Kursha-2
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Kursha-2 (Russian: Ку́рша-2) was an industrial community in the Central Meshchyora. It was built soon after the October Revolution for the exploration of the local forests and was annihilated by a firestorm on August 3, 1936. The disaster led to 1200 human deaths.
A narrow-gauge railway was taped from the Trans-Meshchyora trunk-railway to Kursha-2 and then prolonged to Lesomashinny and Charus. More than 1000 lived in this woodcutters' settlement in 1930s. Trains transported wood to Tumskaya, where it was finished.
In the beginning of August, 1936 a firestorm started near Charus, to south from Kursha-2. The firestorm extended to the north, evolving from lower to upper, i.e. when fire "jumping" over crowns of trees.
At night August 2 an empty train came to Kursha-2. Train crew offered to evacuate children and women from the settlement, but a dispatcher ordered to load wood to the train. This work hampered a departure and firestorm reached the settlement. There weren't enough space at the train to evacuate all panic-stricken settlement and hundreds stayed at the station, the escaping seat at the coupling, steam-engine, wood logs. However, when the train reached a bridge across the canal to the north from Kursha-2, it was already ablaze. The train was burnt with all passengers.
As the result of the firestorm 1200 dead of fire (woodcutters, their families, railwaymen, military men, extinguished the fire), only 20 escaped, being saved in pond, wells, channel and the forestless hill.
Due to the totalitarian regime, the tragedy was forgotten; the only scent of this event was a common grave near the ruins of the locomotive depot. The settlement was restored, but on a smaller scale. Soon after the Great Patriotic War it was depopulated, Kursha-Charus railway was dismantled and only foresters lived in Kursha-2. Now the settlement is ruined and only one 90-years old woman (on 2006) lived in the area.
[edit] References
- (Russian) Курша-2: огненный шквал
