Hundreds of people who were in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow during the terrorist attack on March 22 were saved thanks to the staff of the concert complex - simple cloakroom attendants and ticket takers who helped coordinate the crowd and managed to get visitors outside in time. Many of these heroes are not even 18 years old; they worked part-time at Crocus to save money for their little dreams: some for a computer, others for an iPhone.

On March 25, the State Duma announced that schoolchildren who helped lead people out of a building attacked by terrorists were planning to be nominated for departmental and state awards. Now the names of six teenagers who worked at Crocus on the evening of March 22 have been included in the award lists.

RT talked to the young heroes and found out how they saved people who were in the concert complex at the time of the terrorist attack.

Victoria Volchikhina, 15 years old

15-year-old Victoria Volchikhina worked at Crocus City Hall on the day of the terrorist attack. According to her, the shift began calmly: the girl stood in the wardrobe for about an hour, taking clothes from visitors. Then shots were heard in the building.

  • Victoria Volchikhina

  • © Photo from personal archive

Victoria and her colleagues quickly figured out the situation and began to lead people out of the danger zone. Their actions were coordinated by radio by senior colleagues.

“At first, when we heard the shots, we thought: maybe these were some kind of special effects, firecrackers... Then my partner ran up to me and ordered me to take the people out. We started running out, shouting to the visitors to run to the exit with us too. We walked through the office premises, directed people - they did not understand where to go. We brought out about 30 people this way,” says Victoria.

According to the girl, on that terrible evening, the instructions that Crocus City Hall employees regularly receive helped her a lot: they explain to employees in detail how to behave in an emergency situation. Such briefings took place before each concert, the girl noted.

The mother of the young heroine, Alena, told RT that before the terrorist attack at Crocus, her daughter worked there for six months. The woman learned about the tragedy at the concert complex when Vika suddenly called her during her shift.

“There was great concern in her voice. She said: “Mom, there is a terrorist attack.” I dropped everything and went after her. When I arrived, we immediately rushed to each other, hugged, and burst into tears,” says the woman.

According to her, at the time of the meeting Victoria was still in a state of shock. The realization that she managed to save people came only the next day.

“In life she is quite modest, but if some situations happen, she pulls herself together and immediately begins to act as she was taught. Both at school and at home, every time we talk about how to behave in an emergency situation,” said the heroine’s mother.

She added that Victoria is finishing ninth grade this year; she recently took graphic design courses and plans to continue her studies in this direction. Vika goes to art school, loves to draw and wants to become a volunteer to help animals.

Elizaveta Terekhova, 17 years old

17-year-old Elizaveta Terekhova worked as a ticket attendant near the concert hall in Crocus on March 22. That day, the girl was glad that for the first time she was assigned to check tickets at the entrance to the hall, because before that she had worked in the cloakroom for five months. Elizaveta caught the start of the shooting when she was standing on the second floor of the Crocus near the escalator and letting people into the hall.

  • Elizaveta Terekhova

  • © Photo from personal archive

“After the second ring, suddenly there was a bang. People got worried. Then I heard more shots. From the second floor you could see what was happening below. I looked out and saw a crowd of people running from the main entrance into the foyer. People began to ask me what to do, I told them not to panic and wait for instructions,” recalls Elizaveta.

Senior staff radioed the ticket attendants to go down the service stairs and lead the patrons downstairs, where security guards were already opening the doors to let people out. All this time shots were heard - Elizabeth saw flashes. She directed the crowd so that everyone could leave the danger zone.

“We told all the people to follow us - but where should they go? I ran, at some point my legs began to give way. It seemed to me that they shot at me, I stumbled,” says the young Crocus employee. 

“I ran and shouted to people to follow us. We ran to the glass doors, which the guards were opening at that moment so that people could get out. I tried to wrap my arms around the crowd so that no one would run away. We went out. There was blood all over the floor below,” the girl recalls.

Elizaveta and her colleagues led people out into the street along the fire escape; the crowd ran from Crocus City Hall across the Pavshinsky Bridge. In the end, everyone made it safely to a safe place.

Artyom Filimonov, 14 years old

14-year-old Artyom Filimonov is one of the youngest Crocus employees who helped evacuate visitors during the terrorist attack. The teenager told RT that most of the workers in the cloakroom and ticket control at Crocus are schoolchildren or students. According to him, children under 17 years of age are usually placed in the cloakroom - on the day of the tragedy, Artyom also accepted visitors’ clothes in a room on the ground floor of the building.

  • Artyom Filimonov

  • © Photo from personal archive

Five minutes before the third bell, shooting started in Crocus, the young man recalls. There was panic and confusion among the visitors. Artyom and his colleagues began coordinating the actions of the crowd to help frightened people evacuate.

“When the crowd entered the service corridors, I tried to coordinate people - we were given instructions on what to do in the event of a terrorist attack. When we went outside, I tried to somehow calm down the visitors. Then all the people ran to Vegas (one of the Crocus buildings. -

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),” says Artyom.

According to him, on March 22, everyone tried to help each other. One of the most terrible episodes of that evening for Artyom was the stampede in the basement of the Crocus - the crowd tried to squeeze through the narrow doors in order to run out of the building.

“The most striking episode is just one shot where I’m standing in this crowd that is still trying to squeeze through this door. This is the moment when I experienced my greatest fear. When this whole crowd squeezes through, squeezes through, and the sounds of machine gun fire - they just get closer and closer, louder and louder,” says RT’s interlocutor.

As a result, Artyom Filimonov managed to save himself and help dozens of people who found themselves in a building attacked by terrorists. The young man says that, despite his strong fear, in an emergency situation he tried to help not himself, but others.

Artyom’s parents told RT that the guy decided to work part-time at Crocus in the hope of saving up for a laptop, which he had long dreamed of. After the terrorist attack, Artyom donated all the money he had saved to help the victims.

Artyom Donskov, 14 years old

Artyom Donskov is another young hero who saved Crocus visitors during the terrorist attack. When the shooting started, he was one of the first to leave his sector and helped lead a hundred people out of the building. According to him, at first the crowd of frightened visitors ran to a dead end - the young man noticed this in time and directed people towards the exit.

  • Artyom Donskov

  • © Photo from personal archive

“We realized that now was the moment when we needed to act, and we began to take everyone to the emergency exit. The hall is designed for 7 thousand people, almost always full. It’s good that it all started before the start of the concert, because otherwise (with a full landing. -

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) it would have been very difficult to evacuate everyone,” says the young man.

He noted that during the evacuation there were no injuries with him and his colleagues, but people were very panicked. Artyom tried to calm everyone down and, when the emergency exit opened, he escorted people out into the street and made sure everyone got out. Only when he got home did the teenager fully realize what had happened.

“When I returned home and saw my mother, I hugged her and told her that I loved her very much. For a couple of hours, the state was incomprehensible, but closer to night, awareness came and fear appeared. It was scary and sorry for those who stayed in Crocus,” says the young man.

Artyom grows up in a large family. He went to work at Crocus to save up for a laptop and iPhone. They have already given him a laptop - at the school where Donskov studies, they learned about the student’s heroism and presented him with such a gift.

Nikita Ivanov, 17 years old

17-year-old Nikita Ivanov was also working in the cloakroom on the ground floor of Crocus at the time of the terrorist attack. When people began to run away after hearing the shooting, Nikita received instructions from the manager via radio: to take everyone out into the street along the career ladder.

“There was a senior man, a boss, he coordinated our actions. Along the evacuation route, they told us on the radio where to take people out, and we took them out in a coordinated manner,” Nikita explained.

According to him, at some point a strong crush began in the room on the ground floor of Crocus. We had to calm people down so that everyone could go outside calmly.

“People tried to get into the door, there was a terrible crush, there was not enough air. I somehow squeezed through and ran to the service headquarters. Girls ran from there, they said that we need to go to the service exit and get people out. We somehow tried to calm everyone down, and in the end we took the visitors outside,” recalls RT’s interlocutor.

Nikita and his colleagues escorted people along the street towards the Strogino metro station. According to the young man, it was a large crowd - more than 100 people. Once safe, people gradually began to disperse.

Alexander Zhurik, 16 years old

Alexander Zhurik, who worked at Crocus on March 22, together with his colleagues helped people evacuate from the burning building.

  • Alexander Zhurik

  • © Photo from personal archive

The young man told RT that during the emergency he acted strictly according to instructions and eventually managed to bring several dozen visitors out onto the street.

After the tragedy, Alexander realized that he had previously seen one of the terrorists in Crocus - this was two weeks before the attack, on March 7. According to the young man, a suspicious man walked around the lobby and probably studied the layout of the premises. The teenager recognized the terrorist when his photo was shown on the news after the tragedy. He identified him by his jacket.

On March 7, a suspicious man approached Alexander several times. The first time, Zhurik invited him to return his outerwear to the wardrobe, but he left. Half an hour later he returned and asked the young man a question that he could not understand: “He spoke Russian poorly.”

Diana Monakhova, 15 years old

15-year-old Diana, like other teenagers, worked in the wardrobe on the day of the terrorist attack. She told RT that she took two people out of Crocus.

  • Diana Monakhova

  • © Photo from personal archive

When the shooting started, she ran to warn her friend. Together with her and another girl, they hid in the toilet, but soon smelled burning. Diana decided to leave:

“When we went out into the service corridor, there was already smoke there. We turned the corner and nothing was visible there anymore. Due to the fact that these girls rarely work, I just told them to run after me... We ran out into the street with them.”

The girl also identified one of the terrorists. According to her, he was in the concert hall on March 7, he behaved strangely: he walked from wardrobe to wardrobe and just looked around. He didn’t answer her questions, and when she suggested he take the binoculars, he simply grinned.