Participants in the liquidation of the consequences of a catastrophe on a planetary scale appear on the lists of the living. This circumstance can sometimes cause surprise among our compatriots, uncomfortable feelings - among officials, and sometimes bitter irony - among the participants in those tragic events of 1986.

[see_also ids\u003d"

“Surviving is not the best option”.

Recently, in the network community of one of the district centers, among the announcements of the search for a smart electrician, a dog hairdresser and a human manicurist, there was a topic about perpetuating the memory of heroes.

The author of the public post was surprised that while in Kharkiv, on the website of the City Hall, they offered to place billboards with photos and names of Kharkiv residents who died defending Ukraine, the local council decided to hang a stand with liquidators of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.

“I can even imagine… how those who do not follow the situation in the City Council… see that they are putting up a stand and think: oh, they pay tribute to our soldiers, well done… But, it turns out, this is for Chernobyl. ))) The question is more relevant) As for me, it would be better if they made a stand with warriors, and added inscriptions after the fact. Personally, I see it as " And let's remember the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which was 30 years ago.

Among the comments there was such:! It would be better if the asphalt was broken down the streets of the city"

“I’m calling you: I’m still alive, wanting to live is not the shortest option,” one of the users answered lonely.

On this, in fact, the memorial theme gave way to announcements: “I want to buy a couple of cars of black soil”, “I will sell a calf and three caps” and other pressing issues.

[see_also ids\u003d"

With a rag and PVA glue against radiation.

“These are Chernobyl victims, they are always dissatisfied with something. Live and live. It seems that there are even more of them,” ironically sculptor Sergei Yastrebov, the author of the monument to “Chernobyl victims” in Kharkov.

Yes, after the fact, the lists, as a rule, turn out to be a much larger number of participants than they actually were.. However, this does not exclude or devalue the feat of real participants, both those who no longer exist, and those who survived, and are now living..

On April 26, 1986, Sergey Yastrebov defended his project for decorating the facade of the Kharkov Opera and Ballet Theater at the expanded urban planning council in Kyiv. According to the sculptor, this event for a young specialist "

At the end of May, Sergei Yastrebov received a summons from the military commissariat. “With your documents, even the Minister of Defense will not get you off,” friends told him.. So the sculptor ended up at the location of the military unit as the head of communications of a separate intelligence battalion. His combat missions included the decontamination of the engine room of the third block, separated from the infamous fourth by a freshly erected partition.

There was one turbine hall for all four blocks. Also, there was a decontamination of the premises and equipment of the laboratory for ventilation of heat and cold of the second block, simply - the attic of the building. The heat exchanger grilles went directly to the third and the emergency fourth blocks combined with it at a height of about 40 meters. The first and second blocks continued to work during the explosion and fire, and later, apparently, too, so the air heat exchangers accumulated a lot of radioactive soot, since powerful fans worked there for suction.

Decontamination in civil language is washing with rags with ordinary household washing powder: a handful of powder on a bucket of water. This procedure also included spreading PVA glue on vertical concrete surfaces and peeling off the film after drying, and so on several times in a row. Smeared and peeled off - washing porous surfaces with water gave a small decrease in the level of radiation, and the dried glue was removed with particles of contaminated concrete.

After completing the service, there were diagnoses and hospitals. From one, according to Sergei Yastrebov, they were not released for a year and a half, and then they were sent to a special sanatorium for six months. Health consequences - for life.

“All this happened in another country. Today's officials can generally say - we did not send you there, ”Sergey Yastrebov thinks aloud.

Legal points.

What's going on today? Another liquidator, a member of the Kharkov initiative group Volodymyr Biloenko, tells about this: “We fulfilled our constitutional duty, government tasks to eliminate the consequences of the Chernbyl disaster, as it sounds legally correct. It is the legal aspects that we do not like in the current law of 1991 with all the changes in it.. We consider the law unfair, discriminatory. But they don't want to fix it.. We are not recognized as veterans. There are veterans of labor, police, military service. Moreover, there are war veterans, and they are among the participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernbyl disaster.. But only on the basis of the body that sent them there. That is, those who fought with the " The first - war veterans, persons with disabilities due to the war. The second - exclusively the status of participants in the liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster. They receive the status of war veterans in rare cases by a court decision and as an exception, if they were able to prove that they were directly involved in the liquidation of the Chernbyl disaster as part of non-military civil defense units.

Moreover, both military and civilian liquidators without disabilities are not classified as war veterans at all.. Although, according to the logic of the veterans' law, they should have the status of war veterans - participants in hostilities. Such an attitude towards citizens who, in one place, under the same conditions, risking their health and life, fulfilled their constitutional duty to Ukraine, just like military personnel, is extremely discriminatory.. When amending the law on veterans, for some reason they were forgotten. But there is an excellent reason and an example of how to fix this - today the legislator has put both a soldier and a non-military volunteer on the same footing, and recognizes them as war veterans..

[related_material id\u003d"

On April 24, an online conference was held on the topic "

The participants of the round table, organized by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on social policy and protection of veterans' rights, were invited to speak within the framework of the regulations.

“Some soulless people are sitting there, inhuman,” Vladimir laments.. - For show, what is called. In the same scenario as the year before.”.

According to Vladimir, the initiative group was created in 2015. Activists proposed more fair draft amendments and changes to the law, which, in their opinion, could solve all problematic issues.

In particular, to single out the participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernbyl disaster - citizens who were directly involved in the liquidation of the accident and its consequences - by means of a legally clear definition of the status at the legislative level. On the issue of recalculating pensions, activists insist that it is not about money, but only about justice..

According to the initiative group, the calculation of pensions should be fundamentally different, namely: the basic indicator of pension provision should be the same for all citizens who have the same status " And then, activists believe, pensions will be awarded not on different conditions, and not on the principle of creating so-called "

" Power changes, but everything remains the same. They promise, they promise, but in reality they do nothing,” sums up Vladimir.

Unfortunately, human gratitude has its limits, blurred over time.. The boundaries beyond which one can detect the consequences of the short memory of society with all these “there is nothing to do here”, “it would be better if asphalt”, “we didn’t send you there”. Somewhere - some irritation, somewhere - even outright envy of the size of the pension and some other benefits. Today they forget about yesterday's heroic deeds of compatriots. Tomorrow they will forget about others, today. On what then to build the future? Not with asphalt and black soil, one seems to be alive.

[votes id\u003d"