The days we are going through are difficult. There is not the slightest doubt about that. And they become even more difficult, especially in the psychological part, knowing all of us that the coming week will be completely different from what we have experienced so far.
Easter in the house and lamb in the oven instead of spit it is not something that the Greek is used to. Not even the small festive tables of the few people.
Easter wants a three-course feast. Not this year, though. Now "staying home" is paramount to tackling its pandemic coronavirus.
The fire that broke out a few days ago near Chernobyl, however, it reminded us of another story.
What is happening to us now could have happened another year. Many may not know it but Easter 1986 could be perhaps worse than what we are preparing to spend.
Whether this did not happen was because of his government Andrea Papandreou made a decision that involved an extremely high risk in order not to disturb the festive atmosphere.
The monster of radioactivity that had been released after the tragic accident at Chernobyl was heading to Greece. Experts warned that many countries had taken strict measures to protect citizens from what they then called a "deadly cloud".
The… time coincidence, however, created different data in our country.
It seems that the then prime minister, in addition to the "baths of the people", also wanted to protect the "Easter of the people"!
It is Saturday, April 26, 1986. Saturday of Lazarus. The Greeks have already started the preparations for Holy Week but also for how they will celebrate Easter. Early in the morning, however, a test on reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, "B.I. Lenin ", leads to absolute destruction as the tests performed by the technicians led to a nuclear explosion!
Given the Cold War political conditions prevailing in Europe at the time, the USSR chooses to hide the accident. A few days later, however, Scandinavian laboratories "catch" a significant increase in radioactivity in the air. The measurements "point" to Ukraine and European scientists "freeze" knowing what is there. In the end, they do not fall out.
After strong international pressures the Soviet Union admits there was a small accident at a reactor but there is no cause for concern. This claim is unbelievable and the more scientists detect large amounts of radioactivity in the air, the greater the fear. Governments are informed and begin to take measures to protect citizens (timidly at first, more intensively afterwards) because no one can know when the radioactive cloud will cross its own borders.
Greeks learn a few things in excerpts on Holy Monday and mainly from the front pages of the newspapers on Holy Tuesday. And then, however, the information is incomplete.
While in reality no one can know the consequences of his government PASOK asks scientists to be careful not to cause panic. It is said, in fact, that when a scientist of Democritus reacted and asked the people to be informed about the dangers, he was fired!
Everyone was getting ready for the big Easter outing and nothing could stop this. The laconic government statements provoke the reaction of the opposition, which finds the opportunity to say that PASOK "protects the USSR", while the KKE enters the game, which through Rizospastis speaks of an "anti-Soviet cloud" that has covered Europe!
Η Hellenic Atomic Energy Committee issued a reassuring statement on May 3: "the radioactive cloud has not reached Greece, but even if the meteorological conditions favor the transport of waste to the country, no significant increase in radioactivity is expected because the cloud will have weakened." Keep the date…
Essentially the first measures of the government come right after the end and the return of the excursionists from the province! Then, from Tuesday 6 May, the first restrictions (in the form of a recommendation) on the consumption of dairy and fruit and vegetable products are introduced.
That was enough. There is panic and the supermarket shelves are empty.
In fact, the radioactive cloud had entered Greece from our northern border, in the early hours of the next Easter, a few hours after the traditional skewering of the spear. According to the scientists, it even took about 24 hours to cover the whole country.
The former rector of NTUA, Simos Simopoulos, years later, he had revealed that after many years of research it was found that the high radioactivity in areas mainly of Northern Greece, was due to the rainfall of that period. The radiation passed to the ground, but also to those who were exposed to the rain.
"People were out in the open. It was raining at that time. They believed in the assurances of the Greek government and the Hellenic Atomic Energy Commission, they were without a protective measure in free spaces and thus they accepted large percentages radioactivity", Said the distinguished scientist.
Indicative of the situation that prevailed in those critical days is the story that follows Christos Sotirakopoulos.
The then 23-year-old journalist was her envoy ERT in the final of the Cup Winners' Cup in Lyon, where Dynamo Kyiv would face Atletico Madrid (for the record, the match ended 3-0 in favor of Ukrainians).
It was the only final that took place on Friday instead of Wednesday and state television showed it on video at noon on Holy Saturday so as not to disturb the religious sentiment of the faithful.
In his book "Game without limits" the well-known journalist describes what he said and was not broadcast:
"The match was held at the same time as the procession of the Epitaph. It was therefore scheduled to be broadcast on Holy Saturday at noon on videotape. As a naive I started with a prologue to the news! I spoke about the tragic event and referred to the Soviet attempt to cover up the issue. Involuntarily, if the match was live, I would create a mini-government crisis! And I doubt I would ever get out of a TV studio again! The fact that the match was recorded gave the solution! In Agia Paraskevi, the whole part of the prologue was "cut" and the connection with "Zerlan" started with the crossbar!
[…] Returning to Athens, just before the Resurrection, I realized that no one knew anything! The taxi driver, the kiosk, my father, my close friends! Like in the nightmares you run and you are always in the same place, I felt like I was speaking another language. Another 48 hours passed to inform the people what they knew in Europe for days! A true story that even now, every time it comes to my mind, I feel a shiver and a very strange feeling ".