This story is about the most ordinary Russian girl, a girl with a huge and kind heart, who at the age of 13 accomplished a real human feat, and they don’t talk about her on numerous talk shows, they don’t interview her, because she’s not a scandalous person, which means “not rating”...
Many people remember the tragedy that occurred with schoolchildren on June 18, 2016 on Syamozero in Karelia, as a result of which 14 children died. The schoolchildren went for a boat ride, a storm began and the boat capsized. No safety measures were taken, the management was confused and did not call rescuers in time. Therefore, the children had to rely only on themselves and save themselves.
13-year-old Yulia Korol managed to escape and tried with all her might to help her friends. She managed to pull many out alive, and she pulled some out of the water without any signs of life...
And it was this girl, and not those people whose direct responsibilities included this, who called the Ministry of Emergency Situations for help and reported the tragedy to the residents of the nearest village. 
It is impossible to imagine how Yulia herself managed to survive in ice water, help your instructor not to drown and also save other children. And then she walked through an impenetrable forest with an injured leg and only reached the nearest village at 10 am.
Rescuers arrived at the scene of the tragedy only 20 hours after the incident, and only because Yulia managed to inform them about it.
Yulia has only a brother and grandmother, this is her whole family and her closest people. After terrible tragedy 4 psychologists worked with the girl, trying to bring her out of shock. But she almost didn’t listen to them, she lay motionless on the bed and talked to her drowned friends, whose death she saw with her own eyes: “Zhenya, is that you here?” - Julia asked Zhenya, who was no longer alive.
The girl blamed herself for not being able to save everyone. But she really tried, tried and prayed for her salvation and the salvation of her friends. She is sure that it was the prayer that her grandmother taught her that gave her the strength to hold out in cold water and survive by saving others.
Yulin’s brother also survived and this was a great joy for her, because she has no one closer to her grandmother and brother... 
Behind last year The families of the dead children were never able to recover from the tragedy.
The tragedy in Karelia occurred on June 18, 2016. 47 children, who arrived at the beginning of the month to relax at the camp of the Park Hotel Syamozero LLC, accompanied by four adults, went on a hike on the lake on a raft and two tourist canoes. Due to the increased wind and the onset of a storm, waves of a meter in height formed on the lake, As a result, both canoes capsized, killing 14 schoolchildren, including a disabled child.
The first to come to the aid of children in trouble were employees of the tourist complex of the village of Kudama, which is located not far from the site of the tragedy. As the owner of the camp site, Nikolai Stolyarov, said, at about eight in the morning on June 19, Elena Reshetova, director of the Syamozero Park Hotel LLC, called him.
“She called and said that the children were missing, the group was not in touch and asked to go and see where they were and find out why they were not getting in touch. I saw that the waves on the lake were strong, I turned to the employees - Volodya and Andrey - and asked them to get on a large boat and look for the children. They went into the lake, and I walked along the shore and literally after 100 meters I began to find slippers and oars and realized that everything was not very good," Stolyarov said.
All the village residents went out in search of the children that day. According to huntsman Andrei Severikov, the search for children began first on the islands. “On the first island they found five people, then they found another girl on the next island, then three living and one dead boy, and two more girls. They brought 11 living people ashore,” he recalls.
Vladimir Dorofeev, who at that time was walking along the shore of one of the islands, discovered only the dead. “I took one girl out of the water, covered her with cellophane so that her eyes wouldn’t peck, and threw a vest over her. Then I found the boy’s body, which was stuck in the reeds, I tried to get it out three times, but I couldn’t because of the strong wave. I went to search further and about one and a half to two kilometers later, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations came out to meet me. I showed them where the children were and returned to the base," Dorofeev said.
The surviving children were first taken to one of the tourist bases. Here they were taken care of by the administrator of the camp site, Tatyana Kustysheva, together with colleagues Natalya Stolyarova and Anna Nikitina. The women immediately took the children to the bathhouse to warm up. “One girl said that she spent the night in the forest alone, slept on branches, covered herself with branches. Many had their legs scratched on the rocky bottom. They had practically no clothes,” recalls Tatyana.
Rescuers received information about the emergency at 11:15 on June 19 from residents of the village of Kudama. The girl Yulia Korol, who survived the storm, managed to get to them and told about what happened. As Sergei Shugaev, head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia for Karelia, told TASS, rescue units immediately went to the scene of the tragedy. But it was already too late.
Shugaev emphasized that the organizers of the campaign were notified about storm warning, but did not return to camp. It is known that the organizers of the campaign kept in touch with each other: they called on mobile phones. But they did not report what happened to emergency services.
“If we had received this information on June 18, then we would have saved 10-12 of the 14 children,” Shugaev said.
The surviving children found on the islands were promptly evacuated to the shore by boats of local residents, ships of the State Inspectorate for Small Boats and boats of the Karelian Republican Search and Rescue Service. When they started checking the lists, it turned out that one child was missing. Rescuers still had hope that he managed to survive. An extensive search began on the water, on the shore, and the scene of the tragedy was examined from the air. A total of 350 people were looking for the boy, including 42 divers; 29 watercraft and three helicopters and Falcon submersibles were involved.
“Somewhere on the third day we realized that, unfortunately, he probably drowned. On June 27, the boy’s body was discovered,” Shugaev said.
Moscow schoolgirl Yulia Korol showed real courage and bravery during that terrible tragedy. The girl, who was part of the group that went on a hike, not only managed to survive, but also saved several people during the storm. She reached the village of Kudama and reported the trouble that had happened.
As her grandmother, Galina Goncharova, said, the family’s life has not changed much over the past year.
“It’s very difficult for her (Yulia - editor’s note) to remember these events. A psychologist worked with her at school. They start asking her questions about this - she starts crying. But now it’s better,” she said.
Despite tragic events According to her grandmother, Yulia did not begin to be afraid of water. “Now she is resting in Artek. She and her brother swim and bathe together. She has not developed any fear of water,” Goncharova explained.
According to her, the granddaughter believes that she did not perform any feat that day, and says that everyone would have done the same.
The grandmother believes that the medal “For saving the dead,” which was awarded to Yulia Korol by the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov, may predetermine her future profession: Yulia can throw in her lot with the rescue service.
Parents whose children died during the storm on Syamozero are still grieving over what happened. As the representative of several victims, lawyer Lyudmila Evstifeeva, told TASS, the fate of many of them was tragic.
“Imagine, parents presented their children for identification. It’s still hard for people,” she said.
According to the lawyer, one woman’s heart gave out and she died of a heart attack. Another could not bear the death of her child and is still under observation in psychiatric hospital. And these are not the only family tragedies that have occurred over the past year.
The camp itself in the village of Syargilakhta was closed after the tragedy by a court decision, and the students went home. All buildings were closed, the entrance was sealed. Now, even a year later, there is silence here, only a security guard looks after the territory. Camp property along with land plot It is planned to put it up for sale this year.
After the tragedy on Syamozero investigative committee initiated several criminal cases, but to date only one has reached the court. The court found the first person guilty of the death of the children to be 46-year-old Irina Shcherbakova, a paramedic at the Suojärvi district hospital, who mistook a call for help from a drowning boy as a joke. She was sentenced to three years in a penal colony with a deferred sentence until her daughter reaches 14 years of age.
The defendants in another case are six people: director of Park Hotel Syamozero LLC Elena Reshetova, ex-head of the camp Vadim Vinogradov, former instructors Valery Krupoderschikov and Pavel Ilyin, ex-head of the Karelian department of Rospotrebnadzor Anatoly Kovalenko and acting head of the department Lyudmila Kotovich. They are currently familiarizing themselves with the materials of the case, which totals 125 volumes and contains more than 30 thousand pages.Vinogradov and Reshetova are under arrest, the rest are at large.
According to investigators, Reshetova, Vinogradov, instructors Krupoderschikov and Ilyin did not cancel the water trip, knowing about the storm warning in most regions of Karelia. One of the boats the children were on had a malfunction and was overloaded, but this also did not stop the camp management. In addition, the staff did not provide the children with life jackets of the appropriate size. Also, the investigation believes, Reshetova, Vinogradov and Krupoderschikov deliberately did not report the incident to emergency services.
The investigation sees Kovalenko and Kotovich at fault in the fact that a year before the tragedy they knew about numerous violations of the law committed by the head of Syamozero Park Hotel LLC, but allowed the camp to open in 2016.
Last weekend, a group of schoolchildren and instructors on three boats set off from the Syamozero Park Hotel camp on a hike, but got caught in a storm. 14 people died. AiF managed to talk to a 13-year-old Alexander Brown, who was in one of the boats on that ill-fated day, and find out what helped the boy survive, what the situation was like in the camp and why the instructors are not to blame for anything.
Don't care about the weather
— This is the third time I have vacationed in this camp. I always liked everything about it: the way we were fed and the way we were entertained. And we even went on similar trips, and always without any trouble. Therefore, even then I was sure that everything would be fine. Moreover, the camp leadership seemed adequate to me, although after what happened my opinion changed a lot. I'm not talking about instructors now. Yes, these were students, but they were all 18 years old, and they got along well with us, they were even friends.
The day before the hike, all the children received a message from the Ministry of Emergency Situations on their phones about the storm. We immediately complained to the instructors that we didn’t want to go hiking in a storm, and they themselves were of the same opinion. It could have been easily postponed for a few days. The instructors, as far as I know, almost on their knees begged the camp director not to let us go on the hike. But she didn’t agree at all: “So, guys, either your squad is going on a hike, and I don’t care how, or the students who are practicing here will have to go through everything all over again. This practice will not count." An ultimatum was given.
“They told me to row, so I rowed.”
— There were 47 of us and 4 instructors. We were going on a four-day, three-night camping trip with a scheduled change of location every day. On the first day we had to swim to the fifth beach and spend the night there. We did it quite calmly. On the second day it was so good weather that we even stopped thinking about the possibility of a storm.
Before we went further, they began to select us: the one who was stronger and rowed well got on the raft, and everyone else got on the canoe. Mostly strong guys were taken on the raft, since it was necessary to pull not only people, but also almost all the provisions - food, sleeping bags, bags, clothes. Now the phrase rings in my head: “Only those who will live go rafting.” Otherwise I cannot explain all the horror that began later. For some reason, they initially did the wrong thing by putting the children on one canoe all alone, and on the second with a counselor and instructor. There were 12 people in the canoe. Everyone else was sitting on the raft, as well as the coordinator and the director.
I was worried about the girl Tanya Kolesova. We have known each other for a long time, and I was aware that she had hydrophobia. She was embarrassed to tell the counselors about this. And initially they wanted to put her on a canoe. There she would have been scared even by small waves. I had to approach the instructor myself and ask that they take her with me, even if she had to lie on the bags. Now I understand that with my decision I saved Tanya’s life, otherwise she would have sailed in that canoe where all the children died...
I was told to row, and I rowed even when we started strong waves. I hardly thought about myself. I was very worried about Tanya. For her, in principle, swimming on such waves is a shock.
We had gone two-thirds of the way when a strong wind rose and waves suddenly appeared. I can't even remember how it happened. Both canoes were already well ahead of us at that time. We kept in touch with them and with the management, but only by phone and, of course, communication was interrupted during such a storm. We started to get carried away. We somehow tried to control the raft using oars, but it was all useless. We're off course. Now the main task was to find the islands and get to them. For two hours we just walked along the waves, some of the children started to feel sick.
“We were happy that we found the island.”
— We missed the first island that we met on the way. The waves did not even allow him to come close to him. Later we were carried by the waves to another island, which was very convenient for us. I had to immediately take up the oars. If we hadn't worked with them a little, we would have simply been smashed against the rocks. We were lucky, we bypassed them and somehow got hold of this island. There we set up camp, lit a fire, and warmed up. They ate very little just so as not to go crazy from hunger. Instead of pots and a kettle, they used old tin beer cans found there. I still had charge on my phone and kept in touch with my sister. He immediately called and said that he was alive and well. And at this time the canoes had already capsized. We didn't know this. We didn’t even think about them, no one told us that contact with the children who sailed separately had long been lost.
Naturally, we all had to spend the night on the island. In the morning the camp administration called us. It turns out that the Ministry of Emergency Situations came to us a long time ago. We were happy that we would be saved. I started calling my sister with this news, and on the phone I heard: “Sasha, are you alive?” My sister told me everything, said that the guys with the canoe died. I started to shake. I told the counselor, and my sister was on the phone Vadim. We were all worried. The three of us walked around with dead faces. And the children jumped around us, rejoicing that they were saving us. Nobody knew anything.
"Sasha, I'm alive!"
— After the Ministry of Emergency Situations brought us to cadet corps, I started asking about what happened. It turned out that corpses were indeed found. This got me. I couldn’t realize that I was just playing with these guys yesterday, and today they are no longer there.
On Sunday evening, the ten children who survived were brought in. They could only say: “Sasha, I’m alive, Sasha, I’m alive!” I didn't think I'd ever see this.
Among them I felt the worst Julia Korol. Julia pulled out many children, both living and dead. The instructor tried to save the children, but he almost drowned, and she also saved the instructor. She is 13 years old. After her canoe capsized, she was the one who pulled out all the children. I want to tell the whole world about her. I want everyone to know her.
In the cadet corps, 4 psychologists sat with Yulia. She didn't listen to them. She talked to the children she couldn't save. Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, she repeated: “Zhenya, is that you here?”
Julia reproached herself for not saving everyone. She witnessed the death of almost everyone. She said she saw children falling to their deaths on the rocks. Julia took the boy alive from the water and brought him to the shore already dead. When she pulled the guys out of the water, they said “thank you” to her and died. She told me all this. We all tried to calm her down; at that time I still controlled myself and tried to be with her. And you know what's terrible? Few people know about her feat! She was erased from the TV, I’m not there. Why?
The worst thing was when already in the cadet corps my father called me Vlada Volkova and asked: “Can I have Vladik? What about Vladik?” Then I told everything... You should have heard how the mother began to cry, and his voice was so creepy that it was impossible to convey.
When we were already being taken on a bus to the EMERCOM plane, Yulia suddenly smiled. This made me very happy. For the first time in two days, she changed her emotion.
“They are not to blame!”
— Already in Moscow, at the airport, the parents were so scared. And the children simply came to them without emotion. Imagine, just seeing a child without emotions, like robots.
After the tragedy, I cannot be in Moscow; my parents took me to their dacha. Everything reminds me of what happened. Either I will see the cap that the deceased Seryozha was wearing, or I will hear the music that was playing in my head at the time of the storm. All this makes me hysterical. They bought me a strong sedative containing valerian. I've already eaten the jar. Doesn't help much. I hardly slept last night, I close my eyes, and in my head there is only the horror that Yulia Korol told me about saving children. I don't know how she can survive this.
Now I'm terribly afraid to be on the water. If they put my mattress on the water, I won’t be able to lie on it.
It’s a shame that they blame instructors and counselors for everything, they lie that they only cared about themselves. During the flood, instructor Valera held the children on himself, while he himself was under water. He wanted the children to be able to breathe. Yes, he couldn’t keep some children afloat, but not everyone can do that! Lyuda, who capsized in the canoe, was also carrying children. And now they are blamed for everything. It's not fair!
Moscow residents bring flowers and toys to the building of the Department of Labor and social protection population of the city of Moscow, in memory of the children who died on Syamozero in Karelia. Photo: RIA Novosti / Evgenia Novozhenina
I want to tell the whole world about her. I want everyone to know her...
13-year-old Yulia Korol, an orphan, whose entire wealth lies in her grandmother and brother. After a canoe accident on the lake, despite the lack of a life jacket, she was able to swim...
After her canoe capsized, she was the one who pulled out all the children. She deserves for everyone to know about her... Not every adult is capable of such an act...
She took part in the rescue operation and personally rescued children, including dead ones, from the water. She even saved one 19-year-old instructor, who, while saving children, began to drown himself. But she is only 13 years old!
And then she walked for four hours to the nearest village to call for help, she fell into the river, floated and still walked forward, following the flow of the river... When Yulia reached the nearest village, she asked for help from local residents who began to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and then ran back to the shore with them in order to at least somehow help their comrades.
After the tragedy, 4 psychologists worked with Yulia in the cadet corps. She didn't listen to them. She talked to the children whom she could not save... Lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling, she repeated: “Zhenya, is that you here?”
Julia reproached herself for not saving everyone. She witnessed the death of almost everyone. She said she saw children falling to their deaths on the rocks. Yulia told about a boy whom she caught from the water while still alive, and brought to shore already dead. When she pulled the guys out of the water, they said “thank you” to her and died... She told all this to the psychologist. Everyone tried to calm her down, tried to control herself and somehow, with their presence and participation, help her cope with such a strong nervous shock. And she, as if sensing our condition, tried to cope with her emotions...
When they were already being transported on the bus to the EMERCOM plane, Yulia suddenly smiled... For the first time in two days, she changed the emotion on her sweet face. The ice inside, in her soul, began to melt...
Yulia and her brother Dima are orphans, they are being raised by their grandmother, whom Yulia immediately called upon reaching the village and said: “Grandma, everyone drowned, I’m the only one alive.” According to the grandmother, the granddaughter was “no good.”
Yulia said that the vests did not help the children, because on some they were too big, on others they were poorly attached. Yulin's vest remained on her, but it did not warm her in the icy water. After a few hours, the girl felt that she was running out of strength and could go to the bottom. Then she began to pray, going under the water and emerging, she loudly asked God for help. According to the girl, suddenly it was as if unknown forces pulled her out of the water and pulled her to shore.
Her grandmother taught her to pray, and Yulia believes in her miraculous salvation as sincerely as atheists believe that this cannot happen. And this faith poured into her the strength to pull others out, otherwise, where did they come from in the frozen water of the girl, beaten by the waves?
As the villagers say, when they saw Yulia, she held on with all her might and did not cry.
And Yulenka was very happy with the news that her brother was alive...
After all, besides her brother and grandmother, this little girl, with a kind heart and a very pure soul, has no one dearer...
Camp
I’ve already gone to this camp twice, so when we were offered a trip again, I was happy, I really liked it there. There were, of course, not the best best moments, but I liked the Ranger program - there you had to complete tasks, be active in classes, get the title of Ranger - an active participant. And the title “gold ranger” meant that the camp was giving something to the child. In the fall there was military work: dismantling and reassembling weapons, chemical protection, first aid. Disassembling a weapon will, of course, interest the boy. In the summer there are classes in the morning and evening, quests or run to the counselors, complete their tasks and collect badges from them. Totally fun! Not all children, of course, liked to participate in this, some were lazy, but I liked it.
Hike
Before the hike in the evening, we received an SMS from the Ministry of Emergency Situations about a storm warning. We approached the counselors and asked why this was, why they were sending us on a hike during a storm warning. They told us: “Guys, calm down, we’ll sort it out at the planning meeting.” From Vadim Vinogradov (deputy director of the camp - editor's note) I knew that there had been such moments before, when boats drifted onto the islands, everyone waited until the lake calmed down, and after that they returned to the camp calmly. This happened about once a year.
Our counselors were given an ultimatum: either you swim, or we won’t give you credit for completing the internship: “We won’t sign the documents - you’ll be expelled.” Our counselors were trainees from the Petrozavodsk Institute. They are young and quickly find mutual language with kids. The counselors were afraid for themselves. But the weather was good, there was nothing to indicate trouble. The next morning we sailed...
You see, there were more children in the camp than there were places, so it was necessary to take some detachment on a campaign and free the corps. Last year, as I remember, there were not 250 people, as the camp was designed, but 450. Some detachments immediately went on a hike - 2-3 days after they arrived. In general, according to the plan, everyone should go in the last week - learn to row for the entire shift, learn commands, listen to lectures, learn to tie knots.
On the morning of the 18th we went hiking. Two canoes, one raft. The raft had all the basic things. The weather was quite good. Nobody remembered the storm warning anymore. Those who row well were on a raft - there was food, water, things.
The route was as follows: from the camp to the 5th beach, and from the 5th beach to Snake Island, from Snake Island to Cow Island. And after that - to the camp. Four days and three nights and change location every day. Tanya Kolesova, the daughter of friends, did not go on a hike on the first day, she stayed in the camp, she has hydrophobia. Then Vadim (deputy director of the camp) brought her separately, and he swam with us. We survived the first night quite well. They sailed, set up camp, set up tents, ate, drank, and went to bed.
The next morning, several people woke up, lit a fire, and cooked porridge on the almost cooled coals. The counselors had matches, the counselors were sleeping, we made a fire ourselves. Vadim said: “Guys, rafting requires strong guys who will row.” I really wanted to go on a canoe, because a canoe is very fast, but at the last moment I decided to get on the raft to help row. They brought Tanya Kolesova, my friend, the daughter of friends, from the camp. I told Vadim: “Tanya is afraid of water, she is hydrophobic. Please put her on the raft.” She was sitting on things on the raft, while we were rowing. The canoes were mostly used by small children, that is, with little weight, so that they could get there quickly. And on the raft there are the guys who rowed.
I'm really lucky. The moment when we were put on the raft and on the canoes, now in my head it sounds like: “Those who will live sit on the raft.” But I really really wanted to go on a canoe.
It was stupid that there were only children on one canoe, and two counselors on the second - both Lyuda and Valera. I don’t know if they decided so, or Vadim Vinogradov. But mostly the children who died were those in the canoe where there were only children.
In two hours the canoikas had almost reached Snake Island; at the last moment - when the storm began - Vadim called and ordered them to turn around. And in two hours we covered about two-thirds of the way. We had to swim for at least another kilometer, if not two. But the storm began, we could no longer cope with control, and we began to drift away.
Storm
When it blew strong wind, we immediately understood everything. I personally didn’t care, I was just rowing. I need to row, I rowed. I am not shy, I swam without emotions. I was more worried about Tanya Kolesova, who at that moment was scared, and even from small waves she was terribly frightened. I got scared at the very last moment, when we were almost smashed against the rocks, a little more - we would have crashed on the island on which we landed. Strong waves arose in literally fifteen minutes. A strong wind blew, the clouds were scary. Some were terribly afraid, others, not understanding all the horror, laughed and rejoiced at the waves, two simply rowed without emotion.
The water was 10-15 degrees, probably no more. Strong wind and high waves. The wind was so strong that when we moved across the island over the rocks to find a quieter place, someone was even blown off the rocks. Thank God, everyone kept their balance, no one fell.
Vadim... If it weren’t for him, we would have crashed against the rocks. He took command because the children were all in a panic, and it was simply unclear what to do. And Vadim clearly knows, he is already a professional in this matter. He shouted: “Guys, row if you want to live.” Somehow I calmed someone down if necessary. But he knew there would be a storm. He could have postponed the trip by at least one day. As an instructor, I say “thank you” to him, but as an administrator, I am very angry with him.
We disembarked and went to look for a quiet place. The only ones left were me, the counselor Regina, Vadim, who swam with us as an instructor, and another guy. They held the raft, and I pulled out all the things to free the raft. Then we started moving things around. Vadim and I dragged the raft a little to a more quiet place– where the waves don’t wash over you like that. Tied to a tree. At that moment, when everyone had already warmed up a little, the fire was lit, someone took off their wet clothes, everything got better for us. And that's when the canoes capsized. Everything has become calm for us, but for them everything has just begun.
We spent the night on the island. The wet tents have already dried. There were a lot of wet sleeping bags. We somehow settled down and survived the first night normally. There was a strong wind, and the only food we had on the island to keep us from going crazy from hunger was a cucumber sandwich.
The next day we saw the Ministry of Emergency Situations on the island, they explained the plan for our evacuation. We sailed away. At that moment, I called my sister Alena on the last ten percent of the phone charging, and the first thing I heard was: “Sasha, are you alive?!” – at this moment I was already very scared. She told me what happened to the canoikas, but there was a faint hope that they were not ours.
Kanoyki
I gave the phone to Vadim Vinogradov, he told sister Alena that “we have different data and all the children are in the camp and they all swam calmly.” While we were being evacuated, I thought that it was better not to tell the children anything yet, so that they wouldn’t panic, start crying, or worry. Only the counselor Regina told everything.
At the camp site we already learned everything. In the cadet corps we saw children from canoes. When I saw the guys, the first thing they said was: “Sasha, I’m alive. Sasha, I’m alive.”
I saw Yulia Korol first, then Stas, Alina Yablochkova. They all had dead faces. It was the first time I saw such a face... No, the second time. When our grandmother died, and my sister saw it, she also had such a dead face.
Everyone immediately went to their rooms and started crying. Comrades died... Psychologists sat in every room and listened to us. They honestly told us that corpses had been found - all 14 corpses. On the 26th the last body was found.
The boy Zhenya from one of the canoes actually called and said that anyway, they were caught in a storm. He was told: “Boy, don’t play around.” This was seen by Dima Korol, who was also there on the canoe. After that, the guys said goodbye to each other. Let's go already huge waves. Dima Korol told Artyom Nekrasov: “Forgive me for everything. Goodbye. You was a good man" The children were already really ready to die. Even those who survived - it’s like they’ll hang you and the rope will break. You are already in shock, you are already ready to die... God forbid anyone else to experience this.
When I was in the cadet corps, Dima Vorobyov’s dad called me and asked: “Can I talk to Dima? What's wrong with Dima? – and the boy died, and I began to shake. I tell Dima’s father: “And Dima died.” I hear hysteria on background. My dad’s voice is already so... I can’t describe it in words... The first night I couldn’t sleep.
Julia Korol
Yulia Korol is 13 years old, she has a twin brother, Dima Korol, who was also in the camp. By the way, all the media showed not Yulia Korol, but the girl Natasha from our squad. As soon as the canoes overturned, she fell under the water and went down. Then she began to pray and was pulled upward. She tried to save someone, but they were already being carried away by the current.
She saw some children die when they were dashed against the rocks. She took one boy on the water - alive, and put him dead on land. She took another one, he said “thank you” to her and also died. She saved one or two boys; if they had not been seen, they too might have died from hypothermia.
When Yulia was in another camp, she saw the elders drowning a seven-year-old boy. They told me that the counselor saw all this, but simply turned away and left. She saved this boy, pumped him out. If it weren't for her, this boy would have died too.
Julia tried to help counselor Valera, and he pulled the children on himself. If it weren't for him, there would have been more deaths.
How creepy this is. And when we were at the airport, she sat and blamed herself for their death, that she could not save them. The psychologists and I tried to calm her down, but she showed no emotions at all, she just had a dead face.
When we were sent to Moscow, I tried to stay close to Yulia. The guys came up to her, calmed her down, and then left. But Yulia was emotionless, she was still in shock. Now she is in the hospital, drawing creepy drawings, but she draws well...
I was very happy when she smiled. When we were already driving to Moscow, she smiled at the last moment. And so she for a long time I was completely emotionless. It's scary to see a child, a person in general, without emotions on his face. Everyone says: “Cry,” but she doesn’t want to. She says: “I’ve already cried.” “Laugh,” I try to cheer her up. And she: “I already laughed.” They say: “Eat a cookie.” And she: “I don’t want to anymore.”
Counselor Lyuda also saved as many as she could. I was very offended that after that the counselors were thrown mud at them and said that they were to blame for the death of the children. Lyuda was in the hospital after that, now she is already at home, everything is fine with her.
Journalists
The creepiest thing is that there were journalists all this time. Wherever we are, they are there all the time. We are on the bus going to the cadet corps, a car drives by and takes a photo of us. We enter the cadet corps - a crowd of journalists. I get out of the boat of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, then a journalist comes up to me and asks: “Do you know what happened on the canoe? Do you know that children died, your friends died? I know. I’m already in shock, and they tell me this. In any case, you hope for the best, you hope that these are not your friends, that this is all a mistake, that the data will not be confirmed yet.
In the camp I called home about once every three days. Before the hike, literally 2-3 days before, our building was robbed, and some were left without communication - without phones. A memo was sent to parents: “Your children will be camping.” Some children called their parents and asked the nurse to leave them at the camp. If the child wanted, he could stay either with another squad or in the infirmary.
Parents learned about everything only from the news. Most of the children were without phones, some left them in the camp, some put them in a bag and couldn’t get into them, and for some they were dead. I had a portable battery, I gave it to the counselor - instructor Vadim - so that he could keep in touch with the camp, for him this was more important. And I simply turned my phone on and off at the moment of communication. I called home and asked dad not to say anything so as not to scare him. And then, from the news, the parents learned about the death of their children. And my sister also heard this news - but my phone was turned off. We talked to her, but it’s not clear when the disaster happened. Dad couldn't contact me for four hours. My phone is turned off so that the battery does not run out, and there is no connection with me. My sister is going to the dacha, she is also hysterical - she cried for eight stops. Then they were called to meet the “children” from the camp at night - but it was not us, but cargo-200, as I understand it. It was very scary.
I want people to know the truth. Because I felt very offended when the counselors were thrown mud at what they thought about their own lives, that they were to blame for the fact that the children died. When instead of Yulia Korol they showed another girl. That's why I give interviews to journalists. Now we all communicate, we have a general chat, I keep in touch with counselor Lyuda.
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