In Soviet times, the government of the country often chose to hide some of the events that took place from the general public. These were often incidents involving significant loss of life. The consequences of some such disasters still remain in secret archives.
However, part of the truth about the natural disaster that occurred in the mid-20th century in the seaside town of Severo-Kurilsk on Sakhalin, no matter how hard they tried, could not be hidden.
Severo-Kurilsk - life is in constant danger
The city of Severo-Kurilsk is located on the island of Paramushir, located on 23 volcanoes.
Five of them are considered to be currently active. The closest (7 km) to the city is Ebeko, which regularly reminds itself of itself by throwing clouds of volcanic gases into the air. This is what real “life on a volcano” means.
Only the worst tragedy in this city did not happen from formidable volcanoes, as would have been more expected, but danger came from the ocean expanses.
Links[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ abcde Law No. 25-ZO
- ^ a b Federal State Statistics Service (2011). “All-Russian Population Census 2010. Volume 1" [All-Russian Population Census 2010, vol. 1]. All-Russian Population Census 2010 [All-Russian Population Census 2010]
. Federal State Statistics Service. - https://www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2018/bul_dr/mun_obr2018.rar ; archive date: July 26, 2022; received: July 25, 2022; Archive URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20180726010024/https://www.gks.ru/free_doc/doc_2018/bul_dr/mun_obr2018.rar.
- ^ abc Law No. 524
- "On the Calculation of Time". Official Internet portal of legal information
. June 3, 2011. Retrieved January 19, 2022. - Post office. Information and computing center of OASU RPO. ( Post office
).
Search for postal service objects ( postal Search for objects
) (in Russian) - Telephone codes of Sakhalin - Telephone codes of Sakhalin (in Russian)
- ↑
Federal State Statistics Service of Russia (May 21, 2004).
“The population of Russia, the constituent entities of the Russian Federation as part of federal districts, urban settlements, settlements, settlements of 3 thousand or more people” [Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal districts, districts, urban settlements, rural settlements - administrative centers and rural settlements with a population of more than 3,000 people] (XLS). All-Russian Population Census 2002
. - “All-Union Population Census of 1989. The current population of union and autonomous republics, autonomous regions and districts, territories, negative phenomena, urban settlements and rural district centers” [All-Union Population Census of 1989: current population of union and autonomous republics, Autonomous regions and districts , territories, regions, districts, towns and villages performing the functions of district administrative centers. All-Union Population Census of 1989 [All-Union Population Census of 1989]
.
Institute of Demography of the National Research University: Higher School of Economics [Institute of Demography of the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 - via Demoscope Weekly
. - "Earthquake of magnitude 7.5 near Severo-Kurilsk, Russia". SFGate
. March 25, 2022. Retrieved March 25, 2022. - "Pogoda.ru.net" (in Russian). Retrieved September 8, 2007.
- ↑
Sisterhood with Hokkaido
Sources [edit]
- Sakhalin Regional Duma. Law No. 25-ZO of March 23, 2011 “On the administrative-territorial structure of the Sakhalin region,” as amended. Law No. 62-ZO of June 27, 2013 “On amendments to Article 10 of the Law of the Sakhalin Region “On the administrative-territorial structure of the Sakhalin Region””. Entered into force on April 9, 2011. Published: “Provincial Gazette”, No. 55 (3742), March 29, 2011 (Sakhalin Regional Duma. Law No. 25-ZO of March 23, 2011 “ On the administrative-territorial structure of the Sakhalin region"
as amended by the Law of June 27, 2013 No. 62-ZO "
On Amendments to Article 10 of the Law of the Sakhalin Region") On the Administrative-Territorial Structure of the Sakhalin Region"
. Valid from April 9, 2011). - Sakhalin Regional Duma. Law No. 524 of July 21, 2004 “On the borders and status of municipalities in the Sakhalin region,” as amended. Law No. 45-ZO of May 27, 2013 “On Amendments to the Law of the Sakhalin Region” On the Borders and Status of Municipal Entities in the Sakhalin Region “”. Entered into force on January 1, 2005. Published: “Provincial Gazette”, No. 175–176 (2111–2112), July 31, 2004 (Sakhalin Regional Duma. Law No. 524 of July 21, 2004 “ On the boundaries and status of municipal entities in the Sakhalin region”
, as amended by Law No. 45-ZO of May 27, 2013 “
On Amendments to the Law of the Sakhalin Region “On State Rights”).
Borders and status of municipalities in the Sakhalin region " . Effective January 1, 2005).
Trouble came from where we didn't expect it
On November 5, 1952, in the early morning, a powerful earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale occurred in the Pacific Ocean. As a result of tremors in the ocean, a tsunami was formed, which moved towards the island of Paramushir. The height of the waves that reached land ranged from 10 to 18 meters.
The entire then Severo-Kurilsk with a population of 6,000 was hit by a tsunami with waves 10 meters high. It only took a few minutes for the disaster to almost completely wipe out this city from the face of the earth. And along with the city, 4 fishing villages were also damaged - Okeansky, Rifovoye, Shelekhovo, Shkilevo. All buildings were completely destroyed.
According to some data, 2,236 people died as a result of this terrible disaster. However, these are only those whose bodies were subsequently identified. The real number of victims is still classified.
The miraculously surviving fishermen and border guards still remember the horror of that November morning.
At that time, the Soviet Union did not yet have specialized weather services that monitored earthquakes in the ocean. There was no one to warn about the approaching tsunami...
Monument to those killed in the disaster that occurred in Severo-Kurilsk on November 5, 1952
A
Most of the residents, as always, slept peacefully in the early morning, suspecting nothing, only the fishermen who were closest to the ocean in the Severo-Kurilsk Bay were able to notice the approaching giant tsunami wave. It was they who raised the panic, and cries of “Wave!” ran throughout the city.
Real horror came to the city: the tsunami demolished all the buildings that came in its path. The wave carried away, and then brought down fishing boats and military boats onto the city. In a few minutes, the water flooded all the buildings that resisted its impact.
Most people died either from impacts or drowning.
In addition to people, the wave carried away many domestic animals and wildlife. Archive documents contain a photo of a dead ocean giant, a blue whale, washed ashore.
Secret tsunami.
0
The tsunami wave after the earthquake in Japan reached the Kuril Islands. Low, one and a half meters. And in the fall of 1952, the eastern coast of Kamchatka, the islands of Paramushir and Shumshu found themselves on the first line of disaster. The North Kuril tsunami of 1952 was one of the five largest in the history of the 20th century. The city of Severo-Kurilsk was destroyed. The Kuril and Kamchatka villages of Utesny, Levashovo, Reefovy, Kamenisty, Pribrezhny, Galkino, Okeansky, Podgorny, Major Van, Shelekhovo, Savushkino, Kozyrevsky, Babushkino, Baykovo were swept away...
0
The writer Arkady Strugatsky, who served as a military translator in the Kuril Islands in those years, took part in eliminating the consequences of the tsunami. From a letter to his brother in Leningrad: “...I was on the island of Syumushu (or Shumshu - look for it at the southern tip of Kamchatka). What I saw, did and experienced there - I can’t write yet. I will only say that I visited the area where the disaster that I wrote to you about made itself felt especially strongly. The black island of Syumushu, the island of the wind Syumushu, the ocean hits the rock walls of Syumushu. Anyone who was on Syumusyu, was on Syumusyu that night, remembers how the ocean attacked Syumusyu; How the ocean crashed with a roar onto the piers of Syumushu, and onto the pillboxes of Syumushu, and onto the roofs of Syumushu; As in the hollows of Syumushu, and in the trenches of Syumushu - in the bare hills of Syumushu, the ocean raged. And the next morning, Syumusyu, there were many corpses to the walls-rocks of Syumusyu, Syumusyu, carried out by the Pacific Ocean. Black island of Syumushu, island of fear Syumushu. Anyone who lives on Syumushu 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...”
0
In those years, work on registering residents in Severo-Kurilsk was not really organized. Seasonal workers, classified military units, the composition of which was not disclosed. According to the official report, in 1952 about six thousand people lived in Severo-Kurilsk.
0
In 1951, 82-year-old South Sakhalin resident Konstantin Ponedelnikov went with his comrades to the Kuril Islands to earn extra money. They built houses, plastered walls, helped install reinforced concrete salting vats at a fish processing plant. In those years, there were many visitors to the Far East: they arrived for recruitment and worked out the term established by the agreement. — It all happened on the night of November 4-5. I was still single, well, I was young, I came from the street late, already at two or three o’clock. Then he lived in an apartment, rented a room from a fellow countryman, also from Kuibyshev. Just lay down - 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,” says Konstantin Ponedelnikov. Konstantin ran out of the house and lit a cigarette. The ground shook noticeably underfoot. And suddenly, shooting, screams, and noise were heard from the shore. In the light of the ship's searchlights, people were running from the bay. "War!" - they shouted. At least that's what it seemed to the guy at first. Later I realized: a wave! Water!!! Self-propelled guns were coming from the sea towards the hills where the border unit was located. And together with everyone else, Konstantin ran after him, upstairs.
0
From the report of senior lieutenant of state security P. Deryabin: “... Before we had time to reach the regional department, we heard a loud noise, then a crash from the sea. Looking back, we saw a great height of water advancing from the sea onto the island... I gave the order to open fire from personal weapons and shout: “Water is coming!”, simultaneously retreating to the hills. Hearing the noise and screams, people began to run out of the apartments in what they were wearing (most of them in underwear, barefoot) and run into the hills.”
0
“Our path to the hills lay through a ditch about three meters wide, where wooden walkways were laid for crossing. A woman with a five-year-old boy was running next to me, gasping for breath. I grabbed the child in my arms and jumped over the ditch with him, from where the strength only came from. And the mother had already climbed over the planks,” said Konstantin Ponedelnikov. On the hill there were army dugouts where training took place. It was there that people settled down to warm up - it was November. These dugouts became their refuge for the next few days.
Tragedy of Severo-Kurilsk
The disaster caused exorbitant losses to the city; the authorities decided not to restore the fishing villages and individual military units located on the island of Paramushir and neighboring Shumshu.
In the early days after the tsunami, all surviving military personnel were hastily evacuated from these islands. Thus, strategic areas of land were left completely unprotected.
So why was this tragedy kept secret? Many researchers attribute the evacuation of border guards and army units to the fact that the Severo-Kurilsk tragedy was classified as “top secret.”
The estimates of those killed in the disaster according to historians and researchers are very different from the official data of 2,236 people. According to some historians, the total number of deaths as a result of the 1952 tsunami is at least 8 thousand people, of which about 2 thousand were children and teenagers.
Climate[edit]
The climate of Severo-Kurilsk is subarctic (Köppen Dfc
). The average monthly temperature is above 10 degrees Celsius only in August and September. Due to the influence of the cold Oyashio Current, it is cold and humid all year round. The annual rainfall is more than five times that of Siberia.
| Climate data for Severo-Kurilsk (Climate ID: 32215) | |||||||||||||
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | October | But I | December | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 6,0 (42,8) | 6,0 (42,8) | 9,2 (48,6) | 14,6 (58,3) | 19,7 (67,5) | 24,3 (75,7) | 26,4 (79,5) | 25,1 (77,2) | 23,1 (73,6) | 16,9 (62,4) | 12,2 (54,0) | 7,0 (44,6) | 26,4 (79,5) |
| Average high °C (°F) | -2,2 (28,0) | -2,8 (27,0) | -1,1 (30,0) | 1,9 (35,4) | 5,4 (41,7) | 10,6 (51,1) | 13,4 (56,1) | 15,0 (59,0) | 13,3 (55,9) | 8,7 (47,7) | 3,1 (37,6) | -0,5 (31,1) | 5,4 (41,7) |
| Daily average °C (°F) | -4,1 (24,6) | -4,7 (23,5) | −3,3 (26,1) | -0,3 (31,5) | 2,7 (36,9) | 6,8 (44,2) | 9,8 (49,6) | 11,5 (52,7) | 10,2 (50,4) | 6,1 (43,0) | 1,0 (33,8) | -2,4 (27,7) | 2,8 (37,0) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −6 (21) | -6,8 (19,8) | -5,3 (22,5) | -2,2 (28,0) | 0,7 (33,3) | 4,0 (39,2) | 7,2 (45,0) | 8,9 (48,0) | 7,5 (45,5) | 3,6 (38,5) | −1 (30) | −4,3 (24,3) | 0,5 (32,9) |
| Record low °C (°F) | -22 (-8) | -18,9 (-2,0) | -17,6 (0,3) | -10,7 (12,7) | −6 (21) | -1,9 (28,6) | 1,6 (34,9) | 2,0 (35,6) | −1 (30) | −4 (25) | -12,2 (10,0) | -16,1 (3,0) | -22 (-8) |
| Average precipitation, mm (inches) | 134 (5,3) | 117 (4,6) | 128 (5,0) | 112 (4,4) | 111 (4,4) | 107 (4,2) | 144 (5,7) | 162 (6,4) | 166 (6,5) | 247 (9,7) | 230 (9,1) | 184 (7,2) | 1842 (72,5) |
| Average snowfall, cm (inches) | 64 (25) | 86 (34) | 103 (41) | 98 (39) | 27 (11) | 0,5 (0,2) | 0,2 (0,1) | 0 (0) | 0,1 (0,0) | 6 (2,4) | 10 (3,9) | 35 (14) | 429,8 (170,6) |
| Average rainy days | 1 | 0,3 | 1 | 6 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 21 years old | 24 | 12 | 4 | 136,3 |
| Average snow days | 30 | 29 | 29 | 23 | 11 | 0,5 | 0,2 | 0 | 0,1 | 6 | 24 | 30 | 182,8 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 75 | 77 | 77 | 79 | 82 | 85 | 89 | 87 | 80 | 76 | 74 | 74 | 79 |
| Source: Pogoda.ru.net [11] | |||||||||||||
