Prof. Ivan Nikitchanka – academician of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences, deputy Minister of Agriculture in 1986,
involved in clean-up operations after the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster.
I think it’s a sign – “People, be careful! You’ll destroy yourselves!”
You need to be smart enough to see it, which is not the case here yet.
Chernobyl hit not just Belarus, but the whole world.
Nastas’sia Piatrouna – Geiger counter specialist, involved in clean-up operations after the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster.
What kind of advice can I give? Just live your life and enjoy it,
and death comes anyway. If you weren’t born, you can’t die…
I’ve never been afraid or in any danger. I never was on the first day, and I’m not now.
ONLY BELIEVE THE WIND Chernobyl, 20 Years After
Kamaryn, Local Veterinary Clinic
My working desk is over there…
How often do you measure radioactivity levels?
50-70 times a month, about 1000 a year.
Look, this is my work here.
The radioactivity level depends on the kind of mushroom.
The cleanest are the lamellar funghi – puffballs, honey fungus and russulas.
But chanterelles and ceps are “dirtier”.
First I weigh them.
Then I shut them inside the device.
It’s a kind of lead “house” to stop the outside environment from influencing them.
And now we measure them.
Yes, these mushrooms are fresh…
If you boil them in salty water, a third of the radiation will go away.
They say that if you boil them 5 times and pour the water away, they’ll be almost clean.
But they’ll hardly be mushrooms at all after such processing!
You might as well just throw them away!
There are two villages 10km from here, called Upper and Lower Zhary.
Near Lower Zhary, the mushrooms are clean.
They’re clean near Lower Zhary?
Yes, they’re clean. If you have the opportunity, you can go there.
Thanks a lot.
The blueberries are much cleaner there too…
Your mushrooms are a bit cleaner – 1034.
But it should be the other way round.
Now I’m measuring dried mushrooms.
I measure them too… The cycle repeats.
Multiplied by 10,000 equals 10,300. That’s the radioactivity level.
This was not the first disaster of its kind.
There was once a terrible accident and radioactivity leak in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia.
But that was in the Siberian taiga.
They already knew what ought to be done.
Radiobiology Institute in Borovsk was dealing with such problems;
and we had consultants from there.
But that was only a month after the accident had happened…
We knew that people should be protected first of all.
For that, we bought clean food products. Meat from the Netherlands,
milk from the Baltic Republics and Finland, flour… We gave people safe food.
Even hay was brought in for the cattle, but that was pointless
because, during transportation, it got covered in contaminated dust, just like the local hay.
Should I twist them this way, or that way?
Straight after the accident there was a lot of confusion and disorder.
No one knew about the radiation.
If it had a colour or smell, people might have taken precautions.
With the Ministry of Health and Belarusian Hydrometric Service, we (the Ministry of Agriculture)
formed flying radioactivity intelligence squads to offer on the spot situation evaluations.
We could only get approximate figures using civil defence helicopters.
They’d draw lines on our maps, this many milliroentgen here, and this many there.
This is it, this one’s bad…
It was “freedom”…
Every evening a KGB man would take my work notes away, then bring them back in the morning.
That’s what kind of freedom it was.
Now we’re driving on the edge of the Zone. To the left is the Zone, and to the right we can live.
Of course, that’s purely theoretical.
You can live on the right-hand side, but on the left you can’t.
And no-one lives there anymore. There’s nobody from here to Chernobyl.
This land belonged to the collective farm where I worked.
After the accident, we moved the villagers from the left side over to the right.
Imagine what it was like to move people from one side to the other.
And the main thing is that we only had 1.5 days to do it in.
We were ordered to remove everyone and everything in 1.5 days.
For all we knew, it could have exploded again. Yet, we sat there and waited for 6 days.
So we moved the people from one side of the road to the other, from this side to that.
We also had to match people up psychologically – the alcoholics with the alcoholics, independent people with independent people.
11 people were living in my house.
No-one knew that there was no shaft underneath the reactor for it to fall into.
We thought the reactor had got stuck, and that’s why it hadn’t fallen.
Only when the metro tunnel-builders went in, did it become clear that there was no shaft.
It’s good they drained off the “heavy water” and there was no explosion…
On the right is the road to Bragin, and up ahead is the Zone.
You see – “Palessie State Radiation Ecology Reserve. Entrance and exit by permit only."
"Fires, hunting and fishing prohibited.” This is where the Zone begins.
How do people perceive it now, psychologically?
Now they take it calmly. Absolutely no reaction.
But before… Just imagine, we didn’t know anything back then.
Now we’re literate. We’ve learnt how to fight radiation, how to work and protect ourselves.
In the early days we knew nothing.
I had so much trouble with the collective farm cattle.
How we used to wash them before they went for slaughter. My God!
In the first year, radioactive fallout would settle on their skin,
so it made a difference if you washed them before measuring.
We measured them with a device like the one I have now.
It can measure cattle while they’re still alive, to show whether their meat is edible or not.
When we washed the cattle, the radiation level would drop.
But in the first years the “admissible levels” were high as well.
We were prepared to evacuate everyone along a line through Mahiliou-Kirau-Chocimsk-Babrujsk…
To leave everything behind and move the people Northwards.
I don’t know whether it would have worked, but that was the plan.
Do you know how people got back to their homes in the first days?
Soldiers were posted on every path and wouldn’t let people through.
So people found all sorts of tricks and round-about ways of getting to their houses.
Especially elderly people. The young people coped with it more easily.
My sister’s husband was 60 at the time of the catastrophe.
He went to the evacuated village every day. He was living with me, but used to go there.
I asked him “What have you forgotten over there?”
But he just swore, and said “Everything I have is there. That’s the house I built”.
The houses hadn’t been buried yet, and were still standing.
And indeed, he did die because of the alpha-particles.
I’m not a doctor, but that’s the conclusion I came to.
If you lead a healthy lifestyle, and don’t eat “dirty” food, you needn’t be afraid.
Now, most radiation comes from food products, or wild mushrooms and berries.
When the guys shoot wildfowl, they come here to get them measured. I taught them to.
I say I won’t register it, and I won’t tell the militia,
as long as they don’t eat any contaminated or untested food.
This is the evacuated village of Ludvinova, and that’s Pirki over there.
Why hasn’t anyone stopped us? Where’s the checkpoint?
Who’s going to stop you? The checkpoint’s far away, in Pirki.
They only patrol in this area, and if they find someone without a permit, they give them a fine.
And here’s another sign: “Danger of Radiation”.
Over there it wasn’t, but here it’s officially prohibited.
But it’s still alive. Did you think it’s dead? No.
The earth is gradually being rehabilitated, purified, and turned back into arable land.
The radiation level is quite low here – 25 microroentgen. That’s not so high.
In one of Gomel's districts, it’s 38 microroentgen.
And what’s the normal level?
12 microroentgen
I wouldn’t say the death rate is higher here.
People die of cardiovascular diseases, like everywhere else.
People are giving birth to children, but not as often as before,
though perhaps the radiation isn’t to blame.
I think it’s because life is expensive these days.
It’s costly to raise children. Perhaps that’s why…
Meteorites were discovered here in the past. Yes, meteorites.
Now people from Moscow spend days and nights here, still searching for meteorites.
They found some here, and where we’ll be going later.
One was found before World War II.
By coincidence, my uncle also found one.
His family was illiterate and they didn’t know what it was.
My grandma put it on top of a barrel of pickled gherkins.
Then a clever man came and asked “What kind of stone is that on the barrel”?
The stone was small but very heavy,
so the scientist took it away, had a look, and saw it was a meteorite.
A girl was herding cattle and found another meteorite here.
And a tractor driver dug up another one over there.
We haven’t learned how to get rid of anything.
We are storing up this evil stuff in our bodies,
which will affect not only the Zone, but the whole of Belarus too.
This is what I mean…
Caesium attacks the soft tissues of the body,
but fades in a couple of months if one eats uncontaminated food.
But strontium, once it has penetrated the body, is stored in the bones.
It takes 50 years to reach the bone-marrow.
When it reaches the marrow, in 30 years’ time, then we’ll start worrying.
It poses no threat to older people like me, but will affect you, my children and grandchildren.
There’ll be a risk of mass leukaemia.
There’ll be no red blood in the body, and that means death from oxygen starvation.
We should start setting up bone-marrow banks right now,
while people are still alive.
It can then be used for transplants in future when the strontium starts to act.
It’s better for people to have transplants of their own marrow, since immuno-genetic factors are crucial here.
Only certain kinds of marrow can take root properly…
There are grain fields on both sides here.
Sometimes you see elk crossing the road here.
There’s some maize growing. Maize is unique, by the way.
It’d stay uncontaminated even if you planted it near the reactor.
I don’t know why – maize must have that kind of structure.
We planted some in Pirki after the evacuation and it remained at zero level – zero caesium or strontium.
My main work is testing milk, hay, forage, plant products, and animals.
I check caesium levels.
To check for strontium, I bring products to Gomel twice a year.
There, they test for whether strontium is present or not.
Sometimes it is.
But I haven’t really worked with strontium, so I don’t really know.
Look, there’s a combine coming back from the harvest.
What are you filming? The combine? Oh, that’s alright, film away...
I’ve had all the diseases of Chernobyl.
Since 1986, I can’t remember a single day when I haven’t been in pain.
All the time something hurts, something gets operated on, something is removed. What can I do?
But I have 2 sons, a daughter, 2 granddaughters, 2 grandsons, and a great-granddaughter.
Why should they have to suffer?
I’m suffering needlessly, but at least I knew the possible consequences.
I knew what radiation was when I was helping people at the time.
But why should they have to suffer? And imagine how many more of them there are…
Pirki Village. 1236 people evacuated. May 5, 1986.
This was the very centre of our village, our meeting point.
There was a club and some workers’ houses here, and a farm over there.
And this used to be the shop.
So what’s the reading there?
High.
Can you tell me?
450… but I’m afraid to scare you…
This used to be the street where we lived. Let’s go on another 100 metres.
This is the grave of a wooden house. It rotted and collapsed.
The brick-built houses haven’t fallen down yet.
This is an elm tree. I think this is where our neighbour lived.
And there was a sycamore growing in our yard. Let’s go a bit further.
Perhaps it’s gone? I so wished it would still be here.
A family lived here, but now they live in Ukraine. They were evacuated there.
Their children came and left flowers on Remembrance Day.
Oh, look, this is our sycamore. How beautiful it is!
Can you take a nice big picture of it and send me the photograph?
Our house was here. My husband really loved the sycamore. He dreams of coming here to see it.
There was a radiation measuring device called a DT-5. Civil defense issue.
I took measurements with it and wrote 1.7 in the logbook,
but no one could ever tell me what those units were, or what I was measuring.
Still, I noted it all down conscientiously.
I think it was about 1700 microroentgen.
But nobody knows the truth. Or else they don’t want to say…
I think the most horrible thing about the Zone is the wasteland and desolation. It’s depressing.
Now this is the graveyard of the evacuated village of Kaporanka.
All my relatives, acquaintances, and friends are buried here.
20 years have passed since the village was evacuated and dug into the ground,
but everyone born here tries to get buried here…
My sister’s husband is buried over there. The one I mentioned, who came here after the evacuation.
People are even brought back from remote villages to be buried here.
A lot of people were evacuated to Ukraine, near Chornihiv,
but even from there they bring the dead back here to be buried.
People gather here on Remembrance Day every year,
no matter where they’re living; in Gomel or in Minsk.
Everyone tries to come, and we all pay our tributes to the dead, and meet up with one other.
For an hour or two, we discuss our lives and problems, and exchange news, bad and good.
The graveyard is the only living place where people can meet in this evacuated, dead village…
Ask in the Belarusian Radiological Institute headed by prof. Nesterenko about radiation levels in Minsk schools.
If they aren’t afraid, they’ll tell you that radiation levels in Minsk schoolchildren are 20 times higher than the norm;
20 times above critical level!
What will become of them? They’ll be handicapped, with short lives…
This was the town of Soniechny…
There used to be a club here, a shopping centre there, and the state farm office was over there.
By the way, the farm director died not long ago, the one who was in charge up until the disaster.
Firstly, I would like people to think about the danger they’re living in.
If they don’t care about themselves, then they should at least think of their children.
Secondly, we need to insist that the authorities uphold the law.
The law protecting citizens who suffered from the Chernobyl disaster should be implemented rigorously.
No high officials should decide whether a settlement is no longer contaminated –
it will never be clean, ever! They should not be the ones to decide.
If there’s any controversy, it can be easily solved: the people should be tested, not the land.
You see, two weeks ago we buried two people together.
One of them was my age, and worked as a foreman here.
Then the chief engineer died the next day. He was 70.
Let’s visit their graves tomorrow.
What did they die of?
Heart disease, dystonia, paralysis. In a word – Chernobyl.
This was a kindergarten… Now it’s gone.
It’s awful walking around here – what if someone were to appear suddenly?
There’s even a towel left from those days. It’s horrible!
These were rooms. Everything’s in decay now, ruined.
Everything’s gone.
There’s a child’s drawing on the wall there.
The Belarusian population has been declining since 1993.
It has already decreased by 500,000 people [from 10 million].
It decreases in a geometrical progression every year, with a coefficient of 1.5.
In recent years: 2004 – down by 42,000 people.
2005 – by 63,000. In 8 months of 2006 – by 96,000.
The Chernobyl issue should be the priority for Belarus.
All other issues should be moved into the background.
For instance, who will use the grand new National Library?
There will be nobody left.
This picture’s dated 1965, when I was working as a milkmaid on our farm.
We were preparing forage for the cattle.
That was St. Peter’s Day.
For some reason it was the custom to hang swings on the oak in the graveyard
and play on them, like a public holiday…
These are our village lads. Also at the graveyard.
These are my neighbours in our village…
Recently they cancelled some of our benefits:
we only used to pay 50% for electricity and heating.
Public transport was free.
Now we get just 2-weeks’ holiday for having been in the Chernobyl clean-up operations,
or you can claim compensation instead.
That doesn’t mean the situation’s any better.
I think the costs were too high for our country to cover.
You can’t save money at the cost of people’s lives!
But what if there’s no money to pay for it, then what?
We’re planning an international conference on nuclear issues.
They wouldn’t allow us to hold it in Belarus, so it’ll be in Vilnius, Lithuania.
We also plan to address the international community, and even the UN.
So maybe there will be no Belarusians left, but others will still be alive in this world.
All work with radioactive substances should be categorically rejected.
All nuclear power plants should be banned.
Another way out must be found, alternative energy sources.
Did you know that, earlier this year, it was decided
that a nuclear power plant will be built in Belarus?
Why do we need a nuclear plant? We haven’t recovered from Chernobyl yet.
And you shouldn’t forget that nuclear waste is also a raw material for nuclear weapons.
What would you’ve done if you’d been warned about the explosion? Would you have run away?
No, probably not…
When it had already exploded, we didn’t even run in the first 6 days before the evacuation,
so I guess the forecasts wouldn’t really have influenced us much.
I would like to be optimistic, I truly would…
Look, they’re cranes!..
They’re cranes!.. Oh, let’s drive back…
Director Viktar Korzun
Cameramen Jury Haruliou Aliaksandar Lavysh Uladzimier Kaspiarovich
Sound operator Aliaksandar Lavysh
Editing Dmitriy Sushchev
Sound editor Siarhiej Labandzievski
Consultant Jury Cybin
Producer Kasia Kamockaja