Doubling mourning

The artists of the ensemble Alexandrov were buried in Mytishchi. Reporting Ilya Zheguleva

On Monday, January 16, at the Federal Military Memorial cemetery in the Moscow region, the funeral of the participants of the Aleksandrov ensemble, as well as other victims of the Tu-154 disaster, which occurred on December 25 over the Black Sea, took place. Shortly before the funeral between the relatives of the dead and the Ministry of Defense, there was a dispute regarding the funeral service of the deceased, but there were no excesses at the ceremony itself. The Special Corps of Medusa Ilya Zhegugay visited the funeral.

The large memorial complex of the Ministry of Defense near Mytishch was opened only in 2013 and had not yet managed to get to all the cards, so navigators often brought cars on which people came goodbye to the neighboring village. Before the entrance to the cemetery, the traffic jam was formed: the military in helmets and body armor demanded documents and inspected cars; They checked those who came their way.

“I thought there was no great sense in going - they still won’t let it go,” said the girl with flowers, who introduced himself as a classmate of one of the dead. Since there was no information about the funeral and the pass mode anywhere, and they didn’t say anything by the hotline, she herself found information on the Internet that the entrance to the cemetery is carried out only on passes, funeral documents and as part of an organized tour. Nevertheless, in the end, everyone was allowed in the cemetery.

On January 16, the cemetery, which was built as the main state necropolis of the country, took the first large -scale funeral. For three and a half years, only twenty -seven people were buried here - including, for example, the former Minister of Defense Igor Rodionov and gunsmith Mikhail Kalashnikov; After today, the number of graves here has increased more than doubled.

The soloists of the ensemble Aleksandrov was buried in two stages: first, at 11.30,-the first fifteen who died in the Tu-154 plane crash; And after an hour and a half - twenty more.

Having gone through a long alley of heroes with 24 sculptures of Russian soldiers, supplemented by quotes about death and love for the Motherland, those who came to rest on two granite ceremonial premises. On January 16, both had to use both. At first, a group of loved ones, friends and fans of the victims crowded near the left building-the wide doors turned off and narrowed to the size of one person, which is why a small crush formed at the entrance to the hall; A sudden roar violated the mourning silence - this was given the last honors of the crew of the aircraft, whose members were buried even earlier.

Only relatives of the dead were allowed to the very farewell ceremony. Everyone else could go around a dozen and a half of the same closed dark coffins with photographs of the artists of the ensemble. Fragments of the bodies of the dead were composed in them, which were found and identified by the rescuers. In order to hand over DNA samples, relatives specially came to Moscow in advance; They brought the personal things of the deceased for burial. (Aronov, who was connected with Medusa, who introduced herself as a relative of one of the dead, said that they were “dismissed from them from annoying flies”, refusing, in particular, to pay for the travel of close victims of the catastrophe from the regions to Moscow. “The Ministry of Defense“ nod ”to the ensemble - they say, due to it, they answer in the ensemble: they answer: There is no money, we can’t help, ”she explained.)

According to information agencies, Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu and speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko took part in the farewell ceremony, but neither one nor the other performed. The Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov and Deputy Minister of Culture Vladimir Aristarchkhs spoke on behalf of the state. “They were the best. Those who will replace them will be proud of them, ”said Aristarkhov.

After the final speech, the hall, built in the style of the post -Soviet Empire, began to fill in the clergy: the victims had a small church choir, as well as more than ten priests, led by the oldest Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladyka Juvenal.

It was around the funeral service that a dispute arose between loved ones and representatives of the Ministry of Defense a few days before the funeral. The widow of one of the artists of the ensemble Nadezhda Stolyar published a letter in which she said that the department “did not want to attract special attention” to the funeral service, and then informed the Medusa correspondent that the church representatives were ready to conduct a funeral service in the temple at the Novodevichy Monastery, but supposedly “waited for the team”. The day after the Medusa material released, the carpenter told Kommersant that she was "very gently convinced that the funeral service would be in the cemetery."

The daughter -in -law of the chief chief chormaster of the ensemble Konstantin Mayorova Oksana told Medusa that military psychologists, working with the relatives of the dead, persuaded them not to protest against the burial in the memorial complex. However, Mayorov still managed to avoid the overall procedure - on the same Monday, January 16, he was an excuse Metropolitan Illarion and was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery next to relatives.

While relatives said goodbye to the deceased, Minister Maxim Sokolov, acting head of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense Sergey Fraletsev and other officials quietly discussed what had happened.

“Until the whole system is changed, such disasters will periodically occur,” Sokolov said doomedly.

- What is the system? I asked.

- The management system, which still largely depends on the person.

- That is, it was a crew error?

“No, in such cases it is always a combination of all factors,” the minister answered.

In response to the question, it would not be better to arrange a funeral service in the temple at Novodevichi or the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, as some relatives wanted, the minister said that “this is only a funeral service, but here is farewell and burial. And whoever wanted to take, in any temple. In general, I flew to the Valaam to put a candle ”(as Sokolov said, he was friends with Anton Gubankov, who died the Director of the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense).

One way or another, the decision to hold a farewell to the cemetery led to a strange situation: the same ceremony with the same speakers passed twice for different groups of the dead and their loved ones. When coffins were taken out of the left hall, a new line was already gathering at the right. There, too, relatives were planted behind the coffins, and everyone else was allowed to say goodbye in a circle (“We don’t linger, we pass further, please,” the commandant’s strict voice said from time to time.) Sokolov and Aristarchus also performed there - although they spoke without a piece of paper, could not but repeat themselves. There, too, after the final speech, people in white cassoons entered the hall. A man whose relative was lying in the only coffin without a cross looked sadly at them-the father of the 36-year-old artist of the ensemble Radik Zakirov sat all the funeral service in a skullcap, looking through the priests.

Meanwhile, the colleagues of the victims stood on the street - the surviving musicians of the ensemble Alexandrov, who did not fly into the unfortunate business trip and who were now not allowed for the funeral. Together, they watched the broadcast on the smartphone - the plot of the ceremony was already showing Channel One. “Let's take a place here, otherwise all day today is in the backyards,” one of them said.

Ilya Zhegulev

Moscow