57 Hours: A Survivor's Account of the Moscow Hostage Drama

This was the story of the Moscow Theatre Hostage incident that took place in Moscow in 2002. Fifty armed Chechens took 850 people hostage and demanded that the Russian war against the Chechnya be halted. Of course, Russia does not negotiate at all with terrorists. The hostages were actually more scared of the Russians who were going to mount the rescue attempt than they were of the terrorists. After 57 hours a gas was pumped into the building which caused everybody to pass out. Russian troopers then stormed the building and killed all terrorists (who were passed out) and disarmed all the bombs. There was very little shooting as the gas incapacitated all. All the terrorists died and 170 of the hostages, only 3 from gunshots; the rest show more from the gas. To this day, all the Russians will say that is was vaporized fentanyl, which is a anesthesia. However, Russian and German doctors say that other unidentified gasses were found in the bloodstream of both survivors and those that died. This was a very grim book, but also told the story of Russian oppression of Chechnya. It may no longer be the Soviet Union, but Putin still runs it like Stalin. I cried several times while reading this book. 229 pages show less