The calendar shows April 26, 1986. It is Lazarus Saturday and in Greece we were preparing for Easter as we entered Holy Week. Carefree days, especially for students, who had all their free time for endless play, in the heart of spring. And because 80s, the neighborhoods were not only the prerogative of the countryside, but also of the urban centers, the children from the early morning poured into the streets, until late at night.
The dawn of the same day, many kilometers away from Greece, and specifically in the town Pripyat, in the present-day territories of Ukraine (then the Soviet Union), was a fairly warm spring night. Tranquility prevailed in this peaceful area and nothing foretold the nightmare that would follow… At the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant Chernobyl a test was planned to test the security systems. A deafening sound heard from Reactor No. 4 is the beginning of the biggest nightmare where humanity lived, after Hiroshima.
The explosion of the reactor of Chernobyl is, according to the United Nations, "the greatest environmental disaster in human history." And as Greenpeace typically reports, the radioactive isotopes released into the atmosphere show that 30 years later the disaster continues. After all, the amount of radioactivity released into the atmosphere is almost 200 times greater than the amount of radioactivity released by the two atomic bombs of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined.
It has been 33 years since the accident and the new HBO series "Chernobyl" comes to shed light on the causes of this, but also to show how the then Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev worked in the face of nuclear catastrophe.
Chernobyl, Chernobyl or Chernobyl, as mentioned in the new masterpiece series, does not matter. Those who lived during that period have to remember the scenes of panic and the fear that followed the accident. They have to tell how we dealt with Chernobyl in Greece and how we managed to split even in such a serious issue for our health, which came threateningly from abroad.
Especially, we children of the 80's have to remember our parents' "no", prohibitions, hysteria and terror. That Easter of '86, but also the summer of the same year have remained indelibly in the memory of our childhood minds. It was for many the first time they felt what it is like to have abundant wealth of the earth next to you and not be able to reach out. They felt for the first time the fear in front of an unknown enemy, radioactivity. Really, how many times did we not even hear that word for years to come? Radioactivity...
The news that changed our lives
The nuclear accident took place in the early hours of Saturday. The diary was written on April 26, 1986. According to the distinguished British journalist Adam Higginbotham in his book "Midnight in Chernobyl", at that time the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the largest in the world. Union. The eruption also released a radioactive cloud that, according to some estimates, spread to almost the entire northern hemisphere of the Earth, from then-Czechoslovakia to Japan. According to him, the immediate causes were design failures, but also a series of human errors, which were made in a few scary minutes.
In fact, according to the British journalist, when it was noticed the extent of the disaster, the Soviet authorities demanded "patriotic sacrifice" and secrecy. It took 32 hours to finally order the evacuation of the city of Pripyat, which in the meantime had been "bombarded" by radioactive isotopes. As for the official announcement of Moscow about the accident? It took 48 hours after the explosion to make an announcement while a radioactive cloud covered Europe. Mikhail Gorbachev, however, commented on the incident on May 14, three weeks later.
In Greece, the news of the accident also arrived a few days late. The news was broadcast to the Greeks by the nightly bulletin of ERT, on Tuesday night, which included images from the official briefing made by the representative of the Soviet Union. The news was first in the bulletin, which was uttered by Costas Hountas.
Chernobyl, although located miles away, also affected our country, both radioactively and politically. And the accident was the occasion for a period of political polarization and double reading of its consequences.
On the one hand it was the press that was close to the Right and talked about the catastrophe that came from the Soviet Union and on the other the leftist newspapers that saw the "finger" of the West and no reason to worry about the nuclear cloud that was spreading threateningly. And while the press of the time was split in two, the world especially in the early days was in the dark about the seriousness of the situation. Ignorance in all its glory, which was soon replaced by panic, as always happens in such cases.
How the Greeks dealt with the Chernobyl accident
Queues began to form outside the supermarkets. Although we were not fully aware of the danger and what people should be careful or avoid, the shelves were emptying at a rapid pace, believing that we were at war. Evaporated milks, spaghetti, rice and canned food went crazy. In addition, we were in the days of Easter.
The danger of a nuclear accident began to appear a few days later. From May Day onwards the picture was better shaped, not only in Greece, but also in Europe. It was now clearer at first what people should have avoided for their best protection.
Avriani on its front page stated that there is a serious danger for Greece from the leak of radioactivity at Chernobyl. While the "Acropolis" mentioned on its own front page that in "Greece the vigilance for dangerous radioactivity is intensifying". That Easter was different from the others. It was an Easter of horror.
In the following days, the press tries to shed tones, but people are in a panic. And state television is trying to reassure, relaying Soviet Union reports that radioactivity has dropped "40 times so far."
But panic reigns in the world. And it is not just a Greek phenomenon. In Europe there is the same reaction from the citizens, rushing to the supermarkets and emptying the shelves with dry food, but also long-lasting products. Fresh milk, vegetables, fruits and meat are the victims of the case, as people are afraid to buy them. Their sales drop dramatically when a box is killed at the same time as evaporators.
And somehow, we entered a strange period, full of fear, bans, changes in our daily lives (especially of children), new words, many "no's", but also with real health risks.
If you were a child in the Chernobyl era you will remember:
They would not let you play outside in the rain.
You could not eat strawberries
The fruits that as a child you just wiped on your dirty blouse and then ate, then had to be washed very well.
If your parents were not so relaxed, you would not even eat fruit.
For that summer you had forgotten the vegetables (the stuffed ones were the big loss).
They would not let you drink fresh milk. (I remember my grandmother pouring goat's milk).
They would not let you eat eggs from the village as the hens may have eaten infected grass.
You could not eat meat for a long time.
You did not eat fish.
School trips were banned.
If you lived in a village the prohibitions were even more painful, since the contact and the game where there was grass were not allowed.
Remember the evaporative boxes in the warehouse.
You drank water and you had anxiety if it was contaminated. It goes without saying that water from a river or the village fountain was not allowed.
The effects of Chernobyl in Greece
The harmful effects of Chernobyl were not long in coming. Besides, part of the radioactive cloud arrived in our country after a few days, affecting mainly Northern Greece and Thessaly, where years later higher levels of radioactivity were detected.
It is estimated that 2.500 first trimester abortions were performed during that period, as there was a strong fear of the possible effects of radioactivity on the fetus. Although as mentioned in a study by Dimitris Trichopoulos on teratogenesis, which have been recorded throughout Europe, there are no statistics in Greece.
There is, however, for childhood leukemia, where according to a study it increased. Also, medical circles attribute 1500 cases of cancer (in the decade 1986-1996) to possible effects of Chernobyl, as they were not justified by the patient's history.