An hour’s ride from Kyiv and we are in the Chornobyl restricted zone. Not the mysterious zone described by the Struhatsky brothers (extremely popular science fiction authors in Soviet times). Local “stalkers” haul not “dummies” but real solid equipment made of metal and high grade steel, now a source of lethal danger to whomever lays hands on it, random death like the American Unabomber. Nor is this a wonderland where dreams come true. Here none ever do. And yet the land looks fantastic in its way, perhaps because here one’s most gruesome expectations turn into reality.
By and large, Chornobyl is the most eloquent expression of Soviet and post-Soviet inherent stupidity, incompetence, and innate indifference to people by the rich and the famous. Surprisingly, it also symbolizes pure human selflessness and courage. In our senseless society there is always room for individual folly expressed as absolute sacrifice. If one considers the twelve years since Chornobyl catastrophe, one will find every official act and motion recorded therein perfectly senseless and contrary to common sense. The power unit blew up because it was run by idiots, and the fact was kept from the general public for reasons best known to those supposed to secure the nation’s “brilliant future.” And this meant leaving hundreds of thousands, nay millions exposed to deadly radiation. Now hundreds of tons of contaminated equipment abandoned in high risk areas are being stolen and sold, meaning that one gross stupidity has begot another, costing thousands of lives. You don’t believe it? Ask any of those who have had to work or are still on active duty there.
HROBKY - COMMEMORATION TIME OF EASTER
We arrived in the high risk radiation zone on the third day of Easter, marked as Memorial Day by Eastern Orthodox believers. On this day people visit graveyards and pay tribute to their departed near and dear ones. To the local authorities of this Chornobyl area the day is a headache.
First, those manning checkpoints have to know the names and number of visitors, so they can make sure no one is left behind after visiting hours. Secondly, they have to see to it that people coming on such a spiritual errand do not pick up more rems than absolutely unavoidable (many cannot avoid the temptation of visiting their former homes, touching their walls.) We were in the deserted village of Terekhy. On this particular occasion it was visited by ex-villagers coming from a variety of places of current residence. They put up makeshift tables laden with food and drink in the cemetery, they toasted the departed and cried, looking at their surviving relatives, pitying their losses. People met here who had lived together for decades and were then forced to move out to different places. Now they could meet probably once or twice every year. Terekhy was their native land, the way Jerusalem is for Jews celebrating Passover. These people still lived in Ukraine, but they felt like immigrants, and being able to visit their native village every so often made this realization especially painful.
The day seemed to befit their mood. It drizzled. A Ukrainian woman chanted, “Oh no, there is no place in this land better than our village of Terekhy. Here my soul will rest, here my remains must be allowed their final repose. You people of the press, you must write about this place, you must make them bury me here when my dying day comes.” People walked out the cemetery, leaving Easter eggs and bread in the graves of their relatives and friends, silently watched by packs of wolves hiding in the nearby forest (there are over a hundred wolves and their number is increasing in the zone).
Stupidity combined with innate Soviet bureaucratic meanness caused a chain reaction. 12,500 people taking part in Chornobyl rescue operations have died over the past twelve years. No one knows how many have died or are dying after using property and equipment stolen from contaminated areas. 3,200,000 residents of Ukraine are exposed to dangerous radiation levels. No one knows how long they will live. The sarcophagus containment structure is falling apart. One thing is known for sure. Ukraine’s history will be recited as dating from the Chornobyl disaster, a record of official ineptitude and national heroism.
Nota Bene
Almost 8% of Ukraine’s population is officially registered as Chornobyl victims, says Minister of Public Health Andriy Serdiuk, adding that 3.2 million are living in contaminated areas. 350,000 have taken part in rescue missions; 130,000 were evacuated; 12,500 former rescue men have died. Volodymyr Tereshchenko, deputy director of the Institute of Endocrinology, states that childhood thyroid cancer is expected to reach its peak in 2001-2005.
Photo by Viktor Marushchenko, The Day:
Hrobky in the Chornobyl zone







