"SEVEN SIMEONS": A TRAGIC HISTORY OF THE OVECHKINS FAMILY. It happened almost 30 years ago, on a holiday on March 8, 1988. The large and friendly Ovechkin family known throughout the country - the mother-heroine and 10 children from 9 to 28 years old - flew from Irkutsk to music Festival in Leningrad. They brought with them a bunch of instruments, from a double bass to a banjo, and everyone around them smiled happily, recognizing the "Seven Simeons" - Siberian nugget brothers playing incendiary jazz.

But at a 10-kilometer altitude, people's favorites suddenly took out sawn-off shotguns and a bomb from their cases and ordered to fly to London, otherwise they would start killing passengers and generally blow up the plane. An attempted hijacking turned into an unheard-of tragedy

“Wolves in the Ovechkins’ clothes” - this is how the stunned woman later wrote about them Soviet press. How did it happen that sunny, smiling guys turned into terrorists? From the very beginning, the mother was blamed for everything, allegedly raising her eldest sons as ambitious and cruel. Plus, a noisy glory somehow easily and immediately fell upon them, and it completely blew their heads off. But also, some saw Ovechkin as sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who went to crime just to "live like a human being." "Family-sect"

A huge family lived in a small private house on 8 acres on the outskirts of Irkutsk: mother Ninel Sergeevna, 7 sons and 4 daughters. The eldest, Lyudmila, got married early and left; she had nothing to do with the story of the theft. The father died 4 years before these events - they say he was beaten to death by his grown-up sons Vasily and Dmitry for his drunken antics. From childhood, under the command of the mother "Lie down!" they hid from dad's gun, from which he tried to shoot at them through the window. Ovechkin in 1985. From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily. The seventh brother Igor with a camera remained behind the scenes. Mother - a woman "affectionate, but strict" (according to Tatyana) - enjoyed unquestioning authority. She herself grew up as an orphan: during the hungry war years, her own mother, the widow of a front-line soldier, was killed by a drunken watchman when she was secretly digging up collective farm potatoes. Ninel developed an iron character and raised her sons the same way, only with them all this turned into ruthlessness and unscrupulousness.

Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina The Ovechkins were not friends with their neighbors, they lived apart by their own natural economy. Later, their unanimity and self-isolation began to be compared with sectarian fanaticism.

Siberian nuggets All the guys in the family studied at a music school, played instruments, and in 1983 founded the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble, named after the Russian folk tale about twins-craftsmen. Two years later, after participating in the Jazz-85 festival in Tbilisi and the broadcast of the Central Television "Wider Circle", they became all-Union celebrities.

"Seven Simeons" on the streets of Irkutsk, 1986. About an amazing family, the pride of all Siberia, was filmed documentary. The guys behaved wonderfully, the film crew was delighted with them, but it was hard with their mother. One of the editors of the tape, Tatyana Zyryanova, later said that Ninel Ovechkina was already filled with pride at that time, she was indignant that the family was “showed as peasants” and not “artists” and decided that they wanted to humiliate them that way.

Ninel Sergeevna. Frame from the film. However, the adult sons also had pride. In her diary, the mother somehow gave them all characteristics, and so she wrote about the elder Vasily: “Proud, arrogant, unkind.” It was under his influence that the brothers contemptuously rejected their studies at the famous Gnesinka, where they were admitted without exams. "Simeons" imagined themselves as extraordinary talents, ready-made professionals who lacked only world recognition. They actually played very well - for amateur performances, but over time, without experienced guidance, under the tutelage of their mother, who already considered them geniuses, they inevitably degraded. The audience was rather impressed by their fraternal cohesion and touched by Seryozha, who was as tall as his own banjo.

Brilliance and poverty Discontent and anger accumulated among the Ovechkins for another reason: All-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state allocated them two three-room apartments at once in good home, leaving the old suburban area, they did not heal, as in a fairy tale, happily ever after. The family quit agriculture, and it was impossible to earn money with music: they were simply forbidden to perform paid concerts.

"Seven Simeons" with his mother near his rural house

The abandoned Ovechkin house today

The Ovechkins dreamed of their own family cafe, where the brothers would play jazz, and the mother and sisters would be in charge of the kitchen. In a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but so far private business in the USSR was impossible. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country, and set about to leave forever for the “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of ​​after having been on tour in Japan in 1987. Simeons spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, Irkutsk’s sister city, and received a cultural shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows shine brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, vehicles drive silently, streets are washed with shampoo and even flowers in toilets, as their sons enthusiastically told mothers and sisters. Part of the family, according to the then principle, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those who remained in their homeland to shame and poverty. "We'll blow up the plane!"

Returning with a completely changed consciousness, the brothers started an escape, and their mother, impressed by the stories about a well-fed and beautiful foreign country, supported them. Decided that if you run, then all at once. The only way they saw the armed hijacking of the aircraft - by that time there were numerous stories of hijackings, including successful ones. In case of failure, there was a firm agreement - to commit suicide. Under their plans, the Ovechkins chose the flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad, the Tu-154 plane, departure on March 8. On board, in addition to 11 hijackers, there were 65 passengers and 8 crew members. The weapons - a pair of sawn-off hunting rifles with a hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs - were carried in a double bass case. From previous trips, the brothers learned that the tool does not pass into the metal detector, and that, having recognized the Simeons, the luggage is inspected superficially, just for show. And here - the checkers have a festive mood, and the youngest children, Seryozha and Ulyana, are trying with might and main, distracting them with ridiculous antics. The first part of the journey, the "artists" behaved cheerfully and peacefully. We made friends with flight attendants, especially with 28-year-old Tamara Zharka, showed them family photos. According to one version, Tamara was a friend of Vasily and for his sake she flew not on her shift. When, on the second leg of the route, 24-year-old Dmitry Ovechkin handed her a note: “Go to England (London). Don't go down or we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control,” she took it all for a joke and laughed lightheartedly. Then, until the very end, Tamara did everything possible to calm the terrorists, who every minute threatened to start killing passengers and blow up the cabin. She managed to convince them that the plane, which did not have enough fuel to London, would land for refueling in Finland, when in fact it landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg, where the capture team was already ready. On the gates of one of the hangars, AIR FORCE was specially written in large letters, but the hijackers saw a fuel truck with the Russian inscription “Flammable”, they recognized Soviet soldiers and realized that they had been deceived. Enraged, Dmitry shot Tamara point-blank

Tamara the Hot Mother begins to command her sons: “Don't talk to anyone! Get a cab!" The older brothers unsuccessfully try to break open the armored door of the pilots with a folding ladder. Meanwhile, amateur attack aircraft - simple police patrols with no experience in dealing with hostage situations - penetrate through the observation windows and hatches into the front and rear of the aircraft and, shielding themselves with shields, open indiscriminate fire, falling into innocent passengers. Realizing that there is no way out of the trap, the mother resolutely orders to blow up the plane - to die for everyone and immediately, as agreed. But the bomb did not even hurt anyone, only caused a fire. Then the four older brothers take turns shooting from one sawn-off shotgun, before committing suicide, Vasily puts a bullet in his mother's head, again on her orders. All this is happening in front of the younger children, who, in horror and incomprehension of what is happening, cling to their 28-year-old sister Olga. 17-year-old Igor manages to hide in the toilet. Everything could have ended with the death of half the family of terrorists, but the assault squad aggravated the tragedy. Passengers who in panic jumped out of the burning plane onto the concrete runway were greeted with warning bursts of machine guns and indiscriminately beaten with rifle butts and boots. A dozen and a half people were injured and maimed, some were disabled. Four hostages were wounded by a special group during a firefight in the cabin. Three more died, suffocating in the smoke. The plane burned down. The remains of the stewardess Tamara were identified only the next morning by a melted wrist watch.

The result of the tragedy 9 people died - Ninel Ovechkina, four eldest sons, a flight attendant and three passengers. 19 people were injured - 15 passengers, two Ovechkins, including the youngest 9-year-old Seryozha, and two riot police. Only six of the 11 Ovechkins who were on board survived - Olga and 5 of her underage brothers and sisters. Of the survivors, two went to court - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest, by age, were not subject to criminal liability, they were transferred under the care of a married sister, Lyudmila, who was not involved in the capture. An open trial took place in Irkutsk that autumn. The hall was crowded, there were not enough seats. Passengers and crew were witnesses. Both defendants, testifying, stated that they "somehow did not think" about the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga admitted her guilt in part and asked for leniency.

Olga in court. She was 7 months pregnant at the time.

Igor sometimes recognized partially, then completely denied and asked to be forgiven and not be deprived of his freedom. Moreover, at the trial, Igor, whom his mother described in his diary as “too self-confident and roguish”, tried to put all the blame for what happened on former leader ensemble, Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to which Simeons got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who inspired the older brothers with the idea that there is no jazz in the USSR and that recognition can only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him.

Vladimir Romanenko is rehearsing with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986 The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who were eager for a show of punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes a veteran Afghan. “Tie them to the tops of birches and tear them apart,” a woman teacher calls (!). “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the assembly. The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided otherwise: 8 years in prison for Igor, 6 years for Olga. In reality, they served 4 years. Olga gave birth to a daughter in the colony, she was also given to Lyudmila.

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 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. COMMAND STRUCTURE

In that ill-fated year The Ovechkin family consisted of a mother, Ninel Sergeevna, and 11 children aged 9 to 32. There was another one, the most 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 for what the sons beat own father- unclear.
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, with early years were doing music. Even in 1983, they asked for help from a teacher at the Irkutsk Art School to help them create 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 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 glory 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 the house and buy new clothes 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 the countries 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.

CONSEQUENCES

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.

It happened almost 30 years ago, on a holiday on March 8, 1988. The large and friendly Ovechkin family known throughout the country - the mother-heroine and 10 children from 9 to 28 years old - flew from Irkutsk to a music festival in Leningrad.
They brought with them a bunch of instruments, from a double bass to a banjo, and everyone around them smiled happily, recognizing the "Seven Simeons" - Siberian nugget brothers playing incendiary jazz.

But at a 10-kilometer altitude, people's favorites suddenly took out sawn-off shotguns and a bomb from their cases and ordered to fly to London, otherwise they would start killing passengers and generally blow up the plane. An attempted hijacking turned into an unheard-of tragedy


“Wolves in the shoes of the Ovechkins” – this is how the stunned Soviet press later wrote about them. How did it happen that sunny, smiling guys turned into terrorists? From the very beginning, the mother was blamed for everything, allegedly raising her eldest sons as ambitious and cruel. Plus, a noisy glory somehow easily and immediately fell upon them, and it completely blew their heads off. But also, some saw Ovechkin as sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who went to crime just to "live like a human being."

"Family-sect"



A huge family lived in a small private house on 8 acres on the outskirts of Irkutsk: mother Ninel Sergeevna, 7 sons and 4 daughters. The eldest, Lyudmila, got married early and left; she had nothing to do with the story of the theft. The father died 4 years before these events - they say he was beaten to death by his grown-up sons Vasily and Dmitry for his drunken antics. From childhood, under the command of the mother "Lie down!" they hid from dad's gun, from which he tried to shoot at them through the window. Ovechkin in 1985. From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily. The seventh brother Igor with a camera remained behind the scenes.
Mother - a woman "affectionate, but strict" (according to Tatyana) - enjoyed unquestioning authority. She herself grew up as an orphan: during the hungry war years, her own mother, the widow of a front-line soldier, was killed by a drunken watchman when she was secretly digging up collective farm potatoes. Ninel developed an iron character and raised her sons the same way, only with them all this turned into ruthlessness and unscrupulousness.


Ninel Sergeevna Ovechkina
The Ovechkins were not friends with their neighbors, they lived apart by their own clan, they led a subsistence economy. Later, their unanimity and self-isolation began to be compared with sectarian fanaticism.



Siberian nuggets

All the guys in the family studied at a music school, played instruments, and in 1983 founded the Seven Simeons jazz ensemble, named after the Russian folk tale about crafty twins. Two years later, after participating in the Jazz-85 festival in Tbilisi and the broadcast of the Central Television "Wider Circle", they became all-Union celebrities.


"Seven Simeons" on the streets of Irkutsk, 1986
A documentary film was made about an amazing family, the pride of all Siberia. The guys behaved wonderfully, the film crew was delighted with them, but it was hard with their mother. One of the editors of the tape, Tatyana Zyryanova, later said that Ninel Ovechkina was already filled with pride at that time, she was indignant that the family was “showed as peasants” and not “artists” and decided that they wanted to humiliate them that way.


Ninel Sergeevna. Frame from the film.
However, the adult sons also had pride. In her diary, the mother somehow gave them all characteristics, and so she wrote about the elder Vasily: “Proud, arrogant, unkind.” It was under his influence that the brothers contemptuously rejected their studies at the famous Gnesinka, where they were admitted without exams. "Simeons" imagined themselves as extraordinary talents, ready-made professionals who lacked only world recognition. They actually played very well - for amateur performances, but over time, without experienced guidance, under the tutelage of their mother, who already considered them geniuses, they inevitably degraded. The audience was rather impressed by their fraternal cohesion and touched by Seryozha, who was as tall as his own banjo.

Shine and poverty

Discontent and anger accumulated among the Ovechkins for another reason: All-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state gave them two three-room apartments at once in a good house, leaving the old suburban area as well, they did not live happily ever after, as in a fairy tale. The family quit farming, and there was no way to make money with music: they were simply forbidden to perform paid concerts.


"Seven Simeons" with his mother near his rural house


The abandoned Ovechkin house today


The Ovechkins dreamed of their own family cafe, where the brothers would play jazz, and the mother and sisters would be in charge of the kitchen. In a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but so far private business in the USSR was impossible. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country, and set about to leave forever for the “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of ​​after having been on tour in Japan in 1987. Simeons spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, Irkutsk’s sister city, and received a cultural shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows shine brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, vehicles drive silently, streets are washed with shampoo and even flowers in toilets, as their sons enthusiastically told mothers and sisters. Part of the family, according to the then principle, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those who remained in their homeland to shame and poverty.

"We'll blow up the plane!"



Returning with a completely changed consciousness, the brothers started an escape, and their mother, impressed by the stories about a well-fed and beautiful foreign country, supported them. Decided that if you run, then all at once. The only way they saw an armed hijacking of the aircraft - by that time there were numerous stories of hijackings, including successful ones. In case of failure, there was a firm agreement - to commit suicide. Under their plans, the Ovechkins chose the flight Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad, the Tu-154 plane, departure on March 8. On board, in addition to 11 hijackers, there were 65 passengers and 8 crew members. The weapons - a pair of sawn-off hunting rifles with a hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs - were carried in a double bass case. From previous trips, the brothers learned that the tool does not pass into the metal detector, and that, having recognized the Simeons, the luggage is inspected superficially, just for show. And here - the checkers have a festive mood, and the youngest children, Seryozha and Ulyana, are trying with might and main, distracting them with ridiculous antics.
The first part of the journey, the "artists" behaved cheerfully and peacefully. We made friends with flight attendants, especially with 28-year-old Tamara Zharka, showed them family photos. According to one version, Tamara was a friend of Vasily and for his sake she flew not on her shift. When, on the second leg of the route, 24-year-old Dmitry Ovechkin handed her a note: “Go to England (London). Don't go down or we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control,” she took it all for a joke and laughed lightheartedly. Then, until the very end, Tamara did everything possible to calm the terrorists, who every minute threatened to start killing passengers and blow up the cabin. She managed to convince them that the plane, which did not have enough fuel to London, would land for refueling in Finland, when in fact it landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg, where the capture team was already ready. On the gates of one of the hangars, AIR FORCE was specially written in large, but the hijackers saw a fuel truck with the Russian inscription “Flammable”, recognized the Soviet soldiers and realized that they had been deceived. Enraged, Dmitry shot Tamara point-blank.

Tamara Hot

The mother begins to command her sons: “Don’t talk to anyone! Get a cab!" The older brothers unsuccessfully try to break open the armored door of the pilots with a folding ladder. Meanwhile, amateur attack aircraft - simple police patrols with no experience in dealing with hostage situations - penetrate through the observation windows and hatches into the front and rear of the aircraft and, shielding themselves with shields, open indiscriminate fire, falling into innocent passengers. Realizing that there is no way out of the trap, the mother resolutely orders to blow up the plane - to die for everyone and immediately, as agreed. But the bomb did not even hurt anyone, only caused a fire. Then the four older brothers take turns shooting from one sawn-off shotgun, before committing suicide, Vasily puts a bullet in his mother's head, again on her orders. All this is happening in front of the younger children, who, in horror and incomprehension of what is happening, cling to their 28-year-old sister Olga. 17-year-old Igor manages to hide in the toilet. Everything could have ended with the death of half the family of terrorists, but the assault squad aggravated the tragedy. Passengers who in panic jumped out of the burning plane onto the concrete runway were greeted with warning bursts of machine guns and indiscriminately beaten with rifle butts and boots. A dozen and a half people were injured and maimed, some were disabled. Four hostages were wounded by a special group during a firefight in the cabin. Three more died, suffocating in the smoke. The plane burned down. The remains of the stewardess Tamara were identified only the next morning by a melted wrist watch.


Remains of a burned-out Tu-154, April 1988



The result of the tragedy

9 people died - Ninel Ovechkina, four eldest sons, a flight attendant and three passengers. 19 people were injured - 15 passengers, two Ovechkins, including the youngest 9-year-old Seryozha, and two riot police. Only six of the 11 Ovechkins who were on board survived - Olga and 5 of her underage brothers and sisters. Of the survivors, two went to court - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest, by age, were not subject to criminal liability, they were transferred under the care of a married sister, Lyudmila, who was not involved in the capture. An open trial took place in Irkutsk that autumn. The hall was crowded, there were not enough seats. Passengers and crew were witnesses. Both defendants, testifying, stated that they "somehow did not think" about the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga admitted her guilt in part and asked for leniency.


Olga in court. She was 7 months pregnant at the time.


Igor sometimes recognized partially, then completely denied and asked to be forgiven and not be deprived of his freedom.
Moreover, at the trial, Igor, whom his mother described in his diary as “too self-confident and roguish,” tried to put all the blame for what happened on the former head of the ensemble, the Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to whom the Simeons got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who inspired the older brothers with the idea that there is no jazz in the USSR and that recognition can only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him.


Vladimir Romanenko is rehearsing with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986
The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who were eager for a show of punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes a veteran Afghan. “Tie them to the tops of birches and tear them apart,” a woman teacher calls (!). “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the assembly. The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided otherwise: 8 years in prison for Igor, 6 years for Olga. In reality, they served 4 years. Olga gave birth to a daughter in the colony, she was also given to Lyudmila.


Olga with a child in prison

The further fate of the Ovechkins

The last time journalists asked about them was in 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. Here's what was known at the time. Olga traded fish in the market, gradually became an inveterate drunkard. In 2004, she was beaten to death by a drunk cohabitant during a domestic quarrel. Igor played the piano in restaurants in Irkutsk and drank himself. In 1999, an MK journalist talked to him - then he was indignant at the fresh film "Mama" with Mordyukova, Menshikov and Mashkov, based on the story of the Ovechkins, and threatened to sue director Denis Evstigneev. He eventually received a second sentence for selling drugs and was killed by a cellmate.


Igor Ovechkin
Sergey, together with Igor, played in restaurants and helped with the housework older sister Lyudmila. Then he went missing.


Igor and Serezha at a rehearsal in 1986.


9-year-old Seryozha is a witness in court, autumn 1988.
Ulyana, who at the time of the hijacking was 10 years old, gave birth to a child at 16, went down and drank herself. She thinks that flight ruined her life. Because of drunken quarrels with her husband, she twice threw herself under a car. Receives a disability pension.


Frame from documentary program 2013
Tatyana, who was 14 in 1988, lives near Irkutsk with her husband and child. She managed to establish a life more or less safely.


Shot from a 2006 shoot


And, finally, Mikhail, the most talented of all, who played the trombone, according to the teacher, “like a real black man,” is the only one of the Ovechkins who managed to escape abroad. In Spain, he performed in street jazz bands, lived on alms. He later suffered a stroke and ended up in a wheelchair. As of 2013, lived in rehabilitation center in Barcelona and ... dreamed of returning to Irkutsk.
One thing is clear as the years go by. Whether from pride, lack of intelligence or lack of information, the Ovechkins sincerely believed that they would be met abroad with open arms, and not considered dangerous terrorists who took innocent people hostage. The “Simeons” were dazzled by the reception in Japan – full house, applause, promises of fame and fortune from local journalists and producers… They didn’t realize that they aroused the interest of foreigners more like circus monkeys, a funny souvenir from a closed country with its Siberia and “gulags” than like musicians. As one Irkutsk publication concluded, “these were simple, rude people with simple, rude dreams - to live like a human being. This is what killed them."
Source -

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. There must have been stories about 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 hometown and were practically ignored. 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.

Glory is different.

The musical ensemble of the Ovechkin brothers "Seven Semions" was quite famous in the Soviet Union. In 1988 they became world famous. But who needs such glory?

AT FIRST

By 1988, the Ovechkin family consisted of a mother and 11 children (father, Dmitry Dmitrievich, died on May 3, 1984, a few days after the beatings inflicted by his eldest sons), including 7 sons were members of the Seven Simeons family jazz ensemble.

Mother - Ninel Sergeevna (51 years old). Children - Lyudmila (32 years old), Olga (28 years old), Vasily (26 years old), Dmitry (24 years old), Oleg (21 years old), Alexander (19 years old), Igor (17 years old), Tatyana (14 years old), Mikhail (13 years old), Ulyana (10 years old), Sergey (9 years old). (The age of all family members is indicated at the time of capture). The family lived in Irkutsk, on Detskaya street, house 24.

The eldest daughter Lyudmila lived separately from the rest of the family and did not take part in the hijacking of the plane.

The ensemble was organized at the end of 1983 and soon won victories on a number of music competitions in various cities of the USSR, became widely known: they wrote about the Ovechkins in the press, made a documentary, etc. At the end of 1987, after a tour in Japan, the family decided to flee the USSR.

Plane hijacking

On March 8, 1988, the Ovechkin family - Ninel and her 10 children - flew from Irkutsk on a Tu-154 aircraft flying along the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad. The official purpose of the trip was a tour in Leningrad. When boarding an aircraft, a thorough screening hand luggage was not produced, which allowed the criminals to bring on board sawn-off shotguns and improvised explosive devices hidden in musical instruments.

When the plane was approaching Leningrad, one of the brothers handed over a note to the stewardess demanding to change course and land in London under the threat of the plane blowing up. The Ovechkins forbade passengers to leave their seats, threatening them with sawn-off shotguns. After negotiations, the terrorists were persuaded to allow landing to refuel the aircraft in Finland. However, in reality, the plane landed at the Veshchevo military airfield near the Finnish border. Seeing the uniform of Soviet soldiers through the windows [source not specified 252 days], the terrorists realized that they had been deceived. Dmitry Ovechkin shot and killed flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya.

The assault on the aircraft was carried out by the forces of the units of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a result of the actions of the capture group [source not specified 252 days], three passengers were killed and 36 more were injured. The capture group failed to prevent the terrorists from detonating the explosive device with which they tried to commit suicide: when it became clear that the escape from the USSR had failed, Vasily shot Ninel Ovechkina at her request, after which the older brothers tried to commit suicide by detonating a bomb . However, the explosion turned out to be directed and did not bring the desired result, after which the Ovechkins took turns shooting themselves from one sawn-off shotgun. As a result of the fire that started from the explosion, the aircraft completely burned down.

In total, 9 people died during the assault: a flight attendant, three passengers, Ninel Ovechkina and her four eldest sons.

On September 6, 1988, the trial of the surviving family members, Igor and Olga Ovechkin, who were criminally liable by age, began in Irkutsk. The court passed sentences: Olga - 6 years in prison, Igor - 8 years (they served only half of their terms).

During the capture and trial, Olga was pregnant; her daughter Larisa was born in prison, she was brought up by Olga's sister, Lyudmila.

The underage Ovechkins were transferred to an orphanage, from where they were later taken by Lyudmila, who had three children of her own.

Further fate surviving Ovechkins

Igor Ovechkin was arrested a second time, this time for drug dealing. Some sources say that he was arrested in the 1990s and then killed in prison by a cellmate.

Olga Ovechkina was killed on June 8, 2004 by her cohabitant during a domestic drunken quarrel. Born shortly before this, the son of Olga was also taken to her by Lyudmila.

Mikhail Ovechkin moved to St. Petersburg, where he participated in the Easy Winners jazz band and others. Currently he plays in the street jazz band Jinx Jazz Band (Spain).

Ulyana gave birth to a child at the age of 16, led an asocial lifestyle. Tried to commit suicide, became disabled.

Sergei played in restaurants with Igor for some time, then traces of him are lost.

There is no publicly available information about the fate of Tatyana.

Reflection in culture

In 1999, based on the history of the Ovechkin family, was filmed Feature Film"Mother".