We were having practice on the third floor of the theatrical center on Dubrovka at the same time the show was going on. We were sitting and listening to music when some man walked in. He was armed. The Chechen spoke and I heard the words whose terrible meaning did not come to me until much later: «What beautiful children!» They took us down to the concert hall. The show had been stopped and the audience was standing in the aisles holding their hands over their heads.

Oleg Savtsov:
When the Chechens came running into the building on Dubrovka, I was very frightened for my mother. They were sitting below in the makeup room, waiting for me to get done with practice. The bandits had not gotten to them — mama locked the door. She was fortunate, because three hours later the OMON (Russian SWAT-type police — ed.) released her. But I stayed with the others and worried about my family. I talked with papa on a cell phone Arseny gave me. Arseny and Kristina were also in our children's troupe, but they died. They were 13. I still don't know what happened to them.

One time I was very scared. They told us that Primakov was to come to the negotiations. For some reason the Chechens got very excited by this news, and ran about. Some of them took up fighting positions right between the rows in the auditorium. The Chechens tied themselves to each other with wires. We understood that they were now getting ready to blow everyone up. Apparently they thought that the special forces would come for them when Primakov arrived. Nikita Zabolotny, Mishka Filippov, and I lay down on the floor and waited for them to blow us up.

One day they brought an old man into the auditorium, all covered in blood. The Chechens said that he was looking for his son Roma. They ordered all the children to stand up who had this name. Our little 'Romka' Shmakov got up, but the Chechens said a different last name. The whole auditorium watched the terrorists put their gun barrels to the temples of the captured man. They beat him so hard on the head that blood gushed out. Later they led him away somewhere. Someone said that the Chechens shot him. Our Romka was so frightened that he started to hiccup. I thought then that childhood is over. This was no cinema. In real life everything is much worse. But I try not to remember this, though sometimes my throat is tight when they show the assault on television.

Nikita Zabolotny:
We talked to the adult actors using gestures. They gave us moral support, and we — them. People on the balcony fed us by tossing us candy. We were not bored and we entertained each other as best we could. Some of us, the little ones, they cried. When the assault began we all had one feeling, get it over with and let us go home. We were unbelievably tired. We waited and hoped for the assault. There was a lot that was frightening. For example, I saw men with the backs of their heads all bloody. Later they told me that the most fanatical (gunmen) had beaten them with rifle butts. For some reason our balletmeister, a frail little woman, did not fall asleep when they released the gas. The assault began and she raised her head and knew that it was time to run outside. She tried to wake everyone up, but they only snored back at her. Then she tried to climb down a rope by one hand, in her other she had her bag with her passport.

Someone told me that she knocked me about, but apparently I had too much gas, got stupid and went wandering off. At the exit an OMON man said: «Hey fellow, go and sit in the van.» I went and sat in the nearest minivan. In twenty minutes a policeman with an assault rifle looked inside and had a fright — he took me for a terrorist. It turned out that I got into the minivan that the Chechens arrived in on the night they captured the building.

Slava Romanov:
When they took over the building at Dubrovka I was in the makeup room. We closed and barricaded the door. OMON men soon rescued us. They cut through the grate on the window and I crawled out. The Chechens never noticed us. There was no shooting. When they brought us to the headquarters after our rescue, they calmed us down and said that all the children managed to escape. At home on the television I heard that this was not true, and I knew that my friends were still hostages. I was terribly worried about the guys, and the whole time I wanted to run in there and help them. After all, 'Nord-Ost' was our second home and all the actors were like family.

Sasha Rozovskaya revealed this to a woman correspondent from a Greek radio station:
Had there been no deaths then we would have survived this must easier. But we cannot forget.

The children were accompanied in Greece by special correspondents Gennady CHARODEEV from 'Izvestiya' and Igor KARAVAEV of 'Interfax'.

Athens/Moscow