1. Bombings

2. Investigation

3. Alleged fabrication by the KGB

4. See also

5. References

The 1977 Moscow bombings were a series of three terrorist bombings in Moscow on 8 January 1977. The attacks killed seven people and seriously injured 37 people. No one claimed responsibility for the bombings, although three members of an Armenian nationalist organization were executed after a KGB investigation and secret trial. Some Soviet dissidents claimed that the suspects had an alibi,^[1] and Andrei Sakharov believed the bombings might have been arranged by the KGB itself. According to historian Jay Bergman, "who actually caused the explosion has never been determined conclusively".^[1]

Bombings

On 8 January 1977, three bombs detonated in Moscow. The first exploded at 17:33 on a crowded train between the Izmailovskaya and Pervomaiskaya stations of the Moscow Metro.^[2] At 18:05, the second bomb detonated inside a grocery store close to KGB headquarters. Five minutes later, the third bomb exploded near another grocery store on 25 October Street, just a few hundred meters away from the headquarters of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.^[2] On 8 February 1977, Izvestia, an official newspaper of the Soviet government, reported that the attacks killed seven people^[2] and injured 44.^[3]

Investigation

The official investigation was conducted by the KGB, rather than the Moscow police. An initial suspect, named Potapov, was arrested in Tambov after setting off a bomb which killed his neighbour's wife and two daughters. After being arrested, Potapov confessed that he was also behind the acts of terrorism in Moscow. However, this turned out to have been a forced confession, and after an investigation lasting one month, this lead was dropped by KGB operatives.^[2]

In October 1977, at Tashkent Airport, a KGB officer noticed a woman carrying a bag similar to a reconstructed picture of a bomb sent by the KGB to all local branches.^[2] It turned out that these bags were manufactured only in Yerevan.^[2] In November 1977, Stepan Zatikyan, a founding member of a splinter group of the National United Party, an underground Armenian nationalist organization, was arrested. His accomplices, Zaven Bagdasaryan and Hakop Stepanyan, were also taken into custody^[4] after an unsuccessful attempt to detonate a bomb at the Kursky Rail Terminal in Moscow.^[2] A secret trial followed. Zatikyan, Stepanyan, and Bagdasaryan were all found guilty on 24 January and executed five days later.^[5] The Soviet press published only one article about the bombings, naming Zatikyan alone as the perpetrator.^[6] According to KGB general Philip Bobkov, any publications in Armenia were blocked by Karen Demirchyan, the head of Soviet Armenia.^[6]

Alleged fabrication by the KGB

Soon after the bombings, Soviet journalist Victor Louis (Vitaly Yevgenyevich Lui), a well known KGB agent provocateur, published an article about the involvement of Soviet dissidents in the bombings. After learning about this article, Andrei Sakharov wrote an "Appeal to world community", in which he requested an impartial investigation and suggested that the bombings might have been arranged by the KGB itself to discredit the entire Soviet dissident movement.^[7] He stated, "I have serious grounds for concern. This is the provocation article in London Evening News by Victor Lui. These are arrests and interrogations of people who are clearly not related to the bombings. These are murders of last months, probably committed by the KGB which were not investigated. It is enough to mention only two of them: murder of poet Konstantin Bogatyrev and murder of lawyer Evgeni Brunov."^[8] After this statement, Sakharov was not only attacked in Soviet newspapers but also received threats by phone. Several people tried to break into his apartment, claiming to be relatives of those killed in the Metro.^[9]

On 1 February 1979, the Moscow Helsinki Group made an official statement on the execution of Stepan Zatikyan and two other unnamed individuals, stating, "The lack of transparency and the whole atmosphere of secrecy give reasons to doubt the validity of charges, objectivity and impartiality of the court".^[10]

Soviet dissident Alexander Tarasov claimed to have been interrogated by a KGB investigator who tried to "convince" him that he was involved in the bombing. Without his strong alibi - he was confined at a hospital at the time of the bombings - "it would be me who was executed instead of Zatikyan", he said.^[11]

According to former KGB colonel Oleg Gordievsky, the three Armenians were selected as scapegoats for this terrorist act. He wrote, "The case that most alarmed the KGB was the bombing of the Moscow subway by Armenian separatists in 1977. Three Armenians were later shot. It was rumored in the Center that, when the KGB and militia failed to track down those responsible, three other Armenian separatists had been selected as scapegoats in order to demonstrate that terrorists would always be caught and punished."^[12]

According to historians Michel Heller and Alexander Nekrich, Zatikyan, Stepanyan, and Bagdasaryan had an alibi supported by multiple witnesses, and their execution was the first political execution in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin.^[13]

The Armenian dissident Sergei Grigoryants claims that chief of KGB Yuri Andropov and Philipp Bobkov were responsible for the bombing.^[14]

See also

• February 2004 Moscow Metro bombing
• August 2004 Moscow Metro bombing
• 2010 Moscow Metro bombings

References

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• Male Dole pri Stehanji Vasi
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• Male donkey
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