MINSK, 7 October (BelTA) - Yekaterina, a granddaughter of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Pyotr Masherov, shared her memories of the tragic day when her grandfather died in a car crash as she spoke in an interview to the ONT TV Channel, BelTA has learned.
Pyotr Masherov died in a car crash near the town of Smolevichi on 4 October 1980. That day Pyotr Masherov was traveling to Zhodino from Minsk in his GAZ Chaika. The first secretary's motorcade was going at a speed of 120 km/h. An approaching MAZ truck was given the command to pull over. However, a potato truck overtook it and collided with the Chaika. All the passengers of the car were killed.
Retired police colonel Oleg Slesarenko (lieutenant at that time) was accompanying the first secretary as part of the motorcade. He recalled that Pyotr Masherov's car was covered with potatoes from the truck. The first secretary was immediately taken to Smolevichi, but he was no longer breathing.
Oleg Slesarenko considers the death of Pyotr Masherov a fatal accident. “We could have crashed many times before. We were driving at a speed of 120 km/h. It was not very fast though. Usually we traveled at a speed of 160 km/h,” the retired police colonel said.
Pyotr Masherov died in a car crash near the town of Smolevichi on 4 October 1980. That day Pyotr Masherov was traveling to Zhodino from Minsk in his GAZ Chaika. The first secretary's motorcade was going at a speed of 120 km/h. An approaching MAZ truck was given the command to pull over. However, a potato truck overtook it and collided with the Chaika. All the passengers of the car were killed.
Retired police colonel Oleg Slesarenko (lieutenant at that time) was accompanying the first secretary as part of the motorcade. He recalled that Pyotr Masherov's car was covered with potatoes from the truck. The first secretary was immediately taken to Smolevichi, but he was no longer breathing.
Oleg Slesarenko considers the death of Pyotr Masherov a fatal accident. “We could have crashed many times before. We were driving at a speed of 120 km/h. It was not very fast though. Usually we traveled at a speed of 160 km/h,” the retired police colonel said.
“On the day my grandfather died, we were at home with my mom and sister. We were getting ready for a housewarming party. Probably for this very reason we did not go with the grandfather in that car,” Pyotr Masherov’s granddaughter Yekaterina recalled. “We often accompanied him on weekends. It was the first time my grandmother went on vacation without my grandfather. The hardest thing was to tell my grandmother about the tragedy.”
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