Twenty years ago...

...nothing happened in Chernobyl. At least nothing that anyone would see fit to tell us.

Two or three days later, there was a two- or three-line article in the newspaper Sovetskaya Rossiya to which we subscribed due to the constant shortages of toilet paper. It said that there was a small accident in the Chernobyl power plant. My parents took one look at it and said that the accident must have been huge, and that they would appreciate if I don't spend more time outside than necessary during the upcoming long weekend. I balked at that because it seemed ridiculous due to the distances involved, but my parents sounded like they meant business. On my way from school I checked out all the newspaper stands, realized that not only all the newspapers of the western communist parties disappeared, as was normal after every big event, but even the newspapers of the communist countries were nowhere to be seen. "Bugger," - I thought, - "My parents must be on to something."

It was a beautiful weekend, nice weather, and all the 1st of May demonstrations proceeded as planned, in Kiev as well as everywhere else. (Demonstrations were normally organized by promising people a day off work is they showed up.) Nobody said that anything was wrong anywhere. Can't fuck up the 1st of May, you see. I spent the weekend at my place and those of my friends, drinking and partying inside.

The shit hit the public fan on the 2d or the 3d. Suddenly the newspapers and the TV were full of the news of a huge accident in Chernobyl the week before. The mayor of Kiev advised all pregnant women, especially ones who have been outside during the 1st of May, to have an abortions. The rest is history.

Aside from history: people who worked in healthcare told stories of people from Ukraine being brought with the symptoms of radiation sickness and later being issued death certificates that said "heart attack". An acquaintance from Lithuania got called up for reserve duty, and when the reservists showed up their call-up letters were taken away and they were ordered to sign volunteer papers (if something happens to a called-up reservist the army has to pay; if something happens to a volunteer, it doesn't). Said acquaintance volunteered a pig in order to avoid volunteering for Chernobyl. And Geiger counters suddenly became very, very forbidden devices.