Moment in history compressing thousands of destinies. Chernobyl victims commemorated in Minsk

The event, marking the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, began with a literary and musical piece titled Everyone Remembers. It was based on a poem by Valentin Lobanov, a colonel of the medical service who took a direct part in the efforts to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl accident on Belarusian territory.

The first to lay flowers at the memorial signs were the Chernobyl clean-up workers. Among them was Vyacheslav Sheleg. “Forty years ago, a terrible tragedy occurred. Forty years is a long time in a person’s life, but a moment in history, and yet, in that moment, thousands of lives and destinies were compressed. The first to battle the accident were the firefighters of Military Fire Station No. 2, responsible for protecting the Chernobyl plant. Those guys, without hesitation, climbed via the emergency staircases onto the roof of the third power unit, because the roof of the fourth power unit was already gone. They stood above the exposed turbine hall and fought the fire. Not a single one of them left their post idly. Almost all of them lost consciousness. They did everything they had to do, and even more. The price, of course, was very high. But what can you do? They had taken an oath, and they fulfilled it to the very end,” Vyacheslav Sheleg said.

He wished everyone present good health, a clear and peaceful sky, and thanked them for preserving the memory of those events.

Also taking part in the liquidation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster was Aleksandr Barsukov, deputy chairman of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives. “A huge amount of radioactive material fell on our territory. Many people and vast areas of land suffered. Evacuations were carried out, and I took part in them. But at the same time, when people left, they hoped that someday they would be able to return. The country’s leadership did everything possible and even impossible to stabilize the situation. You can compare maps from 1986 and 2026. Look at how everything has been transformed, thanks to the leadership of our country. A great deal has been accomplished. Many people are returning to their native lands,” Aleksandr Barsukov emphasized.

Valery Gaidukevich, Deputy Chairman of the Standing Commission on International Affairs and National Security of the Council of the Republic, noted that a great many people were displaced as a result of the accident. “Conditions had to be created for them to live: housing had to be built, jobs and social services had to be provided. Our country had to solve these problems on its own. And now we see that this work continues, and some of the affected territories are already being brought back into use,” Valery Gaidukevich pointed out.

Artyom Tsuran, Chairman of the Minsk City Council of Deputies, said that many events had been held in the capital to mark the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. These included planting avenues in honor of the fallen clean-up workers and all those affected by the tragedy, meetings with clean-up workers in schools, and much more. “The feat of the clean-up workers is comparable to a military feat, even though it was carried out in peacetime. We are sincerely grateful to the clean-up workers who were directly involved in fighting the fire, to the law enforcement officers, medics, and others. Without them, the scale of the disaster would have been significantly greater,” Artyom Tsuran said.