The town I want to see… Chernobyl

It is the town, which I have never seen but which has been attracting me for many years. It is the town which has become a terrible reality and which is linked to the place where I was born and grew up. The past and the present of this place are connected by the Pripyat River, which flows through my native city Pinsk and which gave the name to the residential place. This town is Pripyat, which I so much want to visit  and see everything with my own eyes.

I was born in 1982. And 4 years later the biggest man-made disaster in the history of mankind took place. On April 26, 1986 an explosion happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Despite the global character of the catastrophy only a few people knew about it. The fact that the fourth reactor was destroyed and a radioactive cloud escaped to freedom wasn’t mentioned in the media. It was due not so much to the fact that no one wanted any publicity, but sooner to the fact that even experts needed time to realize what had happened and what to do in the circumstances. At the same time the crew of the Pripyat fire station was the first to be affected by the blast. Just a few minutes after the explosion of the reactor, they began to put the fire out. Together with the employees of the station they took on the first blow of the invisible enemy-radiation. Many of them died within a month. But without them and without their victims, perhaps, the consequences of the accident would have been even more terrible. After the explosion there was a big risk that the fire at the fourth reactor would move on to the third one. Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of many people that did not happen. In the following months a commission was formed to liquidate the consequences of the explosion. Its main objective was to minimize the effects of the radioactive release. It couldn’t be done without casualties while using special mixtures to drop on the fourth reactor and constructing "Sarcophagus". There was a helicopter Mi-8 crash the entire crew of which was killed. The electronic equipment that was used in the construction of "Sarcophagus" couldn’t withstand the radiation. One of the robots working there remained on the roof of the reactor as a reminder of non-human victims.

But let's go back to Pripyat, a town that is located 3 km from the Chernobyl power station. On April 26, at the time when the explosion occurred, the peaceful city was sleeping. And even the next day, people woke up as usual. As always, the kids played in the yards, the older children went to school, some people  got married; in general, everybody enjoyed their usual lifestyle. Only armored vehicles that  appeared on the streets of the city and the police in chemical protection suits changed the common scene. The residents of the city were informed about the disaster in the morning of April 27th. The evacuation of nearly 50,000 people was organized within a short time. To prevent panic, the people were told that they were leaving their homes temporarily for 2 or 3 days. Leaving their pets at home, the residents of Pripyat didn’t know that they would never see either them or their homes again.

Over the years, the Zone of Alienation, along with several settlements, which included some villages and the town of Pripyat were left without any people. The general public could see them again a few years later, when tours inviting tourists to this place were officially  organized. Yet the greatest interest in the Zone emerged in 2007 after the release of the computer game STALKER by Ukrainian developers. All in all 3 parts of the game were released, each giving  details of the real world, the real places of the Zone of Alienation. After the success of the game, a great number of fans of post-apocalyptic romance rushed to Pripyat and other places shown in the game. And the people who entered the Zone illegally became known as "Stalkers."

Stalkers are conventionally divided into several categories. Some of them, usually young people, influenced by computer games and books, arrived at Pripyat just  to see the places where they  had destroyed enemies and dangerous mutants while playing the game. Another group of Stalkers is the smallest. They are the ones who come here illegally, and who have their own code of ethics in relation to the region. These people know the points of entry and exit from the Zone. They come here for a few days and do not leave behind any litter. In addition, they do not take any souvenirs from the Zone with them. They believe that everything should be left the way it had been before them. Their main goal is simply to stay alone in  the city where  they are the only living souls. At such times, they say, they feel alive. Many of them are anxious to get to the classified( secret) objects(zones), which are numerous in the area. These are the radar station "Duga"(ARC), the approach to which is guarded until now, and no less mysterious station "The Circle." The stalkers also visit the plant "Jupiter", which is rumored to have conducted secret research for the military. To conceal this fact, it produced tape-recorders of the same name.

And still another group of stalkers, the most dangerous of all the others, is just looters and poachers. Despite the fact that leaving the city its residents locked their apartments, most of the houses are now looted, having only broken furniture and torn wallpaper. The fact is that Pripyat has become the victim of a large number of marauders, who have completely robbed the city, taking out everything of value. Ferrous and non-ferrous metals have been removed from the city for the purpose of profit. These stalkers don’t even care that the ban on the export of any items from the city was made for a reason. A large number of items and things are dangerous to man as they emit high doses of radiation. But this fact does not stop metal seekers. It is a fact that it is very difficult to find any cast-iron batteries in the entire city now.

I would like to experience all of this and see the railway station Yanov with abandoned trains, which brought  rubble to cover the exploded reactor, the graveyard of ships and military equipment, which was involved in the accident, the buried village of Kopachi. But the most important site  I want to see with my own eyes is the city of Pripyat, a city that instead of planned socialist paradise has become a ghost town. Before the disaster there were about 50 thousand people in the city. It was considered as the city of atomograd, that is the city of atomic electric power station. However, because of the accident the dreams of its inhabitants did not come true. Wide and sunny avenues are overgrown today with trees and shrubs, the kindergarten  "Willow" has nothing but abandoned dolls and toys. The swimming pool in the House of Culture "Energetics" still seems to remember how happy the Soviet children and adults swam in it. The city contains a number of reminders of the Soviet era. They are telephone booths, water dispensers, which were so popular in the Soviet Union. There are really a lot of symbols of the past in the city. They are also lampposts, reminiscent of cranes, stores "Birches", "Books" and the famous Ferris wheel.  No one had a chance  to ride on it. The running of this attraction was planned for a holiday on May 1, Labor Day, but the accident put an end to the plans. Since then, the Ferris wheel, which was designed to please both children and adults has been a reminder of a lost childhood.

Almost all the buildings in Pripyat have become symbols of the great era, the traces of which can probably be seen only there. But gradually the city is being destroyed, nature takes away its rights. Part of a secondary school has already collapsed, other buildings are gradually being destroyed too. They even say, that Pripyat may soon  be banned for a visit. After all, it is becoming more and more dangerous with each passing year. But many people believe that the Pripyat and Chernobyl zone must remain open for visits to ensure that humanity should not forget about the price it had to pay for the mistake.

Victor Glodev

 

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