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The bonds of tragedy. Relatives of those killed September 11 say

On the morning of September 11, 2001, young financier Alexander Lygin, as usual, went up to the Cantor Fitzgerald office on the 104th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York. 46 minutes later, an American Airlines jet rammed a skyscraper five floors below at nearly 800 kilometers per hour, cutting off all emergency exits.

There is a unique video on the net: a tourist filming at the foot of a 110-story tower pointed the camera up a second before the tragedy. You can see how the plane crashes into concrete. In the next frame, the liner has already completely entered the tower, but 60 tons of kerosene have not yet exploded. We can say that this is the last frame of America of the XX century. After 1/30 of a second, the walls of the skyscraper begin to swell and shards of glass shatter.

Not a single person who was on the upper floors could get out. Some managed to get through on mobile phones, most often in order to say goodbye to loved ones. Cantor Fitzgerald leased from the 101st to the 105th floor in the North Tower. All 658 employees of the company were killed, it ranks first in the number of victims of the September 11 attacks. Sasha Lygin was 28 years old. On October 20, 2001, his wedding with a Ukrainian girl was scheduled.

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"Two candles are like two towers." Anniversary of the tragedy

by Radio Liberty

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0:00 0:27:29 0:00

25-year-old Marina Herzberg from Odessa has a similar fate. She arrived in New York as a three-year-old baby. Marina was also at the Cantor Fitzgerald office, where she got a job just a week before the attacks. A graduate of the prestigious Peter Stuyvesant High School in New York and Binghampton College, a brilliant career awaited. And suddenly a cliff - sharp, black, irrevocable.

Now, 21 years later, images of the falling Twin Towers have become entrenched in pop culture. The smallest details of these shots have been studied. The terrifying 105 minutes in Manhattan went beyond the limits of previous ideas about civilization, and they are immersed again and again.

Attacks occur suddenly and take their victims by surprise. Twelve of the dead were of Ukrainian origin: fireman Ivan Skala, who died in the South Tower saving people, Oleg Vengerchuk, who worked there, young policeman Russell Timoshenko, financier Alexander Braginsky, Lyudmila Ksido, Gennady Boyarsky, Elena Belelovskaya, Marina Herzberg, Yuri Mushinsky, Vladimir Savinkin, Boris Khalif, Igor Tsukerman, Tatyana Bakalinskaya. They came to New York from the former USSR and spoke the same language.

Roman Herzberg, Marina's father, arrived with his family in the US in 1979

– How will you celebrate September 11 this year?

- As always. Those who have the strength go to the memorial in the morning, and at 4 in the afternoon we have our own ceremony in a park in Brooklyn, where there is a monument to our children.

– Has everything been done in New York to adequately honor the memory of the victims?

– In principle, yes. People of different nationalities died, and there are many private memorials. We built a separate memorial for the Russian-speaking families of those who died. Many people live in Brooklyn, and it's easier for them to come here. We have a covered area if it rains or the sun is strong. People can sit and chat, so we meet there.

– Given what is happening in Ukraine, has there been tension between the relatives of those killed in the September 11 attacks?

- Absolutely not. Everyone I talked to supports Ukraine. We have people who have come from Georgia, we have people who have come from Russia, who are dissatisfied with the Russian government and speak openly about it. Many of us help people in Ukraine, they help women with children to leave.

Ari Kagan is a member of the New York City Council for the 47th congressional district. He represents the interests of people in the Coney Island and Brighton Beach neighborhoods, where thousands of Russian-speaking immigrants from the former USSR live. Kagan arrived in the US from Belarus over 30 years ago.

– There are many Russian speakers among those killed on September 11th. Given what is happening in Ukraine now, is there tension between the relatives of these people?

- No tension, no friction, all these people were united by misfortune, grief, loss of relatives. There has never been any division into Georgians, Russians, Jews, Ukrainians in this group. Invited to the annual remembrance at the September 11 Memorial Park in Brooklyn. Both the priest and the rabbi came, and there was never any division, and there has never been any division even now. All were united by one misfortune, one grief, the loss of loved ones. These families are very friendly with each other, support each other, always communicate, get together. The misfortune and grief united them, I do not see any friction, and this year there are absolutely no changes.

– Where were you that day?

- I was lucky that day, because I worked in the newspaper, the editorial office was in lower Manhattan (next to the WTC towers), but it so happened that on that day there were elections to the city council, elections of the mayor, and I had to cover these elections in the Russian-speaking community. Therefore, the editor asked me to stay in Brighton and go there by 9 o'clock in the morning to the Jewish center, where there was a large polling station, to talk with Russian-speaking voters, to make a report on who they vote for. And I didn't go to Manhattan that day. When I pulled up at 9hours on Brighton, I saw televisions in electronics stores, and on all the screens there was this horror. At the beginning, people gathered, could not believe at all that this was not some kind of phantasmagoric horror film, but the realities of Manhattan.

Later that day, ash from Manhattan started flying to Brighton, because the ash was flying all over the city, half of Manhattan was covered in ash. On this day, I was lucky that I did not go to Manhattan and the trouble passed me. But I know people who, unfortunately, the trouble has not passed. I am currently a member of the New York City Council. But then I worked for a newspaper. When I came to America, I worked at the beginning in the newspaper "Jewish World", I then interviewed a man named Alex Braginsky, he then worked in a large financial company and was a volunteer in the organization to help new emigrants "Nayana". So he came to Brooklyn and gave a free seminar for those who wanted to get a job in the financial industry. He conducted this seminar in the Jewish center of the Benson-Hurst quarter, I did a long interview with him.

Who would have thought that on September 11, 2001, he would host a large Reuters conference on the 101st floor of one of the World Trade Center towers, where he then worked as vice president of marketing. Alex died in the first minutes of the attacks. And when I saw his name on the lists of the dead, I realized that I knew him. In the very first days of the tragedy, it so happened that, as a journalist and as a caring person, I met almost 30 families of those who died in the September 11 attacks. They have become close people for me. I was also a TV presenter then, I also had them on television, I was present at all the events that this organization held, a group of families of victims of September 11, I was at the opening of a memorial square in Brooklyn in Sea Breeze Park. There, in recent years, apparently, the memorial does not suit someone, there were even acts of vandalism, unfortunately.

These people, relatives of those who died on September 11, have become close and dear to me, I value and respect them very much. The terrorists wanted to destroy the flower of the nation, so they targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Those who died there are very successful people, very gifted. And no one made out, especially in the first days after the attacks, and in this group too - then and now (after the start of the war in Ukraine) - who was what nationality. The misfortune and grief have united everyone, everyone has supported each other for many years.

21-year-old Vladimir Savinkin was one of the youngest employees of Cantor Fitzgerald. Together with his family, Vladimir moved to New York from Odessa in 1996 when he was 16 years old. He started out as a pizza delivery boy in Brooklyn, studied at the same time with excellent marks at Pace University in Manhattan, worked in accounting offices and finally "took off" on the 101st floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center.

"For him," says his father Valery Savinkin, "the beginning was especially difficult." Young Savinkin left his first love in Odessa and missed home so much that, once in the USA, he immediately began to save money for the return trip. That trip at 1997 lasted only two weeks, Savinkina's girlfriend had long ago found another, and Vladimir's relationship with his old friends went wrong. “It was an awakening journey,” his father says. “Vladik realized that Odessa was no more for him and that his new life was in America. He became extremely focused and never looked back.”

Radio Liberty correspondent visited the Savinkins' house in Brooklyn in 2011 and recorded Valery's story about the hours when he was desperately trying to get through to his son:

"About nine o'clock the boss came in. And he said to me, 'Listen, there's something like a fire in the Gemini.' I looked out the window, saw smoke, but I was looking from the direction of the river. "I didn't see. I just saw some kind of smoke. Somehow I didn't even attach such catastrophic significance to it right away. Another ten seconds passed, of course, I immediately began to dial his phone number. No one answered. And then I was thrown "I realized that things were bad. I ran to the Path Train (electric train). It was not yet nine o'clock. That is, it was all between the first and second plane. And then I saw some kind of sparkle. And only then I realized that this is the second plane. From that moment, of course, I did not know where to go. I ran along the shore and looked at what I saw (Valery Savinkin became an eyewitness to the attacks, since his office was located across the river directly opposite the WTC towers). And I called , and called and called home.I ran back to my office in the hope that Vladik would call me if he was mobile. i connection is not working. That will call my landline. I sat down near the phone, tried not to leave, but everyone was at work, crowded around the TV. Although the same thing that was on TV could be seen in the window, something else was being said on TV. So we sat by the phones. It is clear that we are generally non-believers. But at such moments, at such moments you start to pray. On TV they showed how the south tower falls. The south tower fell first. And I only pray that the north tower does not fall. Let them save. I understand that someone is there to save someone, but when the tower falls, there is no one to save. I only pray that the north tower will remain standing. And at that moment the order came that we all leave. We go outside. And here I see how the tower where my son worked is falling."

For New York, the World Trade Center's twin towers were the hallmark of the city. On white T-shirts with the famous I Love NY logo, images of these skyscrapers served as the background most often. We later learned that Osama bin Laden had a particular dislike for these towers; in his eyes, they were a symbol of American power and arrogance: two multi-storey phalluses directed to the sky, who generally do not care what is happening in the world. From 1972 to 1974, the "twins" were the tallest buildings on the planet.

Valery Savinkin continues his story:

“My wife and I went to Manhattan. Why did we go? Because we had hope. We prepared postcards with Vadik’s portrait. he went out to drink coffee at that moment. We, like everyone else, came up with ways to save him. And there were many of them. We will find out later that there were such cases, but this is simply not our case. Someone did not have time and was late for work. Well "It happened anyway. And so, we went. I remember how my wife and I were sitting on the train, there were few people on the train, no one was going anywhere, especially to Manhattan - where it all happened. And now, a few our fellow travelers in the train, looking at us, seemed to understand what had happened. So we hoped and put up these leaflets with his data: weight, height, portrait. These were one of the first leaflets. Then there were a lot of them. Then we began to go around hospitals, no one knows why, because no one told the truth. released a list of hospitals where the wounded could allegedly go. This was done, probably, in order to psychologically soften the truth. People who were witnesses from outside - it was easier for them to understand that this is all absurd, that if there are no wounded, then there are no wounded, what kind of hospitals are there? But for us this was not an argument, and every day we went to these hospitals, and this went on for a month, probably. "

Valery Savinkin, interviewed in 2011, is one of the founders of the Families of 9/11 Victims group. Savinkin was also chairman of the Odessa community in New York. He passed away in March 2016. Now one of the major intersections in Brooklyn is named after him - the intersection of Coney Island Avenue with Brighton Beach Avenue.

Five floors above Vladimir Savinkin's office in the North Tower was a business breakfast scheduled for this morning at Windows of the World, a chic restaurant on the 106th floor of the North Tower. Alexander (Alex) Braginsky, a 38-year-old manager of the Reuters financial agency, was about to give a lecture on vocational training for newcomers to the Association of New Americans. Braginsky replaced a colleague who could not come that day. Like Vladimir Savinkin, Braginsky came to America from Odessa at 1979 at the age of 16 and quickly made a career. In 1991, Vladimir Molchanov, the host of the popular television program Before and After Midnight, featured it in an episode dedicated to the new Russian Americans. Braginsky was happily married and lived with his wife in the wealthy city of Stamford, Connecticut.

Alex's mother, Nellya Braginskaya, is speaking. Interview with Radio Liberty correspondent recorded in 2011:

"I'm going to work, my husband is too, and he says," Oh, go look!" And I go into the living room, I think: "Is there nothing to do? You look at some kind of dog nonsense. What kind of stupid movie is this?" And suddenly I see that this is not a movie, this is the World Trade Center. And I start calling Shurik, find out where he is, I didn’t know that he was there, tell him what is happening in the city, what he is unlikely to get home today, that there is a misfortune, that maybe something is needed. And the answering machine answers me that he will not be at work for two days, the conference was designed for two days. I start calling his boss, asking:

– Where is Alex?

- Alex at the conference.

– Where?

- I don't know.

I call the second boss, higher rank:

– Where is the conference?

- I don't know.

- How do you not know, you sent people there?

- I think it's on Lexington Avenue (about five kilometers from the World Trade Center).

They were afraid to say, they didn't know what else was wrong with him. This just happened. And we did not know, of course, all night and understood that no one would come out of there. He was on the 106th floor, and the plane crashed into the 84th. And Shurik's wallet was found the next day, September 12. I gave them the wallet to the museum. There was his pass, credit cards, money. All this was crushed, mangled, the wallet was dense, small, made of thick leather. I then realized that, apparently, Shurka jumped out of the window. That's how I feel, because they didn't find it. Firstly, he is not the kind of person who will wait for him to suffocate and die slowly. And the wallet was found on the second day, it is not clear how they found it. He didn't call, I called all the time, I didn't know he was there. "Shurik, where are you?" And he didn't answer. I understand that, of course, he also threw away the phone, because to say: "Mom, I'm dying ..." We were very close, just very good friends. And in general, I don’t remember when he called me mom. All "Nellek" yes "Nellek". And so I was "Nellek" all my life. She knew all his secrets, he consulted about girls and friends. Well, we were just really close friends. And he couldn't say, "Mom, I'm dying."

Nellya Braginskaya lives with her husband Mikhail in Staten Island, New York. Braginskaya made a lot of efforts to make the September 11 tragedy remembered not only in America, but throughout the world, especially in Israel. With her active assistance in Jerusalem, not far from the Wailing Wall, a memorial plate to the victims of September 11 was installed. A park in the city of Haifa in Israel is named after Alex Braginsky. The mother continues her story.

"The conference was supposed to be held at the World Trade Center, and the place was not determined in advance, but then they told me that Shurik chose the place. Guests arrived from everywhere, he really wanted everyone to have the opportunity to admire New York, but where to look, how not from the height of the World Trade Center? And here it was on the 106th floor, and the restaurant there was called Windows of the World ("Windows of the World", in the North Tower). And usually they were open only for lunch. And for breakfast they never opened, only at 12 pm But since Reuters asked, representatives of the company come from everywhere, there was breakfast at 8 o’clock, and the manager girl came, and a completely new, young girl (Christina Olender, died during the terrorist attack along with everyone 72 employees of the restaurant). As usual, they served bagels with all sorts of nonsense, sandwiches. And Shurik was there, he was a mandatory person, he was never late, he traveled by train to work from Connecticut to New York, the train drove straight to The World Trade Center, there was a stop, he was in a suit, without a coat ... That was the time when perestroika began and when heads of institutions, ministers began to arrive from Russia, you probably remember this time? They came to study, and Shurik chose the World Trade Center so that everyone could see New York."

The remains of more than 1100 people have never been found. During the fall of the towers, crumbling concrete and metal crushed everything, including the bodies of the dead. Months later, all this was removed from the scene of the tragedy, and it turned out to be impossible to reliably identify their remains. The last identification of the deceased in the attacks was made in 2021 - 20 years after the tragedy - using the latest DNA technology.

Nellya Braginskaya continues her story.

"I could not believe and did not believe until they found a piece of Shurik - a bone 2 centimeters in size. I did not see it open, I could not see it. It was wrapped in cellophane, tied with a black ribbon. I understand that this is either a kneecap or from another joint, because it is rounded like that. And I didn’t bury, I was still waiting, because they found a piece all the time. And one of our Russian speakers, in my opinion, buried it three times, they found the head for the third time, and mother was told that they had found it. Well, this is generally idiotic ... "

I myself managed on foot that day to reach a distance of about 300 meters from the destroyed towers. Huge flames blazed, and the fire burned even there. On the way there, I passed two hospitals that were already lined up in front of - three hours after the attacks - huge lines of volunteers to donate blood. However, judging by what was shown on TV, it was obvious that there would be no one to transfuse blood. In the end, only six people were rescued from the rubble alive.

Nella Braginskaya continues:

"The devil is going on in America now, but back then everyone was really together. You can't imagine. There was a queue, thousands, thousands of people, people were standing on Lexington Avenue. it was hot, even though it was September. They brought boxes of water, napkins, garbage bags to immediately throw it away, pizza, bagels (bagels), who had what, who sold what, cookies, everything was carried. Strangers came up , hugged, cried, the whole of Lexington was in photographs."

After the tragedy, family members of the Russian-speaking victims of the September 11 attacks created their own group and, with the consent of the Brooklyn administration, erected a memorial on September 11 in Seaside Park near the embankment on Brighton Beach. The memorial plate with the names of 18 Russian-speaking victims that day is located in the shade of the branches of a small weeping willow. Every year, families gather here to honor the memory of their loved ones. They often sing two songs composed by the band members themselves: "Mother's Prayer" and "Two Candles Like Two Towers".

In November 2001, the city began issuing death certificates based on the testimony of witnesses, and the Savinkin family received an urn of earth. The identifiable remains of the deceased Savinkin were discovered in 2002-2003 and buried in one grave. In 2007, a memorial plaque was erected to Savinkin at secondary school No. 83 in his native Odessa.

Alex Braginsky was an only child. The Braginsky family received $800,000 in compensation for their son, and his mother donated $200,000 to Queens College to have a conference hall named after him and a scholarship fund in his name. At first everything went smoothly, but then Braginskaya found out that the college had not awarded scholarships since 2008. She threatened legal action and in return received a counter-threatening letter that if she initiated legal action, the remaining money would be placed in an escrow account and that her son's college slab would be removed.

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