Today, on 7 December, 1988, at 11:41 local time, a major earthquake occurred in Armenia.

In the territory covering about 40 percent of the country, a devastating earthquake of Spitak, with a magnitude of 10 at the epicenter, took place.

As a result of the disaster, the cities of Spitak, Leninakan (Gyumri), Kirovakan (Vanadzor), Stepanavan, more than a hundred villages and settlements of Spitak, Akhuryan, Gugark, Aragats, Kalinino, Stepanavan regions were completely or partially destroyed.

More than 25 thousand people died, 500 thousand were left homeless. 17 percent of the housing fund – about 8 million square meters of living space – were destroyed More than 230 industrial facilities with around 82 thousand jobs were destroyed as well.

In general, the damage caused to the economy of Armenia amounted to 13 billion rubles.

More than 113 countries of the world and 7 international organizations provided comprehensive assistance to Armenia in those days. Some countries continued to help Armenia in the following years as well. In 1989-2000, at the expense of all sources of financing, residential houses with a total area of ​​3.5 million square meters were built in the settlements of the disaster zone.

Even after 32 years, many families living in the disaster zone are still living in temporary huts.

On 7 December, 2018, the Government adopted a decision to mark 7 December as the Day of Remembrance of Earthquake Victims and Disaster Resilience.