On that frosty evening, the fallen snow would be stained with the blood of the dead and injured fans and of the soldiers from the security detail maintaining order at the stadium. In the terrible crush, which formed spontaneously because of an absurd incident, 66 people would be trampled to death, and 61 would suffer severe injuries. At least, that is what official Soviet statistics claimed. According to other sources, there were far more victims.
How the crush began – is still unknown
The well-known tennis player Andrei Chesnokov, who found himself in the thick of the crowd pushing toward the exit, recalls even now: «The pressure on my chest was hellish. Everything in me was cracking and aching; I thought it was the end. But I was still a tennis player, as nimble as a snake. And I clawed my way out of there, made some kind of move, and ended up on a little island between the railings. There were so many corpses around me that I thought it was a dream. My whole sheepskin coat was covered in blood».
Most of the fans, approximately 12 thousand ardent supporters of «Spartak» whom the frost did not scare off, were located in the Eastern stand. These were mostly young lads, still just children. To this day it's unclear at what moment the bloody tragedy began. Many said that on the way out from under the stand, a girl suddenly stumbled on the stairs and lost her shoe. And that delay played a fateful role in the events that followed. And this trifle simply triggered the crush. The back rows of fans began to push on the front ones, and a general panic arose. People now rushed in terror toward the saving exit. The fans seemed to find themselves in a cramped, moving aquarium from which it was impossible to break free. Suffocating people fell onto the concrete; others ran over the already dead bodies. It seemed that this bloody nightmare would have no end.
A ban on disclosure
As ill luck would have it, the lattice gates at the exit from the stand had been turned into a narrow wicket with the help of chains. The police turned out to be utterly unprepared for the tragic turn of events. The next day, the authorities released sparse information that did, of course, mention what had happened at the stadium. It appeared on the back page of «Vechernyaya Moskva» with the note «there are casualties».
All data about the football tragedy was classified, and the management of Moscow's «Spartak» was made to clearly understand that they needed to keep their mouths shut. And in schools, principals strictly forbade pupils to mention the subject of the dead and injured fans in conversation.
A similar tragedy seven years later
On April 15, 1989, an FA Cup semifinal football match between «Liverpool» and «Nottingham Forest» was due to take place at the «Hillsborough» stadium in Sheffield. Half an hour before the referee's starting whistle, a terrible tragedy occurred. A crowd of «Liverpool» fans rushed to take the standing places in the two central stands of the stadium. And almost simultaneously, additional gates were opened, through which other fans poured in a stream.
As a result of the collision, a kind of bottleneck instantly formed, obstructing further movement. It quickly turned into a horrific crush. According to surviving eyewitnesses, the standing dead, pressed against the iron railings, chilled the soul with their very appearance. The football tragedy claimed the lives of 96 fans.
The British police long denied their guilt: for it was precisely they who had shown utter helplessness during the tragic events at the «Hillsborough» stadium. And they had failed to restore order among the fans in time. The high-ranking law enforcement officials did not manage to shift the responsibility onto the shoulders of the «Liverpool» fans. Allegedly, the latter had always been notable for their hooligan behavior, which, supposedly, was the cause of the tragedy that played out.
