The Hindu : Russians bid adieu to 'evil Aug.'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 02, 2002

International

International

Russians bid adieu to 'evil Aug.'

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW SEPT. 1. Many Russians heaved a sigh of relief when they woke up on Sunday — the grim month of August had finally come to an end. August has been looked upon in Russia as a month bringing trouble since the August 1991 Communist coup attempt against the then President, Mikhail Gorbachev, which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The 1998 financial crash took place in August. The murderous series of apartment bombings in 1999, which claimed about 300 lives and led to the second war in Chechnya, also began in August with the explosion of a five-storey block in Buinaks, Dagestan. August 2000 was packed with tragedies.

The bomb blast in an underpass at Pushkin Square in Moscow, the fire at Ostankino television tower, also in Moscow, and the sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine all took place in August. Astrologists were quick to offer an explanation. "August is the month of the sun, the sign of Leo,'' said Mr. Albert Timashev from the Astrologer.ru web site. "And as Russia is connected to the water carrier [Aquarius], the two signs are in opposition. For Russia, August is always a difficult month.'' Critics of astral theories were at a loss for arguments this year, when black August hit Russia again.

A deadly tornado killed at least 60 people near Novorossiisk on the Black Sea. This was followed by a helicopter crash in Chechnya that killed 118 people. Many saw mystic significance in the fact that the world's worst copter disaster killed exactly the same number of people as the Kursk sinking and both happened in August. So when gas explosions destroyed two apartment blocks in Moscow and Siberia and an An-28 airliner crashed in the Far East, people greeted the news with a feeling of resignation to the god of misfortune that visits Russia every year.

Experts, however, dismiss the idea of August as a fateful month. The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations issued a warning that the country was heading for an avalance of man-made calamities, as 80 per cent of equipment and machinery was well beyond the safe service life and hardly any has been replaced since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

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