Moscow Theatre Siege
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2017
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In October 2002 Chechen rebels seized a packed theatre in central Moscow and took hundreds of people hostage. They demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Olga Smirnova has been hearing the story of Svetlana Gubareva who was in the theatre that night with her fiancé and daughter.
Photo: Images of some of the victims amid candles and floral tributes (Denis Sinyakov/Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC |
| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:40.9 | My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned |
| 0:43.0 | podcast for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:45.0 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality, |
| 0:49.0 | featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:54.4 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 1:00.9 | poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples. |
| 1:06.4 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over |
| 1:11.1 | at BBC Sounds. |
| 1:12.3 | Hello and welcome to the witness podcast from the BBC World Service with me, |
| 1:17.0 | Olga Sminova. |
| 1:19.0 | Today we're going back to October 2002, |
| 1:22.0 | when a group of Chechen rebels took more than 900 people hostage |
| 1:27.5 | in a theatre in the heart of Moscow. On the 23rd of October in the evening we went to see a musical, all three of us, me, my |
| 1:39.6 | daughter Sasha and my fiancé Sandy Buka and her 13-year-old daughter Sasha had a reason to celebrate. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.