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The exhibition “Chernobyl Alarm” dedicated to the 33rd anniversary of Chernobyl accident

On 26 April, 2019, the exhibition “Chernobyl Accident”, dedicated to the 33^rd anniversary of Chernobyl accident began its work in the Regional Art Museum.

You can often hear, especially from young people, “Why do you talk about this Chernobyl again? We are tired of this!”. Once again such questions demonstrate the extent of misunderstanding and ignorance from the part of society (possibly larger), which, having lost the elementary instincts of self-preservation, figuratively speaking, they bite the hand that feeds them, accelerating its inevitable death. For some reason, the false notion that Chornobyl is only history, and even the already non-existent Soviet Union, has emerged, though the latter thing is also debatable. Unfortunately, the Chornobyl catastrophe persists to this day and reminds us daily of the many problems that often have roots in the tragic of April, 1986, that lika a war, divided our lives before and after Chornobyl accident. Moreover, the magnitude of this tragedy is so catastrophic and the consequences are so terrifying, all-encompassing and long-lasting that we all can be considered as Chernobyl survivors, both now and in the future. Although, it is clear that first and foremost we call so immediate liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, again not realizing what they have done for us, their act of heroism and the level of sacrifice. Among these heroes, 20,000 representatives of our Steppe Hellas are firefighters, soldiers, doctors, law enforcement officers, employees of other various civilian professions, in fact, suicide bombers, who were the first to take the blow of the "peaceful atom", thus saving humanity from the inevitable death. Hard work and the dangers of the test lay on their shoulders. But none of them showed cowardice and cowardice and acted as the order and circumstances required. The ranks of these wonderful and very humble people are relentless. Many are gone in this world. Others, while struggling with grievous ailments, continue their difficult service, making others worthy of imitation of honest service to their people.

The exhibition features Leontii Orlyk's painting "The Guardian" (1985), written a year before the tragedy and dedicated to the representatives of the heroic profession - firefighters, whose contribution to the elimination of the consequences at the Chornobyl NPP is difficult to overestimate. Well, what could happen to our planet if these people were not exploited, the picture of Mykola Bondarenko's "Chornobyl Tragedy" (1994) clearly demonstrates. Not only is this an illustration of the worst-case scenario at the time, but also perhaps our future, if humanity does not recover and draw the appropriate conclusions. A warning can also be considered the work of Volodymyr Chernyi (The Face of Chernobyl) (2008), which is part of the series "Ukrainian Tragedies". The artist was able to convey not only the enormous devastating effects of the Chornobyl disaster, but also the atmosphere prevailing at the time, creating an association with the war zone - traces of destruction, as if after a fierce battle, people in overalls, appropriate equipment, transport involved in the liquidation consequences of the accident and removal of people from the contaminated area. The tragedy of the situation is exacerbated in this case by the general dark background of the picture, made in the original tunic "monotype". Indeed, the statistics of the Chornobyl catastrophe really resemble military statistics because more than three and a half million people, including one and a half million children, are victims of it. Someone immediately died, without even realizing what had happened, others died for a long time in terrible physical and mental anguish, many people were left permanently crippled, disabled, terminally ill, feeling hurt and in no need. The constant and frightening trend is the increase in the number of thyroid diseases, cancer, the number of people suffering from allergies, which is a consequence of the weakened immune system, is constantly increasing. At one time, the whole world was shocked by the results of studies by Japanese scientists who, by irradiating pigs, proved that every new generation born after Chernobyl would be sicker than the previous one, thus outlining the rather bleak prospects for humanity.

The great damage was done to the Ukrainian flora and fauna. In the north of Ukraine alone, more than fifty thousand square kilometers of land was contaminated with radiation, resulting in massive deaths of coniferous plants, microorganisms living in the soil, mammals, loss of plants and animals from reproductive function, especially in the area of elevation. 30 km from the Chernobyl NPP, irreversible mutation processes spread, which led to the emergence of hybrid animals and plants.
The painting of the artist Volodymyr Tovkailo (1966), "Woman in Red" (1990), which once again makes us think about our perspectives, is a peculiar reflection of the problem of the influence of mutational processes on humans.

Chornobyl has also become a major economic, social and demographic disaster, as more than three hundred and fifty thousand people, whose lion's share of the population has been displaced, have been displaced from the hardest hit areas the agony of the Soviet Union was "overboard." It was then, for the first time in many years, that such an urgent problem of migrants and their difficult relations with the local population arose because of competition for jobs, housing, etc. The devastating consequences of Chornobyl have been manifested even in the change in the structure of the affected areas. After all, the elderly, as a rule, refused to evacuate, preferring to die in their home before rescuing in unknown places. Mostly young people, skilled workers and people with a propensity for entrepreneurship, ie those who had a job prospect in the new city, left. Therefore, the characteristic feature of the affected regions is still the excess of mortality over the number of births, which only increases the perception of the region as dangerous for living. By the way, it was at that time that many of us first heard such a popular term today, the Depressive Region, eloquently illustrated in the painting by Volodymyr Plitin, "And the fall of the star of Pauline" (2006). It reflects not only the dire environmental consequences of the Chornobyl disaster, but also the doom of the people who stayed in their homes, abandoning the resettlement.

Unfortunately, once again it is necessary to state that the tragic events of 33 years ago, their horrible consequences and prospects are a completely natural phenomenon and a shameful result of the long-term war of people against nature with the aim of actually turning it into a slave, who will carry out all the ramblings nature. Technological progress has finally clouded the minds of people who have felt the illusion of their invincibility and impunity. As a consequence, nature, which was once a cradle, a home and a nourisher, has become, after all, its ruthless enemy, avenging large-scale environmental cataclysms, why is it even dedicated to a series of documentaries on Mega Channel with the eloquent title, "Revenge of Nature." All that remains is to pray to God that he restore the dull instincts of self-preservation in man and give an understanding of the futility of war with nature. Only by learning to live with it in harmony will humanity have a chance for the future.

Oleg Yurchenko,
the head of tourism, 
local lore and information work department
of Kirovograd Regional Art Museum