this_is_trash_really

haha, his response, which rhymes in Ukrainian as well: "We are Ukrainian Nation, we fuck radiation."

Here are questions and answers from the AMA request that spawned this AMA:

How vivid is your memory of the day? "We didn't know anything had happened. We didn't know anything at all. It was days after the accident that I received a call from my general that we were mobilizing to a city north of Kiev."

Did you have to respond in an official capacity? "Yes, my job was to drive one of our transport trucks to the area. I carried a group of men in the transport."

How truthful was government-issued information about the disaster, while it occured? "There was no government-issued information that I can remember about the disaster. We weren't told anything about what had happened. We were told to go out to the parade even!" (He's talking about the May 9th victory parade, a huge celebration in Soviet countries celebrating the end of WWII. Every man, woman and child was expected to attend. He is generally most upset, as is his wife, that they still had the parades and outdoor events even though the people in charge knew something terrible had happened.)

Was the emotional and psychological trauma from the event itself worse than coping with the aftermath? "Why do you Americans always ask about emotional trauma? What trauma? I drove a truck and camped out with a bunch of men and we moved tons and tons of heavy equipment from one place to another. We didn't know anything; how could we be traumatized?"

Would you return to Chernobyl for any reason? "No." (Side note: on my first trip with my wife to Ukraine, I asked my father-in-law if we could go to Pripyat and he looked at me like I was an insane person and asked me very seriously why I'd be so stupid as to want to go that hell-hole.)

"I don't think so. I lost a lot of teeth in the year afterward, but nothing serious. I had several people from my department die of cancer. We have a wall in our department with a mural dedicated to them and every year the mayor lays a wreath outside the department to honor them."

"No, it's my job. It's like a fire or bombs. It's a dangerous job. That is what we were supposed to do. If there's a flood; we go. If there's a bomb; we go. If there's radiation; we go. I lost several comrades from my department, though. They were good men. After the Soviet Union ended, Ukraine set up a lot of repayment to people who were there. And the kids got free public transportation because they were children during the disaster."

By bombs, he's talking about undetonated explosives that are all over Ukraine from WWII (bombs, mines, grenades, etc). They turn up a lot and part of his job is transporting them from the site to a depot where they're disposed of.

Also interesting is the tear in the proof I posted. The majority of his name is torn off. That's because several colleagues who WEREN'T at Chernobyl paid him to borrow it so they could sign up for Chernobyl benefits as well.

The free public transportation came as a result of cards that kids between a certain age received declaring they were 'Children of Chernobyl,' which allowed them free transport and other services.

"No, no growth. We live far away from it and thankfully the wind wasn't blowing in our direction in those days. We didn't really think anything about anything until a year or more after everything happened. We just didn't know what everything was that was happening. We didn't know.

When I arrived, they had tents set up in a clearing where we slept. They had vodka in crates. In the middle of the night I remember waking up and my entire tongue was tingling. I asked my supervisor about it and he told me just to drink some vodka and not to worry about it."