returned - 2336 people became victims of it.
6. The Kyshtym accident on September 29, 1957
In the Soviet era, the city of Ozersk had the status of a closed settlement and was called only Chelyabinsk-40. In the correspondence of secret services, his territory belonged to Kyshtym - the neighboring town. In the fall of 1957, at the local Mayak chemical plant, an explosion occurred in the container in which radioactive waste was stored. In newspapers, the outbreak from a toxic outburst was called "rare in these latitudes by the northern lights". To eliminate the consequences of the explosion, the forces of several hundred thousand people were thrown - all of them later died of cancer or radiation sickness.
7. The collapse of the ceiling in the cinema on April 25, 1959
At the last session in "October", one of the most popular cinemas in the city of Bryansk, came about 150 people. At 22 o'clock 33 minutes, a ceiling collapsed on the hall in which the viewing of the picture "The Magpie-thief" was taking place. 47 people died, the rest were hospitalized. The incident was hidden by the authorities of Bryansk, because they gave permission to build a cultural and entertainment establishment in a part of the city with a weak, subsidence ground.
8. Accident Tu-154 in Alma-Ata on July 8, 1980
One of the most horrible air crashes in the history of the Soviet Union was hidden because the country was preparing for the Olympics. At 00:38 the plane, carrying 30 children and 126 adults, took off and climbed to a height of 150 m. When the flaps were removed, an uncontrolled decline began. Two minutes of falling - and Tu-154 collided with the ground. Relatives were not even allowed to identify the bodies of the deceased: they were hurriedly handed over the urns with ashes for burial, without giving an appeal to the media.
9. The explosion of the intercontinental missile on October 24, 1960
The leadership of the country hurried the developers in connection with the aggravation of the confrontation with the US, moreover, wishing to demonstrate to the inhabitants of the state the next achievement of military equipment. Since Khrushchev and Brezhnev themselves inspected the progress of the work, scientists risked calling an unfinished missile ready for flight. Journalists came to see the launch, but they managed to shoot only a terrible explosion on the site during take-off.
According to various sources, from 78 to 126 people burned alive because of the waves of flame that appeared during the explosion. The victim of the tragedy was the chief marshal of artillery Mitrofan Nedelin, who was nearest to the source of fire. To conceal his demise, a plane crash was invented: other victims were secretly buried in a mass grave in Baikonur.
10. Mass hustle in the Luzhniki on October 20, 1982
Just a day before the football match between Moscow's "Spartak" and the Dutch "Harlem" snow fell and the seats in the stadium managed to become covered with a crust of ice. They were not cleaned, so most fans brought hot drinks with them.
Closer to the end of the match, the fans of "Spartacus" confident in the victory of their team thanks to a single goal, moved to the exit. At that moment the second ball was scored and some of them rushed back. Alcoholic intoxication and euphoria from the alleged victory did their job: before the crush was stopped, 66 people died. All of them became victims of compression asphyxiation as a result of squeezing the abdomen and chest.