USSR

Chernobyl, Nikolay and the others

On 26 April 1986, the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred in Chernobyl, devastating the lives of millions of people living in Western Russia and the Ukraine as well as contaminating large parts of Europe.
Nikolai was working in Chernobyl as officer in command of the battalion 32207. He was a podpolkovnik. The task of his battalion was to provide first aid in the event of an accident at the nuclear plant.
Early that morning, the 20 scientists on duty ran a safety test in the Reactor No. 4 of the power plant of Chernobyl in the north of Ukraine, just 106 km from Kiev. When something went wrong the biggest ecological disaster was about to start. What happened is History, more or less contaminated too.
It?s thought that almost 800000 people worked in the clean-up after the accident, although only 284,000 are registered as veterans of Chernobyl. It?s impossible to establish an accurate figure. In a totalitarian regime that routinely classified practically everything and everyone the exact number of those who came to clean up Chernobyl is unknown because no records had been kept ? in fact, there are no official lists of people who were sent or simply worked in Chernobyl.
During the interview with Nikolai, he told me that on the third day after the accident, 350 men were put under his command to form the battalion 50937 of the civil defence. He claimed that 350 men were assigned to him, but none of them were officially listed. (He possesses the documents to back up his claim).
?The people who formed my battalion weren?t officially there. They weren?t on a payroll or anything similar. They were in fact, Smertniki, people sent to die.
Many questions remain unresolved: Why weren?t all those men officially listed? Why did it take Nikolai, who was a high-ranking officer, 17 years to prove he was there? And what really happened in those days?
The documentary would give a first-hand account of somebody who was there ? his thoughts and recollection of those dramatic days as well as his harrowing 20-year battle for recognition with the Ukrainian government. The documentary aims to give a voice and recognition to the forgotten heroes of the 20th century ? people like Nikolai ? whose courage and determination saved Europe from a nuclear holocaust.
Rather than focus on the actual disaster of Chernobyl and its environmental consequences, the three-part documentary will narrate the story of the ghost battalion 50937.
The Chernobyl accident will function as a background to explore the feelings and the memories of a collective drama that involved millions of people, yet still remains a mystery to the outside world. However, it?s my belief that any attempt to narrate a true account of those days is impossible as the Ukrainian government is slowly coming out of a decade of fake democracy and corruption at every level. Because of the bureaucratic culture that allowed the cover-ups and censorship in the coverage of Chernobyl in the Soviet media, there is still a lot of secrecy about the area.
Nikolai, in fact, is not only fighting for recognition but mainly, and understandably, for a better pension. The Eastern European approach to life is much more practical ? it became clear to me that none of the people who still live in Kiev and have been to Chernobyl are fighting for a better place in history but rather because recognition would automatically mean a better pension.
For all of the veterans, it?s a traumatic experience to remember and they are all very ill with various forms of cancer (thyroid the most common, but also testicle cancer) and many also suffer from respiratory and heart complications. The documentary should be made as soon as possible because of deteriorating health conditions of many of the potential interviewees and their need for medicines. On 26 April 1986, the worst nuclear disaster in history occurred in Chernobyl, devastating the lives of millions of people living in W... more

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