A veteran of the special services from Golyanov talks about how the first large-scale terrorist attack in Moscow in 1977 was uncovered

Oleg Khlobustov is a retired KGB colonel, an expert at the Foundation for National and International Security, and the author of dozens of books about the work of intelligence services. According to him, the detection rate of terrorist attacks in our country reaches 85%, while the average in Europe is no more than 70%. Oleg Maksimovich, at the request of VO, spoke about how the first large-scale terrorist attack in the history of the capital in 1977 was investigated. Then three explosions occurred in Moscow on one day. The first one was in a metro car on the stretch between the Izmailovskaya and Pervomaiskaya stations.

In sequence

An explosion in a subway car happened on January 8, at about half past five in the evening on an open section of the track, which saved many lives. Nevertheless, seven people were killed and 37 were injured. The incident was immediately reported to the KGB duty service at Lubyanka. And half an hour later – at 18.05 – an explosion occurred in a grocery store not far from Lubyanka Square. Three were wounded. After another five minutes, the third explosive device went off – near a store on the corner of what is now Bogoyavlensky Lane and Nikolskaya Street. Fortunately, no one was hurt there.

At an emergency meeting of the KGB and the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, the operation was called “Blasters.” It lasted 10 months. It was headed by Major General of State Security Vadim Udilov.

Three cities under suspicion

“An interview with hundreds of witnesses did not really yield anything, but the search for evidence was crowned with success,” says Oleg Khlobustov. — The operatives removed and melted the snow layer by layer for hundreds of meters around, including on the roof of the Historical and Archival Institute on Nikolskaya Street. It was there that they found the hour hand from the alarm clock. As it turned out later, it was part of an explosive mechanism. It was possible to determine which brand of alarm clock this part belonged to.

The most important material evidence was found during the autopsy of one of the dead metro passengers. It was a piece of cast iron duckling. It was used as the body of a homemade bomb. To enhance the damaging effect, notches were made on the duckling, and the lid was screwed on. These ducklings were produced in a small batch. The circle of suspects has narrowed.

By the end of the first day of the investigation, a telegram signed by the Deputy Chairman of the KGB, Semyon Tsvigun, was sent to the territorial bodies of the KGB. It reported on the initial results of the crime scene inspection and issued the first guidelines. Ultimately, the search directions for where things related to the terrorist attack were manufactured and sold came down to three cities: Kharkov, Rostovun-Don and Yerevan.

Dressed out of season

In the fall, the investigation made significant progress thanks to the vigilance of a passenger who noticed an ownerless bag at the Kursky station. It contained a sports jacket, a hat with earflaps with dark curly hair stuck to it, and… an explosive device. Fortunately, it was not started. The police immediately interviewed witnesses and compiled sketches of the people who left this bag. The rest was a matter of technique…

At one of the intermediate stations, a task force boarded the Moscow-Yerevan train. The conductors pointed out two suspicious young men without luggage and dressed out of season. Upon arrival in Yerevan, 23-year-old Zaven Baghdasaryan and his relative, 28-year-old Hakob Stepanyan, were detained. Later, during a search of Stepanyan’s house, KGB officers found components of an explosive device similar to the one found at the Kursk station.

The listening device installed by the operatives helped identify the organizer of the terrorist attacks, 30-year-old Stepan Zatikyan, who was already on the KGB’s radar. During the investigation, it turned out that he came under the influence of one of the foreign nationalist terrorist organizations and attracted Stepanyan and Baghdasaryan to his criminal activities. The court sentenced the terrorists to capital punishment.