This terrible earthquake began on December 7, 1988 at 11 o'clock in the afternoon. The seismic stations of Armenia and other nearby countries recorded several earthquakes of destructive force. Without having time to realize what was happening, the Armenian capital lost telephone connection with Spitak, Leninakan and other cities and towns of the republic. In an instant, almost the entire northern part of Armenia fell silent - 40% of the entire country with a million people.
But 7 minutes after the earthquake, a military radio station suddenly appeared on the air, thanks to which junior sergeant Alexander Ksenofontov said in plain text that the population of Leninakan urgently needed medical assistance, since the city had undergone very great destruction, as a result of which there were too many wounded and dead. It sounded like a terrible SOS signal!
As during the Chernobyl disaster, the authorities remained silent for a long time. They, as always, pretended to try to comprehend what was happening and acceptcorrect measures, and, realizing the scale of the disaster, did not want to realize their helplessness. And the trouble at that time did not wait for their understanding: at that time it was necessary to provide assistance to the victims as quickly as possible, to sort out the rubble and save barely alive people.
Besides this, it was winter outside, and thousands of people were left without shelter, clothes, water and food. And just imagine that only in the late afternoon the radio announced with a meager message that an earthquake had occurred in Armenia in the morning. Why scarce? Because it did not say a word about the scale of the disaster, nor about the approximate number of dead and wounded.
But still, it must be admitted that the plane, along with surgeons and medicines on board, took off on the same day from Vnukovo airport. Having transferred to the helicopter in Yerevan, the brigade was in Leninakan by the evening. The arrivals could fully appreciate and understand the scale of the disaster only in the morning, when the first rays of the sun ran over the ruins and the bodies of the dead. Everything was plowed up, broken, as if someone with his huge hand was trying to mix the city with the earth. Leninakan was no more - instead of it - ruins and corpses.
Nearby towns and small towns were also affected by the earthquake. Everywhere one could see only heaps of rubble and walls with empty eye sockets of windows. And only the day after the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 destroyed part of the country, helicopters and planes began to arrive with essentials. The wounded were taken from Leninakan and sent to Yerevan hospitals.
A lot of Soviet republics then came to the aid of Armenia. About 50 thousand builders and several dozen doctors arrived. In that terrible month, the media did not give data on the number of victims in Armenia. And only 3 months later, the Council of Ministers provided journalists with official statistics, which stated that the earthquake that occurred in Armenia in 1988 destroyed 21 cities, 350 villages, among which 58 were completely destroyed and became uninhabitable. More than 250 thousand people were killed and the same number were wounded. More than 17% of the entire housing stock of the country was destroyed: of these, 280 schools, 250 hospitals, several hundred preschool institutions and 200 enterprises were found to be unusable. In the end, 500,000 people were left homeless.
It should be said that mother Teresa, who was famous all over the world for her charity, did not remain aloof from the tragedy. She periodically brought clothes and medicines needed to save people who fell into this terrible disaster.
But the fraternal restoration of Armenia was negatively affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a result of which construction gradually began to subside. As a result, the once flourishing region of Armenia turned into a desert zone: hundreds of thousands of residents left those places, leaving ruins and bitter memories in their native “homes.”
The earthquake in Armenia reminded of itself, with its ruins, for another ten years, and even now the country has not fully recovered from the consequences of the tragedy. After all, until now, about 18 thousand people still live in wooden temporary huts, completely losing faith that the government has not forgotten about them.
