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Maxim
managed to do quite a lot during his 35 years of life.
In Kaliningrad he was known as a talented actor,
musician, and radio journalist.
From
early childhood he appeared in plays at the Literary
theater which his father – Albert Sergeevich Mikhailov –
managed for 30 years. Maxim later wrote poems and songs
for the theater. A whole generation of Kaliningrad
residents grew up listening to his radio programs, and
he was a famous figure in our city – he and his friends
wrote a whole series of songs, such as the Kaliningrad
football team’s song. In 1998, Maxim Maxailovich was
made head of the FM station ‘Baltic Wave’, where we met
while I was working as a journalist in the information
service.
In September of 2001, we had a son,
whom I named Maxim in honor of his father. I remember
how I was feeding my baby in the maternity ward when I
saw those awful pictures of the New York World Trade
Center’s destruction on television. It was like a
disaster film... Back then I thought of what a
fightening world my little son had entered! If only I
had known back then that terrorism would very soon come
to our own home.
We arrived in Moscow the night
before, on October 22nd. Maxim was on a
business trip, while my older son and I went for a tour
of the capital. The trip was right on the eve of the
Fall school holidays. For all of the 23rd we
wandered around Moscow: we visited two museums, Red
Square, the Kremlin. We bought tickets to the musical
Nord-Ost in the Metro station. There was not much time
until the show began, so we rushed to drop off our son
at the hotel, then went to find the theater.
During those three days, I often
gave thanks to God that I left my son at the hotel. On
the evening when the hostages were taken captive,
relatives from Podmuscovy came and took care of him.
Those two days and three nights
that we spent in the hall of ‘Nord-Ost’ were the longest
of our lives. We thought about our children, our
parents, and friends...
I do not remember the storming of
the theater, there are fragments missing from my
memory. I only found out about my husband’s death while
reading a newspaper on the airplane home... My relatives
had been waiting to tell me the worst news after I had
arrived home.
It’s been two and a half years, but
the questions, of why and what happened to us, and how
my husband died, have not decreased in number. Just as
with all the ‘Nord-Ost’ hostages, the cause of death was
not documented.
Maxim Mikhailovich’s last year of
life was one of the most successful of his life. Two of
his wishes came to pass: he had a son and headed a
private radio station, but so much remained undone! |
