Chernobyl has one of the hardest destinies of cities. Now it is practically a dead city, which is included in the exclusion zone after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Perhaps not without reason, because the very name of the city contains bitterness.
The name of the city comes from the Ukrainian word "Chernobyl", which means wormwood. In Ukrainian, the name of the city sounds "Chornobil".
The city is located in the Ivanovsky district of the Kiev region of Ukraine. The population is about 500 people, including people of different nationalities. Chernobyl is located on the Pripyat River near its confluence with the Kiev reservoir.
History of the city
The first mention of the city dates back to 1193. Later, it is found in the chronicle "List of Russian cities far and near" at the end of the XIV century. In the second half of the 18th century, Chernobyl became one of the main centers of Hasidism. In 1793 Chernobyl became part of the Russian Empire. In 1898 the population of the city was 10,800 people, most of whom were Jews.
The Jewish population of the city suffered greatly in October 1905 and March-April 1919, when many Jews were robbed and killed by the Black Hundreds. After 1920, Chernobyl ceased to be an important center of Hasidism. The city was occupied during the First World War and was the site of civil battles. In 1921 Chernobyl was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR.
Chernobyl came under German occupation in 1941-1943. In the 1970s, a nuclear power plant was built 10 kilometers from the city, which became the first in Ukraine. Fifteen years later, in 1985, the Duga over-the-horizon radar station, the Chernobyl-2 facility, was commissioned.
For Chernobyl, the most terrible date was April 26, 1986. On this day, an accident occurred at the fourth power unit of the nuclear power plant. This accident was the largest disaster in the history of nuclear power.
After the collapse of the USSR, Chernobyl remained part of an independent Ukraine.
The Chernobyl accident
The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which destroyed the nuclear reactor, occurred at 1:23. A fire broke out in the premises and on the roof. As a result of the accident, radioactive substances were released into the environment, including isotopes of uranium, iodine-131 (half-life - 8 days), cesium-134 (2 years), cesium-137 (30 years), strontium-90 (28 years), americium (432 years), plutonium-239 (24110 years).
During the explosion, one person died - Valery Hodemchuk, another one died in the morning from his injuries (Vladimir Shashenok). Subsequently, 134 Chernobyl NPP employees and members of rescue teams who were at the station at that time developed radiation sickness. Over the next several months, 28 of them died. More than 115 thousand people were evacuated from the 30-kilometer zone. To eliminate the consequences, significant resources were mobilized, and more than 600 thousand people participated in the elimination of the consequences.
Greenpeace and the International Organization "Doctors Against Nuclear War" believe that after the accident, tens of thousands of people died among its liquidators. In Europe, 10 thousand cases of deformities in newborns, 10 thousand cases of thyroid cancer were recorded and another 50 thousand are expected.
There is still no single version of the disaster. At different times, different opinions were expressed, ranging from the work of the staff, which was carried out in violation of rules and regulations, and ending with the version of a local earthquake.
Until now, there is a so-called exclusion zone with a radius of 30 km around Chernobyl. This territory is prohibited for free access, because it was she who was subjected to intense contamination with long-lived radionuclides after the accident. There are several evacuated settlements on the territory of the zone: Pripyat, Chernobyl, Novoshepelichi, Polesskoe, Vilcha, Severovka, Yanov and Kopachi. At the moment, the area is being gradually evacuated. Landless farmers come there, settle in abandoned houses and run their own household.
