A family of musicians who hijacked a plane in the USSR. “Seven Simeons”: the tragic story of the Ovechkin family. "You are under our control"
This happened almost 30 years ago, on the holiday of March 8, 1988. Known throughout the country, large and Friendly family Ovechkin - a heroine mother 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 double bass to banjo, and everyone around them smiled joyfully, recognizing the “Seven Simeons” - Siberian nugget brothers playing fiery jazz. 
But at a 10-kilometer altitude people's favorites suddenly they took out sawn-off shotguns and a bomb from their cases and ordered them to fly to London, otherwise they would start killing passengers and generally blow up the plane. The hijacking attempt turned into an unheard of tragedy 
“Wolves in the shoes of the Ovechkins”—that’s what 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 older sons to be ambitious and cruel. Plus, noisy fame somehow fell on them easily and immediately, and it completely blew their minds. But some also saw in the Ovechkins sufferers, victims of the absurd Soviet system, who committed crimes just to “live like human beings.”
Brilliance and poverty
The Ovechkins accumulated dissatisfaction and anger for another reason: all-Union glory did not bring any money. Although the state allocated them two three-room apartments in good home Having left the old suburban area, they did not live happily ever after, as in a fairy tale. The family quit studying agriculture, but there was no way to make money from music: they were simply banned from giving paid concerts. 
“Seven Simeons” with his mother near his rural house
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 just a couple of years, in the 90s, their dreams could come true, but for now private business was impossible in the USSR. The Ovechkins decided that they were born in the wrong country and were inspired by the idea of moving forever to a “foreign paradise”, which they got an idea of when they went on tour in Japan in 1987. The “Simeons” spent three weeks in the city of Kanazawa, a sister city of Irkutsk, and received a culture shock: shops are bursting with goods, shop windows are shining brightly, sidewalks are illuminated from underground, transport drives silently, the streets are washed with shampoo and there are even flowers in the toilets, as the sons excitedly told mother and sisters. Part of the family, according to the principle of that time, was not released, so that the guest performers would not think of running away to the capitalists, dooming those remaining in their homeland to shame and poverty.
The result of the tragedy
Nine 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 remained alive - Olga and her 5 minor brothers and sisters. Of the survivors, two went to trial - Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest were not subject to criminal liability due to their age; they were transferred to the guardianship of Lyudmila’s married sister, who was not involved in the seizure. An open trial took place in Irkutsk that same fall. The hall was packed, there weren't enough seats. Passengers and crew acted as witnesses. Both defendants testified that they “didn’t think about” the passengers when they planned to blow up the plane. Olga partially admitted her guilt and asked for leniency. 
Olga in court. At that moment she was 7 months pregnant.
Igor either partially admitted it or completely denied it 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 place all the blame for what happened on former leader ensemble, Irkutsk musician-teacher Vladimir Romanenko, thanks to whom “Simeons” got to jazz festivals. Like, it was he who instilled in his older brothers the idea that there was no jazz in the USSR and that recognition could only be achieved abroad. However, the teenager could not stand the confrontation with the teacher and admitted that he had slandered him. 
Vladimir Romanenko rehearses with his brothers. Igor is at the piano. 1986
The court received bags of letters from Soviet citizens who wanted demonstrative punishment. “Shoot with the performance shown on TV,” writes an Afghan veteran. “Tie to the tops of birch trees and tear them into pieces,” the female teacher (!) urges. “Shoot so that they know what the Motherland is,” advises the party secretary on behalf of the meeting. The humane Soviet court of the era of perestroika and glasnost decided differently: 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, and she was also given to Lyudmila. 
Olga with her child in prison
The further fate of the Ovechkins
The last time journalists inquired about them was in 2013, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy. This is what was known at that time. Olga sold fish at the market and gradually became an alcoholic. In 2004, she was beaten to death by her drunken partner during a domestic dispute. Igor played the piano in restaurants in Irkutsk and became an alcoholic. In 1999, a journalist from MK talked to him - he was then indignant at the recent 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 fellow inmate. 
As the years pass, one thing is clear. Whether out of pride, lack of intelligence or lack of information, the Ovechkins sincerely believed that they would be welcomed abroad with open arms, and not considered dangerous terrorists who took innocent people hostage. The "Simeons" were dazzled by the reception in Japan - sold-out crowds, standing ovations, promises of fame and fortune from local journalists and producers... They did not realize that they aroused the interest of foreigners more as 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 of living like human beings. This is what destroyed them.”
Almost a quarter of a century after the court verdict public opinion I’m still not ready to answer unequivocally: Are the Ovechkins bandits or sufferers?
The message about that tragic spring day 1988 appeared 36 hours later: “An attempt to hijack an airliner was foiled. Most of criminals destroyed. There are dead. The injured were provided with assistance on the spot. The USSR Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case." On the third day it became clear: the flight attendant and three passengers were shot dead, four terrorists and their mother committed suicide, dozens of people were maimed, the plane burned to the ground. And - incredible: the hijackers - a large family jazz family, the famous Irkutsk "Simeons".
In Denis Evstigneev’s feature film version of “Mama,” none of them, who rushed to overseas happiness three years before the collapse of the country, dies. Those who remained free and those who lost it for a while, at one fine moment gather around their mother, and while the final credits are running, you can’t help but think: what if real life Has the era of change arrived early? Maybe then there would have been no deaths, no prison, or subsequent losses at all?
Gunpowder Legacy
Have you seen what remains of their childhood hut at 24 Detskaya Street? A terrible metaphor. And at first, happiness seemed to be in full swing there...
A teacher at Irkutsk State University, Tatyana Zyryanova, in the early 80s, editor of the East Siberian Newsreel Studio, essentially discovered the Ovechkins.
So about happiness... Terrible stagnation, melancholy, suddenly at one of the amateur performance shows I see seven brothers creating jazz! Nine-year-old Misha plays a small trombone bought at the Lilliputian circus, five-year-old Seryozhka plays a tiny banjo! I immediately told myself: “Shoot it immediately!” I approached documentarians Hertz Frank and Vladimir Eisner with the idea, and we began to make the film “The Seven Simeons,” which (like the tragic sequel, “Once Upon a Time the Seven Simeons”) will go around the whole world. They came home to the guys - the whole friendly team was mowing the grass and carrying water to the barn. After all, they lived in the suburb of Rabochy, and this, even though it was in the city, was a village. On eight of their acres they grew vegetables, kept three cows, five pigs, chickens, and rabbits. Ninel Sergeevna greeted me kindly. She shared: I want the children to keep warmth in their souls and always be together. During filming, however, she became bitter. She put forward a condition: “Pay for my false teeth.” We appointed her as a consultant. She demanded an increase in the fee. We also registered our daughter, Olga. In the end, my mother still didn’t like the film. “You humiliated us,” she said. “Ovechka’s are artists, not peasants.” But you can’t get into your soul - we didn’t argue...
The soul of the head of the family will remain in darkness. However, some of the origins of her iron character will still become clear. For example, in 1943, the mother of five-year-old Ninel, the widow of a front-line soldier, was shot by a drunken guard. For eight potatoes dug up in a collective farm field. After the orphanage, the girl will realize her dream of having a big family with her own offspring. When the second daughter appears dead, she will firmly decide not to have an abortion. And, despite a bad heart and asthma, she will give birth to ten more. He will never spank anyone, he will never raise his voice at anyone. She screamed only when her drunken husband started shooting at them with a gun. And then - just one word command: “Get down!” “My father passed away, she was for my mother and for my father,” the matured Tatyana will say. “She was affectionate, but also strict: we didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t run to the movies or dances.”
Both neighbors and classmates confirm: the world outside the fence was not important to them - only family.
Red calendar day
She smiled at everyone. A mother-heroine, proud of herself and her horde of different ages - from nine to thirty-two years old. Three of the four daughters were now walking side by side, following the seven brothers, who, of course, were recognized in the waiting room and greeted with delight. The bass case did not fit into the fluoroscope. “Come on in already, artists,” the girl waved tenderly at the security check.
It was the eighth of March. Red calendar day. Who would have thought that this time the equivalent of a holiday date was destined to take on a literal meaning. The timeline reconstructed by the investigation, which recorded a mixture of naive calculation, madness and cruelty, is still difficult to believe today.
13.09. Tu-154 s tail number 85413, following the route Irkutsk - Leningrad, makes an intermediate landing in Kurgan. Sasha and Oleg play chess. Dima shows stewardess Tamara Zharkaya family photos. 13.50. After takeoff, he gives her a note for the crew: “Go to England - London. Do not descend, otherwise we will blow up the plane. You are under our control.” She laughs: “This is a joke, isn’t it?” He takes a sawn-off shotgun out of the case: “Everything - back in place!” 15.01. Earth to the commander: “If you land at the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg, misinform the hijackers - in exchange for the release of the passengers, a flight to Helsinki is guaranteed.” 15.50. The plane is tilting. “This is a maneuver,” the flight attendant reassures. “There’s not enough fuel, we’re going to refuel in the Finnish city of Kotka.” 16.10. Brakes squeal. Dmitry peers through the foggy window. Behind the fuel truck with the Russian word “flammable” are our soldiers. 16.15. He rushes to Zharka and kills at point-blank range. 16.24. “Don’t talk to anyone! - the mother screams. - Take the cabin! We have nothing to lose!"
For more than two hours they unsuccessfully destroyed the armored pilot door with a folding ladder. It will open suddenly: the “stormtroopers” who made their way through the observation windows are amateurs, ordinary soldiers internal troops, - hiding behind shields, they will burst into the cabin, flooding it with indiscriminate heavy fire. At the same time, others who have penetrated the tail hatch attack from behind.
Trapped in the wild commotion, Igor manages to hide in the toilet. Teenagers Tanya and Misha, kids Ulyana and Sergei, wounded by a stray bullet, huddle in horror towards pregnant Olga. Before their eyes, Vasily will finish off his mother, shooting her in the head on her own orders, after which, linking hands with Dmitry, Oleg and Sasha, he will close the wires of the bomb. But the explosion will only singe the trousers and set fire to the chairs. Then each of the four, in turn, according to age ranking, will point the gun at themselves and pull the trigger. 26-year-old Vasily will be the last.
Meanwhile, people on the ground jumping out of the burning plane were met by blows from soldiers' boots and rifle butts. “The Ovechkins’ mother behaved like a she-wolf,” Marina Zakhvalinskaya, who lost her leg in this hell, would later say. “But what the stormers did...”
Three passengers were killed, 36 were injured, 14 of them were hospitalized with severe fractures, including the spine. However, when the chief of staff of the capture group is asked for an interview, he will suffocate with indignation: “For the police to comment on you?! That won’t happen! I’ll call the regional committee now!”
The former ticket office of the Irkutsk airport was adapted for an off-site meeting of the Leningrad Regional Court for almost three weeks. The surviving adults, Olga and Igor, were brought to criminal responsibility. Despite letters from once grateful spectators demanding “Hang! Tie to the tops of birch trees in the square and shoot!”, he was given eight years, she - six.
Soon, in captivity, Olga will give birth to Larisa, who, as the day before, will take her brothers and sisters - Misha, Seryozha, Tatyana, Ulyana - into her big family Lyudmila. The eldest of the Ovechkins, having married, she long ago moved from her childhood home in Irkutsk to a house near a cemetery on the outskirts of the mining town of Cheremkhovo. On March 8th I took a break from work on processing plant, on the ninth I was going to visit everyone...
A small orchestra of illusions
The name of the team was invented by Vasily, who remembered a fairy tale from " Native speech"about seven brothers, each of whom did his own work. It was he, having grasped the prospect, who would turn to the experienced teacher Vladimir Romanenko, who prepared the self-taught students for jazz festivals in Tbilisi, Kemerovo, Moscow. Before the Riga festival, he would refuse Romanenko’s services: “I will lead myself".
The local authorities are inspired: the instantly famous family Dixieland, a sort of Siberian souvenir doll - a unique example of the advantages of the Soviet way of life, a bold tick in the reports. The Ovechkins are not allowed to give paid concerts, but they are given two three-room apartments, deficit coupons, and help with instruments. Seniors are “registered” in Gnesinka without exams. But a year later, Vasily proudly tells his stunned mentors: “There is no one to teach here, our place is in Amsterdam.” And he takes the brothers back.
Having lost her garden and livestock, the mother knocks on the thresholds of the regional committee: “We have nothing to live on! The guys’ salaries are 80 rubles, my pension is 52, and I refuse it!” At the height of Prohibition, she demonstratively sells vodka. During the day - at the market. At night - in their own courtyard: the special window in their fence was known to the whole neighborhood.
In May 1987, the ensemble was dressed up and sent to the sister city of Kanazawa as part of the Irkutsk delegation. The "Pearl of Asia" hotel, the advertising extravaganza of the streets, and the luxury of the stores left me in shock. After the concert, the English record company also offered me a large contract. “We’re heading to Tokyo, to the American embassy, asking for asylum,” Oleg fired up. But while I was catching a taxi, I cooled down: “And your mother, sisters - will you really leave them?”
They returned from Japan excited. “There,” whispered little Seryozha, “in the toilets... there are flowers!”
We will leave together or die,” the mother concluded.
We prepared for six months. The case for the double bass was enlarged so that it would not fit into the inspection apparatus. A sawn-off shotgun was made from a 16-gauge hunting rifle purchased from a friend for 150 rubles. Explosive devices were tested in a vacant lot. A turner from the regional consumer union made threads and caps for a bottle of vodka, and a vocational training master turned metal glasses for 30 rubles. The poultry farm mechanic supplied gunpowder...
We weren’t just filming about the life and death of this largely typical family, in which, I’m afraid, no one had read anything except the fairy tale about the Simeons,” Evgeniy Korzun, cameraman of the sensational documentary duology, tells RG. - We ended up filming about a totalitarian country in which an individual can be thrown to an unattainable height, or thrown into a pit. But I still remember most clearly a piece of rural idyll in the middle regional center: boys bent over green beds, freshly cut grass under the sun. AND city apartment, from where a few days ago, hurrying to the airport, they left forever: scattered miserable things, a pan on the stove with sour, foaming cabbage soup...
Wolves and sheep
Of course, no one in Irkutsk had any idea about the terrible plan. However, a timid premonition that the rolling wave of praise would not end well arose more than once. I know for sure: one local newspaper tried to say this carefully. The material was typed into the issue, but the censors informed the regional committee of the CPSU. “What are you doing?” the party chief asked the editor sternly on behalf of the almighty state. “Don’t you like people?!” The layout had to be dismantled. A few months later on behalf of loving people state, the commander of the fighter squadron, Colonel Sleptsov, will be given the order: “Escort the plane with criminals. In case of an attempt to cross state border destroy the plane."
..."This is the choice - to break through or explode," Frank's voice-over sounds in "Once Upon a Time There Were Seven Simeons", who later formulated this thought even more specifically: "The Ovechkins decided to break through or commit suicide, but not to give up alive. Murderers looters, terrorists don’t do that, they fight for their lives to the last.”
Tatyana Zyryanova goes through old photographs:
Do you know what their peers called them? "Sheep, flock." They were “sheep,” a simple peasant family. Real wolves dressed up in sheep's clothing. There are no fewer of them now. My daughter was recently attacked in a gateway. And in Akademgorodok, students (one from a medical institute!) beat old people and pregnant women with hammers for several weeks in a row...
So what would happen to the family “star” if it rose in our free days?
“Yes, everything would be fine,” assures the musician, who happened to work part-time in a restaurant orchestra with Igor Ovechkin, who served his first term. - What were they dreaming about? About a family cafe, where brothers would play their jazz, and mother and sisters would cook. We would feed the people, play and make money. And then there was nothing like this, so they rushed into the cast-iron wall...
Well, of course,” longtime acquaintance Oleg Malenkikh enters into an absentee argument. - The wall, the prison country, the victims of the regime...
In the late 80s, from rural poverty and the tragedies that fell on his head, he also rushed for happiness. He was a driver at a city firm. Tried to feed on professional bowling. Cleaned Baikal from plastic bottles. After amazing masters, capable of casting both a funny figurine and a rare monogram from metal, brought together. Almost all the main parks and squares of Irkutsk were framed with fancy wrought-iron fences.
He lives without particularly counting on anyone, but also without substituting anyone. Built a house. I planted a pine tree. Raising a daughter and a son.
And Lyudmila Dmitrievna Ovechkina is still in her mining town of Cheremkhovo, still in the same last house near the cemetery. The other day I was waiting for her at the gate - she was taking little Vasya from school. She led me out the gate, came back, and sat down on a bench.
What can I say... Our three were given with their husband higher education, four grandchildren are growing up. Sister Tanya graduated from a technical school here and moved to Irkutsk a long time ago. But others... Mom didn’t save the family, and I couldn’t. I raised Olgina Larisa, who was born in prison, is finishing college, and now Vasya has become my son. Olya is no longer there - his roommate killed because he was drunk. And Igorka is gone. A pianist from God, after his release he played and composed music, but he received a second sentence for drugs and was killed there by a cellmate. Ulyana, unhappy, although alive, drank, threw herself under a car, and became disabled. We haven’t been able to find Seryozha for a long time, and Misha doesn’t let anyone know about himself. It seems that somewhere in Barcelona he works part-time on the street with his trombone...
Denis Matsuev, Honored Artist of Russia:
No one in my native Irkutsk could believe what happened. I was thirteen then. I remember all the “Simeons” well; I later studied with one of them, Mikhail, in parallel groups at the art school - a very talented trombonist...
Many will say that they are only a few years away from freedom. But, in my opinion, everything is much more complicated. It is not known what was really going on inside this family, what prompted them (and most likely, I think, the mother) to take that terrible step. It is, of course, impossible to justify him, however, as far as I know, no matter how kind the Ovechkins were by the authorities, surrounded by general admiration and support, they lived in terrifying conditions, in constant lack of money.
But the problem is often not a modest income, but a change that instantly occurs with some parents and teachers. A little spark needs to be unobtrusively protected from illusions, temptations and gradually, through everyday joint work, they need to hammer into her head: “You are a star!” They picture fantastic tours, huge money.
Or vice versa: they are deliberately not allowed to develop - for fear of missing out on family profits. Any such story is extremely dangerous. How many guys who showed promise went to work as day laborers, to restaurants, died out forever, or even simply drank themselves to death...
COMPETENTLY
Anatoly Safonov, special representative of the President of the Russian Federation on issues international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, Colonel General:
That harsh lesson forced us to radically reconsider not only the procedure for screening air passengers and baggage, but also the algorithm for anti-terrorism operations. After Veshchevo, where, due to severe time pressure, the assault was carried out by completely unprepared soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, only special service professionals began to act in such circumstances. At the same time, the main thing was clearly outlined: the safety of the hostages. Thanks to the new strategy, it was possible to avoid casualties in December 1988, when the criminals who captured the schoolchildren were provided with an Il-76 transport and were allowed to fly to Israel. And in 1990, when, under the threat of hijackers, from June 7 to July 5, six passenger planes of our domestic airlines were forced to change course and land in Turkey, Finland, and Sweden.
A month and a half later, I myself had the opportunity to lead a special operation: 15 prisoners who were transported from Neryungri to Yakutsk then captured a Tu-154 along with guards and passengers. Having landed for refueling in Krasnoyarsk, they demanded machine guns, walkie-talkies, and parachutes. We were ready for the assault, however, having repeatedly calculated the pros and cons, we decided not to risk it. Colleagues in Tashkent did exactly the same thing, releasing the plane to Karachi.
Of course, each of the perpetrators of these emergencies was also “eager for happiness.” But everyone was neutralized or put on trial, which categorically rejected the monstrous principle: “The end justifies the means.” By the way, in the tolerant West, even attempts to discuss the reasons that pushed a terrorist to commit a crime are now considered bad form. An unequivocal rejection of the very nature of the terrorist attack is also recorded in UN documents. Humanity has been moving towards the realization of this truth - from the acquittal of the Russian "rebel" Vera Zasulich to the condemnation of the suicide bombers who brought down the American Twin Towers - for more than a century.
Help "RG"
For the first time in Soviet history Pranas Brazinskas and his son Algirdas managed to hijack the cruise ship beyond the border. On October 15, 1970, having killed flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko, wounding two crew members and a passenger, they forced the An-24 to land in Turkish Trabzon, where they received eight years each. imprisonment. In total, in the USSR from June 1954 to November 1991, there were more than 60 attempts to seize and hijack civilian aircraft. IN new Russia from February 1993 to November 2000 - seven hijacking attempts and one hijacking.
On March 8, 1988, during the next flight from Irkutsk to Leningrad, a man who carried a sawn-off shotgun and homemade explosive devices on board the plane in a case with a double bass, passed a note to a flight attendant, who an hour later he himself shot at point-blank range. The note read: “set course for London. Don't descend, otherwise we'll blow up the plane. Now fulfill our demands." Sitting next to the man were his accomplice, his nine-year-old brother Sergei, eight other brothers and sisters and the family's beloved mother, who was killed later that day.
Between 1950 and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, hijackers attempted to take control of more than sixty Soviet aircraft. The hijackers' demands were always the same: to redirect the plane to another country behind the Iron Curtain.
To escape from Soviet Union, the hijackers risked the lives of other people. Few of them lived to see their destination with their own eyes: some were shot as soon as they set foot on the ground, others were immediately arrested, and only a small part escaped.
Article about the hijacking of an airplane by the Ovechkin family in East Siberian Pravda, March 3, 1988
Among the hijackers were dissident intellectuals who were not appreciated, there were disgruntled officers and even schoolchildren. However, none of them were as unusual as the Ovechkin family. The mother and her eleven children grew up in absolute poverty in Siberia. They achieved international fame by dying horribly in an escape plan that was less daring than naive.
Ninel Ovechkina's mother accidentally shot herself for the first time when she was five years old. She spent her childhood in an orphanage. Later she got married, but her husband was an alcoholic and after another binge he tried to shoot his sons with a hunting rifle. At that time, private commercial activity was officially prohibited, but the small Ovechkin farm survived by selling its produce at local markets.
Ninel Ovechkina
The family grew, the husband periodically disappeared for several weeks, and then Ninel became a farmer, and her children became farm laborers. Children milked cows, spread manure under the watchful eye of a caring mother, who distributed precise instructions. Ninel was principled, but kind. She loved her children. Later, one of the sons, Mikhail, recalled his mother: “We couldn’t tell her no. It’s not that we were afraid of her, we couldn’t even think of ignoring her request.” Mikhail played the trombone and was thirteen years old at the time of his escape.
The father of the family, Dmitry, died in 1984. The mother replaced the father for the children. Tatyana, who was fourteen years old at the time of the hijacking, said later: “We were good children, we never drank or smoked, we never went to discos.” Neighbors noted that the Ovechkins rarely spoke to strangers while in their own company after school. Each new purchase or important decision discussed at the family council.
Siberian Dixieland
The simple life of a family on the outskirts of the industrial city of Irkutsk was changed by one meeting. Vladimir Romanenko, a music teacher, noticed the Ovechkin siblings' love for jazz while their group was performing a folk song after school. In a few seconds, a challenging idea formed in his head: these guys from the same family would become a Dixieland group from Siberia. Romanenko divided the guys into groups and taught them to play Louis Armstrong and other interpretations. This is how the group “Seven Simeons” was born, named after a Russian fairy tale.
Success came to them instantly. When Gorbachev's perestroika made Western culture not only fashionable, but also legal, the phenomenon of the “peasant family jazz orchestra” appeared. The family begins to tour Soviet palaces of culture. We didn't understand jazz. People applauded politely at the end of the songs, not knowing how to react and clapping in unfamiliar rhythms, not daring to get up from their chairs. There were seven boys in the group. Their sisters did not study music. And, although the older brothers were experienced musicians, the eyes of the audience were always drawn to two little boys, Mikhail and Sergei, who played a banjo that seemed larger than themselves.
In Irkutsk they became a sensation and a symbol of the city. The Ovechkins moved from their estate to two large adjacent apartments, they were given additional coupons for food (this was the case in the USSR from the mid-80s until its collapse), the eldest of the two children was sent to a prestigious music school in Moscow. But in new apartment There was often no water, there was not enough food, and again, in order to survive, Ninel begins to distill vodka and sell it illegally in the market during the day or in the apartment at night. The Ovechkins knew what they deserved better life. The existence when, after concerts, they returned to an apartment where there was not enough food, became simply humiliating. The group's leader, Vasily, became disillusioned and dropped out of the music academy, claiming that the classically trained professors could not teach him jazz. He saw his horizons much further. The turning point was a trip to Japan. The brothers who survived the hijacking said they were shocked in Japan to see neon lights, supermarket shelves filled with food bought without coupons, and, what shocked them, flowers in toilets. Seven Simeons could have followed the path blazed by other Soviet defectors such as dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. While on tour, they might ask for asylum in one of the Western embassies. But their mother, who remained at home, would most likely have faced questions from intelligence agents, and even possibly a criminal case would have been brought against her for not promptly informing the authorities about the possible betrayal. They would never see her again.
Plan
From the 1920s until the collapse of the USSR Soviet citizens could not leave the country freely, only a few traveled business trips or on cultural tours. The Ovechkins understood that as a national famous performers, they would never have been allowed to emigrate. They came up with a plan. Mikhail later said: “Before we did anything, we agreed that if the hijacking failed, we would commit suicide rather than surrender to the police. We will all die together." The Ovechkins bought a hunting rifle from a friend. A farmer sold them gunpowder, from which they made several primitive homemade explosive devices. Finally, they took the instrument with a double bass, the case of which could not, due to its size, pass through the security scanner. The police did not search the celebrities boarding a flight to Leningrad for the next concert, and Ninel, her three daughters and seven sons boarded the plane.
One of the many photographs of the musicians' family
The family sold everything they owned and dressed themselves in new outfits that would be greeted by the world's media as they stepped off the plane in London. However, like many previous hijackers, their destination remained a fantasy. The TU-154 they were flying in did not have enough fuel to fly further than Scandinavia. The security officer advised the crew: “Land the plane on the Soviet side of the border with Finland, tell them that they are already in Finland. Promise them that in exchange for the release of the passengers, they will be given safe passage to Helsinki." The authorities wanted to use the same tactics and the same airport as during the hijacking five years ago, but upon landing, when the plane stopped, Dmitry noticed Russian inscriptions on the refueling trucks. As a warning, he shot flight attendant Tamara Zharkaya and demanded that the plane take off right now.
At the end of the Soviet era, the jazz ensemble "Seven Simeons" - a jazz band - was born in Irkutsk. It consists of 7 Ovechkin brothers. The youngest is 9 years old, the oldest is 26. The founder and producer rolled into one is their mother Ninel Sergeevna. The biography of this stern woman can be summarized in a single line: she grew up in an orphanage, lost her husband early, and was left with 11 children in her arms. The Ovechkins were talented musicians and were listed on special situation from officials from the city department of culture. For participation in all-Union festivals, they were even given two apartments in a nine-story building, a salary was assigned to the young musicians, and they secured places at the Institute named after. Gnesins.
Only suddenly these cream of society turned into something foul-smelling and bloody, says famous photo reporter Alexander Knyazev.
In 1987, the Ovechkin brothers went on tour to Japan. After returning from abroad, they had a desire to escape poverty and total shortages. In addition, while on tour in Tokyo, the ensemble was hinted at a tempting contract with a European recording studio: in London, the Siberians expected to receive asylum and live in grand style. For six months the Ovechkins were preparing a terrorist attack! Younger children were not included in the plans. The mother managed to buy guns and ammunition for pennies on the black market - supposedly for hunting, together with her older sons she made a bomb and... On March 8, 1988, the “Seven Simeons” set out to hijack a plane flying along the route Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad.
Either we will all fly away, or we will all die,” Ninel conjured to the children.
Heading for London
76 passengers on board, 8 crew members. 9 people died... About the story high-profile terrorist attack documentaries were filmed in the USSR art films, series of television programs and articles were published in newspapers.
30 years later, Komsomolskaya Pravda managed to find the crew members of that same flight. The main character, flight engineer Innokenty Stupakov, who negotiated with terrorists, risking his life, is now 87 years old. He talks about what he could not voice in Soviet times.
I don’t want to remember that day - that’s enough! - says Innokenty Dmitrievich. “It’s good that it ended without much bloodshed.” I am still haunted by the thought that innocent people died (the flight attendant and three passengers - author's note) and the plane burned down like a matchbox in 15 minutes. But it's not the crew's fault. I often think about this... About how a mother could hold her sons like that! They, without barriers, unquestioningly, as if under hypnosis, carried out everything she said. Or rather, she shouted: “Kill!”
But we will remember that day. Morning of March 8, 1988. The Ovechkins' entire family arrived at the Irkutsk airport (only their older sister Lyudmila was not with them - she got married and lived separately. - Author's note). They said that they were flying to the festival, and even gave flowers to the airport employees. Apparently, everyone’s favorites weren’t even properly inspected. The Ovechkins knew this and hid the weapons and explosives in a bass case.
It was not included in the introscope (an X-ray device - author's note), so the instrument was not inspected, explains the navigator of that flight, Vitaly Zosimovich. He is now 67 years old. – The first half of the flight was calm. On the contrary, everyone had great mood. They even joked: they say, we’ll fly with music. But after refueling in Kurgan, our girls distributed food to the passengers and brought us a note from the Ovechkins on a tray: “Go to London. Don't descend, otherwise we'll blow up the plane. You are under our control."
The crew initially thought it was a prank. But they still sent flight engineer Stupakov to the musicians. The two older Ovechkin brothers, Vasily and Dmitry, stood with sawn-off shotguns in their hands, and on the floor was the same double bass, already marked with a red cross.
There are 11 terrorists on board. Weapons, explosives,” the ship’s commander, Valentin Kupriyanov, immediately contacted the flight director in Moscow.
We were shocked, but we tried not to get lost and followed the instructions,” continues navigator Vitaly Kravchenko. – After all, even in those times there were terrorist attacks: for example, the hijacking of the An-24 to Turkey, where flight attendant Nadezhda Kurchenko died. The instructions included a list of airfields where one could land in case of an emergency. The closest to us was the Veshchevo military airfield near Vyborg. And they set a course for it...
Mother is the queen of terrorists
Why? The pilots understood that if they crossed the air border, they would all die. The Tu-154, captured by the Seven Simeons, was accompanied by fighters. And their order was simple: when crossing the border, open fire to kill. Even at the cost of the lives of so many people! Therefore, especially for the terrorists, the crew came up with a legend - to land the plane supposedly for refueling, because there would not be enough fuel to get to London. And Vyborg looks like a European town. The Ovechkins believed that they were landing somewhere in Finland and therefore made a deal with the crew. Flight engineer Stupakov, on behalf of the management, set only one condition: at the refueling airport, all passengers must leave the Tu-154.
Ninel Ovechkina. Still from the film "Seven Semionov", East Siberian newsreel studio.
These one and a half hours before Vyborg seemed like an eternity... - says Vitaly. – The plane reached a height of 10 thousand meters. One wrong word, one wrong move, and the Ovechkins would have opened fire. The slightest hole from a bullet - and complete depressurization of the cabin, which means death... We could not allow this. The girls flight attendants did the impossible: they calmed down the passengers and “wooed” the Ovechkins. They brought water, smiled, and talked kindly to them.
The real hero of that fateful flight was flight engineer Stupakov. He got the role of negotiating with heavily armed musicians. And he played it like clockwork. He said that the plane was already in the Finnish air harbor and was about to land. Surprisingly, the Ovechkins believed and behaved calmly. Mother Ninel sat in the chair of the last row, like a queen. The look, the pose - she was looking forward to a beautiful London life. Nearby was her daughter Olga, who copied her mother’s habits and manners. The two eldest sons, with sawed-off shotguns in their hands, like faithful Cerberus, walked back and forth around the salon, constantly asking their mother what to do next.
When we began to land at Veshchevo, we heard the rumble of the Tu-134, recalls Vitaly. - In it, as the land gave us, there was a professional capture group from Moscow. But the plane could not land. The takeoff to Veshchevo is small. Two such large planes as ours and the Tu-134 would not land at the same time. The security forces were deployed and sent to Leningrad. From there the capture group was to be transferred to Vyborg by helicopter. And I think this was not entirely true. If we had been asked to drive further from the point where we were ordered to park, the Tu-134 could have easily landed. Perhaps we wouldn’t have to sit in fear and horror for another 3.5 hours on the liner in complete uncertainty. And, most importantly, perhaps no one would have died...
Plan b
But the story took a different turn. What happened happened.
We stood on the runway, refueled the plane and waited for something unknown,” the navigator continues. “We told Ovechkin that this is the procedure: first, they say, you need to inspect the vessel for technical serviceability. And the flight engineer was just stalling for time. After about an hour or two, six people climbed into the cockpit windows. These were employees of the local police station. We helped them climb up and put on body armor and helmets. The Ovechkins grabbed a stepladder and began to break down the armored door of the pilot's cabin with it. Having opened the door to the salon, the police began firing at the brothers! But instead the bullets ricocheted and wounded them.
Bullets also hit several passengers in the first cabin. This caused terrible panic and angered the criminals. Then they killed flight attendant Tamara...
The crew understood: this is just the beginning. And they were not mistaken. The Ovechkins, realizing that they were surrounded, set fire to the double bass case, where they hid a homemade bomb. The explosion was too weak, but caused a fire. Smoke, burning, acrid smell... Passengers jumped out of their seats in panic and rushed to the emergency hatch. Having managed to open it, they began to jump from a 6-meter height.
We smelled smoke and opened the door to the cabin, but nothing was visible,” the navigator recalls. – Just at that moment, through the windows we saw soldiers running (the same capture group from Leningrad), buses arriving. We went down the ropes, and the passengers used special chutes to slide head down into the snowdrifts. Women and children were put on buses, men were held at gunpoint - in the dark it was impossible to tell where the criminals were and where ordinary people. I remember how Olga Ovechkina rolled down the chute. She got on the bus first. This scene is still before my eyes.
What about the rest of the criminals? Later, the crew learns that while the plane was burning, four Ovechkin brothers shot themselves, and before that one of them killed his mother. They understood perfectly well: they had nothing more to count on, none of them would remain free.
And this plan was plan B.
After the incident, the entire crew was sent to a sanatorium for a month,” recalls Vitaly Kravchenko. “We all needed time to come to our senses...
What happened to the survivors
After the terrorist attack, 5 Ovechkins survived, not counting Lyudmila, who did not fly with her family to London. But only two were in the dock - 28-year-old Olga and 17-year-old Igor. The rest escaped punishment due to their age. Olga did not admit her guilt, saying that she did not want to participate in this case until recently. She was sentenced to 6 years. A mitigating factor was her pregnancy. Igor received 8 years in prison. Both brother and sister spent only half of their sentence behind barbed wire; both were released early under an amnesty. But their further path was not rosy: in 2004, Olga was killed by her partner in a drunken quarrel, and after his release, Igor lived for some time in St. Petersburg, made a living from music (playing in restaurants), but became a drug addict and again received a prison term. In 1999, he was killed in his cell by another detainee.
The younger brothers, Mikhail and Sergei Ovechkin, also found themselves left out of life instead of fame and honor. The talented Misha lived in St. Petersburg, where he worked in various jazz groups. In 2002 he moved to Spain. But drunkenness ruined him: he was kicked out of the group, and he became a street musician. In 2012, he suffered a stroke, becoming disabled. As of 2013, he lives in a hospice in Barcelona. Nothing is known about Sergei. They say he has gone missing. Younger sister Ovechkin suffers from alcoholism. Only two sisters had a successful fate. Tatyana changed her last name when she got married. Lyudmila, the only one who did not participate in the terrorist attack, lives in Cheremkhovo. Women do not favor journalists and do not want to reopen unhealed wounds.
How would we live now? Somewhere abroad. We would have left anyway - they were good musicians. Everything is wrong. “All my life,” the surviving Ovechkins admitted in an interview 5 years ago with the Irkutsk TV channel.
Now they flatly refuse to comment. And it's not necessary. Life itself has dotted all the i’s.
OPINION
Valery NIKIFOROV, former navigator, ex-head of the Irkutsk Aviation Technical College:
“They didn’t want to live in the USSR and dreamed of big money”
The Ovechkins felt like great musicians. And after a trip to Japan, they were overcome by an unbridled desire for a good life, they wanted big money, wanted to be famous like the Beatles! Not less! All this against the backdrop of special relationships within the family, where the mother ruled everything in a totalitarian manner, where everyone had clearly assigned roles, the strictest discipline, and a focus on making money: they did nothing for free. Ninel Ovechkina was a very powerful, strong-willed woman. Exactly as she was played by Nona Mordyukova in the film “Mama”. Yes, not everyone would think of making a bomb for the sake of better life, but this just speaks of the inadequacy of this family. Illiterate, narrow-minded people who lived as if in their own sect and had no idea that in 3 years the USSR would collapse. It never occurred to them to study history or follow the trends that were happening in the world at that time. Therefore, there is no need to speculate anything in this story. The Ovechkins wanted to live abroad and probably hated the Soviet Union!
On March 8, the large Irkutsk Ovechkin family, consisting of a mother and 11 children, attempted to hijack a Tu-154 plane with the aim of escaping from the Soviet Union abroad. However, their idea failed: after the aircraft landed in the wrong place, it was stormed. At the same time, five newly minted terrorists died: mother, Ninel Ovechkina, and her four eldest sons. A show trial was held over the surviving children. We would like to highlight 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 from 9 to 32 years. 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 inflicted on him by 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 unclear. 
From left to right: Olga, Tatyana, Dmitry, Ninel Sergeevna with Ulyana and Sergey, Alexander, Mikhail, Oleg, Vasily
The male Ovechkin family consisted of seven brothers, who early years studied music. Even in 1983, they turned to a teacher at the Irkutsk School of Arts for help to help them create a family jazz ensemble, the so-called jazz band. The teacher was not averse to it, and as a result, the jazz group “Seven Simeons” appeared.
Gradually, the newly formed group began to gain popularity. The brothers began to be invited to play at local events held in Irkutsk. They even performed in the city park during the holidays. But truly great success came to them in 1984, when they took part in the “Jazz-85” festival at the national level. After him, “Seven Simeons” began to be invited to film television programs and were even filmed about them documentary. In 1987, the Ovechkin family, consisting of mother and sons, was invited to 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. That's why the idea of fleeing the USSR came up.
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 Ninelya Sergeevna, began to hatch an escape plan. Since in the USSR everyone would not be allowed abroad, the family decided to hijack a plane on domestic airlines and then fly it to another country. 
The implementation of the plan was scheduled for March 8, 1988. On that day, the entire Ovechkin family, except eldest daughter Lyudmila, who was not in the know, bought tickets for a Tu-154 plane flying Irkutsk - Kurgan - Leningrad. Friends and airport employees were told that the Ovechkins were going on tour and therefore were taking a lot of musical instruments with them. Naturally, they were not given a thorough search. As a result, the criminals managed to smuggle two sawn-off shotguns, one hundred rounds of ammunition and homemade explosives on board the aircraft. All this stuff 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 in order to pass as one of our own abroad.
PLANE hijacking
Nine-year-old Sergei Ovechkin
Already at the very end of its journey, when the plane was approaching Leningrad, the Ovechkins, through a flight attendant, passed a note demanding to fly to London or any other capital of the country. 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 would not have enough fuel and would therefore need to refuel. It was stated that the plane would be refueled 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 at trial
Noticing at the airport Soviet soldiers, 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 tried to break down 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 his mother, but the bomb explosion was targeted and the desired effect could not be achieved. But as a result, three passengers were killed and 36 more were injured. After this, the older brothers - Vasily, Oleg, Dmitry and Alexander - took turns shooting themselves with a sawn-off shotgun. The explosion started a fire, as a result of which the plane was completely burned out.
CONSEQUENCES
On September 8, 1988, the trial of the surviving Ovechkins was held. Older brother Igor and sister Olga received eight and six years in prison, respectively. The minor Ovechkins were initially sent to Orphanage. However, then she took them under her wing elder sister Lyudmila. Olga, whose daughter was already born in prison, and Igor served only half of their sentences and were released.