“Nord-Ost. 17 years old ". The film Katerina Gordeeva - with the comments of the author. Premiere on "Medusa"

17 years ago, the operation to free the hostages of the theater center on Dubrovka ended. On October 23, 2002, a group of terrorists from Chechnya, led by Movsar Baraev, captured the theater in which the Nord-Ost musical shown-and for three days held 916 people from among the audience, actors and employees of the center. During the assault, a sleeping gas was launched into the theater; At the same time, at least 130 hostages were killed - their exact number has not yet been established, just as the composition of the used gas is not declassified. "Medusa" is represented by the film by journalist Katerina Gordeeva "Nord-Ost. 17 years old ”, which came out on the Utuyub channel“ Mosthenepozner ”, with the comments of the author.

Katerina Gordeeva, film author

This is a paradoxical thing, but little is known about the terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka. If there is an official version and a version of an independent investigation about Beslan, then about the Dubrovka terrorist attack - only the official version, dashed and very non -obvious. An independent investigation organized by relatives of the dead is not completed. Until now, much is completely incomprehensible: not like the terrorists were in the very center of Moscow five kilometers from the Kremlin; Not how they managed to go inside. Not a single police officer was punished that missed the car weed with weapons and explosives. The composition of the gas used in the assault is still a state secret. Like the staff of the headquarters, and even the number of headquarters. I had an internal need to try to figure out all this, to collect a complete picture. For a long time I lived with this idea, and in the beginning of autumn it became possible to implement it. On the 20th of September, we began to shoot.

Humanly, it was very important for me to understand what happened to the people who were in the hall, and those who were waiting outside. Often these were separated parents and children. Parents who knew that their children were in a ring of a marten tied with explosives, but could not do anything. I wanted to understand how these people live after the tragedy. Moreover, the Nord-Ost public organization created after the attack was the first to begin to ask the state questions. Prior to this, there were a huge number of terrorist attacks in Russia, but it all ended that the relatives of the victims paid minimal compensation - and everyone diverged. Relatives of the dead in the theater center were the first to decide to ask questions.

It is impossible to get answers to all questions from the state. But the relatives of the dead are very screaming for the fact that they could not make sure that all this did not happen again. They partly share the guilt for what later happened in Beslan. It seems to me that if the tragedy on Dubrovka was investigated, meaningful and not covered with a curtain of mystery, Beslan would not be, or the tragedy would be different.

The film has several main lines. First, we talk about events a few minutes before the hostage capture. Because “Nord-Ost” initially is a terribly beautiful and cool idea of ​​a large Russian musical with a budget of four million dollars. The musical, where the plane settled on the stage, was a hundred artists and a living orchestra. All the Muscovites and guests of the capital fell there with a rampart. At some point, he was in popularity with the Swan Lake. At the same time, there was a fantastic troupe and a close-knit team with very cool relationships: someone raised flowers in the theater center, the children made lessons and so on.

When there was a capture of the building, life was divided. And the second part of the film is about the people who were inside. They are very different-and very differently everything survived. Everything depended on which part of the hall you are sitting, which terrorist stands next to you - the one that lets it go to the toilet or not. People behaved completely differently. There were girls who were dying all the time - they were so experiencing stress. Children played games. One hostage said that they ate ice cream, because there was an ice cream in the hall. Others did not eat anything at all. The third was given a piece of bread, the fourth - a piece of chocolate. Sometimes there is a feeling that all these people were sitting in different places. Even on different planets.

Accordingly, the mood of people was different. Someone believed that they would save them. Others said that they could not fail - for example, they have a small infants. Someone did not believe in salvation and did not hope for anything. This is a very strange thing, but such people did not go out.

This is a line of hostages. And there is still a line of negotiations, and perhaps someone will appear in the film too detailed, but it was very important to me, because the picture of absolute chaos was formed. That no one was engaged in negotiations, in general. Those who went there went there. For some reason, someone went-someone called someone, they didn’t call someone, they were ready to see someone, they were not ready to see someone. In the film, we are talking with journalist Mark Franketti, who interviewed Baraev and Abubakar. With Yavlinsky, who managed to reach some agreements with the terrorists, but they were not eventually fulfilled.

We are talking with a man named Zaurbek Talhigov-the first convicted in the case of Nord-Ost. This is a Chechen, who came to the theater center the next evening after the capture - after Aslakhanov’s performance on TV, when he turned to all Moscow Chechens with a request to come and exchange himself for hostages. Talhigov arrived, and then in some strange way he turned out to be actually the only negotiator at the headquarters-because he spoke Chechen. The father of one of the dead in the center of the girls says that Talhigov tried to negotiate so that one of the hostages would be released. But on the eve of the assault, he was arrested and he served eight and a half years on charges of awarding terrorists. “Memorial” he is considered a political prisoner. In prison, he fell ill with hepatitis and diabetes. And in an interview tells his version. He believes that there is no guilt. He cannot explain why he was arrested and what was the reason.

There is also part of the film with security forces - people who directly participated in the assault. They say that there was no other way out [except for the assault]. They also say that they had an antidote and instructions for its use. They say that they used it, and some of the hostages confirm this.

All the victims explain the huge number of victims by the monstrous chaos that took place there. This is partly true, but you need to understand that the special operation began at about five in the morning. At five, gas was launched, at 6:40 power actions were over. Forty -forty people were under the influence of highly toxic gas. At the same time, Nord-Ost had 30-40 ambulances. That is, they could save 40 people. Alfa fighters say that each of them had five antidotes, but by that time there were 800 hostages. That is, there were more than 150 fighters with five antidotes. At the same time, they should have instructions on how to marry people who had already made an injection and how to treat them from a medical point of view. But no one knew this. That is, on the one hand there were doctors who did not know anything about the impending assault and were ready only for mine-explosive and fragmentation wounds. On the other hand, the fighters who knew about Gaza, but did not know what to do from a medical point of view. As a result, chaos reigned during the assault. The purpose of destroying terrorists was achieved, and no one set the targets to save people.

The last part of the film is how hostages live now. In Russia, there is still no status of a victim of terrorism, so they live as they do. For example, the hostage of Lilia Dudkin was pregnant in the fifth month and in February 2003 gave birth to a child with toxic encephalopathy and cerebral palsy. This girl is not considered a victim of terrorism, and the state does not pay for the necessary rehabilitation - and she costs four million rubles a year.

From work on the film we can conclude: the country made this tragedy and did not draw any conclusions. No one is protected. As a result, everything became tougher to Beslan. Everything has become more closed. If during the terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka there were some contacts between the state and hostages, then the state ceased to be considered necessary to talk to Beslan. During the Nord-Ost, the truth was still somehow important, although even then after the assault, power came out and said that everything went well and soon everything would wake up. Then it became known about 20 dead, then about 40, then about 100. And not a single relative was allowed into any hospital within a day. And then people had to ride Morgov throughout Moscow and look for their relatives.

It seems to me very important at least now document this story, write it down, give people the opportunity to say. Restore this memory as a puzzle so that at least something is preserved. Indeed, such a story happened with this terrorist attack that on the one hand there was no large independent investigation, on the other hand, the memory of the tragedy on Dubrovka was covered with Beslan, and with the third - the state tries to pretend that there was none of this. Says: "Let's live on." But every time you begin to live on from scratch, on this clean sheet something happens every time. Something breaks and then it is no longer possible to fix it.

Pavel Merzlikin recorded

Photo in the announcement: Anton Denisov / TASS