How Chernobyl Residents Turned Into IDPs | Beyond East and West

07 February 2020 19:01

Pripyat residents Iryna and Serhiy married on the day of the Chernobyl accident–on April 26, 1986. The local authorities decided that everything should go according to plan as if nothing had happened. The following day the evacuation began. In total, 97,000 people were taken out of the infected area.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Pripyat, which housed almost 50,000 people prior to the disaster in 1986. Now it is one of the most famous ghost cities in the world.

Pripyat residents Iryna and Serhiy married on the day of the Chernobyl accident – on April 26, 1986. The local authorities decided that everything should go according to plan as if nothing had happened. The following day the evacuation began. In total, 97,000 people were taken out of the infected area.

Find out how the Chernobyl IDPs were actually welcomed and received at the hospitals immediately after the accident and months later.

"How Chernobyl Residents Turned Into IDPs" is the latest in Hromadske's English-language series "Beyond East and West" in partnership with LSE Arena, a programme based at the Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics and Political Science.

"Beyond East and West" is a research project exploring Ukrainians’ connection to and understanding of their nation’s history. As part of this project we are producing a series of videos on history and analysing the response of audiences across Ukraine.