It was not customary to talk about accidents and disasters, especially man-made ones, in the Soviet Union. Data on the events themselves, their causes and the number of people killed or injured were almost always hidden. Fortunately, in the absence of the Internet and other fast means of communication, it was relatively easy to do this. As a result, even today, many years later, few people know about these tragic events.
Explosion at the plant number 4D. June 21, 1957, Karaganda
Plant No. 4D of the "Karagandaugol" combine was engaged in the production of explosives and did it very well: by 1956 the enterprise was producing almost 33 tons of ammonite per day, exceeding the plan. By the time of the disaster, 338 people worked at the 4.5 hectare plant, 149 of whom were directly involved in the manufacture of explosives.
On June 21, 1957, a fire broke out in the workshop, which housed drums No. 5, 6 and 7 for mixing the components of future explosives. The paper containers stored in the workshop and the wooden structures of the building contributed to the rapid spread of the fire. The flames instantly engulfed the entire two-story brick building. At 17:15, a powerful explosion was heard in the workshop. The blast wave knocked out windows in the houses of a workers' village located 250 meters from the plant, as well as in more remote villages. The explosion killed 33 people working in the second shift, including the director of the plant. The deceased were buried in a mass grave at the Tikhonovskoye cemetery.
According to the official version of the expert and technological commission, violations were committed even during the construction of the plant. The small area of the plant, overcrowding of workshops and warehouses led to great destruction. The race to overfulfill the plan led to "gross violations of technology for the production of explosives, safety regulations and fire protection." Due to constant operation, the equipment located in a closed room heated up, which provoked an instant flash-explosion.
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Accident at Baikonur. October 24, 1960, Baikonur Cosmodrome
An unauthorized start of the R-16 second stage engine took place 30 minutes before the scheduled launch. The first stage tanks were destroyed and the propellant components exploded. The fire, according to official figures, killed 74 people. Later, four more people died from burns and wounds (according to other sources, from 92 to 126 people died). Among the dead was the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Chief Marshal of Artillery MI Nedelin. Therefore, in the West, this incident is known as the "Nedelin Catastrophe".
The catastrophe, which entailed a large number of victims, was caused by gross violations of safety rules in preparation for the launch and the desire to have time to launch an incompletely prepared rocket in time for the approaching holiday - the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The information about the disaster was classified, and the first mention of it in the Soviet media appeared only in 1989.
Kurenyov tragedy. March 13, 1961, Kurenivka, Kiev
This story began back in 1952, when the Kiev City Executive Committee decided to create a construction waste dump in Babi Yar. Over the next 10 years, liquid waste (slurry) from nearby brick factories was dumped into this landfill. In the early morning of March 13, 1961, at 6:45 am in the Kurenevka area, the dam that blocked Babi Yar began to collapse, and at 8:30 the dam burst.
A mud wall, about 20 meters wide and 14 meters high, rushed down. He was so strong that he demolished buildings, cars, 10-ton trams on its way, not to mention people. The flood lasted only an hour and a half, but its consequences were disastrous. As a result of the tragedy, the Spartak stadium was flooded with a layer of liquid mud and clay so much that its high fence was not visible. The pulp almost completely destroyed the tram fleet. The total volume of the descent pulp in the area of Kirillovskaya - Konstantinovskaya streets was up to 600 thousand m³ with a bedding thickness of up to 4 meters. The pulp itself soon became as hard as stone.
According to an official report labeled "for official use", the accident destroyed 68 residential and 13 office buildings. Unsuitable for habitation were 298 apartments and 163 private houses, in which 353 families of 1,228 people lived. There is no data on the dead and wounded in the report. Later, the number of 150 dead was named. Now the exact number of victims of the disaster is almost impossible to establish; according to the estimates of the Kiev historian Alexander Anisimov, this is about 1.5 thousand people. The authorities decided not to advertise the scale of the tragedy. On that day, long-distance and international communication was disconnected in Kiev. Information about the Kureniv events was subjected to strict censorship, many of the dead were buried in different cemeteries in Kiev and beyond, indicating different dates and causes of death in documents and in inscriptions on the graves. Troops were sent to eliminate the consequences of the disaster. The soldiers worked day and night. The official announcement of the disaster was broadcast on the radio only on March 16.
Explosion at the Minsk Radio Plant. March 10, 1972, Minsk
The explosion occurred at 19:30 local time, during the second shift. The force of the explosion was such that the 2-storey building completely fell into ruins. The explosion was heard a few kilometers from the scene of the tragedy. The fire was minimal, the fire was only in the ventilation shafts and the production waste accumulated in the shop was burning. During the first 10 minutes before the arrival of the rescuers, local residents and people who happened to be near the site of the tragedy entered the territory of the plant and provided all possible assistance to the victims. Later, police and army forces cordoned off the site of the tragedy, and information about the disaster from official sources was very scarce.
The rescue operation was complicated by the fact that the rescuers did not have sufficient equipment to disassemble the resulting debris. Many people died from hypothermia, at that time there were severe frosts, as well as from injuries, without waiting for help. Cranes for sorting out the rubble appeared at the site of the tragedy only by the morning of the next day. But they were not powerful enough, massive debris often fell off again, crushing the victims who continued to remain under the rubble. At the scene of the tragedy, 84 bodies were recovered by those killed. Another 22 people died in hospitals, in total 106 people became victims of the tragedy.
Immediately after the tragedy, there were several versions of what happened, one of which was that: the properties of imported varnish, which began to be used in production shortly before the tragedy, were not sufficiently investigated, the maximum rate of which was set at 65 g per 1 cubic meter, while after detailed research by military experts after the tragedy, it was revealed that even 5 g was an explosive dose.
Radiation accident in Chazhma Bay. August 10, 1985, Chazhma Bay, Shkotovo-22 settlement
The accident happened at the K-431 nuclear submarine of project 675, which on August 10, 1985 was located at pier No. 2 for recharging the reactor cores. When performing the work, non-standard lifting devices were used, and the requirements of nuclear safety and technology were also grossly violated. When lifting (the so-called "blowing") of the reactor cover, the compensating grid and absorbers rose from the reactor. At this moment, at a speed exceeding the permitted speed in the bay, a torpedo boat passed by. The wave raised by it led to the fact that the floating crane that held the lid lifted it even higher, and the reactor went into starting mode, which caused a thermal explosion. 11 officers and sailors carrying out the operation were instantly killed. Their bodies were almost completely vaporized by the explosion. Later, while searching in the harbor, small fragments of the remains were found.
In the center of the explosion, the radiation level, determined later from the surviving gold ring of one of the dead officers, was 90,000 roentgens per hour. A fire started on the submarine, which was accompanied by powerful emissions of radioactive dust and steam. Eyewitnesses who extinguished the fire told about large tongues of flame and puffs of brown smoke that escaped from a technological hole in the boat's hull. The reactor lid, weighing several tons, was thrown a hundred meters away. The extinguishing was carried out by untrained employees - workers of the shipyard and the crews of neighboring boats. At the same time, they did not have any special clothing or special equipment.
At the scene of the accident, an information blockade was established, the plant was cordoned off, the access control of the plant was strengthened. In the evening of the same day, the village's communication with the outside world was cut off. At the same time, no preventive and explanatory work with the population was carried out, as a result of which the population also received a dose of radiation exposure. It is known that a total of 290 people were injured as a result of the accident. Of these, 10 died at the time of the accident, 10 had acute radiation sickness, and 39 had a radiation reaction.
The Chernobyl accident. April 26, 1986, Pripyat
At 01:23:47 on Saturday, April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which completely destroyed the reactor. The power unit building partially collapsed, killing two people. A fire started in various rooms and on the roof. Subsequently, the remains of the core melted, a mixture of molten metal, sand, concrete and fuel fragments spread over the under-reactor rooms. Large amounts of radioactive substances were released into the environment. This is precisely why the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant radically differed from the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the explosion resembled a very powerful "dirty bomb" - the main damaging factor was radioactive contamination.
The accident is regarded as the largest of its kind in the entire history of nuclear energy, both in terms of the estimated number of people killed and affected by its consequences, and in terms of economic damage. 134 people suffered from radiation sickness of varying severity. More than 115 thousand people from the 30-kilometer zone were evacuated. Significant resources were mobilized to eliminate the consequences, more than 600 thousand people took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident. During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, another 19 deaths from 1987 to 2004 can presumably be attributed to its direct consequences. High doses of radiation to persons, mainly from the number of emergency workers and liquidators, have served or, with a certain degree of probability, may cause four thousand additional deaths from the long-term effects of radiation.
An accident at the Tchaikovsky lock. May 10, 1962, Votkinsk waterworks on the Kama river
It was planned to put the left lock chamber into operation on May 1, 1962, but the deadlines were constantly not met. The launch permit was received on May 7, 1962, and on the morning of May 8, the Mamin-Sibiryak steamer performed the first lock. On May 10, 1962, work continued in the right chamber of the lock and in the inter-chamber space. 63 people were employed in these works. In addition, there were people on the walls of the cell watching the airlock. At 14:45, the passenger steamer "Dmitry Furmanov" and the motor ship "Kriushi" loaded with timber, which were in the headwaters, received permission to lock. At 15:05, both vessels were moored against the inner wall of the lock chamber; dry cargo ship "Kriushi" was the first to enter the lock, followed by "Dmitry Furmanov". Both vessels signaled that they were ready to lock.
At 15:20, the right (inner) wall of the left chamber of the lock with a total length of 110 meters collapsed. The wall fell into the interchamber space, water gushed into the hole, instantly flooding the interchamber space and the right chamber of the airlock. The stern of the steamer "Dmitry Furmanov" began to be pulled into the hole, the crew of the steamer cut off the mooring lines and tried to prevent the tightening by giving full speed to the machines, but this failed. From the stern of the dry cargo ship "Kriushi" the ends were thrown, and by combined efforts the passenger steamer, on which there were 423 passengers and 52 crew, managed to get out of the hole. People were partly evacuated along rope ladders, partly they jumped onto a cargo ship. At this time, two construction engineers managed to close the gate and stop the flow of water into the lock. The exact number of victims was established later. They were 21 people, and another 15 people were injured.
The collapse of the dormitory building in Kurgan. January 12, 1983, Kurgan
A typical five-story brick building of a family hostel was built in 1973 in the village of Energetikov in the city of Kurgan. Located at 32, Constitution Avenue of the USSR. Located on the left bank of the Tobol River. On the night of January 12, 1983, part of the building collapsed into the riverbed, burying dozens of people underneath.
The commission investigating the tragedy found that a large heating main passes along the Tobol River, which burst, and this happened a long time ago, however, no one discovered or eliminated the consequences of the break, and the Kurgan CHPP which owned the heating main, having discovered a pressure drop in the highway, only increased it to normal, thus accelerating soil erosion. The slope on which the dormitory building stood was gradually washed away with boiling water, the cavern formed from a large water leak began to erode the basement and the foundation of the dormitory, as a result of which part of the building, which stood closer to the river and the emergency heating main, collapsed. The right corner of the end collapsed into boiling water. Inhabitants of the "left corner" in panic jumped out into the corridor, which was no longer there. The scalded bodies were washed immediately into Tobol, under the ice, and there they were carried away by the current.
After the disaster, the dormitory building was restored, however, it became shorter. The walls of the building were reinforced with brackets and screeds. This one is still in operation, people live in it. Late in the evening of Saturday 26 March 2016, brickwork collapsed around the window of apartment no. 50 on the fifth floor, as well as part of the eaves. In March 2017, residents of the hostel said that their roof was still leaking and it was impossible to stay in apartments, although the house was repaired after a court decision. 86 people live in 67 apartments of the building. According to the schedule, the start of the overhaul is scheduled for 2020 (construction control, roof and facade repair). Repair of the foundation is assigned to 2030, and basements to 2040.
Radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant. January 18, 1970, Nizhny Novgorod
The accident happened during the hydraulic tests of the first circuit of the nuclear submarine's power plant, when it was on the slipway of the mechanical assembly shop. For unknown reasons, an unauthorized launch of the reactor took place. After working at maximum power for about 10-15 seconds, it partially collapsed, throwing a total of more than 75 thousand curies into the workshop.
Directly in the shop at that time there were 150-200 workers, together with the neighboring rooms, separated only by a thin partition, there were up to 1500 people.
Twelve installers were killed immediately, the rest fell under the radioactive release. The radiation level in the workshop reached 60 thousand roentgens. The contamination of the area was avoided due to the closed nature of the workshop, but radioactive water was discharged into the Volga. Many went home that day without receiving the necessary decontamination treatment and medical assistance. Six victims were taken to a hospital in Moscow, three of them died a week later with a diagnosis of acute radiation sickness. Only the next day the workers began to wash with special solutions, their clothes and shoes were collected and burned. Without exception, they took a non-disclosure agreement for 25 years.
On the same day, 450 people, having learned about the incident, quit their jobs. The rest had to take part in the work to eliminate the consequences of the accident, which continued until April 24, 1970. More than a thousand people took part in them. From tools - a bucket, a mop and a rag, protection - a gauze bandage and rubber gloves. The payment was 50 rubles per person per day. By January 2005, out of more than a thousand participants, 380 people remained alive, by 2012 - less than three hundred. All are disabled people of I and II groups.