Camouflaged gunmen killed at least 143 people and wounded 360 others at the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow late last week, the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry released the names of those who were killed and whose identities could be established, though the list could grow in the coming days as rescue workers continue their search for bodies.
Here are some of the known victims of Friday’s attack:
Yana Kovalenkovo and Alexei Rudnitsky
Kovalenkovo, 32, and her boyfriend Rudnitsky, 39, traveled from the central Russian city of Yaroslavl to see the Soviet-era rock band Piknik perform at Crocus City Hall.
Kovalenkovo was the mother of a four-year-old child, as well as the owner of a renovation and design company that helped fix up museum buildings and other cultural venues.
“Yana Yuryevna has done a lot for the Poshekhonsky district,” Nikolai Belov, who heads Yaroslavl’s Poshekhonsky district, was quoted as saying by local media. “We mourn. We express our condolences to family and friends.”
Rudnitsky was a father of two and an amateur hockey player who had celebrated his 39th birthday less than a week before the attack.
Igor, Anna and Zlata Figurin
Figurin, 51, his wife Anna, 48, and their only child Zlata, 16, attended the concert with some of Anna’s relatives who were visiting Moscow from the city of Orenburg.
Figurin was born to a Belarusian mother in the town of Pokrov, around 100 kilometers east of Moscow, and worked as a lawyer.
His brother Nikolai described his daughter Zlata as a bright child who wanted to become a doctor. She would have turned 17 in April.
“I didn’t lose just a brother, but a family as well,” Nikolai said.
Alexander Baklemyshev
Baklemyshev, 51, loved rock music so much that he flew nearly 1,500 kilometers to Moscow from Satka, his hometown in the Chelyabinsk region, to attend the Piknik concert by himself.
He worked servicing drilling wells.
Baklemyshev’s son said Piknik was his favorite band and that he had long wanted to attend one of their concerts. He is also survived by his daughter.
Chelyabinsk region Governor Alexei Teksler said that 1 million rubles ($10,810) from the regional budget would go to support Baklemyshev’s family.
Anna and Mikhail Volkov
Volkova, 45, and her husband Mikhail, 55, are survived by their two children, Anastasia and Luka.
Volkova was a clinical psychologist and ran a Telegram channel that taught children and parents how to build stronger relationships with each other.
Her husband had a degree in physics, chemistry and polymer processing technology from MIREA Russian Technological University.
Volkov’s Facebook profile shows a man who enjoyed spending time outdoors and having a beer with friends, while he also showed support for anti-government protests in Belarus and Far East Russia’s Khabarovsk region in recent years.
Irina and Pavel Okishev
Okisheva, 33, and her husband Pavel, 34, were from the city of Kirov and had been married since 2013.
She worked as a fashion designer and wedding photographer. A post on the Russian social media website VKontakte from January showed Okisheva and her husband hugging, holding their cat and decorating a New Year’s tree.
Okishev worked assembling furniture and was due to celebrate his 35th birthday on March 27.
“They were so happy. They were really looking forward to this trip. I still can’t believe they’re gone,” a friend told the pro-government tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The couple had received their Piknik concert tickets as a gift from friends.
Irina Firsova
Firsova, 52, was an instructor at Moscow’s GITR Film and Television School, where she had just started teaching 20th-century Russian history and politics.
Before moving to Moscow, Firsova had worked at the Mordovian State University in Saransk, where she had been awarded for her work by the head of the republic of Mordovia.
A GITR statement said that, in addition to her professionalism and encyclopedic knowledge, “Irina radiated light and optimism and was an easy-going, cheerful person.”
Yaroslav, Irina, Vladislav and Anastasia Sodritsov
Sodritsov, 51, and his wife Irina, 53, were killed along with their children Anastasia, 28, and Vladislav, 23.
Sorditsov was a martial arts trainer, while his wife and daughter were both teachers. His son was studying at university.
Maksim Verbenin
Verbenin, 25, went to the concert with his girlfriend Natasha, who survived the attack. The tickets were his gift to her as she was a big fan of Piknik.
Verbenin had a mild form of spinal muscular atrophy, a rare neuromuscular disorder, and was able to go to the show at Crocus City Hall thanks to its wheelchair accessibility.
His mother told Komsomolskaya Pravda: “That evening he was very happy. You can’t imagine how much.”
Pavel and Kristina Kostyuchenko
Kostyuchenko was from Belarus, while his wife Kristina, 41, was a Moldovan citizen from the Transnistrian city of Bender. She moved to Moscow over ten years ago.
The couple left behind two sons, aged 6 and 8, who have been taken in by their grandmother.
Olga Seldeva
Seldeva, 37, went to the concert with her husband and two daughters, who managed to survive the attack.
“It’s impossible to believe this nightmare! What a loss for the girls! Olga was only 37 years old,” a friend of the family told Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Victoria Ladeyshchikova and Denis Chernov
Ladeyshchikova, 46, and her husband Chernov were both killed in the attack. Their concert tickets had been her gift to him for his 45th birthday.
Ladeyshchikova was from the Sverdlovsk region but moved to the Moscow area several years ago. Her daughter told the Ural Mash Telegram channel that she loved yoga and animals.
Roman Sokolov
Sokolov celebrated his 47th birthday on the day of the attack.
Tatyana Repina
Repina, 23, was a linguistics specialist at Russia’s Foreign Ministry. She was born in Moscow and graduated from the College of the Foreign Ministry in 2021.
She was remembered in a Foreign Ministry statement as a “bright, kind, and cheerful person.”
“She was responsible and diligent, interested in music and reading, completed her higher education through part-time study and made big plans for the future, but in an instant, all her dreams were destroyed by the hands of terrorists. We deeply mourn with her family and friends. The bright memory of Tatyana Alekseyevna Repina will forever remain in our hearts.”
Irina Vedeneeva and Arseny Roganov
Vedeneeva, 40, was a single mother who worked as a sales manager while raising her 15-year-old son, Arseny Roganov.
Roganov was studying for his high school exams and was a fan of Stephen King novels and FC Bayern Munich.
After learning of his death, Roganov’s grandmother told a news broadcaster: “Everything ended tragically… I can’t understand how he’s gone now. And all our relatives and friends called and everyone cried, what a tragedy.”
Yulia Chechina
Chechina, 59, had traveled from the city of Volgograd in southern Russia to attend the Piknik concert.
A high school friend told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that they had seen Piknik perform in Volgograd before. The friend added that Chechina had been working at a market in recent years and had many friends, but she had no family apart from her brother in St. Petersburg and some relatives in Barnaul.
Friends said she was kind and sympathetic and that she loved life and swimming in the Volga River.
Her last message to her friends was a photo of herself in front of a Piknik poster with the caption “Life is good!”
Svetlana and Alexander Gaikovich
The married couple were both 67 years old, having celebrated Alexander’s birthday just two days before they were killed in the concert hall attack.
Svetlana, who was born in Uzbekistan, worked as a tour guide and translator.
They are survived by their two daughters, Elena and Maria, as well as grandchildren.
Ekaterina Novoselova
Novoselova, 42, was a former beauty pageant queen, having won the 2001 Miss Tver competition. She had a son and daughter.
Novoselova was from the Far East town of Sovetskaya Gavan but went to school and spent much of her adult life in the city of Tver before moving to Moscow.
Albina Manyurova
Manyurova, 26, was a doctor from the Moscow region.
“We didn’t just lose a colleague, we lost a friend,” her colleagues said.
Ekaterina and Pavel Dorofeev
Dorofeeva and her husband Pavel were both from the city of Sergiev Posad near Moscow. He worked there as an electrician.
Natalya and Svetlana Bondar
Natalya Bondar, 41, and Svetlana Bondar were likely sisters, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe. Natalya was born in Ukraine.
Sergei Laptev
Laptev, 48, was said to be fond of nature. A relative described him as “a great person.”
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