TOO CLOSE TO CHERNOBYL

...happened to be our author from Nanaimo Victor Kiritchenko

A few days ago was a very sad anniversary of one of the worst disasters in human history - Chernobyl’s nuclear plant explosion. Our family happened to be close, too close to there. So close, that if I continued to live in Ukraine, I would never pay any taxes or even bus fare. I was granted these privileges with thousands of others, who fought that disaster. Hundreds of them are dead now, most others suffer from illness.

It’s impossible to imagine the full extent of that catastrophe, which deadly poisoned the earth, waters on territories where millions of people continue to live in Ukraine and Belarus for thousands of years. But if they say it’s possible to see the whole Ocean in a drop of water, I will tell about my family only.

A few years ago my sister’s husband passed away from cancer. He worked on roads, checking the level of the radiation on vehicles coming from Chernobyl. An alarm sounded all the time, but he couldn’t leave that job. Because if nobody fought that disaster, who knows what would have happened with Europe or maybe even the whole world.

He was only 32 years old when he died. He grew up without parents, in a foster home. And all his short life he had been dreaming about own family, children, and a home. That’s why he was so fond of his only daughter, Anne and waited proudly for her school years. But she went to school for the first time two days after his death. Not from home, but from a dormitory, because her father never got his own home.

Her only inheritance was his drawings and books. He was a very talented painter, who illustrated mostly children’s books, published in different countries. And all the children in those books look like his daughter. Now Anne is a young painter herself and we have her paintings in our home in Nanaimo.

My mom, Anne’s grandmother, lives just one block away from her. But she can’t walk  over there, because my mom’s legs and feet are swollen, she is sick because of Chernobyl as well. She never fought that catastrophe, she “just” lived and lives till today only 60 miles from that plant, breathing air and drinking water with high radiation. And it’s not only her, but all 3 million of the population of Kiev, capital of Ukraine, my native city. My mom was a medical doctor of the highest qualification, and her pension is now equal to $25 (unfortunately, it’s not a misprint!) per month. Sorry, doctors of BC, it’s hard for me to feel sympathy for your strikes because of low wages.

My father, luckily, feels much better. I believe, it’s because he has worked hard all his life. He fought in World War II, then worked under ground for almost 30 years in coalmines . Maybe that’s why all his life he dreamed about building something ON ground, like a small house with a garden. He collected money for years and years to buy a tiny sandy lot. Later he brought soil in a wheelbarrow, built a small cottage with his own hands, and planted trees with a dream to bring his grandchildren there.

But he never will, because that cottage happened to be on the shore of Kiev Lake, whose waters will keep radiation for thousands of years.

My wife has always, since her own childhood, wanted to have a little daughter. She dreamed about teaching her to cook and sew, to go shopping together and even play with dolls. But soon after Chernobyl happened, and because of it, our friend’s daughter died, suffering a lot for a few months. As you know, radiation is especially dangerous for yet unborn children, and we forever left the dream about a little girl.

And not just that, we don’t know what would happen with our two sons, who were six and two years old, when the disaster stroke. They left Kiev only two weeks after the accident and for just two months. When a dirty, broken train was leaving the station, I didn’t know if I would see my sons ever again. Because there were rumors at the time, that another, more powerful explosion was coming, which would destroy not only Kiev, but also the whole Ukraine. Day “X” was expected to be May 10, exactly on my birthday. So I celebrated it just by myself in an empty apartment expecting that explosion.

Later I worked, like thousands of others, in that famous Chernobyl’s nuclear zone, surrounded by barbwire.

But that work was nothing compared to our worry for our children, who had to breathe poisoned air, and drink water and eat food with nuclear content. Not to mention playing soccer in the nuclear dust, because my idiot neighbors didn’t let them play on the grass.

Why didn’t we and other people escape from there? You have to know the reality of life under communist regime to understand why it was impossible then.

You can ask, what about money for “Children of Chernobyl” which was collected by different charities through whole world including Canada? I’m not sure about the other 5%, but I know what happened with 95% of that amount. Yes, it was stolen. More than that, people who were real victims of Chernobyl, were forced to pay a special tax… to help victims, but in reality to pay beaurocrats.

Now we are OK, here in Nanaimo. Unlike millions of people, including our parents, all relatives and friends, who continue to pay a deadly price to that disaster.