Age 34, from Moscow, Russia

She was born February 15th, 1968, in the city of Moscow.  In 1985 she graduated with honors from Middle School #6.  Along with her general studies, she finished music school in the violin.  That same year she entered the Mendeleev Chemical Technical Institute in Moscow.  During her studies at the institute she worked under T. E. Tsupak, PhD candidate.  In recognition of her perfect work at the institute she received a trip to Hungary in 1989.  She graduated in 1991 with a degree in electrochemistry. 

After graduation she was sent to the TEhMP television factory.  That same year she married, and on March 26th, 1992, her daughter Natalya Kunova was born.  After finishing her work-study at the factory, she found work as a senior consultant in one of the fashion boutiques in Moscow, «Interoptika», and worked there until her death, right up to that awful day, October 23rd, 2002.

One must mention that Svetlana was very creative in raising her daughter, as well as being a remarkable mother she was for Natasha like a girlfriend or an older sister, and dedicated all her free time to her.  Svetlana and her daughter traveled overseas a lot, both on vacation and in the dance troupe which Natalya joined.  Svetlana passed on not just her taste for fashion, but introduced her to culture, bringing her along to the theater and concerts, to every possible art exhibition.  Everything was the basis of 10 year-old Natasha's education (for this was the age when Svetlana died).  Who could dream that one day she would not return from a visit to the theater.

We have a large family, and Svetlana was literally one of the brightest, most pure, and kindest of people, the kind whom they say is «a person with a great big heart and soul».  There was never anyone whom she did not want to help or rescue from grief.  She was very kind and affable, and everything she set her mind to she finished with an «A+».  No matter what difficulties in her life, she knew how to conquer these, to make it through the hard times, and move ahead, never looking back.

Besides this, Svetlana was a strikingly beautiful and elegant woman.  She understood fashion and how to dress for effect.  She also knew how to select luxury items and interiors.  She furnished her home with love, and even taught us. She was a true interior decorator.  She was always out ahead of us, and dragging us along.  Everyone compared themselves to her, and wished to be just like her, but, alas, such people as her are born but rarely, while they die, strangely enough, very early.  You never have a chance to say everything you wanted, or do the things you wanted, whatever you have done you never get out of life all the beauty and joy, then suddenly it is all over. «The best of us»

For our whole family those days have become the blackest and most terrible.  It seemed that there were no forebodings, but there were signs nonetheless.  Several days before the tragedy, Sveta had a strange dream.  She told to no one what it was, but afterwards she called all her friends and asked if anything bad had happened to them.  Then she assumed that something bad had not happened to someone else, but was to happen to her.  The second sign, to which she paid no attention on that day, was her daughter's desire not to go to «Nord-Ost».  Natasha resisted in every way possible, and tried to talk Svetlana out of going, but Svetlana refused, because she wanted very much to take her loving daughter to that musical.

That day Svetlana and her daughter became hostages of Chechen terrorists at Dubrovka.  Through some miracle Natasha made it out — when they began to release the foreigners' children, Svetlana handed her a cell phone and told her to go with the other children.  A Chechen woman let the daughter go into the corridor and out onto the street, almost undressed, without any outer clothing and only in a blouse.  A boy walked with her down the hallway, and his mother unfortunately also died.  Later Natasha called grandma and grandpa and home, and they came and got her at the theater building on Dubrovka.

They say that time flies, but such a wound is impossible to heal.  It has been six years since the day of her death, the senseless and absurd death of our Sveta, but we will never cease remembering her.  Continuing to grow up is Natasha, her daughter, for whom Sveta gave all, and who took from her mother all the best.  Yes, she is already 16, and for the last six years she has lived without her MOTHER!  Only Natasha knows how much she misses her mother, but she holds on and is growing up a good girl to the joy of grandma and grandpa.  She gets good grades and studies at the music, English, and art schools, and takes part in dance.  We thank the Lord that she was not taken with Sveta, and that Natasha is still with us, because it means that a little piece of Svetlana still lives among us, bringing us joy and giving us the strength to live on.  I think that if Sveta were still alive, she would be very proud.

By Ekaterina Bugakova, her niece   

A poem dedicated to Svetlana: here

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