Bio

Vladimir Georgievich Tatarnikov was born on 25 July 1920 in Tulun, Irkutsk Oblast. Little is known about his childhood and early family life.

In April 1940 he was drafted into the Red Army. When war with Nazi Germany began in June 1941, he was sent to the front. He served in the 3rd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment. He fought through the war and left with the rank of junior reserve lieutenant. He received a medal for his service.

After the war he moved to Bender (Tighina) and looked for work. He met Sedenko, the director of the Bender district department of DOSARM, and gained employment there. He also worked as a teacher at School No. 20 in the village of Gîsca. The DOSARM organization was later reorganized into DOSAAF by decree in 1951.

While working at School No. 20, he met Natalya Dmitrievna Donich. She had recently moved to Gîsca with her mother and her son to live closer to her brother. Donich taught fifth-grade Russian, literature, and French. She introduced herself as a widow whose husband had died in the Great Patriotic War.

By the end of 1949 Tatarnikov and Donich had entered a relationship. The relationship ended after Donich discovered Tatarnikov already had a family in Kazan. After the breakup, reports say Tatarnikov grew bitter and issued threats. On 3 April 1950 he held a birthday party at his home even though his actual birth date was in July; the reason for the party is not known.

Murder Story

On 4 April 1950, 29-year-old Vladimir Georgievich Tatarnikov arrived at School No. 20 in the village of Gîsca carrying a suitcase with 12 kilograms of explosives. He had stolen the explosives from his place of work at DOSARM.

He detonated the suitcase. Twenty-one students, two teachers, and Tatarnikov himself died. This was the first school massacre in the Soviet Union and remains the only school massacre in Moldova.

A few days before the attack, Tatarnikov stole the 12 kilograms of explosives. On 3 April 1950 he held a birthday party at his home. It is speculated he used the party as a pretext to try to lure teacher Natalya Donich, but she did not attend and the plan did not proceed that day.

On his way to the school, he dropped two letters into a post-box between Donich's house and the school. One letter was to his ex-wife in Kazan and read, "Goodbye, dear Anya. I am ending my life by suicide. You know the reason. Give my regards to our son Tolya." The other was to the local authorities and read, "Do not blame anyone for what has happened. I took 12 kg of tola from the warehouse."

A few hours later, Donich was sitting on the windowsill of a classroom, reading to her students. Tatarnikov entered the room holding a lit match in one hand and the suitcase in the other. He reportedly told the children to leave, but moments later the explosives detonated, either deliberately or by accident.

Residents of Gîsca immediately tried to clear the rubble and help survivors. The wounded were taken to the hospital and the dead were placed in a row. One 5th-grade student, Kondrat Kulik, was thrown out of a window and landed near the local church; he survived. Another injured 5th-grade student, identified as Ivan, died a year later from complications of his injuries. Remaining students studied in the open air before moving to a temporary classroom.

Donich's son was raised by her brother, and they later left Moldova with Donich's mother. News of the bombing did not reach the wider public until 2005, when Raisa Semyonovna Makarenko, principal of High School No. 20 in Bender, began archiving materials about the event.