The Chernobyl disaster struck 39 years ago on April 26, 1986. Though it happened in
#Ukraine, its devastating impact reached deep into
#Belarus, contaminating land and poisoning our population.
A passage from Sviatlana Alexievich captures the haunting loss:
"The sparrows disappeared from our town in the first year after the accident. They were lying around everywhere – in the yards, on the asphalt. They’d be raked up and taken away in the containers with the leaves. They didn’t let people burn the leaves that year, because they were radioactive, so they buried the leaves.
The sparrows came back two years later. We were so happy, we were calling to each other: “I saw a sparrow yesterday! They’re back.”
The May bugs also disappeared, and they haven’t come back. Maybe they’ll come back in a hundred years or a thousand. That’s what our teacher says. I won’t see them."