Chernobyl
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Chernobyl (as transliterated from the Russian: Чернобыль, Russian pronunciation: [tɕɪˈrnobɨlʲ]) or Chornobyl (transliterated from local official language Ukrainian: Чорнобиль, IPA: [tʃɔrˈnɔbɪlʲ]), was a city in northern Ukraine, in the Kiev Oblast (province) near the border with Belarus.
The city was evacuated in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) north-northwest. The power plant was named after the city, and located within Chernobyl Raion (district), but the city was not the residence of the power plant workers. Together with the power plant construction, Prypiat, a city, which was larger and closer to the power plant, was built to be home for the power plant workers.
Though the city is today mostly uninhabited, a small number of inhabitants reside in houses marked with signs stating that the "Owner of this house lives here". Workers on watch and administrative personnel of the Zone of Alienation are stationed in the city on a long term basis. Prior to its evacuation, the city was inhabited by about 15,000 residents.
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[edit] Name origin
The city name comes from a combination of chornyi (чорний, black) and byllia (билля, grass blades or stalks); hence it literally means black grass or black stalks. It may be named after the Ukrainian word for the plant mugwort.[1] The reason for this name is not known. Different explanations have appeared after the 1986 nuclear incident. In particular, there were attempts to link the accident to prophecies in the Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament. For these, see Chernobyl in the popular consciousness.
[edit] History
Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of 1193 described as a hunting-lodge of knyaz Rostislavich. It was a crown village of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century. The village was granted as a fiefdom to Filon Kmita, a captain of the royal cavalry, in 1566. The province containing Chernobyl was transferred to the Kingdom of Poland in 1569, and then annexed by the Russian Empire in 1793.[2] Prior to the 20th century Chernobyl was inhabited by Ukrainian and Polish peasants, and a large Jewish community.
Chernobyl had a rich religious history. The Jewish, who were brought by Filon Kmita during the Polish campaign of colonization, included Hasidim as well as other Orthodox Jews. The traditionally Christian Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian peasantry of the district was largely forced by Poland to convert to the Greek Catholic religion after 1596, and returned to Russian Orthodoxy only after Ukraine's unification with Russia.
The Dominican church and monastery were founded in 1626 by Lukasz Sapieha, at the height of the Counter-reformation. There was a group of Old Catholics, which opposed the decrees of the Council of Trent. The Dominican monastery was sequestrated in 1832, and the church of the Old Catholics was disbanded in 1852.[1]
In the second half of 18th century, Chernobyl became one of the major centers of Hasidic Judaism. The Chernobyl Hasidic dynasty had been founded by rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky. The Jewish population suffered greatly from pogroms in October 1905 and in March–April 1919, when many Jews were killed and others were robbed. In 1920, the Twersky dynasty left Chernobyl, and it ceased to exist as a Hasidic center.
Since 1880s, Chernobyl has seen many changes of fortune. In 1898 Chernobyl had a population of 10,800, including 7,200 Jews. In World War I the village was occupied and in the ensuing Civil War was fought over by Bolsheviks and Ukrainians. In the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20, it was taken first by the Polish Army and then by cavalry of the Red Army. From 1921, it was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR.[2]
During the period 1929–33 Chernobyl suffered greatly from mass killings during Stalin's collectivization campaign, and in the Holodomor (famine) that followed. The Polish community of Chernobyl was deported to Kazakhstan in 1936 during the Frontier Clearances. The Jewish community was killed during the German occupation of 1941–44.[2] Twenty years later, the area was chosen as the site of the first nuclear power station on Ukrainian soil.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chernobyl became part of Ukraine, an independent nation.
[edit] Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster
On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded at 01:23 AM local time. All permanent residents of Chernobyl and the Zone of alienation were evacuated due to unsafe radioactive levels.
Although neighbouring Pripyat remains unmaintained, Chernobyl has been renovated and is now home to more than 500 residents. Those include nuclear scientists, maintenance officials for the Chernobyl power plant, liquidation officials, doctors, physicists, and most of all, radiation physicists. Visitors to the Zone of Alienation can stay at a local lodge in the Chernobyl suburbs.
The United Nations Development Programme has launched in 2003 a specific project called the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme (CRDP) for the recovery of the affected areas.[3] The programme launched its activities based on the Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident report recommendations and has been initiated in February 2002. The main goal of the CRDP’s activities is supporting the Government of Ukraine to mitigate long-term social, economic and ecological consequences of the Chornobyl catastrophe, among others. CRDP works in the four most Chernobyl-affected areas in Ukraine: Kyivska, Zhytomyrska, Chernihivska and Rivnenska.
[edit] Appearances in popular culture
- Chernobyl is the backdrop in the 2008 play "My Chernobyl", written by Arron Bushkowsk, and directed by Britt Small.
- Chernobyl is featured in the video games S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with Pripyat also featuring.
- In the book Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Checkmate, Sam Fisher goes to Pripyat and Chernobyl to investigate radioactive materials that were stolen and used against an American Town Slipstone.
- Martin Cruz Smith's Wolves Eat Dogs, the fifth novel in the Inspector Arkady Renko series, is mainly situated in the "dead zone".
- Chernobyl is mentioned in the Kraftwerk song "Radioactivity" not from the album of the same name, but the later album The Mix, in which the song was redone.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Norman Davies, Europe: A History, Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 0198201710
- ^ a b c Davies, Norman (1995) "Chernobyl", The Sarmatian Review, vol. 15, No. 1.
- ^ CRDP: Chernobyl Recovery and Development Programme (United Nations Development Programme)
[edit] External links
- Lost City of Chernobyl Photoblog of the abandoned city
- Chernobyl: the unreadable sign Twenty years after Chernobyl, Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich talks to Sonja Zekri about the new face of evil and the lessons to be learned from the reactor catastrophe.
- Hell on Earth The Guardian, April 26, 2006
- Return to Hell CAR Magazine, May 2006
- The Eternal Winter New Statesman Special Report by Andrey Kurkov
- Slide show of a visit to Prypiat and Chernobyl in April 2006 by a German TV team joint by Reserch Center Juelich
- Short film showing Chernobyl & Pripyat, August 2007 Youtube.com
- Pripyat and Chernobyl Photo Documentary
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