A bit of a spoiler for today's story. You are looking at the photo of the Chornobyl Nuclear Station after the fire was finally put out. Today's story will be my scarce memories about those events.
(the photo was taken from Pinterest)
So, on the 26th of April 1986б in the middle of the night, an explosion on the 4th reactor of Chornobyl nuclear station shook the grounds of the town Prypiat that is located 4 miles away from it. My mom remembers that night very clearly: she celebrated her birthday in the circle of our family friends. It was a very warm night and when her and my dad went to see off the guests the chestnut trees were already blooming. People that went through very tragic events say that they usually remember the very day if the accident clearly and with a ton of details. Americans I talked to about the 9/11 tragedy remember what they were doing and where they were when heard the news. When Chornobyl explosion happened there was a very limited circle of people who have detailed memories of that night and there are a couple of reasons for that. The main one is that to know anything about what happened you either had to be part of the nuclear station team, an inhabitant of Prypiat or a top official in soviet government. If you were an average member of the public you didn't know anything about what was going on till some time in May.
As a little kid I spent each summer at my grandparents. That year I came to them earlier than usual since I didn't go to school yet. I spent a lot of time outside since we have a very nice house and a good amount of land around it. That's why I remember clearly that my grandmother talked to my grandfather on the phone and after that, she commanded me inside. My soft, kind grandmother literally commanded me inside, though it was a nice summer day, the sun was warm and bright. I wasn't allowed to go outside or even leave the door open. And my grandmother started putting a wet bed sheet over the entrance door. A couple of days later came my parents and took me back home. That was another weird thing because it was just the beginning of summer and I would usually go home at the end of August, not at the beginning of May. The thing is that my grandparents live in the northern part of Ukraine and if you look on the map it's on the same line with Chornobyl. My parents live in the southwest of Ukraine and at that point, it seemed a good idea to move me as far away from the possible influence the explosion could have on the nearest parts of Ukraine. We didn't know that the radioactive cloud has covered almost all Ukraine and it really didn't matter where you were. Much later we learned that the town where live my parents (Zalishchyky, Ternopil region) was covered with radioactive iodine and strontium-90. Natural strontium is a harmless metal that is highly reactive. Strontium-90 is a completely different story: it can be absorbed by the human body and stored in bones just like calcium. And if swallowed or inhaled it gets very harmful and can cause bone cancer and leukemias. The Japanese scientists back at the end of the 80s warned the soviet government that there would be two main waves of people affected by the radiation: those who were involved in the liquidation of the catastrophe right away, and another wave was to be statistically visible 26-28 years later since that's the half-life of strontium-90. Nowadays every 42nd Ukrainian has cancer. Most people of my generation have an enlarged thyroid gland. We have never clearly explained what it means. But knowing that thyroid is one of the most vital glands that produces hormones needed by every single cell in your body makes a lot of people nervous.
When watching the mini-series by HBO I felt nothing but fear. That was not the fear and suspense you experience when watching a horror movie. In a horror movie, everything is a fake and your reactions are caused by grim scenery, well-selected music, and unexpected actions of the main characters. When watching something based on real-life events your brain keeps reiterating: it's all real, those people are real, those events are real. When you see a body of dying station worker covered in blood, you do know that radiation caused all his vessels slowly degrade and now all his body is an open wound. Unfortunately, reality sometimes is even scarier than somebody's imagination. Then you see all those important looking people sitting around the table and determining human fates as if it's a card game. In my opinion, Chornobyl catastrophe is one of the biggest crimes in the history of soviet union, mostly because we, the people of the country, were not told the TRUTH. There is nothing scarier when you don't know that truth.
If you decide to watch the mini-series, please, don't think that the people shown in it are a small circle of people that suffered from the consequences of the catastrophe. Think about the numbers of victims that equal the population of the country, I would even say the population of several countries because the radioactive cloud didn't care about the boundaries or nationalities.
Life goes on. Our planet has a lot of scars made by its unwise inhabitants. But it can heal itself and even Chornobyl exclusion zone proves it. Almost no human presence there has resulted in the renewal of wildlife: wild animals like bears, elks, wolves, foxes started returning there and feel very comfortable with no humans around. The rivers are cranking with fishes. Nature has started a very long process of revival. Is humanity able to heal itself? I doubt it. Chornobyl tragedy hasn't taught us much. Fukushima happened not so long ago in a highly technological Japan. I guess we made our choice.
I think if I had three wishes I would spend one of them on humanity to gain wisdom.
So try to be wise and behave!
SIncerely yours )))
P.S. No photos today. I have never been to Chornobyl, but this trip is on my bucket list. I want to see the dead town of Prypiat and to pay my dues to the monument dedicated to all the people that died trying to save me and millions of people. However, I will leave here a link to the project I work with. They have been to the exclusion zone and talked to people that moved back to their homes despite the radiation. Their stories are simple but very sincere.
https://ukrainer.net/self-settlers-of-chornobyl-returning-home/
https://ukrainer.net/prybirsk-life/
https://ukrainer.net/a-return-to-the-exclusion-zone/
