Cultural impact of the Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster has received worldwide media attention. The secrecy inherent in Soviet management was blamed for both the accident and the subsequent poor response; the accident, it is argued, hastened the demise of the Soviet Union. Public awareness of the risks of nuclear power increased significantly. Organizations, both pro- and anti-nuclear, have made great efforts to sway public opinion. Casualty figures, reactor safety estimates, and estimates of the risks associated to other reactors differ greatly depending on which position is favoured by the author of any given document. For example, the UN scientific committee on the effects of radiation has publicly criticised the UN office on humanitarian affairs with respect to some of its publications. The true facts of the affair are therefore rather difficult to uncover. It is, however, fair to say that the accident sparked interest in alternative forms of energy production and nuclear phase-out.

Bible connections
Because of a controversial translation of "chernobyl" as wormwood (see below), some believe that the Chernobyl accident was foretold in the Bible: And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as if 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. &mdash; Book of Revelation 8:10-11

As you should already know, the Bible tells only bullshits.

Name controversy
The conventional explanation for the name Chernobyl has been that it means 'black grass' or 'black stalks'. In attempting to link the events of the nuclear accident to biblical prophesies, it has been claimed (see Schemann reference below) that the name of the city comes rather from a Ukrainian word chornobyl’, and that this word refers to the mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). Mugwort is a close relative of wormwood (Artemisia absinthium). As a result, chornobyl’ has been translated by some to be the equivalent of the English name wormwood.

This translation is a matter of extreme controversy, as are other aspects of the prophecy. Some may claim the Bible is speaking metaphorically, whilst others do not see any connection whatsoever. Further analogies include the reference to a "star" as the equivalent of an "uncontrolled nuclear meltdown" like Chernobyl and "burning as a lamp" as an analogy for a relatively small contained nuclear reaction burning on Earth when compared with the "great stars" in heaven. Therefore, these analogies could be seen to link Chernobyl to a prophecy for some who read the Bible. However, critics point out the partially far-fetched nature of said analogies, as there was no falling involved in the accident and above prophecy could as well point to ICBMs carrying nuclear warheads.

The idea of a Chernobyl-wormwood link appears to have spread to the West with a New York Times article by Serge Schmemann ("Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale", July 25, 1986) in which an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" was quoted as claiming the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.

On the other hand, the word chornobyl’ does not appear in the Ukrainian Bible. The original Greek (Άψινθος, apsinthos) is translated as polyn (полин), which refers to the genus Artemisia, which includes both the mugwort (polyn zvychaynyy 'common polyn', or chornobyl’), and the wormwood (polyn hirkyy 'bitter polyn').

In contrast to the English wormwood, chornobyl’ bears positive 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. Chornobyl’ 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. It is not clear why Chernobyl should be named after such a plant, since the town itself is in the wooded and swampy Polissia region, quite far from the steppe.

Roadside Picnic and Stalker
In the former Soviet Union, the area of the Chernobyl disaster has become analogous to the Strugatsky brothers' 1972 novel, Roadside Picnic. Humans are not supposed to live within 30 km (19 miles) of the disaster site, giving rise to a 2800 km2 (1,100 square mile) region formally referred to as the Zone of alienation, informally known as  "The Zone", hence the analogy. The Zone, straddling the Ukraine-Belarus border, contains a ghost city, Prypiat, Ukraine and many ghost villages. It has unwittingly become a major nature reserve. Like in the novel, the Zone attracts some illegal scavenging. Some scientists investigating the area nicknamed themselves "Stalkers".

Many scientists say Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film, Stalker based on Roadside Picnic is prophetic, foretelling Chernobyl. It is suspected that the 1957 accident in the Mayak nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, which resulted in a several thousand square kilometer deserted "zone" outside the reactor, may have influenced this film. Seven years after the making of the film, the Chernobyl accident completed the circle. In fact, those employed to take care of the abandoned nuclear power plant refer to themselves as "stalkers", and to the area around the damaged reactor as the "Zone."

The computer game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was loosely based on these texts.

The novella The Dragon of Pripyat, written by Karl Schroeder, is set in the area of Pripyat and involves a near-future terrorist threatening to re-radiate the area through detonation of the sealed reactor materials from their sarcophagus, via remote-controlled automatons used for heavy radiation-zone construction (the mistakenly-reported 'Dragon' of the story). The investigator sent by the United Nations to reconnaissance the situation follows many behaviors--limited contact & camping, controlled water & food supplies, motorcycle transportation--that were also demonstrated by such modern-day travelers through the area as Elena Filatova. It was featured in the seventeenth edition of The Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois.