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Chernobyl

Encyclopedia : C : CH : CHE : Chernobyl

For information on the 1986 nuclear plant disaster, see Chernobyl disaster. For all other uses, see Chernobyl (disambiguation).
Chernobyl area. Taken from the Russian Mir space station in 1997
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Chernobyl area. Taken from the Russian Mir space station in 1997

Chernobyl (Ukrainian: Chornobyl (Чорнобиль), Russian Chernobyl (Чернобыль) was a city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus ([51°16′0″N, 30°13′60″E]). It was a major communications node and important centre of trade and commerce, especially in the 19th century. The city is located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) south by south-east of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is notorious for the Chernobyl disaster. Due to the actions of incompetent operators and the inherently unsafe RBMK design, a reactor at the plant exploded on April 26, 1986 at 01:23 AM (local time); as a result of the explosion and ensuing fire, clouds of radioactive particles were released. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas (including the cities Prypiat and Opachichi). Despite the fact that radiation is still being emitted from the nuclear disaster site, the 800-year-old city of Chernobyl survives, although barely. As of 2004, government workers still police the zone, trying to clean up radioactive material. Hundreds of people, mostly the elderly, have decided to live with the dangers and have returned to their homes in the zone's towns and villages. Their population was highest in 1987, when there were more than 1200 people. In 2003, there were about 300.

Contents

Name origin

The city was named after the Ukrainian word for mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), which is "chornobyl". The word is a combination of chornyi (чорний, black) and byllia (билля, grass blades or stalks); hence it literally means black grass or black stalks -- though no parts of mugwort or wormwood are black. The plants are pale green, and wormwood has a whitish tinge from a fine fuzz on the bottom of its leaves.

On occasion, Chornobyl has been translated controversially to mean simply "wormwood" (which most commonly refers to Artemisia absinthium), with consequent apocalyptic associations, that spread as far as Poland before Serge Schmemann of the New York Times published "Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale", July 26, 1986. The article quoted an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" as claiming the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.

In fact, there are over 160 kinds of Artemisia, and the terminology is not generally accepted. Some sources refer to Artemisia vulgaris as "common wormwood", while others claim that "common wormwood" is Artemisia absinthium.

Wormwood is a different (but related) plant, Artemisia absinthium, Полин (Polyn). "Polyn" has no English equivalent, but corresponds to the botanical genus Artemisia. Botanically, mugwort is "Common Polyn" (Ukr. Полин звичайний); while wormwood is "Bitter Polyn" (Ukr. Полин гіркий).

Still more confusion comes from the fact that the word "wormwood" is used in the English text of the Apocalypse, whose usage as the name of a plant does not necessarily match that of the original Greek.

Chernobyl bears poetic connotations in folklore, for a number of reasons. Its strong smell is evocative of the steppe, as various species of Artemisia are widespread there—though the town of Chornobyl is in the wooded and swampy Polissia region, quite far from the steppe. Chernobyl roots were used in folk medicine for deworming and to heal neurotic conditions, although an overdose could lead to neurological disorders, including memory loss. In Ukrainian folklore, it is used to banish the mischievous water nymphs called rusalky.

The word "Chernobyl" is also sometimes used as slang to describe certain nuclear installations, as well any grossly oversized or mis-shapen vegetable or fruit, jokingly implying that radiation affected its growth.

History

Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of 1193 described as a hunting-lodge of knyaz Rostislavich. Some time later it was taken into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where it became a crown village. The castle was built for defence against marauding Tatars. In 1566, three years before the Grand Duchy's rule, Ukrainian provinces were transferred to the Kingdom of Poland and Chernobyl was granted in perpetuity to a Captain of the royal cavalry, Filon Kmita, who thereafter styled himself Kmita Czarnobylski. In due course, it passed by marriage to the Sapiehas, and in 1703 to the Chodkiewicz family. It was annexed by the Russian Empire after the Second Partition of Poland in 1793.

Chernobyl had a very rich religious history. The Jewish community, which formed an absolute majority, would probably have been imported by Filon Kmita as agents and arendators (rent farmers) during the Polish campaign of colonisation. Later on, they would have included Chasidim as well as Orthodox Jews. The traditionally Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian peasantry of the district was largely forced by Poland to the Greek Catholic (Uniate) religion after 1596, and returned to Russian Orthodoxy after Ukraine's unification with Russia.

The Dominican church and monastery were founded in 1626 by Lukasz Sapieha, at the height of the Counter-reformation. There was a group of Old Catholics, who opposed the decrees of the Council of Trent, just as the seventeenth century saw the arrival of a group of Raskolniki, or "Old Believers", from Russia. They all escaped the worst horrors of the Chmielnicki Uprising of 1648-54 (also known as Polish-Cossack War) and those of 1768-9, when one of the rebel leaders, Bondarenko, was caught and brutally executed by Jan Karol Chodkiewicz's hussars.

The Dominican monastery was sequestrated in 1832, the church of the Raskolniki in 1852. Since 1880, Chernobyl has seen many changes of fortune. In 1915, it was occupied by the Germans, and in the ensuing Russian Civil War, was fought over by Bolsheviks, Whites, and Ukrainians. In the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20, it was taken first by the Polish Army and then by the Red Cavalry of the Red Army. From 1921, it was incorporated into the Ukrainian SSR, and experienced the mass killings of Stalin's collectivisation campaign and Holodomor. The Polish population was deported during the Frontier Clearances of 1936. The Jewish community was killed by the Nazis during the German occupation of 1941-44. Twenty years later, it was chosen as the site of one of the first Soviet nuclear power stations.

On April 26 1986, the fouth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located 14.5 km north-northwest of the city, exploded at 01:23 AM local time. All permanent residents were evacuated because radiation levels in the area had become unsafe. See Chernobyl disaster.

Chernobyl remains inhabited by a small number of residents who decided to return to their homes after the disaster, but the majority of the evacuated population now live in specially constructed towns such as Slavutych. Many animals have been introduced into the town to promote the growth and success of the ecosystem there; some of these appear to be flourishing in the radioactive environment, whilst others appear to be affected adversely. There has been talk of turning the region into a protected nature reserve.

See also

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