Tragedy in Minsk: The mystery of the 1946 fire that killed more than 200 people

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For a long time, the materials of this case were classified as "Secret", and the details of the fire, during which, according to unofficial data, more than 200 people died, were never made public. Official figures called a much more modest death toll: 27 people. The fire that occurred on January 3, 1946 in the Minsk club of the NKGB was not reported by the media, and even the criminal case mysteriously disappeared.

A failed miracle

As you know, Minsk was among the cities most affected by the war, and its population after liberation from the Nazis is only about 37 thousand people. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, people came to Minsk to restore the city, to raise the industry. The conditions, of course, were incredibly difficult, people had to live in basements and dugouts, there was often no water and light. But people worked hard and believed that very soon they would restore their housing and be able to move to comfortable apartments.

The decision to hold a bright New Year's holiday for active youth was made at the republican level. Invitations were sent to educational institutions, where they were issued with honors and activists. Of course, the children of high-ranking officials were invited to the holiday, and there were those who received a ticket by acquaintance.

It was decided to hold a masquerade ball in the NKGB club, which survived the war. During the years of occupation, this building housed the Gestapo, and the fleeing Germans did not even take their archives with them. The club was guarded very carefully precisely because of the Gestapo papers, but it was this that later played its fatal role during the fire.

Initially, the New Year's ball was supposed to take place on the night of January 1, 1946, but due to an accident at the electrical substation, the holiday was postponed to January 3. 500 people came to the New Year's masquerade ball, dressed in costumes made of sheets and curtains, with wadded beards and improvised wigs.

The hall was decorated with cotton wool that imitated snow, and in the center there was an absolutely stunning large Christmas tree, with beautiful toys and glowing garlands. In the next room, the guests were greeted by Santa Claus with the Snow Maiden and other fairy-tale characters, and the best artists of the Byelorussian SSR performed in the main hall. Each invitee received a gift: under the tree lay galoshes and cereals, bread and flour, clothes and toys.

The hall was located on the third floor, and the staircase was divided by a metal grill, which was locked immediately after the start of the holiday was announced. This was done in order to exclude the possibility of access to the secret archive.

The holiday for young people actually turned out to be magical. Boys and girls were really able to escape from hard everyday life, get a lot of impressions and positive emotions. But at the time when the farewell tango sounded, the most terrible thing happened …

Fatal coincidence or sabotage

Throughout the evening, the lights on the tree were turned on and off. When the last dance was announced and the tango sounded, the lights on the New Year tree came on again. And then the whole tree burst into flames … Because of the multitude of wadded decorations, the fire spread very quickly, many guests tried to run out through the room where Santa Claus was before, but there was an obstacle on the stairs in the form of a locked grate.

Young people began to jump out the window, hoping to escape, some of them immediately broke. The safest route was through the attic and then down the drainpipe.

NKVD officers were the first to arrive at the scene of the tragedy, then fire trucks began to appear. The first had no water and a staircase was broken, reaching only to the second floor. And the Chekists refused to open the bars on the stairs, they started saving the archive, and not the people who were in the building.

According to official figures, 27 people died during the fire, but the relatives of those who did not survive in the fiery hell named a much more terrible figure: at least 200.

In the morning, the bodies, piled up near the NKGB club, tried to identify the distraught parents and relatives of the ball participants by their clothes and shoes. The remains were hastily buried in a mass grave at the Military Cemetery.

Already on January 4, at a meeting of the Central Committee of the CPB, the fire was regarded as an emergency of a political nature. The negligence and criminal carelessness of the organizers of the event was noted. As a result, several people from the city leadership were reprimanded, the secretary of the city committee in charge of propaganda lost his position, and the director of the NKGB club received a sentence of imprisonment for 6 years. The commandant of the club was also arrested, but then released due to the fact that his daughter also died during the fire.

The servicemen who, on orders, guarded the door on the stairs leading downward, could not bear the pangs of conscience and some simply committed suicide. Relatives of the victims were given monetary compensation, and the victims of the fire were given fabric for sewing new clothes and the necessary shoes.

The exact causes of the fire remained a mystery. Theories were put forward both about criminal negligence and about deliberate arson, the purpose of which could have been the destruction of the notorious Gestapo archive. This crime could have been committed by those who actively collaborated with the Nazis and did not want information about this to become the property of the investigating authorities. In favor of arson is the fact that the commission investigating the causes of the tragedy discovered two sources of ignition.

The disappearance of one of the servicemen after the tragedy also seemed strange. Leonid Vasilchikov played in the orchestra of the military district, and after the fire his remains were not found. However, the true reasons for what happened have not been fully clarified. And the materials of the investigation, kept in the office of the Minister of State Security of the BSSR Lavrenty Tsanava, after his arrest in 1953, disappeared under unclear circumstances.

It remains to be hoped that someday researchers will still be able to find out the causes of the fire on January 3, 1946 in Minsk.

On March 25, 2018, adults and children who came to the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping center in Kemerovo fell into a deadly trap: because of a fire that broke out, people could not get out of the premises, and they burned to death. This fire has already been called the largest in 100 years. At the time of publication, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 64 people were killed, 11 are reported missing. Many children are among the victims.