THE PLACE, WHERE THE PLANET WAS DESTROYED

Novaya Gazeta ^ | October 14th, 2004 | Yuriy SAFRONOV

[struwwelpeter]

Original Title:

BESLAN'S FORTY DAYS. THE PLACE, WHERE THE PLANET WAS DESTROYED

       

     
       Those who perished on September 1st were remembered over the weekend. Tuesday will be 40 days since September 3rd, but people will be holding their memorials on other days, on Wednesday and Thursday. Everyone has many relatives, and one must go to every home to express sympathy.
       
       During the Great Patriotic War, Beslan lost 357 people, but now Beslan has lost everything. Each day the Rostov laboratory sends another list. On Tueday the number of the dead grew by another seven names: Milena Gachikovna Grigoryan, Miranush Gachikovna Grigoryan, Naira Yurikovna Grigornyan, Soslan Alanovich Tokmayev, Irina Sergeevna Khadikova, Anna Batrazovna Tsaikhova, Ol'ga Nikolaevna Soskiyeva, Alla Evgen'yevna Smirnova.
       From morning until night, there is wailing in the destroyed school.
       
       * * *
       On Saturday the 'Russian social committee for support of persons suffering from terrorist acts in the city of Beslan' came to town. The committee went to the regional administration center. Primakov, Zurabov, Karelova, were among the committee members. The first to speak was the Northern Ossetian president, Aleksandr Dzasoxov. He did not show his suffering, and his high voice rang out as if at a party meeting: "The initiative for this committee's creation is from the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin! We agreed that Dmitriy Nikolaevich Kozak shall chair this committee. <…> Today, in our grief, we must examine the events, as it is our responsibility to those who have suffered, and solve these problems once again."
       "The people all want to know, will the political leadership and armed forces be brought up on criminal charges. Not just in Ossetia, but on the federal level as well," Mairbek Tuayev said to the committee. He is a representative from a committee distributing humanitarian assistance in Beslan. "I was at the school for those 3 days, and not once did I see anyone from the leadership come and find out the situation, or determine where to station the special forces. That 50 to 100 of the dead are on the consciences of the armed forces leadership, that is what the people would like to know." It is not understood, with what exactly did the general staff occupy itself, other than refusing to negotiate.
       
       * * *
       Svetlana Peliyeva-Dzodziyeva had just returned from Sochi with the first group of Beslan children. She has recovered a bit. On September 1st, Svetlana took her children to Beslan School #1. She thought that she was combining the pleasant with the useful: she would send Zarina (Zayka), her fourth-grader, and Gregoriy, her seventh-grader, off to school, then do an article on the first day of class for the local paper, 'Life on the Right Bank'. Now she cannot talk her children into going back to school. Zayka is very scared, though by nature she is a brave little girl. After being freed from captivity, a 27 year-old friend of Svetlana's was sobbing continuously, but 9 year-old Zayka calmed her down. From Zayka's fourth-grade class, only 20 of the 32 childen survived. Her teacher Roza Cherdzhiyeva also died.
       If Svetlana manages to talk Zayka into returning to classes, she will likely attend School #6. Carol Bellamy, managing director of UNICEF, was there on Tuesday. Everyone wants to help the Beslan children these days. Two schools and three kindergartens are to be built. School #4 has been holding classes in three shifts, though no one knew about this until recently. Twenty-seven children from School #1 are already attending School #6. On Monday, Volodya Dyukov did not attend classes - his home was holding a wake for his father. On Tuesday, 7th grade student Dzerassa Dzestolva was taken out of class for a television interview. They wanted to film her with School #1 in the background.
       
       * * *
       Ruslan Kokov lives on Komintern street no. 126, right across from School #1. Ruslan built his home in 1983, and, by himself, he raised two children - Uruzmaga (born in 1988) and Oksana (born in 1989). The family lived in the front rooms while construction materials were in the back ones.
       Oksana finished 9th grade with almost perfect grades, all A's and only 3 B's. She used to practice Akido. In a small room, which Ruslan had not quite managed to finish flooring, her things lay on the bed. Blouses, dolls. An unopened pack of stockings. Her orange roller skates still lay in the corner where she tossed them. On the walls hang award certificates. Uruzmag, Oksana's brother, has gone to Sochi, to the sanitorium, and Ruslan is quite alone. He makes a hard-boiled egg, but eating is but a formality. Ruslan found a cassette with a recording of his daughter's voice. Oksana had been reading from 'A History of Russia', and in order to better remember her assignment, she had put the lesson on tape. Ruslan sat listening to his daughter, writing verse.

       I'll put my granddaughter on my knee,
       I'll tug at her fat little cheek,
       And in the features of the new generations,
       I'll see my own daughter.
       <…>
       Papa
       
       * * *
       Relatives of those who perished, chased scientologists out of the city on Monday. For three weeks, these scientologists had been operating out of the second floor of the city cultural center. The center's kind-hearted director, Rimma Tuayeva, had let them in without any argument after glancing at a xeroxed permission slip, which they had received from the regional directorate of education. They found it pleasant to come to the scene of a tragedy, to help the suffering with their Ron Hubbard brochures. Proudly, they showed me a photograph they had taken from the ruins of School #1: '18, 19, 20. Scientologic priest Tat'yana Akhal'tseva and a group of scientologists conduct a scientology church funeral service in the gymnasium of the school, the scene of the tragedy'.
       Antonina Anufriyeva, who was responsible for the volunteer priests, said: "During these three weeks we helped a thousand people" and "many of the sufferers have already made significant advances towards success." Evidently, the zenith of 'success' would come with the distribution of money which was to be put in a special account for the suffering people. The little brochure 'Road to Happiness', among its simple wisdoms ('If you clean your teeth everyday after meals, they will not be destroyed') contains a terrible warning: 'A recent discovery found during an investigation of Venus showed that our planet can be destroyed. <…> And it may happed during our century'. In confirmation of this truth, the scientologists have moved from the hostel to the hotel 'Flight'. Sunday evening, Mairbek Tuayev entered the culture center and found two hypnotized teenagers, above whom fluttered an old woman wearing the yellow t-shirt of a scientologist. On Monday, the scientologists were asked convincingly to remove themselves from the city.
       "Why do you write that the Ossetians are going to go beat up Ingush after the 40 days of mourning? Why put a match to a powder keg?" the correspondents were asked by residents of Beslan. Others added: "If the government doesn't find the guilty ones, we'll have to hold our own court. It won't be revenge, but defense of the state."
       "It's not necessary to talk about Ingushi, Chechnyans, and Ossetians. We're all the same to you - the Caucasian nationality," said Aza T. "I could spit on the integrity of the Russian Federation! I could spit on you imperial ways! If the government can't defend us, why do we need the government?!".

"They come to work at the federal attorney general's office at 11 O'clock, and at 2 or 3 O'clock they're already driving back to Vladikavkaz to rest. At this rate, how are they ever going to find the guilty ones?!" worried Mairbek Tuayev.
       Ruslan Kokov said: "It wasn't Maskhadov and not Basayev. I don't believe it was. It's all money. Let's not turn into warring nationalities. Imagine that we start to fight. Up above sits two people: one for the Ingush, the other for the Ossetian, and they're making bets. And making money."
       
       Yuriy SAFRONOV, our spec. corr. in Beslan
       We would like to thank Murat Kaboyev for his help in preparing this material.
       
       14.10.2004
       

From Novaya Gazeta

[bd476]

John Travolta, Travolta's wife, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribissi, Kirstie Alley, Lisa Marie Presley, Chick Corea and many more are Scientologists. It's scary.

[bd476]

From Mosnews.com:

Health Ministry Asks Police to Shut Down Church of Scientology in Beslan

Created: 12.10.2004 21:05 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 21:07 MSK

MosNews

A regional health ministry in southern Russia has asked the government and law enforcement authorities to help close down the Church of Scientology in Beslan, where hundreds of children died in a school hostage taking last month.

The North Ossetian Health Ministry said the activities not only of this church, but also other “sects” like Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is offering humanitarian aid in the region, are dangerous, the Interfax news agency reported.

In a letter sent to federal authorities, the ministry said that various psychological tactics the groups use, including what it called hypnosis, may be harmful not only for adults, but for children that have already suffered severe mental shock.

Over 330 people — half of them children — died in the Beslan hostage drama that began when armed militants stormed a school on the first day of class.

Health Ministry Asks Police to Shut Down Church of Scientology in Beslan

[The_Media_never_lie]

Outstanding post!

[Velveeta]

This slaughter will not be forgotten.

[PistolPaknMama]

They found it pleasant to come to the scene of a tragedy, to help the suffering with their Ron Hubbard brochures

Sounds more like vultures circling overhead!

[eleni121]

The horrors of Beslan have been repeated thousands of times by muslims over the years.

And now on top of this latest atrocity we have the shameless spectacle of wealthy cultists and their minions exploiting the deaths of these innocent angels...disgraceful and appalling!

[Destro]

The Westerners are a culture of parasites.

[eleni121]

The Westerners are a culture of parasites.


"Westerners"? What exactly are you trying to convey here? Do you actually know? Truly bizzarre...come up with something more intellectually honest.

[struwwelpeter]

I thought you'd appreciate knowing that your colleague in teaching, Olga Soskiyeva, was finally identified. At last she will rest in a place where her loved ones and students can come to give their regards, instead of a mass grave.

[Destro]

From the Venetians to the Franks to the Germans that snuck in Lenin. The West breeds parasites.

[tet68]

Hey John Kerry, hear this and remember it well!!

"...If the government can't defend us, why do we need the government?!".

[eleni121]

"...Venetians to the Franks to the Germans..."

I kinda figured you were talking about the HRE and its vestiges...not Western Civilization which after all is a creation of Christendom and Byzantium - but I wasn't sure. No argument there...they stabbed Christendom in the back and let the fellowhip rot for hundreds of years under the Muslim yoke.

[eleni121]

Honestly, for a long time I have been rather embarrassed to be part of the teaching profession and now I have another reason to stay in it...in Olga's memory.

Thanks for the sad update...

[struwwelpeter]

From the Venetians to the Franks to the Germans that snuck in Lenin. The West breeds parasites.

Crazy from the squabbling,
Stumbling like cripples,
We'd bring back the Varyags,
But they've run off to the Greeks.

We are being boiled in a strange compote,
Where they look you straight in the eye and lie,
Where everyone is individually against,
But together - decisively for.

When the country is one -  it's a family,
Everyone lives for love and gets along;
Tell me, who is your friend, and I
Will say, why you will be imprisoned.

Russia will go into the centuries
Under the battle of government competitors
As a country of embezzlers, saints, assholes,
Drunkards and blessed talents.

-- Igor Guberman, Soviet poet and dissident

[verifythentrust]

Thanx for posting an interesting article.

If I may pik a nit. The planet will not be destroyed. Civilization maybe, humans possibly, but the planet will still be here. The question is whether or not it will be suitable for human life. As for destroying civilization, well, who can argue.

[struwwelpeter]

I think the author was being sarcastic about the scientologists, but to the children it sure must have seemed like the apocalypse.

[verifythentrust]

I agree, sometimes, I'm way too literal.

[Destro]

Calling it Western civilization is a misnomer. I prefer either Christendom because it is more accurate (includes those lost to this civilization in the Middle East and in North Africa as well as including East and West Europe) or maybe a new term like Neo-Hellenistic because this culture is a continuation of Roman/Hellenistic civilization (Was not Moscow dubbed the Third Rome?).

"Western" civilization is the adoption of Classical Hellenistic and Christian culture and can be found anywhere not only in the "West" which was in fact a backwater and a cultural disgrace until the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

[struwwelpeter]

From Severnaya Osetiya news (October 15th, 2004):

Echos of the tragedies

A life given to children

They just buried her yesterday, more than 40 days since she went to work on September 1st, the first day of school and every teacher's favorite holiday, a day from which she never returned. Olga Nikolaevna Soskiyeva was an elementary school teacher at School #1 in Beslan. Now she is on the list of twenty pedagogues who died heroically within the walls of that educational institution.

Olga Nikolaevna was listed as missing all this time. Her loved ones kept a glimmer of hope that she had somehow survived, but everyone who knew her, knew that, even if Olga Nikolaevna was able to escape from the burning gymnasium, if there was still one child left to save, she would not leave. Such was Olga Nikolaevna's character. She always saw everything through to the end, and this was how she taught her children for 34 years. During their captivity, the frightened children pressed close to their teacher, as if clinging to their own mothers. Olga Nikolaevna supported them as best she could. After the fateful explosions in the gym, she helped them escape, and almost her entire class managed to make it....
During the three days of her captivity, Olga Nikolaevna took upon herself the care of an elderly colleague, war veteran and retired teacher Zaurbek Gutiyev, who later would say that he never before experienced such horrors, even during the battle of Stalingrad. Olga Nikolaevna secretly carried water to old man and carried him back and forth to the toilet, suffering all the while the insults mockeries of the terrorists.
Olya was a simple Russian girl from the village of Buron. Later, she married an Ossetian from Beslan, and proved to be true, to the very end, to the teaching profession, and to humanity itself.
Over the fresh mound on Olga Nikolaevna's grave her loved ones weep inconsolably: husband Viktor, their children Irina and Boris, and grandson Khetag.
T. Tautiyeva

[Bonaparte]

Thanks for the ping, bd!

For those unfamiliar with "scientology," here's a nice summary.