Students and employees visited the National Museum “Chornobyl”

21.4.2023

On April 20, students and employees of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University visited the Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum in Kyiv at the invitation of the Lubny City Public Organization of disabled people “Chornobyl Veterans”.

This event was held on the 37th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, which occurred on April 26, 1986, in order to perpetuate the memory of the liquidation of the consequences of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant and patriotic education of the younger generation.

This tragedy was catastrophic for the entire Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). The destruction was explosive, the reactor was completely destroyed, and a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment. The accident is considered the largest of its kind in the entire history of nuclear energy, both in terms of the number of people killed and injured as a result of its consequences, and in terms of economic damage.

Everyone was warmly welcomed in the museum and tour guide Iryna Masliuk started an educational tour. Those present learned that the National Museum “Chornobyl” was opened on April 26, 1992, the opening was created before the fifth anniversary of the accident. The museum has collected more than 7,000 exhibits that tell about the events of that devastating date. These include photographs of the deceased liquidators, documents classified at the time, and even belongings of the deceased liquidators and ordinary people who were subsequently evacuated from the city.

The museum is equipped in the theme of the disaster, in the form of a so-called exclusion zone. At the entrance to the museum, visitors were greeted by the slogan: “Est dolendi modus, non est timendi”, which in Latin means “There is a limit to sadness, but there is no limit to anxiety”. Overhead they saw signs with the names of 76 towns and villages that were evacuated and ceased their activities and existence as a result of the accident. On the steps to the museum hall, visitors were greeted by an uprooted apple tree – a symbol of the biblical tree of life.

“Chornobyl road” led to the first hall, where the iconostasis was waiting for everyone. Under the cover of the iconostasis, instead of a font, a Polish boat swayed – a symbol of Noah’s ark, and in it children’s toys left by museum visitors. Next to the iconostasis stood 3 figures of liquidators in protective suits and respirators. Above the iconostasis, two angels spread their wings: white and black, good and evil. Under the wings of a white angel, as if under his protection – portraits of children born after the disaster, on the wings of a black one – photos from recent history of the last 70 years. The ceiling of the hall is made in the form of a symbolic map of the world, on which nuclear power plants located on all continents of the Earth flash with alarming lights. On the walls of the hall is an exhibition of social posters dedicated to nuclear issues.

Video and audio materials about the causes and consequences of the accident, the model of the power plant unit, which is in working condition, were presented to the attention. Also, in the exposition of the National Chornobyl Museum, an electronic book of memory is presented, which helps anyone to get information about the liquidators-heroes; to find out what tasks they performed to eliminate the accident and what radiation doses they received. The museum also saw reflected episodes of life in the Chornobyl zone after the accident, reflecting human destinies in which feats and pain, courage and tears were intertwined. In addition, part of the museum exposition tells about how other countries of the world helped and supported Ukraine.

The tour guide emphasized that the mission of the museum is to help humanity realize the scale of the disaster through the fate of thousands of people – its participants, witnesses and victims, to force people to recognize the need for reconciliation between man, science and technology, which put the existence of human civilization and the planet Earth itself under a concrete threat, to understand the lessons of tragedy in all spheres of life and prevent the world from forgetting these lessons, become a warning to the generations of the new millennium.

University students and teachers noted the unusualness, the power of emotional impact and the philosophical content of the exhibition, which they left their impressions in the Book of Reviews of the National Museum “Chornobyl”.

The most impressive was the three-phase diorama in action “Chornobyl Plant before, during and after the accident”, which shows the explosion that destroyed the nuclear plant and the process of liquidation of its consequences, and the model of the Chornobyl NPP power unit in action, which expanded the chronological and thematic boundaries of the museum to those present, strengthened the veracity of the exposition.

The Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum was created in order to rethink and understand the causes and consequences of this greatest problem in the history of mankind. Museum expositions will not leave anyone indifferent, strong emotions are guaranteed.

The students and employees of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University are sincerely grateful for an interesting and informative trip to the administration museum and the university’s trade union organization.