Catastrophes of Sakhalin. Killer wave. "Give social security the right. The living and the missing

November 5, 1952 An earthquake occurred 130 km from the cape of the Shipunsky Peninsula of Kamchatka. The source of the earthquake was at a depth of 20-30 km. The destruction from the earthquake covered the coast for 700 km: from the Kronotsky Peninsula to the northern Kuril Islands. The destruction was small - pipes collapsed, light buildings were damaged, the walls of buildings and capital structures cracked.
Much more destruction and disaster was brought by the tsunami that arose as a result of this earthquake. The height of the water rise reached an average of 6-7 m.
devastating tsunami to eastern shores Kamchatka and the northern Kuril Islands approached 15-45 minutes after the earthquake and began with a drop in sea level.
The city of Severo-Kurilsk, located on about. Paramushir. urban area occupied a coastal beach 1-5 m high, then the slope of the coastal terrace 10 m high extended further. Many buildings were placed on it. Some of the buildings were located southwest of the port along the river valley.
According to a number of archival sources, 2,336 people died on that tragic night in the Northern Kuriles.

The following are eyewitness accounts and excerpts from documents that quite fully describe the dramatic events of 1952.

1. From the special report of the head of the North Kuril police department on the natural disaster - the tsunami that occurred in the North Kuril region on November 5, 1952

At 4 am on November 5, 1952, a strong earthquake began in the city of Severo-Kurilsk and the region, which lasted about 30 minutes, which damaged the buildings and destroyed the stoves in the houses.
Minor fluctuations were still going on when I went to the district police department to check the damage to the building of the regional department and especially the pre-trial detention cell, in which 22 people were kept on November 5 ...
On the way to the regional department, I observed cracks in the ground ranging in size from 5 to 20 cm wide, formed as a result of an earthquake. Arriving at the regional department, I saw that the building was broken into two halves by the earthquake, the stoves were scattered, the duty squad ... were in place ...
At this time, there were no more shocks, the weather was very calm ... Before we had time to reach the regional department, we heard a great noise, then crackling from the sea. Looking back, we saw high altitude a water shaft advancing from the sea to the island. Since the regional department was located at a distance of 150 m from the sea, and the detention center was about 50 m from the sea, the detention center immediately became the first victim of water ... I gave the order to open fire from personal weapons and shout: "Water is coming!", while retreating to the hills. Hearing the noise and screams, people began to run out of the apartments in what they were dressed (most in underwear, barefoot) and run into the hills.
After about 10-15 minutes, the first wave of water began to descend, and some people went to their homes to collect their surviving things.
I, with a group of my workers, went to the regional department to clarify the situation and save the survivor. Approaching the place, we did not find anything, there was a clean place ...
At this time, that is, approximately 15-20 minutes after the departure of the first wave, a wave of water of even greater strength and magnitude than the first surged again. People, thinking that everything was already over (many, heartbroken by the loss of their loved ones, children and property), descended from the hills and began to settle in the surviving houses to keep warm and dress themselves. The water, meeting no resistance in its path (the first wave swept away a significant part of the buildings), rushed onto land with exceptional speed and force, completely destroying the remaining houses and buildings. This wave destroyed the entire city and killed most of the population.
Before the water of the second wave had time to descend, the water gushed for the third time and carried almost everything that was from the buildings in the city into the sea.
For 20 - 30 minutes (the time of two almost simultaneous waves of huge force) there was a terrible noise of seething water and breaking buildings in the city. Houses and roofs of houses were thrown, as matchboxes and swept out to sea. The strait separating the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu was completely filled with floating houses, roofs and other debris.
The surviving people, frightened by what was happening, in a panic, throwing their things and losing their children, rushed to run higher into the mountains.

It was about 6 am on November 5, 1952.
After that, the water began to descend and cleared the island. But minor tremors began again and most of the surviving people remained in the hills, afraid to go down. Taking advantage of this, separate groups from the civilian population and military personnel began to rob houses left on the slopes of the hills, break safes and other personal and state property scattered throughout the city ...
By order of the commander of the garrison, Major General Duka, the guards of the State Bank were taken over by Captain Kalinenkov with a group of soldiers ...
By 10 am on November 5, 1952, approximately the entire personnel was assembled. It has been established that among the employees of the regional police department there is no passport officer Korobanov V.I. with a child and secretary-typist Kovtun L.I. with child and mother. According to inaccurate information, Korobanov and Kovtun were picked up by a boat on the high seas, put on a steamer and sent to the city of Petropavlovsk. The wives of policemen Osintsev and Galmutdinov died. Of the 22 people held in the penitentiary, 7 people escaped...
On November 6, a commission was organized at the party and economic asset to evacuate the population, supply it with food and clothing ... An order was given to the commander of the department Matveenko to immediately collect the rank and file ... personnel left the gathering place without permission and by the evening of November 6 boarded the steamship "Uelen"...
A natural disaster completely destroyed the building of the police department, the bullpen, the stable... The total loss is 222.4 thousand rubles.
All the documentation of the regional department, seals, stamps ... were washed away into the sea ... Taking advantage of the natural disaster, the military personnel of the garrison, having drunk alcohol, cognac and champagne scattered around the city, began to engage in looting ...
On November 5, 1952, after the destruction, a safe was found in the Okeansky fish processing plant, in which there were 280 thousand rubles belonging to the plant ... The seafarers of the Ocean Plant ... broke into the safe and stole 274 thousand rubles ...
In the Babushkino and Kozyrevskoye fish processing plants, at the time of the natural disaster, military personnel stole a large number of inventory items belonging to fish farmers.
According to the facts, the military personnel informed the command for taking action.

Senior Lieutenant of State Security P.M.Deryabin

2. Certificate from the Deputy Chief of the Sakhalin Regional Police Department on the results of a trip to the disaster area

November 6, 1952 by order of the head of Sakhalin regional administration The Ministry of Internal Affairs, Colonel of State Security Comrade Smirnov, together with members of the commission of the regional committee of the CPSU, flew to the North Kuril region.
During the period of his stay in the North Kuril region from November 8 to December 6, 1952, from conversations with the affected population, party and Soviet and scientific workers, as well as as a result of personal observations and studies of places subjected to flooding and destruction, he established that on November 5, 1952 At 3:55 a.m., an earthquake of great destructive force occurred on the islands of the Kuril chain, including Paramushir, Shumshu, Alaid and Onekotan. The cause of the earthquake, as scientists explain, was the constant pressure of the earth's crust of the mainland to the east. Due to the fact that the bottom of the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk consists of a hard rock of basalt that can withstand this titanic stress, the failure occurred in the weakest place (according to the structure of the seabed) in pacific ocean, in the so-called Tuskorora depression. At a depth of 7-8 thousand meters, about 200 km east of Paramushir Island, at the moment of giant compression of the basin, a sharp rise of the ocean floor (dump) occurred, possibly with a subsequent volcanic eruption that displaced a huge mass of water, which rolled in the form of a shaft and to the Kuril Islands.
As a result of the earthquake, the city of Severo-Kurilsk, the settlements of Okeanskoye, Utesnoye, Levashovo, Kamenisty, Galkino, Podgorny, etc. were destroyed and demolished by the wave. The earthquake continued with different strength several times a day during November, December and after. At one in the morning on November 16, Yuzhny volcano began to erupt. First, there were strong explosions with flashes, and then lava and ash poured from the crater of the volcano, carried by the wind for 30–50 km and covered the earth by 7–8 cm.
Judging by the explanations of eyewitnesses, the earthquake began like this: on November 5, 1952, at 3:55 a.m., the inhabitants of Severo-Kurilsk were awakened by strong tremors, accompanied, as it were, by numerous underground explosions, reminiscent of a distant artillery cannonade. As a result of the fluctuation of the earth's crust, buildings were deformed, plaster fell from the ceiling and walls, stoves collapsed, cabinets, whatnots swayed, dishes broke, and more stable objects - tables, beds, moved along the floor from wall to wall, just like loose objects on a ship during the storm.
The tremors either with increasing or with weakening force continued for 30-35 minutes. Then there was silence. Residents of Severo-Kurilsk, accustomed to the periodic ground vibrations that had taken place and earlier, in the first minutes of the earthquake on November 5, they believed that it would quickly stop, therefore, fleeing from falling objects and destruction, they ran half-dressed into the street. The weather that night was warm, only in some places the first snow that had fallen the day before was preserved. It was an unusually moonlit night.
As soon as the earthquake stopped, the population returned to their apartments to continue sleeping, and some citizens, in order to prepare for the holiday, immediately began to repair the apartments destroyed by the earthquake, unaware of the impending danger.
At about 5 o'clock in the morning, people who were on the street heard an unusually menacing and ever-increasing noise from the sea, and at the same time - rifle shots in the city. As it turned out later, workers and the military, who were among the first to notice the movement of the wave, fired. They turned their attention to the strait. At that time, in the strait between the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, against the background of the moonlight from the ocean, a huge water shaft was seen. He suddenly stood out quite clearly, bordered by a wide strip of foam, rapidly approaching the city of Severo-Kurilsk. It seemed to people that the island was sinking. This impression, by the way, was among the population and other villages that were flooded. Hope for salvation was determined by only a few tens of seconds. city dwellers, who were on the street, raised a cry: "Save yourselves! The water is coming!". Most of the people in underwear, barefoot, grabbing the children, rushed to the hill. Meanwhile, the water shaft has already collapsed on the coastal buildings. The city was filled with the crackling of destroyed buildings, heartbreaking cries and cries of people drowning and pursued by a water shaft running to the hill.
The first wave rolled back into the strait, taking with it many casualties and a significant part of the coastal buildings. People began to descend from the hills, began to inspect apartments, search for missing relatives. But no more than 20 - 25 minutes passed, when a noise was again heard in the direction of the ocean, which turned into a terrible roar, and an even more formidable water shaft 10 - 15 meters high again rapidly rolled along the strait. With a noise and a roar, the shaft collapsed on the northeastern ledge of Paramushir Island near the city of Severo-Kurilsk and, breaking against it, one wave rolled further along the strait in a northwestern direction, destroying coastal buildings on the Shumshu and Paramushir Islands in its path, and the other, describing an arc along the North Kuril lowland in a southeast direction, collapsed on the city of Severo-Kurilsk, revolving furiously in a circle of the depression and with rapid convulsive jerks washing away to the ground all the buildings and structures located on the ground 10 - 15 meters above the level seas.
The power of the water shaft in its rapid movement was so enormous that small in size, but heavy in weight objects, such as: machine tools installed on rubble bases, one and a half ton safes, tractors, cars - were torn from their seats, circling in a whirlpool along with wooden objects, and then scattered on huge area or swept into the strait.
As an indicator of the enormous destructive power of the second wave, the example of the storeroom of the State Bank, which is a reinforced concrete block weighing 15 tons, is typical. It was torn off the rubble, 4 sq.m, base and thrown back 8 meters.
Despite the tragedy of this disaster, the vast majority of the population did not lose their heads, moreover, in the most critical moments, many nameless heroes showed sublime heroic deeds: risking their lives, they saved children, women, and the elderly.
Here are two girls leading an old woman under the arms. Pursued by the approaching wave, they try to run faster towards the hill. The old woman, exhausted, falls to the ground in exhaustion. She begs the girls to leave her and save themselves. But the girls, through the noise and roar of the approaching elements, shout to her: "We won't leave you anyway, let us all drown together." They pick up the old woman in their arms and try to run, but at that moment the oncoming wave picks them up and throws them all together to a hill. They are saved.
Losev's mother and young daughter, escaping on the roof of their house, were thrown into the strait by a wave. Calling for help, they were noticed by people on the hill. Soon, in the same place, not far from the floating Losevs, a little girl was noticed on the board, as it later turned out, the three-year-old Embankment Svetlana, who miraculously escaped, disappeared, then reappeared on the crest of the wave. Her blond hair, fluttering in the wind, from time to time she tucked her hand back, which indicated that the girl was alive.
The strait at that time was completely filled with floating houses, roofs, various demolished property, and especially fishing gear that interfered with the navigation of boats. The first attempts to break through on boats were unsuccessful - solid blockages prevent moving forward, and fishing tackle is wound on propellers. But then a boat separated from the coast of the island of Shumshu, which slowly makes its way forward through the rubble. Here he comes to the floating roof, the crew of the boat quickly removes the Losevs, and then carefully removes Svetlana from the board. The people sitting with bated breath breathed a sigh of relief.
Only during the run-up to the city of Severo-Kurilsk, the population and the command of various watercraft picked up and rescued more than 15 children lost by their parents, removed 192 people from roofs and other floating objects in the strait, the Sea of Okhotsk and the ocean.
Many responsible workers, until the last minute notifying the population of the impending danger, themselves became victims of the elements. So, the manager of the North Kuril fish trust, a member of the district committee of the CPSU, comrade Alperin M.S., died.
A lot of courage, initiative and resourcefulness were shown in saving people and state property. For example, when the second, more formidable, wave approached the fishing village of Levashovo, the fishermen Puzachkov and Zimovin, believing that the island would flood, raised a cry: "Brothers! Save yourself on the kungas!" 18 people, men, women and children, plunged into the kungas, but not having time to take the oars, they were picked up by the ebb of the wave and carried away far into the ocean. Thanks to resourcefulness, replacing the oars with boards, on the second day they sailed to the shore. Tov. Zimovin and Puzachkov, together with their wives, actively participated in the collection of state property ...
Many captains and boat crews were actively involved in saving the population and property, and then in transporting the population from the island to the ships during significant storms without casualties. At the same time, a number of crew members showed cowardice, leaving the ships to their fate, with the first ships fled to the mainland.
And, if the majority of the population, half-dressed, with children under open sky, pierced by strong winds, rain and snow, courageously and steadfastly endured all hardships, individuals, taking advantage of a natural disaster, appropriated state values, property and hid with the first ships. Individuals, including some military personnel, engaged in looting... The military command, the population itself and the police prevented many cases of looting...
As a result of a natural disaster, an almost empty area of several square kilometers formed on the site of the city of Severo-Kurilsk, and only individual foundations of buildings demolished by a wave, roofs of houses thrown out of the strait, a lonely standing monument to the soldiers of the Soviet Army, a rubble frame of a radio station building, central the gates of the former stadium, various state, cooperative and personal property of citizens, scattered over a vast area. Especially huge destruction to the city was caused by the second rampart. The third water shaft that followed after 20 - 25 minutes was already less significant in height and strength, did not cause any damage, and there was nothing to destroy. The third shaft threw the wreckage of buildings and various property out of the strait, which partially remained on the coast of the bay.
According to preliminary data, 1,790 civilians died during the disaster, military personnel: officers - 15 people, soldiers - 169 people, family members - 14 people. Huge damage has been done to the state, calculated through the Rybolovpotrebsoyuz more than 85 million rubles. Great damage was done to the Voentorg, the military department, the city and municipal services and private individuals.
Severo-Kurilsk, along with industry, institutions, housing stock, is almost completely destroyed and washed away into the sea. The population was about 6,000 people, of whom about 1,200 people died. All the corpses, with the exception of a few, are washed into the sea. A few houses remained, located on a hill, a power plant, part of the fleet and a lot of scattered property, canned goods, liquor and clothing items. The main warehouse of the North Kuril fishery and consumer union and the military trade, several dozen horses, cows and pigs belonging to an unknown person have also been preserved.
In the village of Utyosny, all industrial facilities and buildings are completely destroyed and washed into the ocean. Only one dwelling house and a stable remained ... cigarettes, shoes, butter, cereals and other products were scattered with water; 19 heads of cattle, 5 horses, 5 pigs and about 10 tons of hay. There are no human casualties - the population was about 100 people who were completely evacuated.
The village of Levashovo - all enterprises, a store and a fish store are washed into the ocean. 7 residential buildings and a tent have been preserved. The population lived 57 people, there were no victims, everyone was evacuated. There are 28 heads of cattle, 3 horses and two kungas left.
Reef settlement - no human casualties. All production facilities and premises are destroyed and washed into the ocean. The survivors are refrigerator equipment, a central material warehouse and 41 residential buildings. The fleet was also destroyed, with the exception of 8 kungas and several wrecked boats. 37 heads of cattle, 28 pigs, 46 tons of flour, 10 tons of sugar, 5 tons of butter, 2 tons of alcohol and other inventory items worth 7-8 million rubles remained from the subsidiary farm. The entire population, more than 400 people evacuated...
The village of Kamenisty - there was no population on the day of the disaster ... In the village, all production facilities were completely demolished by water. Only one house remained from the housing stock.
Coastal village - all production facilities and premises were destroyed and demolished into the ocean. There are 9 residential buildings located on a hill and one warehouse of technical and material property. There are no human casualties. The living population, less than 100 people, has been completely evacuated.
The village of Galkino - no human casualties. The population was less than 100 people who were completely evacuated. Manufacturing plants and living quarters are destroyed and washed into the ocean.
Okeansky Settlement - it housed a fish factory, a cannery, a caviar factory with workshops and two refrigerators, mechanical workshops, power plants, a sawmill, a school, a hospital and others government agencies. According to preliminary data, 460 people died from the disaster, 542 people survived and were evacuated. There are 32 residential buildings left, more than a hundred heads of cattle, 200 tons of flour in stacks, 8 thousand cans of scattered canned food, 3 thousand cans of milk, 3 tons of butter, 60 tons of cereals, 25 tons of oats, 30 barrels of alcohol and other valuables. All industrial enterprises and housing stock are destroyed and washed away by water into the ocean.
The village of Podgorny - it housed a whale plant. All production facilities, warehouses, and almost the entire housing stock are destroyed and washed away by water into the ocean. The population lived more than 500 people, 97 people survived, who were evacuated. There are 55 houses left in the village, more than 500 poultry, 6 ten-ton cisterns and several dozen sacks of flour and other products on the site of the former warehouse.
The village Baza Combat - was mothballed before the disaster. The population at the time of the disaster did not live. All businesses are destroyed by water. There are two residential buildings and one tank with a capacity of up to 800 tons.
Cape Vasiliev - everything is completely preserved. The civilian population was 12 people.
The village of Mayor Van - it housed the base of the Shelekhov fish processing plant. The village was not damaged. The population has been evacuated.
The village of Shelekhovo - it housed a fish processing plant. The population lived 805 people, there is no destruction in the village. The population has been evacuated. 102 people left.
The village of Savushkino - it housed a military base with a subsidiary farm. There are no casualties, no destruction either.
The village of Kozyrevsky - it housed two fish factories. The population lived more than 1000 people, 10 people died from the disaster. The rest of the population has been evacuated. Both plants are completely destroyed and washed away into the sea. A lot of tin cans with flounder and Kuril salmon are scattered on the shore.
The village of Babushkino - a fish factory was located in it. The population lived more than 500 people, there were no casualties. The population has been evacuated. A walkie-talkie and two radio operators were left. Industrial enterprises are completely destroyed and washed into the sea. The housing stock suffered by 30-40%.
The administrative building of the Severo-Kurilsky regional branch of the State Bank was also completely demolished, the documentation was washed into the sea, but the safes and the storeroom of the State Bank, with the exception of one safe, were found not far from the location of the administrative building, in which all valuables worth about 9 million rubles were completely preserved. Valuables of savings banks have been preserved in the settlements of Shelekhovo, Baikovo and others, only 11 out of 14 savings banks, in the rest the values have been partially lost.
Safes belonging to the North Kuril Central Cash Office were also found, personal accounts of depositors were not found.
It should be noted that in connection with the sudden evacuation of border guards, in the first days in a number of villages - Shelekhovo, Okeansky, Rifovoy, Galkino and on the island of Alaid, there was panic among the population, as a result of which in these points all state and public property was thrown to the mercy of fate...
In the period from 14 to 26 November, the border guards returned. By this time, in all settlements, the authorized representative of the regional committee of the CPSU, with the help of military units and the remaining civilian population, organized the collection of state, public and personal property, which was transferred under the protection of military units or civilians ...
Upon arrival in Severo-Kurilsk on November 8, 1952, in accordance with the decision of the commission of the regional committee of the CPSU, I organized the collection of state and public property both in Severo-Kurilsk and in a number of other flooded villages. To manage the collection and protection of property, employees of the commission and the police were sent to the villages ...
As a result, for the period from November 10 to November 20, 1952, that is, before snow drifts, ... in Severo-Kurilsk, alcohol and vodka products in the amount of 8.75 million rubles, 126 tons of flour were collected and stored in warehouses military units ..., 16 horses, 112 cattle, 33 small heads, 9 heifers, 90 pigs, 32 pigs, 6 sheep. Collected and rescued a large number of material assets in the settlements of Okeansky, Rifovoy, etc.
On November 23, I, together with members of the commission of the regional committee of the CPSU, t. public order. In other villages, due to a strong storm, it was not necessary to land. By the time of departure, on November 6 ..., Comrade Bezrodny (a police officer) was asked ...
- Upon arrival of police officers, to send for the protection of public order in the villages: Shelekhovo - 2 people, Rifovoe - 1 person, Ocean - 1 person, Kozyrevskoye - 1 person;
- carefully take into account the entire population of the settlements of the region, including the seafarers;
- to take an active part in the organization of work on the collection and protection of state valuables left on the shores, as well as personal property of citizens ...;
- to wage a resolute struggle against looting;
- take measures to clarify those who died during the natural disaster, ensure the collection of documents of the victims ...

Police Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov

3. From the protocol of interrogation drawn up at the police station in the city of Severo-Kurilsk

I am the deputy head of the police department of the UMGB Sakhalin region, militia colonel Smirnov, interrogated Pavel Ivanovich Smolin, born in 1925, as a witness Krasnodar Territory, Kurganinsky district, the village of Rodnikovskaya, non-partisan, Russian, education of 6 classes, married, son 4 years old. Works on logger N 636 as a radio operator; lived in Severo-Kurilsk, st. Sovetskaya, barrack N 49, apt. 13; do not judge; has no papers...

Testimony on the merits of the case:

I have been working on logger N 636, owned by the Severo-Kurilsky fish processing plant, as a radio operator since May or June 1952, and in total in the Severo-Kuril Kuril Islands I have been working in the fishing industry since 1950. On the night of November 5, 1952, I, along with other fishermen, was at sea on a logger (catching fish), or rather, they were in a bucket. At about 4 o'clock in the morning, a great shudder of the ship was felt on the logger. I and other fishermen understood it as an earthquake... On the night of November 5... there was a storm warning of 6-7 points. After the earthquake, our logger, under the command of Captain Lymar, went to sea first. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning.
Walking along the Second Strait in the area of Cape Banzhovsky, our logger was covered by the first wave several meters high. Being in the cockpit, I felt that our ship, as it were, was lowered into a hole, and then thrown high into the air. A few minutes later, a second wave followed and the same thing happened again. Then the ship went quietly, and the throws were not felt. The ship was at sea all day. Only at about 6 pm some military radio station told us: "Return to Severo-Kurilsk immediately. We are waiting at the apparatus. Alperin." I immediately reported to the captain, who immediately answered: "I am immediately returning to Severo-Kurilsk." By that time, we had up to 70 kg of fish caught per day on board. Loger headed for Severo-Kurilsk.
On the way back, I contacted logger N 399 by radio, asking the radio operator: "What happened to Severo-Kurilsk?" The radio operator Pokhodenko answered me: "Go to the rescue of people ... after the earthquake, the wave washed away Severo-Kurilsk. We are standing under the side of the ship, the steering is out of order, the propeller is bent." My attempts to contact Severo-Kurilsk were unsuccessful - he was silent. I contacted Shelekhov by radio. The radio operator answered me: "There was a drain earthquake in Severo-Kurilsk, maybe something happened." I told him that we were leaving at the time of the earthquake, and everything was in order there. This ended the conversation.
Even in the Sea of Okhotsk, before reaching the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu, the logger's team, including myself, saw the roofs of houses, logs, boxes, barrels, beds, doors floating towards us. By order of the captain, the team was posted on the deck on both sides of the sides and on the bow in order to save people who were at sea. But none of the people were found. Throughout the entire journey of 5-6 miles, we observed the same picture: floating barrels, boxes, etc. dense mass.
Entering the Second Strait, four boats came to meet us. Behind them were two military boats. From the latter, some signals were given: apparently, in order to stop the boats in front. But they continued to move forward.
Arriving at the roadstead, our logger approached logger N 399 ... whose captain asked our captain not to leave them ... We replied that we would not leave them and anchored. There was no contact with the coast. The time was about 2-3 am on November 6, 1952. They were waiting for the dawn. Fires were burning on the hills opposite Severo-Kurilsk. We thought that people were escaping on the hills, there were a lot of fires. As it began to dawn, I and others discovered that the city of Severo-Kurilsk had been washed away.
At about 8 o'clock in the morning, I and other sailors, under the command of the third mate of the captain Comrade Kryvchik, sailed on a boat to the cannery and then landed. On the site of the city, people, including the military, walked around - they collected corpses ... Having examined the place where the barrack in which I lived was located, I did not find any signs (of it) ... I did not find any things belonging to me - everything was demolished. In my apartment I had clothes, a sewing machine, a passbook with a deposit of 15,000 rubles, a military ID, seven medals...
My family - wife, Smolina Anna Nikiforova, son, Alexander, four years old, arrived on a refrigerator from Vladivostok on November 6, 1953. She was on vacation and followed her son to the Krasnodar Territory, to her homeland ... I found her on a refrigerator on November 8th. Now the wife and son are on board the logger N 636, they work as a cook.
After I did not find the hut in which I lived, I went on a boat to my logger, taking on board people from the shore, including women and children. The logger team continued to transport people on board.
On the 7th or 8th of November, we received a radio message: "All people taken on board, from among those in distress, to transfer to the steamer," so we transferred all of them to the steamers, the names of which I do not remember. The evacuation of the civilian population was completed on November 9, and no more people came to us.
From among the members of the team of the logger N 636, they found their families who escaped on the hills in Severo-Kurilsk, captain Lymar - his wife, senior mechanic Filippov - his wife and daughter, second assistant captain Nevzorov - his wife; the third assistant mechanic, Ivanov, found a wife and four children; boarded the boat and left. The first assistant mechanic Petrov found his wife and son and also left on the ship. The rest of the family members live on the ship. In addition to the indicated persons, who arbitrarily left the ship, the boatswain, the trawlmaster and the trawlmaster's assistant disappeared ... to date, the third assistant to the captain has not returned on board. As a result, only 15 people remained from the logger team ...

Smolin (signature)

NOTES:

* - Local lore bulletin N 4, 1991 of the Sakhalin regional local history museum and the Sakhalin branch of the All-Russian Fund of Culture.

A group of senior officials headed by the First Deputy Chairman of the Sakhalin Regional Executive Committee G.F. left for the disaster site from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Skopinov.
Alperin Mikhail Semenovich (1900-1952) - was born in Odessa in a working class family. Worked in senior positions in the fishing industry of the Far East and Sakhalin. A talented organizer, he devoted a lot of effort to the formation of a fish factory and factories on South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. May 7, 1952 was appointed manager of the North Kuril State Fish Trust. He died on November 5, 1952 while saving people and state property during the tsunami in the city of Severo-Kurilsk. Buried November 7th. Grave of M.S. Alperin is a monument of history and culture of the Sakhalin region.
The issue of casualties and other consequences of the disaster requires further study. As a result of the disaster on the islands of the North Kuril region, all fishing industry enterprises, warehouses of food and material assets, almost all institutions, cultural and community enterprises and almost 70% of the housing stock were destroyed and washed into the sea. Only the Shelekhov fish processing plant with its bases along the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk remained unscathed, where the wave height was no more than 5 meters.
The Utesny settlement was located 7 km from the city of Severo-Kurilsk. Excluded from the registration data as a settlement by the decision of the regional executive committee N 228 of July 14, 1964.
The Levashovo fishery was located at the exit from the Second Kuril Strait. Excluded from the registration data as a settlement by the decision of the regional executive committee N 502 of December 29, 1962.
The village of Rifovoe, the center of the village council of the same name. Located in Rifovaya Bay. Excluded from the records as a settlement in 1962. The Reef Fishing Plant had branches in the settlements of Coastal and Kamenisty.
Logger is a fishing vessel of the SRT type.
With the onset of dawn on November 5, reconnaissance aircraft from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky appeared over the islands, which surveyed the area and photographed. Following the scouts throughout the day, warm clothes, tents and food were dropped from the aircraft for the affected population, who were fleeing by the fires. From the very dawn, planes began to land at the airfield of Shumshu Island and take the sick to Kamchatka. At the same time, the surviving boats of the North Kuril State Fish Trust went into the strait to rescue people who had been carried into the sea. Food and warm clothes were distributed to the population from the military depots, the sick were placed in the hospital.
The evacuation of the affected population of the North Kuril region began on November 6, 1952. Steamboats from Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok began to arrive in the Second Kuril Strait. There were 40 vessels of different carrying capacity under loading here. Until November 11, the entire population was evacuated. Most soon returned through Korsakov and Kholmsk to work in the Sakhalin region.

November 5, 1952- in the ocean near the southern tip Kamchatka Peninsula, It happened earthquake 9 points and this entailed the destruction of some settlements Sakhalin and Kamchatka regions. The resulting tsunami(wave height reached 13 - 18 m) actually completely demolished the city of Severo-Kurilsk (Paramushir Island).

There are 23 volcanoes on Paramushir Island, five of them are active. Ebeko, located seven kilometers from the city, comes to life from time to time and releases volcanic gases.

In calm weather and with a westerly wind, they reach Severo-Kurilsk - the smell of hydrogen sulfide and chlorine is impossible not to feel. Usually in such cases, the Sakhalin Hydrometeorological Center transmits a storm warning about air pollution: it is easy to get poisoned by toxic gases. Eruptions in Paramushir in 1859 and 1934 caused mass poisoning people and death of pets. Therefore, in such cases, volcanologists urge city residents to use masks to protect their breath and filters for water purification.

The site for the construction of Severo-Kurilsk was chosen without a volcanological examination. Then, in the 1950s, the main thing was to build a city no lower than 30 meters above sea level.

But in the autumn of 1952 East Coast Kamchatka, the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu were on the first line of impact of the elements. The North Kuril tsunami of 1952 became one of the five largest in the history of the twentieth century.

The population of Severo-Kurilsk before the tragedy was about six thousand people. In Paramushir, on the night of November 4-5, the population was awakened by an earthquake. Furnaces collapsed; dishes and other household utensils fell off the shelves; water splashed out of buckets. Frightened people ran out of their houses. After the tremors stopped, which lasted several minutes, most of the population began to return to their homes. However, some drew attention to the fact that the sea receded from the rocky coast at a distance of about 0.5 km. Those who were previously familiar with the tsunami, mainly fishermen, rushed to the mountains, despite the calm sea.

Hearth underwater earthquakes was relatively close (within the Kuril-Kamchatka deep-water trench). In the Pacific Ocean, 200 kilometers southeast of Petropavlovsk, over the epicenter of the earthquake, the sea wave. Accelerating her run and strength, rising higher and higher, she rushed to the shores of Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands. After 40 minutes of running, it grew to eight meters and overwhelmed the land. The lowlands and estuarine parts of the river valleys were flooded. She had the highest height in the central part of the city, where she rolled along the river valley. A few minutes later, the wave receded into the sea. Having torn off the earth from the rocks along with trees and shrubs, carrying rich prey into the ocean. She licked the outfits of border guards walking along the edge of the coast, watchtowers, boats, boats and kungas, wooden buildings. The bottom of the strait was exposed for several hundred meters. Calm has come.

After 15-20 min. a second, even larger wave, 10 meters high, hit the city. She caused especially severe destruction, washing away all the buildings. Behind the wave, only the cement foundations of houses remained in place. After passing through the city, the wave reached the slopes of the mountains, after which it began to roll back into the basin, located closer to the city center. A huge whirlpool formed here, in which fragments of buildings and small vessels rotated at high speed. Rolling back, the wave hit from the rear into the coastal rampart in front of the port area, on which several houses were preserved, and bypassing the mountain broke into the Kuril Strait. On the bridge between this island and the mountain, the wave piled up a pile of logs, boxes, and even brought two houses from the city.

A few minutes after the second wave, a weaker, third wave arrived, which washed a lot of debris ashore.

And the country lived a normal life. Not a single line about the tragedy got into the Soviet press: the streets were dressed with kumach, the Soviet people enthusiastically met the 35th anniversary of the Great October Revolution! What is it here north Kuril tsunami! The number of his victims is still unknown, according to official figures, 2336 people died in Severo-Kurilsk alone. And in the museum of the city there are data from independent studies: adults - 6060, children under 16 years old - 1742; total - 7802 people. But these are only victims among the civilian population, but there were also military men, prisoners (and these, in general, no one considered), so we can talk about 13-17 thousand dead

After catastrophes on the site of the city of Severo-Kurilsk, an almost empty area of \u200b\u200bseveral square kilometers formed. Only separate foundations of buildings demolished by the wave, roofs of houses thrown out of the strait, the central gate of the former stadium and a lonely standing monument to the soldiers of the Soviet army remind of the existence of the city here.

In the village of Utesny, all production facilities and buildings were completely destroyed and demolished into the ocean. Only one residential building and a stable remained ...

With the onset of dawn, reconnaissance aircraft from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky appeared over the islands and photographed the area. Airplanes dropped warm clothes, blankets, tents and food for the population, who were escaping around the fires. Then a significant part of the population was evacuated to Sakhalin.

Bay of Severo-Kurilsk today

Many destroyed settlements and frontier outposts have never been restored. The population of the islands has been greatly reduced. Severo-Kurilsk was rebuilt, moved away from the ocean, as far as the terrain allowed. As a result, he found himself in even more dangerous place- on the mudflow cone of the Ebeko volcano, one of the most active in the Kuriles. The population of the city today is about 3 thousand people. Catastrophe initiated the creation of USSR warning service tsunami, which is now in a sad state due to beggarly funding. Against this background, the statements of the Russian authorities look ridiculous that, having such a service, we are insured against a catastrophe like 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia .

The program is "High-profile case - Tsunami classified as Secret". The truth about the tsunami in Severo-Kurilsk - November 5, 1952.

Severo-Kurilsk lurks on the very outskirts of Russia - on the Far Eastern island of Paramushir. Due to its strategically important location, this section of the Kuriles has always been marked by the presence of the military. But this is not how he entered world history: the North Kuril tsunami of 1952 became one of the five largest in the history of the twentieth century. We will tell about it from the words of Kaluga residents - eyewitnesses of the events.

Only half a century later, documents about what happened on a cold November day on Far East made available to the general public. What is known to everyone?

The earthquake began at five in the morning on November 5, 1952. The city of Severo-Kurilsk was destroyed. The Kuril and Kamchatka settlements of Utyosny, Levashovo, Rifovy, Kamenisty, Coastal, Galkino, Okeansky, Podgorny, Major Van, Shelekhovo, Savushkino, Kozyrevsky, Babushkino, Baikovo were swept away ... The tsunami was caused by a powerful earthquake (according to various sources from 8.3 to 9 magnitudes on the Richter scale), which occurred in the Pacific Ocean an hour earlier, 130 kilometers from the coast of Kamchatka. Three waves up to 15-18 meters high claimed the lives of 2336 people.

For a long time being classified, the Kuril-Kamchatka tsunami of 1952 became one of the legends of our family. At that time, my grandfather served in Paramushir, and his family - a wife with two children - lived in a military camp.

At the time of the beginning of the tragedy, the grandfather was at sea, and the grandmother and children slept in a Finnish house, one of many others that sheltered military families. Grandmother recalled that she woke up because the youngest son was crying in the crib. She felt several jolts, from which the walls of the house began to shake, and, being a native Chernihiv, together with her two children, she decided ... to sit out under an oak table. He's strong, she reasoned, he'll hold out. And then one of the walls, the one at which the baby's bed was located, collapsed.

As she was, in a nightgown, a man's jacket and felt boots, with one child around her neck and another, nursing, in her arms, she ran out of the house and realized that something terrible was happening. From all sides, up towards the barracks, towards the military unit, half-dressed people were running, shouting: "Water! Water!"

An eighteen-meter wall of water was advancing on the city with relentless speed, covering the sky. A Korean village with dilapidated houses was located on the very shore of Paramushir. That's why she got it in the first place. Rare residents and their houses were not carried away by the first wave, while the second washed away all traces of human presence from the shore.

There were practically no survivors - the element swallowed everything that came in its way, breaking a stone in a second, scattering houses like chips. Grandmother recalled: the water came ashore with such force that children were knocked out of the hands of mothers running towards the hills. And washed into the ocean.

In parallel with the nightmare on land, no less drama played out in ocean waters. Women, barely recovered from one shock, were horrified by the news: ships that had set out on a voyage, on which there were many Russian military men, were overtaken by a tsunami.

Human illiteracy also played its role in the tragedy. When the first wave subsided, people who had no idea about the nature of the tsunami began to go down to find the missing relatives, let the cattle out of the barns, warm up, check and take the documents. Alas, they did not know: the tsunami has a long wavelength, and sometimes tens of minutes pass between the first and second.

In one of the police reports of that time, it is said: "For 20 - 30 minutes (the time of two almost simultaneous waves of huge force) there was a terrible noise of seething water and breaking buildings in the city. Houses and roofs of houses were thrown like matchboxes and carried away to the sea. The strait separating the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu, was completely filled with floating houses, roofs and other debris.

To imagine the strength of the second wave, I will give an example: the pantry of the State Bank, a reinforced concrete block, weighing 15 tons, was torn off a rubble stone - a huge boulder, 4 square meters in size. m and dropped by 8 meters.

One of the officers running past offered help to the grandmother - to bring the youngest child. The frail young woman, panic-stricken, yielded. The man disappeared from sight almost immediately, and only then did she realize that she did not even remember his face. The crying daughter squeezed her throat with all her might, and the woman, not understanding the road, rushed to run.

Already in the unit, she rushed to the military for help: it was necessary to find not only a husband, but also a child. Among the harsh Kuril nature the baby would simply not have been able to survive without the help of adults. But she was not alone: all around, the men who were overwhelmed to the limit reassured, as best they could, civilians who had suddenly lost their homes and families, and sometimes even their minds.

The soldiers who rushed to help found the son, they found him thrown on a meager bush in an open vest. Alive. My grandmother ran into her husband about the lists, which included the names of those who survived. They met - and could not identify each other. The stress was so strong that already a year later, in a relatively calm atmosphere, she continued to have dreams about a wall of water rapidly approaching the shore ...

The scale of the tragedy became clear only the next day. There were many victims, most of all among civilians who simply did not have time to understand what was happening. The people gathered at the hills resembled the dead, their faces were white with excitement and fear.

Some of those washed away by the second and third waves were picked up in open water ship. Sometimes it was possible to save not only adults, but also kids clinging to them. The evacuation of people began the next day. Did mom know that her favorite writer Arkady Strugatsky at that moment was literally a few hundred meters from their place of refuge with their grandmother, participating in rescue operation on the neighboring and slightly less affected Shushma, and wrote feverish lines to his brother from there ...

Steamboats from Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok arrived in the Second Kuril Strait. There were 40 vessels of different carrying capacity under loading here. Until November 11, the entire population was evacuated. And those who did not survive were carried ashore by waves for more than one day.

Those events in Severo-Kurilsk, despite the prohibitions, were never forgotten. There is even a commemorative plaque on which the following lines are engraved:

"What a terrible terrible noise was coming from the sea

How unsteady the earth suddenly became

When two huge ridges of grief rolled

And the cry of the people prayed for salvation

It was after this catastrophe that the government of the USSR decided to create a tsunami warning system in the country.

The photo shows a view of the port part of Severo-Kurilsk, where the whole city was before the 1952 tsunami.

Natalia KONSTANTINOVA.

P.S. A few years ago, Ren-TV made a short film about that tragedy, which has gone far into history. We invite you to watch their version of this story.

In the autumn of 1952, the eastern coast of Kamchatka, the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu were on the first line of the elements. The North Kuril tsunami of 1952 was one of the five largest in the history of the twentieth century.

Tsunami in Kamchatka, 1952

The city of Severo-Kurilsk was destroyed. The Kuril and Kamchatka settlements of Utyosny, Levashovo, Reef, Rocky, Coastal, Galkino, Okeansky, Podgorny, Major Van, Shelekhovo, Savushkino, Kozyrevsky, Babushkino, Baikovo were swept away ...

In the autumn of 1952, the country lived an ordinary life. The Soviet press, Pravda and Izvestia, did not get a single line: neither about the tsunami in the Kuriles, nor about thousands dead people.

The picture of what happened can be restored from the memories of eyewitnesses, rare photographs.

Tsunami in Kamchatka, 1952

Writer Arkady Strugatsky, who served in those years in the Kuriles as a military translator, took part in the aftermath of the tsunami. He wrote to his brother in Leningrad:

“... I was on the island of Syumusyu (or Shumshu - look for it at the southern tip of Kamchatka). What I saw, did and experienced there - I can’t write yet. I can only say that I visited the area where the disaster I wrote to you about made itself felt especially strongly.

Tsunami in Kamchatka, 1952

The black island of Syumushu, the island of the wind of Syumusyu, the ocean beats into the rocks-walls of Syumushu. The one who was on Shumushu was on Shumushu that night, remembers how the ocean attacked Shumushu; As on the piers of Shumushu, and on the pillboxes of Shumushu, and on the roofs of Shumushu, the ocean collapsed with a roar; As in the dells of Shumushu, and in the trenches of Shumushu, the ocean raged in the bare hills of Shumushu. And in the morning, Syumusyu, to the walls-rocks of Syumusyu many corpses, Syumusyu, carried the Pacific Ocean. The black island of Shumushu, the island of fear of Shumushu. Who lives on Shumushu looks at the ocean.

I wove these verses under the impression of what I saw and heard. I don’t know how from a literary point of view, but from the point of view of facts, everything is correct ... "

War!

In those years, work on the registration of residents in Severo-Kurilsk was not properly established. Seasonal workers, secret military units, the composition of which was not disclosed. According to the official report, in 1952 about 6,000 people lived in Severo-Kurilsk.

82-year-old South Sakhalin resident Konstantin Ponedelnikov went with his comrades to the Kuriles in 1951 to earn extra money. They built houses, plastered walls, helped to install reinforced concrete salting vats at the fish processing plant. In those years, there were many visitors to the Far East: they arrived on recruitment, worked out the period established by the contract.

Tsunami in Kamchatka, 1952

Konstantin Ponedelnikov says:
- It all happened on the night of November 4-5. I was still a bachelor, well, it’s a young thing, I came from the street late, already at two or three. Then he lived in an apartment, rented a room from a family fellow countryman, also from Kuibyshev. Just went to bed - what is it? The house shook. The owner shouts: get up quickly, get dressed - and go outside. He had lived there for several years, he knew what was what.

Konstantin ran out of the house, lit a cigarette. The ground shook palpably underfoot. And suddenly from the side of the shore they heard shooting, screams, noise. In the light of the ship's searchlights, people fled from the bay. "War!" they shouted. So, at least, it seemed to the guy at first. Later I realized: the wave! Water!!! Self-propelled guns went from the sea towards the hills, where the frontier post was stationed. And together with everyone, Konstantin ran after him, upstairs.

From the report of senior lieutenant of state security P. Deryabin:
“... We didn’t have time to reach the regional department, when we heard a great noise, then crackling from the sea. Looking around, we saw a high water shaft advancing from the sea to the island ... I gave the order to open fire from personal weapons and shout: “Water is coming!”, At the same time retreating to the hills. Hearing the noise and screams, people began to run out of the apartments in what they were dressed (most in underwear, barefoot) and run into the hills.”

Konstantin Ponedelnikov:
- Our path to the hills lay through a ditch three meters wide, where wooden walkways were laid for the transition. Next to me, panting, ran a woman with a five-year-old boy. I grabbed the child in an armful - and together with him jumped over the ditch, where only the strength came from. And the mother has already moved over the boards.

Army dugouts were located on the hill, where the exercises took place. It was there that people settled down to warm themselves - it was November. These dugouts became their refuge for the next few days.

On the site of the former Severo-Kurilsk. June 1953

three waves

After the first wave left, many went down to find the missing relatives, to release the cattle from the barns. People did not know: tsunamis have a long wavelength, and sometimes tens of minutes pass between the first and second.

From the report of P. Deryabin:
“... Approximately 15–20 minutes after the departure of the first wave, a wave of water again gushed even greater strength and magnitude than the first. People, thinking that everything was already over (many, heartbroken by the loss of their loved ones, children and property), descended from the hills and began to settle in the surviving houses to keep warm and dress themselves. Water, not meeting resistance on its way ... rushed onto land, completely destroying the remaining houses and buildings. This wave destroyed the entire city and killed most of the population.

And almost immediately the third wave swept into the sea almost everything that it could take with it. The strait separating the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu was filled with floating houses, roofs and debris.

The tsunami, which was later named after the destroyed city - "tsunami in Severo-Kurilsk" - was caused by an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean, 130 km from the coast of Kamchatka. An hour after a powerful (magnitude about 9 points) earthquake, the first tsunami wave reached Severo-Kurilsk. The height of the second, the most terrible, wave reached 18 meters. According to official figures, 2,336 people died in Severo-Kurilsk alone.

Konstantin Ponedelnikov did not see the waves themselves. At first he delivered refugees to the hill, then with several volunteers they went down and saved people for many hours, pulling them out of the water, taking them off the roofs. The real scale of the tragedy became clear later.

- He went down to the city ... We had a watchmaker there, a good guy, legless. I look: his stroller. And he himself lies there, dead. The soldiers pile the corpses on a cart and take them to the hills, there already or in mass grave, or how else they buried - God knows. And along the coast there were barracks, a sapper military unit. One foreman escaped, he was at home, and the whole company perished. A wave covered them. There was a bullpen, and there were probably people there. Maternity home, hospital... Everyone died.

From a letter from Arkady Strugatsky to his brother:

“The buildings were destroyed, the entire coast was littered with logs, fragments of plywood, pieces of hedges, gates and doors. There were two old naval artillery towers on the pier, they were placed by the Japanese almost at the end of the Russo-Japanese War. The tsunami threw them a hundred meters away. When dawn broke, those who managed to escape descended from the mountains - men and women in linen, trembling with cold and horror. Most of the inhabitants either sank or lay on the shore interspersed with logs and debris.

The evacuation of the population was carried out promptly. After a short call from Stalin to the Sakhalin Regional Committee, all nearby aircraft and watercraft were sent to the disaster area.

Konstantin, among about three hundred victims, ended up on the Amderma steamer, completely crammed with fish. For people, they unloaded half of the coal hold, threw a tarpaulin.

Through Korsakov they brought them to Primorye, where they lived for some time in very difficult conditions. But then “at the top” they decided that recruitment contracts needed to be worked out, and they sent everyone back to Sakhalin. There was no question of any material compensation, it’s good if you could at least confirm the experience. Konstantin was lucky: his work boss survived and restored work books and passports...

fish place

Many destroyed villages were never rebuilt. The population of the islands has been greatly reduced. The port city of Severo-Kurilsk was rebuilt in a new place, higher up. Without carrying out the same volcanological examination, so that as a result the city ended up in an even more dangerous place - on the path of the mud flows of the Ebeko volcano, one of the most active in the Kuriles.

The life of the port of Severo-Kurilsk has always been connected with fish. The work is profitable, people came, lived, left - there was some kind of movement. In the 1970s and 80s, only loafers at sea did not earn 1,500 rubles a month (an order of magnitude more than in similar work on the mainland). In the 1990s, crab was caught and taken to Japan. But in the late 2000s, the Federal Agency for Fishery had to almost completely ban the fishing of king crab. To not disappear at all.

Today, compared to the late 1950s, the population has halved. Today, about 2,500 people live in Severo-Kurilsk - or, as the locals say, in Sevkur. Of these, 500 are under the age of 18. In the maternity ward of the hospital, 30-40 citizens of the country are born annually, whose place of birth is Severo-Kurilsk.

The fish processing factory provides the country with stocks of navaga, flounder and pollock. Approximately half of the workers are local. The rest are visitors ("verbota", recruited). They earn about 25 thousand a month.

Selling fish to fellow countrymen is not accepted here. Its a whole sea, and if you want cod or, say, halibut, you need to come to the port in the evening, where the fishing ships are unloaded, and simply ask: “Listen, brother, wrap the fish.”

Tourists in Paramushir are still only a dream. Visitors are accommodated in the "Fisherman's House" - a place that is only partly heated. True, a thermal power plant was recently modernized in Sevkur, and a new pier was built in the port.

One problem is the inaccessibility of Paramushir. More than a thousand kilometers to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, three hundred to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The helicopter flies once a week, and then on condition that the weather will be in Petrik, and in Severo-Kurilsk, and at Cape Lopatka, which ends Kamchatka. Well, if you wait a couple of days. Maybe three weeks...

"From Moscow to the very outskirts,
WITH southern mountains before northern seas
Man passes like a master
His boundless homeland..
B. Lebedev-Kumach

The intervention of the natural elements in the plans of man is sometimes catastrophic. Talk about the revenge of nature for the carelessness of the "owner" of the Earth arises every time terrifying earthquakes, floods, droughts and many more deadly variations on this theme occur. It seems that a person, even foreseeing possible cataclysms at the place of his "passage", deliberately challenges the most powerful natural forces. So it was in Severo-Kurilsk in 1952. The place itself, where 5 out of 23 volcanoes are active and emit harmful toxins into the atmosphere, is not entirely habitable. The site for the construction of Severo-Kurilsk was chosen without a volcanological examination. Then, in the 1950s, the main thing was to build a city no lower than 30 meters above sea level. The North Kuril tsunami of 1952 was one of the five largest in the history of the twentieth century. In the autumn of 1952, the eastern coast of Kamchatka, the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu were on the first line of the elements. On the night of November 4-5, the city of Severo-Kurilsk was destroyed. There was a strong earthquake near Paramushir Island. And then three tsunami waves rolled from the ocean, the height of the second reached 18 meters in some places. All three waves brought unimaginable destruction and claimed the lives of 2336 people. Severo-Kurilsk and many other coastal villages were swept off the face of the earth. In the autumn of 1952, few people learned about this monstrous tragedy. The Soviet press, Pravda and Izvestia, did not get a single line: neither about the tsunami in the Kuriles, nor about the thousands of dead people. The tragedy in the Kuril Islands in 1952 resonated in the memoirs of scientific surveyors who went on an expedition after the incident. The writer Arkady Strugatsky, who served in those years in the Kuriles as a military translator, took part in the aftermath of the tsunami. He wrote to his brother in Leningrad: “... I was on the island of Syumusyu (or Shumshu - look for it at the southern tip of Kamchatka). What I saw, did and experienced there - I can’t write yet. I can only say that I visited the area where the disaster that I wrote to you about made itself felt especially strongly ... " It is known that at that time there were a lot of so-called contract soldiers in Kamchatka. Everyone was evacuated, but after some time they were sent back to work out the terms of the contract. No compensation, of course, was paid. However, after the tsunami of 1952, the Tsunami Warning System began to be created in the USSR, and 1955 is considered the year of its birth.
Heartbreaking stories about the rescue of drowning people in the disaster area in the Kuril Islands have survived to this day. The story of a boy is amazing - from Severo-Kurilsk, he was carried by a wave at the gate. They brought him to the village of Babushkino on the island of Shumshu. The child did not understand what had happened and where he was. He did not thaw immediately. But he did not remain an orphan - his parents found him. Many houses carried away open ocean, threw ashore with people distraught from what happened. The tragedy of Severo-Kurilsk in 1952 clearly demonstrates the carelessness of a person in principle, as well as local authorities and the residents themselves. No one wondered why the former owners, the Japanese, built stairs into the hills - in order to climb up at the first danger and protect themselves from the tsunami. The population was not explained how to behave during such disasters. No one thought that the buildings in coastal zone being hit by a giant wave. Everything was built on the principle of economic expediency, without regard for security. Much later, in 1964, the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR decided to ban construction in tsunami-prone areas. But as was often the case in the USSR, the project remained undocumented. Therefore, new facilities continued to be built in life-threatening areas.