The following verses from the Book of Revelations appears as the introduction to Frederik Pohl’s fictionalization of this event:
And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.
— Revelation 8:10-11
Although it is said that the translation of the word “Wormwood” to ”Chernobyl” is controversial, it nevertheless made me pause and reflect about the true magnitude of this disaster. It hastened the downfall of the Soviet Union because the initial reaction of the Soviet government was that of secrecy, in stark contrast to Mikhail Gorbachev’s public statements calling for openness and restructuring. The legacy is staggering; the lives affected: hundreds of thousands. And the firefighters who gave their lives to stop the contamination from getting worse were true Heroes and are honored as such.
Twenty years later, we are beginning to see how the area surrounding the plant has adapted; how everything which was abandoned still lies there as a silent testament. Kidd of Speed has ridden her motorcycle through the exclusion zone on multiple occasions, and her photos are part of the legacy. And there are some, who were forced to leave back in 1986, who are returning to rebuild what little is left of their lives, with nowhere else to go. We will not see the end of this story, but it is only now beginning to be written.