Kinlore
7 December 1988

The Spitak earthquake

An earthquake destroys Spitak and much of Gyumri and Vanadzor, killing about 25,000 people by official count, in the middle of the Karabakh crisis.

  • Armenia earthquake of 1988 — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War — Thomas de Waal, NYU Press (2003)
  • Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History — Ronald Grigor Suny, Indiana University Press (1993)

Well established traumasocialchangememory

At 11:41 on the morning of 7 December 1988, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck northern Armenia. Poorly built Soviet apartment blocks and schools collapsed; the town of Spitak was almost wiped out, and Leninakan (now Gyumri) and Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) were badly hit. The official death toll was about 25,000, and some estimates are higher; around half a million people were left homeless.

Mikhail Gorbachev cut short a visit to the United States, and for the first time the Soviet Union accepted large-scale foreign aid. The disaster struck in the middle of the Karabakh crisis: the authorities arrested the leaders of the Karabakh Committee days later, and many Armenians bitterly remember being blockaded by Azerbaijan while they tried to rebuild.
  • Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through Peace and War — Thomas de Waal, NYU Press (2003)
  • Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History — Ronald Grigor Suny, Indiana University Press (1993)

Why it matters today

Armenians

Every family in the north remembers 7 December, and parts of Gyumri still had temporary housing decades later. The quake also brought the world's help, including from the diaspora, and is remembered as a moment of grief that came on top of war.