Despite reports from eyewitnesses describing Tatarnikov as antisocial and unfriendly toward Donich,<ref name=”RT” /> the two had entered a relationship before the end of 1949.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”WIND” /><ref name=”karavan” /> However, the relationship soon degenerated as Tatarnikov became withdrawn and jealous. Eventually, Donich broke Tatarnikov off when she was made aware of his previous family in Kazan.<ref name=”RT” />
Despite reports from eyewitnesses describing Tatarnikov as antisocial and unfriendly toward Donich,<ref name=”RT” /> the two had entered a relationship before the end of 1949.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”WIND” /><ref name=”karavan” /> However, the relationship soon degenerated as Tatarnikov became withdrawn and jealous. Eventually, Donich broke Tatarnikov off when she was made aware of his previous family in Kazan.<ref name=”RT” />
After the breakup, Tatarnikov began growing increasingly bitter toward Donich, issuing threats against her.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”Russian 7″ />. Also around this time, the administrators of the Bender district department of DOSARM – specifically Sedenko – began conducting unauthorized operations to locate and disarm unexploded ordnance from the Great Patriotic War, which gave Tatarnikov access to explosives.<ref name=”RT” /> It is possibly Tatarnikov began planning the bombing as an act of revenge. A few days before the attack, he stole 12kg of explosives from the DOSARM warehouse.<ref name=”RT /><ref name=”NEWS N” />
After the breakup, Tatarnikov began growing increasingly bitter toward Donich, issuing threats against her.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”Russian 7″ /> Also around this time, the administrators of the Bender district department of DOSARM – specifically Sedenko – began conducting unauthorized operations to locate and disarm unexploded ordnance from the Great Patriotic War, which gave Tatarnikov access to explosives.<ref name=”RT” /> It is possibly Tatarnikov began planning the bombing as an act of revenge. A few days before the attack, he stole 12kg of explosives from the DOSARM warehouse.<ref name=”RT /><ref name=”NEWS N” />
On Sunday, April 3rd, 1950{{efn|Some sources claim the date was April 2nd.<ref name=”RT” />}} – a day before the explosion – Tatarnikov held a birthday party at his home, despite his actual birth date being in July.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”karavan” /> The reason for this is unknown, though it is speculated that he used the occasion as a pretext to lure Donich to his residence in order to carry out his plan. However, she did not attend, and the plan did not proceed that day due to this.<ref name=”karavan” />
On Sunday, April 3rd, 1950{{efn|Some sources claim the date was April 2nd.<ref name=”RT” />}} – a day before the explosion – Tatarnikov held a birthday party at his home, despite his actual birth date being in July.<ref name=”RT” /><ref name=”karavan” /> The reason for this is unknown, though it is speculated that he used the occasion as a pretext to lure Donich to his residence in order to carry out his plan. However, she did not attend, and the plan did not proceed that day due to this.<ref name=”karavan” />
On April 4th, 1950, an incident occurred at School No. 20 in the village of Gîsca, Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. 29-year-old Vladimir Georgievich Tatarnikov arrived at the school carrying a suitcase filled with 12 kilograms of explosives, which he had stolen from his place of work at DOSARM. He then detonated the suitcase, killing twenty-one students, two teachers, and himself.[1][2]
This event was the first school massacre in the Soviet Union and remains the only school massacre in Moldova.[3]
Background of the perpetrator
[edit]
Vladimir Georgievich Tatarnikov (July 25, 1920 – April 4, 1950) was born on July 25th, 1920, in Tulun, Irkutsk Oblast.[4] Little is known about his early life. In April 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army (RKKA). When the Great Patriotic War broke out between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in June of 1941, Tatarnikov was dispatched to the front, serving in the 3rd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment. He fought from the beginning of the war until its end, earning the rank of junior reserve lieutenant and receiving a medal for his service.[4]
After the war, Tatarnikov moved to Kazan, the capital city of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, where he lived and worked for three years. During this time, he married a woman named Anya, and together they had a son named Tolya.[1] However, by 1948, the marriage broke down, and the couple divorced. In the autumn of 1949, Tatarnikov relocated to Bender, which was just northeast of Gîsca, while his ex-wife and son remained in Kazan.[1]
Upon moving to Bender, Tatarnikov sought employment and met with Sedenko, the director of the Bender district department of DOSARM.[1] The organization was later reorganized into DOSAAF by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in 1951, possibly due to the bombing.[5] Following their meeting on September 15th, 1949, Tatarnikov was hired as a military instructor for DOSARM in October.[1] He also gained a job as a teacher at school N°20 in Gîsca.[6]
Meeting Natalya Dmitrievna Donich
[edit]
While working at school N°20, Tatarnikov met Natalya Dmitrievna Donich, who recently relocated to Gîsca with her mother and son. This was in order to live closer to her brother.[7] She was a 5th-grade teacher of Russian, literature, and French at the school.[1][7] Upon meeting Tatarnikov, she introduced herself as a widow, who’s husband had died in the Great Patriotic War.[7]
Despite reports from eyewitnesses describing Tatarnikov as antisocial and unfriendly toward Donich,[1] the two had entered a relationship before the end of 1949.[1][6][7] However, the relationship soon degenerated as Tatarnikov became withdrawn and jealous. Eventually, Donich broke Tatarnikov off when she was made aware of his previous family in Kazan.[1]
After the breakup, Tatarnikov began growing increasingly bitter toward Donich, issuing threats against her.[1][2] Also around this time, the administrators of the Bender district department of DOSARM – specifically Sedenko – began conducting unauthorized operations to locate and disarm unexploded ordnance from the Great Patriotic War, which gave Tatarnikov access to explosives.[1] It is possibly Tatarnikov began planning the bombing as an act of revenge. A few days before the attack, he stole 12kg of explosives from the DOSARM warehouse.[1][3]
On Sunday, April 3rd, 1950[a] – a day before the explosion – Tatarnikov held a birthday party at his home, despite his actual birth date being in July.[1][7] The reason for this is unknown, though it is speculated that he used the occasion as a pretext to lure Donich to his residence in order to carry out his plan. However, she did not attend, and the plan did not proceed that day due to this.[7]
The day of the bombing
[edit]
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, April 4th, 1950, Tatarnikov left his home carrying a suitcase of the 12kg of explosives and went to Donich’s house.[1] He had unsuccessfully attempted to contact her on the previous two evenings. Unaware that the school’s timetable had recently changed, Tatarnikov assumed Donich would be home. When he found only her mother and son, he decided to go to the school instead.[1]
On his way, Tatarnikov dropped two letters into a post-box between Donich’s house and the school. One was addressed to his ex-wife in Kazan and another to the local authorities. Respectively, they read:
”Goodbye, dear Anya. I am ending my life by suicide. You know the reason. Give my regards to our son Tolya.”[1][7]
”Do not blame anyone for what has happened. I took 12 kg of tola from the warehouse..”[1][7]
A few hours later, Donich was sitting on the windowsill of a classroom, reading to her students, when Tatarnikov entered the room holding a lit match in one hand and the suitcase in the other.[1][2] He reportedly told the children to leave, but moments later, either deliberately or by accident, the explosives detonated.[1][2][3] The explosion caused massive destruction, killing Tatarnikov and Donich instantly, as well as another teacher in a nearby classroom and twenty-one students.[1] Several others were injured, though the exact number remains unknown.
Immediately, residents of Gîsca attempted to assist in clearing the rubble for survivors in the school. The wounded were taken to the hospital, and the dead were placed in a row. One 5th-grade student, Kondrat Kulik, was launched out the window and flew 50 meters, landing at the local church. He miraculously survived.[3][7] Another injured 5th-grade student identified as Ivan died a year later due to complications from his injuries.[3] Remaining students at the school studied in the open air before being transferred to a temporary classroom.[8]
The old school was demolished, and replaced by a new building by September 1950. This new building was also destroyed later during the 1992 Transnistrian conflict.[1] Donich’s son was raised by her brother. They eventually left Moldova with Donich’s mother.[7]
A detailed investigation was launched and concluded within a week. It determined that, aside from Tatarnikov himself, the administrators of the Bender district department of DOSARM were partially responsible for the bombing, as their unauthorized disarmament operations had enabled Tatarnikov’s access to explosives.[1] Investigators also found gross violations in explosive storage procedures. As a result, Piersanger-Petrov, the head of DOSARM, was dismissed, and Sedenko was arrested and prosecuted.[1]
After the investigation had concluded, Soviet authorities moved quickly to suppress information about the incident. Details including Tatarnikov’s name were classified, and the tragedy was more or less covered-up.[1] News of the bombing did not reach the wider public until 2005, when Raisa Semyonovna Makarenko, Principal of High School № 20 in Bender, began archiving materials surrounding the event.[1][7] According to her own testimony, she was inspired by witnessing the 2004 Beslan school siege to preserve the history of the bombing.[1] A memorial for the victims was established on February 9th, 2006 at the site of the bombing. Many photographs, documents and eye witness testimonies related to the bombing are now preserved in the Gîsca school museum.[1]
