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Hostages I. Chernena, T. Koplakova tell their story
Written by Èðèíà Áîáðîâà   
Âòîðíèê, 29 Îêòÿáðü 2002
Hostages Irina Chernena, Tatiana Koplakova, Maria Lebedeva, Elena Privalenko, and Alla Ilchenko tell their story
 
57 HOURS OF HELL
 
The hostages had to sign nondisclosure agreements, but they still told ‘MK’ how it was
 
It is a wild picture: a hostage comes out through the hospital gate and is immediately set upon by forty TV cameras. There are hugs and tears, and the words of their family: “Give a person a chance to recover!”
 
“Why do you all flock like crows? We can’t get at our loved ones because there are more journalists than relatives here!” We heard this outside various hospitals. “We won’t give you our telephone number, or even our name. Why can’t you please just leave us in peace?”
 
Psychologists who worked with the hostages during these hectic days were no less categorical:
 
“Everyone reacts to stress differently, but there are two major reactions: violence, and emotional death. A person withdraws into himself. He falls into a stupor and does not wish to see anyone. Such people should be questioned slowly, and very gradually forced to relive the incident. This has to be done very carefully, so as not to drive the pain even deeper.”
 
We found hundreds of phone numbers for ‘Nord-Ost’ hostages, and called up dozens of their relatives.
 
“I'm doing fine, but I just can’t talk about it right now.” This was pretty much what most hostages told us. “I’m sitting here with my closest friends, but we try not to discuss it.”
 
Day to day relatives of those discharged thank us for our participation, and willingly share their joy with us:
 
“Thank you. So many have called us,” we heard in response. “We didn’t expect to get so much attention. We’re still at the hospital, but the tests look very good. I just talked with the chief physician and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we’ll be discharged.”
 
We call another number, but instead of an answer there is a sob.
 
“Natasha has just come to, but before that she was in intensive care the whole time. The doctors said that her chances were slim,” said the mother of Natalia Alexandrova. “We brought her a cell phone, and she just now called us. Her voice is weak, and she feels very poorly. Oh, girls, you just can’t imagine how terrible it is. Natasha is only 28 and she has two children…”
 
And once again, these terrible words:
 
“I don't know what happened to my friends.” 19-year-old Katya Shevchenko’s voice is dull and seems detached. “They still haven’t found all of them. I was in the musical… But where are the guys? Oh Lord, please let them still be alive!”
 
“Three months ago our friend Daniel’s wife and little daughter were killed a car crash. His sister and his parents went to ‘Nord-Ost’ that night. He’s been searching for his loved ones the whole time, and just last night he discovered the terrible truth: his father and sister were dead, while his mother, though alive, was in critical condition.”
 
Over the last two days about 300 former hostages have been released from city hospitals. Investigators have already questioned them, and everyone had to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
 
Here before you are the stories of those who not only feel fine, but also are well enough to tell about the 57 hours of Hell they just lived through.
 
 
Irina CHERNENA, age 38, teacher at School No. 1314: “The night before the assault, they showed us how they’d blow us up”
 
“Six of us went to the musical. I went with my little daughter and with some former students, Arkady Gerasimov and Andrei Chulichkov, and their girlfriends Lyuda and Sveta. I don’t remember the last names of girls. We only just met at ‘Nord-Ost’. Even though my boys had already finished school six years ago, we were still friends… All the days run into each other like a white spot, but I can remember some moments very clearly.
 
“I remember how it all started: there were the pilots on stage, the story is very patriotic, and so when these men in camouflage went on stage and no one looked surprised I thought that it was how it was supposed to be. But then Arkady nudged me; he had been to ‘Nord-Ost’ before. His voice was confused, and he said: That’s not in the script. Shots were fired in the air and the militants were absolutely sober and spoke very clearly, saying: We have nothing against you, just against your government! Somehow I just felt that this would take awhile, and the whole time I worried about my daughter, Olenka. Thank God she was released right away when they let out the children. Only after I called home and my relatives said she was home did I calm down a bit. But it was, of course, easier for us than for others: we didn’t have to change seats and so I could talk a lot with the boys. We stuck together and kept up each other’s spirits.
 
“I tried to talk with one female suicide bomber who was closest to us, but she wouldn’t speak to us… Only the first days were hard, it was stuffy and we very hungry, and that terrible orchestra pit and not being able to clean yourself up… Then came the torpor. Already we didn’t want to do anything, and we started getting used to this nightmare. Because of the heat I removed a lot of my clothing, and the militants also took off their camouflage and stayed in ‘civvies’. Some of them wore ‘Nord-Ost’ t-shirts.
 
“I knew right away when they released the gas — for a second there was this pungent odor in the auditorium. I told the boys to take off their clothes and breathe through them, and I took off my blouse. For another second shots rang out, but we still breathed through our sweaters with our heads on our knees. I remember the first few seconds, and the sound of running feet. Then I passed out and woke up in intensive care.
 
“That they would have blown us up… There could be no doubt. A few hours before the assault, it was clear that something was up. For a few seconds the female terrorists went around the auditorium with their hands on their belts. I was impressed by the clarity and speed with which they did everything. It was as if they’d practiced this more than once in this same auditorium. Each one counted exactly six seats, and suddenly they were everywhere. Had they been given the command, no one would have survived.
 
“Andrei’s alive. Yesterday I spoke with his father, and he’s still in the hospital. They haven’t found Arkady yet. We don’t know about the girls, either. The head physician at Hospital #1, where I was taken, told us later that whoever thought to breathe through their clothing survived. He also said that three more died of poisoning that night. I saw that Andrei and Sveta were able to pull off their clothes and put them to their faces, but why couldn’t Arkady and Lyuda have been able?”
   
 
Tatiana KOPLAKOVA, age 18, medical student: “I was like a zombie and saw the entire assault”
 
“I was at ‘Nord-Ost’ with my mother and aunt. We were sitting in the mezzanine, in the second row. We were lucky since no gun was pointed at me, no one pushed my family around, and we didn’t get split up. If I asked the militants for water, they gave it. If I wanted to call my father, they’d let me call him on my mobile phone.
 
“I talked with the suicide bomber women. One of them was in charge of our row. She said: I don’t want to die, but I’m ready to die for the idea.
 
“The night before the assault the Chechens said: Tomorrow at 10 am a representative of the President will come and all of you, perhaps, will live. You should have seen their eyes! None of us had any doubt that they’d still blow us up…
 
“When the gas came I noticed it right away. For a second there was this gray-green mist, which evaporated right away. I saw the militant women fall asleep immediately — none of them managed to even lift a finger. But the guys weren’t knocked out. They started running around and shouting something in their language, and shooting at random. I didn’t fall asleep, and I watched the whole assault with my own eyes. Though, frankly, when the gas was released I thought it was all over and that now we’d get blown up. Only now do I realize that it didn’t bring us death, but life.
 
“Everything was lightning fast. The Alphas (commandos) clearly knew what to do. There was no confusion and everyone did his part. After the shooting stopped, they started taking out the injured. They also ran upstairs to us and asked: Can you make it out on your own, or do you need help? I was like a zombie and couldn’t figure a thing out. I left on my own two feet, but my mother and aunt had to go to the hospital. Thank God everyone is alive. My mother’s at home, and my aunt was discharged today.
 
“It was impossible to negotiate with the bandits in any way, and there was no way anyone was going to end the war in one day. We understood this very well. We prayed for our security services: If only they could think of something so that I could survive this!”
 
 
Maria LEBEDEVA, 18, student: “They were all definitely stoned”
 
“I was sitting on the balcony in the 34th row. We’d wanted to go to this musical for some time, but we never could find the time. We got to go quite by accident. There were a couple of us, and we got together in a cafe and that same evening we went and bought tickets.
 
“From the outset the terrorists behaved more than a little strange. They trembled at the slightest sudden movement. They’d all but yell at the hostages and throw things at us. I got a feeling that they were very nervous and that something was bothering them a lot. They had no nerve, and that was noticeable.
 
“On the balcony there were six terrorists: three women and three men. They were all definitely stoned! No, not drunk, but on drugs. I can tell the difference between someone who’s stoned and someone who isn’t. Yes, and their behavior was weird. They had this vague look, and they were always on the lookout, as thought the whole time they were messing around. It didn’t look like they’d been drinking, though I never saw them shoot up, either. But who does that in public? Periodically they'd go out into the corridor, and probably there they got their ‘fix’.
 
“They fed us a little, but we weren’t hungry. We didn’t even want to eat. The first night the Chechens gave the children sandwiches, but they tossed chocolates to us. They also brought soda.
 
“From time to time each of the terrorists removed their mask. I carefully studied the faces of the Chechen women. It seemed to me that none of them were older than twenty. They never gave their names.
 
“All the terrorists talked with the adult hostages, but none of them spoke to the children. They answered our questions calmly, politely, but they were very reserved, just a few words and no further details. Sometimes they didn’t understand us and asked us to repeat it. Most likely it was because of the drugs that they were slow reacting and scatter-brained.
 
“I don’t know when they released the gas, since I was already fast asleep. I didn’t hear any explosions or gunfire. I just woke up in the hospital.”
    
 
Eugenia PRIVALENKO, age 15, schoolgirl: “I think there were about a hundred of them in the building”
 
“We sat in the second row of the mezzanine. The whole class went to the play. When the seizure of the building began, we were moved to different corners of the room. The Chechens allowed us to talk to each other, but we tried to speak as quietly as possible. We rarely saw Barayev. He almost never went where we were.
 
“We slept in our seats, though at the beginning the Chechens promised that we’d get blankets and mattresses. We weren’t allowed to lie on the floor, and it was forbidden to move around the auditorium on our own, or get up from our seats.
 
“I think there were a lot more militants in the auditorium than they said there were. Every hour there was a new face in the hall. You know, this is very strange: after all, usually when you spend a few days together, you get used to everyone and you know exactly what everybody looks like, but here… I think there were about a hundred of them in the building.
 
    
Alla ILICHENKO, 28, accountant at a travel agency: “One hour before the assault the Chechen woman told me: It’s time to pray”
 
“I went to the musical to rid myself of this depression that had enveloped me a few days before. Something went wrong at work, and I started having problems in my personal life, so it is correct to say that troubles never come in ones. Moreover, that same evening someone stole my purse with all of my ID, but by accident I’d put my ticket to ‘Nord-Ost’ in my coat pocket.
 
“When the seizure of the building started, I wasn’t even surprised or frightened. I continued to think about my problems. At the time I couldn’t imagine that it would all last so long.
 
“I sat in the stalls, in the 15th row. Next to me was one of the suicide bomber girls. The people next to us almost didn’t even talk, so I just sat in my depressed silence. Then I just had to speak with the Chechen girl. At first she didn’t pay attention, then it was like it was nothing and she started to talk. She said that last year her brother was killed, and six months ago her husband.
 
“She said: I have nothing to lose. I have nobody left, so I’m going for it even though I know it’s wrong. And at this point it was even more frightening, because I knew for sure that we wouldn’t make it out of there alive. She didn’t give her name. When I asked her age, she said that the oldest one there was 25.
 
“None of the militants changed into civilian clothes, or at least I didn’t see them. They stayed in camouflage.
 
“On the second day the hall was very stuffy. Many took off some of their clothes. The most embarrassing point for me came when they organized a toilet in the orchestra pit. They took 20 people at a time there, and it was quite a humiliating spectacle. We had to tear up our clothes and use cloth for toilet paper. Many of the hostages had stomach problems and threw up right under the seats where they were sitting.
 
“I have no doubt that every terrorist was ready to blow up the building, and would have done it. One hour before the assault the Chechen woman told me: It’s time to pray.”
 
In ‘Moskovsky Komsomolets’
 
 
 
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