At eight o'clock in the morning on the Railway Square Kursk was as always crowded. Who was in a hurry to meet relatives and friends, who went to work, who just arrived in the city. When strange claps were heard, at first citizens didn’t pay attention to them. Only when the square began to fall on the ground for no reason at all passers-by, panic began. It became clear that someone was shooting at people passing through the square. Since the entire 23 of the year has passed since the end of the war, among the passers-by men, of course, there were also young people with front-line experience. They were able to quickly prevent panic and send a lot of passers-by to the station building in order to hide from bullets.
A car arrived at the square carrying prisoners who were to follow the stage. When the car stopped, it quickly became the main target for the bullets of unknown shooters. One of the bullets hit the car body, resulting in the death of a prisoner. An experienced driver immediately realized that they were shooting at an avtozak and decided that this was an attempt to recapture the prisoners in order to free them. Therefore, he dashed off and drove into the courtyards, where the paddy wagon safely hid from bullets.
Meanwhile, residents of one of the houses located on Privokzalnaya Square, irritated by the noise from the neighboring apartment, called the police. They already understood that it was from this apartment that they were shooting at people in the square, and they informed the duty officer. As we know, at that time the Soviet militia, especially in the provincial Kursk, lacked special forces, similar to the riot police or SWAT, and the experience of prompt response to such situations. The most ordinary militiamen — sentry officers, operatives of the criminal investigation department were sent to the scene. A group of policemen approached the door of a strange apartment, but shots rang out from there. Miraculously, none of the law enforcement officers were hurt. In the next apartment the police organized a headquarters. The head of the city department tried to start negotiations with the people who sat down in the apartment. At the same time, a unit from a part of the internal troops lodging in the city was called to help the policemen. Here the terrible details of the incident began to be clarified.
26 September 1968 from the part of the Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of Public Security (as 25 in November 1968 was called the Ministry of Internal Affairs) stationed in the city of Kursk, two soldiers fled - the private Korshunov and the corporal Surovtsev.
Private Viktor Nikolaevich Korshunov in his unit was in good standing. He was drafted into the army after being expelled from the institute, possessed strong-willed qualities and toughness. He shot very well, was considered the best shooter of the unit, and shortly before his escape, he received the badge "Excellence in the Soviet Army." At that time, this sign meant a lot and any soldier who deserved it could be quite proud of it. Korshunov served almost two years. However, there were certain flaws in his biography. Korshunov’s father during World War II served as a policeman for the Germans, for which he was subsequently convicted. In addition, Korshunov Jr. himself was expelled from the institute for disciplinary offenses, and also often expressed suicidal feelings. However, after 23 after the war, his son ended up serving not just in the army, but in part of the internal troops. Unlike Private Korshunov, the corporal Yury Stepanovich Surovtsev served only a year. He was appointed head clerk for his excellent handwriting, but he did not stand out for other successes, as well as personal qualities. Moreover, he also had problems, and those that really did not allow him to serve in the army. Surovtsev was a very impressionable and excitable person, could fall into a hysterical state, cry. Before being drafted into the army, he underwent a course of treatment at the Kursk Regional Psychiatric Hospital. If such a person could be drafted into the army, then clearly not in the internal troops.
In mid-September, 1968, Victor Korshunov received a letter from home. He wrote a girlfriend. The soldier was waiting for a letter from her lover, but it didn’t bring him joy - the beloved informed that she was marrying another man and the wedding had already been scheduled. For Korshunov, this news was a real shock. In fact, millions of Soviet and Russian soldiers were faced with this problem and were somehow worried. But the unstable psyche of Korshunov did not allow him to cope with such news. Korshunov, and earlier "indulged in" suicidal thoughts, firmly decided to die.
At the same time, he made the decision to “take someone with him” - in order to die, it was not so depressing. But for the realization of his plan he needed an assistant. And the choice of Korshunov fell on Yura Surovtsev (pictured). The corporal with the features of psychological infantilism agreed to the proposal of his colleague. Moreover, he, too, was convinced of his unsuccessful life and occasionally expressed suicidal thoughts. The soldiers decided to flee from the unit, “walk for last” and “with music” to die.But for the escape it was necessary to wait for the duty of Korshunov in the rifle company. In the rank of ordinary soldier Korshunov stepped on the night of September 26 1968. He managed to persuade the lad to go to sleep - brotherly. Naturally, of course, he agreed - and that the soldier is sleeping - the service is on. Moreover, the senior colleague and friend Korshunov simply could not arouse any suspicion in him. So Korshunov was alone. He took two Kalashnikov assault rifles, two pistols and ammunition. Kidnapped weapon He and Surovtsev, who had arrived in time, were placed in two suitcases, before that they cut down the butts. Then the soldiers left the unit without any problems and went to the center of Kursk, catching a ride. The two soldiers of the internal troops didn’t arouse any suspicions either - most likely, he could have taken the soldiers with their suitcases for going home.
Arriving in the city center, Korshunov and Surovtsev did not even know what they would do next. At first they discussed the possibility of capturing the city party committee, but this was a very difficult task. Moreover, in the building of the city committee there was also a police station. Then Surovtsev offered to seize not the city party committee, but the prosecutor’s office, but Korshunov refused here because he was also afraid that the prosecutor’s office could be guarded. The co-workers did not come to a common denominator, so they decided to break into any apartment, grab it and continue to think what to do next. They arrived at the house where their friend lived. In a two-room apartment there were eight people - a friend of the soldiers, her children and relatives. Knocking on the door, the soldiers entered and immediately shot the hostess of the apartment. Then they shot the younger daughter of the hostess, her husband and their children - a boy and a two-year-old girl. Only their friend survived - the eldest daughter of Mistress Tamara, as well as her two children.
So that the shots could not be heard, the soldiers used pillows, but such a self-made “silencer”, of course, could not serve as a complete isolation of sound and the neighbors had heard machine gunfire. One of the residents of the house called the police. But the person on duty hurried to reassure the woman - what kind of shooting in the peaceful, Soviet Kursk in 1968 could she say?
- Most likely, just a motorcycle drove, - summed up the duty officer and hung up. Meanwhile, if the police arrived in time on that call, it would probably have been possible to prevent at least the execution of civilians in Privokzalnaya Square.
Meanwhile, the soldiers who shot five people realized that they simply could not make the way back. Under the harsh Soviet laws, the death penalty inevitably awaited them, which meant there was already nothing to lose Korshunov and Surovtsev. In the morning they sent Tamara for vodka, leaving the children as hostages. When Tamara returned, without telling anyone about what was happening - out of fear for the children, the two children were already dead. The older girl was shot, and the younger one was smashed with an iron. After that, the soldiers tied Tamara and threw her in the bathroom, while they themselves began to get drunk. Vodka flowed like a river all day.
On the morning of September 27, a little nodled Korshunov and Surovtsev examined the apartment seized. It was located on the fourth floor, and from the window there was a beautiful view of the square. At about eight o'clock in the morning, the best shooter of the unit, Private Korshunov, took a position at the window of the apartment and began shooting at passersby.
Militiamen gathered at the apartment, Korshunov said that he had captured eight people hostage. But he didn’t put forward any demands than he hit the police chief. Why was to commit this crime? Then the police did not know that the hostages were dead, otherwise they would calmly go to storm the apartment. They called the commander of the unit where Korshunov and Surovtsev served. And it was he who managed to take the first step towards resolving the situation. By this time, the headquarters of the operation had already received information on what psychologically Korshunov and Surovtsev represent. The division commander decided to put pressure on the impressionable Surovtsev and demanded from the corporal that he, as the senior in rank, order Korshunov to surrender. But Korshunov refused to surrender. The commander of the unit ordered Surovtsev to shoot the terrorist Korshunov. As a result, in the 10 hours of the 16 minutes, the corporal Surovtsev with a burst from an automatic machine gunned down an ordinary Korshunov. Having settled with a colleague and accomplice, who pushed him to a terrible crime, Surovtsev surrendered. He was specially dressed in a police uniform to get out of the building, around which a huge crowd of Kursk residents gathered, who were going to make a mob of justice over the deserters - the murderers.
It turned out that at the hands of criminals 24 man suffered. Thirteen people were killed, eleven people were injured of varying degrees of severity. Of the thirteen killed, seven people died in the apartment (only Tamara was left alive), five people were passersby on Privokzalnaya Square and one person was a prisoner who was in a paddy wagon. In those times, it was just a blatant crime that was reported to Moscow - to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev himself. About the shooting of civilians in Kursk became known abroad. The enemies of the Soviet state immediately took advantage of this tragedy. Radio Voice of America reported that in the Soviet city of Kursk, in protest against the “dictatorship of the CPSU” and the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia, two soldiers “revolted” and carried out a mass execution. So the West tried to present bloody murderers - drunken deserters almost as heroes of the struggle against the Soviet power. Western media use this practice in the information and psychological war against our state today. Suffice it to recall how they are trying to make terrorists fighters for independence, punishers - supporters of building a democratic state, liars and provocateurs - living not according to lies.
Yuri Surovtsev, who had dealt with Viktor Korshunov, was arrested. His interrogations began, during which he gave detailed information to the investigators. history a terrible crime, including the motives that pushed his friend Korshunov to escape from a part and kill people. Neither the introduction of troops in Czechoslovakia, nor the attitude to the Soviet government, or other political reasons as a crime motive in the testimony of Surovtsev did not appear.
In Soviet times, with murderers, especially such bloody and cruel, did not stand on ceremony. 2 November 1968, after only a little more than a month after the crime, the exit session of the Moscow Military Tribunal sentenced citizen Surovtsev Yury Stepanovich to death by firing squad. After a short time, the death sentence of Surovtsev was carried out.
Of course, such events at that time tried not to advertise, but there were few of them, at least in comparison with modernity. Subsequently, such stories with the soldiers of the Soviet Army began to occur more often. And one of the main reasons for this was the reduction of the criteria set by military enlistment offices for draftees. Previously convicted people began to get into the army, with the experience of serving real terms in prison, people with mental disabilities like Surovtsev and, probably, Korshunov, alcoholics and drug addicts. Naturally, all this entailed very negative consequences. But if from the first problem - the lack of special forces and the police to fight terrorists - the authorities eventually concluded and created such structures, then they actually refused to solve the second problem for many decades, which led to many tragedies related to military crimes.