Russian students returned this Monday with a shared memory: the horrific seizure of about a thousand children and parents at a Beslan school by Chechen extremists. The hostage crisis ended in a failure for the attackers, but not without a heavy price: 334 people died, including 186 children. The tragedy stained September 1, the emotional return to school for Russian children, as a day of mourning. Even two decades later, questions linger. Some relatives of the dead accused authorities of not exhausting all options to rescue their loved ones and of not sufficiently investigating what happened during the days the siege lasted.
During the final assault, some of the traps set by the terrorists were triggered, parts of the building collapsed, and there was even gunfire between security forces and civilians fighting back with their own weapons. Chaos led to unintended casualties from friendly fire. The Beslan mothers sought to bring to justice Vladimir Pronichev, Vladimir Anisimov, and Alexander Tikhonov, officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB). They aimed to understand what occurred during the assault. Susanna Dudieva, a spokesperson for the Beslan Mothers Committee, told independent media that they would insist on taking measures to punish those responsible and to explain to the world the truth of Beslan’s events.
The same president, Vladimir Putin, during a visit last August to Beslan, a town in the North Ossetia–Alania region, promised a thorough investigation within 2024. In that meeting he told the mothers he did not know all the details but advised them to contact the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrikin. They pressed for full disclosure, and the president offered condolences for the losses while describing alleged Ukrainian neonazis as a justification used by the government to contextualize the war. Russian media describe twenty years of conflicting information about the three days that kept the country on edge. One rumor suggests the separatist leader Aslan Masjidov showed interest in intervening to save the children but feared being killed.
The terrorists insisted on meeting the presidents of North Ossetia-Alania and Ingushetia, though the Kremlin did not look favorably on conceding even a single inch to their demands. Still, former Ingushetia president Ruslan Aushev managed to secure the release of 26 hostages, including some children and their mothers. Aushev also freed a six-month-old baby, Alena Tskaeva, though neither her mother nor older sister survived.
Russian opinions
About two-thirds of Russians, according to Levada Center, supported the handling of the hostages. The crisis management was the highest level of approval in a decade, at a moment when the official narrative faced less opposition than before the war. Yet a segment of the population remains skeptical of the official account. The most hesitant are those under 24 years old, those less approving of the national leadership, and those who distrust Putin, with many turning to YouTube as a credible information source.
One line of critique centers on the European Court of Human Rights’ 2017 condemnation of the use of “indiscriminate force” in the Beslan assault. The court also noted that authorities may have known of a potential attack in advance and did not intervene in time to avoid it. The same study indicates that those most likely to approve the handling of the attack are those who support the country’s course and the president, with significant share relying on television for their information. In Moscow, a memorial ceremony for the victims took place in the city center, contrasting with the memorial in Los Angeles that marks the site of the tragedy.
In the end, the Beslan crisis remains a polarizing chapter in Russia’s modern history, with debates continuing about the balance between security, transparency, and accountability. The event is remembered not only for the lives lost but for the lingering questions about why rescue efforts unfolded as they did and how information was managed in the immediate aftermath.