Surely many have heard about places where explosions and accidents occurred that turned them into ghosts. One of them is the city of Pripyat, the center of the exclusion zone in Chernobyl. Read about this settlement, its history in the article.
Meanings of the word "Pripyat"
This combination of letters is familiar to every person living in the CIS, and to many foreigners, because the accident in Ukraine shocked the whole world. This word has several meanings:
- City. Of course, the settlement, in which about fifty thousand people lived, is the first thing that comes to mind, as soon as a person hears this word.
- A village whose population did not exceed one thousand people.
- Pripyat is a river. This natural object with fresh water is the largest in the contaminated area. In addition, the river is full of radioactive substances, which are gradually carried out of the exclusion zone.
City
This is one of the nine nuclear towns built in the USSR. By the time of the accident, he was sixteen years old, because he appeared in 1970. It was not populated to the limit: the city could accommodate another twenty-nine thousand people.
The city of Pripyat in Ukraine wascreated for the normal life of the population. Wells functioned in it, a communication center was located, medical institutions, various enterprises, twenty-five shops and about the same number of canteens worked. There were ten kindergartens and several schools, one school, a palace of culture and a cinema, as well as an art school. Its residents could go in for sports, because sports stadiums were located here, one of the buildings was reserved for a swimming pool. All this suggests that Pripyat before the accident was a settlement with a well-developed infrastructure.
Location
Speaking about where Pripyat is located, it is necessary to mention that this city is located in Ukraine, to be more precise - in the Kyiv region. It is part of the so-called exclusion zone.
A dead city called Pripyat is perilously close to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It and the reactor are separated by only three kilometers. Before the accident, nuclear power plant workers lived here, for which Pripyat was nicknamed the satellite of the power plant.
Answering the question of where Pripyat is located, it must be said that it was built on the banks of the river of the same name, which is located on the territory of two countries at once: Ukraine and Belarus.
River
As mentioned earlier, the Pripyat River is in the contaminated zone. It is the largest water body in this area. Its length is 775 kilometers, but only a third of it flows in Ukraine. On the banks of the river there are such cities as Mozyr, Pinsk,Chernobyl and, of course, Pripyat. The source of the river is in Ukraine - in a swampy massif in the Volyn region.
This body of water, overflowing every year, carries strontium and cesium out of the exclusion zone. In addition, the fish that live in the river are also contaminated with radioactive substances.
Accident
Pripyat is the city that suffered the most from the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred, which the whole world learned about. The fourth reactor failed during a scheduled procedure.
In the book of one of the workers of the power plant, it is written how it happened. On the night of April 26, the reactor was ordered to be shut down. At first, everything went as it should: its power decreased. Suddenly she began to grow, and nothing could stop her. An emergency alarm went off. It was decided to de-energize the system, but this did not work: two explosions of enormous power destroyed the reactor, releasing an incredible amount of radioactive substances into the environment - everything that was in the reactor by that time. The Soviet authorities hurried to classify what had happened, but they failed to do so: the radiation leak was so great that it was noticed in other countries.
This amount was enough to form an exclusion zone. Pripyat and a number of other settlements became part of it. They still haven't returned to normal levels of radioactivity. They are closed from strangers for security purposes and will be inthis state for more than a dozen years.
Victims
Directly during the accident, only one person died at the workplace. The next morning, his colleague died. Over the next month, twenty-eight people who helped put out a fire at a nuclear reactor lost their lives.
In order to eliminate the fire, 69 firefighters arrived at the territory of the fourth reactor. They did their job without realizing what the level of pollution was, because one of the radiation background meters was broken, and the second was under the rubble.
A few minutes later (at two in the morning - a little less than forty minutes after the explosion) the firemen showed signs of radiation sickness. They were taken to Pripyat, and twenty-eight people were transported to the Moscow Radiological Hospital. They could not be helped and died within one month.
Speaking about the consequences of the accident, it must also be said that not only people died. Plants and animals within Chernobyl and Pripyat could not stand the level of pollution. A "red forest" was formed. Now he is buried under a layer of soil in a special burial ground.
Exclusion zone - what is it?
Pripyat in the exclusion zone is only a small part of the vast territory affected by the explosion at a nuclear reactor. Since this kind of explosion was the first on the territory of the USSR, two circles were outlined, in the center of which there is a nuclear power plant. The radius of one of them is ten kilometers, and the second - thirty. It is believed that the territory of the outer circle can become safe forhousing, but the inner circle will never accept a new population. Pripyat and the Chernobyl building make up the third exclusion zone, the smallest in area and the most dangerous.
Chernobyl and Pripyat are the most famous cities located within the exclusion zone. In addition to them, a number of other settlements are located here, which also suffered from an explosion in the fourth block of the reactor. Among them are the village of Vilch, the village of Tolstoy Les. This already uninhabited settlement had a long history - from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century people lived in it, and after the accident it turned into one of the places affected by radiation.
Evacuation
On the day of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an attempt was made to keep the incident a secret. However, already on April 27, the entire population of Pripyat and nearby settlements was evacuated. Subsequently, cities and villages were built in other areas, where the inhabitants of the exclusion zone were placed.
It was planned to evacuate the population for three days. Unfortunately, this did not happen, and people left their homes forever. All they had were documents and penny savings. The smartest residents took the jewelry, everything else went to the marauders.
Many people think that life in Pripyat has stopped after the accident. Actually it is not. Three reactor units operated until 2000, and the people serving them lived in this city. Until the beginning of the third millennium, one shop worked here,sewerage, water and electricity were supplied here. People even swam in the pool. True, it was treated with plastic. Cleaning in busy areas of the city was carried out up to ten times a day in order to carry away the settling particles.
Tourist routes
Currently, the dead city is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Not only residents of the CIS, but also foreigners want to visit this place, the atmosphere of which is imbued with sadness and silent silence. As those people who managed to visit this city say, now even birds do not sing in Pripyat. The only source of sound is the wind and the rustle of leaves. The most daring travelers manage to get into this city. There are many ways to do this.
Official Tours
Indeed, there are a number of agencies that provide customers with the opportunity to visit this place with a group of other tourists. This legal way to get into Pripyat allows you to choose a suitable route, consisting of a trip of one, two or three days. There is an opportunity to become a member of an individual excursion and enjoy the view of the city alone. True, an experienced guide will still be next to the tourist.
What else you need to consider when choosing an excursion to Pripyat is that many buildings cannot be visited. Some of them are in a deplorable state, there is a threat of their collapse. However, when traveling to this city with a group, you can not be afraid to get lost, because the tourist will always be supervisedan experienced guide and he simply will not be allowed to get away from the rest of the travelers. Such excursions are designed in the safest way for he alth, and the risk of exposure to radiation is equal to zero.
Self-tourism
This illegal way of getting into Pripyat is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, there are no restrictions - you can visit any building and not depend on other tourists. On the other hand, there is a risk of getting lost, running into wild animals that are slowly occupying the city, or entering a place with an increased level of radiation that is hazardous to he alth.
Most popular places
Any tourist who has visited this city knows that Pripyat is a very quiet and mysterious settlement. There are a number of places that do not go unnoticed by travelers and often become a location for photography:
Residential houses. Before the accident, Pripyat was a populated city, so its housing stock was quite rich. Houses of various heights were built here. Among them are five-, ten- and sixteen-story buildings, on the roofs of which the coats of arms of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR are still preserved. There were two such houses. Five-story buildings are almost completely hidden under the canopy of overgrown trees. Behind thick branches, you can only make out the black holes of window openings without glass. The fact is that during the evacuation, things were thrown from the houses, often without even opening the windows. But high-rise buildings are available for visiting. The roofs of many of them are platforms for a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately, time takes its toll and the buildings are destroyed. Perhaps soon there will be no trace of them
- Azure swimming pool, stadium and sports hall. Now Pripyat is compared to a run-down village where few people once lived. However, this is a real city in which sports were actively developing. Conditions were created for the popularization of physical culture. There were a number of large sports facilities here.
- Secondary School No. 3. The building of an educational institution often becomes the subject of photography. Noteworthy are not only the slogans on the walls, but also the inscriptions on the school boards. Here people who once lived in Pripyat leave their contacts to contact fellow countrymen.
- Ferris wheel and amusement park. The authorities of the city called Pripyat planned to launch a new Ferris wheel in May, in honor of Spring and Labor Day. However, in order to divert the attention of the population from the Chernobyl accident, it was launched on April 26, 1986. The huge attraction worked for only one day, and on April 27 it stopped forever.
- Energetik House of Culture. Here was the fighting ring, where training and competitions took place. The stage of this building was advanced in terms of equipment and was considered the largest in Pripyat and nearby settlements. In addition, in the house of culture there were warehouses of various posters and portraits of politicians of the USSR. Some of them are still preserved.
- In 1986, the military lived in the Polesie hotel. By the way, it was difficult to get here just like that - you had to present a document stating that a personreally sent to Pripyat for a while and he has nowhere to live.
