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C&C 115 - Sailboat Data, Parts & Rigging

Sailboat data, rig dimensions and recommended sail areas for C&C 115 sailboat. Tech info about rigging, halyards, sheets, mainsail covers and more.

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C&C Yachts

C&C Yachts was formed in 1969, when Canadian boat builders Belleville Marine Yard, Hinterhoeller Ltd. and Bruckmann Manufacturing joined forces with the design firm of Cuthbertson & Cassian Ltd. New capital was raised through a stock offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Although Ian Morch of Belleville Marine Yard was the first president, he resigned in 1971 taking the Belleville assets with him. George Hinterhoeller was then named president. Later, in an interview, Hinterhoeller states that he accepted this postition reluctantly. He resigned in 1973, and was replaced by Geroge Cuthbertson who continued in that role until 1981. C&C Yachts quickly established a reputation as a builder of high quality sailing yachts that were also successful on the race course. From it’s inception, as its first models were displayed at various boat shows in the US and Canada, the company sold as many boats as it could produce. In addition, a steep duty imposed by the Canadian government had also made them relatively affordable in the Canadian market. After weighing different options for expansion, the company decided to open a new plant in Rhode Island.(1976) In doing so, it benefited from very favorable financial terms offered by the Rhode Island Port Authority and Economic Development Corporation. In addition, plans were made to open another plant in Keil, Germany. This was also due to an offer of special, low interest loans. Throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, C&C continued to develop and build new models, all of which were well received. Their revamped racing program brought the brand additional renown. But also during this time, a long, slow financial decline had begun. In 1976, George Hinterhoeller sold out and went back to boat building on his own. A plant at Kiel Germany closed in a few short years after incurring enormous losses. This and other factors were caused, in part, by a dramatic downward slide in the value of the American and Canadian dollar. An added factor was the gradual loss of the original personnel. The death of George Cassian in 1979, one of the driving forces of the company was a major loss. Geroge Cuthberson left the company in 1982. Finally, after the plant in Rhode Island closed, the last of the original partners, Eric Bruckman, head of the C&C custom shop, also moved on. By 1985, C&C yachts was left with a single plant at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. From this time on, a long series of changes of ownership and various financial manipulations were to take place. By 1990, no new ownership, or source of financing could be found and the company went into receivership. For the first time in its history, C&C failed to exhibit at the Toronto International Boat Show. In 1992, there was a temporary reprieve. C&C was sold to Hong Kong based shipping magnates, Anthony Koo and Frank Chow. The name was changed to C&C Yachts International. By 1994, the factory was operating to capacity building a new 51, the the Tripp designed IMS 45 as well as the SR range of sport boats, designed by Glenn Henderson and originally built in Florida. But then, in the same year, a fire broke out in the factory, completely destroying most of the tooling and the boats currently under construction. Insurance only provided a small portion of the losses. In 1996, the factory closed, and the land, tooling and trademark were sold. Just a year later, a joint venture was been formed with another defunct builder, Tartan Marine, to build a new line of C&C yachts. These new models included the C&C 99, 110, and 115 which were well received and sold relatively well. In September 2013, US Watercraft announced that it had bought the rights to the C&C brand from Tartan. US Watercraft entered receivership in July 2017 and ceased all operations by the summer of 2018.

Associations

• C&C 110 Facebook page
• C&C Corvette Owners Association
• Shark Class - International
• Half Ton Class
• IOR 3/4 ton
• C&C 27 Association
• C&C Design
• C & C Design Team
• George Hinterhoeller
• Glenn Henderson
• Peter Barrett
• Philip Rhodes
• Robert Ball
• Robert Evelyn
• Robert Perry
• Tim Jackett
• William H. Tripp, III

89 sailboats built by C&C Yachts

Rhodes 22 continental.

C&C 30-1 (1-506)

C&c 27 mk ii.

C&C 33-2

C&C Landfall 38

C&C Corvette 31

C&C 27 MK I

C&C Mega 30 OD

C&C 38-2

C&C Frigate 36

C&c redline 41 mkii.

C&C 110

Mega 30 (c&c) fk.

C&C 37/40 R

C&C Landfall 48

C&C 43-1

C&C 3/4 Ton

C&C Landfall 39

C&c 1/2 ton.

Northeast 39

C&c redline 41 mki.

C&C 131

C&c 121.

C&C 101

C&C Landfall 43

C&c 27 mk iv.

C&C 36-1

C&C 51 Custom

C&C 34/36

C&C Landfall 35

C&c 41 limited ed.

C&C 26 Wave

C&C 35-2

C&c 41 gp.

C&C 34+R

C&C 42 Custom

C&C 40 Crusader

C&C Redline 25

C&c 37-2.

C&C 34+DK

Northeast 39-2, c&c 48 custom.

C&C 25 MKII

C&C 37/40 XL

C&C 36R

C&C Invader 36

Redline 41 (2014)

C&C 44 Custom

C&C 40-2 AC

C&C 34+WK

C&C 27 MK III

C&C 27 MK V

C&C 115

C&C 30-2

C&C 40-2

Landfall 43 (c&c) ketch.

C&C 35-1(Redwing 35)

C&C 38-3

C&C 29-2

C&c 43-2.

C&C Landfall 42

C&C 35-3

C&C 37/40+

C&c 40-1, c&c 38-1, c&c 26 encounter.

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C&c 115

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Looking Into Purchasing A 2006, Any Input Out There On Performance Around The Buoys And Characteristics For Coastal Cruising?  

Other than the company issues that SD talks about............. Having sailed in the Seattle NOOD's aboard a friends 115, it does perform reasonably well. It does take good team work to perform to its ratings. It is not a true planer like a J105/109. They have lower ratings locally, and may times boat to boat will beat a C&C. There is one on the east coast that is doing reasonably well tho, and one locally that does well too. The friends of mine that I crewed on, do luv there boat for cruising etc, along with the occasional race. They are not what I would call hard core racers, but folks that like to bash some bouy's along with cruising and enjoying their boat. I would also guess that you are looking at a used one being as it is a 2006. While i personally would luv to own a 115, not sure that I would if a warrenty is wanted in your plans, as the base company has tried to sell with out transfering the warrenty. So you may be or should plan on being your own warrenty person for the hull. The other stuff, that was bought and put into the boat, still will have manufactures warrenties. Generally speaking, they are nice boats, and the folks I know with them, like them. marty  

shorter keel thanks for input, appreciate insight...  

thanks, will check it out, always good to get a different perspective before taking the plunge.  

Cb is saying what I was attempting to say, altho not sure how well, locally the 115s are in the low 70s, J105/109 in the 80's to low 90's, and clobber the local 115's on actual and handicap time for the most part. so they are a bit hard to race to rating. Nice boats, solid feel in winds into the 30's. Sails well with a reefed main alone. Hit into the low 8's one night coming home from a race where the wind picked up. Have hit into the 9's with a spin up. i would personally put them into the slower end of the Race/cruiser spectrum, definetly on the fast end of the cruise/race spectrum of boats. marty  

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CC-115 Buffalo search and rescue aircraft flies its last mission in Canada

The Royal Canadian Air Force has retired its De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo aircraft. Its last operational mission took place on January 15, 2021. 

The search and rescue aircraft, known in Canada as the CC-115, was operated by the 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron based at Comox air base on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  

The CC-115 entered service in 1967. It succeeded another De Havilland Canada aircraft, the DHC-4 Caribou. As such, the utility transport aircraft needed to be agile, and capable of operating from almost any runway. Its half-century of service life is a testimony to its efficiency, having saved countless lives over the years in areas such as the Arctic Sea and the great snowy plains of Canada, even all the way to the Rocky Mountains.  

It was also used in several United Nations missions overseas. On August 9, 1974, an unarmed CC-115 Buffalo, deployed as part of the UN peacekeeping mission to supervise the ceasefire between Egyptian and Israeli forces, was shot down by three Syrian missiles. The nine occupants, all Canadian servicemembers, were all killed. Since 2008, August 9 is recognized as Peacekeepers’ Day in Canada. 

“In the Royal Canadian Air Force, we have incredible respect and a deep sense of pride for the crews, maintenance and support personnel who have dutifully served alongside the CC-115 Buffalo aircraft over the 55 last years,” commented Lieutenant-General Al Meinzinger, Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force. “These extraordinary teams, and the ‘Buff’ itself, are known to have operated in many demanding operational environments.” 

The Buff will eventually be replaced by a fleet of 16 Airbus CC-295 Kingfisher. In the meantime, the CC-130H Hercules will take over some of the CC-115 missions. 

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C&C 115

The c&c 115 is a 37.75ft fractional sloop designed by tim jackett and built in fiberglass by c&c yachts since 2005..

The C&C 115 is a light sailboat which is a very high performer. It is stable / stiff and has a low righting capability if capsized. It is best suited as a racing boat. The fuel capacity is originally small. There is a short water supply range.

C&C 115 for sale elsewhere on the web:

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C.L.R. James 1937

The Second Moscow Trial

First Published : in Fight ,Volume 2. No. 5. April, 1937, pp. 6-9, signed CLRJ; Transcribed/Marked up : by Ted Crawford/Damon Maxwell.

The Stalinist regime has published what purports to be a verbatim account of the Radek-Pyatakov trial (Report of Proceedings in the case of the Zinoviev-Trotskyist Centre). We recommend it to our readers. Within its covers it has got the complete refutation of the whole fabrication of lies and slander.

The Moscow Trial is a political trial. There are therefore two aspects: (a) the judicial; and (b) the political.

Let us deal with the judicial first. The report shows that not one of the accused was a Trotskyist. Radek, Pyatakov, Serebriakov, etc., had publicly broken with Trotsky many years before and had submitted themselves to the Stalinist regime. Their confessed Trotskyism was therefore secret. Of those indicted, the only ones who are admittedly supporters of the views held by Trotsky are Trotsky and his son Sedov. The Stalinist regime therefore has not actually brought to trial one single Trotsykyist, but only persons who for years have been members, and some like Radek, etc., highly placed members, of the party and the Government. All the shouting of Pollitt, Dutt and the Daily Worker are as nothing compared to this simple fact. Of those in Russia who still stand on the principles of the proletarian revolution and have refused to submit to the Stalinist regime, and there are thousands such, none have confessed to anything. None have been brought to trial.

The second point is that in all the hundreds of pages, there is not one single scrap of evidence brought forward to substantiate the voluminous confessions. There is a lot of talk about evidence, there is a lot of talk about prisoners confessing only when faced with the proofs of their guilt. But what do these amount to? Zero. They do not exist. Not on one page of the book is there any hint of anything like a proof except the confessions of this, that or other of the accused. Train-wrecks took place. Various of the accused say that they engineered them. That is a confession. It is no proof. Why did they confess? We shall deal with that in time. For the moment, we merely wish to point out that this trial proves that Zinoviev and Kamenev, on whose confessions so much in the last trial depended, are now proved by this trial to have been lying. They said in the last trial that the Trotskyists had no programme. Now it turns out that the programme was the restoration of capitalism in the U.S.S.R. and the giving of territory to Germany and Japan. Obviously such persistent liars cannot be the persons whose confessions can be taken as evidence against others. Trotsky and his son Sedov have totally denied the charges. Anyone who is not a Stalinist must see that something a little more substantial is necessary before Trotsky and Sedov are branded as agents of Fascism.

But nothing is brought forward. How simple it would have been for the Soviet authorities to clinch their case by the publishing of some evidence, by laying before the court some conclusive piece of material proof. There is nothing. Not a scrap. They have not done it, because they cannot do it. How convincing it would be. Hundreds of conspirators took part in these wrecking and terrorist acts. But never before have conspirators carried on such a gigantic conspiracy leaving not the slightest clue behind them.

The curious thing is that Radek admits this. On page 542-543 he says that the wrecking was established by technical experts. (It is strange that all these technical experts did not see that wrecking was being committed all these years, and if they had seen it, then what were the Soviet authorities doing?) Radek then says that the testimony of the wreckers “apart from material evidence” presents an absolute picture. His “material evidence” we have seen. He then, however, goes on to the whole purpose of the trial – to discredit Trotsky and all that Trotsky stands for. “But the trial is bicentric, and it has another important significance. It has revealed the smithy of war, and has shown that the Trotskyite organisation became an agency of the forces which are fomenting a new world war.” That is what the Stalinist regime wanted to prove.

Now for the proof. There is none. And Radek admits it. “What proofs are there in support of this fact? In support of this fact there is the evidence of two people – the testimony of myself, who received directives and the letters from Trotsky (which unfortunately I burned) and the testimony of Pyatakov, who spoke to Trotsky. All the testimony of the other accused rests on our testimony.”

Some day the peculiar nature of Radek’s testimony is going to be understood. His gaolers could hardly have asked him to say this. For the burnt letters are no evidence and Radek, saying this at the end of the trial, must have known that the Pyatakov trip to Trotsky had already been exposed during the trial for the crude and clumsy lie that it is. Obviously if the Soviet authorities could have given evidence of Pyatakov’s having gone to see Trotsky in Oslo in an aeroplane, they would have done so. Instead this very question on which Radek insists the whole proof of the connection with Trotsky must now rest, is the very question on which the whole frame-up broke down.

Giving evidence on January 23rd, Pyatakov says about his trip to Oslo (page 60): “We got into an aeroplane and set off. We did not stop anywhere, and at approximately 3 p.m. we landed at the airdrome in Oslo. There an automobile awaited us. We got in and drove off. We drove for about 30 minutes and came to a country suburb. We got out, entered a small house that was not badly furnished, and there I saw Trotsky, whom I had not seen since 1928.” They then talked for two hours while Trotsky detailed to Pyatakov all the wicked things he was to do. But alas! An aeroplane is not a letter. It cannot easily be burned. The Norwegian press at once stated that no aeroplane had landed at Oslo from Germany on that day. That was the lie direct. On January 27 therefore Vishinsky, the public prosecutor, attempted to patch up this gaping hole. On page 442 we read. “The President. The examination of the accused is finished. The examination of the witnesses is also finished. Are there any supplementary questions?

Vishinsky: I have a question to put to Pyatakov. Accused Pyatakov please tell me, you travelled in an aeroplane to Norway to meet Trotsky. Do you know in which aerodrome you landed?

Pyatakov: Near Oslo.

He moves from Oslo to near Oslo. Now airdromes are not taxi-stands. Pyatakov is lying now or he was lying before (in fact he is lying both times). But both accuser and accused have to get out of this somehow. They go on.

“Vishinsky: Did you have any difficulties about the landing or admission of the aeroplane to the airdrome?

Pyatakov: I was so excited by the unusual nature of the journey, that I did not pay attention.

Any fool can see Vishinsky knows that that this is pretty poor stuff and this is not good enough. He continues:

“Vishinsky: Have you heard of a place called Kjeller or Kjellere?

Pyatakov: No.

Vishinsky: You confirm that you landed in an aerdrome near Oslo.

Pyatakov: Near Oslo, that I remember.

Vishinsky: I have no more questions.

Indeed he could have no more. Pyatakov, on a journey which could have cost him not only his life but the imprisonment of all his relatives and dependants, an old revolutionary and at one time head of a great Soviet department of state, does not know whether he landed in or near Oslo, or whether there were difficulties about landing. An aeroplane is not a ship or a train. Pyatakov was the passenger who mattered. Yet in the space of four days he gives this ludicrously contradictory evidence, and Vishinsky has no more questions to ask. Instead he makes a ruinous attempt to give some legal covering to the lie.

“I have an application to the Court. I interested myself in this matter and asked the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs to make an enquiry, for I wanted to verify Pyatakov’s evidence from this side too. I have received an official communication which I ask to have out in the records.”

Why, in the name of law and justice, was not Pyatakov examined about all these things before and the enquiries made? Why do reports have to appear in the foreign press before Vishinsky interests himself in this matter? The volumes of evidence extracted from the prisoners run to 36. The accused are examined on all manner of things. But on this, the key question, it takes a denial from Norwegian papers to make the prosecution bestir itself. And what does Vishinsky produce? Evidence of the arrival of a plane on the day in question? Nothing of the sort. He reads the following:

“The Consular Department of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs hereby informs the Procurator of the U.S.S.R. according to the information received by the Embassy of the U.S.S.R. in Norway, the Kjellere Aerdrome near Oslo receives all the year round, in accordance with international regulations, aeroplanes of other countries, and that the arrival and departures of aeroplanes is possible also in winter months. (To Pyatakov) It was in December?

Pyatakov: Exactly.

Vishinsky: I ask that this be placed in the records .. .” That is the end of this crucial link.

Who says that he wants to believe all this can do so. Who will convict Trotsky and Sedov of wishing to restore capitalism in the Soviet Union and planning with Hitler and Japan to dismember Soviet Russia, on the evidence of this visit, can do so. But I say quite frankly, that apart from the official Stalinists themselves, A. J. Cummings of the News Chronicle , Sir Bernard Pares (in the Observer), D. N. Pritt, K.C., all who are satisfied with all this, are showing not their capacity to analyse evidence, but the bias of their political views. Trotsky and Sedov have not confessed to anything. And no one could convict a dog on such evidence.

In regard to the letters written by Trotsky, this trial contains also a glaring departure from the last that is sufficient by itself to discredit all the volumes of confessions. It will be remembered that in the Zinoviev-Kamenev Trial Vishinsky made great play with a letter written by Trotsky in March 1932 in which he called for the removal of Stalin, i.e. Vishinsky insisted, by terrorism or in plain words, murder. This in the first trial was “evidence.” But it was quickly shown that in March 1932 Trotsky had indeed written a letter calling for the removal of Stalin and published it openly in a bulletin of the Left Opposition (from which has developed the sections working for the Fourth International). Trotsky had written that the Bolshevik Party should do what Lenin had recommended in the Testament – remove Stalin. This was widely noted in the European press. Now at this trial Vishinsky has dropped that letter altogether. This main prop of the last trial has vanished. Instead we have accounts of other letters in which Trotsky unfolded his schemes, all of which were burnt. So that the only piece of concrete evidence (and the letter was not shown) which the prosecution adopted in the first trial has been abandoned without a by your leave and for the same reason for which Pyatakov abandoned the airdrome in Oslo for another elsewhere. It is no wonder that the prosecution prefers confessions and burnt letters. The moment they attempt to base the charge upon material other than burnt letters they burn their fingers.

Let us now examine the grave charge of terrorism. Trotsky is accused of urging insistently that terrorists attacks against the leaders should be undertaken. Now it is easy enough to point to train wrecks and say that they were due to the activities of wreckers. The wrecks took place and here are people who say they did it. But a terrorist attempt is a terrorist attempt. It could hardly be anything else but a terrorist attempt. There is the murder of Kirov in 1934, but in the trial in August 1936 not one other terrorist attempt could be brought forward. This conspirator confessed that he intended to murder Stalin, but was seated too far from him, etc. etc., and another wanted to murder Voroshilov but Voroshilov’s car went too fast – the whole collection of rigmarole which drew so much suspicion and derisive laughter from the ordinary intelligent person.

In this new trial Vishinsky made an attempt to produce at least some actual terrorist attacks. He had better have left it at intentions. On page 302, the examination of Arnold begins. Arnold is made to tell us where he went to school, beginning at the age of seven, what countries he travelled in, where he fought in the war, his views on Protestantism, Freemasonary, Roman Catholicism (page 325) and much information of equal interest and value. All this no doubt was very convincing and it is not improbable that Arnold spoke the truth. Only on page 327, however, he begins to tell us about his two terrorist acts. The first was in 1934, “at the beginning of the year, or rather in the Spring.” One Cherepukhin told him to wreck the car when driving Orjonokidze, one of Stalin’s closest supporters. He drove the car at 70 or 80 kilometres an hour but he did not have the nerve to perform the act. That is all. The reader can get the whole dastardly crime on page 328. The second is also on page 328. He was driving Molotov, and had been told to cause an accident. Just as he was leaving the dirt road for the high road another car came dashing towards him “There was no time to think; I had to commit a terrorist act. I see that the other car is flying towards me. Then I realised that Cherepukhin had not trusted me and had sent a second car. I had not much time to think, but I got scared. I managed to turn to the side into the gully. At that moment Gryadinsky seized me and said “What are you doing?””

Vishinsky: What stopped you?

Arnold: Cowardice stopped me.

Vishinsky: And this thwarted your criminal plans.

Arnold: Yes.

And that was the second dastardly terrorist attempt. The Stalinist regime must think that the workers in Western Europe are all as stupid as the leaders of the Third International who visit them in Moscow. Are these the crimes for which one shoots people? The train-wrecks are there. One can link them up with “counter-revolutionary Trotskyists.” But a terrorist attempt is on a par with a visit to Trotsky in an aeroplane. These things cannot easily be manufactured, and the attempts to do so result in these incredibly childish concoctions. And let us note that there will never be any evidence of any terrorist act that is worth the paper it is written on. The prosecution has to stick to intentions. For if they attempt to give evidence, of one actually made, then they will have to answer the question: “Why haven’t you said anything about it before?”

If X attempted to kill Stalin or Y attempted to kill Molotov, then surely the G.P.U., not to say Stalin or Molotov would have known something about it before these confessions? Retrospective charges of attempted terrorism cannot therefore be supported by evidence. The prosecution is in a mess from which it cannot escape.

Finally there is the question of the confessions. People ask “Why did they confess?” They cannot imagine that men not guilty of these crimes should stand up and confess to them. They think it psychologically impossible. On the psychological plane the alternatives are equally impossible. If they are guilty it means that Rykov, Bucharin, Serebriakov, Pyatakov, Radek, Tomsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov, having no mass support (their own confessions), seeing the astonishing victory of Socialism under Stalin, yet have all plotted for the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, out of sheer spite, malice and lust for power. That is nonsense. Revolutionaries have degenerated in the past, but they were corrupted by capitalism, they had not lived in a socialist state which they had helped to build. These men are the men of 1917-1923. And it is here that the whole Stalinist case stinks to heaven. For in a pamphlet, “The Truth about Trotskyism,” Harry Pollitt tells us that the real Old Guard are still at their posts and these are “Stalin, Ordjonokidze, Yezhov, Molotov, Voroshilov, Litvinov, Kalinin, Kaganovitch, Zhedanov.” He says, “The gang of enemies now being uprooted by the vigilance of the Soviet Government never were the Old Guard. If they had been, they would never have been the subject of such adulation on the part of those inside and outside the Labour movement who hate above all else Revolution and Socialism.”

For cool lying and brazen effrontery, that statement would be hard to beat. We are not talking of Assyrian history or the Roman Empire. Since when were Zinoviev, Pyatakov and Co. not the Old Guard and these others have become Lenin’s collaborators? Pollitt has got to write that or he’ll be accused of Trotskyism. Luckily only members of the Communist Party have to believe it. Purely on the plane of psychological probability, is it not more likely that Stalin, backed by the bureaucracy, has gradually transformed the Bolshevik Party from a revolutionary organisation into a militia protecting the interests of the bureaucracy? That Zinoviev, Kamenev and the others, not seeing this process as early as Trotsky saw it, went part of the way with Stalin against Trotsky, but little by little they have realised where Stalin was leading the party, that some of them have tried again and again to fit themselves into Stalinism but that the evolution of Russia into a conservative nationalism has one by one driven them to take the road of opposition? Today, Stalin, master of the apparatus, has brought the Soviet Union to the verge of the restoration of capitalism, and must get rid of these who, whatever their previous faults, still cannot help retaining something of the principles and ideas which helped them to achieve victory in October 1917.

Differences with Lenin they had – violent conflicts at times. But it is only Stalinism with its fascist mentality of “the Leader” which sees a difference of policy honestly fought for as a treason to Socialism.

“Why did they confess?” Confession is a Stalinist technique. If you do not confess you are not tried. A prisoner confessed in 1931 that he conspired with Abramovitch in Russia in the summer of 1928. Yet Adler has printed in his Witchcraft Trial in Moscow , a photograph of Abramovitch at a conference of the Second International in that very summer of 1928. Why did that man confess ? We can suggest one reason. The Stalinist regime is the cruellest and most tyrannical regime that exists on the face of the globe, and to identify it with Socialism is gross ignorance or equally culpable cowardice. The proofs are there for those who want them.

On June 8th, 1934, Kalinin, President of the Central Executive Committee and Medviev, the Secretary, signed a decree which was published in Izvestia of June 9th. By this decree whoever attempts to leave the Soviet Union, not only a soldier but a civilian is liable to the death penalty. Section 3 of the decree states that if the criminal is a soldier, the adult members of his family who knew but did not report it, will receive 5-10 years of prison with confiscation of all goods. And the second paragraph of that section states. “The other adult members of the family of the traitor, living with him or at his expense at the time of the treason are deprived of electoral rights and deported for five years to the distant regions of Siberia.” For wife, mother, sisters, that is often worse than death.

On April 8th, 1935, Izvestia published the decree instituting the death penalty for children of twelve. That is Stalinist law. What would Stalin’s secret police not threaten, or even perform, in the secrecy of prison? The Stalinist loud speakers in this country raise a cheap applause by ranting about Dimitrov, and the Reichstag Trial. Muralov, Pyatakov, Sokolnikov would, we are sure, have stood up to a Fascist tribunal, for Socialism against Fascism. But for them to stand up and denounce Stalin after promising to confess means what? Condemning the work to which they have given their lives, and degradation and torture for their families. We do not know for certain why they confessed. But the confessions are no surprise to us. We know the Stalinist regime. And we know that it is capable of any crime.

We support the U.S.S.R. because international socialism has its basis there in the abolition of private property in the means of production. But that basis is today in danger.

Stalin has broken with the socialist revolution, and these trials are the culmination of the degeneration of the Soviet bureaucracy. They have to crush the socialist revolution inside and outside Russia, and we who take no responsibility for the political views of Radek, Zinoviev, Sokolnikov, etc., defend them because we know that their confessions about working under the directions of Trotsky are false and have been extorted from them.

We have dealt with the judicial side of the trial. But infinitely more important is the political side. And it is to that which we shall now address ourselves.

First Published : in Fight ,Volume 2. No. 6. May, 1937, pp. 7-9, signed CLRJ; Transcribed/Marked up : by Ted Crawford/Damon Maxwell.

While one must not ignore the judicial aspects of these trials, yet the political aspects are the side which concern us most. First, therefore, the significance of the trial for the internal position of the Soviet Union. The distinguishing characteristic of the Soviet Union is a huge bureaucracy which swallows up a large share of the economic gains of the revolution, cruelly, mercilessly suppressing the attempts of the workers to lessen this inequality. It controls the country through the party which Stalin dominates and as long as Stalin protects the privileges of the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy is solidly pro-Stalin and supports this uncontrolled despot. But the pressure of the masses is continually forcing itself into the party, and year after year, Stalin purges the party only to find the discontent pushing its way through. The war danger has demanded a yearly expenditure of over a thousand million pounds. This expenditure falls heavily upon the workers. To keep them down the party has had to increase even its former bureaucratic tyranny. But this process could not go on forever. An explosion was inevitable. Stalin, the most astute and relentless bureaucrat who ever lived, tried to forestall it by these trials.

What is the evidence for all this? Stalin himself gives it to us. In the International Press Correspondence of April loth, 1937, appears a speech by him delivered some weeks ago to the Central Committee. Stalin is there pointing out the new road for the party. He says:

“Another example! I have in mind the example of Comrade Nikolayenko. Who is Nikolayenko? Nikolayenko is a rank and file member of the Party, she is an ordinary “little person.” For a whole year she had signalled about a wrong situation in the Party organisation in Kiev, exposing the nepotism, philistine approach to workers, gagging of self-criticism, high-handed action by the Trotskyist wreckers. She was shunned like a bothersome fly. At last in order to get rid of her, they expelled her from the Party. Neither the Kiev organisation, nor the C.C. of the C.P. of the Ukraine helped her to obtain justice. It was only the intervention of the C.C. of the Party, which helped to disentangle that twisted knot. And what was revealed by an examination of the case? It was revealed that Nikolayenko was right, while the Kiev organisation was wrong.”

For years we have pointed out the rotten condition of the C.P.S.U. We were called anti-Soviet. Now comes this damning confession from Stalin, and another report by Zdhanov which shows that this state of affairs is widespread. Something had to be done. Stalin staged his trials, called the Trotskyists wreckers and terrorists and threw all the blame on them; both for the rottenness of the party regime and for the thousands of accidents, due to the reckless speeding-up called the Stakhanovite movement. Conscious of the widespread discontent, he proclaims a new policy, self-criticism, but at the same time he has prepared the way for the judicial assassination of every one of the old Bolsheviks, who could form a rallying point for the opposition. The speech just quoted, later gives warning of a terror to be unloosed, which is enough to freeze the bones of all those who live in that land of terror. Crush Trotskyism is the command. There are not many, only a handful, but crush them, crush them, and so on, page after page, we find in the report. But what is perfectly clear from the speech is that the Party does not believe Stalin. How could it?

If all this wrecking was going on and Pyatakov, Assistant Commissar of Heavy Industry was responsible for it, what was Ordjonokidze, his chief, doing? Was he a Trotskyist? Stalin dared not say that. But Ordjonokidze “died” providentially just when the questions were being asked. And if all the Trotskyists were about wrecking and conspiring, what was Yagoda, head of the G.P.U., doing? Yagoda has been arrested. For Trotskyism? Not yet. But for drunkenness, debauchery, bribery, and stealing from the till like a dishonest shop-assistant.

What a dirty, bloody mess of lies, deceptions and murder, open and secret. We, the Trotskyists, know what the Soviet Union means to Socialism. If it were to get back to Capitalism, to private property, then all the work and hopes of the last twenty years will be blasted, and the international working-class movement will have to begin all over again. But never shall we identify the corrupt, cruel, and depraved Stalinist regime with Socialism. And the Third International, the Independent Labour Party, the Left Book Club, the Friends of the Soviet Union, and all these hangers-on of the Soviet Union who will not face the truth, and who either by their sycophancy or silence protect the Stalinist regime from the consequences of its crimes, these bear a responsibility only less heavy than the criminals themselves.

In this speech, Stalin, after two years of lying about the classless society, now tells us that the class struggle must be fought out still both outside and inside the Soviet Union. But the class-struggle he is fighting is not against Kulaks and capitalists, but on behalf of the bureaucracy against those who try to express the desires of the suffering workers. That battle has gone on for years and the trials show that a climax is approaching.

So much for the internal situation. But the trials too, as everything in the modern world, have an international significance. It is reported and probably with truth that there is a conflict in the bureaucracy between those who wish the Franco-Soviet pact to continue, and those who wish an entente with Germany. The vital issue, however, is: are the workers of the world to trail behind Soviet Union foreign policy and join up with their bourgeoisies in those countries which have the alliance with the Soviet Union, or are they, as Lenin always insisted, to carry on the class-struggle and try to turn the Imperialist War into Civil War? The Third International has been driven by Stalin to adopt the first position. But in Europe and America a Fourth International headed by the hated name of Trotsky is growing. This for Stalin and the Stalinists in Russia would be a disaster. They cannot let the revolutionary movement in Europe get out of their control. Hence their persecution of the revolutionary P.O.U.M. in Spain, and Stalin’s bitter attack in this recent speech against the Fourth International.

National Defence or Turn Imperialist War into Civil War? That is the question, and Radek’s last speech gives us an astonishing indication that, deep-dyed Stalinist as he became, yet in the mind of even that corrupt old Bolshevik, the old Leninist slogan still remained paramount, and in his own crooked way he remains faithful at heart to the revolution as he sees it. In his last statement he is lying and, given the inherent absurdity of his premise, he lies about his psychological reactions at different times, convincingly to some, simply because he is a trained writer and man of letters. (If Gorki had decided to confess, does anyone doubt that wherever he didn’t have to deal with facts, his analysis of his motives would have been moving?)

But Radek tells us on page 542 that he admits his guilt “ from motives of the general benefit that this truth must bring .” He knows that the Stalinists need this confession in their desperate effort (vain) to restore confidence of the politically minded masses in their regime. But on the question of Turning Imperialist War into Civil War, Radek uses his last utterance to condemn subtly, but as clearly as he can, the counter-revolutionary policy of Stalin and the Third International. On page 543, he says: “ And we must also tell the world what Lenin – I tremble to mention his name from this dock – said in the letter in the directions he gave to the delegation that was about to leave for The Hague about the secret of war .” [1]

Every educated revolutionary knows that document. It is perhaps the most famous of Lenin’s writings on war, and is a merciless condemnation of every other policy except Turn the Imperialist War into Civil War.

Why should Radek choose to remind the world of this at that moment. The answer seems to me clear. He is saying to those who can understand: “ Rally round Stalin in Russia, defend the Socialist Fatherland ,” but to those outside, even while he is cursing Trotsky he is saying: “ Do not be seduced by that lying policy of the Third International. Stick to Lenin’s instructions to the Hague delegation .”

Stalin seeks by the trials not only to deflect unrest at home but prove to the international bourgeoisie that he can be trusted to collaborate with them. But collaboration with the bourgeoisie means the ruin of the workers, and that is why Stalinism outside Russia as inside is a cancer to be cut out of our movement. Everything rests with us in Europe. It is the defeat of the proletariat that drove Smirnov and others like him to capitulation. But Victor Serge tells us of the thousands of Trotskyists in the prisons who will not capitulate, who in the face of every conceivable cruelty and privation, are waiting for the time when the revolution will relieve them. Russia will need these disciples of Lenin some day. It is on us they depend. Radek had no need to remind us of Lenin’s instructions to the Hague delegation. That is our foundation and we are building on it. As the Fourth International grows and forces its way to the head of the masses, the anti-Stalinist forces in Russia will be heartened and strengthened in their resistance. And they need it. Never in history has there been such repression as the Stalinist bureaucracy metes out to these gallant soldiers of the revolution. Yet Stalin could not get one of them to confess, he had to use men who had already capitulated.

Let their example be always with us, and strengthen us in our task to build at all costs and with every sacrifice our section for the Fourth International; to support our comrades in other sections; ceaselessly to expose the treachery and crimes of the Stalinist bureaucracy and the Third International. The trials have had exactly the opposite effect to that which Stalin intended. Everywhere people are listening to us now, moving tentatively towards us. The tide has turned at last. The rest is courage, energy and organization. If the obstacles become greater, at least the rightness of our road becomes clearer every day. We of the Marxist Group and our comrades and allies will follow it without flinching.

LONG LIVE THE SOVIET UNION DOWN WITH THE STALINIST BUREAUCRACY FOR THE WORKERS’ PARTY FOR THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL.

1. Lenin, Notes On The Tasks Of Our Delegation At The Hague.

C.L.R. James Archive

Moscow concert attack: 'No Ukrainian involvement' in deadly attack, U.S. says

What we know.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has delivered a public address, calling the attack a barbaric act of terrorism and vowing to punish the perpetrators. He also accused Ukraine of preparing a "window" to help the suspects escape. Kyiv has staunchly denied any role in the attack.
• Russia has arrested 11 people, including all four gunmen suspected of carrying out the attack at a crowded concert venue in a Moscow suburb last night, the head of the country's Federal Security Service (FSB) has told Putin.
• At least 133 people are now known to have been killed as more bodies were found in the rubble, Russia's Investigative Committee said this morning. Men in camouflage broke into the concert hall, opened fire, and set the crowded venue ablaze. The death toll is expected to rise.
• The terror group ISIS has claimed responsibility but did not provide proof of the claim. U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News that they had been gathering intelligence for months that ISIS could mount a mass casualty attack in Russia, though no final assessment had been made yet about who was responsible. U.S. Embassy officials issued a warning earlier this month urging people to stay away from large gatherings.

Coverage on this live blog has ended.

Sunday is day of mourning in Russia after tallest building stages tribute to fallen

Dennis Romero

Sunday was declared a day of mourning in Russia for those killed in Friday night's concert attack.

Putin made the declaration during a televised address to Russians in which he discussed the nation's response to the attack, which ended with 133 killed.

Also on Sunday, Dubai's 163-floor Burj Khalifa skyscraper was lit up in the colors of Russia's flag for "several minutes" to acknowledge the country's loss, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Dubai authorities and the development company Emaar organized the tribute on the world's tallest building, the agency said.

According to United Arab Emirates state news from Emirates News Agency, other structures in the region, including the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company building, were lit up "in solidarity with Moscow."

Rescue operation over at concert hall, official says

Dusa Gambrill

Mirna Alsharif Mirna Alsharif is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

The rescue operation on the scene of the Moscow attack is over, according to Moscow Oblast Gov. Andrey Vorobyov.

The search for victims at the concert hall is ongoing.

"Today rescuers cleared a huge layer of the auditorium," Vorobyov said in a statement on Telegram. "Over the course of 24 hours, 133 bodies were pulled out from under the rubble, and the identities of 50 dead were tentatively identified."

Officials have not publicly released the identities of the 50 victims.

"At night we will start creating an opening on the western side of Crocus, this will make it easier to access the concert hall," Vorobyov said.

Ukraine had nothing to do with Russia attack, U.S. says

Michelle Acevedo

The National Security Council said today in no uncertain terms that Ukraine had nothing to do with the deadly concert attack.

"ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever," NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement.

In the initial hours after the attack, Putin suggested attackers were trying to escape in the direction of Ukraine. He also accused Ukraine of preparing a "window" to help suspects escape. Ukraine has staunchly denied any involvement.

Russian officials say all four suspects believed to be behind the concert shooting are in custody.

Watson noted that the United States "shared information with Russia about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow."

Yesterday, the security council said the warning was made “in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy.”

In remarks that aired days before the attacks, Putin said the West’s warnings of any potential attacks in Russia were part of an “attempt to intimidate, destabilize our country.”

Intelligence officials have been gathering information for months that suggested ISIS could mount a mass casualty attack in Russia, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News.

Russia's president in a video address late today vowed dire consequences for the four suspects apprehended in the concert attack and anyone else involved in the violence.

"No one will be able to sow poisonous seeds of discord," Putin warned in the remarks.

He also drew on history to say, essentially, that times of hardship will only make Russia stronger. "It will be so now," he said.

29 Moscow attack victims identified

The Russian Ministry of Health has identified 29 victims of yesterday’s attack in Moscow.

The preliminary list was published by the Russian Emergency Ministry tonight. No other details about the victims, including their ages, were published.

More than 50 people who were killed in the attack have been identified so far, Moscow Oblast Gov. Andrey Vorobyov told Russian state media RIA Novosti.

'They always blame others': Zelenskyy denounces Putin for linking Ukraine to deadly Moscow attacks

Victor Sema

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to blame "someone else" for the Moscow attack.

Putin accused Ukraine of preparing a “window” to help the suspects in the attack escape.

"What happened yesterday in Moscow is obviously just Putin and the other scum trying to blame it on someone else," he said in a statement shared on Telegram. "They always have the same methods. It has happened before. There have been bombed houses, shootings, and explosions. And they always blame others."

Zelenskyy said Putin's methods are "absolutely predictable."

"They come to Ukraine, burn our cities, and try to blame Ukraine. They torture and rape our people — and they blame them," he said. "They have brought hundreds of thousands of their own terrorists here, to Ukrainian soil, to fight against us, and they don’t care what happens inside their own country."

Zelenskyy believes Putin is trying to turn the situation "in favor of his personal power."

Fire extinguished at Crocus City Hall, Russian Emergency Ministry says

Gabrielle Nolin

The fire at the Crocus City Hall has been extinguished, according to the Russian Emergency Ministry.

The ministry shared a video on Telegram of the destruction left behind by yesterday's attack in the area.

Over 130 people were killed in the attack and more than 100 are in Moscow hospitals with injuries, officials said.

Rescue workers will 'need a few more days to fully clear up the rubble' at the Crocus concert hall, Moscow official says

Rescue workers will "need a few more days to fully clear up the rubble" at the Crocus concert hall, according to Moscow Oblast Gov. Andrey Vorobyov.

"Specialists from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations — 104 people and 19 pieces of equipment — continue to clear the rubble in the concert hall and put out the remaining fires," he said in a statement shared to Telegram. "Rescuers will need a few more days to fully clear up the rubble."

Vorobyov said there is difficulty in accessing a wall that needs to be demolished in order to continue the search for victims.

"In the near future, special small equipment will arrive to help clear access and provide rescuers with passage," he said. "This will help continue the search operation."

Russian Investigative Committee to award man who allegedly neutralized one of the Moscow attack suspects

The Russian Investigative Committee will award a man who allegedly neutralized one of the suspects in yesterday's attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed over 130 people.

"A man, trying to protect his wife from terrorists who were shooting at people, attacked one of them and neutralized him," a statement on the committee's website said. "Through his active and decisive actions, he saved the lives of the people around him at that moment."

NBC News has not independently verified this information.

More than 50 people who were killed in the attack have been identified, Moscow Oblast Gov. Andrey Vorobyov told Russian state media RIA Novosti.

Russian media broadcasts videos it claims show detention, interrogation of suspects

The Associated Press

Russian media on Saturday broadcast videos that apparently showed the detention and interrogation of the suspects, including one who told the cameras he was approached by an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher via a messaging app channel and paid to take part in the raid.

Russian news reports identified the gunmen as citizens of Tajikistan, a former Soviet country in Central Asia that is predominantly Muslim and borders Afghanistan. Up to 1.5 million Tajiks have worked in Russia and many received Russian citizenship.

Putin also said that additional security measures have been imposed throughout Russia, and he declared Sunday a day of mourning.

Russia's foes weigh in with condolences for Moscow terrorism victims

Corky Siemaszko

World leaders backing Ukraine in its war with Russia weighed in Saturday with condolences and condemnations of terrorist violence in the wake of the Moscow concert hall attack.

"I strongly condemn the terrorist attack against civilians in the Crocus City Hall in Moscow claimed by the Islamic State," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X , formerly Twitter. "My thoughts are with the victims and their families during this tragic time."

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said the United Kingdom condemned “in the strongest terms the deadly terrorist attack” in Moscow.

“Nothing can ever justify such horrific violence,” Cameron posted .

French President   Emmanuel Macron also went on X to express his “solidarity with the families of victims, the injured and the Russian people.”

And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the “terrible terrorist attack on innocent concertgoers in Moscow.”

Even the leaders of countries like Poland that have for centuries viewed Russia as their enemy expressed condolences.

"Poland strongly condemns the brutal attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted . "We all grieve for the families of the victims. We hope that this terrible tragedy will not become a pretext for anyone to escalate violence and aggression."

Top U.S. diplomat calls Moscow massacre 'heinous crime'

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement Saturday condemning the deadly terrorist attack in Moscow. It reads as follows:

"The United States strongly condemns yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack in Moscow. We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and all affected by this heinous crime. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and stand in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event."

Putin plans to use Moscow attack to mobilize for war, historian says

Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to use yesterday's attack on Moscow as a means to mobilize for war and to repress Russian citizens, said Sergey Radchenko, a historian and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Putin has delivered a public address following the attack, and accused Ukraine of preparing a “window” to help the suspects escape. Kyiv has staunchly denied any role in the attack.

"Terrorism is a familiar threat to Russians, and Putin has a history of opportunistically using their fear of terrorism to consolidate his grip on power. (That’s a benign view, of course, but there’s no absolute need to embrace conspiracy theories to make this point)," Radchenko wrote on X .

Radchenko said Putin's goal is "clear" : "more internal repression" and "mobilization of war."

"Russia has become a giant outhouse, and things are certain to get much, much worse for Russians and for the unfortunate weakness of Russia’s terminal illness," he wrote . "To be fair, the trends have long pointed in this direction."

ISIS-K no stranger to U.S. intelligence

The terrorist organization believed to be behind the deadly Moscow concert hall attack is the same group that killed more than a dozen U.S. service members and dozens of civilians in 2021 during the American evacuation from Afghanistan.

The Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, is the Afghan offshoot of the Islamic State terror group, which has publicly beheaded foreign journalists and inflicted all kinds of brutalities on captured Kurds and others in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS-K also has a penchant for going after civilians it regards as infidels, experts told NBC News in the aftermath of the surprise suicide attack that stunned the Biden administration.

In the 2021 incident, a suicide bomber set off a blast near a checkpoint where Marines were checking the documents of people being allowed into the Kabul airport to escape the Taliban takeover of the country.

Read more about ISIS-K here .

No Americans killed in Moscow attack, U.S. official says

No Americans are believed to have been killed in yesterday's attack on Moscow, according to a U.S. official.

The official also said the U.S. "has no reason to doubt the ISIS claim of responsibility" for the attack.

"It has a long-demonstrated history of targeting Russia and neighboring countries," the official said. "There are no indications of Ukrainian involvement in the attack."

Photos: Mourners in Europe pay tribute outside Russia's embassies

Russian attempts to connect Ukraine to Moscow attack are 'absolutely untenable,' Ukrainian official says

Russian attempts to connect Ukraine to yesterday's attack on Moscow are "absolutely untenable," said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of preparing a “window” to help the suspects escape. Kyiv has staunchly denied any role in the attack.

"Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident," Podolyak wrote on X. "Ukraine has a full-scale war with #Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression (aggression, by the way, with a deliberate terrorist component) on the battlefield. The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd."

Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, shared similar sentiments in remarks he delivered during the National Telethon.

"You don’t have to be a security expert to understand this," he said. "A full-scale war has been going on for over two years, border territories are full with enemy troops, special agents, representatives of intelligence services, and law enforcement. The borderline is mined, surveillance is conducted by all means, including aerial reconnaissance, from both sides. Regions like Belgorod and Kursk are currently active combat zones after the recent events."

Death toll rises to 133 people killed

The death toll from yesterday’s attack in Moscow has now risen to 133 people, officials confirmed.

The Russian Investigative Committee said more bodies were found as emergency responders cleared the rubble from the fiery attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall. The search operation at the venue is still underway.

At least 107 people, including three children, are currently in Moscow hospitals with injuries, according to Tatyana Golikova, deputy chairman of the Russian government.

The latest death toll officially marks the attack as one of the worst terrorist acts in Russia’s modern history, surpassing the casualty number of the hostage crisis at Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater in 2002, where 130 people died. Over 330 people were killed in the Beslan school siege in 2004.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson appears to hit out at the West after attack

Chantal Da Silva

Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia's foreign ministry, appeared to hit out at the U.S. and the West today over yesterday's attack.

“The main point is that American authorities don’t forget how their information and political environment linked the terrorists who shot people in Crocus City Hall to the banned terrorist organization ISIS," she said in a statement posted to Telegram.

U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News that they had been gathering intelligence for months that ISIS could launch a major attack in Russia.

"Now we know in which country these bloody bastards planned to hide from persecution — Ukraine," Zakharova said. "The same country which for ten years has been turning via Western liberal regimes into a center of terrorism spread in Europe," she said, referring to findings that the attackers planned to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border after the attack.

Mikhail Sheremet, an MP of the State Duma, Russia’s lower chamber of parliament, separately accused Ukraine of possible involvement in the attack without providing any evidence, in comments made to RIA Novosti. "One shouldn’t rule out a Ukrainian trace in organizing the terrorist attack," Sheremet said.

Ukraine has staunchly denied any involvement in the attacks.

Putin says a 'window' was prepared on Ukrainian side for attackers' escape

Putin condemned yesterday's attack as a "barbaric terrorist act" in a public address today as he alleged that a "window" had been prepared "on the Ukrainian side" to help the attackers escape.

The Russian leader did not provide evidence for the claim, but cited preliminary data in Moscow's ongoing investigation into the deadly attack.

Russian officials have said the attackers were planning to escape across the Russia-Ukraine border following the assault. Kyiv has denied having any role.

Putin said medics were still fighting to save the lives of those wounded in the attack, which he said has prompted officials in Moscow and several other regions to introduce new anti-terrorism measures.

He said tomorrow, March 24, would be a national day of mourning for the more than 115 people killed.

"I express my deep, sincere condolences to everyone who lost their loved ones," he said. "The whole country, our entire nation, mourns with you."

Russians lay flower tributes for victims of the attack

People laid flowers in tribute to the victims of the attack at memorials that have popped up across Russia, as lines outside hospitals in Moscow grew with those seeking to donate blood.

'We heard shots and smelled smoke': Witnesses evacuated from city hall describe ordeal

Two people who were among many evacuated from Crocus City Hall following yesterday's attack described the harrowing ordeal as they praised first responders for helping keep everyone calm.

Nadezhda Erastova and Andrei Telnov were in the city hall for a sports dance championship, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

"We were not in the concert hall. We were in another part of the building, but we heard shots and smelled smoke," Telnov told the agency. "People, of course, were worried and scared. I myself was not in the best emotional state. Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life, one might say."

Erastova separately told Tass that "everyone was a hero in this situation."

"They did not panic and were able to get out,” she said, praising police for escorting people to public transport safely.

Death toll rises to 115 people killed

The death toll from yesterday's attack has now risen to 115 people, officials confirmed.

The Russian Investigative Committee said more bodies were found as emergency responders cleared the rubble from the fiery attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall.

A search operation at the venue is still underway, it said.

Photos reveal extent of the destruction at burned-out concert hall

Matthew Mulligan

Photos released by Russian authorities reveal the extent of the destruction at Crocus City Hall following last night's attack.

Firefighters can be seen making their way through the burned-out concert hall, much of it in ruins in the photos taken by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

The attack was carried out with automatic weapons, but also with "flammable liquid," which was used to set the concert hall ablaze, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

Firefighters evacuated people from the basement and roof of the building, but more than 100 people were killed in the attack.

Attackers planned to cross Russian-Ukrainian border, state media reports

Suspects in yesterday's attack intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border following the assault and had contacts on the Ukrainian side, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).

NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the reporting. It is not clear how the attackers planned to cross the border, an endeavor that would have been complicated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, without providing any proof. Kyiv has explicitly denied any role in the assault.

“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall," Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement on X yesterday, adding: "It makes no sense whatsoever."

Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military intelligence directorate, separately told the BBC the border area with Ukraine is “full of special services and military."

"Also the latest events in Belgorod region and Kursk — where there is military activity — mean this is a front line," Yusov noted, adding: “To suggest the suspects were heading to Ukraine would suggest they were stupid or suicidal.”

At least 115 people hospitalized, including 5 children, officials say

At least 115 people were hospitalized in connection with yesterday's attack, including five children, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said, according to Tass.

At least 60 people are in severe condition, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said separately, according to the Russian state news agency. She said almost all necessary surgeries had been performed.

11 people reportedly detained in connection with attack 

At least 11 people have been detained in connection with yesterday's attack, including four people directly involved, the Kremlin said.

Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) informed Putin of the detentions, it said.

Bortnikov also updated the Russian president on the FSB's efforts to identify the accomplices of those who carried out the attack.

Death toll rises to 93, expected to increase

Aurora Almendral Aurora Almendral is a London-based editor with NBC News Digital.

Russia's Investigative Committee said this morning that the number of people confirmed dead in last night's attack has risen to 93, and said "the death toll will rise further."

According to preliminary data, the causes of death were gunshot wounds and "poisoning by combustion products," the Investigative Committee said.

Three children among those killed, state media reports

Three children were among the more than 60 people killed in yesterday’s attack at Crocus City Hall, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Health.

Officials have warned that the death toll connected to the deadly incident may increase as the investigation continues.

Moscow bloodshed comes two decades after some of worst attacks in Russia

Phil Helsel

The attack in Moscow is the latest in a series of deadly terror attacks in the country since the 2000s.

In 2004, militants from Chechnya and elsewhere took hostages at a school in Beslan in southern Russia.

The militants demanded a withdrawal from Chechnya. Hostages were kept in a gymnasium, and 334 died — half of them children — when gunfire and explosions erupted when it was stormed. Hostages’ families were critical of the rescue operation. Russian prosecutors later cleared authorities .

Two years prior, in 2002, Chechen separatists attacked the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow and took more than 700 people hostage. Russian forces used gas, and 129 hostages died. The attackers were killed.

More recently, in 2017, a suicide bomber from Kyrgyzstan killed 15 people as well as himself in an attack on a St. Petersburg subway. In 2013, two bombers killed a combined 34 people in attacks on a railway station and a trolleybus in Volgograd.

The group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, claimed responsibility for the attacks Friday at the Crocus City Hall venue.

Putin wishes victims well, deputy prime minister say

President Vladimir Putin is thinking of those injured in today’s attack and thanked doctors, a Russian government official said, according to state media.

State media Tass reported that “Putin wished all those injured in the emergency at Crocus City Hall to recover and conveyed his gratitude to the doctors, Golikova said,” referring to Tatiana Golikova, deputy prime minister for social policy, labor, health and pension provision.

U.S. warned Russia about planned terrorist attack in Moscow, NSC says

Monica Alba

The United States shared information about a potential terrorist attack in Moscow with Russia’s government earlier this month, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said.

The U.S. Embassy in Russia on March 7 warned U.S. citizens to avoid crowds and said it was monitoring reports that extremists might attack large gatherings in Moscow.

“Earlier this month, the U.S. Government had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow — potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts — which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory to Americans in Russia,” NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said.

“The U.S. Government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding ‘duty to warn’ policy,” Watson said.

Putin recently dismissed ‘provocative’ warning about potential attacks

In remarks that aired three days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of “provocative statements” about potential terror attacks in Russia, and dismissed them.

“I’ll remind you of recent, let’s say directly, provocative statements of certain official Western structures about potential terror attacks in Russia,” Putin said.

“All of this looks like obvious blackmail and an attempt to intimidate, destabilize our country,” he said before the state security agency FSB.

Putin in those remarks did not specify a country or warning. The U.S. Embassy in Russia on March 7 warned U.S. citizens to avoid crowds .

“The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the U.S. Embassy warned.

Some Moscow concertgoers filmed events as they unfolded Friday night, when gunmen opened fire inside a theater and people ran to take cover in fear for their lives.