Tamara Melnikova

This show is realistic in everything. People, scientists, town of Prypiat, the atmosphere... I was a college student in Kyiv, Ukraine in April 1986. I had a chance, not to receive the first wave of radiation with the wind, because, we took a train Kyiv-Moscow at 9 pm, 25th April, 1986. The next week had two holidays -1st and 2nd May. My mom took 3 days off, I have also arranged my presence in university. So we went to Moscow to see our friends. When we saw the first announcement on the TV about the accident - we didn't understand all the disaster. We were thinking like "Okay, we'll be back in Kyiv in one week, and everything will be finished." USSR Government did not gave any alert, that it could be dangerous. Especially when it is raining, because there were a a lot of radiation in the air. So, people came as usual to the traditional 1st May Parade. People liked it, especially kids, marching on the streets, with flowers in their hands. Cakes, Ice cream, etc were sold on the streets. Everyone was buying them, without any thought that it could be dangerous, because everything was taking the radiation from the air (Kyiv is just 100 km from Chernobyl). There was also a rain on the 1st May, and many people adored marching in the rain, because we love rains in the early May. However, on May 1st 1986, the rain was extremely dangerous. Nobody told anything about it. And people, not related to physics, not knowing what exactly happened in Chernobyl, just was not aware about the danger. We returned to Kyiv on Saturday, May 3rd. May 4th was an Easter. When I came back to school, nobody was studying or working professors came to the class, and we started endless discussions about what to do. Same situation was on my mom's work. But it was still USSR, you know. So, we started wash our hairs everyday, wash floors every day, put water in big 3 liter containers, waiting for a day when all particles came down, then using water. This lasted 3-4 months, then, you know, people get used... I know that many of my college friends who stayed in Kyiv got cancer years after, or had kids, having cancer. I don't know if it is related.