March 23, 2024

Moscow Hit by Deadly Terrorist Attack


Moscow Hit by Deadly Terrorist Attack
The Crocus Concert Hall in the wake of the attack. mosreg.ru

On Friday evening, four gunmen opened fire in a Moscow concert hall, Crocus City Hall, where hundreds were waiting for a concert by Piknik to begin.

As of Saturday noontime, over 115 persons were reported killed and over 100 others were seriously injured, making the attack the worst terror attack on Russian soil since the Nord-Ost attack in 2002.

What else we know:

  • According to the New York Times: The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a security alert on March 7, warning that its personnel were “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts.” The statement warned Americans that an attack could take place in the next 48 hours. That day, the United States also privately warned Russian officials of the danger of an impending attack from IS-KP from intelligence gathered earlier in March, under the US intelligence community's "duty to warn" requirement.
  • The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan, called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, has claimed responsibility for the attack. Founded in 2015 by disaffected members of the Pakistani Taliban, it embraces a violent version of Islam and is believed to have just over 1000 members worldwide.
  • The four terrorists responsible for the attacks are believed to be in Russian custody, allegedly captured in Bryansk, while trying to flee the country via neighboring Ukraine. Another 7 persons believed to be involved in the attack have also been detained. The four individuals are suspected of being citizens of Tadzhikistan.
  • The concert hall is located just beyond Moscow's outermost Ring Road. It was opened in 2009 and could seat over 6000. It is named for Muslim Magomayev (1942-2008), a Soviet-era singer dubbed the "Soviet Sinatra". Born in Azerbaijan, he achieved wide renown throughout Russia and the post-Soviet world for his vocal talent and charisma.
  • As of noon Moscow time, 16 hours after the attack, President Vladimir Putin had yet to make an official appearance or announcement about the attack.
  • Journalists at the cite of the terrorist attack, seeking to report on the event, were aggressively driven off, some thrown down and pinned to the asphalt
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955