Kukuevskaya railway accident

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In the railway accident of Kukujewskaja (also: Railway accident of Tschern ) on June 29th jul. / July 11, 1882 greg. crashed near the village of Kukujewskaja in the Tula governorate , between the train stations Tschern ( Russian Чернь ) and Mzensk , Russian Empire , at route kilometer 316 of the railway line Moscow-Kursk , an express train after damage to the substructure of a railway embankment . 42 people died.

Starting position

At the later site of the accident, the route ran on a railway embankment up to 27 meters high, which also crossed a body of water. Water flowing against the dam was passed through two cast iron pipes under the dam. On June 29, 1882, it rained very heavily in the area. The flow clogged and the water backed up against the embankment and softened it. The crew of a train that passed the scene of the accident reported the damage at the next station. That was of no use, however, because the telegraphic connection was also interrupted due to the storm.

the accident

When the pressure of the water against the embankment became too high, it broke and was washed into the gorge. The tracks hung in the air. In this situation, the following express train ("mail train") drove into the danger zone without warning and crashed into the gap that had arisen. Subsequent water and mud covered the wreckage of the crashed vehicles .

consequences

42 people died and 35 others were injured. Among the dead was a nephew of the writer Ivan Turgenev , Nikolai Turgenev.

The clean-up work turned out to be very difficult because the wagons were partly buried in the mud. Military was deployed, but the work could not be completed until July 15, 1882. The military cordoned off a large area of ​​the accident site. The journalist Vladimir Gilyarovsky managed, albeit without permission, to get to the scene of the accident and report on the clean-up work for two weeks. This led to severe public criticism of the railroad, because this was not the first major accident on the Russian railways, but the first to be widely reported and discussed in public. The allegation of corruption in the award of construction work was also brought against those responsible for the railway . The railway accident contributed to the fact that from now on the booming technical progress in Russia was viewed more critically by the Russian public. The accident was therefore repeatedly processed literary, so u. a. with Anton Chekhov , Lev Tolstoy and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Geoff Conly, Graham Stewart: Tragedy on the Track: Tangiwai & other New Zealand Railway Accidents. Wellington 1986, ISBN 978-1-86934-008-7 , p. 181, gives the number of 150 deaths, which contradicts the Russian sources.
  2. ↑ : Anton Chekhov: Тайны ста сорока четырёх катастроф, или Русский Рокамболь / Tainy sta soroka tschetyrjoch katastrof, ili Ruszky Rokambol (Secrets of 144 disasters or Russian Rocambole) and Счастливчик / Stschastliwtschik (Lucky).
  3. ^ Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy. In: В чём моя вера? / W tschom moja wera? (What my faith is in).
  4. ↑ Mikhail Yevgrafowitsch Saltykow-Schchedrin: Современная идиллия / Sovremennaja idillija (Modern Idyll).

Coordinates: 53 ° 25 ′ 16.8 ″  N , 36 ° 45 ′ 37.4 ″  E