Moscow theatre terrorist attack survivors share why they choose life
In October 2002, Chechen separatists interrupted a performance of the musical Nord-Ost which was playing at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theatre. Masked men and women held 1016 members of the cast and audience hostage at gunpoint and rigged the building with explosives. Three days later, special forces stormed the building, freeing the captives, but 130 people died.
Among the hostages were young actors such as Alexandra, 13, her cousin Arseny and his sweetheart Kristina. In the audience, five-year-old Varvara with her big sister Anna, who was nine, and their mother Liubov, as well as Svetlana, a student who had won tickets to see the show.
Some survived the siege, but others didn’t make it. Ten years later, the children have now grown up. So how are they and their families coping with the trauma of the Moscow theatre hostage crisis? Survivors, grieving relatives and an unlikely popstar turned hero share their memories of the twisted terrorist attack and some life-affirming lessons they picked up on the way.
