Darya Tchoumakova interviewed a lady who asked not to be named. “N.” was 27 years old and had a four months old daughter when the accident in Chernobyl happened. She shared some of her diary entries of the days after Chernobyl with Darya.
N. lives in Minsk. She is 52 years old, married and has two children. N. works as a librarian. She is orthodox.
Of course, before the Chernobyl accident N. knew about NPPs, she knew that there were a lot of them throughout the Soviet Union and that they were very powerful. And of course she knew about nuclear power, or rather about two kinds of nuclear energy: a dangerous one which was used in military purposes, with a large radius of destruction. This was taught at school in the lessons of civil security, that, when it happened, it was necessary to apply the evacuation plans.
And the second one is atomic energy, which was pioneered by scientists and government of the USSR. This energy was useful and serving the people. About this energy the documentary films were shown. In these films people walked in white robes, and everything was under control, working people were responsible, intelligent, and part of some kind of academic elite.
N. was 27 when disaster struck, and her little daughter was 4 months old.
Next is the story N. detailed from her personal diary.
Read the full interview
