How Ilya Krichevsky died. Biography of Krichevsky Usov

Closer to midnight on August 20, the defenders of the White House saw that a column of armored personnel carriers was heading towards the White House: in order to prevent the advance of the infantry fighting vehicles, they blocked passage along the Garden Ring with the help of displaced trolleybuses.

The first six vehicles broke through the barricade, the seventh vehicle (BMP No. 536) was blocked by the crowd again, young people jumped onto the armor and threw a tarpaulin over the surveillance devices.

Dmitry Komar, throwing a tarpaulin over the inspection slots of the BMP, got caught on it, and when the vehicle made a sharp maneuver, he fell under the tracks.

Vladimir Usov was killed by one of the warning shots, a ricochet from the hatch of an infantry fighting vehicle. Ilya Krichevsky was shot in the head under unclear circumstances.

August 21 was always a special day for Soviet dissidents: on August 21, 1968, Soviet troops, suppressing the Prague Spring, occupied Czechoslovakia. In its “best” traditions, the regime celebrated this day with blood and corpses.

The funeral of the victims took place on August 24, 1991. The funeral procession of many thousands from Manezhnaya Square to the Vagankovskoye Cemetery along the streets of Moscow was led by then Vice-President of the RSFSR Alexander Rutskoy (two years later he became one of the leaders of the red-brown putsch, which ended with the shooting of the Russian Parliament building).

RSFSR President Boris Yeltsin asked for forgiveness from the parents and relatives of the victims: “I’m sorry that I couldn’t protect, save your sons,” Yeltsin said words that Soviet citizens had never heard from their leaders before.

Then USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev thanked the parents of the victims: “Looking into these young faces and the eyes of their parents, it is difficult to speak. But allow me not only on my own behalf, on your behalf, but also on behalf of the entire country, all Russians, to bow low to them, who gave their lives, who stood in the way of those who wanted to return the country to the dark times of totalitarianism, push it into the abyss, lead to a bloody massacre. Thanks to their parents!”

By Gorbachev's decree, the families of the victims received a lump sum of 250 rubles and a Zhiguli car (in the fall of 1991, a Zhiguli cost three annual salaries of a junior researcher at a research institute).

Komar, Krichevsky and Usov were also the first to be awarded (in 1992) the medal “Defender of Free Russia” - the first state award of the Russian Federation.

Every year, on the day of their death, mourning events were held, including the laying of wreaths from the President of Russia at the graves of the Heroes at the Vagankovskoye cemetery and at the memorial stone on Novy Arbat.

In 2004, the tradition was broken, and for the first time there was no wreath-laying by high officials. “I’m outraged,” Alexander Usov, Vladimir Usov’s father, told the Kommersant newspaper at the time. “The authorities have stopped observing even minimal standards of decency.” And Dmitry Komar’s mother, Lyubov Komar, told the journalist that she “doesn’t care whether the wreath was from Putin or not.” “Sometimes it seems to me that, except for me, everyone has already forgotten about Dima’s death,” she said. In July 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin established an additional monthly payment for relatives of those killed in the August 1991 coup.

Hot August 1991. "Swan Lake" on TV. Moscow. Putsch. Tanks. Dmitry Komar. Ilya Krichevsky. Vladimir Usov. Three young guys who died on the night of the 21st in a tunnel on the Garden Ring are the only sacred victims and posthumous heroes of the failed coup. Then they were 22, 28 and 37. Today - in another country and the new millennium - they would have turned 47, 53 and 62. A quarter of a century is still a lot...

Random heroes. That’s what they will be called later, after the final victory of democracy. Random victims... Anyone could have been in their place. Snatched from the crowd of thousands of defenders of the White House, nevertheless, only these three remained forever in the modern history of Russia.

Three monuments nearby on Vagankovo. On the morning of August 21, relatives come here and bring flowers. They met at a funeral and are still dating today. Less and less often, but definitely once a year - here, in the old cemetery. It's already twenty-four Augusts in a row.

Fathers Vladimir Usov and Dmitry Komar, mother Ilya Krichevsky, are no longer in this world. Time has dulled the pain. The memory remains...

Exhausted from melancholy,
I walked to the grave,
But behind the grave board
What I saw was not peace at all,
And the eternal battle,
Which in life you only dream about.
Ilya Krichevsky. Poet

First. Dmitry Komar

August 21, 1991. 0 hours 20 minutes. The center of Moscow in self-made barricades. A column of infantry fighting vehicles, on the orders of the putschists, is rushing from the White House towards the Garden Ring. A crowd of thousands, an uncontrollable sea of people timidly surrounds the tanks... A young guy jumps onto the armor of an infantry fighting vehicle, throws a tarpaulin over the viewing slot to blind the crew... The attacker is thrown to the ground, a shot is heard. But he gets up and, wounded, nervously rushes at the iron colossus again. The landing hatch swings open from the impact, the driver suddenly accelerates, and the boy flies down. And he freezes on the ground covered in blood...

Dima really dreamed of flying. Become a pilot, recalls Lyubov Komar. - We have a military family, my husband is a major. But the medical commission rejected my son for health reasons and found heart problems. But he still continued to go to an airfield near Moscow and jump with a parachute. He was preparing himself to be a paratrooper, I knew about it, I was worried, of course, but what can you do, it was his choice. He joined the army at the age of 17. On November 6 he turned 18, but the conscription ended in October... And I begged the military commissar to take him earlier, they later said that I was crazy, but he too wanted to get into the Airborne Forces, and this could only be done in the autumn conscription.

The whole class accompanied him. Except for two friends who have already left to serve. “I can’t say that Dimka played favorites; there were times when he disrupted classes. The teachers complained that sometimes he would say something like that, the whole class would laugh and couldn’t stop... But for some reason I didn’t want to join the Komsomol. He said that they take both excellent students and poor students there, indiscriminately, but this is wrong, unfair.”

And it immediately became clear that Afghan was waiting for him. Mid-80s, the worst of it. Three companies were in training - one was sent to Central Asia, the second to criminal Czechoslovakia, the third to Kabul. “There was an opportunity to transfer him, but Dima refused... After his return, he spoke sparingly about that war: “Mom, you don’t need to know about this, it was too scary there.” My son just had pity on my heart.”

He was a very ordinary guy, his mother emphasizes. Only very fair. The day before he promised her that he would never go to the White House, near which, as it seemed in those days, the entire capital had gathered.

Dima really didn’t think about going anywhere,” continues Lyubov Komar. - Later his friends told me how it was. They shouted into the bullhorn that Rutskoi was calling on Afghans to defend democracy in Russia. And mine were already approaching the metro to go home from work. The son turned around and said to his comrades: that’s it, guys, I’m going, my name is called. He's an Afghan! But Dima was very worried that I would worry, we had an agreement since school - if you are delayed somewhere, be sure to call. We lived then in Istra, near Moscow. There was no telephone at home yet. So he called the deputy for the rear in our military town and asked him to tell my mother, that is, me, that everything was fine, that he was staying overnight in Moscow with his classmates... I didn’t seem to worry. After all, I warned you. But all evening I walked around as if in prostration, as if I had been pumped full of pills, this had never happened before... I went to bed at twenty minutes past twelve. It was as if something had suddenly let go... Just when he was killed.

Second. Ilya Krichevsky

The hatch of the BMP swings open from the impact, the driver sets off, the unfamiliar boy freezes abruptly on the ground... Under a hail of stones and bottles of gasoline, the crew of the torn apart BMP, fleeing, runs to neighboring cars. Covering their retreat, they fire wherever they hit. A stray random bullet - and another person falls... Fatal through and through to the head. 0 hours 30 minutes.

Recorded on an old reel. Amateur poetry evening. We gathered in someone's kitchen. Friends. Familiar. Neighbours.

"Good evening! We are very glad that you came here today. Take off your dark glasses, take the cotton wool out of your ears, open your souls,” a soft young voice. The speaker introduces himself: “Ilya Krichevsky, poet.” So far, little known. But this is temporary. He is 28. He survived Lermontov, but Pushkin’s thirty-seven is still almost ten years old, a whole century.

Real poets, as we know, die young. All Ilya’s poems are about that.

Thank you friend for talking to me
As if with a living person,
And I am deader than dead,
Although hearts are beating.
It's like we're just sleeping.

Our dad is an architect, quite successful, so the question was not asked where my brother and I would go - of course, into the architectural, well-trodden path, a worthy, real profession, not like some poetry or theater, which my brother simply raved about, - Marina Krichevskaya, Ilya’s sister, smiles sadly.

Intelligent family. So Moscow-Moscow. During vacation with parents by car to Crimea or Gagra. To the pioneer camp in the summer. We read smart books, watched good movies.

A black-haired guy with incredible eyes. It’s as if he’s looking not at the person, but into the very depths. This is Ilya in all photographs.

At night I read my poems to my mother. He was especially close to his mother. He told her that he was going to quit his design cooperative and still take the risk of going to the theater. Inessa Naumovna Krichevskaya then regularly went to the trial of the State Emergency Committee, did not miss a single meeting, until she realized: it was useless - the perpetrators would not be found.

They say these were political years, everyone around was just talking about politics, congresses were broadcast on television, the country was falling apart, there were some kind of disputes... You know, personally, I can’t remember anything like that. “All this was very far from us, from our family, from Ilyusha,” Marina assures.

Everything passed by the Krichevskys. If it weren't for August '91. “We searched in hospitals and morgues. He didn't have any documents with him. Then it was considered normal to go for a walk without a passport... Surprisingly, Ilyusha went to defend the White House precisely purposefully. Together with a friend. When confusion began in the tunnel, the comrade disappeared somewhere. Well, God be his judge... He didn’t answer calls afterwards either. It’s good that he at least mentioned our last name when Ilyusha was taken away dead. And on the morning of the 21st, my friend called and said: on the radio they are talking about some Krichevsky, that he died... We are two years apart. I was younger than him. Then, in '91. Now, of course, older. I remember how my brother kept looking for himself. Everything was rushing and rushing... But this is in creativity. But he was completely apolitical, and I still don’t have an answer to the question: why did he go there after all, to the White House, at what command of his soul?

Third. Vladimir Usov

A random bullet is fatal through and through to the head. Shouts: “Bastard! Scum! You killed him! The third man rushes to the aid of the guy who jumped onto the armor of the infantry fighting vehicle. He tries to take him away from under the tracks and falls under the tank himself, cut off by another shot... 0 hours 40 minutes. August 21, 1991.

Early 50s. On November 7, sailors from Leningrad visited the girls of the pedagogical institute, future teachers, at their Moscow alma mater. After the parade on Red Square. Fit, handsome men in uniform stayed for the gala evening. Then, of course, there was dancing. There they met. Future Rear Admiral Alexander Usov and his wife Sophia, teacher of Russian language and literature, parents of Vladimir Usov.

We traveled around the Union a lot. After all, I married a lieutenant. We were in Magadan, in the Baltic states, even in Belarus - a training detachment of our flotilla was stationed there. And Volodya was born in 1954 in the Latvian town of Ventspils, recalls Sofya Petrovna Usova.

He was the oldest of the dead - 37. Family, 15-year-old daughter. Now at that age they are still jumping around nightclubs, but then they were quite mature.

According to witnesses, Usov did not get under the bullets. He just tried to pull a complete stranger out from under the tank. The son of an officer - how could he have done otherwise?

Maybe it was just Dmitry Komar. Or Ilya Krichevsky...

The tank and the man underneath were tossed in different directions. The deceased Vladimir Usov was buried in a closed coffin. There was a question about burying all three on Red Square, among the revolutionaries and general secretaries, but here the families categorically opposed. We agreed on the famous Vagankovsky - especially since it is located not far from the site of the tragedy, you can walk there.

They did not know each other during their lifetime. Until my last few seconds. And they were forever connected after death - by one grave covered with granite. “When I think about this now, it seems to me that it was these three seemingly random victims that ultimately stopped the bloodshed, prevented even more bloodshed from happening, and horrified everyone,” says Sofya Petrovna Usova. She is 86, the entire history of the country has passed before her eyes.

The commander jumped out of the opened hatch into the darkness, grabbed a pistol from his holster and shouted: “I’m not a killer, but an officer, I don’t want any more victims, move away from the cars, the soldiers are following orders!” - rushed to a nearby infantry fighting vehicle, shooting into the air as he went. The crowd froze. The tanks stopped. (From the memories of eyewitnesses.)

“It’s hard for me to say, this was my only son... But I was able to survive his death. What was left to do? My husband and I lived for 57 years, we lived well, we managed to have a golden wedding. Now my great-granddaughter is growing up, Milena, she’s 12 - Volodin’s granddaughter.”

Requiem for three

As a schoolgirl, I remember those days very well: the windows in every apartment were wide open - it was August, it was hot, the antediluvian tube TVs were turned on at full volume. An endless human river spills out towards Vagankovo. And through the bitterness - some kind of aching bright feeling that we had won. And then everything will only be fine. “Sorry for not saving you,” Yeltsin booms, addressing the parents of the killed. And he promises to break, but not to let him down, to make sure that the memory of the martyrs lives forever.

But the Golden Stars of Heroes of the Soviet Union from Gorbachev were awarded to the families only six months later. When such a country - the USSR - no longer existed on the map. What then?

The trial of the State Emergency Committee, which did not end well, the accused were released. The criminal case against the crew of the ill-fated infantry fighting vehicle, which suppressed and shot people in a narrow tunnel, was also soon dropped due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

To be honest, I didn’t hate these soldiers. Why judge them, they were simply following orders,” Lyubov Komar throws up his hands.

The cause of death on Ilyusha’s death certificate is: a bullet wound to the head. But whose shot was and from which direction, we will probably never know, says Marina Krichevskaya.

The grateful authorities gave the heroes' parents an apartment each. In October 1993, Lyubov Komar watched the shooting of the White House from a balcony on Rublyovka. It was as if time had turned back, and she was reliving the death of her son. “Only it’s even scarier - because it’s right in front of my eyes.”

Dima had a fiancee. Masha,” continues Lyubov Akhtyamovna. - He was going to introduce us. We met at a funeral. Masha already has her own children who are adults. My grandson is growing up from my youngest son... Masha came to see me several times. One day we were drinking tea, and suddenly it turned out that her husband was freezing outside. He's embarrassed to come to us. Although I’m glad that everything turned out well for her, and Dima would be very happy about it. Because life goes on.

Then there were other wars, a great many funerals, the wheel turned: gangster chaos, zinc coffins from Chechnya, thousands of murdered boys returned to their mothers - against this background, the accidental death of three in August 1991 seems illusory, somehow unreal. Young people will probably not remember these names.

The only film captured the moment of their death. “Bastard! Scum! What are you doing - you killed him!”

Now this would be replicated on smartphones, liked on social networks, and played out in Internet memes.

We have become different. So is the country. And our whole world, which has stepped into the third millennium. Tougher, more ruthless, more indifferent. “This blood of Volodya, Dima and Ilya - it horrified everyone and... stopped them then. But would three dead now be enough? - Sofya Petrovna Usova asks a rhetorical question.

A quarter of a century has passed. What would you become, Dmitry Komar, Ilya Krichevsky, Vladimir Usov? Are they really like us? Or would this world change if you still remained alive...

Architect of the design and construction cooperative "Kommunar" (Moscow). One of the three killed defenders of the White House during the August 1991 coup.

Born in Moscow in the family of an employee, a Jew. In 1980 he graduated from Moscow secondary school No. 744 and in 1986 from the Moscow Architectural Institute. He worked as an architect at State Design Institute No. 6. In 1986-88 he served in the ranks of the Soviet Army, junior sergeant. Then he worked as an architect at the Kommunar design and construction cooperative. Ilya Krichevsky wrote poetry; posthumously they were included in anthologies (“Strophes of the Century” by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and others).

On August 19-21, 1991, during the period of activity in Moscow of the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP), I. M. Krichevsky was among the citizens protesting against the entry of troops into Moscow and demanding democratic changes in the country. He died on the night of August 20-21, 1991 in the area of an underground tunnel near Smolenskaya Square, where eight infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) of the Taman Motorized Rifle Division were blocked at the intersection of Tchaikovsky and Novy Arbat streets.

When citizens, trying to stop the movement of the BMP column towards Smolenskaya Square, poured gasoline (a fire mixture) on BMP No. 536, and the vehicle caught fire, the crew that left it began to move to neighboring BMPs under a hail of stones and metal rods. While boarding BMP No. 521, two of the crew members of the burning vehicle, covering the retreat of their comrades, fired warning shots into the air. At that moment, Krichevsky, calling on the soldiers to stop, took a step towards the BMP and received a through and fatal wound to the head.

By decree of the President of the USSR of August 24, 1991, “for courage and civic valor shown in defending democracy and the constitutional system of the USSR,” Krichevsky was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 11659).

He was buried in Moscow at the Vagankovskoye cemetery, where a monument was erected on his grave. A memorial sign in honor of I.M. Krichevsky was installed above the underground tunnel at the intersection of the Garden Ring with Novy Arbat Street in Moscow.

Awards

Hero of the Soviet Union

Awarded the Order of Lenin, Medal “Defender of Free Russia” No. 2.

One of the last Heroes of the Soviet Union.

As you know, in August 1991, three people died during the “suppression of the coup.” Their names are remembered today, of course, only by close relatives and historians. 22-year-old Dmitry Komar, 28-year-old Ilya Krichevsky and 37-year-old Vladimir Usov.

As you know, in memory of these people, there has been an obelisk on Novy Arbat for more than 20 years, to which liberal-minded comrades come with flowers on August days.

Today, many have a vague idea of how events developed in August 1991, but at the same time they are sure that these three comrades died repelling the attack on the White House.

Let's be clear though.

Firstly, there was no attack on the White House. It existed only in the excited imagination of citizens hanging out at the then monastery of Boris Yeltsin.

What happened?

As you know, on the very first day the State Emergency Committee brought into Moscow a huge number of military personnel with equipment, which, objectively speaking, was not very necessary. Especially when you consider that no combat missions were assigned to them. However, the military periodically moved around the city, enforcing the curfew imposed by the State Emergency Committee.

At about 11 p.m. on August 20, a column of 7 armored vehicles, forming a company of the 15th motorized rifle regiment of the Taman Division, was moving along the Garden Ring towards Smolenskaya Square, where the Foreign Ministry building is located.

Let me emphasize: the column did not go towards the White House. Firstly, storming the White House with 7 armored vehicles is utter stupidity, especially considering that, as already mentioned, there were plenty of troops and equipment in the city. Secondly, if the column was heading towards the White House, then it would need to turn right from the Garden Ring, and not move into the tunnel, where the events unfolded. But the tunnel was precisely the road to Smolenskaya Square.

So, the military did not intend to storm anyone. But the crowd, languishing for two days from idleness near the White House, was drawn to exploits. Therefore, the passage of military equipment was blocked by displaced trolleybuses (then one of these trolleybuses would stand for several years on Tverskaya at the entrance to the former Museum of the Revolution, and will serve as a monument to the clinical idiocy of our fellow citizens in August 1991).

The column, however, continued to move, fortunately, the armor made it possible to break through these barricades. However, at the exit from the tunnel, stones and Molotov cocktails were thrown at the BMP. At that moment, at least three soldiers who were on the armor were injured - one had a broken finger, another had his eyebrow cut, and a third had his head smashed.

However, the military did not respond to this aggression - six infantry fighting vehicles made it through the barricades, but the seventh - infantry fighting vehicle number 536 - was blocked again. Several people climbed onto the BMP, trying to block the crew's visibility with a tarpaulin by covering the viewing slots.

Now let's move on to personalities. 22-year-old Dmitry Komar. By the way, he is an “Afghan” veteran, recipient of four medals. What was this worthy man doing at that moment?

A former soldier of the Soviet Army, as if not remembering that he had recently been in the place of these guys in an infantry fighting vehicle, jumps onto the armor and tries to block the crew’s view. Meanwhile, the crew is trying to escape - they rotate the turret, make sharp maneuvers, trying to throw off the attackers. After one of the jerks, Komar flies onto the asphalt. However, he is still unharmed. But he doesn’t let up - and
tries to climb inside the vehicle through the landing hatch located at the rear, which opened during the chaotic maneuvers of the BMP.

If at that moment Komar had grabbed a bullet in the forehead, it would have been logical and fair. Because the crew in this situation really fought for their lives - after all, they tried not only to blind the BMP, but also to burn it with the help of bottles with a flammable mixture.

However, things turned out differently. The BMP crew actually fired warning shots into the air, but few people were brought to their senses. And Komar, who climbed into the hatch, flew out of it during the next sharp maneuver of the BMP.

Unfortunately for him, his clothes got caught on the hatch of the armored vehicle. During the next jerks, Komar hit his head several times, which was the cause of death. Komar's already dead body then fell under an infantry fighting vehicle.

28-year-old Ilya Krichevsky, graduate of the architectural institute, poet. By the way, we also have an army behind us, even if it’s not Afghanistan.

Throwing around the BMP 536 ended with the car being set on fire. The crew, fleeing, was forced to leave the armor and began to fight their way to the neighboring BMP 521. Breaking through is not an exaggeration: stones and metal rods were thrown at the soldiers, the “defenders of democracy” tried to tear the military to pieces. When the crew got to BMP 521, “civilians” with bottles and stones had already approached it. Two of the crew fired into the air so that their comrades had time to get into the car. At that moment, architect Krichevsky rushed to the BMP, grabbing a stray bullet in the head.

Particularly zealous people may ask - how did it happen that a bullet aimed into the air hit the head? Well, you try to somehow fire warning fire among an angry crowd trying to kill you, and I’ll see how well you can follow all the rules. Moreover, by that time the crew of the burned infantry fighting vehicle had every reason to shoot to kill.

Finally, 37-year-old Vladimir Usov is the oldest in this company. Moreover, Usov grew up in a military family - his dad was a rear admiral.

And what did Vladimir Usov do that night? At that moment, when freedom-loving citizens blocked the visibility of the infantry fighting vehicle with a tarpaulin, Usov rushed to their aid. To the aid of the blockaders, not the soldiers. At this moment, the blocked crew opened warning fire. One of the bullets ricocheted and killed Usov on the spot.

That's the whole story. It is worth adding that Usov, Komar and Krichevsky were made Heroes of the Soviet Union for all this and were buried with honors at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

The investigation into the incident ended in December 1991, and it was decided that there was no crime in the actions of the BMP crew. But, what is most interesting, the investigation stated that it was not in the actions of the people who attacked the column. This is understandable - how can you declare posthumous Heroes and martyrs for democracy criminals?

This is such a heroic story. Remember about it when you drive along Novy Arbat and see that same obelisk.

USSR postage stamp dedicated to I.M. Krichevsky, 1991, 7 kopecks (DFA 6368, Scott 6027)
Ilya Maratovich Krichevsky
Portrait
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Awards and prizes:

Ilya Maratovich Krichevsky(February 3, 1963, Moscow - August 21, 1991, ibid.) - architect of the Kommunar design and construction cooperative (Moscow), poet. One of the three killed defenders of the White House during the August 1991 coup.

Biography

On August 19-21, 1991, during the period of activity in Moscow by the State Committee for the State of Emergency in the USSR (GKChP), I. M. Krichevsky was among those who protested against the entry of troops into Moscow and demanded democratic changes. He died on the night of August 20-21, 1991 in the area of an underground tunnel near Smolenskaya Square, where at the intersection of Tchaikovsky and Novy Arbat streets a crowd blocked eight infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) of the Taman Motorized Rifle Division.

When the demonstrators, trying to stop the movement of the infantry fighting vehicle towards Smolenskaya Square, poured gasoline (a fire mixture) on the infantry fighting vehicle No. 536, and the vehicle caught fire, the crew that abandoned it began to run across to the neighboring infantry fighting vehicles under a hail of stones and metal rods. While boarding BMP No. 521, two of the crew members of the burning vehicle, covering the retreat of their comrades, fired warning shots into the air. At that moment, Krichevsky rushed to the BMP and received a fatal wound to the head.

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How Ilya Krichevsky died. Biography of Krichevsky Usov

Awards

Biography

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