Spitak. Five minutes of silence

December 10, 2018 In the Cultural Center under the Embassy of Armenia, with the support of the Moscow Encyclopedias Foundation, a personal exhibition was launched of a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia (Tetra-Art section), co-founder of the # REVER project, Evgeny Zhilyaev “Spitak. Five minutes of silence. "

“Five minutes of silence” is the time at the end of every hour,
when all types of rescue work stop.
A time when everything freezes to hear those
who else is alive…

30 years ago, on December 7, 1988, a terrible tragedy occurred - an earthquake in Armenia. This earthquake was called the “Spitak earthquake” in honor of the city, which took over its main strength and was torn down by the shock wave from the face of the Earth. The earthquake in Spitak was 10 points.

Evgeny Zhilyaev, the day after the tragedy, arrived in Spitak as the commander of the rescue squad of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Thanks to Eugene’s passion for photography, we had a unique opportunity to see the chronicle of the events of those days.

Today we bow our heads to everyone who has found the courage and strength to come to Armenia and make not only all efforts, but even more to save people!

They helped organize the exhibition “all over the world”, as is customary for the Armenian people, who do not cease to sincerely thank those who extended a helping hand to them at that difficult time.

The # REVER-project is deeply grateful to the Moscow Encyclopedia Foundation, the organizer of this exhibition, and its President Trube Trube, the Embassy of Armenia in Russia and the Cultural Center at the Embassy of Armenia for their help and support in organizing the photo exhibition, exhibition sponsors: FORA -BANK, Association of Russian Banks and personally to Mr. Sergey Alexandrovich Hambartsumyan.

And also to the participants of our project who helped us in the preparatory process. Thank you very much, Galina Kuznetsova, Andrey Kulkov (Kulkov Andrey), Alex Skomorokh (Alex Skomorox) and Alexander Zaitsev!!! Guys, we could not have done without you!!

The exhibition can be visited from December 10 to 21 at the Cultural Center at the Embassy of Armenia at 2 Armenian Lane

Exhibition “Spitak. Five minutes of silence ”will become mobile and everyone will be able to see it.

Memories that tear the soul, can not be kept at hand. They are locked in a memory box for a long time, but the time comes and…

On December 7, 1988, students of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology Yevgeny Zhilyaev and Dmitry Nikolsky, hearing about the terrible earthquake in Armenia, decided to immediately go to the disaster site for rescue operations.

And they went. First, to the Armenian Embassy, then to the Russian-Armenian Friendship Society. At the institute, almost all the day, all the necessary papers were drawn up, a cry was thrown, 42 out of 400 student volunteers were selected. The next day, a squad of rescuers - mainly mountaineering athletes, “watermen” and cavers went to Spitak.

- Our main task was to look for the living in the rubble… Well, the dead, of course… - recalls Eugene. - When the objects were distributed between the various units, we got a flour mill and a sugar factory, a sewing factory, a school and a kindergarten. And in the kindergarten, many broke down - they simply could not work there… What did they do instead? Sent to other objects.

Spitak was at the epicenter of the earthquake. The walls of almost all the buildings during the earthquake formed like in a house of cards, burying underneath those who were walking along the transition from one factory building to another, those who gathered in the school cafeteria or at the little tables of the kindergarten (the time was approaching lunch). According to Eugene, it was possible to find survivors in residential buildings thanks to… refrigerators or a piano that could withstand the weight of a collapsed wall. In the classrooms and rooms of the kindergarten, nothing prevented the walls - the children had nowhere to take refuge…

In the early days, they worked literally with shovels - manually, then equipment came to the rescue, including military equipment. "And after every hour of work - we stopped for" five minutes of silence "to hear screams for help from the rubble…". And they heard, and with renewed vigor took up crowbars and concrete blocks to get, catch, get. Five saved lives are on the account of the detachment of Eugene, but the bodies of the dead can not be counted. Coffins for bodies were brought by dump trucks, and they were probably the cleanest place on the job sites, where one often had to spend the night when there was no strength to go to the campground. We spent the night in coffins…

Needless to say, after December 31, the rescue guys returned to Moscow. “Childhood is over,” says Eugene. Many of his associates in the detachment, according to him, completely destroyed all the negatives and photos of that period - it is impossible to wound up wounds that never healed. Eugene did not destroy - perhaps because his further fate - military - was associated with special operations and saving people, or maybe because he became a professional photographer and understands the value of each look through the lens. Be that as it may, his then-shots are in many ways unique, because there were not so many journalists left at the epicenter of the disaster and photo documents of that time.

Today’s exhibition is not just dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the terrible disaster in Spitak and other cities of Armenia. It is designed to remind us of courage and heroism, of faith and devotion. About those people who were buried under the ruins of their apartments and houses, factory buildings and kindergartens…. About those children who never became adults… About the faith and devotion of those who, despite pain and fear, came to the rescuers every day in the hope of finding relatives and refused to leave their homes. About the courage of very young children who simply could not help but help… About support and mercy…

And today we have our own “five minutes of silence”, to hear voices from the past, to remember and thank, to live on and enjoy the new day, to remember more clearly what human life is, how fragile and defenseless it is to the elements, naturally or man-made and how to protect it. For all of us.