Urban Transformations in Post-Soviet Eurasia

When the atomic bomb drops, day turns into night, people become ghosts. (Sakamoto Hatsumi, 1952)¹

This essay is about a unique town with extraordinary but short and bitter history. I believe that the town is exceptional not just for the whole former Soviet society but perhaps even on the global scale. This town had a short and infamous history; however, it is well known in the world of nuclear scientists; and now it serves as an attraction for tourists from all over the world. The town I am going to write about is the Soviet atomgrad named Pryp’yat’ (Ukrainian spelling - Прип’ять); which once was a young locality in northern Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Pryp’yat’ was one of many socialist towns of the Soviet Union, inhabitants of which enjoyed a prosperous socialist life. This lasted until the devastating technological disaster of the April 26, 1986, which had a catastrophic impact on the course of the town’s history. Nonetheless, this event also brought Pryp’yat’ its global fame.

The essay will be divided into three main but short sections: the first part of my work will be devoted to the founding of the town in 1970 and its subsequent development; the second section will be about the impact of the 1986 Chornobyl catastrophe on Pryp’pyat’ and its population. The third part will be about the post-catastrophe period when the entire town’s made a try to move into a new place, a town of Slavutych; about the post-Soviet period of Pryp’yat’, which eventually became a ghost town, and an attraction for tourists and so-called stalkers. In my work, I am going to utilize primary and secondary sources of different historical periods in three languages: English, Ukrainian, and Russian. In my essay, I will apply visual materials about the town from my personal photo archive, as well as from magazine articles and online sources.

Thus my essay will be devoted to the unique monotown of Pryp’yat’, to its short lifetime. How once the blossoming standardized socialist locality turned into a ghost town and attraction for tourists and scientists from all over the world. Nonetheless, I believe that my work might be interesting for a broad global audience because it may simply be unfamiliar with the town and its history.

Planning, Construction, and Blossoming of the Atomograd Pryp’yat’

A locality of Pryp’yat’ was founded on February 4, 1970,² as a future place of residence for employees of a new, one of the largest nuclear power plants in Europe, known to the world under the name of Chornobyl, which Soviet authorities began to build simultaneously with the settlement. Yes, it is not a mistake -- from its founding, Pryp’yat’ was just a settlement for the nuclear power plant builders. Only a decade later status of a town was granted to Pryp’yat’ by authorities of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic³, thus further in the essay, I am to call Pryp’yat’ a town, just for convenience.

Source: Припять – город призрак.

Geographically, the town is located in the north of the Kyiv region of then-time Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, now independent Ukraine. Pryp’yat’ stands only about 100 kilometers from the capital city of contemporary Ukraine, Kyiv, and just a few kilometers from the border with Belarus. The reason for the town construction precisely on the spot was logical as the site already had convenient railway and waterway connections. The town actually was named after a local hydronym – the river Pryp’yat’ and became the ninth atomograd (atomograd - a town-satellite for only one large enterprise, a nuclear power plant) in the Soviet Union.

Source: Припять – город призрак.

However, an important question arises about the town’s founding: who and why came up with an idea to construct a huge nuclear power plant just a hundred kilometres away from a major urban centre with a population of about three million people?

Nonetheless, all aspects of the town design, including its location, number of dwellers and further development of the town, were planned from scratch by Research Institute Gidroproekt under control of the General Directorate of Research and Design Organizations of the Soviet Union’s Ministry of Energy and Electrification. The plan was titled “Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant; Housing, Cultural and Domestic Construction; the General Plan of the Settlement”⁴ (hereinafter – The Plan).

According to the Plan, all three stages of the town construction were determined by the construction phases of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. The first phase of the town’s construction had to cover the building of residential houses and recreational facilities for the population of 11,600 people with a living space of 80 thousand square meters; the housing of the first stage was designated for the nuclear power plant construction workers. According to the Plan, at this stage of construction, the rate of living space was determined as 7 square meters per person. The first buildings to erect in Prip’yat’ were dormitory No. 1, canteen No. 1 and the construction management building, and the first street on which houses were located was Druzhby Narodov Street⁵. The construction of the first stage was carried out by improved types of five, nine, and 12-floor panel houses of the frame constructions, but other common buildings were constructed only due to individual projects⁶. According to the Plan, the construction stages were clearly determined and justified. As for any other newly constructed Soviet locality, in construction of Pryp’yat’, the Plan utilized an idea of creating microdistricts or microrayons with clear functional zoning and transportation interchanges. Some scholars even argue that for the first time in the entire Soviet Union, the construction Plan for Pryp’yat’ even provided a network of bike paths in the town.⁷

Source: The truth about Chernobyl? I saw it with my own eyes.

The second stage of the town construction ought to begin in 1980 and was also associated with the commissioning of the nuclear power plant’s additional capacity of 4 million kilowatts.⁸ The second phase of the town’s construction had to cover the building of residential houses and recreational facilities for the population of 17,300 employees with a living space of 130 thousand square meters. The residences of the second stage were mainly designated for the nuclear power plant construction workers but also for service staff of the plant, tallying to about 1,700 people. According to the Plan, at this stage of construction, the rate of living space was determined as nine square meters per person.

The third phase of the town construction was planned to be carried out from 1985 to 1990, simultaneously with the completion of the nuclear power plant construction and its launch at full capacity. The living space norm was determined at the rate of 12 square meters per person at the final stage of construction, and it was envisaged to increase the total population by 18 thousand people and the required housing stock by 214.3 thousand square meters⁹. However, because of the technogenic disaster – the explosion of reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Saturday, April 26, 1986, the development of the town was frozen, and the final countdown of the life cycle of Pryp’yat’ began.

By the date of the disaster, the town’s population was over 49 thousand people; Pryp’yat’ had five microrayons and a quarter with dormitories, one hospital, park zones, fifteen kindergartens, five secondary schools, three indoor swimming pools, two stadiums etc. The 6th microrayon was never completed.¹⁰ On April 26, 1986, the town was covered with heavy radioactive emissions and combustion products from the fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Catastrophe and Eviction of the Pryp’yat’

After the explosion, vast areas of the three neighbouring Soviet Socialist Republics: Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian, were contaminated with radioactive emissions, and of course, the town of Pryp’yat’, the nearest settlement to the nuclear power plant, was probably the first locality to suffer the most devastating impact of the blowout and emissions.

Source: Euronews (April 26, 2016)

On the morning of April 26, 1986, already after the explosion, pupils still went to schools, albeit for the last time in the town. The whole day after the explosion, on April 27, 1986, the Soviet authorities decided to evacuate the entire population of Pryp’yat’. A corresponding announcement about the decision was made through the local radio broadcasting:

“Attention, dear comrades! The City Council of People’s Deputies reports that due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, an unfavourable radiation situation is developing in the city of Pripyat. The necessary measures are being taken by party and Soviet bodies and military units. However, in order to ensure the complete safety of people and, first of all, children, it becomes necessary to temporarily evacuate city residents to the nearest settlements of the Kiev region. For this purpose, buses, accompanied by police officers and representatives of the city executive committee, will be delivered to each residential building today, on April 27, starting at fourteen zero-zero hours. It is recommended to take documents with you, extremely necessary things, and food in the first case. The heads of enterprises and institutions have determined a circle of workers who remain in place to ensure the normal functioning of the city’s enterprises. All residential buildings will be guarded by police officers during the evacuation period. Comrades, while temporarily leaving your home, please do not forget to close the windows, turn off electrical and gas appliances, and turn off the water taps. Please be calm, orderly and orderly during the temporary evacuation.”¹¹

During May 1986, about 116 thousand people from 188 settlements were evacuated from the 30-kilometer exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.¹² The evacuated population was convinced, that they leave their houses temporarily, but it turned out, that the residencies were abandoned forever. The entire area of approximately 2,600 square kilometres around the nuclear power plant has become a restricted area, which is now known to the world as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, or simply the 30 Kilometer Zone. Most of the people were moved to the neighboring and clean districts of the Kyiv region: Zgurovsky, Makarovsky, Vasilkovsky, Yagotinsky and others. As the remaining reactors of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant continued to function, for the employees and their families the Soviet authorities at the end of 1986 began to build a new and the youngest city of Ukraine – Slavutych, just fifty kilometres away from the plant and peoples’ former place of residence. The construction was completed in short time, and the first residents moved into their apartments already in 1987-1988.¹³

Source: https://www.facebook.com/GorodSlavutich

The name of the town of Slavutych was taken from the ancient Ukrainian name of the Dnipro river. The town was planned by thirty-five design institutions from eight Soviet republics; each republic had to supply the construction site with labour and raw materials. Slavutych was divided into quarters named after each capital of the republics involved in their construction; thus, each quarter inherited national flavour of the involved republics. As for now, the town is divided into thirteen quarters: Baku, Belgorod, Kyiv, Moscow, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Vilnius, Yerevan, Dobryn, Nevsky, Pechersk, and Chernihiv, each has its own special architecture and style. For example, the traditional Georgian crosses can be found in the Tbilisi quarter; the architecture style of the Yerevan quarter is a precise replica of the pink houses in Armenia, the Baku quarter is decorated with a barbecue in the middle of the courtyards; the area of ​​ Slavutych is 7.5 squire kilometres and it is often called the last monument to the Soviet Union.¹⁴

Pryp’yat’ - A Ghost Town That Attracts Millions

A story of the inhabited town of Pryp’yat’ ended with the explosion of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, at the same time, a story of a ghost town Pryp’yat’ began and will go on. People had never populated the town again after the urgent evacuation. But wilderness became a ruler of the area; vegetation grows abundantly and unhindered throughout the city, wild animals dominate the forests of the Zone and the abandoned buildings of the town of Pryp’yat’ and other localities.

Source: Flickr.com, June 8, 2007

However, people did not vanish completely from the town; they have been visiting Pryp’yat’ for different purposes: as tourists, as journalists, scientists, as extreme adventurers, who call themselves stalkers after a character of Andrey Tarkovski’s 1979 Soviet science fiction movie based on the novel by Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic. In this movie, a stalker is a person who searches for mysterious and alien artifacts in the restricted area called the Zone.

The town became a worldwide known spot and attraction for many tourists of different backgrounds. It seems that every youngster on the planet knows about Pryp’yat’ through videogames, where the architecture town is replicated in precise details; due to popular music¹⁵ and contemporary movies. Thousands of tourists from all over the world visit Pryp’yat’ and the Chornobyl Zone every year. From 2015 to 2018, the number of visitors increased from 8,000 to 70,000, and half of them are foreigners. For eight months of 2019, the Exclusion Zone was visited by a record number of tourists – 74,671 people.¹⁶

Source: Alex Yemelianenko

Once, I also visited the town, even before it became mainstream to-go place. In 2011 with a group of Belarusian journalists, we drove around the entire Zone, including the Belarusian part of the area, where I was surprised to see booming land cultivation, wheat fields and herds of cows only 50 kilometres away from the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. At that moment, I caught myself thinking that it is not surprising that there is an increasing number of oncological diseases across Belarus. Nonetheless, I still remember my own feelings and thoughts when we were driving and walking around empty streets and abandoned buildings of Pryp’yat’. I do remember that feeling of helplessness, and the fact that I was not able to get rid of the oppressive state of mind, that at the moment I was staying at the edge of the abyss where mankind could disappear forever; I was also comparing my feelings when I saw the ancient pyramids in Egypt with those that I experienced in Pryp’yat’. The feelings and emotions were extremely opposite: in Egypt, they were positive and exciting, while in Pryp’yat’ emotions were horrifying and disgusting. But, nonetheless, I definitely recommend visiting this place; and not only in order to see what could happen with the deserted town, but also in order to feel the full depth of misbehaviour with the Mother Nature and nuclear energy.

Source: Alex Yemelianenko

Conclusion

In this essay I made an attempt to examine the history of a unique socialist atomograd Pryp’yat’. The town with an exceptional history, which had a short but bright story. We found out, that Pryp’yat’ is well known across the world and now serves as an attraction for tourists. Pryp’yat’ was one of many socialist towns of the USSR, with a clear Soviet-style urban design, inhabitants of which enjoyed a prosperous socialist life. This essay also analyzes an impact of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant explosion on the town’s further development.

Source: Alex Yemelianenko

The essay is divided into three subtopics: the first part is about foundation of the town in 1970 and its subsequent development; the second section is about influence of the 1986 Chornobyl catastrophe, and the third part is about post-catastrophe period, when the entire population of the town was relocated into a new place, a town of Slavutych; about the post-Soviet period of Pryp’yat’, which eventually became a ghost town, and an attraction for tourists and for so-called stalkers. In this paperwork I have utilized primary and secondary sources of different historical periods in three languages: English, Ukrainian and Russian. In my essay, I have applied visual materials about the town, including my personal photo-archive, as well as from magazine articles and online sources. I believe that my work might be interesting for broad global audience because it may simply be unfamiliar with the precisehistory of the town and its quite interesting past.