The Russian Ekspress-Gazeta (Express Newspaper) has published the memoirs of journalists and rescuers who came to Spitak in December 1988 to help Armenia eliminate the consequences of the devastating earthquake, Report informs.
The article notes that upon learning about the tragedy, the Soviet country rallied - probably for the last time.
“Planes were flying from all over the world to the airports of Yerevan and Leninakan (currently Gyumri) - with tents, equipment, generators, food, clothing, medicine. Can you imagine that at such a difficult time for their people there were those who stole humanitarian aid?
At a meeting in Leninakan, the figures of property that disappeared without a trace were periodically announced,” recalled journalist and military publicist Vladislav Shurygin, who personally observed how strange teams of Armenians approached the planes and took away the cargo in an unknown direction. “Only if there was something not very valuable on board, unloading was left to the military. Here are my notes from a notebook of that time: “500 French tents with stoves and sleeping bags”, “300 German diesel generators”, “15 tons of canned meat”, “2,000 sets of winter uniforms”, “10 tons of NATO dry rations”, “3,000 blankets.” At the same time, as in Yerevan, in Leninakan behind the strip there were piles of gutted parcels of stupid Soviet “Samaritans” who compassionately gave their warm clothes, children’s clothes, etc. to help the victims. At best, they were used as rags. To see such an attitude towards truly popular sympathy was offensive and disgusting,” the publication notes.
The memories of the rescuers who worked in Spitak and Leninakan coincide with the words of Shurygin: “They told the same thing as Shurygin. They told that there were very few locals on the rubble: the military and volunteers were working. They immediately began to start crazy rumors: they say, these are Russian military geophysical weapons were tested - the Armenians were being diverted from Karabakh. That, when there was still hope of unearthing the living, the latest equipment for searching for people in the rubble was stolen from the French rescuers. And how unidentified bodies, even those that could not be identified without an examination, were declared to have two pairs of parents fighting over the corpse - because for each dead person they gave 200 rubles.”