7 secret man-made disasters of the USSR

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

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, not many 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 catastrophe, 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' settlement located 250 meters from the plant, as well as in more distant settlements. The explosion killed 33 people working in the second shift, including the director of the plant. The dead 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 the constant operation, the equipment located in a closed room heated up, which provoked an instant flash-explosion.

Catastrophe 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 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 marked “for official use”, 68 residential and 13 office buildings were destroyed as a result of the accident. 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 communications were disconnected in Kiev. Information about the Kurenev 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.

An explosion at the Minsk Radio Plant. March 10, 1972, Minsk

The explosion occurred at 19:30 local time, during the work of the second shift. The force of the explosion was such that the 2-storey building was completely reduced to rubble. The explosion was heard a few kilometers from the site of the tragedy. The fire was minimal, the fire was only in the ventilation shafts and the production waste that had 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 catastrophe 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 rubble. 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 were insufficiently studied, which began to be used in production shortly before the tragedy, 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 the Chazhma Bay. August 10, 1985, Chazhma Bay, Shkotovo-22 settlement

The accident happened at the nuclear submarine K-431 of project 675, which on August 10, 1985 was at pier No. 2 for recharging the reactor cores. When performing the work, non-standard lifting devices were used, as well as the requirements of nuclear safety and technology were grossly violated. When lifting (the so-called "blowing") of the reactor cover, the compensating grid and absorbers rose from the reactor. At that moment, at a speed exceeding the permitted speed in the bay, a torpedo boat passed by. The wave he raised 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, which was subsequently determined 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 spoke of 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 back a hundred meters. 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.

An information blockade was set at the scene of the accident, the plant was cordoned off, and the plant's access control 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 broke out 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 have been 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.

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 moment there were 150-200 workers, together with the neighboring rooms, separated only by a thin partition, there were up to 1500 people. Twelve installers died 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. On that day, many went home 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.