Memory Across Decades: Events to Mark the 40th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster Held in Zhlobin

The N.K.Krupskaya Zhlobin Central District Library hosted a series of significant meetings to mark the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster. This large-scale series brought together archivists, young people, and those whose lives were forever changed by the «Black April» of 1986.

On April 23, the library space became a platform for an interactive dialogue. A teleconference linked Zhlobin, Khoyniki, and Rogachev. Those who were at the epicenter of the events—the liquidators of the accident and those displaced from the affected areas—participated in the online meeting.

The dialogue between generations was supported by ninth-grade students from Zhlobin Secondary School No.9 and students from the Rogachev State Industrial and Pedagogical College. For young people, this was a unique opportunity to hear history firsthand, not from textbooks, but from the perspective of witnesses of that time.

On April 24, the commemorative events continued with the opening of the exhibition «The Tragedy of Chernobyl». The exhibition features unique materials: documents from archival collections, photographs capturing life before and after, and fiction and journalistic publications dedicated to the topic of the atom.

As part of the republican campaigns «Archives for School» and «Young Archivist», a discussion lesson was held. The central focus of the discussion was a screening of the documentary «Chernobyl: Chronicles of a Tragedy», produced by the BGAKFFD.

The newsreel allowed participants to immerse themselves in the aftermath of the explosion, understand the scale of the environmental disaster, and appreciate the significance of the heroism of the people who defended the country.

1. Teleconference «Chernobyl: 40 Years Later..».

2. Teleconference participants

3. School students during a lesson

4. Archivist I.N.Eliseeva and a school student during a discussion of the tragedy