The main tragedy in the Moscow metro: what happened on 23 July 1941

History 13/01/20 the Main tragedy in the Moscow metro: what happened on 23 July 1941

Over the years of its operation, the metro has become a “witness” many of the victims of tragedies and accidents. But the worst day in the history of the Moscow metro can be considered on 23 July 1941. Because the number of dead and wounded, then the tens, and moments of terror in the memory of the witnesses of those events preserved for many years.
In this article we will try to reconstruct a picture of what happened that day in the Moscow metro.

on 22 June 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, which was the beginning of the great Patriotic war. Already on 14 July on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler had begun preparations for the air attacks on Moscow. In the same month there was the first bombing of the capital, which was probably the strongest and most massive of all time. The first airstrike occurred on July 22, and it took part in no less than 220 German aircraft.

the Bombing of the capital of the Soviet Union, which claimed many lives and led to numerous destructions continued throughout the next day. Especially on 23 July suffered the Moscow metro. The fact that the metro station in those days served the Muscovites as shelters-bomb shelters. Hiding from the deadly “gifts” of the German invaders, the people were not only filled the platforms but and subway tunnels. In the book of Anatoly Voronin, “Moscow 1941” it is said that after the announcement of the first air RAID in the underground hiding hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Moscow.

About 4-5 hours of the day a German aerial bomb explosive action exploded at the entrance to the lobby of the station “Arbat”. It happened even before the Soviet troops had to announce an air alarm. As a result, many Muscovites living nearby, in a panic rushed to the station. On the stairs of the escalator formed a strong the crush, killing more than 60 people and several dozen were injured. In the book “the Battle for the sky” Dmitry Khazanov says that many died because of stampede and panic and not because of a bomb explosion. Thus for elimination of consequences of metro workers took two days.

But the misery for Muscovites, who were in the Moscow metro, is not over. Another bomb damaged the trestle bridge Smolensky metro bridge, and the other destroyed the ceiling of the tunnel between stations “Smolenskaya” and “Arbatskaya”. At this point in the tunnel people were hiding. According to Anatoly Voronin, 14 people have died from the effects of blast, shrapnel and debris of the ceiling. About two dozen of people injured.

Russian Seven

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© Russian Seven

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