On March 8, the large Irkutsk Ovechkin family, consisting of a mother and 11 children, attempted to hijack a Tu-154 aircraft in order to escape from the Soviet Union abroad. However, their idea failed: after the aircraft landed in the wrong place, it was taken by storm. At the same time, five newly minted terrorists died: mother, Ninel Ovechkina, and her four eldest sons. A show trial was carried out over the surviving children. We would like to cover this topic and tell how the Ovechkin family hijacked the plane. LINE-UP

In that ill-fated year, the Ovechkin family consisted of a mother, Ninel Sergeevna, and 11 children aged 9 to 32. There was another, the eldest daughter, Lyudmila, but by that time she had already married and lived separately from her relatives, and therefore did not participate in the hijacking of the plane. There was once a father in the family, but he died back in 1984 from severe beatings, which were awarded to his eldest sons. However, then there was no evidence, and if there was such an incident in the biography of the Ovechkins, then why the sons beat their own father is not clear.
From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily

The male composition of the Ovechkin family consisted of seven brothers who were involved in music from an early age. Even in 1983, they turned to a teacher at the Irkutsk Art School for help in creating a family jazz ensemble, the so-called jazz band. The teacher was not averse, and as a result, the jazz group "Seven Simeons" appeared.

Gradually, the newly minted group began to gain popularity. The brothers began to be invited to play at local events in Irkutsk. They even performed in the city park on holidays. But a really big success came to them in 1984, when they took part in the Jazz-85 festival of the national level. After him, "Seven Simeons" began to be invited to shoot in television programs and even made a documentary about them. In 1987, the Ovechkin family, consisting of mother and sons, was invited on tour to Japan. It was then that the head of the family, Ninel Ovechkina, having been on the other side of the Iron Curtain, came to the conclusion that they were very unlucky to be born and live in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the idea came up to flee the USSR.

LONG PREPARATION

While touring Japan, everyone came to the conclusion that with such talent and success, they could achieve real fame abroad. After returning home, the Ovechkin family, led by Ninel Sergeevna, began to hatch an escape plan. Since everyone would not be allowed to go abroad in the USSR, the family decided to seize the plane on domestic airlines, and then send it to another country.
The implementation of the plan was scheduled for March 8, 1988. On that day, the entire Ovechkin family, except for the eldest daughter Lyudmila, who was not in the know, bought tickets for the Tu-154 plane, which was flying on the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad flight. Friends and employees of the airport were told that the Ovechkins flew on tour and therefore take a lot of musical instruments with them. Naturally, they were not given a thorough inspection. As a result, the criminals managed to carry on board the aircraft two sawn-off shotguns, one hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade explosives. All this goodness was hidden in musical instruments. Moreover, by the time the plane was hijacked, the Ovechkin family had already managed to sell all the things from home and buy new clothes in order to pass for their own abroad.

AIRCRAFT
Nine-year-old Sergei Ovechkin

Already at the very end of its journey, when the plane flew up to Leningrad, the Ovechkins handed over a note through the stewardess demanding to fly to London or any other capital of Western Europe. Otherwise, they threaten to blow up the plane. However, the crew of the aircraft decided to cheat and told the terrorists that the plane did not have enough fuel, and therefore refueling would be needed. It was announced that the plane would refuel in Finland, but the pilots, who contacted ground services, landed the plane at a military airfield near the Soviet-Finnish border.

TRAGEDY ON BOARD
Olga Ovechkina in court

Noticing Soviet soldiers at the airfield, the Ovechkins realized that they had decided to deceive them, and opened fire. One of the older brothers shot the flight attendant, after which they all together tried to break the door to the cockpit. Meanwhile, the assault began. Realizing that they had failed, Ninel Sergeevna demanded to be shot, after which the plane was blown up. One of the older brothers shot the mother, but the bomb explosion turned out to be directed, and the desired effect could not be achieved. But as a result of it, three passengers were killed and 36 more were injured. After that, the older brothers - Vasily, Oleg, Dmitry and Alexander - took turns shooting themselves from the sawn-off shotgun. The explosion started a fire, as a result of which the aircraft completely burned out.

EFFECTS

On September 8, 1988, a trial was held over the surviving Ovechkins. Older brother Igor and sister Olga received eight and six years in prison, respectively. The juvenile Ovechkins were initially placed in an orphanage. However, then their elder sister Lyudmila took them under her care. Olga, who already had a daughter in prison, and Igor served only half of their terms and were released.

The case of an attempted hijacking by the Ovechkin family is the loudest and most resonant in the late 80s of the last century. It was widely covered in the press, discussed in every Soviet family. Ordinary citizens were outraged not so much by the audacity of the hijackers as by their very personalities. If Ovechkin were recidivists, hardened criminals, the case would not have received such publicity.

Jazz Ensemble "Seven Simeons"

The hijackers turned out to be the most common Soviet “cell of society”. Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina was a heroine mother of many children, raising 11 children almost alone. Her husband, Dmitry Dmitrievich, drank heavily during his lifetime and paid little attention to his offspring. He died 4 years before the events described and left his wife to cope with a huge family.

Ninel Sergeevna performed this role well. Moreover, many of the children were already adults and actively helped her raise the kids. By Soviet standards, the Ovechkins lived mediocre lives. They had 2 three-room apartments in Irkutsk itself and a house with a plot in the suburbs, but the mother's pension and the salaries of older children were very small.

The sons of Ninel Sergeevna were incredibly musical and therefore organized a jazz ensemble called "Seven Simeons". A documentary was made about them. "Simeons" were very proud and even sent on tour to Japan. This rare success was a turning point in the fate of the Ovechkins themselves and many people who found themselves on board the plane they hijacked in 1988.

The desire to break out of an impoverished country of total scarcity

During the tour, a very tempting offer was made to young musicians from a London record company. "Seven Simeons" even then could ask for asylum from Great Britain and stay abroad forever, but they did not want to leave their mother and sisters in the USSR. They would never have been released abroad; Yes, and they would have persecuted at home.

Returning home after the tour, the boys offered their mother to flee the USSR. Surely there were stories about a beautiful life abroad. That's when the plan to hijack the plane matured. Ninel Sergeevna not only supported this idea, but also fully supervised the preparation. The plan was implemented on a holiday - March 8, 1988.

How did the capture

The Ovechkins prepared very carefully for the hijacking. Cases for musical instruments were specially reshaped so that weapons could be carried in them. Already after the tragic events on board the TU-154 (tail number 85413, flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad), 2 sawn-off shotguns, about a hundred rounds of ammunition and several improvised explosive devices were found.

It was easy for the Ovechkins to carry such an arsenal. The musicians were well known in their hometown and were practically not inspected. All Ovechkins participated in the capture, except for the eldest daughter Lyudmila. She was married, lived in another city (Cheremkhovo) and did not know about the impending escape from the USSR.

When the Ovechkins, led by their mother, were on board, they waited for the intermediate landing of the plane in Kurgan for refueling. Then they demanded that a course be set for London. At first, the pilots took the demand as a joke. The situation immediately changed when sawn-off shotguns appeared in the hands of the older Ovechkins. "Simeons" threatened to blow up the plane in case of disobedience.

Outcome of the case

No one was even going to let the hijackers go abroad. The plane was landed at a military airfield in Veshchevo, after which they took it by storm. During the capture, 9 people were killed (five of them were terrorists), 19 were injured. The failed hijackers were determined. In case of failure, they decided to commit suicide so as not to be judged as traitors to the Motherland. The eldest son Vasily (26 years old) shot his mother, after which he committed suicide.

24-year-old Dmitry did the same, having previously killed the flight attendant T. I. Hot. Oleg and Sasha (21 and 19 years old) passed away in a similar way. At the trial, 17-year-old Igor was sentenced to 8 years in prison. His pregnant 28-year-old sister Olga is 6 years old. She was the only one against the hijacking of the plane and until the last she tried to dissuade her relatives from the criminal undertaking.

Lyudmila, the eldest daughter of Ninel Sergeevna, became the guardian of her younger sisters and brothers. She also adopted a newborn niece, whom Olga gave birth to in prison. Thus ended the case of the first hijacking in the USSR in order to escape abroad.


Hijacking in the USSR was an out of the ordinary event, especially since a large family turned out to be terrorists Ovechkin family, which organized Music band with a fabulous name "Seven Simeons". A jazz band of seven brothers, their mother and younger brothers and sisters planned to fly to London and make money there, but as a result, half of them died, the rest went to prison, and people on that flight were injured. Who were they really - victims of totalitarianism, dreaming of freedom, or cruel killers, ready to go to their goal over the corpses?





The Ovechkin family had 11 children, 4 years before the incident, their father died. The seven brothers were fond of music from an early age. In 1983, they turned to a teacher at the Irkutsk Art College for help in creating a family jazz ensemble.





The Seven Simeons group quickly earned popularity both in Irkutsk and throughout the Union - after participating in the Jazz-85 festival, they became frequent guests of television programs and even the heroes of a documentary film. In 1987, the jazz band was invited on tour to Japan. Having been abroad, the mother of the family, Ninel Ovechkina, realized that outside the USSR, their ensemble would have achieved much greater success and material well-being. So the plan of escape from the country ripened.





On March 8, 1988, all members of the family, except for their elder sister Lyudmila, who did not know about their plans, boarded the TU-154 aircraft on the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad flight. The Ovechkins allegedly flew on tour, so they had musical instruments with them. "Simeonov" was known and carefully not inspected. Children aged 9 to 32 and their mother carried two sawn-off shotguns, one hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade explosives hidden in tool cases.





When the Ovechkins put forward their demands, the crew resorted to a trick - they were told they needed to refuel in Finland. In fact, the plane landed at a military airfield near the Soviet-Finnish border. There they were already waiting for the capture team. During the assault, a flight attendant and 3 passengers were shot dead, 36 more were injured. Four older brothers committed suicide, having killed their mother before that at her own request. The aircraft was blown up and burned to the ground.





The surviving members of the Ovechkin family were tried. The older brother Igor received 8 years in prison, the older sister Olga - 6, the minor children ended up in an orphanage, and then Lyudmila took them under her care. After serving half the term, Igor and Olga were released.



In 1999, the film "Mom" was released, in which the facts of the Ovechkins' biography are interpreted very freely. Igor Ovechkin was outraged by this interpretation: “And we will sue Evstigneev. No one even asked our opinion. Everyone learned from the newspapers. The authors of "Mama" did not understand anything in what had happened.





The fate of the surviving Ovechkins, who had long served their sentences for what they had done, was indeed unsweetened. Olga, being pregnant on the day of the hijacking, gave birth to a daughter in the colony. Sergei Ovechkin, who was only 9 years old in 1988, did not fully understand what happened then. They didn’t let him into the plans, but he paid for the hijacking along with the rest. It is not easy to live in Irkutsk with such a surname.



Ovechkins claim that Oleg was the instigator, and the 52-year-old mother found out about everything already on the plane. Children are still confident that their mother raised them correctly - she taught them to work from morning to night, not to feel sorry for themselves. But they did not spare other people either.



Unfortunately, the hijacking was not an isolated incident, a similar story ended tragically for

A. Kuznetsov: In 1988, the Ovechkin family consisted of a mother and 11 children (7 boys and 4 girls). The fate of the mother, Ninel Ovechkina, was difficult from the first days of her life. She was born before the war. Her father died at the front, and her mother was shot dead by a watchman when she tried to pick up a couple of potatoes in the field to feed her hungry daughter. The girl ended up in an orphanage. After the orphanage, she found herself a husband. Despite the fact that Ninel bore him 11 children, he drank heavily. It is clear that in such conditions the family lived rather poorly, although the state, as a large family, gave her two three-room apartments on the same site of a house in her native Irkutsk.

The father of the family Dmitry died in 1984. Mother, a rather tough and ambitious woman, replaced her father's children. Tatyana Ovechkina, who was 14 at the time of the hijacking, later said: “We were good kids, we never drank or smoked, we never went to discos.”

“Wolves in the shoes of the Ovechkins” - this is how the Soviet press later wrote about them

And yet, despite a number of difficulties, the children received a normal upbringing and education by Soviet standards. The family created the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble, which included seven brothers. Mikhail Ovechkin studied at the same course at the Irkutsk Music College with the future star Denis Matsuev, who later highly appreciated his abilities.

The uniqueness of the ensemble was obvious to the authorities, who helped increase its popularity. In 1987, a decision was made upstairs to take the children on tour to Japan. Although on such trips there was always a person from the special services who counteracted unwanted contacts, someone still came out to the boys. There is no specific information about who it was - apparently, they were offered a solid contract if they stayed to work abroad.

The brothers did not dare to make such a decision on their own (and their mother was not with them on the trip) and returned to the USSR.

S. Buntman: However, the living conditions and the wages offered could not be compared with what they could get at home, and doubts settled in their souls.

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. In the end, the Ovechkins decide to escape.


S. Buntman: It is worth noting that a very non-trivial way of escape was chosen - to hijack a plane.

A. Kuznetsov: What a preparation! What is the increase in the dimensions of the double bass case worth?!

S. Buntman: What is this for?

A. Kuznetsov: In order to bring weapons and explosives on board the aircraft through an interscope. Several times with this case, the brothers went on tour to Leningrad to see what the reaction would be.

S. Buntman: Well?

A. Kuznetsov: Everything went as they planned. On March 8, 1988, when the Ovechkins were on their way to the landing of the Irkutsk-Kurgan-Leningrad flight, no one began to closely inspect the case (after all, they were local celebrities). Later, a criminal case was opened against an airport employee who neglected her official duties. He will be investigated in parallel with the case of the terrorist attack.

After a trip to Japan, the Ovechkins wanted to try foreign life

S. Buntman: So, the Ovechkins flew out of Irkutsk.

A. Kuznetsov: Yes. The first part of the journey they behaved cheerfully and peacefully. But when the plane was already flying up to Leningrad, the Simeons, through the stewardess, handed over to the pilots a note demanding that they be delivered to London.

From the ground, the crew was ordered to convince the terrorists that without another refueling, the plane would not be able to reach England. Then the brothers demanded that the refueling be made in some capitalist country, and they were promised that the plane would be landed in Finland.

S. Buntman: But in fact, they were not going to let anyone go to Finland?

A. Kuznetsov: Of course. Moreover, by order of the commander of the North-Western Air Defense, the aircraft was accompanied by a military fighter. As is clear from a number of publications on the subject, the fighter pilot was ordered to destroy a passenger plane, along with all passengers, if only he tried to make an attempt to take off from the country.

I don’t know what the command was guided by in this case (perhaps they were trying to scare them so that the rest would be discouraged), but, in general, the plane was doomed. That is, either an assault (which, in fact, happened), or destruction.

The Ovechkin Family Jazz Ensemble in 1986. Photo: Roman Denisov

S. Buntman: How many passengers were on board?

A. Kuznetsov: About a hundred people, including the crew.

S. Buntman: What kind of plane?

A. Kuznetsov: Tu-154.

For the operation to neutralize terrorists, the operational headquarters chose a military airfield in the village of Veshchevo near Vyborg. It was starting to get dark. The crew was told that in order to bring the capture group to full readiness, they needed to drag out a little time. The Ovechkins were approached by flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya, who began to reassure them and convince them that the plane had landed in Kotka, Finland. The brothers practically believed it, but then they saw that a cordon of soldiers was being led along the runway to the landing site.

Naturally, the terrorists realized that they had been deceived. Out of desperation and rage, Dmitry Ovechkin shot the stewardess. As a result, Tamara Zharkaya became the only victim of the invaders. All other people were killed and maimed by those who came to save them.

The commandos, called upon to neutralize the terrorists, were in fact completely untrained in actions in such operations. They were ordinary police officers who knew how to deal with street hooligans, but did not know the specifics of working in the narrow space of an aircraft. They didn't work well. Very bad. Opening the cockpit door, two policemen started shooting at the invaders, wounding instead of them a man sitting in the front row. Three other passengers were subsequently injured.

Oddly enough, the Ovechkin brothers turned out to be much more accurate than the special forces - they wounded both of them with return fire.

A group entered the battle, penetrating the plane through the tail. The policemen began to shoot through the floor, but these shots did not cause any harm to the armed Simeons.

The criminal actions of the Ovechkin family led to the death of many people

Realizing that their situation was hopeless, the Ovechkins decided to commit suicide by detonating an explosive device. However, the bomb did not work the way they expected - only 19-year-old Alexander died, the rest were not even injured. Then the brothers began to shoot at themselves. Dimitri killed himself first. Then Oleg. And Vasily first shot his mother, then he shot himself.

One of the younger brothers, Misha Ovechkin, the same one who was a classmate of Denis Matsuev, will later say in court: “Vasya wanted to shoot me, looked for cartridges in Dima’s clothes, but did not find them, and he had only one cartridge left, and he decided spend it on yourself."

S. Buntman: How many victims were there?

A. Kuznetsov: As a result of the terrorist attack, nine people were killed, including five members of the Ovechkin family. 19 people, including two police officers and two Ovechkins, were injured and various injuries. In particular, this was due to the fact that when a bomb exploded and a fire started on board, the passengers managed to break one of the emergency exit doors, which, unfortunately, was not equipped with a ladder. And people jumped from a fairly large height to the ground, while receiving very severe spinal injuries, fractures and everything else.


S. Buntman: The verdict of the court stated that, in addition to the death and injury of people, damage to the state amounted to 1,371,000 rubles.

A. Kuznetsov: Yes.

S. Buntman: It turns out that of the direct participants in the crime, only 17-year-old Igor, 28-year-old Olga and four very young children, two girls and two boys, survived?

A. Kuznetsov: Quite right. The investigation went on for five months. The criminal case consisted of several dozen volumes. In the end, two people were brought to criminal responsibility - Olga and Igor. Olga was sentenced to six years in prison, and Igor to eight. Olga was pregnant at the time of the attack. She gave birth in the colony.

In 1999, based on the story of the Ovechkin family, the film "Mom" was filmed.

S. Buntman: How did the fate of the Ovechkins turn out?

A. Kuznetsov: In different ways. Igor and Olga served four years each and were released. In freedom, life did not work out for either one or the other. Igor served his second term for drugs and was soon killed. Shortly before his death, he performed in one of the restaurants in Irkutsk. Olga died during a drunken quarrel in 2004. Sergei played in restaurants with Igor for some time, then traces of him are lost. At the age of 16, Ulyana, who at the time of the events described above was only 10, gave birth to a child, led an antisocial lifestyle, tried to commit suicide, and became disabled. Mikhail lived in St. Petersburg for a long time, took part in various jazz bands, then moved to Spain. Tatyana, who was 14 in 1988, lives near Irkutsk with her husband and child. In 2006, she took part in the release of the documentary series "The investigation was conducted ...", which was dedicated to the hijacking of the aircraft.

They tried to escape from the USSR. It can be considered the last: the capture of an aircraft with hostages, followed by a bloody denouement, was committed in 1988. Three years remained before the collapse of the country. Of the 11 terrorists, six survived then: a pregnant woman, a minor teenager and four youngsters. 11 years have passed since that terrible March 8th. All this time, human curiosity did not allow for a moment to relax either the criminals who had served their sentences or the growing children. Terrible fame pursued them on their heels. With the release of the film "Mom", interest in the Ovechkins was stirred up with renewed vigor. They again became the object of the hunt for the curious. The Ovechkins categorically refuse to meet with journalists. But for "MK" they made an exception. Our reporter not only met these people, but also lived with their family... - I am proud of my surname. I will never change it. This is my kind. And we will sue Evstigneev. No one even asked our opinion. Everyone learned from the newspapers, - one of the prototypes of the film "Mother", Igor, boils. - I found a lawyer who will handle the case, and he has no doubt that the law is on our side. After all, as soon as everything began to calm down, and then again they were shouting at all corners: Ovechkins, Ovechkins ... It is today that information about terrorists and their hostages has become familiar, like a weather report, and no longer evokes almost any emotions in Russians. Then, 11 years ago, the seizure of a plane with hostages on the territory of the USSR for the purpose of hijacking was not just an out of the ordinary event - it was a shock. And when it became known that the invaders were a large family from Siberia, a musical group, that there were children among them, the whole country froze in shock. The terrorists, paradoxically, were very naive. They demanded that the pilots fly to London, not even suspecting that they could be extradited to the Soviet authorities, and if not, the Ovechkins were threatened with a life sentence under British law. Why, then, was the decision taken to take the plane against the interests of the hostages? According to the direct participants in the assault - for ideological reasons, so that from now on it would be disrespectful to other hijackers. There were 11 terrorists on the plane. Mother, Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina, and eldest sons - Vasily, Oleg, Dmitry and Alexander - died. The rest ended up in the dock. The trial lasted 7 months. 18 volumes of the case were written with different testimonies. And on September 23, the Leningrad Regional Court ruled: “Olga Ovechkina was sentenced to 6 years in prison for the armed seizure of an aircraft with the aim of hijacking outside the USSR, Igor Ovechkin to 8. Four - Sergei, Ulyana, Tatyana and Mikhail - were released from criminal liability for infancy. "The mining town of Cheremkhovo is located 170 km from Irkutsk. There is a poster in front of the entrance -" The health of the people is the wealth of the country ". At 8 pm the streets of the city are empty. Everyone drinks here that is lit, and winter hats are worn all year round. Every month there is information about the disappearance of children who are never found. Here, three-year-old kids fight with dogs in the market for an accidentally fallen fish head. The Ovechkins found shelter here. We knew that they refuse to communicate with journalists, and yet they arrived. We arrived in the evening - trains run here three times a day. And suddenly: - Come into the house, only suicides ride on the evening train. So spend the night already. They put us at the table After the trial, the younger "Simeons" were offered to be sold to Amsterdam. The eldest daughter, Lyudmila, the only one of the 11 Ovechkin children, was lucky at one time, long before the hijacking of the plane, to get married and leave Irkutsk. Another daughter, Olga, was forbidden by her mother and brothers to choose their own fate, her betrothed turned out to be a Caucasian. "What, I forgot how in the army the chumps mocked us Russians?" Vasya reproached her. - I could not get used to this backwater for a long time, - says Ovechkin's older sister. - Gradually, of course, I got used to it. I have been working at the open pit for 15 years, sorting coal. Work is in two days. The rest of the time I work in the market. In order to earn a piece of bread, Lyudmila sells sweets, cookies, marshmallows all day long in a 40-degree frost. She has chronic bronchitis, but she is glad that there is at least such a job. - Well, Seryozhka helps, - Luda sighs. - The one who was wounded on the plane ... In 1988, Sergei turned 9 years old. He did not know anything about the plans of the family, the younger ones were not initiated into criminal plans. He did not fully understand anything: why his brother shot his mother, why the plane burned down, why his leg hurt so much. Now he is 20. - That year I was assigned to the Cheremkhovo musical boarding school. I played the saxophone. Then he tried to enter the music school in Irkutsk. The first year they immediately told me: "You know, your last name is still well known, so it's better to come back in a year." Three years I knocked the thresholds of the selection committee. There is no more strength. Yes, and I have already abandoned the instrument. I'll probably join the army. The message has already arrived. Serezha has a bullet wound in his left thigh. The operation was not performed. Doctors thought that the body itself would reject the bullet over time. After that ill-fated International Women's Day, Lyudmila took Ulyana and Tanya to her place. Seryozha and Misha were also constantly at home, their boarding school was in the neighborhood. Yes, there were three of them. And soon another "daughter" appeared - Larisa. Her sister Olga gave birth to her in the colony. Now 25-year-old Tanya got married, had a baby and lives in Cheremkhovo. Ulya works and lives in Irkutsk, Misha in St. Petersburg. They eat in this family once a day, and even what they bungled in a quick hand. They don't succeed anymore. A lot of work. 6 cows, 6 pigs, 12 chickens require care. In the kitchen - one round table for all. The room has one large bed. There are photographs of the mother on the walls. Even the old custom in the family remained: if a problem or question arose, do not solve it alone. At the family council, everything will be discussed together. And the last word now remains with Lyudmila, as it used to be with her mother. True, photographs, letters from relatives and records of "Seven Simeons" have not been preserved. In March 1988, 2 huge bags of records were confiscated from the family. “We believe that our mother raised us well,” the Ovechkins recall, “no one went to the cinema, didn’t jump at discos, didn’t drink vodka in the basements. But they worked from morning to night. The money was needed. How can you feed such a family without them? Today, our children also have no time to go out, and their elders do not let them. Tears suddenly appear in Lyudmila's eyes. - You know, I wanted to become a journalist. I even tried writing. The mother did not. Then they predicted me as an actress. And then she told me: "What kind of actress are you, look at your rough hands, and your accent is not the same. Throw this rubbish out of your head and take care of the garden better." So I didn't get anywhere. I couldn't go against my mother's will. After the trial, the authorities offered Lyudmila to publicly disown her mother. Her house was constantly crowded with journalists and business people. One businessman from Amsterdam even offered to "concede" the younger Ovechkins to him for good money in order to revive the Seven Simeons ensemble, which had become scandalous. Lyudmila refused everything. Together with the Ovechkins we watch the film "Mom", then documentary footage of the tragedy on March 8, 1988. “I didn’t even know anything about their departure,” Lyudmila says sadly. “On that day, we were going to visit our mother with the kids ... Now March 8 is not a holiday for us, but a day of mourning.” When burnt corpses appear on the screen, Lyudmila tells all the children to leave the room. She can't hold back her tears. Turns away. - I was called to an already burned-out plane. I was horrified. In my presence, the fighters threw everyone to the ground, handcuffed them, and beat them on the legs. In total, there were 9 burnt corpses on the plane. Four of them were lying together, near the toilet. It was impossible to tell which one was which. The remains were numbered, packed in plastic bags and taken away for examination. They buried near Vyborg, in the village of Veshchevo under the numbers. - We were there only once, but the graves were never found, - says Lyudmila. - But for 10 years we have not gone there, and we are unlikely to go. There is no money, and it is not known on which hillock to put the flowers... A demolition bomber Olga gave her last testimony in court while sitting. She was 7 months pregnant. Despite the threats of the family against her beloved, she continued to meet with him and was expecting a child. Until the very last moment, Olga was against the plan. She even tried to disrupt the trip, from March 5 to March 6 she did not come home to spend the night. The brothers then made a scandal to her, locked her in the house, did not take their eyes off her all day. Olga was given a term less than the minimum - 6 years (according to the law - from 8 years to capital punishment). Olya was a second mother to all her brothers and sisters. Even from the conclusion she wrote: “Lyuda, send warm clothes to Igor. Tell him, let him take care of his hygiene. How is his health, you tell me everything. It’s hard for me, I miss you very much. (10/19/1988) Olya gave birth to a girl in the colony. The girl spent the first six months of her life on the bunk. There was no children's home at this institution. The administration of the colony decided to transfer Olga to Tashkent, and hand over the child to an orphanage. - Lord, how much effort and nerves we spent to take Lara to us, - recalls Lyudmila. - They didn't want to give it to us for a long time. But still managed to pick up a small one. So she lived with us for 4 years, until Olga got out of prison. But this was a completely different person. Rude, arrogant, evil. She took her daughter to Irkutsk. Contacted some Fazil. She arranged for Larisa in a commercial kindergarten, then in a paid school. The girl did not study very well. And one day I came to them, I see, Lariska is all dirty, hungry, and Olga drinks vodka from a neighbor and says to me: "Why should she study, she is already so beautiful. She will get married early." Olga works at the central Irkutsk market. Trades in red fish. She was not at work that day. - In vain you are looking for her, she does not talk to journalists at all, - the neighbors on the counter squealed in one voice. - So she is a good woman, talkative, but behaves cautiously with strangers. What she experienced will never be forgotten, and you are still adding fuel to the fire. By the way, she did not like the film at all. Two iron doors to Olga's apartment were never opened to us. Only the neighbor stopped: - Olga almost does not communicate with anyone. And we go to her only after a phone call. Igor, why didn't you shoot yourself? - Ovechkin?! How not to know! Half an hour ago, a drunk came in, - they say in one of the restaurants in Irkutsk. - Yes, you walk around the central taverns, you will definitely find it. Or take a look at his work, in the "Old Cafe". Midnight. The place where Igor works is hidden in one of the dark lanes of Irkutsk. - If you agree to marry me, I will give an interview, - and without this phrase it was clear that the person standing in front of me was drunk. - You know, I still have to work. The administrator does not allow drinking. Maybe give me a chirp? I'll wave a beer on the street, the conversation will start easier. Just be careful, otherwise they will notice ... they will be fired from work. - I drink heavily, because there are many problems. Both domestic and psychological. I understand that there is no getting away from them. I don't know why I'm talking to you... Journalists are my number one enemy. Some even had to fight. In this life I want a little - peace. So that they don’t poke a finger at me, and this often happens. People specially come to the "Old Cafe" to stare at me. It's very disgusting. At first, Igor was in the Angarsk juvenile colony. When he turned 18, he was transferred to an adult, in Bozoi. In total, he spent 4.5 years in prison. In the colony he was the leader of a brass band and a vocal and instrumental ensemble, which he himself created. When he was released, he began to earn money in restaurants playing the piano. Gradually recruited guys, created a group. He married a singer from the band. I lived in St. Petersburg for a year. But the family could not be saved. He drank heavily. The girl left, leaving her husband without money, without an apartment, without a soloist. Now he plays the synthesizer in a new restaurant, where he earns 64 rubles a night, and paints scores for Irkutsk orchestras for free, although this work costs at least 500 rubles. - I don't want to come up with a name for my group, and in the colony the ensemble was nameless, - says Igor. - For me always the best name and the best group, of course, "Seven Simeons". I remember this story every day... The fear remained. Fear of an explosion, fear of prison, fear of death, fear of ... mother. There was not a single night that I didn’t dream about it ... Before the trial, my hair was completely black, but now - you see? Turned gray then literally for a month. At the trial, Igor was constantly asked: “All yours committed suicide, and what are you? Why didn’t you shoot yourself? "The teenager was silent. Until now, Igor is looking for an answer to this question. - If he were older, he would have shot himself," the sister believes. "There is a mistake in the film," says Igor, "however, the same as in all newspapers. "What does mom have to do with it? No one understood that mom, no matter how badly they said about her, could not do this. By the way, she was already 52 years old. She found out about everything already on the plane, but it was Oleg was the instigator... And how it all began! The head of the family became the mother-heroine from the principle A. It all began on the outskirts of the working suburb of Irkutsk. so because from all over the neighborhood the kids ran here. But the Ovechkins were not heard here ... It was a family where the younger unquestioningly obeyed the elders, and all together - the mother. She kept the children with her, fencing them off from the outside world with a palisade of petty-bourgeois and narrow-minded habits.According to her instructions, all the boys entered the music school , and daughters, like a mother, went to the trading part. Teachers of secondary school No. 66, where the Ovechkins studied at different times, say that they did not participate in subbotniks and other events. “On the other hand, work was always in full swing on their site, the children were all the time swarming in the ground, scampering like frantic for water, repairing the house, taking care of the cattle,” says a grandmother from a neighboring house. - None of the Ovechkins smoked or drank. The whole day was spent at work. And at night, until two o'clock, they beat the drums. I could not fall asleep under this thunder ... The Ovechkins' house is the last one on this street. The gate is tightly fused to the ground. From the once neat dwelling, only rotten boards remained, somehow holding each other, a leaky roof and a plate with the number 24. Local guys burn bonfires in the evenings in the walls of the house, those that are older organized a drug den here. And 11 years ago, only flowers were missing on the local 8 acres. “Why are they needed?” the hostess thought. “You can’t spread them on bread.” - I'll tell you everything as if in spirit, - from the old-timer of the Children's Uncle Vanya's street, there was a slight smell of fumes. - Ninka was a creature and a whore. She ruined all the children and brought her husband to the grave. What a foreign name I thought up for myself! We still called her Nina. Vodka, I remember, was selling underground, there was more water in it than there was alcohol. Ninel Sergeevna's parents are rural. Her father died at the front when the girl was 5 years old. A year later, the mother dies absurdly. I was walking from the field work, I decided to dig up five potatoes. The drunk watchman, not understanding what was happening, fired point-blank. The girl was sent to an orphanage. At the age of 15, she was taken in by her cousin, whose wife became her godmother. At the age of 20, Ninel Sergeevna married the "noble chauffeur" Dmitry Vasilyevich Ovechkin, the young people received a house from the executive committee. And a year later, the first child was born - Lyudmila. The second daughter was born dead. Then Ninel Sergeevna swore: "I will never kill a single child in my life. I will give birth to all." For 25 years, 10 more children filled her house. - I strongly terrorized my husband, Mitka. It cost a peasant to drink 50 grams, so he was yelling at the whole district. He, although he was not an alcoholic, sometimes drank heavily, - says Uncle Vanya. If a Siberian man says that Ovechkin "drank hard", there is no doubt that he did not dry out. Until now, the neighbors remember how Dmitry Vasilyevich fired a gun at the window of the house, while the children were all lying on the floor. In 1982, Ovechkin's leg was paralyzed. In 1984 he died. The eldest of the Ovechkin sons, Vasya, was the deputy drummer at the school. Ninel Sergeevna loved him more than anyone. Only Vasya she forgave all the whims and pranks. Only he was allowed to postpone work for the next day. Only hoped for him on the plane. Only he was entrusted with the right to shoot himself. Olga's colleagues did not even know that she was from a large family. The older brother's fiancée only had a glimpse of his mother once. I learned about the incident from the newspapers. They never went to visit, they didn’t let neighbors into the house, they didn’t make friends. However, they were of no particular interest to anyone. The eldest, Lyudmila, married early and left Irkutsk. Olga worked as a cook in the Angara restaurant and traded in the market. Igor, Oleg, Dima studied at a music school and helped with the housework. Vasily served in the army. And the kids went to school. Ninel Sergeevna herself worked for a long time in a wine and vodka shop, and later in the market. Traded in milk, meat and herbs. In 1985, during the dry law, she sold vodka around the clock through the window. No one will remember that Ninel Sergeevna raised her voice to one of the children. But on the plane, when one of the sons began to beg: “Please don’t blow up the plane,” his mother clamped his mouth shut with a cry: “Be quiet, you bastard! We must fly to any capitalist country, but not to a socialist one!”. We did not notice that they approached us: - Che look? the young man spat. - Go away from this place, we have already bought this site from the executive committee. This, in fact, ends the story of house number 24 on Detskaya Street. But really, for so many years, none of the Ovechkins visited their father's house? - Why? Olga came recently, looked at the half-rotten hut, - the neighbor sighs. - I then asked her: "Olenka, when will you be built? After all, the boys will burn down the hut, and we, God forbid, will catch fire." And she threw in my direction: "Let it all burn with a blue flame!". Who was waiting for them behind the cordon? For the first time, information about the "Seven Simeons" appeared in 1984. Vasya in "Native speech" subtracted a fairy tale about seven boys. Later, a film of the same name was shot at the East Siberian Studio, which received a prize at an international film festival. Vasily, Dmitry and Oleg began their musical activities at the School of Arts in the department of wind instruments. In 1983, Vasya came to the department's teacher Vladimir Romanenko with the idea of ​​creating a family jazz. This is how Dixieland "Seven Simeons" appeared. In April 1984, they made their debut on the Gnesinka stage. In the same year, the city gave the family two 3-room apartments. The younger ones grew up on state security. The group was gaining momentum. 1985 - festival in Riga "Jazz-85", then - the World Festival of Youth and Students, participation in the program "Wider Circle". It was then that the mother realized what a profitable commodity music is. They began to give currency concerts for foreigners at the World Trade Center. In the autumn of 1987 we went to Japan on tour. Still not enough money. The exit has been found. To leave their homeland, to go to a place where "thousands" are paid for hitting the strings, where until recently they were well received, which means that now they will be accepted with joy. “Romanenko himself often told us: “Guys, they don’t understand jazz in Russia, nobody needs you here, you have to leave here, you will be appreciated only abroad,” recalls Igor. - He kept dripping on our brains, and we began to believe and dream about other countries. When the money ran out, when they stopped inviting us to concerts, when they began to forget us, we were finally convinced of this ... The Irkutsk Regional School of Musical Arts is located in the very center of the city. Everyone here knows Romanenko. He has changed a lot since the trial. Then the teacher had a thick dark beard, lush hair. Now he looks even younger. Clean-shaven face, neatly trimmed. “I won’t talk to you,” he immediately interrupted us. - And so much was dragged through the courts, so much was written, and everything is not true. We have always been friends with this family, even now. The guys write me letters, come, communicate. Everything has improved, and you are reopening old wounds again! Romanenko at the trial denied all Igor's testimony that he advised them to leave more than once. He had not spoken to the Ovechkins for about 10 years. - To be honest, the musicians of them were not so hot, - Boris Kryukov, head teacher of the school, talked to us. - Some were lazy, others were not given. For example, we took an earring three times, and all to no avail. The guy did not want, and could not study. Of course, the boarding school spoiled him badly, bad company. There were two talents in this family - Igor and Mishka. One has absolute pitch, the other is very assiduous. But Igor, because of drunkenness, could not continue his studies, and Misha did well. He left for St. Petersburg, created his own group. He generally tries to communicate less with his family. The fate of Michael was, perhaps, the best. He married the daughter of a famous Irkutsk poet. He left for St. Petersburg, created his own group. Already went on tour in Italy. True, the performances ended again in the spirit of the Ovechkins. “They got drunk there, or something, and they did such things that they were urgently deported from the country,” Luda laughs. 24-year-old Mikhail can be taken into the army. “I will never go there,” he says, “I will do anything, I will pay any money, but after that day I can’t even see a weapon, let alone hold it in my hands.” Ulyana turned 22, she works today in the Irkutsk reception center. Recently, two 17-year-old girls escaped from her care. It is not easy to live in Irkutsk with the surname "Ovechkin". Many relatives have changed her. - I often think what if they did emigrate? Who would need them there? - thinks Kryukov. - No, nobody. It’s just that in Soviet times it was necessary to show once what kind of families we have, what an exemplary country we have, so they went on tour for a year, the state paid them bonuses, gave them money. But all this quickly ended. Nobody even needed them in Moscow, what to say about England?! On the last campaign, terrorists were gathered by the whole world. Yakovlev, a turner of the regional consumer union, made threads and plugs for explosive devices for a bottle of vodka. The former master of industrial training, Trushkov, took 30 rubles for turning metal cups. Prusha obtained and illegally sold weapons to them, on which he made 150 rubles. The mechanic of the Melnikovsky poultry farm and at the same time the sound engineer of the ensemble bought gunpowder for them and loaded guns, supposedly for hunting. At the same time, he knew perfectly well that no one hunted in the Ovechkin family. The double bass, stuffed with weapons and an improvised explosive device, got into the plane solely due to the negligence of the inspection service. The plane could have been released without the slightest damage to the pride of the USSR, but it was landed near Vyborg, where the capture group was already waiting. The assault was carried out ineptly. Flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya died, three passengers were shot dead in a shootout, Igor and Sergey were wounded. When the Ovechkins set fire to the plane, there was only one fire truck on the airfield. She failed, and the signal to the militarized fire department of Vyborg came when the plane was already on fire. The rest of the cars arrived at the charred remains. Excerpts from the testimony of Mikhail Ovechkin: “The brothers realized that they were surrounded and decided to shoot themselves. Dima shot himself under the chin first. Then Vasily and Oleg approached Sasha, stood around the explosive device, and Sasha set fire to it. When the explosion rang out, none of the guys was not hurt, only Sasha's trousers caught fire, as well as the upholstery of the chair, and the glass of the porthole was knocked out. A fire started. Then Sasha took a sawn-off shotgun from Oleg and shot himself ... When Oleg fell, his mother asked Vasya to shoot her ... He shot to my mother's temple. When my mother fell, he told us to run away and shot himself." This tragedy is absurd in the first place. In 1988, the Ovechkins did not have the slightest opportunity to escape abroad. And they went over the corpses. To a bright, as it seemed to them, future. Now it is impossible to believe in it, but the fear of OVIR, which will refuse them, the fear of the consequences of the refusal was stronger for the Ovechkins than the fear of retribution for the armed seizure of the plane, for the death of the hostages. - The authors of "Mama" did not understand anything in what happened, - the Ovechkins say in one voice, - there was nothing to take the history of our family as the basis of the script. Some video vendors define Mom as an action movie, while others call it a melodrama. "Buy" Mom ", - advised a woman selling cassettes in the subway passage, - a wonderful family movie" ... "Iron Curtain" was slightly opened two years after the bloody seizure of the plane.