Today, all countries of the former Soviet Union remember the victims of one of the most terrible and devastating natural disasters of the 20th century. Thirty-four years ago, on 7 December, 1988, an ordinary winter day, an earthquake almost completely wiped out the city of Spitak, Leninakan (now Gyumri) and dozens of other settlements in the northwest of the Armenian SSR.
A message about this was published on the Telegram channel of the Russian Peacekeeping Force.
More than 50 thousand volunteers, doctors and builders, as well as humanitarian aid trucks from all over the Union went to disaster zones.
On 7 January, the foundation of the first house under construction was already laid, and at the end of the year, the move-in ceremony was held.
As a result of the earthquake, according to official data, 25,000 people were killed, 140,000 were disabled, and 514,000 were deprived of their homes.
