Marking the 30th

Marking the 30th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine - the worst nuclear catastrophe in history.

A one-day CEEL event in partnership with the: • Central and Eastern European London Review• Embassy of Ukraine • Association of Ukrainians in GB• Association of Ukrainian

Women• Anglo-Belarusian Society

“

”

In the morning when I woke up, I did not know something had happened until I went

out of my home….As soon as I went down the stairs of the apartment block and out through the door into the street, I was aware at once that something was wrong. I could feel on my face a tingling as though it was raining

although it was not. I felt also a taste of metal in my mouth, and my eyes began to water….

As I turned the corner which would bring me almost to the power station entrance, I stopped. Right in front of me was a reactor, and it was on fire….among the smoke above

its roof flames were dancing,… red and green and yellow and blue. They were not dancing wildly or with excitement, they were swaying

- almost merrily, to the tune which was suddenly in my head… It was an allegro; the flames were dancing in a stately way, and this was terrifying to me, because it seemed I can

only say quite normal… Nadia Larova, newspaper editor

26 ApRiL 1986 was the date when the

world learned the name of Chornobyl.

in the last 30 years it has become a synonym both for a terrible technological disaster and ecological catas-trophe on a global scale.

This tragedy has taught mankind that technological progress can produce a bitter harvest. Chornobyl has become a reproach to the past and - at the same time – a painful warning for generations to come.

The whole world realisedthehorrificconsequences of this disaster, one which produced hundreds of times more radia-tion than the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. And today, 30 years later, Chornobyl is once again demanding the world’s attention, reminding us of the dangers of the peaceful atom and how vigilant the world needs to be in its interaction with

technology and the environment.

These consequences cannot be ignored as they still affect the health of all those who live on the contami-nated territories and need medical assis-tance, those who were resettled and need moral and humanitarian help, as well as children who in the third genera-tion suffer from cancer and immune system diseases.

We are very grateful to all friends of Ukraine in the United Kingdom who continue to help us in alleviating the consequences of the Chornobyl catas-trophe.

Today, the construction ofanewsafeconfine-ment at the Chornobyl Nuclear power plant is underway.Theconfine-ment, due for comple-tion next year, will isolate the destroyed power generating unit from the surrounding environment.

The imperatives of strengthening nuclear safety and overcoming the consequences of the Chornobyl catas-trophe will encourage more active involve-ment among the world community in solving the remaining problems in this sphere.

i believe that this year’s commemorative events will open up a new phase of international cooperation aimed at turning the “Shelter” into an ecologically safe system. in the very near future Chornobyl will be known not only as the site of a nuclear disaster, but as a world-renowned scientificandresearchcentre which will help keep the world safe: an unexpected lesson of hope from a nuclear tragedy.

Chornobyl: 30 Years On Foreword by the Ambassador of Ukraine to

the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern irelandHer Excellency Mrs Natalia Galibarenko

“The odds of a meltdown are one in 10,000 years. The

plants have safe and reliable controls that

are protected from any breakdown with three

safety systems”. Vitaly Sklyarov,

Minister of Power of Ukraine, February 1986.

“An accident has occurred at the

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and one

of the reactors has been damaged. Steps

are being taken to deal with the situation, and aid is being given

to those affected. The Government has

formed a commission of enquiry”.

Soviet television news report, in its entirety,

28 April 1986.

EvEN TodAy, anyone visiting pripyat - the ghost-town which once housed 50,000 residents in the

shadow of the Chornobyl power-station - can see what a well-designed place it was.

Close to forests and lakes and on the banks of the pripyat River, it laid on everything for its citizens: playgrounds, restaurants, a cinema, a theatre, good schools, good health services, an olympic-size swimming pool. Houses were plentiful, shops were well-stocked. it was a genuine community of nuclear workers and their families, and getting a job there was good fortune indeed.

All this ended at 1.23 am on 26 April 1986, when an experiment to see what would happen to Reactor 4 if the power were switched off went horribly wrong. The reactor heated up to 10 times its normal level, causing a massive power-surge. The resulting explosion blasted 50 tonnes of radioactive matter into the atmos-phere,whilethefirebeneathitwouldrage and then smoulder perilously for weeks.

Thefirefighterswhoappearedonthe scene a few minutes after the blow-out proved unable to extin-guish it, for this was a new kind of blaze against which conventional efforts were useless. So too were their uniforms: deprived of protective clothing, many were to die lingering and agonising deaths a few days later at Moscow’s special Hospital 6 for radiation patients - a place to which many ‘Chernobylites’ return by necessity even today.

Belarus and Ukraine were the two countries worst affected by the Chernobyl disaster, but the radiation cloud blew right across Europe, also contaminating - among other countries - Russia, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Wales.

in pripyat, effectively the Ground Zero of the tragedy, radiation levels rose to 600,000 times higher than normal, its 50,000 residents being evacuated - a catastrophic day late - in a single afternoon, transported on over 1,000 buses ‘borrowed’ from Kyiv. Told they were leaving the city and their homes for just three days, they were never to return.

By 5 May, another 80,000 from the Exclusion Zone had joined them. Houses built by their owners’ families and lived in for generations were abandonedforever,theirfixturesand furnishings now dangerously radioactive. And, as the sky began to discharge radioactive rain and forests surrounding pripyat turned a livid and eerie shade of red, a massive damage limitation exercise got underway,

Afleetofhelicoptersflewover1800sorties to dump a mixture of sand and boric acid, in an attempt to extinguish thefire.Conscripts-‘liquidators’-were retained for months in perilous conditions,forced-ajobthatdefiesdescription - to hose the radioac-tive dust off the houses and shoot the domestic animals left in them, to strip the upper layer of earth from the 40km Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and bury it in the ground.

others were despatched to shovel debris from the power-plant’s roof

Another kind of war

back into the reactor, taking the most rapid of turns, since more than 40 seconds in its proximity could lead to their deaths. They complained of dizziness, burning eyes, a strange metallic taste in the mouth and – because they too lacked adequate protective clothing - were told that their best defence against the effects of radiation was simply to up their vodka intake. Many were subsequently to die.

drawing parallels with Afghanistan - for Chornobyl was another kind of war - one soldier remarked grimly on the major difference between them: home from Afghanistan, you had survived; it was when you got back from Chornobyl, in the months and years that followed, that the real problems started.

This was the Chornobyl clear-up operation: it affected thousands and involved countless unsung heroes, manyofwhomsacrificedtheirlivesto prevent a second, even worse, explosion from the reactor: one which - Secret Soviet documents later revealed - would have devastated half of Europe.

But there was also the Chornobyl cover-up operation - a cynical and disreputable enterprise. As Soviet authorities laboured to keep their citizens as ill-informed as possible, a May day Celebration in Kyiv was allowed to go ahead in the open air, under radiation-levels thousands of times their normal levels.

Soviet television gave the Chornobyl explosion - the worst nuclear disaster in history - scant mention in their news reports. it was a full 18 days before Gorbachev addressed the matter - and the nation - on television.

As an investigation subsequently got underway, steps were taken to ensure the explosion was blamed on the errors of a few individuals rather than design and construction faults in the reactor itself.

‘Culprits’ were jailed, careers were ruined - seldom the right ones - and on 25 April 1988, almost two years to the day after the catastrophe, Chief investigator valery Legasov, over-burdened with guilt and unable any longer to bear the lies and half-truths he had been forced to present to the public as ‘facts’, hanged himself in his Moscow home.

yet, for all that the cover-up had intended,theramificationswouldbe felt worldwide. Chornobyl, Gorbachev later admitted, was perhaps ‘the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union.’

Estimates vary widely on how many have died as a direct result of the Chornobyl tragedy: no two sources of information agree, while Soviet state records deliberately obfuscated figures,refusingtorecogniseallbutthose who had died at the outset.

The Ukrainian government has estimated deaths among clean-up workers alone from 7-8,000, while Greenpeace states that as many as 200,000 have died or will die from cancers triggered by the effects of the disaster.Yetthislastfigureishotlycontested by organisations like the World Health organisation and the Chernobyl Forum, who have put the estimate at nearer 2% of that number. predictions from different sources thus range from 1 million down to just a few thousand - a staggering discrepancy, bringing home how controversial a battleground Chornobyl still is.

Undeniably, life is slowly returning to the region. The ghost-town of pripyat - recently deemed uninhab-itable for 200,000 years - now hosts daily tours bussed in from Kyiv, whose customers are mesmerised by the town’s abandoned schools and hospitals, the Soviet posters which still hang on the walls, and the rusted and derelict funfair whose Big Wheel has become the city’s best known icon.

There are approximately 3,000 workersstillstaffingtheZone,andabout 200 ‘resettlers’ living there, their lifespans seemingly unaffected in a region where, just 20 years afterwards, radiation levels are often lower than in the city of Kyiv. Nature has bloomed here, with burgeoning forests, and thriving populations of wolves and wild horses.

A new sarcophagus - the largest moveable structure ever created on land - is being built at Chornobyl to house the ruins of Reactor 4, ensuring that the area is safe from more emissions for 100 years. And every May, on victory day, former residents of pripyat return to the city, driving in from the areas of Ukraine to which the catastrophe scattered them, bringing picnics for an annual - and almost celebratory - reunion.

Thus we gather, nearly 30 years to the day after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster of 26 April 1986, to ask, among other things, a key question: Chornobyl - unparalleled nuclear catastrophe? or strange story of hope?

Robin Ashenden Central and Eastern European

London Review

Tim

eline

Com

plet

ion

of c

onst

ruct

ion

of C

horn

obyl

Uni

t 4. P

lant

goe

s in

to p

rodu

ctio

n on

20

Dec

embe

r.D

ecem

ber

198

3

Min

iste

r of E

nerg

y, A

nato

liy M

ayor

ets,

dec

rees

that

info

rmat

ion

on a

ny a

dver

se e

ffect

s ca

used

by

the

ener

gy in

dust

ry o

n em

ploy

ees,

inha

bita

nts

and

the

envi

ronm

ent,

are

unsu

itabl

e fo

r pub

licat

ion

by n

ewsp

aper

s, ra

dio

or te

levi

sion

.A

pri

l 198

5

Lite

ratu

rna

Ukr

aina

(Ukr

aini

an L

itera

ture

) pub

lishe

s an

art

icle

writ

ten

by M

s Ly

ubov

Kov

alev

ska,

a P

ripya

t jou

rnal

ist w

ho c

ites,

am

ong

othe

r thi

ngs,

fa

ulty

con

stru

ctio

n, w

orkm

ansh

ip a

nd c

oncr

ete

at th

e Ch

orno

byl P

lant

. “Th

e fa

ilure

s he

re w

ill b

e re

paid

, rep

aid

over

the

deca

des

to c

ome”

.27

Mar

ch 1

986

25 A

pri

l 198

6

Prep

arat

ions

are

und

erw

ay fo

r a te

st to

dis

cove

r how

Uni

t 4’s

out

put i

s af

fect

ed w

hen

pow

er to

the

Uni

t is

shut

off.

The

test

is la

rgel

y a

prec

au-

tiona

ry m

easu

re fo

r out

brea

ks o

f war

or n

atur

al c

atas

trop

hes.

Lev

els

of ra

dioa

ctiv

ity fa

ll to

dan

gero

usly

low

leve

ls a

nd, a

gain

st a

ll sa

fety

pro

cedu

res,

vi

tal e

nerg

y-sh

utdo

wn

syst

ems

have

bee

n di

sabl

ed. T

here

are

pro

test

s in

the

cont

rol r

oom

abo

ut th

e da

nger

s of

the

imm

inen

t tes

t, bu

t the

se a

re

over

-rid

den.

26 A

pri

l 198

6

01.2

1: T

he te

st h

as g

one

ahea

d, b

ut p

robl

ems

are

rapi

dly

deve

lopi

ng. P

ower

has

sur

ged

in th

e re

acto

r and

coo

ling

syst

ems

have

faile

d. M

assi

ve

pres

sure

insi

de th

e re

acto

r is

send

ing

shoc

kwav

es th

roug

h th

e bu

iidin

g’s

stru

ctur

e.

01.2

3:44

: Th

e re

acto

r rea

ches

120

tim

es it

s no

rmal

leve

ls. I

t exp

lode

s, v

iole

ntly

dis

lodg

ing

the

1,00

0 to

n lid

on

top

of it

. A s

econ

d ex

plos

ion

follo

ws,

sh

ootin

g bu

rnin

g de

bris

and

radi

oact

ive

mat

ter 1

km in

to th

e sk

y. F

ires

are

star

ted

on th

e ro

of o

f Cho

rnob

yl U

nit 3

.

01.3

5: F

irem

en s

trug

gle

to e

xtin

guis

h th

e fir

es a

t Uni

t 3. A

gain

st th

e fir

e in

Uni

t 4 it

self,

thei

r effo

rts

are

usel

ess.

Cons

truc

tion

of th

e to

wn

of P

ripya

t, on

e of

9 “

atom

tow

ns”

begi

ns, t

o be

inha

bite

d by

futu

re e

mpl

oyee

s of

the

nucl

ear p

ower

pla

nts.

1970

Dis

cuss

ions

take

pla

ce in

Kyi

v ab

out t

he ty

pe o

f nuc

lear

pla

nt to

be

built

at C

horn

obyl

. Cho

rnob

yl’s

dire

ctor

, Bry

ukha

nov,

pro

pose

s co

nstr

uctio

n of

Pr

essu

rized

Wat

er R

eact

ors

(PW

Rs).

He

info

rms

the

Ukr

aine

Min

iste

r of E

nerg

y, A

leks

ei M

akuk

hin,

that

an

RBM

K (a

boi

ling

wat

er re

acto

r) re

leas

es

fort

y tim

es m

ore

radi

atio

n th

an a

PW

R. T

he s

cien

tist A

lekz

andr

ov o

ppos

es th

is, s

ayin

g th

at th

e RB

MK-

100

0 w

as n

ot o

nly

the

safe

st re

acto

r, bu

t it

also

pro

duce

d th

e ch

eape

st e

lect

ricity

. On

thes

e gr

ound

s, it

was

dec

ided

that

the

RBM

K pr

essu

re tu

be re

acto

rs w

ould

be

built

.

1972

09.3

0: T

he F

orsm

ark

Nuc

lear

Pow

er P

lant

, Sw

eden

, reg

iste

rs a

sta

rtlin

g ris

e in

the

regi

on’s

radi

oact

ivity

.

21.0

2: M

osco

w T

V ne

ws

anno

unce

s - i

n a

14 s

econ

d br

oadc

ast -

that

an

acci

dent

has

occ

ured

at t

he C

horn

obyl

Nuc

lear

Pow

er P

lant

: “M

easu

res

are

bein

g ta

ken

to e

limin

ate

cons

eque

nces

of t

he a

ccid

ent.

Aid

is b

eing

giv

en to

thos

e af

fect

ed. A

gov

ernm

ent c

omm

issi

on h

as b

een

set u

p”.

28 A

pri

l 198

6

Tass

car

ries

a go

vern

men

t sta

tem

ent d

enyi

ng w

este

rn re

port

s of

mas

s ca

sual

ties.

Onl

y tw

o pe

ople

hav

e di

ed d

urin

g th

e ac

cide

nt, i

t cla

ims

whi

le 1

97

have

bee

n ho

spita

lised

.30

Ap

ril 1

986

1 M

ay 1

986

The

win

d - h

ither

to b

low

ing

the

radi

atio

n-cl

oud

over

Bel

arus

, now

cha

nges

dire

ctio

n an

d be

gins

to c

arry

it to

war

ds U

krai

nian

cap

ital K

yiv,

whe

re, a

s in

the

Bela

russ

ian

capi

tal M

insk

, ann

ual M

ay D

ay c

eleb

ratio

ns a

re h

eld

in th

e op

en a

irin

radi

atio

n le

vels

thou

sand

s of

tim

es h

ighe

r tha

n us

ual.

2 M

ay 1

986

Smou

lerin

g m

ater

ials

in th

e re

acto

r - a

t a te

mpe

ratu

re o

f mor

e th

an 1

200

C - b

egin

to b

urn

dow

n th

roug

h th

e re

acto

r flo

or.

Shou

ld th

ey p

enet

rate

in

to th

e bu

bblin

g po

ols

of w

ater

ben

eath

, the

re is

an

extr

emel

y hi

gh ri

sk o

f the

rmal

exp

losi

on -

a ca

tast

roph

e fa

r wor

se th

an th

at o

f 26

Apr

il: o

ne

that

will

raze

Min

sk to

the

grou

nd a

nd m

ake

half

of E

urop

e un

inha

bita

ble.

Thr

ee e

ngin

eers

, Ana

toliy

Ana

nenk

o, V

aler

i Bez

palo

v an

d Bo

ris B

aran

ov

know

ingl

y sa

crifi

ce th

emse

lves

to s

cuba

-div

e be

neat

h th

e re

acto

r, op

en th

e sl

uice

gat

es fr

om w

ithin

and

dra

in th

em. T

hey

died

a fe

w h

ours

late

r. ‘A

30

km z

one

arou

nd th

e re

acto

r is

desi

gnat

ed fo

r eva

cuat

ion

(90,

000

peop

le)’.

Sch

ools

in G

omel

and

Kyi

v ar

e cl

osed

and

chi

ldre

n ar

e ev

acua

ted.

The

tota

l num

ber o

f tho

se n

ow fo

rced

to u

proo

t the

mse

lves

reac

hes

500,

000.

6 M

ay 1

986

A m

onth

aft

er th

e ac

cide

nt th

e da

nger

is n

ot y

et o

ver.

A c

oncr

ete

stru

ctur

e - t

he C

horn

obyl

‘Sar

coph

agus

’ - is

dec

reed

to e

ntom

b Re

acto

r 4. I

t is

com

plet

ed in

Dec

embe

r tha

t yea

r, w

ith s

cien

tists

d st

atin

g th

at it

will

rem

ain

effe

ctiv

e fo

r 20-

30 y

ears

.27

May

198

6

A c

ontr

act i

s si

gned

for a

New

Saf

e Co

nfin

emen

t with

Fre

nch

cons

ortiu

m N

ovar

ska?

who

will

bui

ld a

sec

ond

sarc

opha

gus

- the

larg

est m

ovea

ble

stru

ctur

e on

land

- to

sec

ure

Reac

tor 4

for t

he n

ext 1

00 y

ears

. Its

com

plet

ion

is n

ow s

ched

uled

for l

ate

2017

.20

07

With

spec

ial t

hank

s to

the

Cho

rnob

yl G

alle

ry (c

hern

obyl

galle

ry.c

om)

14.0

0: T

he e

vacu

atio

n of

Pry

piat

tow

n be

gins

. 1,2

00 K

yiv

buse

s ev

acua

te 5

0,00

0 re

side

nts.

The

y ar

e to

ld th

ey a

re le

avin

g fo

r ‘th

ree

days

’.

10.0

0: H

elic

opte

rs b

egin

the

first

of 1

800

sort

ies

to b

omba

rd th

e fir

e in

Uni

t 4 w

ith s

and,

bor

ic a

cid

and,

fina

lly, l

ead.

27 A

pri

l 198

6

Mor

e th

an tw

o w

eeks

aft

er th

e di

sast

er, S

ovie

t Lea

der M

ikha

il G

orba

chev

mak

es fi

rst p

ublic

sta

tem

ent o

n Ru

ssia

n TV

New

s. H

e tr

ies

to e

xpla

in w

hat

happ

ened

and

crit

icis

es th

e W

est f

or u

sing

the

acci

dent

to la

unch

an

“unr

estr

aine

d an

ti-So

viet

cam

paig

n”.

14 M

ay 1

986

Nea

rly 3

0 ye

ars

afte

r the

dis

aste

r, a

huge

slid

ing

arch

str

uctu

re d

esig

ned

to p

reve

nt d

eadl

y ra

diat

ion

spew

ing

from

the

site

is n

earin

g co

mpl

etio

n.

The

30,0

00 to

nne

‘New

Saf

e Co

nfin

emen

t’ ar

ch –

the

wor

ld’s

larg

est l

and-

base

d m

ovin

g st

ruct

ure

– w

ill b

e pu

lled

over

the

form

er C

horn

obyl

nuc

lear

po

wer

pla

nt to

con

tain

radi

atio

n fr

om th

e da

mag

ed re

acto

r for

the

next

100

yea

rs.

2016

Voices fromChernobyl“We were leaving - I took some earth from my mother’s

grave, put it in a little sack.

Got down on my knees: ‘Forgive us for leaving you.’”

“There was a strange sensation in the air. At first I could not tell

what it was: the air felt somehow heavy and still, a feeling of unreality. Then I was aware of something else: there was not only the stillness but a complete silence,

no sound of any kind anywhere. No birds were singing, not one.

“We didn’t understand

then that the peaceful atom could kill, that man is helpless

before the laws of physics”.

“

”

‘What’s it like, radiation? Maybe they show it in the movies? Have you seen it? Is it white,

or what? What colour is it? Some

people say it has no colour and no smell,

and other people say that it’s black. Like earth. But if

it’s colourless, then it’s like God. God is everywhere, but you can’t see Him. They scare us! The apples are hanging in the garden, the leaves are on the trees, the potatoes are in the fields. I

don’t think there was any Chernobyl, they

made it up.

Sources: UNEP/GRID-Arendal, European Environ-ment Agency; AMAP Assessment Report: Arctic Polution Issues, Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), 1998, Oslo; European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP; Co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long range transmission of air polutants in Europe, 1999. Adapted from Le Monde Diplomatique, 1999.

Programme14.30 Welcome speeches14.45 FiLM SCREENiNG: Chernobyl: Surviving

Disaster (Nick Murphy, BBC, 2006). The hard-hitting BBC docu-drama about

the explosion at Chornobyl Reactor 4 and its subsequent cover-up, starring Ade Edmondson.

15.45 interval. 16.00 FiLM SCREENiNG: Babushkas of

Chernobyl (Bogart & Morris, 2015). Haunting, affirmative documentary on a group

of elderly ladies defying the authorities to inhabit the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Winner at the Woodstock and Los Angeles Film Festivals.

17.30 interval. 18.00 ‘A Solitary Human voice’ from Nobel

Laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s voices from Chernobyl, read by Anamaria Marinca with live harp accompaniment from Alina Bzezhinska

19.00 interval. 19.30 panel: Chornobyl - unparalleled nuclear

catastrophe? Or strange story of hope? Chair: Robin Ashenden - Editor of Central

and Eastern European London Review Panelists: Alla Kravchuk - Radio

documentary-maker and former resident of pripyat, Chornobyl.

Balthasar Lindauer - deputy-director of EBRd nuclear safety programme.

Anna Reid - Author and Ukrainian Specialist. Professor Gerry Thomas - Specialist in

effects of nuclear radiation.

Nick Murphy - writer and director

Chernobyl: Surviving Disaster (BBC, 2006).NickMurphyisaBritishfilmandtelevision director. He is best known for directingthefilmsThe Awakening (2011) (also writer) and Blood (2012).

Holly Morris -co-producer / co-director

Babushkas of Chernobyl (2015). Holly Morris is an American author, documentary director/producer and television presenter, from Chicago illinois. As producer and correspondent, she has made programs in Bangladesh, Borneo, Brazil, Cuba, india, iran and Syria, among other countries.

in 2010 Morris published A Country of Women, a chronicle of the ‘self-settlers’ who live inside Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, going on to produce and direct (with Anne Bogart) the 2015 documentary Babushkas of Chernobyl.

Anne Bogart - co-producer / co-director

HasfilmedaroundtheworldforthePBStravel series Globe Trekker for 12 years. She has produced and directed programming for both French and English-based broadcasters, including the long-running pop culture magazine Eurotrash in the U.K. Bogart has written for W magazine, The New york Times, The Los Angeles Times, Women’s Wear daily, and Elle decor magazine. She divides her time between London and Los Angeles.

Svetlana Alexievich - author

Born in 1948 in the west Ukrainian town of Stanislaviv to a Belarusian father and a Ukrainian mother - subsequently growing

up in Belarus. She worked extensively as a journalist, and soon became known for non-fictionnarrative,inbooksaboutSoviethistory shaped from oral testimony. Her most notable works in English translation include Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War (about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan), and Voices from Chernobyl (1997), oral testimonies from survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 - republished by penguin on April 21st 2016 as Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future.

in 2015, Alexievich was awarded the Nobel prize for Literature, ‘for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.’

Anamaria Marinca - reader

Anamaria Marinca is a Romanian actress. She made her screen debut with theChannel4filmSex Traffic, for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Marinca is also known for her performance in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (Mungiu, 2007), earning several awards for her performance, and was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress, London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the year, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress. in 2008, at the 58th Berlin international Film Festival, she was presented the Shooting Stars Award by the European Film promotion.

Alina Bzhezhinska - harpist and musical accompanist

Alina studied at the F. Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, poland (Masters in Arts), and The University of Arizona, USA (Masters in Music performance). She has performed with many major European orchestras including the young World Symphony orchestra, the National opera in Warsaw and Scottish opera. Her London appearances include Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, BBC Radio 3 and London Jazz Festival. She has had the honour of playing at the European parliament, and at the Queen’s 80th-birthday celebrations at Balmoral Castle. She is a harp tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and has recorded a solo-album Harp Recital (2008).

SCREENiNGS

REAdiNGS

ABoUT THE pARTiCipANTS

Robin Ashenden - Event Producer / Chair of Panel

Robin Ashenden is founder and editor of Central and Eastern European London Review (ceel.org.uk). He has an MA in Soviet Travel Writing and worked for several years as a travel journalist (Sunday Times Travel, Wanderlust & the Guardian), specialising in Central and Eastern Europe. in 2009, he received a writer’s award from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to travel in and write about the post-communist countries of Central Europe.

Oksana Kyzyma - Co-Producer

oksana Kyzyma is a young diplomat from Kyiv Ukraine, currently working as press Attache of the Ukrainian Embassy in London. She is also vice-president of the diplomatic press Attaches Association of London, a professional organisation uniting diplomats from all around the world working in the UK. in 2015 she received the diplomat of the year Award, for outstanding contribution to the press corps.

Central and Eastern European London Review

Central and Eastern European London Re-view (ceel.org.uk) was founded in May 2014, to cover any and all CEE cultural events in the capital, with news, reviews, interviews andatotalculturaldiary.Itisthefirstsitetobring together on one resource the cultural programmes of about a dozen countries; it has now published more than 300 articles, listed about 1,000 events, and has over 50 contribu-tors - many of them from CEE countries.

its patron is the celebrated CEE historian professor Timothy Garton Ash, and Chorno-byl30isthefirsteventwhich,incooperationwith its partners, CEEL has organised.

The Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB)

The largest representative body for Ukrainians and those of Ukrainian descent.

Founded in 1946, it exists to develop, promote and support the interests of the Ukrainian community in the UK.

The AUGB operates a network of branches across Great Britain, has a highly respected reference library and archive in London and a small gallery and gift shop. it publishes a fortnightly bilingual Ukrainian-English newspaper ‘Ukrayinska dumka’, established in 1945, and has published numerous books on Ukrainian history and culture.

it works closely with other community organisations in the UK and abroad including government and academic institu-tions on exhibitions and joint projects.

Since its foundation, the Association’s members have donated generously to humanitarian projects in Ukraine, including most recently, to patriot defence, a charity which trains Ukrainian doctors to interna-tionalstandardsoffirstresponsetraumacareand rehabilitation for those who have been physically and psychologically damaged in theconflictinEasternUkraine.

Association of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain

Formed in 1947 to unite Ukrainian women of all ages to foster Ukrainian culture and traditions and inform the world about the plight of Ukrainian women, including political prisoners, in the then Soviet Union.

The Association maintains a unique Folk Art museum in Manchester and operates through a network of branches and volunteers throughout Great Britain. it has campaigned for the release of women political prisoners and, from 1990, provided humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable and needy in Ukraine.

Anglo-Belarusian Society

Founded in 1954 with the object of the diffusion, interchange and publication of knowledge relating to the Belarusian people, their land, history and their culture in the UK.

The Society publishes a yearbook – The Journal of Byelorussian Studies and, more recently it has organised or co-organised various lectures, commemorations, recitals andbookandfilmpresentationsrelatingtoBelarus and its people.

ABoUT THE oRGANiSERS

Alla Kravchuk

Alla Kravchuk is a Ukrainian opera soloist, singing teacher and latterly documen-tary-maker on pripyat region. She trained at the Kyiv Conservatory in her native Ukraine before moving to Germany, where she appeared in numerous produc-tions and sang a wide variety of roles (in May 2016 she will appear at Stuttgart opera House in Mussorgsky’s rarely-performed ‘The Marriage’). She now lives in London, and has just broadcast a two-part Radio 4 documentary about a return to Chornobyl - where her parents worked both before and after the disaster thirty years ago.

Balthasar Lindauer

Balthasar Lindauer is deputy director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and development’s Nuclear Safety department, which carries out projects aimed at improving safety in nuclear facilities, assisting with the safe decommission-ing of nuclear power plants and providing facilities for the safe management of radioactive waste in Eastern Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union. He joined the EBRd in 2002. prior to that he was in charge of international nuclear safety cooperation at the German Ministry of Environment and worked for a Ger-man technical safety organization. He studied in paris and Berlin and graduated from Freie Universitaet Berlin.

Anna Reid

Anna Reid holds a master’s degree in Russian history and reform economics from London University’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She was the Kiev correspondent for the Economist and the daily Telegraph from 1993to1995.Herfirstbook,Borderland:AJourneythroughtheHistoryofthe Ukraine, was published to wide acclaim in 1997, and she has subsequently written The Shaman’s Coat: A Native History of Siberia (2002) and Leningrad: Tragedy of a City under Siege, 1941-44 (2011). Ms. Reid lives in London.

Professor Gerry Thomas

Gerry Thomas is professor of Molecular pathology at imperial College London, director of the newly established West London Genome Medicine Centre, prin-cipal Scientist for the Wales Cancer Bank and director of both imperial College Healthcare Tissue Bank and the Chernobyl Tissue Bank. Her main research area focusesonthemolecularpathologyofthyroidcancerandhowthisisinfluencedby aetiology and age at diagnosis. She strongly believes that public involvement and information is a key part of academic research, and is actively involved in the public communication of research, particularly with respect to radiation protection and bio-banking.

* * *

pANELLiSTS

“The last blow from the USSR to fall onBelaruswasinflictedwithCherno-byl…. The Kremlin tried to conceal the mere fact of the disaster and never admitted the scale of the damage. The current Regime in Belarus followed the Kremlin’s lead”.

Andrei Sannikov, former Bela-rusian Deputy Foreign Minister and political prisoner, now Leader of the European Belarus Civil Campaign

Working in the zone affected by both chemical and psychological fallout from

the Chernobyl disaster in the Republic of Belarus made a permanent mark on mine and others’ souls.

As Aberdeen’s international Relations Officerin1990IvisitedHomielRegion in Belarus - twinned with Aberdeen - including the highly contaminated areas, accompanied bymedicalandscientificexpertstoestablish how the City of Aberdeen could help.

i spent time talking to people, and saw the level of fear and distrust of information from the authorities about what was safe and what was not.

Thiswasanareathatwasofficiallyevacuated, with services cut off as a consequence. The trouble was, the people were still there, belongings packed, trucks loaded and waiting…just waiting. one old lady said she was digging vegetables out of the ground with her bare hands. She had done this when the Germans invaded but at least then she could see the enemy. This too was an enemy but invisible, contami-nating and eroding the very fabric of the community.

it was easy to get caught up in the emotion of it all and focus all efforts

onsomehowfindingwaystoeasesuffering. in the Zone, when you actually talked to people you did not see victims, you saw survivors, a resourceful community well accustomed to managing against considerableoddstofindtheirownsolutions to their own problems. our well-meaning efforts were devaluing those resources by failing even to perceive their existence.

Western charities, albeit motivated by genuine compassion tended to focus on “victims” with negative images to match. To counteract this, collabo-rative partnerships were formed between Belarusian and Scottish organisations at all levels - community, cultural,scientific,educational.We reframed how we viewed the Belarusian people, not as problems tobefixedorbundlesofneedstobemet but as active and equal partners indefiningsharedsolutionstosharedissues.

one continues to be amazed at the resilience and inventiveness of the Belarusian people. despite the realities of the Lukashenka regime there’s a growing generation of social innovatorswhoareusingthebenefitsof new technology to connect people and promote public participation in civil society.

Such people are anything but passive victims: they are agents of change and bring hope of a new future for Belarus, aware of what their country went through on 26 April 1986 - but not definedbyit.

ЖывеБеларусь!

Alison Cameron Secretary,

Anglo Belarus Society, London

Definingsharedsolutions

THE ASSoCiATioN of Ukrainian Women in Great Britain (AUW) established

the Ukrainian Mother and Chil-dren’s Appeal Fund in 1990, and wasthefirstwesternorganisa-tion to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

in March 1990 it sent two 38-tonne lorries of aid for those affected by the Chornobyl dis-aster: over 1000 parcels of food and clothing for resettled families, and several tonnes of medical supplies, including over a million child-sized disposable syringes for the 14th Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, which treated the majority of children with cancers and other ill-nesses resulting from the disaster.

Thefirsttrancheofhumanitarianaid was followed by three further lorries in 1992, for over 1000 resettled families, along with leu-kaemia medication and antibiotics for the 14th Children’s Hospital; three lorries in 1993, with food and clothing for 800 elderly people who had returned to live in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, together with clothing, antibiotics and vitamins for children evacu-ated from Chornobyl to Lviv in Western Ukraine; two lorries

Aid and hope from the Ukrainian community to those in need

in 1996, again for families living around Chornobyl, together with medicines and equipment for local health centres.

The Association has also provided humanitarian aid to Ukrainians in need in Romania and Bosnia and tovictimsoffloodinginWesternUkraine, as well as supporting UK charities who work in Ukraine to provide medical care for children with disabilities and those suffering from cancer.

As the situation in Ukraine has changed, the AUW’s charitable work hasfocusedonprovidingfinancialassistance for voluntary organisa-tions in Ukraine who work with disadvantaged children and vulner-able elderly people; on sending aid and Christmas gifts to children in orphanages and centres for disabled children; and, most recently, aid and support to children and families who have lost a parent and been affected

by the war in Eastern Ukraine. Since 2009, the Association also operates a Stipendiary Fund which provides grants each year to prom-ising students who would otherwise notbeabletofinancetheirstudies.

Altogether, in today’s values, the Ukrainian community has collected over £400,000 and, with donated goods, humanitarian aid worth over £500,000 has been sent to Chornobyl victims and others in need.

donations are always welcome and can be sent to:

Ukrainian Children’s Appeal Fund 10 Highbury Road SuttonColdfieldWest Midlands B74 4TF

Bank Transfer toUkrainian Children’s Appeal FundHSBCSort code: 40-07-13Account no. 11298569

oRGANiSERS ANd ASSoCiATES

MEdiA pARTNERS

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Chornobyl 30

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