This terrible earthquake began on December 7, 1988 at 11 o’clock in the afternoon. Seismic stations of Armenia and other neighboring countries recorded several tremors of destructive force. Not having time to realize what was happening, the Armenian capital lost its telephone connection with Spitak, Leninakan and other cities and towns of the republic. Almost the entire northern part of Armenia fell silent in an instant - 40% of the entire country with a million people.
But 7 minutes after the earthquake, a military radio station suddenly appeared on the air, thanks to which junior sergeant Ksenofontov Alexander said in plain text that the population of Leninakan urgently needed medical care, since the city suffered very great damage, resulting in too many wounded and dead. It sounded like a scary SOS signal!
As during the Chernobyl disaster, the authorities remained silent for a long time. They, as always, pretended to try to comprehend what was happening and take the right measures, and, understanding the scale of the disaster, did not want to realize their helplessness. But the trouble at that time did not wait for their understanding: at this time it was necessary to provide assistance to the victims as quickly as possible, to remove the rubble and save barely living people.
In addition, it was winter outside, and thousands of people were left without shelter, clothes, water and food. And just imagine that only in the late afternoon, a meager radio message announced that an earthquake had occurred in Armenia in the morning. Why meager? Because not a word was said in it about the scale of the catastrophe, nor about the approximate number of dead and wounded.
But nevertheless it should be recognized that the plane, along with surgeons and medicines on board, flew out the same day from Vnukovo Airport. Reseeding a helicopter in Yerevan, the team was already in the evening in Leninakan. The arrivals could fully appreciate and understand the scale of the catastrophe only in the morning, when the first rays of the sun ran through the ruins and bodies of the dead. Everything was plowed, broken, as if someone with his huge hand tried to mix the city with the land. Leninakan was no more - instead of it - ruins and corpses.
Nearby villages and small towns were also affected by the earthquake. Only piles of rubble and walls with empty eye sockets of windows could be seen everywhere. And only the day after the 1988 earthquake in Armenia destroyed part of the country, helicopters and planes with essentials arrived. The wounded were taken from Leninakan and sent to Yerevan hospitals.
At that time, many Soviet republics came to the aid of Armenia . About 50 thousand builders and dozens of doctors arrived. In that terrible month, the media did not give data on the number of victims in Armenia. And only after 3 months, the Council of Ministers provided reporters with official statistics stating that the earthquake in Armenia in 1988 destroyed 21 cities, 350 villages, among which 58 were completely destroyed and became unsuitable for life. The deaths were counted by more than 250 thousand people and the same number of wounded. More than 17% of the country's housing stock was destroyed: of which 280 schools, 250 hospitals, several hundreds of preschool institutions and 200 enterprises were unsuitable for operation. In the end, 500 thousand people were left homeless.
It should be said that mother Teresa, who was famous all over the world for her charity, did not stay away from the tragedy. She periodically brought clothes and medicines necessary to save people in this terrible misfortune.
But the fraternal restoration of Armenia was negatively affected by the collapse of the Soviet Union, as a result of which the construction gradually began to subside. As a result, the once flourishing region of Armenia turned into a desert zone: hundreds of thousands of residents left those places, leaving ruins and bitter memories in their native “houses”.
The earthquake in Armenia reminded of itself, with its ruins, for another ten years and even now the country has not fully recovered from the consequences of the tragedy. Indeed, until now, about 18 thousand people still live in wooden temporary huts, having completely lost faith that the government has not forgotten about them.