Reliable, as in the cemetery

Potatoes from the Chernobyl rain, silver carp and white Amurs, which “have not seen all over the world”, and a “reliable place” from the Bureau of Ritual Services. The correspondent of "such cases" on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Chernobyl visited the Chernobyl defeat zone in the Tula region

This is rarely remembered, but huge areas in Russia suffered from the Chernobyl ejection of radiation. According to the State Register, four and a half thousand settlements of Russia are in the Chernobyl defeat zone. Most of all from radioactive clouds went to the Bryansk and Tula regions. Moreover, the Tula region has become one of the unconditional leaders on the natural loss of the population, deaths from cancer and cardiovascular disease. The authorities do almost nothing with the consequences of pollution, but at the same time they reduce the list of benefits for residents of the injured territory and promise to develop agriculture in this zone. Ilya Shepelin went to one of the most depressed cities of the Russian Chernobyl zone, to see how Russian cities survived the 1986 disaster after 30 years.

In the very center of the city, the nodal on a giant screen invitingly flashes an advertisement for the salon of ritual services: “We will select a reliable place for you!” The advertising text is convincingly accompanied by photographs of crosses in the cemetery and coffins. Since 1986, the population of Uzlova decreased from 65 to 52 thousand. Moreover, even against the general background of the Tula region, where annually mortality is about one and a half times higher than the birth rate, the indicators of the nodal look impressive.

“So how many years have passed since Chernobyl! Everyone almost forgot about it! " - says a gray -haired man who introduced himself to Andryukha. He just returned on a minibus from Moscow, where he works as a watchman three days in three days. A normal salary for a able-bodied man in nodal is 15-17 thousand rubles, in Moscow he earns solid 40 thousand. From a strong industrial town, the nodal has long turned into a subsidized district: so far, however, there was still a couple of factories with synthetic production and railway distillation, where you can go to work as a loader.

"I say it was a long time ago, but now we live normally!" - Andryukha continues, however, after a moment he was dropping, as if before that he had blurred that his wife and sister are thyroid cancer. At the same time, he shrugs, they say, there is nothing special in this: with whom only the illness does not happen.

Image of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the monument to liquidators in the center of the nodal photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

Andryukha looks at the abundant gray hair and a set of metal teeth for 50 years, which means that the events of the 86th had to find somewhere about twenty.

“Where is there! Then, God forbid ... Ah, yes, I was nine years old! - Slows Andryukha's with inserting teeth. - Then he ran around the yards, the geese beat the Prutik ... This was later, after five years they told us that radioactive rain has passed! And so they would have lived and did not know the sorrows. ”

April 26, 1986 in Uzlova everything went on the usual turn. The main city newspaper "Banner" calmly copied the content of similar newspapers of the Soviet Union - urged the Knlovites to be "at the forefront of the struggle to fulfill the decisions of the XXVII Congress of the CPSU" and "be a personal example of a clean and honest party party." Two days later, a strange recommendation was received from the administration without clarification: children cannot be released for walks. True, the lessons were carried out in the usual order.

As the commissions will later tell about this, at that time the Chernobyl clouds hung over the Tula region, which accumulated the particles of cesium. After the Chernobyl disaster, radioactive clouds went north to Moscow. The bombers of the Cyclone detachment drove them away from the densely populated capital, and as a result, the clouds were above the Bryansk and Tula regions.

Decorations from balloons in the editorial office of the Banner newspaper in the city of Uzlovaya photo: Arthur Bondar for TD The release of the newspaper "Banner" dated April 26, 1986, there was not a single word about the accident in the newspaper : Arthur Bondar for TD

Ultimately, the authorities in Uzlova limited themselves to a request to schools and parents at the end of April not to let children go for walks, but on May 1, almost the entire population came to a traditional demonstration. And it was on this day that a downpour with cesium and strontium flooded from the Chernobyl clouds. “About the same way Nicholas II, together with the family, was gathered for a photograph in the basement, so that all together, and they put everyone there at once,” local intellectuals will be sad.

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“Weather conditions have not become an obstacle to the labor vanguard, who welcomed the great holiday of workers around the world!” - the note in the newspaper "Banner" of May 2 read. Nearby flaunted the headline "Pigods are building up the pace!"

The “Banner” newspaper and today is not too different from similar publications of the country. An unspoken request not to write about the bad: if you write about Chernobyl, then only about the heroism of liquidators. But there are mandatory topics - anti -terror, Crimea, spiritual revival of Russia. There are almost no reports of the problems of territories affected by radiation.

The city is controlled by a typical “mayor - strong business executive” - a native of the FSB. Under him, the streets are more or less successful and the indicators are still higher than the average in oncology, cardiovascular diseases and arthritis.

The city newspaper Uzlova would not have surprised the visiting reader and in the midst of perestroika. In 1990, the “Banner” demanded to establish the truth about radioactive rain, call for an answer to Moscow, and take measures. Several opposition rallies took place on the streets, which were gathered for a half thousand people. The city administration at first did not react in any way. Then the manager of the Noslovsk plant “Synthesis” ordered to purchase a dosimeter in order to establish the approximate scale of radiation defeat at least four years after the disaster. An ultrasound-apparatus was also acquired for the same funds for examining oncological diseases of nodes.

Children's drawings in the central area of ​​nodal photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

“We noted on the map of the city the defeat of the territory: with a simple pencil - three curi (unit of measurement of radioactivity), in blue - four, and over five - red. When they circled - my God! - The entire center of Uzlova was red! This is a lot, ”says Valentina Ponomarev, a chemist of the Synthesis plant, which was engaged in measurements of the radiation background in 1990. Now she is almost 80 years old, on the carpet she launched a shabby map, painted with a red pencil. In the next room, a roar is heard - it fell out of bed by her husband, who recently had an operation to remove the tumor. - Here the administration could not be reasoned in any way, so we went with these materials straight to Tula. In order to reduce the level of damage, at least we should put new asphalt in the city. But this is a lot of money, then no one could invest in it. But in Tula, our materials interested in officials. They then shook them in Moscow, demanding the issuance of subsidies to the region. They achieved: the Tula region hit the Chernobyl region. At the same commission there was the entire administration of the Bryansk region - they fought for each figure. And then they got even more. ”

All references to the fact that the nodal is the Chernobyl zone associated with a reduction in benefits for the local population

Then the officials who declared in Moscow about the radioactive situation in the Tula region in democratic Russia went to deputies and said: “We pierced the Chernobyl zone!” Although, in addition to small cash handouts, alas, nothing could be achieved. But it was not easy. The inhabitants of Uzlova had less than a year with the right to resettlement. Just no one could allow the whole city to move. Therefore, the old people survived here, and the children grew, digging in radioactive flower beds.

All references to the fact that the nodal is the Chernobyl zone associated with a reduction in benefits for the local population. In addition, the Russian authorities are going to double the list of settlements included in the Chernobyl zone. According to officials , this should make the territory more attractive for investment and management.

Toy on a tree on the outskirts of a nodal photo: Arthur Bondar for TD Dried mud in which someone left a shoe photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

“This is more like a crime,” says nuclear physicist Andrei Zakharov, a former leading engineer of the USSR Minatoma, who worked as a liquidator in the Chernobyl zone. Now he lives with disabilities from radiation in Tula. - The period of complete decay of cesium is 300 years, and our authorities can not even simply organize normally the study of people and territories. Now about the radioactive defeat of the Tula region, nothing can be said for sure. The Ministry of Emergencies reports that new samples indicate a decrease in the level of pollution, but they take samples from several square meters per hundred thousand kilometers. In the region with the highest natural population decline, where a radioactive cloud has resulted in, no one still leads individual dosimetry of the population. Not to mention the fact that only the presence of a strontium in the air, and not Plutonius and America, can also be tracked, as it should also be, but this is not done. And benefits for the inhabitants of the Chernobyl zone are exclusively grave money. ”

Of course, the possibility of decorating even small surcharges led to the spread of fictitious registrations. People were registered in villages with the highest level of radiation, but they themselves did not live there

In the early 90s, the authorities divided the settlements of the Chernobyl zone of Russia to four levels of pollution. Depending on the degree, the inhabitants of these settlements can receive from 150 to a thousand rubles per month. Also, benefits are slightly higher in this area for several years to mothers of newborn children. Of course, the possibility of decorating even small surcharges led to the spread of fictitious registrations. People were registered in villages with the highest level of radiation, but they themselves did not live there. Often in such villages you can only find ghosts: empty streets, long abandoned houses, but here it is spelled out a hundred people.

“I also get something, 300 rubles a month, or something,” the loader from the railway driving boasts without enthusiasm. He wants to move to St. Petersburg in his 25. - Type for medicines is isolated. And what medicines for radiation can be bought for 300 rubles? Vodka except. Well, we mainly do so men. They are treated by it slowly. "

Board with photographs of liquidators and icon "Chernobyl Spas" Photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

Despite the meagerness and, in general, the meaninglessness of the benefits in the Chernobyl zone, Greenpeace is opposed to their reduction.

Residents of rural regions of the region have very low income. Having lost benefits and compensations for the “Chernobyl law”, they are even more likely to go for additional income to the forest, collect mushrooms and berries. Someone for the purpose of eating, and someone for sale. In any case, mushrooms with exceeding the MPC of radioactive substances are more likely than before, will be on the table for people, ”says Rashid Alimov, head of the Greenpeace toxic program.

But the seemingly reasonable arguments of ecologists are unlikely to impress local residents - they, despite the available benefits, are actively engaged in hunting, gathering and agriculture in the Chernobyl zone.

So, in the nodal in front of the Dixie and Magnit supermarkets on wooden boxes, grandmothers sit and sell potatoes from the garden. The price for it is a couple of rubles even higher than that of retailers.

- It is not embarrassed that you raised it in those places where Chernobyl rain passed? - I do not very delicately ask one of them.

- AND? Then what? Do you order to hang yourself? - The saleswoman easily puts me at a dead end.

Breeded birch branches on the lawn in a nodal photo: Arthur Bondar for TD Soviet statue near the railway track photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

The photojournalist accompanying me, who has been under Chernobyl more than 50 times, is wondering:

“Wow, I met about the same grandmother at one time in Pripyat. In her hut, several baskets stood with mushrooms collected in the zone. But then she reassured me: they say, do not worry, I did not collect it for myself, but for sale - to Kyiv. "

And the Uzlovsky fishermen calmly catch fish in the center of the city, in a reservoir, the surface of which is strewn with packs of chips and seeds.

Uzlovsky fishermen calmly catch fish in the center of the city, in a pond, the surface of which is strewn with packages from under chips and seeds

When I try to speak with a local fisherman who threw three fishing rods at once, I hear the strict name of the place where I should leave:

“What other blacks? Your blacks have ended for a long time! What is this for radiation? Where did you see her here? And here such silver carp and white Amurs are found, which they have not seen all over the world! Smarts go. If smart, you have to sit with a fishing rod, and not in the ear *******. ”

***

In a small office, the size of 10 square meters, two dozen strong men are briskly arguing. An unusual icon and a poster with Stalin and People's Commissar of the Berry, which Stalin himself later repressed, coexist on the walls.

Plan of nodal with a diagram of radiation infection of the city photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

"Administration? Yes, will they stand out there? "Gazelle"? Only promise. How many places are there? Remember how the last time they drove, when the groove of the dirty was adjusted to us, everyone stained, and then sat in the administration? The cold was dog, *****! "

The energy of these people can mislead, but these are liquidators of the accident in Chernobyl. The strength seems to have a wagon. If desired, they probably can lightly take the administration storm if she still does not allocate the Gazelle. People who have survived such a powerful radiation do not seem like that.

“Do not be surprised,” one of the liquidators reports. - It’s just a little left - only the most persistent. Of the 102 people who went to the liquidation from the junction, now there are only 44 left. Sometimes we die in a person a person a year, sometimes - seven at once in a year ... And here only the strongest gathered. Someone, you know, can only wear a jacket for the holiday, without medals. Because if you put all the medals, then there is not enough strength to wear, the jacket will become too heavy. ”

A misunderstanding with Stalin’s poster is allowed right there:

“At first they wanted to deprive us at all, and then, they compacted with local communists. Well, they were draining differently here ... And we are not offended - and they are not offended by the icon. Still, they themselves are already no communists, one name is only. ”

The remains of houses in the city of Donskoye. This city is known for its old count buildings, most of them are in a dilapidated photo photo: Arthur Bondar for TD The dress is fluttered in the wind in one of the cores of the nodal photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

The icon on the wall is more reminiscent of the cyberpanic illustration: under the images of biblical characters there is a detachment in modern workwear. People in gas masks, respirators and gauze dressings are quite strange to combine on the icon with Jesus, the Virgin and the Archangel Mikhail.

The original icon was written in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Five years ago, Russian liquidators bought it for 100 thousand rubles. Now she is in the Tula temple.

The surviving liquidators have become much more religious over the past 30 years. True, immediately a conflict on religious grounds broke out at a meeting of liquidators.

“Let's only without that father! - The chairman of the meeting growls. - Last time we invited him to take him to sing. Leshka did not really complain to him during his life, so the priest sent us to ***! And you say, *****, call the priest! "

The surviving liquidators are going to go to the opening of the memorial in Tula in honor of the Chernobyl disaster, where the entire administration of the region should meet with pomp.

“With the authorities,” says Chernobyl veterans, “our relations are even. We are not offended, but they do not notice. Now, on the 26th day, there will be an anniversary, the whole leadership will gather. Oh guys! We are with you, we, we love you, we adore you! And you come to them on the 27th. Do not recognize you ... "

Original icon “Chernobyl Spas” in the church of St. Theodosius of Chernigov in Tula Photo: Arthur Bondar for TD

For some reason, these people, who learned from their own experience what radiation is still continuing to live here, in the Chernobyl zone.

“Everyone is used to it. I am ashamed to admit, and I'm used to it, ”Vladimir tells me, in appearance and facial expressions reminiscent of the current president of Russia. “But I seemed to have hammered so much my radiation that there is nothing to be afraid of.” But here the children are sick, the territory is infected. But no one talks about this. As if nothing, everything is fine. We had the director of the collective farm, Starodubtsev. This is such a director who moved from the Soviet system into a new system. He immediately insisted that the Chernobyl zone be canceled here: he wanted his products to be taken everywhere. Now the same conversation has gone ... Well, yes, they say: radiation is not visible. So, you can imagine that it is not. Then the pathologies will go to children, in old age the illness will jump out terrible ... And you still ask why we are mostly religious here. It remains only to pray. And all. "

***

Today in Tula they hastily prepare for the opening of the monument to the victims of Chernobyl. Работники втыкают саженцы по периметру площади и перекладывают трактором куски земли с одного места на другое.

Здесь 26 апреля соберут большую часть оставшихся в живых ликвидаторов, произнесут речи и раздадут медали к 30-летию чернобыльской катастрофы.

Выброшенная мебель на окраине Узловой Фото: Артур Бондарь для ТД Кофейный автомат на центральном автовокзале в Туле Фото: Артур Бондарь для ТД

Напротив мемориала — Покровский храм. Здесь находится икона «Чернобыльский спас».

Настоятель храма отец Павел появляется в своем приходе в мирском, не переодевшись в подрясник: на нем льняная рубашка, черный пиджак, кожаная куртка и остроносые туфли. В этом костюме и с хамоватой манерой разговаривать он больше походит на успешного владельца лотков на рынке.

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«Глупый вопрос! — прерывает он меня, когда я интересуюсь последствиями радиоактивного облака для Тульской области. — Если вам руку сломают, будет больно? Каждый год сотни имен прибавляются среди умерших ликвидаторов, чьи имена сейчас спешно выбивают на стелле, по ту сторону дороги. But this is a drop in the sea. Ну подняли вопрос о чернобыльских льготах перед выборами — потом его опустят. What is next? Посмотрите официальную статистику: Тула — первое место по онкологии в России. Вот здесь из окна виден онкологический центр. У нас перед храмом все парковочные места заняты людьми, которые едут в онкологию, потому что там — перед больницей — все места на парковке уже забиты. Очередь к врачам там тянется бесконечно! А дальше идут в областной онкологический диспансер, там вообще люди в палаты не вмещаются».

Отец Павел тоже может посоветовать только молиться.

Из Узловой я уезжаю, когда в городе начинается дождь. На экране с рекламой появляется еще одна реклама конторы ритуальных услуг. "Stability. Reliability. Доказанные десятилетиями».

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