The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus hosts the International exhibition project dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant “Chernobyl – from Accident to Revival”
On April 22, 2021, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus hosted the opening of the International Exhibition Project dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant – the largest technogenic disaster in the history of the nuclear power industry.
The organizers of the project are the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Republic of Belarus, the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster at the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings, the Russian State Archives of Contemporary History, the Polesye State Radioecological Reserve.
The speakers at the opening ceremony were Director of the Department for Archives and Records Management Victor Kourash, Chairman of the Permanent Commission at the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on Ecology, Nature Management and Chernobyl Disaster Nikolai Vasilkov, Deputy Head of the Representative Office of the Permanent Committee of the Union State in Minsk Vladimir Zhevnyak, Director of the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus Andrey Demyanyuk, Head of the Department for Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster at the Ministry of Emergency Situations Sergey Shparlo, Chairman of the Chernobyl Veterans Committee Vladimir Kamenkov, Deputy Director for Science at the Polesye State Radioecological Reserve Maksim Kudin.
The National Archives of the Republic of Belarus presented documents demonstrating the activities of the government bodies in Belarus aimed at overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. First of all, these are documentary materials on the social protection of the population against the radiation threat: resettlement of people from the 30-km zone, construction of housing for displaced people, provision of people with “clean” food, medical care. The Chernobyl disaster did not leave the international community indifferent. State, non-governmental and public organizations of many countries provided financial, material and humanitarian aid to Belarusians, which included the rehabilitation of children and adults and much more. Belarus and the Belarusian people will always remember with gratitude all people of good will who came to help Belarusians in difficult times. Separately, the exhibition presents photographs from the Belarusian State Archives of Films, Photographs and Sound Recordings: pictures of liquidators who responsibly and professionally performed their duty to minimize the consequences of the disaster, “tamed the rebellious atom” at the station, carried out decontamination, resettled people, and maintained order in the Chernobyl zone.
The exhibition features materials from the Russian State Archives of Contemporary History. For the first time, visitors will be able to see the minutes of the meetings of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its reaction to the Chernobyl accident, the correspondence between M. Gorbachev and R. Reagan on this issue, texts of messages to foreign leaders about the accident and other documentary materials.
In addition to archival documents and photographic materials, the exhibition includes scientific and popular science collections of documents, certificates and permits of liquidators, as well as dosimeters, beta-radiometers, activity meters and other equipment used in work at nuclear power plants. The painting “Spadchyna” by the artist A. Aleksandrov, as well as works by the photographer S. Plytkevich were specially presented for the exhibition.
