08:03, 1 September 2024Source: 

Twenty years ago, the most terrible terrorist attack in the history of modern Russia took place. On September 1, 2004, a group of terrorists seized School No. 1 in the city of Beslan in North Ossetia, where a ceremonial assembly was taking place in honor of Knowledge Day. The militants herded the schoolchildren, parents, and teachers into the gym and held them hostage for two and a half days without food or water. There were 1,128 people, mostly children, in the school mined by the terrorists. At the same time, the authorities constantly understated the number of hostages in the news. The leader of the Chechen separatists, Shamil Basayev, claimed responsibility for organizing the terrorist attack. On the afternoon of September 3, explosions occurred in the gym, after which the special services stormed the school. By the evening of September 3, security forces reported the destruction of 31 terrorists; one of the militants, Nurpasha Kulayev, was captured alive and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. The terrorist attack killed 333 people, including 186 children. At least 783 people were injured to varying degrees. The Russian authorities do not like to recall Beslan. During his presidency, Vladimir Putin has only visited the city twice, and never on the anniversaries of the terrorist attack. In 2024, the president visited Beslan on August 20. On September 3, the 20th anniversary of the hostages’ release, he will visit Mongolia. The official investigation into the terrorist attack has not yet been completed. Meduza recalls how the events of September 1–3, 2004, unfolded in Beslan.

September 1st

The terrorists burst into the courtyard of School No. 1 almost immediately after the assembly began. Within a few minutes, they herded more than a thousand people into the school gym, took personal belongings from the hostages, and began barricading the building and installing homemade explosive devices. The militants had studied the school’s plan in advance. They knew it thoroughly.

The authorities knew how many people had been taken hostage. They began to gather special forces at the school, organized a counter-terrorist operation headquarters, and opened a criminal case. However, all official reports said that there were not as many hostages in the school as there actually were. The numbers mentioned ranged from 120 to 354 people. As Novaya Gazeta wrote , VGTRK employee Pyotr Vasilyev and the current press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov were in charge of covering the operation in Beslan. This tactic of deliberately understating the number of hostages provoked aggression among the captors and affected their attitude towards the hostages. “If they think there are 300 of you, then we will make sure that there are only 300 of you left here!” – this is what one of the terrorists told the hostages, according to eyewitnesses.

Two hours after the school was taken over, the terrorists passed a note with one of the hostages, demanding that the head of North Ossetia, Alexander Dzasokhov, the head of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, and doctor Leonid Roshal (they later added Russian presidential adviser Aslanbek Aslakhanov to the list) come for negotiations. They also passed on a telephone number for communication. In the event of an assault, the terrorists threatened to shoot 50 hostages for each militant killed. There were two mistakes in the note: in the number and in Roshal’s last name. In fact, the terrorists demanded negotiations with General Vladimir Rushailo.

At about 4:00 p.m., an explosion occurred at the school. One of the suicide bombers blew herself up near the hostages who had barricaded the building. Another militant was seriously wounded. The terrorists then shot 21 hostages. 

In the evening, Leonid Roshal flew to Ossetia, who already had experience negotiating with terrorists during the terrorist attack on Dubrovka in 2002. The militants did not let him into the school, as they were waiting for Rushailo. But Roshal spoke to them on the phone. The doctor asked to give the hostages water and medicine, offered to exchange children for adults – and also offered the terrorists free passage to Chechnya and Ingushetia. All offers were rejected.

September 2

Vladimir Putin addressed the nation only a day later, at 11:00 on September 2, in connection with the terrorist attack in Beslan. He cut short his vacation in Sochi and postponed a planned visit to Turkey.

The terrorists continued negotiations with Roshal, but they came to nothing. Officially, the authorities claimed that the terrorists did not negotiate and did not demand anything. In fact, they passed on a videotape through the hostages with a direct appeal from Shamil Basayev to Putin. The leader of the Chechen fighters demanded an end to military actions and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. In addition, a letter to Putin was passed on through Ruslan Aushev, the former president of Ingushetia.

At 16:00, Ruslan Aushev went to the school to negotiate. He managed to negotiate with the terrorists about the release of 26 hostages – women with infants.

Letter from Shamil Basayev addressed to Vladimir Putin and  

transmitted by terrorists through Ruslan Aushev

Materials of the criminal 

case of Nurpashi Kulaev

September 3

On the morning of September 3, the terrorists again refused to give the hostages food and water. But later the authorities agreed to evacuate the bodies of the hostages killed by the militants on the first day of the terrorist attack. Dzasokhov and Aushev, together with businessman Mikhail Gutseriev, planned to involve Akhmed Zakayev and Aslan Maskhadov in the negotiations. They agreed, but on the condition that Novaya Gazeta correspondent Anna Politkovskaya and Radio Liberty correspondent Andrei Babitsky accompany them to Beslan. This never happened. Babitsky was detained at the Moscow airport on trumped-up charges, and Politkovskaya was poisoned with an unknown substance on the plane.

At 12:55, the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived at the school in vehicles to evacuate the bodies of the dead. At 1:03 and 1:05 p.m., two explosions occurred at the school, after which the assault began. Both military personnel and unarmed civilians rushed to the school. Later, the investigation stated that the force operation was forced to begin – due to the explosions of homemade bombs in the gymnasium where the hostages were located. However, from the testimony of surviving witnesses, it follows that the terrorists’ bombs did not explode. The hostages saw a large fireball flying through the hall, as if from a grenade launcher. The special forces of “Alpha” and “Vympel” really used “Shmel” flamethrowers and anti-personnel rocket launchers during the assault.

At 13:19, a third explosion occurred. The operational headquarters makes a statement: “In connection with the developing situation, security forces are forced to act according to this situation.” By this time, there was already an intense shootout in the school, and the hostages were either being evacuated chaotically or trying to save themselves. At 13:30, the roof of the gym collapsed.

The authorities claimed that all those killed in the attack were victims of a bomb planted by terrorists. However, only 116 bodies were found in the gym. According to a report by military expert and former State Duma deputy Yuri Savelyev, most of the hostages died in the southern wing of the school, where they were taken by the terrorists after the first explosions. This wing was not mined. It was demolished immediately after the attack on the night of September 4.

After the assault

(C)MEDUZA 2024