1961 Kurenivka mudslide


The 1961 Kurenivka mudslide occurred on March 13 in Kiev, capital city of the Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. The mudslide started at the edge of the Babi Yar mass murder site and dumped mud, water, and human remains into the streets of Kiev. The Soviet authorities suppressed information about the disaster, and claimed 145 people were killed, while forbidding any memorial events for the victims. A 2012 study in Ukraine estimates that the number of victims was closer to 1,500.

Disaster

The mudslide started when a dam securing the loam pulp dump of a brick factory near the Babi Yar mass murder site collapsed after rain, releasing large volumes of pulp sludge, mud, water, and human remains down the steep hill of the modern Olena Teliha Street and into the streets of Kiev. The slide immediately hit the lower-lying Kurenivka neighbourhood, including a residential area, the Krasin Tram Depot, several industrial buildings and a cemetery, as well as automobiles and trams on its way. The total volume of pulp in the vicinity of the streets of Kirilivska - Novokostiantynivska was up to 600 thousand m³ with a depth of up to 4 m. The official report indicated 145 fatalities, while a recent study estimates 1,500.

Recovery operations

Recovery operations continued for days, but no official notification of the tragedy was ever published by the Soviet authorities.
Recovery operations were led by the 120 Detached Engineering Battalion and the Anti-gas Regiment of the Local Anti-Aircraft Defence troops of the Soviet Army in the Kiev Military District, led by the Hero of the Soviet Union, Kharchenko Ivan Ustinovich. The events in Kurenivka were strictly censored by the Soviet Government. In order to cover up the scale of this disaster, many of the people who died were buried in different cemeteries in Kiev and its nearby towns with different dates and reasons for their death in the government records. No public remembrance activities were allowed and Soviet troops were sent to clear all visible consequences of the disaster.

Aftermath

As a result of the subsequent investigation, several construction engineers and managers responsible for the dam’s design and maintenance were accused of criminal negligence and convicted.
In 1962, Ukrainian Communist Party leaders ordered the leveling of the Babi Yar ravine and the establishment of a park on the site where at least 33,000 Jews from Kiev and surrounding areas had been shot to death in 1941 by the Einsatzgruppen.