The Siege of School Number One: Chechnya’s Darkest Moment

it was a day like any other in the mountainous caucus region of Russia a place on Earth where life is never easy but rarely so terrible as it was on September the 1st 2004 on that day a band of separatist terrorists from nearby chch stormed into the humble town of bin in north ofia and began taking hostages they found those hostages not at a city hall not at a local business or an apartment block but at a school and when they took those hostages they would have number in the dozens instead they numbered well over

a thousand including nearly 800 children who had all shown up eagerly for the first day of the school year with the hostage takers entrenched on the command of the feared chetram warlord Shamel basv the Russian military who was forced to answer when they did they would attempt to resolve the situation using the most horrific and the most devastating means that their disposal attacking the hostage takers but at Incredible cost to the Innocents inside this is the siege of school number one ultimately known as the bin School Siege and the bin Massacre now Russia in 2004

was a nation undergoing rapid change and very little of it was positive President Vladimir Putin still considered in some circles to be little more than a Kremlin figurehead had just been reelected to a second term and the nation was both deep in the throws of technological modernization and starting down a path of striking social and political regression in hindsight we know that these were the years that President Putin and his inner circle were working over time to consolidate their power isolating and choking out the sorts of political opponents who didn't threaten in much in 2004

but could have if they'd still been in play a decade or two down the road Putin had sailed to re-election with an official total of nearly 72% of the vote in a campaign that had seen a few Brave political Rivals drowned in red tape isolated from the national media and forced to take security measures to protect themselves their campaign staff and even their children but although most of the Russian Federation was coming slowly and in some ways obliviously under control one part of the country played by a very different set of rules that of course

was ccha where in 2004 a fierce Guerilla conflict still raged to decide the fate of Russia's most dangerous and unruly Republic on the side of the resistance few names were better known than Shamil salanovic basv a brutally violent separatist who had led the CET and capture of the Republic's capital city of gry in 1996 and served on the front lines in conflicts from nagorno karabach in the 1990s to the Georgian Breakaway region of aasia to both the first and second Chetan Wars and a series of attacks in the neighboring Republic of dagistan both in his

personal demeanor and in his wartime aims Shamil basv was a genuinely terrifying warlord video still exists basv nonchalantly watching his own foot be amputated with only local anesthetic after he step on a land mine in 2000 and he had a remarkable tendency to escape imminent death across Decades of warfare all the way until the end of his life in 2006 and by the time of the bin School Siege basv had gained a reputation for planning and perpetrating some of the most Brazen and terrifying attacks in modern Russian history in November of 2002 he claimed responsibility

for a hostage crisis at a theater in Moscow in which a force of 50 chrons had held over 800 Theo as hostage only for Russian Security Forces to in advertently kill over 100 of these hostages with gas or trying to end the siege a month later he had orchestrated vehicle bomb attacks against the headquarters of the catchin government in grossy killing 80 and a similar attack half a year later killed 59 more he led a raid on the largest city of the neighboring Republic of ingush killing 90 and he directed a bombing on the Moscow

Metro that killed 41 he made a habit of gunning for the head of ceta's Moscow appointed leader akmad karov ahead he collected a bit over 3 months before The Siege in bethin by where the bomb attack by the late summer of 2004 basv was easily the most wanted man in all of Russia and his name was known globally as one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world on bar with the likes of assama Bin Laden now we're going to say it at the outset of today's video and we'll be saying it again throughout things

in Russia were murky at this time they were very murky in fact when it comes to the sequence of events that came next it is still a controversial claim to accept the idea that Shamil bv's chin for forces were entirely responsible or worked without outside influence now as we're going to explore over the course of this episode there is a whole lot about what happened at the school in bin that does not add up and that never has but if anything at all about this Siege is really clear it's that neither the people who carried

out the attack nor the people who responded to it seem to believe at the outset that the bin School Siege would turn nearly as catastrophic as it did in modern Russia September the 1st is known as knowledge day rain or shine eager or unwilling on knowledge day every Russian school boy and school girl across every level of Elementary and secondary education begin their school year together in some places it's a fairly big deal kids dress up go to assemblies and make good fun out of meeting their new classmates or returning to see friends you've been

Elsewhere for the summer months in other places it's more of a formality a tough and frustrating day when teachers roll their eyes roll up their sleeves and try to Corral a group of students who'd rather be anywhere else in the town of bethin it was a festive occasion girls wore their finest dresses boys brought flowers for their teachers and their parents we could only assume breathe day Collective sigh of relief that they'd finally get some peace and quiets but just a few minutes into the school day at 10 9 in the morning all hell broke

loose with the school grounds still packed full of children teachers and families who might not have otherwise been there the modest campus was stormed by gunmen riding in a police van and a large military truck wearing green fatigues and black balac clavas and armed with rifles handguns and in some cases explosive suicide belts several dozen terrorists distended on bessin school number one shooting the rifles into the air and quickly dispatching the handful of local police that were present terrorists rounded up over 1100 attendees at the knowledge Day festivities including 777 children the over 1,000 hostages

were hered into the school within minutes forced to squeeze into a newly built gymnasium some 10 m wide by 25 M long moving through the school the gunman found hostages to pry up floorboards and reveal hidden weapons caches from which they retrieved ammunition and explosives That official Russian sources ATT tests were planted inside the school by maintenance workers before the school year began the entire building was wired with explosives including a series of bombs that were hung on a sturdy wire that the terrorists had stretched between the Gym's two basketball hoops at either end two

more terrorists took their seats strapped into suicide vests with their feet planted on pedals that if released would cause their vest to explode the school's entrances and exits were wide with explosives the terrorists knocked out all the windows of the school and dawned gas masks to prevent a Counterattack with gas and according to some sources snipers among the gunmen moved to the roof of the school to take defensive positions School number one was locked down with hundreds of children and their parents sitting petrified inside word about the attack got out quickly to The Wider region

dozens of people have managed to flee the scene as contact local authorities and before long Russian troops and police were on their way to respond but even early in the crisis Russian author authorities were raten to express the true severity of the incident officially Russia initially reported that only between 200 and 400 people were taken hostage during The Siege and when they finally released what they purported was the accurate count the number was ridiculously low 354 barely a third of the number actually held inside a combination of Russian police interior troops army forces spnat Special

Forces and a series of Elite Police units collectively known as Omen established a cordon around the school evacuating nearby buildings giving them over to the military units on hand with them they brought a crowd of angry armed civilians and cohort of aan volunteer militia this swell the total outside to above 5,000 and backing them up they brought tanks infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy Weaponry what they didn't bring or at least didn't make ready to respond with firefighting equipment or any meaningful number of paramedics or ambulances inside the hostage takers had already set to work

establishing the brutal order that would rule there and their captain lives for the next several days first one of the local fathers who' been taken hostage was executed in front of the entire Auditorium after the attackers had demanded that the captives speak only Russian and speak only when spoken to man had attempted to translate their instructions to the hostage who understood only the local language atic better than they did Russian a gunman waited until it finished asked him if he was done and executed him on the spot another father was killed after refusing to kneel

for the captors and shortly afterward the 15 to 20 adults who the attackers considered to be the strongest and thus POS the biggest threat to them were led to a corridor in another part of the school minutes later all but one of them would be executed some VI explosion and some VI automatic gunfire then as both sides settled into their positions it was time for negotiations to begin as Russian negotiators told it after the fact the attackers of bessin never stated their demands in full although several of the demands were known to the outside world

at least as they were relayed by Russian State media according to them the attackers demanded full recognition of cchan Independence at the UN along with an immediate troop withdrawal from CIA and an end to the armed Russian presence there with these demands came the terms for The Siege if police or the surrounding military forces killed a gunman they would be punished with the deaths of 50 hostages if one of the gunmen were injured then 20 hostages would die if Russia attacked the school and attempted to break the siege the school itself would be detonated and

everyone inside would die in response Russia announced that it would not attempt to take the school by for and that it would instead negotiate in good faith with the hostage takers The Negotiator the attackers had asked for was a man by the name of loned Rashel a pediatrician who had also negotiated a prior Siege in 2002 but even as Russia set out and negotiate we now know in hindsight that they were playing a double gain civilians onsite negotiated while the military forces on the premises led by the Russian FSB planned a Counterattack Now quickly conditions

inside the school grew desperate the terrorists inside refused to allow anybody in the gymnasium including including the children to eat or drink in what they called a hunger strike in an attempt to force Russia's hand and make them send North Asian President Alexander jof to negotiate this despite the extreme heat dehydrating the children inside so badly that according to many accounts from survivors both children and adults were forced to drink their own urine and out of others inside in order to survive without food the flowers children had brought for their teachers were the only sustenance

most people could find and they didn't last long many of the children and then the adults fainted from the fatigue the militants refused to allow medicine to be sent inside refused to allow corpses to be removed from in front of the school and fired grenades at cars that dared to come too close enraged by the Russian governments under statement of how many people have been taken captive the gunman inside the school acted out their frustrations on the captives meanwhile abroad in Jordan Vladimir Putin himself hardly acknowledged the crisis at all one bright spot came in

the second Afternoon Of The Siege when ex-presidents of ineta Russell and oev arrived on the scene oev was allowed to enter the school and when he left he took with him all 15 infants present at the scene along with 11 nursing mothers he also carried out a videotape showing the children and the situation inside the school as a note that allegedly included demands made directly by shamal basev formal independence from cha in exchange for an offer to take responsibility for a series of deadly bombings in 1999 that basv and the cetron separatist movement had vehemently

denied taking part in based that night the situation inside the school devolved even further according to survivors who reported their experiences later the hostage takers inside had become unpredictable in their behavior and at times even hysterical current theories blame anything from sleep deprivation to drug withdrawal to high stress to irritation at the children crying inside by the morning of the third day of The Siege it was increasingly clear both inside and outside the school that something would have to give and give soon in the early hours of day three a new figure was set to

enter The Siege Ashlin mashkov he was the president in Exile of the unrecognized independent cetan republic ofira although mov was broadly seen as an opponent of the Kremlin in Moscow his was a voice that Russian leaders hoped might be able to calm tensions inside the school and lead to real negotiating progress by all accounts the terrorists inside the school were by this point ready to at least attempt negotiating with the outside world on how to end the siege for good marov got on a plane with the intent to come and negotiate directly and according to

some sources within the Russian operation around the school The Siege appeared as if it might actually be resolved sooner than later but the desire to see a peaceful end to the siege was not nearly so uniform among the Russian forces outside school number one as we might like to imagine in fact other elements within the Russian Siege were anything but friendly toward the idea of a peaceful resolution Alexander zakov the north Asian president that we mentioned earlier and who the hostage takers at D for directly was bared from contacting or speaking with the terrorists directly

in fact he was threatened with arrest if he attempted to make contact and he was prohibited from taking part in the fsb's plans to take the school or even uring their headquarters on premises as we mentioned previously there were two rescue efforts ongoing outside the school simultaneously the civilian one that took cues partially from North Asian governor zikov and the FSB Le operation which had zero intention of listening to him or any other civilian who would talk of a peaceful resolution and although it's never been outright confirmed it seems from the outside that the decision

to bring chetam president in Exile markarov to school number 1 set off a ticking clock for those who wanted to resolve the siege by force to take action before their opportunity was gone forever at 1: in the afternoon on the third day of The Siege not long before marov was due to arrive and begin his negotiations School number one was rocked by two separate explosions the first came from inside the gymnasium at the precise moment that a group of four paramedics was slowly approaching the school in an agreed upon operation to retrieve and remove 20

bodies from the school grounds when the explosion rang out the terrorists inside the school responded with gunfire killing two of the paramedics and forcing the others to flee a few seconds later another explosion hit the school according to investigator Marina vinovich reporting the results of a later fact-f finding operation both explosions had come from Russian troops firing grenade launchers directly toward the auditorium said One Survivor after the fact it was as if something had flown in a giant ball of fire within minutes much of the ceiling in the gymnasium was on fire causing the roof

to buckle and then collapse inward on the children and adults inside but the children who did manage to escape and some who might otherwise have been able to the effects of dehydration were often so severe that they were hardly able to force their bodies to carry them away from the rapidly spreading flames and the firefights that had kicked off outside some 160 people were killed by the collapse and the fire and from there things would only get worse after the explosion a small number of hostages were able to run for the exit while the hostage

takers now disoriented and attempted to keep their hostages alive ushered others toward the school cafeteria in a different part of the building hostages were lined up along the windows of the gymnasium in an attempt to show Russian troops outside that women and children were in the direct line of fire but it didn't matter using tanks flamethrowers and grenade launchers Russian forces carried out their assault while soldiers armed with rifles traded far with the militants that they could see inside more hostages would die in the crossfire and although the Russian government would later assert that they

only attacked in order to stop the hostage takers from killing their hostages they ran away accounts from the ground directly contradict that account as the assault continued tanks and even an armed attack helicopter kept up direct fire on both hostage takers and hostages while the militias and civilians outside attempted to storm the school themselves at the fringes of the Russian government lines local police and inexperienced military conscripts panicked and even fled at least three highly destructive schar Rockets described in most western Nations as thermobaric weapons were fired directly at the school and at least one

armored vehicle fired a heavy machine gun directly into the school's Second Story many students and adults who had stepped into Russian troops lying of sight were killed where they stood including at least a hundred who died after the majority of the surviving hostages were moved from the gymnasium to the cafeteria as a battle wore on more and more of the school was brought under control of the Russian military and the surviving militants on the premises were pushing back to the basement or forced to flee one group of gunmen was cornered in the nearby building which

was raised to the ground with flamethrowers and tanks while another group was chased into bessam proper and killed when firefighters eventually arrived on the scene called in a full 2 hours after the battle began they were unable to control the fire for several more hours because so few paramedics have been present many of the Wounded were driven in cars to the nearest hospital through the night a handful of escaping gunmen were pursued several were killed and possibly mutilated by Russian troops and one was captured a further one was lynched by an angry mob and by

the time the sun rose on bin the following morning 186 child hostages 128 adult hostages 19 Rescuers and 31 gunmen had been killed alongside over 1200 injured people in what was the deadly EST end to an on the ground terror attack in recorded human history amidst the shock and the horror of the battle at school number one were an endless series of raw and incredibly painful questions many of which have still got an answer to this day why did the Russian troops choose to attack the school when a peaceful end to the siege was so

close at hand how had so many people been killed by whom and for what purpose and who had launched the first explosive who had started the fire and why were so many children dead when by every indication before in since they did not need to Die the Russian official response to the crisis was predictably opaque an investigation spearheaded by a close Ally of Vladimir Putin with a long relationship with the Russian FSB would claim over two years later that a terrorist had intentionally detonated a bomb in order to start the fighting and as the report

describes that terrorists had been quote acting according to a plan developed earlier of course that report found that no Russian authorities had done anything remotely wrong and that tanks flamethrowers and other deadly weapons have deployed only after the last hostages were extracted from the school not only did those claims fly in the face of hundreds of iwitness accounts but they were inconsistent with the findings of every attempted investigation that could be described even Loosely as being credible according to another source an investigation done by North AA itself the initial explosion inside the school came after

a sniper had shot one of the terrorists who was sat with their foot on a Detonator causing that Detonator to be triggered and likely killing or maming several of the hostages around them another investigator this time an independent expert from the Russian Duma camea to the same conclusion that we stated earlier that Russian Special Forces had launched grenades toward the school without warning later video revealed conversations between Russian prosecutors and army Engineers who explained to the prosecutors that the terrorists own bombs featured bull bearings meant to create shrapnel and that none of the bodies of

the children recovered at the scene showed any evidence of bull bearing like shrapnel injuries and although it's only a single Standalone quote one statement by a Survivor is most most striking of all as they recalled after the fact a shocked gunman inside the gymnasium had said after the first explosions began quoting your own people blew you up and while the Russian government would later attempt to claim genuine care and detention toward the victims of the siege their conduct in the following hours and days told a very different story abelin relatives of the Wounded were prohibited

from entering hospitals while doctors were only allowed to assist with the wounded after having given up their mobile phones in the days after the attack bulldozers would clear out the debris without even attempting to collect the human remains there Vladimir Putin made only a token visit to velin hospital and did not seek out any interactions with the families of the victims he faced brutal waves of public anger and condemnation after The Siege concluded although none of that condemnation was enough to push him out of office Putin insisted after the attack that it had been planned

and carried out by actors outside Russia even from the West although no evidence to support that claim was ever presented but like any good autocrat Putin didn't allow the besseling crisis to go to waste instead he used it to his personal benefit in order to hasten along the long slow consolidation of power already underway inside Russia he expanded the powers of the FSB and other Federal Russian law enforcement agencies and announced the law just days after the attack that Regional Governors within Russia would no longer be elected by their own people but appointed by the

Kremlin members of Russia's lower house Parliament would no longer be elected either instead they'd be chosen by political parties who citizens would vote for without any knowledge of who those parties might choose to appoint speaking of political parties all would be made to re-register within Russia and most that tried would ultimately have their applications denied all legislation coming to the Russian lower Parliament would now be reviewed by a separate Putin appointed chamber before ever being taken up for consideration leaving Vladimir Putin as the sole Federal level elected official in Russia Moscow used the opportunity to

extend its hooks deeper and deeper into the national media and use the siege as justification to restrict the work of foreign non-government organizations s on the ground the human cost to survivors was immense many of the children who'd been present at the school during the hostage crisis were permanently disabled and a full month after the attack concluded 240 people including 160 children were still receiving medical treatment in chcha The Siege and its brutal conclusion raised fears that chrans would be regarded around the world as monsters and that any remaining hopes for Chetan Independence were functionally

lost those fears were ultimately borne out and in the wake of The Siege even Shamil Bas of artists declined to carry out Mass attacks for several years including after bv's death protan leaders spent years denying involvement in the crisis and although B have issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack using a so-called Brigade of Martyrs he added that he had miscalculated the willingness of Russian leaders to negotiate toward a peaceful settlement rather than attacking the school and inciting a mass casualty ENT The Siege Asen masarov the president in Exile that we mentioned earlier would

have a $10 million Bounty placed on his head after the incident and did die 7 months later in an attack in Chia by Russian Commandos and even though Russian officials insisted that that accounted for each of the attackers confirming all but one of them is dead surviving eyewitnesses have long claimed that the true number of terrorists was Far higher several among the purported attackers that since been unaccounted for were reported as having spoken perfect decision and some reports estimate that anywhere from 34 to over 75 militants might have taken part in the attack including foreigners

from Arab Nations sham basev claimed that 33 militants took part in the attack although like everything else basai have said in the wake of the incident that testimony is Tainted somewhat by the conflicting reports that during the crisis a note purportedly from basv had offered to take credit for the bombings in Russia that Chetan separatists had previously denied having carried out believe that basv might have been willing to take credit for those attacks and it becomes very difficult to conclusively deny that he might have spread other messages on Russia's behalf later on if anything is

clear 20 years after the conclusion of the basam Massac it's that the ultimate end to the crisis did not need to happen as it did the hostage takers at school number one were undeniably responsible for creating a hostage situation in the first place for killing several civilians and subjecting over a thousand people including hundreds upon hundreds of children to Terror and physical hardship that would have scarred them for life even without the Carnage that ended the incident but blame for the far fight that claimed hundreds of innocent lives blame for the destruction of school number

one and blame for the willful decision to resolve the hostage crisis with Incredible violence just hours from a possible peaceful end lies exclusively on the Russian troops and federal authorities who chose to attack the Fallout from The Siege as brutal and horrific as it was for both those killed and those who survived has been used shamelessly to prop up the same regime that rules Russia Today the legacy of the attack on school number one the deadliest end to a terrorist Siege in all of recordo history is inseparable from the legacy of modern Russia and the

role of the modern Russian State and the deaths of hundreds of innocent people in bethin must never be forgotten so long as that regime still stands