Yes, that actually happened just a day after the Barneveld, WI F5 here in the States. There are a lot of myths out there about that outbreak, but it's so difficult to discern how much of it is actually based in reality. I have been able to find some photos, none of which have shown anything more than moderate damage. Of course, it's quite likely that those photos don't show the worst affected areas, so again it's hard to really infer anything from them. Here's an album I made with a few photos.
http://imgur.com/a/e42e7
The newspaper allegedly shows a photo of the tornado (or one of the tornadoes, anyway), but who knows. The photo immediately above that one is said to show "all the vegetation torn from the ground" (ground scouring), but it's hard to tell for sure. Anyhow, I also found this brief Russian news clip. It should automatically go to the right time, but if it doesn't then just skip ahead to 14:41.
As for the number of fatalities, I'm pretty confident there were at least 100 in total, but once again it's almost impossible to find real info since the government suppressed so much of the event. I did, however, find this from an author who apparently was there (it's translated from Russian, so it's a little rough):
"Dozens of graves. I stood next to one of them and asked the gravediggers, "How many?" They immediately realized: "Hundreds! To work for a month will have to. " - How ?! After all, it was officially announced that killed seven people! I heard with my own ears! "They sneer looked at me like I was a fool, and silently continued their work ... Who needed this official lies, which made sense ?! In the end, it is still all about everything learned. Why deceive his own people! .. And who defend currently Cemetery at a time ?! There can be no looting, as happened in the Degtyarev. Yes, sadly to admit this, first arrived on the scene did not rescue teams, not law enforcement officers, not the medical service, and the guys on motorcycles and mopeds. What are they doing there? Provided first aid? It is unlikely that! .. And only two hours later, police appeared! But the chairman of the horticultural sector, although he was in psychological shock after the incident, yet immediately began calling all the villages of the service, the District Committee, Party Committee, demanding and pleading for help. He just did not believe. And while not heard similar signals from the other end of the city, was not taken any measures. How much time has passed, and in anticipation of complete inaction - an hour and a half? But it is well known, the role played by the first hours and even minutes in the rescue of victims, particularly victims of this kind! It was the first two hours! In these terms should be given first emergency medical care! Otherwise, the percentage of irrecoverable losses will inevitably grow. So how many lives we then lost only our own nesobrannosti and disorganization!"
So, it's possible the death toll was very high indeed. That would make sense if the tornadoes were as strong as they were purported to be, since no one really had any warning and most Russians had no experience with tornadoes. Some of the claims are pretty clearly false, however. The 710,000 lb. crane that was allegedly thrown 200 meters was actually just knocked over, and I
believe (not positive) that the "reinforced concrete" building that was "swept cleanly away" was actually unreinforced cement, which would require considerably less force to destroy. Still, they were clearly intense tornadoes, and certainly occurred in an area not normally associated with such large, violent outbreaks.
It's worth noting, however, that strong/violent tornadoes and even outbreaks
do occur on occasion in that part of Russia. Moscow itself was struck by a very large, intense tornado on June 29, 1904. Here are some photos from that event (the tornado photo seems unlikely, but it's shown in multiple sources as being the 1904 tornado. Who knows?) Also, the map is the approximate path overlaid on modern Moscow.
http://imgur.com/a/VVycU
