How it was 04/02/2000 (2000)

Leningrad, February 23, 1991.

At 8 o'clock in the morning on the 7th floor of the hotel "Leningrad" a fire broke out.

At that time the famous French actress Marina Vladi, journalist Ogonyok Mark Grigoriev and several groups of foreign filmmakers lived in the hotel.

After a while after the fire report, almost all the fire brigades of the city were pulled to the hotel.

The main difficulty was that the stairs of the fire trucks did not reach the seventh (actually the tenth) floor, maximum to the fourth.

In addition, the firefighters did not have not only ancillary equipment in sufficient quantities, but even suitable clothing.

People were saved at the cost of incredible efforts and sixteen victims, 9 of which are firefighters.

Among the dead was also Mark Grigoriev, later his body was found in the room.

On the fact of a possible murder and arson for the purpose of concealing the crime, a criminal case was initiated, which until now can not be considered completed, Despite the data of the examination that the source of fire was in the room at the opposite end of the corridor.

There are several versions of the tragedy.

According to one of them, Mark Grigoriev is guilty, on the other - the Swedish film crew, who left her room without turning off the TV; The versions About the unsatisfactory technical condition of the building and the redistribution of the hotel business in Leningrad.

The day before the fire in the newspaper "Leningrad police" was published an article on the deplorable state of firefighting services of the city.

The main conclusion of the publication - with such equipment going into the fire is tantamount to death.

A year later, the mayor of the city, Anatoly Sobchak, continued to insist on a criminal version of events.

For Leningrad, this was the biggest loss of fire brigade personnel for the entire post-war period.

Since 1944, 48 people died in the fire, then in the first few minutes of the fire on February 23, 1991 - just 9. February 23 in Russia was the official day of memory of firefighters killed in the line of duty.

The case was dismissed for lack of corpus delicti, and in the people this tragedy was called "Mystery covered with ashes".

Guests of the studio: Lyudmila Timofeeva, a duty on the floor of the Leningrad Hotel, Aleksandrinsky Theater actor Gely Sysoyev, commanders of the gas and smoke protection department Service of the 1st fire-fighting unit of Leningrad Nikolai Tsvetkov and Alexander Klindukhov, fire department chief of the Leningrad Oblast Directorate of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee Alexander Ivanov.

Interview for the program: Head of the Department of Special Examinations of St.

Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Ilya Cheshko, commander of the 1st Fire Department of Leningrad In 1991, Vladimir Shulimov, Acting Head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee in 1991 Arkady Kramarev, Deputy Head of the Department To investigate especially important cases of the Prosecutor's Office of St.

Petersburg Boris Salmaksov, director of the hotel "Leningrad" in 1991, Gennady Timoshchenko, journalist Alexander Gorshkov.

In the preparation of the program, the footage of the chronicle of the fire and rescue of people, a fragment of the recording of the rally on the day of the funeral of firefighters, the shooting of Alexander Nevzorov in Mark Grigoriev's room were used.