For half a century now, the execution on the Station Square has been one of the most mysterious and bloody tragedies not only in the history of Kursk, but of the entire Soviet Union. On September 26, 1968, two soldiers of the internal troops - Private Viktor Korshunov and Corporal Yuri Surovtsev- killed an entire family with two children, and then opened fire on people hurrying about their business past the city railway station. As a result, one of the terrorists was shot dead, and the second was taken out of the cordoned off building in a police uniform.

Armed rebellion?

“You are listening to Voice of America from Washington. We're interrupting the program for an urgent message. In the Soviet Union, an armed rebellion broke out in Kursk. Several soldiers occupied a building in the city center to protest the policies of the Communist Party. The area is cordoned off by the police. Details are being specified. According to our information, Soviet servicemen are protesting against the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia,” such a message sounded on September 26 on an American radio station.

Scandalous news about an armed rebellion in the USSR was picked up by foreign media, in the Union itself no one knew about the tragedy unfolding at that moment in Kursk.

On the morning of September 26, two soldiers with suitcases entered an ordinary apartment located on the fourth floor of a house near the railway station. A day later, from the windows of this apartment, they opened fire on people who happened to be on the Railway Station Square. Coincidentally or not, but at that time a paddy wagon carrying convicts was driving up to the station. Several convicts were sent along the stage. The driver of the car, having heard the sounds of shots, managed to take the paddy wagon out of the fire and drive off to the nearest yard. One of those being transported - a 19-year-old guy - was mortally wounded.

Meanwhile, on the square, war veterans, who were many in those years in Kursk, tried to suppress panic and lead people out of the fire into the station building. From the windows on the fourth floor, machine-gun fire continued, short and pinpoint. People were perplexed, did war suddenly come to their peaceful city?

Station square in Kursk. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org

Bad apartment

And in the very apartment from which the terrorists fired, the tragedy unfolded a day earlier. On the morning of September 26, they were still sleeping there when the doorbell rang. On the threshold stood two guys in soldier's uniform. The old woman who opened the door to the early guests was killed immediately. Four more adult residents of the apartment were shot through the pillow. Just a minute - and out of eight family members only three survived - Tamara Sataplin and her two small children. As if not noticing the bloody bodies, the killers began to drink to the music. When the vodka ran out, Tamara was sent for more, threatening to kill the children if she told the police about everything. According to legend, when a woman was walking down the street to a grocery store, she even met a district police officer, but did not tell him anything, relying on the honesty of the soldiers. But when Tamara returned home, she saw that her children were no longer alive. Some sources claim that they were not even shot, but beaten to death with a cast-iron iron. The woman was tied up and locked in the toilet.

All this time, residents of neighboring apartments heard strange sounds coming from the rooms where the massacre took place. But none of them could imagine what was actually unfolding literally behind their wall. The police were called when, early in the morning on September 27, they started shooting at people in the square from the windows of this apartment.

The guards cordoned off the house. When trying to approach the door behind which the terrorists were hiding, the criminals opened fire. In one of the apartments, a headquarters was set up, where the highest police ranks gathered. They even say that the Kremlin was in direct contact with law enforcement officers during the special operation. Brezhnev ordered to take the terrorists alive in order to give them to a military tribunal.

Finally, after many hours of negotiations, one of the soldiers could not stand it. He opened fire on his partner and surrendered to the police. To prevent the crowd from tearing the terrorist to pieces, he was dressed in a police uniform and taken out of the building.

Infantile clerk and hot-tempered gunslinger

Who were the brutal killers who killed 11 adults and two children?

Corporal Yuri Surovtsev served in the internal troops as a clerk at the headquarters. From his characteristics, found by journalists, it follows that he had obvious mental disorders, due to which he even underwent treatment in a regional mental hospital. Surovtsev was infantile, easily excitable and impressionable. Despite the fact that after a year of service in the army he was already in the rank of corporal, Surovtsev depended on his partner and was completely under his influence. It was Yuri who eventually surrendered to the police and was sentenced to death by a military tribunal.

Private Viktor Korshunov is considered the main villain in this story. He was expelled from the institute for an "unworthy" lifestyle, entered the army, where in two years he became the best shooter of the unit. Shortly before the tragedy, Korshunov even received an honors badge from the Soviet army. But his character was described as hot-tempered, and his behavior was aloof. Also in the characterization of Korshunov it is said that he often talked about suicide and massacres.

Presumably, Korshunov decided to commit suicide after breaking up with a girl who did not wait for him from the army. But he didn’t want to die just like that, so he pushed the weak-willed Surovtsev to a terrorist attack. The case file states that Nikolai Korshunov's father was convicted of treason after the war. Perhaps in Viktor Korshunov himself there was a lot of hatred for his country.

Surovtsev and Korshunov stole weapons from the army stock, hitchhiked to the center of Kursk. According to local media, their target was originally the Kursk city committee, but it housed the Leninsky police department. Therefore, it was decided to hide in an apartment nearby and from there open fire on a busy square. Why did the house of Tamara Sataplina and her family become a haven for terrorists? There is a version that Tamara was a friend of one of the deserters, and he even visited her.

In 2016, in the program "The investigation was conducted" with Leonid Kanevsky, they spoke in detail about the Kursk terrorist attack. The issue says that Tamara Sataplin, who lost her entire family on September 26, 1968, asked the killers why they did it. The answer was: "We are the avengers." That's just why and to whom the Kursk terrorists took revenge is still unknown.

In Kursk, in the area of ​​​​Gremyachenskaya Street, an explosion occurred at an electrical substation. Half of the Northwestern microdistrict was left without electricity. There is also no light on a number of streets in the city center and in the KZTZ microdistrict. This was reported in the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Kursk region.
According to preliminary data, the explosion occurred due to a short circuit, which caused partial destruction of electrical units.
The city of Kursk borders on Ukraine (Sumy region), the 4th largest nuclear power plant in Europe is located in the region.
Eyewitnesses recorded footage of the explosion. There is no information about casualties yet.

According to eyewitnesses, the explosions took place at a substation in the area of ​​the "new Schotmash". The process of "activation of protection" was captured by several Kuryans. For a person unfamiliar with the nuances, the process of "operation" looks like explosions. As a result of an emergency situation, most of the residential buildings in the North-West of Kursk were left without electricity. The lighting of the TV tower was switched off. For some time, cable TV and cellular communication stopped working. As residents of NW reported, plumbers began to forcibly drain water from the heating system - in order to avoid “defrosting”. There was no light in several shopping centers, and this circumstance gave rise to many cases of robberies. The situation began to stabilize after an hour. Electricity began to flow into homes in the Northwest, interruptions in telephony and television stopped. The ORTPTS tower and the pipes of the NW heating plant are still without mandatory illumination. There is no heat in the batteries of the apartments.

Residents of the northwestern region of Kursk were left without electricity due to a short circuit, which was accompanied by a bright flash and glow. Many thought it was an explosion, someone thought it was a fire, and there were those who saw a sign from above in this phenomenon. The flash, which frightened the whole of Kursk, turned out to be an electrical short circuit. On Monday, at about 19:00, the inhabitants of Kursk witnessed an unusual phenomenon. Some citizens managed to capture a bright flash, similar to an explosion, which lit up the sky for several seconds. The footage shows that people filming the flash are frightened and take what happened for an explosion.

Run away from home! - Strongly advises the voiceover to others. As soon as the outbreak disappeared, the electricity in the entire North-Western region also disappeared. - We had a short circuit, however, the protective systems worked and there were no incidents. Now electricity is already being supplied, ”Elmira Bobryakova, a representative of the local energy company, told MK,“ we didn’t have any explosion, much less a fire. There were some problems at the substation.

As it turned out, the substation belongs to IDGC CENTER, whose representatives said that everything that had happened was the result of a short circuit, which created a bright flash. At 19.10 at the substation 110 kV "Schetmash" as a result of a short circuit, there was a violation of the power supply to consumers. Rescue teams were promptly dispatched to the scene of the accident. Within 58 minutes, the power supply to all consumers was restored, - Yevgenia Fisenko, an official representative of IDGC CENTER, told MK. to put out the flames.

Close to midnight on August 20, the defenders of the White House saw that a convoy of armored personnel carriers was heading towards the White House: in order to prevent the advance of the BMP, they blocked the passage along the Garden Ring with the help of shifted trolleybuses.

The first six vehicles broke through the barricade, the seventh vehicle (BMP No. 536) was blocked by the crowd again, young people jumped on the armor and threw a tarpaulin over the surveillance devices.

Dmitry Komar, throwing a tarpaulin over the viewing slots of the BMP, caught on to him, and when the car made a sharp maneuver, he fell under the tracks.

Vladimir Usov was killed by one of the warning shots, a ricochet from the BMP hatch. Ilya Krichevsky was shot in the head under unclear circumstances.

August 21 was always a special day for Soviet dissidents: on August 21, 1968, Soviet troops, suppressing the Prague Spring, occupied Czechoslovakia. In its "best" tradition, the regime marked this day with blood and corpses.

The funeral of the dead took place on August 24, 1991. The mourning procession of many thousands from Manezhnaya Square to the Vagankovsky cemetery through the streets of Moscow was then led by the vice-president of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoi (two years later he became one of the leaders of the red-brown coup, which ended with the shooting of the building of the Russian parliament).

The President of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin asked for forgiveness from the parents and relatives of the victims: "I'm sorry that I could not protect, save your sons," Yeltsin said words that Soviet citizens had never heard from their leaders before.

Then the President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev thanked the parents of the victims: “Looking into these young faces and the eyes of their parents, it is difficult to speak. But let me, not only on my own behalf, on your behalf, but also on behalf of the whole country, of all Russians, bow low to them, who gave their lives, stood in the way of those who wanted to return the country to the dark times of totalitarianism, push it into the abyss, lead to a bloody massacre. Thanks to their parents!

By decree of Gorbachev, the families of the victims received a lump sum of 250 rubles and a Zhiguli car (in the fall of 1991, a Zhiguli cost three annual salaries of a junior researcher at a scientific research institute).

Komar, Krichevsky and Usov were also the first to be awarded (in 1992) the medal "Defender of Free Russia" - the first state award of the Russian Federation.

Every year, on the day of their death, mourning events were held, including the laying of wreaths from the President of Russia to the graves of the Heroes at the Vagankovsky cemetery and the memorial stone on Novy Arbat.

In 2004, the tradition was broken, and for the first time there were no wreath-layings from high officials. “I am outraged,” Alexander Usov, the father of Vladimir Usov, told the Kommersant newspaper at the time. “The authorities have ceased to observe even the minimum standards of decency.” And the mother of Dmitry Komar, Lyubov Komar, told the journalist that she "does not care if there was a wreath from Putin or not." “Sometimes it seems to me that, except for me, everyone has already forgotten about Dima’s death,” she said. In July 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin established an additional monthly payment for relatives of those killed in the August 1991 coup.

"Hello everyone, there is no need to despair" - Lieutenant Commander Kolesnikov's suicide note.

On August 12, 2000, at 11:28 a.m., a strong flash was recorded on the cruiser Pyotr Veliky in the water area where the exercises of the Russian Northern Fleet were taking place, and then a water hammer. At that moment, it was not given much importance. Another five hours later, according to the plan, a communication session with the K-141 Kursk submarine followed. But at the appointed time, there was silence on the air. The admirals who led the exercises became worried, but no one yet thought that one of the biggest tragedies of our time was unfolding.

Submarine in troubled times

Back in the Brezhnev era, the command of the Soviet fleet was thinking about how to counter the US aircraft carrier groups. The USSR could not afford a similar program for the construction of heavy aircraft carriers. Therefore, we decided to look for an asymmetric answer to this challenge. This is how Project 949A submarines, also known as Antei, submarine missile cruisers, were born. These nine-story building monsters were equipped with Granite anti-ship missiles.

True, the original design of the Anteev already contained many controversial decisions.

IN During the 80s, the Antei were gradually put into operation in the Pacific and Northern fleets. They became a kind of last gift from the Soviet shipbuilding program to the naval forces of modern Russia: the last of the 11 completed submarines was laid down in August 1991, when the USSR was already disintegrating. The tenth "Antey", laid down in 1990 and launched in 1994, received the number K-141 and the name "Kursk".

In the 90s, the Kursk served in the Northern Fleet. This period was incredibly difficult for the country and the fleet, which, of course, affected the condition of the submarine, as well as the qualifications of the crew and command.All the problems of the then Russian Armed Forces affected the capabilities of the Kursk. Lack of funds did not allow for constant training. In 1998 and 1999, the Kursk never fired torpedoes at sea.

In the summer of 2000, a scheduled repair of the ship began, carried out with many violations of the regulations. By July, the crew had not gone to sea for almost nine months. Now he had to participate in major exercises of the Northern Fleet, together with other warships.

At the same time, the task assigned to the sailors of the Kursk did not look elementary at all. The fact is that before the trip, the Kursk received torpedoes of the Kit type, which the crew had never fired before. There were not even relevant operational documents on board. The Kursk crew was simply not prepared to use a particular type of torpedo; the sailors had never dealt with it.

On August 10, the Kursk left on its last campaign and began the exercise program. On the 12th at 08:45 am, the submarine commander Gennady Lyachin got in touch and said that everything was going according to plan. At ten o'clock the boat takes up positions for practice shooting.

Fading hopes

Later, the death of the Kursk gave rise to many versions of what happened on board. However, some points can be judged accurately. At 11:28 a torpedo explodes in the first compartment. Everyone in the first and second compartments is killed on the spot, and a high-temperature fire breaks out inside. The sailors who were in the third compartment begin to go aft, but manage to get through only before the fourth. The boat nods and after a short time hits the bottom at a depth of 108 meters. At this moment, due to the fire, the torpedoes remaining on board are detonated. The blast wave goes through the compartments. She was stopped only by heavy-duty bulkheads around the nuclear reactor.

23 sailors survived in the aft compartments. The signal buoy, which could indicate the exact location for the search, was blocked. The surviving submariners gathered in the ninth compartment after the shutdown of the nuclear reactor.

Meanwhile, above the surface of the water, they already began to experience anxiety. Oddly enough, no one reacted to the report of the acousticians from the Peter the Great, who recorded a clap and hydraulic shock from the explosion. However, the hours passed, the submarine did not fire, then she did not get in touch.

The cruiser "Pyotr Veliky" began to give signals, calling the "Kursk" to the surface. No answer. Only half an hour before midnight the alarm was announced in the fleet. Teachings stop, rescuers go to sea.

At 04:51 am the boat was found lying on the bottom. "Rudnitsky" goes there and arrives at about nine in the morning the next day. The trouble is that the Northern Fleet simply does not have the necessary equipment to get to the boat, and the level of training of sailors is insufficient.

At this time, the last sailors were dying painfully in the aft compartment of the Kursk.

Some of the light on their fate is shed by the notes of Lieutenant Commander Dmitry Kolesnikov. He made a list of those gathered at the stern, briefly described the state of affairs and, finally, sketched a couple of lines for his wife Olga. The officer understood that, most likely, he would die: "The chances seem to be few, 10-20 percent."

Nevertheless, there was no panic among those remaining on board. To avoid flooding, the submariners slightly increased the pressure and dressed in insulated suits. There was no lighting, but the lights still functioned.

Theoretically, sailors could escape through the escape hatch. However, there was not enough rescue equipment for everyone, and most importantly, so far there was no reason to use it. Self-evacuation through an emergency hatch is generally more a gesture of desperation than a real opportunity to leave the boat.

The Kolesnikov group still had the opportunity to hold out for quite a long time due to the air regeneration system. However, the situation inevitably deteriorated anyway. In the ninth compartment, slowly, but still, water was flowing.

Lieutenant Commander Sadilenko also jotted down a short text about the state of affairs on the boat, and from it it becomes clear what a nightmare the last hours were:

"There are 23 people in the ninth compartment. They are not feeling well, weakened by the action of carbon monoxide. Regeneration cartridges are running out. Upon reaching the surface, we will not withstand compression. We will last no more than a day."

Soon an event occurred that further reduced the life of the remnants of the crew. Emergency air regeneration on the boat was provided by devices based on potassium and sodium peroxide that produce oxygen. The problem is that under certain conditions, this mixture can easily flare up. During the recharging of the regeneration device, engine oil got on the plates.

A chemical reaction followed instantly, causing a brief but intense fire. It quickly went out, and it was not the burns that killed the sailors. The fire quickly burned out the oxygen that remained in the ninth compartment, and filled the premises with carbon monoxide, which killed everyone who was still alive.

In fact, this meant that by the beginning of the rescue operation there was already no one to save.

Powerless Saviors

In fact, by the time "Rudnitsky" appeared at the scene, it was already about removing the bodies. However, on the very first day of work, the command of the Northern Fleet gave false hope to the whole country. It was announced that contact had been established with the crew, and knocking signals were being given from inside. The murderous reality was that the anchor chain was rattling against the anchor hawse and the automatic emergency station of the submarine. However, before the nature of the sounds was sorted out on the spot, the fleet command had already managed to report on the alleged contact to the country's top leadership and the public.

The irresponsible behavior of both the command and the media only added fuel to the fire. As hopes of saving at least part of the team faded, emotions spilled out. Not only the relatives of the sailors, but the whole country was outraged.

On August 19, Norwegian rescuers arrived at the scene of the tragedy. Divers, having examined the boat, according to indirect data, decided that, apparently, the ninth compartment was flooded. Soon they open the hatch and find an air bubble, but not a single living person. On the afternoon of the 21st, the commander of the Northern Fleet reported the death of the crew.

An investigation began, but it could not give any answers before it was possible to raise the boat to the surface. The rise of the Kursk has become a separate complex international project. During 2001, the boat was transported to the dock. 115 dead bodies were found and buried. However, after the mourning events, many questions remained.

Debriefing

The investigation considered a wide range of versions.

The version of a mine explosion from the times of World War II does not stand up to criticism. The mine cannot float freely in the water column for decades, and the damage from it is characteristic enough not to be confused with anything else.

The version about the death of the nuclear submarine from a collision with an American submarine, or even torpedoing by a "probable enemy" turned out to be much more widely distributed and much more popular. This version was stated in great secrecy by some senior officers of the Northern Fleet, since the treacherous attack writes off everything and allows you not to answer questions about your own professional level.

However, during the investigation, this version also disappeared. NATO submarines, of course, were in the Barents Sea. Meanwhile, both American submarines, theoretically capable of participating in a collision, are much smaller than the Kursk, and a collision - especially one that causes a torpedo to explode in the apparatus - would simply destroy them.

Much more curious is the version about the torpedoing of the Kursk. However, here the supporters of the conspiracy version also face failure. In favor of this version, a photograph of the Kursk was interpreted, which shows a round hole in the side. However, it looks like a hole from a torpedo only at first glance. Torpedoes do not leave round holes with smooth edges.

H in order to substantiate the version of the torpedoing of the Kursk by the Americans, one has to allow too many accidents: a foreign submarine must enter the exercise zone, not be detected by anyone, for some reason fire a torpedo and hit the Kursk, leaving no traces, in the area where the torpedo, in theory, it shouldn't.

No fragments of someone else's torpedo were found inside the submarine. But there were traces of deformation from the internal explosion of the torpedo tube No. 4.

What happened in reality? Judging by the known information, there was an explosion of a "practical" (training) torpedo. Torpedo 65-76 used on the Kursk that day uses hydrogen peroxide and kerosene. Upon contact with kerosene, hydrogen peroxide decomposes into water and oxygen with a monstrous release of heat (up to three thousand degrees), that is, simply put, it explodes. Traces of this particular explosion were found on the torpedo fragments that survived and were raised from the bottom. The question is whether the explosion occurred as a result of a defect in the torpedo or as a result of the actions of the crew. The investigation settled on the first option.

"Atomic End of the World"

They underwent their first test at the end of February. It seemed that only a terrible thunderstorm broke out over Ushakovo. Discharges of unprecedented strength followed one after another. The whole sky was continuously illuminated by bright flashes and dazzling zigzags of lightning, illuminating two waves of powerful clouds floating low above the ground, filled with "lead" gravity. For more than half an hour, the clouds, being opposite each other, seemed to be fighting among themselves - lightning flashes continuously jumped between them. The strongest peals of thunder and the extraordinary fury of the natural elements sent a rumor around the village about the onset of the "atomic end of the world." Frightened old women hid with their neighbors: it’s not so scary to die together. Even the Hydrometeorological Center will later confirm that there were no such thunderstorms in the Kursk region for the entire period of long-term observations.

A few days after a terrible thunderstorm over Ushakovo, there was a brief but unprecedentedly heavy snowfall. So dense that nothing could be seen a meter ahead. As if the clouds had descended to the earth The next day, March 5, 1999, turned out to be really warm and springy, streams ran. Delighted and reassured, people poured out into the street to divert melt water from their houses.

Suddenly, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, a terrible roar was heard from the direction of the pond, located near the village. It lasted several seconds. Many saw how on the opposite slope of the beam, 50 meters from the water, a column of fire shot up into the air along with huge blocks of frozen earth. He rose to a height of more than 10 meters. The earth shook like an earthquake. The visiting fishermen sitting on the pond seemed to have been blown away by the wind. Several local old-timers were 200 meters from the explosion site. The old women started to run.

Molten particles in the form of luminous balls (like hail) reached the surface of the pond and, hissing, sank into the snow and ice. When part of the earth raised into the air sank into a funnel, eerie bubbling sounds were heard from the resulting crater, the hiss of a mixture of water and steam escaping to the surface. Then a column of boiling water shot up with a roar - the "geyser" gushed for 1.5 hours. A hot stream rushing along the shore formed a ravine in the frozen ground, about a meter wide and about a meter deep. When he reached the pond, the snow and ice began to melt - everything was covered in steam. The thick ice floes melted. Melted at high temperature, small rock particles left depressions in the ice with a diameter of up to 5 centimeters and a depth of 4–7 cm.

The villagers thought that some unprecedented cataclysms had occurred in nature. Caught in belated horror, people immediately left the street. Only one elderly veteran, hiding behind the trees near the pond, continued to watch. And when the "geyser" hit, he ran to tell his wife about the real doomsday.

Two hours later, a second explosion thundered on the pond. From the center of the funnel, a black stream of dirt shot up into the air, already without a flame. Again bubbling sounds with the release of steam ... Ushakovites were ready to believe that the bowels had opened up and the end of the world had begun. Someone said that if the crater becomes clogged, there will be a "volcano effect" - an eruption of red-hot lava will begin. The news quickly spread through the village. They spent the night without sleep, some people packed their things for evacuation.

The next day everything was quiet, the volcano did not form. But as soon as the inhabitants of Ushakovo calmed down, from somewhere in the depths of the earth's firmament there was such a strong and long rumble that everything trembled under their feet, and the windows in the windows of houses located even a kilometer from the pond vibrated and rang strongly. There was no explosion, but frightened people reported the incident to the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Meteorite or earthquake?

The Kursk rescuers who arrived in Ushakovo on March 10 determined that the depth of the crater was 6 meters, the area was 13x8 m. The ejection of soil towards the pond amounted to 300–400 tons, much more earth fell into the funnel after the explosion. Radiation examination showed an increased level of gamma radiation - 20 μR / h - 2 times more than the natural background of this area. Nothing abnormal was found in the soil samples. Measurements of the crater showed that a ditch was formed from the funnel to the pond, washed with hot water in the frozen ground, a meter deep and 55 meters long.

One of the first about the events in Ushakovo became known to the newspaper "Friend for a friend". Communication with experts led to the opinion that explosions and the flow of hot water can be associated with a crack inside the Earth and a fiery ejection from it. Biosensorometric studies have confirmed this version. Explosions could repeat until May 1999, when the period of the linear arrangement of the planets began. At this time, strong gravitational disturbances in the earth's crust are possible. Tentatively, they could be directed towards the Soviet region.

1. Frozen pond. 2. Intraterrestrial crack. 3. Aquifer. 4. Plasmoids ("exit" to the surface of the earth and into the aquifer). 5. Funnel filled with earth after the explosion 6. Remaining crater. 7. Outdoor land release. 8. Ejection of a fiery column with soil. 9. Funnel. 10. Trajectory of melted particles. 11. The release of water from the aquifer into the pond.

On March 18, the Ministry of Emergency Situations received reports from two districts about 8 new explosions. The movement of the "underground charge" near Fatezh continued in a straight line. Seven "exits" to the surface are located 5-10 kilometers from each other and from the first funnel. The 8th occurred in the village of Lobazovka, Oktyabrsky District, about 50 kilometers from Ushakovo and 20 kilometers from the Kursk NPP. The dimensions of the funnel in the ravine near Lobazovka are 40 meters, the depth is 8, the length of the collapse with the ejection of soil is 120 m. The ejection of earth is several tens of thousands of tons. The dimensions of the new craters in the Fatezhsky region are 15x5 meters, the depth is 3 meters.

The local population was asked about the possible presence of ammunition and explosives left over from the war in the ground. People shook their heads. Mine detectors did not find a single metal piece in the places of explosions. Many versions appeared in the media: from a banal landslide of soil to a meteorite fall, tests of super-secret weapons and tricks of aliens.

Later, the Kursk fishermen who witnessed the first explosion, and the inhabitants of Ushakovo, remembered that they had seen a strange phenomenon on the pond more than once. Not far from the shore, small heights, but large diameter, seething fountains arose - the water took on a red color in half an hour. At that time, no one checked the temperature, they thought that another powerful stream broke through from the aquifer, located among iron oxides.

Output of plasmoids

The Kosmopoisk expedition, which worked in the Kursk region in May 1999, came to the conclusion that the main cause of the explosion in Ushakovo was the course of internal earth processes. Probably, a geoactive fault is located along the line of river channels. Melted rock particles showed that the explosion was accompanied by temperatures above 1000 degrees. Analyzing geographical maps, it can be assumed with a high degree of confidence that there is a crack in the earth's crust along the line of location of rivers and paleovalleys, as well as the locations of explosions.

The gravitational influence on the displacement of the blocks of the earth's crust along the geotectonic fault was exerted by planets located on one side of the Sun. The crack was cleared of the rock that had clogged it. Spring waters leaked there, falling on a powerful electric discharge flowing in the depths from the natural magnetohydrodynamic generator of the Earth. The fuse was the instantaneous evaporation of water, the creation of enormous pressure and a steam breakthrough to the surface with a powerful explosion and ejection of soil. At the same time, a steam explosion tore off a plasma clot from an energy discharge, throwing it to the surface of the Earth.

The so-called plasmoid is an intraterrestrial fireball with a high temperature and a charge of great strength. Moving along the channel inside the Earth, it melts and destroys the surrounding rocks. If rocks containing graphite or coal are encountered along the way, diamonds may form. Breaking through to the surface of the Earth, the plasmoids explode, causing huge ejections of the earth and melting the ice. When they move through powerful aquifers, instantaneous evaporation of water occurs within a radius of several hundred meters. High pressure builds up, and steam and hot water are ejected following the release of the plasmoid, causing a small earthquake and a gradually fading powerful vibration. More than half of the earth thrown up after each explosion falls into the funnel. Gradually the crack is filled. But after a while, water seeps into it again - repeated emissions of plasmoids occur. They are possible along the entire line of the geotectonic fault.

The Kursk region is located on a hilly area. The origin of the hills is associated with the deformation of the earth's crust, which caved in from the pressure of the accrued multi-kilometer thickness of ice during the great glaciation and straightened out after the movement and melting of glaciers. Due to deformation in the crystalline crust of the basement, numerous geotectonic cracks and faults were formed, closed from above by many kilometers of rock layers.

Cosmopoisk expert opinion (Vadim CHERNOBROV, http://themystery.narod.ru)

If meteorites fell so thickly at the same time, surely someone would have seen them. The Committee on Meteorites of the Russian Academy of Sciences explained: when a meteorite falls with SUCH a funnel, there are eyewitnesses even in the dead of night.

Repeated explosions after some time cannot be explained by the impact of another meteorite - the Earth rotates, and the stream would be bombed much further to the west. But the main proof is that not a single particle of meteorite bodies was found. As well as signs of burnt explosives, the area was surveyed by mine detectors by specialists from the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The version with movements of the earth's crust, as geophysicists later argued, is quite possible, since the riverbeds of the northern part of the Kursk region are just located in the Precambrian faults. But confirmation of geological shifts has not been received.

The version remained official that the craters were formed due to "ordinary landslide phenomena." It was issued by members of the commission of the Ministry of Emergency Situations - researchers of the All-Russian Research Institute of Agriculture and Soil Protection from Erosion. But the earth taking off, the emissions of hot water and steam are not typical for landslides.

Micro-earthquakes can theoretically occur in one place so that remote seismic stations will not record it. But at the same time, the appearance of funnels in 8 places is impossible - on such a large area, a micro-earthquake will not stir the soil. And the recorders would definitely have noted big tremors ... Seismic stations confirmed: there was a jolt. But not like those that an earthquake leaves.

Conclusion of the Main Directorate for Civil Defense and Emergencies of the Kursk Region: “The explosion was probably caused by an object carrying high kinetic and thermal energy. Judging by the direction of the ejection of soil, the fall of the object took place from the south direction. The melting of the coastal part of the ice on the pond is possible due to the ingress of object particles onto it. Burnt holes were observed in ice blocks scattered around the funnel and hanging over the edges of the crater. Based on the increased radiation in the funnel zone relative to the surrounding background, it should be assumed that the explosion was caused by a meteorite fall. Subsequent explosions are the result of the release of steam or the ignition of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen during the decomposition of water from high temperature ... "

Something broke through the frozen ground, hitting a tangent from above, but leaving no debris or fragments behind. Neither a meteorite, nor an airplane or other aircraft are capable of this, even armored attack aircraft crumble from hitting the ground. Unless, if it was something stronger than a steel blank weighing several tons, flying and, moreover, still disappearing immediately after the impact!

Soil scientists, who did not agree with the conclusions about the external impact, remained unconvinced - the blow was not from above, but from below, and groundwater became the main striking force. Why they heated the soil to a temperature of more than a thousand degrees (according to the study of samples in Moscow laboratories), the reports do not say.

CHRONICLE OF MYSTERIOUS EXPLOSIONS

April 1961 On the shore of Korb Lake near the Tuksha River (Russia), a forester found a strange funnel - about 1,500 cubic meters of frozen earth disappeared in the most mysterious way. Part of the soil was at the bottom of the lake, and under it... crushed pieces of ice of an inexplicably bright green color and also small hollow black balls. Experts came to the conclusion from some "not": not an explosion, not a meteorite, not a karst phenomenon, not ball lightning ...

May 1967 Mysterious pits appeared in a clover field (Marlian, France), and a strange purple substance appeared in them. Chemical analysis showed that these are fused crystals of quartz and aluminum oxide. These substances melt at temperatures above 1500 degrees Celsius. And the clover leaves near the pits weren't even scorched...

1968 Sweden. Two fishermen saw in the ice of Lake Uppramen a huge hole of a strikingly even triangular shape, the ice from which was scattered far around, as if from a powerful explosion. Divers, having sank to the bottom of the lake, found a scaly structure of a substance of unknown origin there. When examining other lakes in the same area, similar triangular polynyas were discovered ...

On April 12, 1991, on the outskirts of the town of Sasovo (Ryazan region), a powerful explosion was heard, doors were torn out in the houses, walls were destroyed, glass in the windows was knocked out within a radius of several kilometers ... There were many versions: “sacks of saltpeter, folded for fertilizer on the field, exploded ”, “a military aircraft from a nearby airfield dropped a bomb”, “a meteorite fell”, “made an emergency landing of a UFO”. A local eccentric came with a confession, "confessing" that he personally bombed Sasovo when aliens allegedly took him on board a UFO. Not dwelling on any of the hypotheses, scientists and "specialists" dispersed. Only a huge funnel remained - about 30 meters in diameter, 4 meters deep. Soon it filled with water, glass was inserted in the houses, and the incident was forgotten. Not for long.

In June 1992, a new funnel was discovered 6 kilometers from the same Sasovo. The dimensions are again considerable - 12 m in diameter and 4 m deep. Everything is the same as last time, only there is no information about the explosion - no one heard a roar, did not see a flash or a glow ...

In May 1994, on the slope of a ravine near the Kursk nuclear power plant, 2 fresh funnels appeared with a diameter of 7–8 and a depth of 3 meters. The force of the explosion was equivalent to about a half-ton bomb, but no traces of explosives or shrapnel were found. Most of the earth thrown out of the funnels also disappeared without a trace. The day before, local residents saw a UFO in the form of a fiery body over this place, then some pillars of fire appeared in the sky, and only then two distant explosions sounded ...

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