The Kirov wolf attacks were a series of man-eating

Man-eater

Man-eater is a colloquial term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet...

  wolf attacks on humans

Wolf attacks on humans

A wolf attack is an attack on a human by a wolf or wolves. Under normal circumstances, wild wolves are generally timid around humans. Wolves usually try to avoid contact with people, to the point of even abandoning their kills when an approaching human is detected, though there are several reported...

 which occurred in 1944-1954 in nine raion

Raion

A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...

s (districts) of the 120,800 km² Kirov Oblast

Kirov Oblast

Kirov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: -History:In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vyatka remained a place of exile for opponents of the tsarist regime, including many prominent revolutionary figures.In 1920, a number of...

 of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....

 which resulted in the deaths of 22 children between the ages 3-17. In all cases, the attacks occurred in the April-December period, coinciding with the wolf’s cubbing season.

Background

During the Great Patriotic War (World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 for the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

), wolves in the Kirov Oblast began to increase in number and develop bold behaviours toward humans, coinciding with the conscription of Kirov hunters into the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, and the requisition

Requisition

A requisition is a request for something, especially a formal written request on a pre-printed form.An online requisition is an electronic document, which can be originated by the requester and then using the company workflow or hierarchy rules, can be submitted to the subsequent levels, until it...

 of firearms from villages. Wolves were common in all human inhabited parts of the Kirov Oblast during the War period, including in village outskirts. During the War period, the number of cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 and dog

Dog

The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

s which the wolves usually fed upon in Kirov diminished. Two hundred wolf packs had been counted in the area's forests, and sightings of wolves in the city of Kirov

Kirov, Kirov Oblast

Kirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...

's streets (namely Khlinovskaya, Vodoprovodnaya, and Gorbacheva streets) became common. Wolves were sometimes seen sleeping in the Zarechniy City Park in broad daylight, and apparently showed no more fear of humans than feral dogs.

1944

In late September 1944 in the vicinity of the Buracovskii settlement, an 18 month old child was caught by a wolf and carried toward a forest, before being rescued by peasants. Some days later, in a kolkhoz

Kolkhoz

A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...

 "Giant" in the Mendeleevskiy locality, a pair of wolves ambushed a girl watching a horse in a meadow, biting her and tearing her clothes. On September 21, in the village of Golodaevshchina, 13 year old Valentina Starikova was carried off by a wolf near a riverbank, while she was watching another wolf attacking a calf on the other side of the bank. A few hours later, a part of her leg was found in a nearby forest. After these incidents, wolves began to chase children systematically: On November 6, in the "New Village" kolkhoz of the Alexandrovsk locality, wolves attacked and dismembered an 8 year old girl in broad daylight. Two days later at 11:00 AM in the Beretzovskiy settlement, a 14 year old postwoman named Tamara Musinova was bitten to death by nine wolves. On November 19, 16 year old Maria Polakova was killed by wolves while returning to work with her sister in a forest clearing of the Ramenskiy locality.

1945

A new series of bolder, more numerous attacks occurring in many of Kirov's localities began in the spring of 1945. On April 29, in the village of Golodayevshchina of the Rudakovskiy district, 17 year old Maria Berdnikova was attacked by a wolf, concealed by thick vegetation, on a field some 50 meters from stables. When the girl's cries attracted a crowd, the wolf repeatedly picked her up, scaled a 1 meter high wattle fence and left her only after carrying her for 200 meters. As the villagers carried the girl off, the wolf followed them to the edge of the village, ignoring their cries and threatening gestures. The wolf approached the village several times that day, and carried off a lamb the day after. The official who investigated the incident was G.P Kamenskiy, who postulated that the wolf's daring behaviour was likely explained by the complete absence of hunters or rifles in the village, as arm bearers and firearms had been called to the Eastern front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

. On May 1, in the Mamaevschchina village of the Vasilkovskiy locality, 7 year old Volodya Gorev was grabbed on the throat by a wolf and carried toward a forest. He was released only after a villager fired a shot, and survived the ordeal as his neck had been protected by a thick scarf. Later, in the village of Shiriaevo of the Nemskiy district, 5 year old Rimma Molchanova was grabbed by a wolf while washing rubber boots with a friend by a rivulet. A rescue party discovered the girl's body 500 meters away from the rivulet with a throat bite and a partially eaten leg.

1946-1951

Between 1946-1950, wolf attacks had become a serious problem in several of the Kirov Oblast’s districts, namely Darovskiy, Lebiazhskiy, Sovetskiy, Nolinskiy, Khalturinskiy and Orichevskiy . Hunters killed 560 wolves in the Kirov Oblast in 1946, which was considered an unusually high harvest. Within the next three years, Kirov hunters, with the help of hunters from Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, managed to kill 1,520 wolves, a task which was rendered difficult by the near lack of transportation to rural settlements in the post war period.
Wolves appeared in the Rusanovo settlement in 1947 and killed a small girl and 13 year old Veniamin Fokin during the August-September period. A wolf also carried off a small girl, who was with several older girls at a threshing floor. Near the Cherniadievo village of the Rusanovskiy district, 2 wolves attacked Anna Mikheeva and her mother who were treating linen on a field. The mother managed to repel an attack against her with a sheaf, though her daughter was caught. A blood trail lead to some thick juniper

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

bushes, where Anna was found with a wounded throat and some flesh of her stomach eaten. A special brigade of hunters arrived to deal with the Rusanovskiy wolves and the attacks ceased in that area. Between the July-August period of 1948, 9 children aged 7-12 had been killed. On November 17 1948, in the Nolinskiy district, 8 year old Svetlana Tueva was carried 1 km into a forest by 5 wolves while walking from school with two other girls and a man. The man escaped by climbing a tree, while the other girls ran back to the school. A search of the forest concluded with the discovery of Svetlana’s coat. In the July-August period of 1950, 3 girls and a boy aged 3-6 were killed in the Lebiazhskiy district.

Suna station attacks

During a one month period in December 1947, a large male wolf took residence in the area around Kirov's Suna station. It walked around villages in the morning and evening hours, catching dogs and attacking solitary people on roads. Before finally being killed, the wolf injured 13 people and killed one woman and an adolescent. When killed, the wolf was measured to be 138 cm in length, and was badly emaciated. A bundle of woman's hair was found in its stomach.

Orichevskiy attacks

By 1951 the majority of Kirov districts were cleared of man-eating wolves, though Orichevskiy still remained vulnerable. Within that district, in the village of Tarasovka, a 10 year old girl was killed on April 29 1951 while washing clothes in a small river. Later, a group of wolves frequently chased children picking mushrooms and berries in the forests surrounding the settlements of Shalegovskiy, Smirnovskiy and Shabalinskiy. On June 12 1952, 11 year old Zoe and 15 year old Lidia Vturina were hospitalised after being attacked in the village of Vturino. On July 11 of the same year, a wolf attacked 5 year old Vitaliy Ishutin about 1 km from a village, and carried him off into a forest. In the same month, 8 year old Ludmila Perminova was bitten by a wolf in the village of Koshely. On August 12, 6 year old Lidia Tupitsina was carried off by a wolf while picking berries in a forest with other children. At 9:00 AM on August 17, 13 year old herder Alexander Vediakin was carried off by wolves 1 km from the village of Grebenshchiki, but was rescued by land workers. Local hunters believed the animal to have been an old female. On August 16, 1952, a 12 year old boy picking berries was rescued from a large female wolf accompanied by three cubs. In the spring of 1953, a girl was attacked while walking through a forest with her grandmother. By the end of May, an old, nearly toothless female wolf was killed near the village of Vturino, after which the attacks in Orichevskiy ceased.

Last attacks

On midday of June 17 1953, in the village of Sergeitsi, Belskiy district, 12 year old Sasha Grachev was grabbed by a wolf in a playground, and dragged for 300 meters, before grabbing hold of a branch and managing to extricate himself from the wolf’s jaws and run home. This was the last recorded non rabid wolf attack in the Kirov Oblast, with one rabid attack against three people being recorded in the spring of 1954 in the Urzhumskiy district.