The tragedy at Luzhniki (on the Grand Sports Arena) - a mass crush with human casualties, occurred on Wednesday, October 20, 1982 at the end of the UEFA Cup match Spartak Moscow - FC Haarlem.

With the score 1:0 in favor of Spartak (Edgar Hess scored the first goal) a few minutes before final whistle some of the fans began to leave the stands. At that moment, Sergei Shvetsov scored the second goal against Haarlem, and many fans turned back. For fans that day, only one - eastern - stand was open, and all the gates that led from it to the street, except for one, were closed by the police in order to avoid riots; this prompted many fans to leave the stadium ahead of schedule, and not wait for the opportunity to leave for a long time after playing in cold air. It was in these only open gates that two streams of people collided - leaving the podium and returning to it.

The match was played to the end and ended with the victory of "Spartak" 2:0. Upon learning of the incident, Shvetsov said that he regretted the goal scored by him. The only message that appeared in the press (the Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper) looked like this: “Yesterday at Luzhniki, after football match There has been an accident. There are injured among the fans"

The investigation of the disaster was carried out by order of Yu. V. Andropov (three weeks after the event, who became the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee) in the shortest possible time. According to official figures, 66 people died; according to unofficial reports, only the number of seriously injured exceeded 300. The leadership of the Grand Sports Arena was found guilty. Fans consider the main cause of the events to be the actions of the police; there is an old fan song, the lyrics to which were written a few days after the tragedy.

The twentieth number is a bloody Wednesday;
We will remember this terrible day forever.
The match for the UEFA Cup has ended.
Played "Haarlem" and our "Spartak" (Moscow).
Not missing a real chance, Shvetsov scored a beautiful ball,
And the final whistle sounded - the suicide match ended.
And we were all very happy, because we won today.
We did not know even then about the dirty trick of the vile cop
They let us all in one passage,
Fifteen thousand is power
And there were steps in the ice,
And all the railings broke.
There pitifully stretched their hands,
Not one fan died there,
And from the crowd there were sounds:
“Back, guys, everyone back!”
When the crowd parted,
There were screams, there was blood
And so much blood was shed there;
And who is responsible for this blood?
Who is guilty? From whom are all the inquiries?
I can no longer answer.
The cops hushed up all the questions
And only friends lie in the graves.

In history, sooner or later, everything comes to the surface. Even what they are trying to drown under the thickness of years. But to the surface modern days the secret doesn't come out. She was hidden for seven years. And in today's material, we open the curtain on the tragedy that happened in Luzhniki on October 20, 1982. Let's open it a little, because there are still a lot of mysterious circumstances in the black secret of Luzhniki ... Guided by this idea, the editorial staff of "Soviet Sport" instructed its correspondents to raise from the bottom of the years one secret hidden from the people.

The tragedy at the stadium in Sheffield shocked the world. The largest television companies on the planet broadcast many hours of reporting from the scene. The domestic State Radio and Television did not let us down either, showing us football stadium, which became infamous throughout the world in a matter of hours.

And we... We looked at the screen, saw on it a football field covered with flowers, a field of human sorrow. And a completely different stadium popped up in my memory ...

Do you know why football matches are not held in Luzhniki at the end of October? Official references to the poor condition of the grass cover can hardly be considered solid - at Dynamo, for example, at this time the lawn is not better, but the games are on. Even international ones. So the grass is not the reason, but the reason. The reason, long and carefully hushed up by the initiates, lies elsewhere: these initiates are very much afraid to see flowers on the Luzhniki football field. Flowers in memory of the dead.

We knew and did not know about this tragedy. They believed and did not believe. And how could one believe that dozens of people could die in a matter of minutes at the main stadium of the country with its experience in holding the largest events?

But it was. It was on a frozen, icy day on October 20, 1982. Then the Moscow "Spartak" met in Luzhniki in the UEFA Cup match with the Dutch "Haarlem". On that rainy day, the first autumn snow fell in the morning. An icy wind howled, the mercury in the thermometers dropped to minus ten. In a word, the weather suddenly became the one in which the good owner of dogs regrets.

And yet the true fans did not stay at home. After all, it was played last match international season. And that they are cold and bad weather - "Spartak" will warm.

That evening, however, only about ten thousand tickets were sold. The Luzhniki administration decided that all the spectators could fit in one tribune - tribune "C". This makes it easier to keep order. They gathered the youth into separate sectors, and then cordoned them off as a "potentially disturbing element" with a double police ring. And there was no need to worry about possible unrest at the stadium.

Yes, they essentially did not exist, riots. True, the police detained a dozen or two people who tried to compensate for the lack of degrees in the street with the number of degrees taken inside. But, let us recall, this happened before the start of a real fight against drunkenness, so there was nothing out of the ordinary in this fact. Moreover, the fans tried to wave red and white flags a couple of times. But since the fight against the fans, unlike the drunkards, was already in full swing, the law enforcement officers quickly forced them to roll up the banners and pulled ten people out of the crowd. For edginess. The youth sectors have gone silent, showing emotions in the future only on unfortunate occasions. And there were a lot of them for the match - the Spartak team turned out to be painfully wasteful that day in the implementation of scoring situations. So, until the very last minute, the gates of the Dutch club, which, I must say, are very average in class, were taken only once.

From this last, ninetieth minute of the match, a new countdown begins - the time of the tragedy. Sergei Shvetsov, the hero of the match, in a conversation with one of us somehow escaped: "Oh, I wish I hadn't scored that goal! .."

Many fans have already stopped believing in the luck of the Muscovites and allowed themselves to shorten the match time by a few minutes - they rushed to the exit. At minus ten, an hour and a half on the podium is not an easy test ... Chilled in the wind, the police very actively invited them to this. As soon as the first spectators began to descend the stairs, a living corridor of uniforms was immediately formed, where young fans were especially persistently escorted (in other words, pushed).

Oh, that notorious police corridor! How many copies have already been broken around him, but no - after each football or hockey match, we are still forced to cautiously walk along this corridor invented by no one knows when and by whom.

Yes, you understand, - the commander of the police detachment convinced one of us special purpose under the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the Moscow City Executive Committee, police colonel D. Ivanov - such a corridor is a forced measure. And its only purpose is to ensure the safety of people. After all, the capacity of metro stations is limited. So our specialists made an accurate calculation of how wide this corridor should be in order for the metro to work smoothly.

Well, the arguments are clear. But is there really no other way out? We have an offer for those specialists who "calculated" the required width of the corridor. Let them calculate how many buses will be needed to take part of the fans to neighboring metro stations - this will significantly increase the throughput of those located near the stadium. Yes, of course, there will be additional costs. And a lot. But is a police cordon worth the small expense? After all, it consists of several thousand law enforcement officers, who at this very time should not pretend to be a wall, but fight crime. Who will calculate the damage from bruises and bumps inevitably received in the crowd? And who, finally, will calculate the moral damage from the humiliation that people experience in such corridors?

Anyone who has been to Luzhniki at least once knows: when leaving the upper sectors, viewers first get to the platform between the first and second floors, and from there a flight of stairs leads straight to the street. There are many of these marches in the stadium. But on October 20, 1982, in the sector where mostly young people were gathered, only one was not locked up. One single narrow passage for several thousand people. This can only be explained by the desire of the stadium workers to make their lives easier. To yourself, but not to others.

What such a policy leads to is known. Let us recall only one case, also hidden from the people, the events at the Sokolniki Sports Palace in 1976. One of us was present at the hockey game between Soviet and Canadian juniors, which ended tragically. And then most of the exits were closed and several dozen people died in the ensuing crush. This story is still waiting for its chroniclers. But one thing is certain: no lessons were learned from it. True, someone was punished, someone was fired. But these are not the lessons. We affirm that if the necessary conclusions had been drawn from what happened in 1976, the tragedy would not have happened in 1982...

So, as soon as the first spectators got up from their seats, the police, in cooperation with the administration, began an operation that, in the specific jargon of law enforcement agencies, is called “cleansing”. One can argue about the stylistic merits of this term, but it conveys the essence of the actions quite accurately - the fans began to be pushed to the exit. People were streaming down, pushing and sliding in an organized manner down the icy steps. And at that very moment, a cry of delight was suddenly born in the frosty air. Shvetsov did not let “Haarlem” go home lightly. Twenty seconds before the final whistle, he still drove the second ball into the gates of the guests. And in the stands, the success of the favorites was enthusiastically greeted.

And those who have already reached the lower steps? They, of course, wanted to know what happened twenty seconds before the end of the match at the stadium they left at the wrong time. Almost abandoned. And they turned back.

At that moment, the cry of delight turned into a cry of horror. For, remember, there was only one way out. And from above into the twilight passage of the tunnel they continued to push more and more people. Those who tried to stop were hurriedly told: "It's all over already. They scored - well, enjoy yourself on the street. Home, home. Don't stop on the aisle!" And those who, even after that, were not too in a hurry to crush, were helped - they were pushed in the back.

From above, the crowd sped up. From below, she accelerated herself. And two uncontrolled streams met on that very ill-fated narrow staircase.

It was something terrible. We could not move, and the crowd pressed on from above and below. It was no longer possible to cope with the distraught people. I saw a police officer, I think a major, jump into the crowd to stop her. But what could he do? It was already late. And he stayed in the crowd.

Since then, Volodya Andreev no longer goes to football. He, an avid Spartak fan in the past, bypasses the stadiums and switches the TV to another program if he sees a green rectangle on the screen football field. But he was lucky: he remained alive in that human meat grinder ...

One of us played basketball in the hall of the Luzhnikovskaya Small Sports Arena on the vindictive evening of October 20. Another accidentally drove along the embankment of the Moskva River shortly after the end of the match. One saw how the mangled bodies of people were piled on the frozen stone ground, but two policemen quickly took him out of the stadium. Another was pushed back to the pavement by a string of ambulances racing with beacons on. We were then twenty years old, and we, not strangers to sports, could well have ended up on the podium "C". We realized that something terrible had happened at the stadium. But what? Luzhniki in the blink of an eye cordoned off the police and internal troops- the tragedy was taken into the environment.

And it is still protected.

We know many journalists who tried to write about her. But until today, only "Vechernyaya Moskva" on October 21, 1982, told about the incident. And even then in passing: “Yesterday, after the end of a football match, an accident occurred in Luzhniki. There are victims among the fans.” A taboo was imposed on the topic - unspoken, of course, but no less effective.

At that time, it was believed that everything was fine in our state. And it just can't be bad. And suddenly - this! They pretended that nothing had happened. In the meantime, on October 20, doctors picked up dozens of corpses in Luzhniki. And the ambulances went from there to the morgues.

That was, if you remember, the time of the apotheosis of the fight against the fans. You can’t shout in the stands - you should sit decorously, as if in a theater. Putting on a hat with the colors of your favorite team or a "rose" (as the fans call scarves) on your head is almost a criminal offense. Yes, there is a "rose"! Try to put on at least a badge - already a fan. Atu him!

Militia outfits of tripled numbers without any reason (the obtrusively "patronized" spectator was not too eager to play football at the turn of the 70s and 80s) were by no means inactive. Fans - both true and suspected - were taken to police stations near the stadium, registered, rewritten, fined, reported to work or to institutes. In other words, they tried with all their might to make outcasts of society out of them, so that there was someone to point the finger at on occasion. And they succeeded.

It's scary to say, but the Luzhniki tragedy helped youth officials from the Komsomol. "The fans are to blame for everything" - this version has become official. And in the 135th police station, stationed in Luzhniki, everyone was shown red and white T-shirts, supposedly picked up at the stadium after the match. But for some reason, no one thought that at a temperature of minus ten, only a rare, excuse me, individual can go to football in a T-shirt. Well, no one cared about such trifles then.

So it turned out that this rainy day not only killed many parents of children - everything was done to kill the good memory of them.

We have met many of these prematurely aged fathers and mothers. They cried and talked about those who did not let these tears dry all seven years that have passed since the tragedy.

Their sons were ordinary guys - workers, students, schoolchildren. Moderately diligent, sometimes without measure careless - this is so characteristic of youth. Many, many of them were persuaded by their fathers and mothers not to go to Luzhniki on such a terribly cold and windy day. Ah, that they would have listened to that good advice!

When night fell on Moscow, none of them returned home. The parents rushed to the police station, but there they could not answer anything - there was no information. Then they rushed to Luzhniki, to the stadium, which was cordoned off. They were not let through the cordon, and they stood behind the police line, lost in the unknown.

Then, in the morning, they rushed around the capital's morgues, trying to identify and being afraid to identify the bodies of their sons. And then they waited for a long thirteen days, because only then, on someone's nameless, but clearly high-ranking order, they were allowed to bury their children. "Bad" children who gave everyone so much unnecessary trouble and trouble.

Coffins with their bodies were allowed to be brought home on the way to the cemetery. Exactly forty minutes - no more. Say goodbye in the presence of policemen. And then in an organized manner, with an escort - on their last journey. The only thing they were allowed to do for themselves was to choose cemeteries. They chose different ones, and now, after the lapse of years, they regret that there is more than one - if it happened to any of them, the sisters and brothers in misfortune over the grave would have been looked after as their sons. However, everything seems to have been thought out here too - the authorities did not need a memorial, and it is not easy to find graves in different cemeteries.

For the most main question parents: who is to blame for the death of their children? - they were answered immediately: the children themselves. Created a tense environment. That is why blood was shed. Are you hungry for more blood? Wait, there will be judgment.

Until the very meeting, until February 8, 1983, they fought in search of lawyers. No one came forward to protect the dead. So there were no lawyers. Now the failed defenders unanimously urged us to remember what time it was then.

“Who,” they asked, “would you like us to blame? Courage, civil and professional, also, you know, has its limits ... Well, they have become bolder now - then they refused without explanation.

The court presented the main culprit as the accomplished commandant of the Grand Sports Arena Panchikhin, who had worked in this position for two and a half months until the terrible day, and determined his sentence of 1.5 years of corrective labor. The cases of the then leaders of the stadium - Lyzhin, Kokryshev, Koryagin - were brought to separate legal proceedings and did not end with a guilty verdict. The question of why such an inexperienced worker was entrusted with the security of the exit of thousands of people from the stadium remained unanswered in court. The actions of the police officers did not receive any assessment at all - judge Nikitin did not take much into account the testimony of the survivors of the victims. They wanted, they say, blood - get Panchikhin.

But the parents didn't want to dead guys blood. It wasn't about revenge, it was about a lesson. To prevent this tragedy from happening again. But, alas, no one heard their voices - letters addressed to high authorities remained unanswered. Let's listen to them even today, almost seven years later.

We want and wanted only one thing - to know the true culprits of the death of our children, - the voice of Nina Alexandrovna Novostroyeva, who lost her only son on that fateful day, trembles - A person who has worked at the stadium for a week without a year cannot be responsible for everything. But the truth has been surrounded for us all these years by a conspiracy of silence and lies. We never found the truth. As they could not find the personal belongings of the dead, the guys were given to us completely undressed. As they have not been able to get on the ill-fated staircase over the years, on the day of the anniversary of their death, it is closed from us on purpose. As they could not get help in erecting monuments on their graves, all promises of help on the day of the funeral turned out to be empty words. They were called hooligans. Which of these people knew our children during their lifetime in order to expose them as outcasts after death? How to break through this routine of callousness, rigidity, indifference? "Why did you let them in there?" - the then chairman of the Moscow City Court calmly answered all these questions. Not remembering myself anymore, I told him that, apparently, we would be able to talk on equal terms only when grief came to his family. Of course, not everyone was as hard-hearted and heartless. We remember with what pain some police officers told us about the tragedy. We remember those of them who tried, not sparing their lives, to graze our children. But we cannot forgive those who tacitly approved of the foul fuss around this tragedy.

After the Sheffield tragedy, Soviet Sport published a black list of football victims who died at different times in stadiums around the world. Luzhniki was then put in this row, but, of course, they could not give the exact number of the dead. We cannot, unfortunately, do this even now, although our readers ask us to do so. The secret of Luzhniki remains a black secret. The court did not name the exact number of victims at the time. It is practically impossible to determine it: even today, as you know, our archives are closed and guarded, perhaps, stronger than defense factories. Prosecutors say 66 people died. The parents of the dead children say that there were more victims and we have no reason not to believe in it.

We are indebted to those guys who died seven years ago at Luzhniki. And therefore we promise that on October 20, in spite of everything, we will come to the staircase where the tragedy occurred. And put flowers on it. From U.S. And hopefully from all of you.

The time has come to tell the truth about those who died, and about those who are guilty of the tragedy, about those who hid this tragedy from us. Justice has no statute of limitations.

Not so long ago, one of us had to attend a friendly football match between Soviet and British diplomats. And when the referee interrupted the meeting and announced a minute of silence in memory of those who died in Sheffield, the thought hurt: “Well, why hasn’t a minute of silence been declared at any game of the USSR championship in six seasons? Why do we honor the memory of the dead Englishmen and forget the dead compatriots? Why? .."

"Do not stir up the old, guys, - they gave us advice more than once while we were preparing this material. - Why do you need this?"

Then, so that the tragedy does not happen again.

March 1989 Cold spring evening. Icy steps underfoot. Police corridor. "It's all over already. Come on in. Home, home. Don't stop at the aisle!" This is a picture of the current football season. It looks like it, doesn't it?

This is the worst thing - to forget the lessons of the past.

Sergey Mikulik, Sergey Toporov

All events that take place in the Luzhniki sports complex are destined to be spectacular and interesting. It was here that for the first time Muscovites and guests of the city could enjoy the live performance of Michael Jackson, Billy Idol, Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys, Scorpions and Nazareth.

And at the end of last year, the Grand Sports Arena was opened, which can accommodate more than eighty thousand spectators. Interestingly, after the repair, the structure retained its authentic appearance.

Luzhniki also hosted the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, three matches group stage, one of the semi-finals and the final match. At the end of the tournament, there will be a number of other events that are planned for this year.

Luzhniki concerts 2018: the main events of this year

July was full of events for football fans. Many key events of this Championship took place in Luzhniki. But now even those who do not have a great love for football will be able to visit the renovated sports complex. Indeed, in 2018, a number of events will take place here, which many Russians have been waiting for a long time.

And the nearest of them, namely the fiftieth tournament of the World Fighting Championship Akhmat league, will be held on the eighteenth of August in the Luzhniki Sports Complex, the Rossiya State Central Concert Hall. There will be a fight in easy weight category. Azam Gaforov and Imran Bukuev will meet in a duel. Evgeny Goncharov will compete with Zelimkhan Umiev for the title of heavyweight champion. The intrigue of this event is the fight between Alexander Emelianenko and American Tony Johnson. Alexander, having served his sentence in prison, became part of the Akhmat Team, and this is a very important competition for him. Tony is a worthy contender, as he recently won a landslide victory over Alexander Volkov.

Tickets cost from 1.8 thousand rubles, but the price may increase in last days before the start of the tournament.

Also this year, a concert by the Imagine Dragons rock band and a performance from the Blue Man Group is expected at the Luzhniki Sports Complex.

Luzhniki concerts 2018: Imagine Dragons concert

On August 29, all Muscovites and guests of the city who are fans of rock music and fans of Imagine Dragons will be able to enjoy their work at the BSA Luzhniki. Ticket prices start from 3.5 thousand rubles.

This rock band is especially popular in Russia. Last year, the guys assembled "Olympic". And this concert, which was attended by thirty-five thousand people, is by far the most numerous in their career.

This summer in Moscow they will present their new album Combat Sports. Also at their concert will sing their hits The Vaccines.

The musicians are Grammy and Billboard Award winners, they released three albums that sold millions of copies, and also made several world tours.

Luzhniki concerts 2018: Blue Man Group performances

From November 28 to December 2 and from December 4 to 9, the Luzhniki Sports Palace will host a show by the phenomenal performance group Blue Man Group. This is their first performance in Russia. Ticket prices start from 4.5 thousand rubles.

This group of artists is also known as the "blue aliens" from New York. Their performance will appeal to everyone who loves contemporary art and experimental rock. In their work, they combine humor, music and modern technology. Their performances help to look at everyday things through the eyes of a child and laugh at how we sometimes exaggerate the meaning of completely unimportant things.

At the very end of the match 1/16 of the UEFA Cup between Spartak and the Dutch Haarlem, a crush arose in the stands, in which, according to official figures, 66 people died. According to unofficial data, collected mainly by the relatives of the victims, there are significantly more than 300.

On October 21, 2017, in the match of the 14th round of the RFPL championship, Spartak hosts Amkar. In memory of the terrible tragedy that happened 35 years ago, a memorial plaque will be installed at the Otkritie Arena stadium, and the meeting will begin with a moment of silence...

How it was?

October 20, 1982 in Moscow was not just cold, but very cold. For mid-autumn, it is extremely cold. Even the day before, the city was covered with snow, by evening the temperature dropped below minus 10. Many have become somehow not up to football. A match that could have sold out on a good day (the playoffs of the European club tournament after all!), lost its original attractiveness, and the stands of the 82,000th "Puddle" eventually did not fill even a quarter. Which in the end, no matter how blasphemous it sounds, affected the scale of the tragedy.

"Spartak" in this pair was considered, of course, the favorite, and already at the very beginning of the match confirmed its status: at the 16th minute Edgar Hess opened an account. It seemed that it would go on and on, just have time to follow the scoreboard, but that was not the case. The match suddenly took on a viscous character, and the fans had to entertain themselves with winter fun in order to keep warm. Snowballs flew around the entire perimeter, and the police also got it, which reacted extremely negatively to the "aggression" ...

Not everyone had the strength and patience to wait for the final whistle. Toward the end of the match, the stiff fans moved out, creating a dense stream at the so-called "first" stairs of stand C, for some reason the only one left for the passage. According to one version, because of the negligence of the stadium workers. According to another, because of the revenge on the part of police officers for snow shelling during the match.

Be that as it may, in this artificially created "pipe" a dull crush gradually arose: there were too many people who wanted to quickly dive into the subway and the corridor was too narrow, leaving no room for maneuver.

And it must happen that 20 seconds before the end of the match, Spartak forward Sergei Shvetsov succeeded in another precise blow— 2:0! The reaction of the crowd was as predictable as it was unexpected: a dense mass of people moving in one direction suddenly stood up and swayed back. The front rows slowed down, the rear rows continued to move by inertia ...

“When I saw a strange, somehow unnaturally upturned face of a guy with a trickle of blood from his nose and realized that he was unconscious, I was scared,” one of the eyewitnesses of the tragedy later recalled. “The weakest were already dying here, in the corridor. Their limp bodies continued to move towards the exit along with the living ones. But the most terrible thing happened on the stairs. Someone tripped and fell. Those who stopped in an attempt to help were immediately swept away, knocked down and trampled on. Others continued to stumble over them, the mountain of bodies grew. The stair railings failed.

It was the most real meat grinder. Creepy, unreal picture...

Top secret

In our time, when every fan has his own media in his pocket, it’s impossible to think that the authorities have kept information about the terrible Luzhnikov tragedy as secret as possible. On October 21, Vechernyaya Moskva published the following information in small print: “An accident occurred at Luzhniki yesterday after the end of a football match. There are casualties among the fans." And for a long time it was the only mention of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the Soviet press.

About what happened in Moscow on October 20, 1982, the country found out only after 7 years, when the journalists of "Soviet Sport" took up the investigation. Yes, and very quickly, literally after the first publication, they shut their mouths.

Who is guilty?

Special services carried out “work” with the stadium workers and eyewitnesses, officials were carefully instructed, the investigation was kept as secret as possible. That is why it is still unclear how, why and through whose fault the terrible tragedy became possible.

“I was among the police officers who ensured public order that tragic evening,” recalls police colonel Vyacheslav Bondarev. - Many, over time, blamed the police for the tragedy, but, in my opinion, it is the administration of the Grand Sports Arena that is to blame for what happened. It so happened that the bulk of the audience gathered in the East and West stands, each of which at that time could accommodate about 22 thousand. The North and South stands were completely empty. When the game came to an end, the people gradually began to leave their seats and head for the exit. And suddenly Spartak scores the second goal. General rejoicing began, and the fans, who were about to go home, moved in the opposite direction. Confusion, crush. Here to let people on south stand, and even open the exits there ... Then the flow of people would pass through the exits from the four stands. Alas, this was not done.

Then everything happened like in a nightmare. I saw how the ambulances arrived, how the evacuation of the victims began. There was no blood. People received so-called non-mechanical damage. In a crazy stream, some fans fell to the ground, others immediately fell on them. Those who found themselves at the very bottom of the resulting pile of bodies, apparently, died from the stampede, some simply suffocated. The stairs leading to the exit were covered with ice and snow, the stadium workers did not even bother to sprinkle them with sand. People slipped and fell, at best they got injured ...

- These are all cop stories, - retorts the famous "Professor" - Amir Khuslyutdinov, one of the most respected Spartak fans, who found himself at the epicenter of the events 35 years ago. - How many times it happened. People leave the podium, and then Spartak scores a goal. Everyone shouts, rejoices, but continues to move. Nobody ever returned. This version was invented by the police so that no one could see their guilt in what happened. Like, two threads collided, and they could not do anything about it.

I had a ticket to stand B, but since the opponent was not very significant, and there were not many people for the match, a thousand spectators were placed in stand A, the rest were sent to stand C. The rest are 14 thousand 200 people. Two mid-flight stairs from the upper sectors led to one so-called common balcony. And of the four exits, only one was open. The snowballs also played their part. The people who were supposed to keep order in the stadium and obey the law got really angry with us because of this snow shelling. There was evidence that fans were being pushed to exit. In a dense stream of fans moving towards the gate, pushing each other. One sharp push, another, and now someone who was weaker fell, someone walking behind him stumbled on him and also found himself underfoot ... But people continued to move, trampling the weak. The instinct of self-preservation is such a thing that sometimes completely turns off conscience and compassion. People, surrounded on all sides by the crowd, suffocated, lost consciousness, fell ... Panic grew, no one was able to take control of the situation.

On the very balcony where the two streams joined, there were railings. Well-welded railings. However, they could not withstand the pressure of a large number of people. Those who fell from the balcony escaped with fractures. Those who remained at the top, were under the rubble ...

Found the extreme

The investigation of the tragedy was conducted by the investigative team of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, and according to purely external signs - interrogations of 150 witnesses, more than 10 volumes of the case - there seem to be no questions for the investigation. But it is clear that an objective investigation of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the conditions of that time was completely impossible. The culprits were simply named.

The sword of "justice" fell in the end on commandant of the Panchikhin Big Sports Arena, who, in essence, had nothing to do with the organization of the match, and indeed worked in this position for a couple of months. It is known that Panchikhin was discharged for 3 years of corrective labor, of which he worked one and a half. BSA Director Kokryshev, sentenced to the same 3 years, was amnestied. And about other punishments, even if they were, history is silent.

“The authorities were not afraid of us, but of the performance of Spartak fans,” she recalled in an interview with Sport-Express. Raisa Viktorova, mother of 17-year-old Oleg who died in Luzhniki. - They didn’t let me go to court at all, since the summons was sent only to my husband’s name. I made a scandal. I didn't care at the time. Not much time had passed, and we were ready to tear all the police to pieces. The case consisted of 12 volumes. Nevertheless, one day was enough for the court. They came to the conclusion that it was just an accident, and one commandant was punished. Many years later an investigator named Speer, who was engaged in our business, became seriously ill. His conscience tormented him, and he wanted to apologize to us, his parents, for following the authorities' lead, but he did not have time. And we knew from the first day that the police were to blame. When a year later they came to the place of death of our guys to honor their memory, KGB officers with impenetrable faces in black jackets and ties were standing around. We were not even allowed to lay flowers. We threw them over the fence. All sorts of obstacles were repaired for almost ten years. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, a memorial was erected in Luzhniki, and I bow low to the people who paid attention to us ...

And now about football

In the return match, Spartak beat the Dutch no less confidently - 3:1 - and made it to the 1/8 finals, where they could not cope with the Spanish Valencia (0:0 and 0:2).

But who cares now?

At the very end of the match 1/16 of the UEFA Cup between Spartak and the Dutch Haarlem, a crush arose in the stands, in which, according to official figures, 66 people died. According to unofficial data, collected mainly by the relatives of the victims, there are significantly more than 300.

On October 21, 2017, in the match of the 14th round of the RFPL championship, Spartak hosts Amkar. In memory of the terrible tragedy that happened 35 years ago, a memorial plaque will be installed at the Otkritie Arena stadium, and the meeting will begin with a moment of silence…

How it was?

October 20, 1982 in Moscow was not just cold, but very cold. For mid-autumn - extremely cold. Even the day before, the city was covered with snow, by evening the temperature dropped below minus 10. Many have become somehow not up to football. The match, which on a good day could have collected a full house (the playoffs of a European club tournament, after all!), lost its original attractiveness, and the stands of the 82,000-strong Puddles eventually did not even fill a quarter. Which in the end, no matter how blasphemous it sounds, affected the scale of the tragedy.
"Spartak" in this pair was considered, of course, the favorite, and already at the very beginning of the match confirmed its status: in the 16th minute, Edgar Hess opened the scoring. It seemed that it would go on and on, just have time to follow the scoreboard, but that was not the case. The match suddenly took on a viscous character, and the fans had to entertain themselves with winter fun in order to keep warm. Snowballs flew around the entire perimeter, and the police also got it, which reacted extremely negatively to the “aggression” ...
Not everyone had the strength and patience to wait for the final whistle. Toward the end of the match, the stiff fans moved out, creating a dense stream at the so-called "first" stairs of stand C, for some reason the only one left for the passage. According to one version, because of the negligence of the stadium workers. On the other - because of the revenge on the part of police officers for snow shelling during the match.
Be that as it may, in this artificially created "pipe" a dull crush gradually arose: there were too many people who wanted to quickly dive into the subway and the corridor was too narrow, leaving no room for maneuver.
And it must happen that 20 seconds before the end of the match, Spartak forward Sergei Shvetsov succeeded in another accurate blow - 2:0! The reaction of the crowd was as predictable as it was unexpected: a dense mass of people moving in one direction suddenly stood up and swayed back. The front rows slowed down, the rear rows continued to move by inertia ...
“When I saw a strange, somehow unnaturally upturned face of a guy with a trickle of blood from his nose and realized that he was unconscious, I became scared,” one of the eyewitnesses of the tragedy later recalled. - The weakest perished already here, in the corridor. Their limp bodies continued to move towards the exit along with the living ones. But the most terrible thing happened on the stairs. Someone tripped and fell. Those who stopped in an attempt to help were immediately swept away, knocked down and trampled on. Others continued to stumble over them, the mountain of bodies grew. The stair railings failed.
It was a real meat grinder. Creepy, unreal picture...

Top secret

In our time, when every fan has his own media in his pocket, it’s impossible to think that the authorities have kept information about the terrible Luzhnikov tragedy as secret as possible. On October 21, Vechernyaya Moskva published the following information in small print: “An accident occurred at Luzhniki yesterday after the end of a football match. There are casualties among the fans." And for a long time it was the only mention of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the Soviet press.
About what happened in Moscow on October 20, 1982, the country found out only after 7 years, when the journalists of "Soviet Sport" took up the investigation. Yes, and very quickly, literally after the first publication, they shut their mouths.

Who is guilty?

Special services carried out “work” with the stadium workers and eyewitnesses, officials were carefully instructed, the investigation was kept as secret as possible. That is why it is still unclear how, why and through whose fault the terrible tragedy became possible.
- I was among the militiamen who ensured public order on that tragic evening, - militia colonel Vyacheslav Bondarev recalls. - After a while, many blamed the policemen for the tragedy, but, in my opinion, it is the administration of the Grand Sports Arena that is to blame for what happened. It so happened that the bulk of the audience gathered in the East and West stands, each of which at that time could accommodate about 22 thousand. The North and South stands were completely empty. When the game came to an end, the people gradually began to leave their seats and head for the exit. And suddenly Spartak scores the second goal. General rejoicing began, and the fans, who were about to go home, moved in the opposite direction. Confusion, crush. It would be nice to let people into the South Stand, and even open the exits there... Then the flow of people would pass through the exits from the four stands. Alas, this was not done. Then everything happened like in a nightmare. I saw how the ambulances arrived, how the evacuation of the victims began. There was no blood. People received so-called non-mechanical damage. In a crazy stream, some fans fell to the ground, others immediately fell on them. Those who found themselves at the very bottom of the resulting pile of bodies, apparently, died from the stampede, some simply suffocated. The stairs leading to the exit were covered with ice and snow, the stadium workers did not even bother to sprinkle them with sand. People slipped and fell, at best they got injured ...


Tragedy at Luzhniki
- These are all cop stories, - retorts the famous "Professor" - Amir Khuslyutdinov, one of the most respected Spartak fans, who found himself at the epicenter of events 35 years ago. - How many times it happened. People leave the podium, and then Spartak scores a goal. Everyone shouts, rejoices, but continues to move. Nobody ever returned. This version was invented by the police so that no one could see their guilt in what happened. Like, two threads collided, and they could not do anything about it.
I had a ticket to stand B, but since the opponent was not very significant, and there were few people for the match, a thousand spectators were placed on stand A, the rest were sent to stand C. The rest are 14 thousand 200 people. Two mid-flight stairs from the upper sectors led to one so-called common balcony. And of the four exits, only one was open. The snowballs also played their part. The people who were supposed to keep order in the stadium and obey the law got really angry with us because of this snow shelling. There was evidence that fans were being pushed to exit. In a dense stream of fans moving towards the gate, pushing each other. One sharp push, another, and now someone who was weaker fell, someone walking behind him stumbled on him and also found himself underfoot ... But people continued to move, trampling the weak. The instinct of self-preservation is such a thing that sometimes completely turns off conscience and compassion. People, surrounded on all sides by the crowd, suffocated, lost consciousness, fell ... Panic grew, no one was able to take control of the situation.
On the very balcony where the two streams joined, there were railings. Well-welded railings. However, they could not withstand the pressure of a large number of people. Those who fell from the balcony escaped with fractures. Those who remained at the top, were under the rubble ...

Found the extreme

The tragedy was investigated by the investigative team of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office, and according to purely external signs - interrogations of 150 witnesses, more than 10 volumes of the case - there seem to be no questions for the investigation. But it is clear that an objective investigation of the Luzhnikov tragedy in the conditions of that time was completely impossible. The culprits were simply named.
The sword of "justice" eventually fell on the commandant of the Grand Sports Arena Panchikhin, who, in essence, had nothing to do with the organization of the match, and generally worked in this position for a couple of months. It is known that Panchikhin was discharged for 3 years of corrective labor, of which he worked one and a half. Director of the BSA Kokryshev, who was sentenced to the same 3 years, was granted an amnesty. And about other punishments, even if they were, history is silent.
“The authorities were not afraid of us, but of the performance of Spartak fans,” recalled Raisa Viktorova, mother of 17-year-old Oleg, who died in Luzhniki, in an interview with Sport-Express. - They didn’t let me go to court at all, since the summons was sent only to the name of my husband. I made a scandal. I didn't care at the time. Not much time had passed, and we were ready to tear all the police to pieces. The case consisted of 12 volumes. Nevertheless, one day was enough for the court. They came to the conclusion that it was just an accident, and one commandant was punished. Many years later, an investigator named Speer, who handled our case, fell seriously ill. His conscience tormented him, and he wanted to apologize to us, his parents, for following the authorities' lead, but he did not have time. And we knew from the first day that the police were to blame. When a year later they came to the place of death of our guys to honor their memory, KGB officers with impenetrable faces in black jackets and ties were standing around. We were not even allowed to lay flowers. We threw them over the fence. All sorts of obstacles were repaired for almost ten years. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary, a memorial was erected in Luzhniki, and I bow low to the people who paid attention to us ...

And now about football

In the return match, Spartak beat the Dutch no less confidently - 3:1 - and made it to the 1/8 finals, where they failed to cope with the Spanish Valencia (0:0 and 0:2).
But who cares now?

CRUSH IN LUZHNIKI

Until recently, few people knew about the events that took place on October 20, 1982 at the Luzhniki stadium. That evening, as a result of the resulting stampede, according to various sources, from 66 to 340 people died. The exact number of victims is still unknown today.

Tragedies in stadiums are not uncommon. When the crowd is overwhelmed with emotions, it becomes uncontrollable. And sad statistics appear: Cali (Colombia), 1982 - 24 dead, 250 injured; Sheffield (England), 1989 - 45 dead, 200 injured; Guatemala, 1995 - 82 dead and 147 injured... Most of these people died not at the hands of angry fans, but as a result of a crush that formed in the stands or in narrow aisles. As a reminder of the tragedy, bouquets of flowers appear on the football field every year. Relatives and friends of the victims hold rallies - a tribute to those who will never come to cheer for their favorite team. All this was not at Luzhniki ...

The day when Moscow "Spartak" in the match of 1/16 finals of the UEFA Cup met in "Luzhniki" with the Dutch "Harlem" turned out to be cold. Snow, icy wind and ten-degree frost did not contribute to the full house in the stands of Luzhniki. But the Spartak fans were not going to miss the game: just think, it’s cold, as if you can’t warm up “from the inside”! Therefore, 16.5 thousand fans came to the match (this is the number given by the stadium director Viktor Kokryshev). Some of them are Dutch fans, but the main majority are ordinary Moscow youth, to whom the word “fans” can be applied with a big stretch.

In those years when the tragedy occurred, the construction of communism was still in full swing in the USSR. Therefore, the fan movement was perceived as something absolutely alien to the very spirit of the Soviet people. Law enforcement agencies were given appropriate instructions: to stop any actions of the fans (it got to the point that they were forbidden to come to the match with the paraphernalia of their favorite team, clap and chant slogans). But the more opposition the fans met, the stronger the feeling of protest became. The expression of contempt for law enforcement officers has become one of the main points of the unspoken code of fans. Therefore, the police officers, having discovered that there were not so many "wards" decided to gather them on one podium - podium "C". This made it easier to control the situation. In addition, only two stands were cleared by the beginning of the match, so it makes no sense to look for any special meaning in the actions of the police.

The match was generally calm: Spartak scored a goal against the guests, and until the last minute it seemed to everyone that the score would remain 1-0 in favor of Spartak. Therefore, those who were supposed to get home by electric trains began to gradually get out to the exit. The police cordon was only glad to be able to get warm as soon as possible, so they even began to hurry up those lagging behind. Some people had already managed to get out through the only open gate, when Sergei Shevtsov scored the second goal twenty seconds before the end of the match. Later, having learned about the tragedy, he will bitterly say: “Oh, I wish I hadn’t scored that goal ...”

Everything happened in a matter of minutes. The stands roared with delight, and some of the fans turned back to see what had happened. As a result, two oncoming streams collided in a narrow passage, on the stairs leading to the lobby from the arena. It remains only to guess which of the people compressed into a single mass stumbled first. But their fate was sealed: after a second's hesitation, the rear ones "pushed up", and the fallen ones were trampled. Due to the crush, the railing of the stairs failed. People walking from the edge began to fall from a height onto a concrete floor ... In a matter of minutes, 66 people died (according to other sources - 67) people, another 61 were injured and maimed, 21 of them were serious. The crippled people and corpses were piled by the militiamen on the frozen ground, and ambulances were called… Those who escaped the monstrous meat grinder were led through the same exit by the militia, not giving them time to look around. But many still saw the consequences of the stampede - crushed to death and crippled people who just a minute ago were sitting nearby and rejoiced at the game of Spartak ... Parents, worried about the absence of children, felt something was wrong and arrived at the stadium. But there was a cordon, they didn’t let anyone in ... The bodies of the dead were taken to the morgues.

The next day, October 21, the heads of all cemeteries in Moscow received telephone messages with an order to come to an emergency meeting with the head of the special trust, comrade. M. V. Popkov. There, having been warned about non-disclosure, they were told that a tragedy had occurred at the Luzhniki Stadium, by noon on October 21, 102 people had already died. There were still many seriously wounded in hospitals at that time, so the terrible figure should have increased. As a result, a state of emergency was declared for the trust. Those who died in Luzhniki were to be served out of turn, parents were given the right to choose a place in any cemetery in the city.

The dead were allowed to bury only 13 days later. Coffins with bodies on the way to the cemetery were allowed to be brought home - exactly forty minutes. Then, accompanied by a police escort, the cars drove off to various cemeteries... Meetings were banned. It seemed that the authorities only care about one thing: that everything that happened should not be made public.

Only a short message leaked to the press. Vechernyaya Moskva wrote sparingly: “October 20, 1982, after a football match at the Grand Sports Arena Central Stadium named after V. I. Lenin, when the spectators left, as a result of a violation of the order of movement of people, an accident occurred. There are victims. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is underway." The true scale of the incident and the course of the investigation that immediately began were carefully hushed up.

The investigation needed to find the culprit of the incident. In fact, only one version was considered: the stampede was formed because drunken fans slipped on the stairs covered with ice and covered with snow. No one was interested in where the ice came from in the inner closed passage. The court presented the director of the Grand Sports Arena Viktor Kokryshev and commandant Yuri Panchikhin as the main culprits of the incident. Shortly after the tragedy, they were arrested and convicted. Kokryshev was amnestied after the trial, while Panchikhin spent a year and a half in prison. They also tried to bring to justice the commander of the patrol service company, police major Karyagin. The same person who, at the moment of the stampede, rushed into the crowd and managed to pull several people out of the rubble. When the bodies of the victims were dismantled, he was found in critical condition. In the hospital, he was in intensive care for a long time and only therefore escaped imprisonment. But for the rest of his life he remained disabled ...

Those under investigation were accused of the fact that people of pre-retirement age worked as controllers at the stadium, who could not ensure compliance with safety instructions ... The statement is more than strange, especially considering two facts: firstly, the tragedy did not occur at all at the entrance to Luzhniki, but on exit, when everything was under the control of the police. Secondly, the controllers received such little money (36 kopecks per hour) that only those who could not earn money anywhere else agreed to this work. Another accusation looks much more serious: why that evening only one gate leading from the gallery to the street turned out to be open? In fact, two gates were open. Our fans were let out through one, the Dutch came out through others. Which, in fact, is not a crime at all. Foreign nationals in almost every country in the world are under special care. And what happened at “our” gates could be considered a fatal accident, if not for two circumstances.

Viktor Kokryshev mentioned that during the match between the fans and the police from the cordon there was a verbal skirmish. Some of the most zealous began to throw snowballs and pieces of ice at the policemen. The militiamen saved the response actions until the end of the match. They turned the flow of people to one of the two sliding gates to pull out offenders from the crowd. In response, the fans grappled with their elbows. Then the policemen decided to slightly move the gate leaves to make it easier to filter the crowd. Which was the real cause of the stampede ...

The second certificate was provided by Leonid Petrovich Chicherin, who at that time held the position of a senior researcher at one of the medical institutes in the capital. October 20, 1982 he was at the Luzhniki stadium. Seeing crushed and crippled people, Leonid Petrovich immediately offered his help, said that he was a doctor. What he saw was really scary: “The whole staircase was littered with people. There, about a meter and a half, they were definitely already dead (twenty minutes had already passed), above - groaning, and even further - a mass of standing people. They tried to send us again in the other direction, I again said that I was a doctor. I was missed. There were several military and police officers there. I asked them if they had called an ambulance. They didn't know anything." The driver of the only ambulance that arrived said that no more cars had been called. Then Chicherin himself called an ambulance and ordered 70 cars, explaining that a tragedy had occurred. The cars arrived at the stadium when almost an hour had passed since the tragedy ... Meanwhile, dozens of military trucks stood at the Luzhniki Stadium, which, without waiting for the arrival of the ambulances, could deliver the victims to the nearby clinics on the 1st and 2nd medical institutes. Then there would be fewer victims ...

Football players were the first to immortalize the memory of those who died at the stadium. In 1990, the first tournament dedicated to Spartak fans was held. And the evening of memory of the dead took place with a delay of 20 years - on October 20, 2000. Now on the stand "B" there is a monument to "The dead in the stadiums of the world." But those whose relatives did not return from the stadium after the Spartak-Harlem match perceive it as a memorial at the site of the Luzhnikov tragedy.

This text is an introductory piece.