On the tragic date a minute of silence was announced in Beslan. At 1:03 p.m. 333 Japanese paper-made cranes from Hiroshima were brought to the skies with balloons from the School 1. Recently, a group of Beslan victims has visited Japan. The Japanese sobbed all the time over Beslan’s people stories.   

”I have a stronger wish now to leave Russia” said to me Valera Karlov at the Beslan’s cemetery, standing near his father’s tomb. “The Japanese are crazy about peace, and we are crazy about bloodshed…”   

Not everyone has similar opinion. Many people don’t even think about it. But everyone in Beslan knows how the assault was organized, and who, when and from which weapons shot at the school. No one in Beslan will tell you that it was terrorists to blow up the school. And television says exactly so. One gets a feeling that they tell about different tragedies.    

This time there are a lot of familiar faces and there are very few visitors at the cemetery and at the school. Those people are easily distinguished, as they are well-organized. These are collectives of teachers, students, officials. Everything goes in accordance with the program, set up four years ago. Verses, minute of silence, the list of the killed, read aloud by an announcer’s voice. Even the music is same every time.    

I realized that it has been four years to pass after Beslan when I met Elvira Margieva’s mother, Sveta by name, near her daughter’s tomb. She showed me two standing behind her boys of 16 years old, wearing black T-shirts.  

”Look how the classmates of my daughter’s have grown up” said Sveta.  

I burst into crying.