lest we forget

April 26, 1986 is a day that will forever live in infamy, a day that every Ukrainian knows. That's the day of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion. The accident occurred not so far from Kyiv and there is a museum here in the city in memorial to the victims. Back in '02 I saw it for the first time. There is plenty of stuff there- relics, protective clothing, gas masks and the likes. And newspaper clippings- the local paper here had a tiny blurb near the bottom of page 3 while the New York Times from the same day dedicated their entire front page and half of an inside page to the tragedy. And a movie re-enacting the disaster. They've also used the museum to point out the hypocrisy of the Soviet state (ie the newspaper articles up there -^), to show how the people were lied to, how the truth of what happened was hidden from them (the Swedes alerted Europe and the rest of the world that there had been a major nuclear disaster and that it had to have happened in Soviet Russia somewhere- they suddenly noticed a major increase in radioactive material in the atmosphere). It gives me nightmares, goosebumps and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach... well really, it's the museum and then the follow-up talk that does that... (aside- Europe is chock-full of museums covering various horrific happenings- Warsaw has the Resistance Museum- covering the winter that the Russian army was sent to liberate Warsaw from the Nazis; instead they camped on the other side of the river, waiting for the Nazis to weaken the survivors, then moved in, handily cleaned up the Nazis and took the resistance fighters hostage. Riga has a nightmare of a museum dedicated to the WWII occupation of Latvia by the Nazis and the Russians- and the deportation and 'disappearance' of thousands of people. Kyiv has a WWII museum. There are the Auschwitz and Buchenau- and other- memorials to the Holocaust. And there are many many others. All the stuff of nightmares. I can't cope with this kind of thing... not too well. And every family that survived has a story to tell. And it's not for the weak at heart or stomach. Alleykat covered some of their family history in N'way during WWII the past few months. Sometimes the things they don't say are more horrifying than what they do say.)
So anyway- here are some pix from today. The Ukrainians are masters at evoking feelings and creating atmospheres; this museum always gives me the willies.
First of all, though- 2 placques from US firefighters- one from the Schenectady, NY, Fire Dept; one from 'The Firefighters of the United States of America'- to their brother firefighters who responded to the Chornobyl disaster, many of whom lost their lives. Our guide today pointed out that this came at a time when there was no special friendship between the 2 countries but there was a feeling of solidarity among the firefighters of the 2 countries.

Another special memorial- the children of Hiroshima made origami cranes (birds) and sent them to the children of Chornobyl.

You walk in and see this. The road markers for the villages that were in the Chornobyl zone. The steps depict an apple tree- symbol of knowledge- which the victims were deprived of by the Soviet authorities. Leaving, the backs of the village markers look like this- indicating a village that is no more, has been 'liquidated' (the Ukr'n term). Entire villages were simply buried- as were ships that were on the river at the time... it's like a huge toxic landfill.

Most of the museum is specifically dedicated to the city where the Chornobyl support staff lived- a city where the average age was about 27- young families. This clock shows when time stopped in that city.

This pic shows the lines of buses evacuating the residents of Prypyatya-the city mentioned above. These people were told they needed to leave for a short time; only later did they realize they'd likely never get back. Later authorities said they didn't want people to panic nor did they want them taking belongings, so they were simply lied to about the duration of their stay elsewhere. There are also some pix of first-responders. (All pix with the orange and red radiation sign in them are of someone who died as a result of the disaster.) The the 2 men in the lower right corner of this pic were the 1st 2 victims; the body of the man on the right was never recovered.

More pix of people who responded to the emergency. Soldiers were released from 2 years of mandatory military service if they worked 2 minutes at 'ground zero' shovelling debris into the ruined reactor. Miners were brought in to tunnel underneath the reactor, removing tons of dirt- to put in a 'floor' that would support the ruined reactor and eventually become the base of the sarcophagus built to entomb the reactor. None of these people knew the full danger of what they were doing; few (if any) had adequate gear to protect them from the high levels of radiation.

Another memorial to the children affected by the disaster. The lighting of the room- the floor of which is a copy of the floor of the nuclear reactor- makes it spooky in here. There are also works of art in here from various artists- some depicting the rescue workers as saints in Orthodox Church icons; one from an American poet who took the words of his poem and made a picture - literally using various textures and fonts, he painted a pic of the disaster with words... thought I had a pic and don't and I'm sorry about that.

And then there's this pic- a ship at sea- depicting the 'unsinkable' Titantic- but closer inspection shows it to be the layout of the 6 nuclear reactors on the Chornobyl site from a distance. These reactors were supposed to be so safe, so sure that they 'could be in the middle of Moscow' without fear of danger... (actually Martha- this one's for you- not exactly sure if it's your kind of thing, but I thought about you and that one fav painting of yours...)

Walking back out into the bright sunlight with the trappings and sights of normal everyday life all around was a shock... and also a comfort. I can't really put into words what this museum is like or what it does to me. All I know is, I hope I can sleep tonight...esp after writing this up...

From an earlier post on Chornobyl

a link to the wikipedia article, which is quite good. There are several good links on the above post, too.