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Anicka, Slovakia:

Pripjat. Mesto nápadne pripomínajúce sídlisko Petržalka. Miesto, kde bývam. Stací málo predstavivosti a vidím nie...

2009
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Death city

Pripyat was a model city of the Soviet government. It was erected for power plant workers only three kilometers from the nuclear power plant. The average age in the city was by the time of the accident only around 25 years. It had all the luxuries of a modern city – railway station, port, hospital and a fairground. During the whole day after the Chernobyl accident, the state officials had not warned the 50 thousand inhabitants about the threat of radioactive pollution. Neither had they provided them with iodine pills helping against the radiation. The power plant accident caused the level of radiation to exceed the natural levels by thousand times Evacuation of Pripyat took place the day after – on the afternoon of April 27, 1986. The inhabitants were allowed to take only necessary items with them, so as to return in three days.

Later on, the authorities decided that the city will remain empty forever. During the evacuation, first women and children were saved. There was a problem with the lack of busses in this part of former Soviet Union. The busses thus came from other parts of the country to evacuate all 50 thousand inhabitants of Pripyat. The bus queue was 25 kilometers long – which means that when the first one was leaving Pripyat, the last one could not even see the power plant chimneys from the distance. In less than three hours, the city was empty. And it will stay so forever. On May 5th, the evacuation of people living in the forbidden zone (30 km radius around Chernobyl) took place. Today, the zone is forbidden for people to enter, with the exclusion of those with a permit or ex-residents visiting cemeteries etc. Around 3000 people, mostly pensioners, live in this zone at their own risk.

Pripyat is now a city of ghosts. Despite nobody living there, it has its own grace and atmosphere. It did not end as the nearby villages, which were buried under the ground by bulldozers. They are commemorated only by boards on the road with their names and a village map. Pripyat as well as the whole 30-kilometer-radius restricted zone is being watched by policemen and army. Despite a non-stop duty, it did not prevent robbery and plunder. The whole city is plundered. There is no single flat that has not been visited by thieves taking away all precious items to be found. A military factory Mercur had been operating in the city util 1997. Today, it is even more plundered and destroyed than the majority of flats or schools in the city. The city is full of contemporary (that is, 1980s) writings, signs, books or pictures. Mostly with Lenin motives. His statements and portraits are virtually everywhere – in the Palace of Culture, in a hotel, hospital, at the police station, as well as in the schools and kindergarten. The walk around the city is like a trip back to the past, only with the difference that there is not a single soul around, not even birds in the sky. One can only make up the whole picture of the era when the city was blooming in one’s mind. The whole city was erected at a green field, soon after the nuclear power plant was built. Everything is made out of concrete. The houses look the same as in other cities of Soviet origin. Some of them have been overgrown with trees; one can barely see them from the road. Chernobyl is a vital example how Mother Nature can cope with the work of the men. In just more than two decades, only ruins remain from the city. There is no other such place in the world.

gRAPHIC by MARCELINO 2009
programmed by daniel.pribula