On the night of September 8-9, 1999, at around midnight, a residential building was blown up on Guryanov Street in Moscow. Two of the six entrances of an ordinary nine-storey building in Pechatniki were completely destroyed. The terrorists planted huge explosives…
Anton Denisov / TASS
Rescue workers are clearing debris at the site of an explosion in a residential building on Guryanov Street in Moscow.
This was a war that terrorists declared on the people. Almost every day in those days houses were blown up in Russian cities. Buynaksk, Volgodonsk, Moscow – in the capital, they first blew up a house on Guryanov Street, and then on Kashirka Street. Moreover, they did it on the day of remembrance of those killed in the first terrorist attack. People realized that their house could be next: they organized squads, made rounds and guarded basements and utility rooms.
The explosion at the house on Guryanov Street was the first in Moscow, which is why its roar was so deafening. More than 100 people were killed and more than 200 were injured. And the victims’ relatives suffered injuries from which they will never recover for the rest of their lives.
In 2019, I met with Olga Filatova, who later lost her son Andrei. He had just seen his wife and son off on vacation and was going to visit his mother, but ended up staying at home.
“When I heard what had happened, I felt bad. I don’t know how I got home. He simply told his neighbour Lyusya: ‘I have a misfortune…’” Our whole household cried for Andryusha, Olga Ivanovna recalled.
Many relatives then had to go through a long and humiliating DNA procedure. People were contacted and treated as if they were guilty of everything, adding to the workload of the specialists.
– The police, when I asked why my son was among the missing, replied: “You never know, maybe he went somewhere and wasn’t at home.” They treated me so badly… A year has passed. I don’t know how I didn’t go crazy. Then my daughter-in-law and I were called to an institution. The daughter-in-law was shown an album with photographs showing Andrei’s body. I was told that they wouldn’t show it to me,” Olga Ivanovna said.
The rest of this woman’s life was spent in memories of her son. In 2021, Olga Ivanovna passed away. She was finally able to see her son Andryusha.
A small memorial was built on the site of the blown-up house on Guryanov Street, and new high-rise buildings were built nearby…
Valery (he did not give his last name in a conversation with me) in 1999 was a platoon commander of a separate special motorized battalion of internal troops, which was stationed in Lyubertsy. Shortly after the explosion in Guryanov, he and the soldiers were sent to the scene of the incident.
– We were informed that the domestic gas had exploded. And when we arrived and saw… It was terrifying. Because my parents are in the same area, 15 minutes away. I am a soldier and I immediately determined that it was not a gas explosion, but sabotage,” Valery recalled five years ago.
He is currently in hospital after receiving two injuries in the Northern Military Region. One is serious and will take a long time to heal.
… Physical and mental injuries: there were so many. And how many more will there be?
