On the evening of October 5, 1948 Ashgabat lived ordinary life. The evening was warm and quiet, with clear starry sky. There was music playing on the dance floors in the parks. In student dormitories they prepared for classes and published wall newspapers. Couples in love walked along the shady streets and sat on benches. Ashgabat residents enjoyed the evening coolness. The windows of the houses were wide open. The city gradually calmed down, the inhabitants retired. Many in warm weather they preferred to sleep on the roofs of adobe houses, in the breeze... They did not know that this would save their lives.
Around one o'clock in the morning, belated night owls saw strange flashes and reflections of light over the mountains. At the same time, dogs in the city began to howl and worry; many of them began to rush out of the house or run up to their owners and drag them into the street by their clothes. Some perplexed owners went out for a walk with them... They did not know that this would save their lives.
In the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, according to the fashion of that time, there was a night meeting. It was dedicated to the problems of Kara-Bogaz, and was attended by many specialists and party workers. They didn't know that it would save their lives...
At 1 hour 14 minutes 1 second October 6, 1948 began what Ashgabat residents initially mistook for the third world war and the atomic bombing.
From the memories of survivors of the Ashgabat earthquake:
“In the middle of the night - a menacing roar, then a roar and a crack, the earth shook and swayed. Half-awake, I thought: again I was dreaming of war and bombing! But this catastrophe was worse than the bombing. Realizing, I jumped up and ran out into the yard, the house collapsed behind me. Clouds of flying dust , the swaying trees and falling houses were illuminated by some strange yellowish light. Then darkness fell and screams and crying were heard from all sides; the crimson flames of blazing fires lit up, and the earth continued to tremble from time to time, bricks fell down, and the remaining walls fell. ...They dug up the pillow, and under it was the mother’s face. She was alive, but wounded, unconscious and already suffocating, a neighbor ran up, we lifted the beam and pulled out the mother.”
"In the dead of night, an unexpected vertical blow of terrible force shook the area. Even heavy objects jumped high into the air, and a moment later everything began to move. Our familiar, strong and motionless earth swayed like the deck of a ship in a storm. Something was rocking, pushing, it was difficult stand on your feet. A dull underground rumble was heard. The night lights went out, the leaves rustled, as if a gust of wind swept through the gardens. Thick clouds of smoke (dust) enveloped the city. It was difficult to breathe. Then everything calmed down.
"Everyone in the house was asleep. I finished work and was looking through the newspapers. The tremors began immediately very strong... I immediately jumped out of my chair, ran across the room to the opposite wall to grab my sleeping son and run into the yard. But the ceiling began to collapse... and That’s why I lay down on him - it was too late to leave.”
Instead of transparent starry night There was an impenetrable milky-white wall above Ashgabat, and behind it there were terrible moans, screams, and cries for help.
IN pitch darkness, in a dense curtain of dust, people who accidentally escaped and managed to get out from under the ruins are frantically digging out their loved ones and neighbors by touch, with their bare hands. In some places there are fires. In their incorrect light, it is necessary to provide help to the saved, but there is nothing at hand. Those who were dug out in the first few hours were saved, the rest were unlucky: before dawn new push with a power of 7-8 points, it finally buries them under ruins. Many survivors were unable to survive the death of loved ones and went crazy for a time or forever.
There was no electricity, telephones went silent, the radio station and telegraph were destroyed. The airfield and railway are damaged and not functioning. Any connection within the city, with nearby settlements and with outside world absent. Nobody knows anything about the situation in neighboring houses and neighborhoods. There is no way to send a distress signal. People think the third one has begun World War and the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
In one of military units on the western outskirts of the city the radio operator managed to turn on emergency lighting, established radio communications, broadcast messages about the earthquake. The connection was interrupted, but Tashkent accepted the information. At the airfield, the wounded Muscovite flight mechanic Yu. Drozdov reached the IL-12 passenger plane in the darkness and sent the news of the disaster over the air via the on-board radio station. The signal was received by signalmen at Sverdlovsk Airport.
Two hours after the event, Army General I.E. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District, while in Tashkent, learns about the fact of an earthquake that occurred in Ashgabat. At night he sends to Moscow the commander-in-chief ground forces telegram to Marshal I.S. Konev: “On the night of October 5-6, an incident occurred in Ashgabat strong earthquake. There are no connections with Ashgabat. According to fragmentary data, there is severe destruction and casualties. At 9:30 a.m. local time I take off by plane to the scene of the incident. I'll give you the details."
In the morning, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Turkmenistan creates a republican commission. General I.E. included in it. Petrov immediately calls military units from neighboring garrisons.
The city was defenseless. The police disappeared. All central, regional and local institutions were destroyed. The people remaining in the city are in complete isolation.
The cars, mostly trucks, that were parked in light plywood garages have been preserved. Responsible workers gathered at them own initiative at the Central Committee building (they are afraid to enter the building), having received instructions from the first secretary Sh. Batyrov, they disperse around the city, fortunately in many wide streets You can drive through - they are partially blocked. By order of the Republican Commission, the communications group leaves the city, finds a place where the telephone line is not broken and uses an overhead telephone to contact nearest city(Mary), reports the situation, calls for help.
Prisoners are selected from the damaged prison building. Just at this time, members of two detained gangs were there. In the nearest destroyed police station, they find weapons, a machine gun and, dressed in police uniforms, go to rob shops. They start in the wine department of the grocery store.
All medical institutions were destroyed, many doctors died. Survived professors of the Medical Institute B.L. Smirnov, G.A. Beburishvili, M.I. Mostovoy, I.F. Berezin, V.A. Skavinsky and others quickly organized an amateur hospital on Karl Marx Square. With the help of junior medical staff and students, surgical instruments and silk were dug up from the ruins of the clinic, bandages, iodine, cotton wool and alcohol were collected from the ruins of the pharmacy, stationery tables were pulled out from under the ruins of the institution and, putting them together in twos, surgical operations began.
From the recollections of doctors: “The anesthesia was only enough for a few operations. The rest of the victims were held tightly by the students with their hands,” “Hundreds of crushed, torn people with such terrible wounds as were never seen at the front,” “When the surgeons’ feet began to slip in the blood, the tables were moved to a new place.” Due to the lack of necessary medications, doctors had to amputate arms and legs that could have been saved under other conditions, since the wounded were at risk of gangrene.
At 8 a.m. Moscow time, that is, nine hours after the disaster, a message about it reaches the USSR Government.
Karl Marx Square is full of screaming and moaning wounded all day long. Ashgabat doctors work all day until dark without breaks. By evening, doctors from Baku and Tashkent set up field hospitals nearby. Ashgabat doctors move away from the operating tables and instantly fall asleep next to them, right in the ruins. Operations continue under car headlights. Over 100 qualified medical workers are flying out from Moscow.
Of those who arrived military units patrols are organized. The first trucks with bread from military bakeries begin to drive around the city.
In the evening, the criminals who escaped to freedom attack the bank using a machine gun, but encounter resistance from military guards. Firing with machine gun bursts lasts two hours. The attack is repulsed. On one of the streets, a military patrol led by a Red Army colonel stops a group of suspicious persons. When the colonel demands to show his documents, a man in a police uniform shoots him at point-blank range. This is how the son of General I.E. dies. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District. After this, the order is given to shoot the looters on the spot.
Second day. Order in the city is maintained by the military. They also restore connections between the main institutions (groups of responsible persons) within the city and external relations.
Victims are being carried and transported from everywhere to the aid stations deployed by doctors in several squares of the city. The military triages the wounded and prioritizes the assistance they receive. The seriously wounded are sent to the airfield. Army pilots organize a temporary airfield on the DOSAAF airfield, and in a day they manage to evacuate almost 1,300 seriously wounded by air (470 people the day before).
The railway is not working. But, fortunately, in most of the city the water supply was not damaged, and flour reserves at the flour mill were preserved. Flour is distributed to everyone. Later they begin to distribute meat from the stocks of the collapsed meat processing plant.
Attempts to dig out the living and the dead continue mainly with the help of surviving relatives, but military rescue teams are also getting involved. The military organizes the removal of some of the corpses according to lists. In some places there are self-defense units against looters.
12 surgical teams of military doctors and 9 civilians work continuously.
The heads of a number of enterprises and institutions are gathering their surviving employees and trying to organize collective action to save people and property.
The city power plant begins to produce current. By evening, the first 60 street lighting lamps are turned on.
Five pharmacy points are being set up on the ruins of pharmacies.
In vast areas of individual housing estates, where rescue teams have not yet reached, thousands of people continue to suffocate and die under the ruins of collapsed houses. Having dug up the dead, relatives bury them right in their yards.
The first official (after 30 hours) TASS report about the earthquake appears in the Pravda newspaper:
"... an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 9 occurred... there is great destruction in Ashgabat... destroyed a large number of residential buildings. There are many human casualties.
From a telegram sent in the evening to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “... 6 burial sites were identified. Only 1,200 military people worked on digging graves. During the day, 5,300 corpses were collected and taken to burial places... 3,000 corpses were not identified... "
The fact that the force of the earthquake reached 10 points, the area of the 9-point zone was 1000 square kilometers, that the city buildings were destroyed by 98%, and the death toll was tens of thousands, as well as the destruction of dozens settlements around the capital of the republic - we learned about all this later.
Day three. A curfew and a special situation have been introduced in the city; the city is cordoned off by troops. Special military teams travel around the city, soldiers in anti-mustard suits and gas masks dig up and collect corpses piled along the streets and squares. They are taken to the ditches ( mass graves) near the former Agricultural Institute and outside the city. The corpses brought in do not have time to be buried. There are so many corpses in the city and the smell is so terrible that it is impossible to walk along some streets.
In residential areas, survivors continue to dismantle the ruins of their former homes, removing from the ruins bricks, beams, boards - any remains suitable for the construction of future temporary shelters. They are still digging up the living and the dead.
Cars drive around the city distributing food and blankets. In some places food is already being prepared on fires and barbecues in the courtyards.
A flyover of the city by responsible workers: “It is impossible to imagine a picture of more complete destruction.” According to General I.E. Petrov, such destruction could result from the continuous bombing of 500 bombers for six months.
The evacuation of seriously wounded by air continues throughout the day. 2,000 victims are taken away per day. The entire road from the city to the airfield is clogged with seriously wounded people. Many die before being sent.
Movement is restored to railway, exit of victims is carried out using special passes.
Postal and telegraph workers and relief teams are located in the gardens under the trees and begin to receive people. Street trading begins. Everyone has important objects- military security.
Day five. Medics continue to arrive to provide medical care(V total up to 1000 people are involved), the evacuation of seriously wounded and injured people is in full swing by rail and air.
Health workers organize disinfection and treatment of possible foci of infection. Sanitary control is being introduced for water sources and food products.
There is almost no cadaverous smell.
Employees of the internal affairs bodies, mostly those who have arrived, go around the courtyards and, using the method of questioning, register the survivors and, as far as possible, the dead.
The activities of a number of institutions are carried out on outdoors under the trees.
Typewritten food coupons are issued, salaries begin to be paid (the bank survived), and “retail outlets” are opened.
There is a temporary court that immediately considers cases of criminals.
Those who survived and are able to work begin to build temporary shelters on their sites from the rubble.
For several days in a row, the Pravda newspaper has been publishing messages about assistance to the population affected by the earthquake in Ashgabat.
From the Union budget Turkmen SSR 25 million rubles were allocated, of which 10 million were allocated for the provision of one-time benefits to those in particular need. Tens of thousands of tons of food and goods have been allocated and shipped. In just one day, 4 planes took off from Moscow with 700 kg of blood, 1600 kg of food and the necessary specialists. Twenty planes are delivering equipment, equipment and property from Moscow to organize a communications service.
The main cargo comes from neighboring republics. Thousands of wounded and orphans were evacuated to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Seventh or eighth day. Full swing Organizational and rescue work is underway, electricity is supplied within the city, communication services are operating in emergency mode. Up to 25 thousand military personnel are working to clear the rubble.
A commission from the Academy of Sciences arrives in Ashgabat to study the consequences of the earthquake and establish the operation of a seismic station. The scale of destruction and loss amazes seasoned seismologists.
Cinematographer Roman Karmen, on behalf of I.V. Stalin is making a film about lost city, about the heroism of people and the varied help that came. But the footage is so terrible that the film is not released and it remains in the archives for 30 years. The moving cinemas are starting to work. They are showing “Young Guard”.
Pravda publishes a large article, “Study of earthquakes in the Soviet Union.” There are a few lines about the disaster itself: “Big disaster befell Turkmenistan - a flourishing republic of the fraternal family of peoples Soviet Union. The earthquake took away a lot human lives and destroyed most buildings of the capital of the republic..." The article ends with the confidence that "the development of seismology... will make it possible in the future to warn of approaching earthquakes."
The second Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on providing assistance to victims is issued. She really comes with different sides. Up to 4 thousand wagons with food and essential goods arrived in the city.
A mass exodus of the population from the city lying in ruins begins.
Eleventh day. Newspapers begin to appear in the city. In them - massive examples heroism, dedication, mutual assistance, obligations and reports.
The matter also reaches the surrounding regions: the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopts a resolution “On providing emergency assistance to collective farms and the population of the Ashgabat and Geok-Tepinsky districts”... Before that, help only went to the capital of the republic. About 100 trains carrying emergency aid go by rail to Ashgabat.
The Seismic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences convenes a meeting with proposals for coordinating the ongoing different organizations examinations. In three days, the Ashgabat seismic station begins work. The most important seismic events are behind us. The commission leaves to survey the surrounding area.
Fifteenth to twenty-fifth day. The cold weather is coming. There is no housing. Rumors about possible new aftershocks. People are leaving the city (13 thousand people by rail).
The soldiers of the Turkestan Military District alone buried 14,487 corpses. According to the commander’s report, “3,350 living people were dug out from under the ruins; the wounded were collected and transported to medical aid centers and evacuated - 7,340 people. material assets in the amount of over 300 million rubles." Much later it would become known that property losses reached 200 billion rubles.
Army units, together with the remaining able-bodied residents, are clearing rubble, building temporary shelters and priority life support facilities.
On November 8, under the heading “Salute of Ashgabat,” it is reported about the general celebration in the city of the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution...
5 years later. Remembers B.G. Rulev in 1998: “We were working then at the seismic station in the village of Vannovsky near Firyuza. Ashgabat by this time was rebuilt with one-story houses. Driving on October 6 by car past the hills outside the city, we heard terrible crying and wailing coming from the side dark mass people away from the road. This was the cemetery for the victims of the Ashgabat disaster. Never in my life have I heard such heart-rending crying."
Monument to the victims of Ashgabat catastrophic earthquake October 6, 1948
Zhanna POVELITSYNA
Original taken from madi_ha in Unique photos of Ashgabat, destroyed by the 1948 earthquake
I was very lucky again. One of the topics that does not leave me indifferent is the Ashgabat earthquake that occurred on October 6, 1948. (Ashgabat is my hometown, if anyone doesn’t know).
When reading materials on the Ashgabat earthquake, I always see someone mentioned documentary film, filmed by Roman Karmen in the first days after the earthquake. Legend (?) says that in October 1948, Carmen urgently flew to Ashgabat on the orders of Stalin. Capture footage consequences of the elements, so that later, when the city is restored, they can be used in a propaganda chronicle about how Soviet people heroically restored Ashgabat.
But what Carmen filmed horrified Stalin. Complete ruins, streets littered with corpses under the scorching sun (approximately 176,000 people died), deep shock among the miraculously surviving. The film was classified and further fate it is not known.
Till now, I have no information about this film in open sources I can’t find it and he is not listed on official resources dedicated to the activities of Roman Karmen.
And just recently, one of my old friends, a fellow countrywoman with whom we talked in Ashgabat (although we never discussed the earthquake), and now we both live in Moscow, wrote to me that she had photos of those events taken by Roman Karmen himself.
The photographs ended up in her family due to family ties with Carmen, about which I will not write.
These photographs give rise to many questions for me and even, for some reasons, give rise to doubts about whether this story with a secret film even happened.
But the photographs themselves are there. All of them are signed on the back and, according to family information, signed by Carmen himself.
But these are historical photographs! Photos are exhibited with the permission of the owner of the originals.
Particular attention should be paid to the building with a round dome. On the original photo it is signed as “Museum fine arts"However, initially, it was the most famous Bahai temple. http://infoabad.com/forum/thread794.html
The article at the link tells his story. Among other things, the article states that it was badly damaged during an earthquake and was blown up in 1963 for safety reasons. However, from my grandfather and other elderly residents of the city, I heard that the “Baha’i temple” (no one called it a museum), just on the contrary, was one of the units of buildings that withstood a series of shocks of 8-point Richter. And in 1963 it was blown up for ideological reasons, and they had to blow it up several times - the temple seemed invulnerable.
This day in history:
At 1 hour 14 minutes 1 second on October 6, 1948, what Ashgabat residents initially took to be the third world war and the atomic bombing began.
On the evening of October 5, 1948, Ashgabat lived an ordinary life. The evening was warm and quiet, with a clear starry sky. There was music playing on the dance floors in the parks. In student dormitories they prepared for classes and published wall newspapers. Couples in love walked along the shady streets and sat on benches. Ashgabat residents enjoyed the evening coolness. The windows of the houses were wide open. The city gradually calmed down, the inhabitants retired. In warm weather, many people preferred to sleep on the roofs of adobe houses, in the breeze... They did not know that this would save their lives.
Around one o'clock in the morning, belated night owls saw strange flashes and reflections of light over the mountains. At the same time, dogs in the city began to howl and worry; many of them began to rush out of the house or run up to their owners and drag them into the street by their clothes. Some perplexed owners went out for a walk with them... They did not know that this would save their lives.
In the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, according to the fashion of that time, there was a night meeting. It was dedicated to the problems of Kara-Bogaz, and was attended by many specialists and party workers. They didn't know that it would save their lives...
IN 1 hour 14 minutes 1 second October 6, 1948 began what Ashgabat residents initially mistook for the third world war and the atomic bombing.
From the memories of survivors of the Ashgabat earthquake:
“In the middle of the night there was a menacing roar, then a roar and a crack, the earth shook and swayed. Half-awake, I thought: again I was dreaming of war and bombing! But this catastrophe was worse than the bombing. Realizing, I jumped up and ran out into the yard, the house collapsed behind me. Clouds of flying dust , the swaying trees and falling houses were illuminated by some strange yellowish light. Then darkness fell and screams and crying were heard from all sides; the crimson flames of blazing fires lit up, and the earth continued to tremble from time to time, bricks fell down, and the remaining walls fell. ...They dug up the pillow, and under it was the mother’s face. She was alive, but wounded, unconscious and already suffocating, a neighbor ran up, we lifted the beam and pulled out the mother.”
"In the dead of night, an unexpected vertical blow of terrible force shook the area. Even heavy objects jumped high into the air, and a moment later everything began to move. Our familiar, strong and motionless earth swayed like the deck of a ship in a storm. Something was rocking, pushing, it was difficult stand on your feet. A dull underground rumble was heard. The night lights went out, the leaves rustled, as if a gust of wind swept through the gardens. Thick clouds of smoke (dust) enveloped the city. It was difficult to breathe. Then everything calmed down.
"Everyone in the house was asleep. I finished work and was looking through the newspapers. The tremors began immediately very strong... I immediately jumped out of my chair, ran across the room to the opposite wall to grab my sleeping son and run into the yard. But the ceiling began to collapse... and That’s why I lay down on him - it was too late to leave.”
Instead of a transparent starry night, there was an impenetrable milky-white wall over Ashgabat, and behind it were terrible moans, screams, and cries for help.
In pitch darkness, in a dense curtain of dust, people who accidentally escaped and managed to get out from under the ruins frantically dig out their loved ones and neighbors by touch, with their bare hands. In some places there are fires. In their incorrect light, it is necessary to provide help to the saved, but there is nothing at hand. Those who were dug out in the first few hours were saved, the rest were unlucky: before dawn, a new shock with a power of 7-8 points finally buries them under the rubble. Many survivors were unable to survive the death of loved ones and went crazy for a time or forever.
There was no electricity, telephones went silent, the radio station and telegraph were destroyed. The airfield and railway are damaged and not functioning. There is no communication within the city, with nearby settlements or with the outside world. Nobody knows anything about the situation in neighboring houses and neighborhoods. There is no way to send a distress signal. People think that the third world war has begun and the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city.
In one of the military units on the western outskirts of the city, a radio operator managed to turn on emergency lighting, established radio communications, and broadcast messages about an earthquake. The connection was interrupted, but Tashkent received the information. At the airfield, the wounded Muscovite flight mechanic Yu. Drozdov reached the IL-12 passenger plane in the darkness and sent the news of the disaster over the air via the on-board radio station. The signal was received by signalmen at Sverdlovsk Airport.
Two hours after the event, Army General I.E. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District, while in Tashkent, learns about the fact of an earthquake that occurred in Ashgabat. At night, he sends a telegram to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal I.S. Konev, in Moscow: “On the night of October 5-6, a strong earthquake occurred in Ashgabat. There are no connections with Ashgabat. According to fragmentary data, there is severe destruction and casualties. At 9:30 minutes of local time, I’ll fly to the scene of the incident.”
In the morning, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Turkmenistan creates a republican commission. General I.E. included in it. Petrov immediately calls military units from neighboring garrisons.
The city was defenseless. The police disappeared. All central, regional and local institutions were destroyed. The people remaining in the city are in complete isolation.
The cars, mostly trucks, that were parked in light plywood garages have been preserved. They show responsible workers, who gathered on their own initiative at the Central Committee building (they are afraid to enter the building), having received instructions from the first secretary Sh. Batyrov, driving around the city, fortunately it is possible to drive along many wide streets - they are partially blocked. By order of the Republican Commission, the communications group leaves the city, finds a place where the telephone line is not broken and, using an overhead telephone, contacts the nearest city (Mary), reports the situation, and calls for help.
Prisoners are selected from the damaged prison building. Just at this time, members of two detained gangs were there. In the nearest destroyed police station, they find weapons, a machine gun and, dressed in police uniforms, go to rob shops. They start in the wine department of the grocery store.
All medical institutions were destroyed, many doctors died. Survived professors of the Medical Institute B.L. Smirnov, G.A. Beburishvili, M.I. Mostovoy, I.F. Berezin, V.A. Skavinsky and others quickly organized an amateur hospital on Karl Marx Square. With the help of junior medical staff and students, surgical instruments and silk were dug up from the ruins of the clinic, bandages, iodine, cotton wool and alcohol were collected from the ruins of the pharmacy, stationery tables were pulled out from under the ruins of the institution and, putting them together in twos, surgical operations began.
From the recollections of doctors: “The anesthesia was only enough for a few operations. The rest of the victims were held tightly by the students with their hands,” “Hundreds of crushed, torn people with such terrible wounds as were never seen at the front,” “When the surgeons’ feet began to slip in the blood, the tables were moved to a new place.” Due to the lack of necessary medications, doctors had to amputate arms and legs that could have been saved under other conditions, since the wounded were at risk of gangrene.
At 8 a.m. Moscow time, that is, nine hours after the disaster, a message about it reaches the USSR Government.
Karl Marx Square is full of screaming and moaning wounded all day long. Ashgabat doctors work all day until dark without breaks. By evening, doctors from Baku and Tashkent set up field hospitals nearby. Ashgabat doctors move away from the operating tables and instantly fall asleep next to them, right in the ruins. Operations continue under car headlights. Over 100 qualified medical workers are flying out from Moscow.
Patrols are organized from the arriving military units. The first trucks with bread from military bakeries begin to drive around the city.
In the evening, the criminals who escaped to freedom attack the bank using a machine gun, but encounter resistance from military guards. Firing with machine gun bursts lasts two hours. The attack is repulsed. On one of the streets, a military patrol led by a Red Army colonel stops a group of suspicious persons. When the colonel demands to show his documents, a man in a police uniform shoots him at point-blank range. This is how the son of General I.E. dies. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District. After this, the order is given to shoot the looters on the spot.
Second day. Order in the city is maintained by the military. They also restore connections between the main institutions (groups of responsible persons) within the city and external relations.
Victims are being carried and transported from everywhere to the aid stations deployed by doctors in several squares of the city. The military triages the wounded and prioritizes the assistance they receive. The seriously wounded are sent to the airfield. Army pilots organize a temporary airfield on the DOSAAF airfield, and in a day they manage to evacuate almost 1,300 seriously wounded by air (470 people the day before).
The railway is not working. But, fortunately, in most of the city the water supply was not damaged, and flour reserves at the flour mill were preserved. Flour is distributed to everyone. Later they begin to distribute meat from the stocks of the collapsed meat processing plant.
Attempts to dig out the living and the dead continue mainly with the help of surviving relatives, but military rescue teams are also getting involved. The military organizes the removal of some of the corpses according to lists. In some places there are self-defense units against looters.
12 surgical teams of military doctors and 9 civilians work continuously.
The heads of a number of enterprises and institutions are gathering their surviving employees and trying to organize collective action to save people and property.
The city power plant begins to produce current. By evening, the first 60 street lighting lamps are turned on.
Five pharmacy points are being set up on the ruins of pharmacies.
In vast areas of individual housing estates, where rescue teams have not yet reached, thousands of people continue to suffocate and die under the ruins of collapsed houses. Having dug up the dead, relatives bury them right in their yards.
The first official (after 30 hours) TASS report about the earthquake appears in the Pravda newspaper:
"... an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 9 occurred... there is great destruction in Ashgabat... a large number of residential buildings have been destroyed. There are many casualties.
From a telegram sent in the evening to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “... 6 burial sites were identified. Only 1,200 military people worked on digging graves. During the day, 5,300 corpses were collected and taken to burial places... 3,000 corpses were not identified... "
The fact that the strength of the earthquake reached 10 points, the area of the 9-point zone was 1000 square kilometers, that 98% of city buildings were destroyed, and the death toll was tens of thousands, as well as the destruction of dozens of settlements around the capital of the republic - about everything We found out about this later.
Day three. A curfew and a special situation have been introduced in the city; the city is cordoned off by troops. Special military teams travel around the city, soldiers in anti-mustard suits and gas masks dig up and collect corpses piled along the streets and squares. They are taken to ditches (mass graves) near the former Agricultural Institute and outside the city. The corpses brought in do not have time to be buried. There are so many corpses in the city and the smell is so terrible that it is impossible to walk along some streets.
In residential areas, survivors continue to dismantle the ruins of their former homes, removing from the ruins bricks, beams, boards - any remains suitable for the construction of future temporary shelters. They are still digging up the living and the dead.
Cars drive around the city distributing food and blankets. In some places food is already being prepared on fires and barbecues in the courtyards.
A flyover of the city by responsible workers: “It is impossible to imagine a picture of more complete destruction.” According to General I.E. Petrov, such destruction could result from the continuous bombing of 500 bombers for six months.
The evacuation of seriously wounded by air continues throughout the day. 2,000 victims are taken away per day. The entire road from the city to the airfield is clogged with seriously wounded people. Many die before being sent.
Traffic on the railway is being restored, and victims are leaving with special passes.
Postal and telegraph workers and relief teams are located in the gardens under the trees and begin to receive people. Street trading begins. All important facilities have military guards.
Day five. Medics continue to arrive to provide medical assistance (up to 1,000 people are involved in total), and the evacuation of seriously wounded and injured people is in full swing by rail and air.
Health workers organize disinfection and treatment of possible foci of infection. Sanitary control over water sources and food products is being introduced.
There is almost no cadaverous smell.
Employees of the internal affairs bodies, mostly those who have arrived, go around the courtyards and, using the method of questioning, register the survivors and, as far as possible, the dead.
The activities of a number of institutions are carried out outdoors under trees.
Typewritten food coupons are issued, salaries begin to be paid (the bank survived), and “retail outlets” are opened.
There is a temporary court that immediately considers cases of criminals.
Those who survived and are able to work begin to build temporary shelters on their sites from the rubble.
For several days in a row, the Pravda newspaper has been publishing messages about assistance to the population affected by the earthquake in Ashgabat.
25 million rubles were allocated from the Union budget of the Turkmen SSR, of which 10 million were allocated for the provision of one-time benefits to those in particular need. Tens of thousands of tons of food and goods have been allocated and shipped. In just one day, 4 planes took off from Moscow with 700 kg of blood, 1600 kg of food and the necessary specialists. Twenty planes are delivering equipment, equipment and property from Moscow to organize a communications service.
The main cargo comes from neighboring republics. Thousands of wounded and orphans were evacuated to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Seventh–eighth days. Organizational and rescue work is in full swing, electricity is supplied within the city, and communication services are operating in emergency mode. Up to 25 thousand military personnel are working to clear the rubble.
A commission from the Academy of Sciences arrives in Ashgabat to study the consequences of the earthquake and establish the operation of a seismic station. The scale of destruction and loss amazes seasoned seismologists.
Cinematographer Roman Karmen, on behalf of I.V. Stalin is making a film about the lost city, about the heroism of the people and the varied help that came. But the footage is so terrible that the film is not released and it remains in the archives for 30 years. The moving cinemas are starting to work. They are showing “Young Guard”.
Pravda publishes a large article, “Study of earthquakes in the Soviet Union.” There are a few lines about the catastrophe itself: “A great natural disaster befell Turkmenistan, a flourishing republic of the fraternal family of peoples of the Soviet Union. The earthquake claimed many lives and destroyed most of the buildings of the capital of the republic...” The article ends with the confidence that “the development of seismology. .. will make it possible in the future to warn of approaching earthquakes."
The second Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on providing assistance to victims is issued. It really comes from different directions. Up to 4 thousand wagons with food and essential goods arrived in the city.
A mass exodus of the population from the city lying in ruins begins.
Eleventh day. Newspapers begin to appear in the city. They contain massive examples of heroism, dedication, mutual assistance, obligations and reports.
The matter also reaches the surrounding regions: the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopts a resolution “On providing emergency assistance to collective farms and the population of the Ashgabat and Geok-Tepinsky districts”... Before that, help only went to the capital of the republic. About 100 trains carrying emergency aid go by rail to Ashgabat.
The Seismic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences convenes a meeting with proposals for coordinating surveys carried out by different organizations. In three days, the Ashgabat seismic station begins work. The most important seismic events are behind us. The commission leaves to survey the surrounding area.
Fifteenth to twenty-fifth day. The cold weather is coming. There is no housing. Rumors about possible new aftershocks. People are leaving the city (13 thousand people by rail).
The soldiers of the Turkestan Military District alone buried 14,487 corpses. According to the commander's report, "3,350 living people were dug out from under the ruins; the wounded were collected and transported to medical aid centers and evacuated - 7,340 people. Material assets worth over 300 million rubles were dug up." Much later it would become known that property losses reached 200 billion rubles.
Army units, together with the remaining able-bodied residents, are clearing rubble, building temporary shelters and priority life support facilities.
On November 8, under the heading “Salute of Ashgabat,” it is reported about the general celebration in the city of the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution...
5 years later. Remembers B.G. Rulev in 1998: “We were working then at a seismic station in the village of Vannovsky near Firyuza. Ashgabat by this time was rebuilt with one-story houses. Driving on October 6 in a car past the hills outside the city, we heard terrible crying and lamentations coming from a dark mass of people far from roads. This was the cemetery of the victims of the Ashgabat disaster. Never in my life have I heard such soul-rending crying."
I was very lucky again. One of the topics that does not leave me indifferent is the Ashgabat earthquake that occurred on October 6, 1948. (Ashgabat is my hometown, if anyone doesn’t know).
When reading materials on the Ashgabat earthquake, I always come across a mention of a certain documentary film shot by Roman Karmen in the very first days after the earthquake. Legend (?) says that in October 1948, Carmen urgently flew to Ashgabat on the orders of Stalin. Capture footage consequences of the elements, so that later, when the city is restored, they can be used in a propaganda chronicle about how the Soviet people heroically restored Ashgabat.
But what Carmen filmed horrified Stalin. Complete ruins, streets littered with corpses under the scorching sun (approximately 176,000 people died), deep shock among the miraculously surviving. The film was classified and its further fate is unknown.
Until now, I cannot find any information about this film in open sources and it is not listed on official resources dedicated to the activities of Roman Carmen.
And just recently, one of my old friends, a fellow countrywoman with whom we talked in Ashgabat (although we never discussed the earthquake), and now we both live in Moscow, wrote to me that she had photos of those events taken by Roman Karmen himself.
The photographs ended up in her family due to family ties with Carmen, which I will not write about.
These photographs give rise to many questions for me and even, for some reasons, give rise to doubts about whether this story with a secret film even happened.
But the photographs themselves are there. All of them are signed on the back and, according to family information, signed by Carmen himself.
But these are historical photographs! Photos are exhibited with the permission of the owner of the originals.
Particular attention should be paid to the building with a round dome. On the original photo it is labeled "Museum of Fine Arts". However, initially, it was the most famous Bahai temple. http://infoabad.com/forum/thread794.html
The article at the link tells his story. Among other things, the article states that it was badly damaged during an earthquake and was blown up in 1963 for safety reasons. However, from my grandfather and other elderly residents of the city, I heard that the “Baha’i temple” (no one called it a museum), just on the contrary, was one of the units of buildings that withstood a series of shocks of 8-point Richter. And in 1963 it was blown up for ideological reasons, and they had to blow it up several times - the temple seemed invulnerable.
Ashgabat earthquake of 1948: Chronicle of the disaster On the evening of October 5, 1948, Ashgabat lived an ordinary life. The evening was warm and quiet, with a clear starry sky. There was music playing on the dance floors in the parks. In student dormitories they prepared for classes and published wall newspapers. Couples in love walked along the shady streets and sat on benches. Ashgabat residents enjoyed the evening coolness. The windows of the houses were wide open. The city gradually calmed down, the inhabitants retired. In warm weather, many people preferred to sleep on the roofs of adobe houses, in the breeze... They did not know that this would save their lives. Around one o'clock in the morning, belated night owls saw strange flashes and reflections of light over the mountains. At the same time, dogs in the city began to howl and worry; many of them began to rush out of the house or run up to their owners and drag them into the street by their clothes. Some perplexed owners went out for a walk with them... They did not know that this would save their lives. In the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, according to the fashion of that time, there was a night meeting. It was dedicated to the problems of Kara-Bogaz, and was attended by many specialists and party workers. They did not know that this would save their lives... At 1 hour 14 minutes 1 second on October 6, 1948, what the Ashgabat residents first took to be the third world war and the atomic bombing began. From the memoirs of survivors of the Ashgabat earthquake: “In the middle of the night there was a menacing roar, then a roar and a crash, the earth trembled and swayed. Half-awake, I thought: I was dreaming of war and bombing again! But this catastrophe was worse than the bombing. Realizing, I jumped up and ran out into the yard, behind me. the house collapsed. Clouds of flying dust, swaying trees and falling houses were illuminated by some strange yellowish light. Then darkness fell and screams and crying were heard from all sides; the crimson flames of flaring fires began to light up, and the earth continued to tremble from time to time. bricks fell, the surviving walls fell... They dug up a pillow, under it was the mother’s face. She was alive, but wounded, unconscious and already suffocating. We lifted the beam and pulled out the mother.” "In the dead of night, an unexpected vertical blow of terrible force shook the area. Even heavy objects jumped high into the air, and a moment later everything began to move. Our familiar, strong and motionless earth swayed like the deck of a ship in a storm. Something was rocking, pushing, it was difficult stand on your feet. A dull underground rumble was heard. The night lights went out, the leaves rustled, as if a gust of wind swept through the gardens. Thick clouds of smoke (dust) enveloped the city. It was difficult to breathe. This lasted 10–12 seconds. Then everything calmed down." "Everyone in the house was asleep. I finished work and looked through the newspapers. The tremors began immediately very strong... I immediately jumped out of my chair, ran across the room to the opposite wall to grab my sleeping son and run into the yard. But the ceiling began to collapse... and so I lay down on it - it was too late to leave." Instead of a transparent starry night, an impenetrable milky-white wall stood over Ashgabat, and behind it there were terrible moans, screams, cries for help. In the pitch darkness, in the dense In the curtain of dust, people who accidentally escaped and managed to get out from under the ruins frantically dig out their loved ones and neighbors by touch, with their bare hands, fires appear in some places. the first few hours were saved, the rest were unlucky: before dawn, a new shock with a power of 7-8 points finally buried them under the rubble. Many survivors could not survive the death of their loved ones and went crazy for a while or forever. There was no electricity, telephones went silent, the radio station and telegraph. The airfield and the railway are damaged and are not functioning. There is no communication within the city, with the nearest settlements or with the outside world. No one knows anything about the situation in the neighboring houses and neighborhoods. There is no way to send a distress signal. People think that the third world war has begun and the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city. In one of the military units on the western outskirts of the city, a radio operator managed to turn on emergency lighting, established radio communications, and broadcast messages about an earthquake. The connection was interrupted, but Tashkent accepted the information. At the airfield, the wounded Muscovite flight mechanic Yu. Drozdov reached the IL-12 passenger plane in the darkness and sent the news of the disaster over the air via the on-board radio station. The signal was received by signalmen at Sverdlovsk Airport. Two hours after the event, Army General I.E. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District, while in Tashkent, learns about the fact of an earthquake that occurred in Ashgabat. At night, he sends a telegram to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal I.S. Konev, in Moscow: “On the night of October 5-6, a strong earthquake occurred in Ashgabat. There are no connections with Ashgabat. According to fragmentary data, there is severe destruction and casualties. At 9:30 minutes of local time, I’ll fly to the scene of the incident.” In the morning, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Turkmenistan creates a republican commission. General I.E. included in it. Petrov immediately calls military units from neighboring garrisons. The city was defenseless. The police disappeared. All central, regional and local institutions were destroyed. The people remaining in the city are in complete isolation. The cars, mostly trucks, that were parked in light plywood garages have been preserved. They show responsible workers, who gathered on their own initiative at the Central Committee building (they are afraid to enter the building), having received instructions from the first secretary Sh. Batyrov, driving around the city, fortunately it is possible to drive along many wide streets - they are partially blocked. By order of the Republican Commission, the communications group leaves the city, finds a place where the telephone line is not broken and, using an overhead telephone, contacts the nearest city (Mary), reports the situation, and calls for help. Prisoners are selected from the damaged prison building. Just at this time, members of two detained gangs were there. In the nearest destroyed police station, they find weapons, a machine gun and, dressed in police uniforms, go to rob shops. They start in the wine department of the grocery store. All medical institutions were destroyed, many doctors died. Survived professors of the Medical Institute B.L. Smirnov, G.A. Beburishvili, M.I. Mostovoy, I.F. Berezin, V.A. Skavinsky and others quickly organized an amateur hospital on Karl Marx Square. With the help of junior medical staff and students, surgical instruments and silk were dug up from the ruins of the clinic, bandages, iodine, cotton wool and alcohol were collected from the ruins of the pharmacy, stationery tables were pulled out from under the ruins of the institution and, putting them together in twos, surgical operations began. From the recollections of doctors: “The anesthesia was only enough for a few operations. The rest of the victims were held tightly by the students with their hands,” “Hundreds of crushed, torn people with such terrible wounds as were never seen at the front,” “When the surgeons’ feet began to slip in the blood, the tables were moved to a new place.” Due to the lack of necessary medications, doctors had to amputate arms and legs that could have been saved in other conditions, since the wounded were at risk of gangrene. At 8 a.m. Moscow time, that is, nine hours after the disaster, a message was reported. it reaches the Government of the USSR. Karl Marx Square is full of screaming and groaning wounded people all day long until darkness, without breaks. By the evening, doctors from Baku and Tashkent are setting up field hospitals nearby and immediately fall asleep nearby. right in the ruins. Operations continue under car headlights. Over 100 qualified medical workers are flying out from Moscow. Patrols are organized from the arriving military units. The first trucks with bread from military bakeries begin to drive around the city. In the evening, the criminals who escaped to freedom attack the bank using a machine gun, but encounter resistance from military guards. Firing with machine gun bursts lasts two hours. The attack is repulsed. On one of the streets, a military patrol led by a Red Army colonel stops a group of suspicious persons. When the colonel demands to show his documents, a man in a police uniform shoots him at point-blank range. This is how the son of General I.E. dies. Petrov, commander of the Turkestan Military District. After this, the order is given to shoot the looters on the spot. Second day. Order in the city is maintained by the military. They also restore connections between the main institutions (groups of responsible persons) within the city and external relations. Victims are being carried and transported from everywhere to the aid stations deployed by doctors in several squares of the city. The military triages the wounded and prioritizes the assistance they receive. The seriously wounded are sent to the airfield. Army pilots organize a temporary airfield on the DOSAAF airfield, and in a day they manage to evacuate almost 1,300 seriously wounded by air (470 people the day before). The railway is not working. But, fortunately, in most of the city the water supply was not damaged, and flour reserves at the flour mill were preserved. Flour is distributed to everyone. Later they begin to distribute meat from the stocks of the collapsed meat processing plant. Attempts to dig out the living and the dead continue mainly with the help of surviving relatives, but military rescue teams are also getting involved. The military organizes the removal of some of the corpses according to lists. In some places there are self-defense units against looters. 12 surgical teams of military doctors and 9 civilians work continuously. The heads of a number of enterprises and institutions are gathering their surviving employees and trying to organize collective action to save people and property. The city power plant begins to produce current. By evening, the first 60 street lighting lamps are turned on. Five pharmacy points are being set up on the ruins of pharmacies. In vast areas of individual housing estates, where rescue teams have not yet reached, thousands of people continue to suffocate and die under the ruins of collapsed houses. Having dug up the dead, relatives bury them right in their yards. The first official (after 30 hours) TASS report about the earthquake appears in the Pravda newspaper: ". .. an earthquake with a magnitude of up to 9 occurred... there is great destruction in Ashgabat... a large number of residential buildings have been destroyed. There are many human casualties. From a telegram sent in the evening to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “... 6 burial sites were identified. Only 1,200 military people worked on digging graves. During the day, 5,300 corpses were collected and taken to burial places... 3,000 corpses were not identified... “The fact that the strength of the earthquake reached 10 points, the area of the 9-point zone amounted to 1000 square kilometers, that city buildings were destroyed by 98%, and the death toll was tens of thousands, as well as the destruction of dozens of settlements around the capital of the republic - about everyone found out about this later. Day three. A curfew and a special situation have been introduced in the city; the city is cordoned off by troops. Special military teams travel around the city, soldiers in anti-mustard suits and gas masks dig up and collect corpses piled along the streets and squares. They are taken to ditches (mass graves) near the former Agricultural Institute and outside the city. The corpses brought in do not have time to be buried. There are so many corpses in the city and the smell is so terrible that it is impossible to walk along some streets. In residential areas, survivors continue to dismantle the ruins of their former homes, removing from the ruins bricks, beams, boards - any remains suitable for the construction of future temporary shelters. They are still digging up the living and the dead. Cars drive around the city distributing food and blankets. In some places food is already being prepared on fires and barbecues in the courtyards. A flyover of the city by responsible workers: “It is impossible to imagine a picture of more complete destruction.” According to General I.E. Petrov, such destruction could result from the continuous bombing of 500 bombers for six months. The evacuation of seriously wounded by air continues throughout the day. 2,000 victims are taken away per day. The entire road from the city to the airfield is clogged with seriously wounded people. Many die before being sent. Traffic on the railway is being restored, and victims are leaving with special passes. Postal and telegraph workers and relief teams are located in the gardens under the trees and begin to receive people. Street trading begins. All important facilities have military guards. Day five. Medics continue to arrive to provide medical assistance (up to 1,000 people are involved in total), and the evacuation of seriously wounded and injured people is in full swing by rail and air. Health workers organize disinfection and treatment of possible foci of infection. Sanitary control over water sources and food products is being introduced. There is almost no cadaverous smell. Employees of the internal affairs bodies, mostly those who have arrived, go around the courtyards and, using the method of questioning, register the survivors and, as far as possible, the dead. The activities of a number of institutions are carried out outdoors under trees. Typewritten food coupons are issued, salaries begin to be paid (the bank survived), and “retail outlets” are opened. There is a temporary court that immediately considers cases of criminals. Those who survived and are able to work begin to build temporary shelters on their sites from the rubble. For several days in a row, the Pravda newspaper has been publishing messages about assistance to the population affected by the earthquake in Ashgabat. 25 million rubles were allocated from the Union budget of the Turkmen SSR, of which 10 million were allocated for the provision of one-time benefits to those in particular need. Tens of thousands of tons of food and goods have been allocated and shipped. In just one day, 4 planes took off from Moscow with 700 kg of blood, 1600 kg of food and the necessary specialists. Twenty planes are delivering equipment, equipment and property from Moscow to organize a communications service. The main cargo comes from neighboring republics. Thousands of wounded and orphans were evacuated to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. Seventh–eighth days. Organizational and rescue work is in full swing, electricity is supplied within the city, and communication services are operating in emergency mode. Up to 25 thousand military personnel are working to clear the rubble. A commission from the Academy of Sciences arrives in Ashgabat to study the consequences of the earthquake and establish the operation of a seismic station. The scale of destruction and loss amazes seasoned seismologists. Cinematographer Roman Karmen, on behalf of I.V. Stalin is making a film about the lost city, about the heroism of the people and the varied help that came. But the footage is so terrible that the film is not released and it remains in the archives for 30 years. The moving cinemas are starting to work. They are showing “Young Guard”. Pravda publishes a large article, “Study of earthquakes in the Soviet Union.” There are a few lines about the catastrophe itself: “A great natural disaster befell Turkmenistan, a flourishing republic of the fraternal family of peoples of the Soviet Union. The earthquake claimed many lives and destroyed most of the buildings of the capital of the republic...” The article ends with the confidence that “the development of seismology. .. will make it possible in the future to warn of approaching earthquakes." The second Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on providing assistance to victims is issued. It really comes from different directions. Up to 4 thousand wagons with food and essential goods arrived in the city. A mass exodus of the population from the city lying in ruins begins. Eleventh day. Newspapers begin to appear in the city. They contain massive examples of heroism, dedication, mutual assistance, obligations and reports. The matter also reaches the surrounding regions: the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopts a resolution “On providing emergency assistance to collective farms and the population of the Ashgabat and Geok-Tepinsky districts”... Before that, help only went to the capital of the republic. About 100 trains carrying emergency aid go by rail to Ashgabat. The Seismic Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences convenes a meeting with proposals for coordinating surveys carried out by different organizations. In three days, the Ashgabat seismic station begins work. The most important seismic events are behind us. The commission leaves to survey the surrounding area. Fifteenth to twenty-fifth day. The cold weather is coming. There is no housing. Rumors about possible new aftershocks. People are leaving the city (13 thousand people by rail). The soldiers of the Turkestan Military District alone buried 14,487 corpses. According to the commander's report, "3,350 living people were dug out from under the ruins; the wounded were collected and transported to medical aid centers and evacuated - 7,340 people. Material assets worth over 300 million rubles were dug up." Much later it would become known that property losses reached 200 billion rubles. Army units, together with the remaining able-bodied residents, are clearing rubble, building temporary shelters and priority life support facilities. On November 8, under the heading “Salute of Ashgabat,” it is reported about the general celebration in the city of the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution... B.G. remembers. Rulev in 1998: “We were working then at a seismic station in the village of Vannovsky near Firyuza. Ashgabat by this time was rebuilt with one-story houses. Driving on October 6 in a car past the hills outside the city, we heard terrible crying and lamentations coming from a dark mass of people far from roads. This was the cemetery of the victims of the Ashgabat disaster. Never in my life have I heard such soul-rending crying."
