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.

Chernobyl and the Bible
Because of a controversial translation of "chernobyl" as wormwood (see below), some people 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


 * please note: Chernobyl or Chornobyl is literally translated as "Black Grass."

Name controversy
The conventional explanation for the name Chernobyl has been that it means black grass or black stalks (see the article on the city). In attempting to link the events of the nuclear accident to biblical prophesies, it has been claimed (see Schemann reference below) that name of the city comes rather from an 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 chernobyl does not appear in the Ukrainian bible. The original Greek is translated as polyn (Полин), and polyn has no English equivalent. The name "polyn" is used for both the mugwort, "common polyn" (Ukr. Полин звичайний), and the wormwood shrub, "bitter polyn" (Ukr. Полин гіркий).

In contrast to the English wormwood, chernobyl 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. 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. 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 Strugatskys' novel, Roadside Picnic. Humans are not supposed to live within 19 miles of the disaster site, giving rise to a 1,400 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 cineasts say the Andrei Tarkovsky 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."

Computer virus
The CIH computer virus was popularly named "the Chernobyl virus" by many in the media, after the fact that the v1.2 variant activated on April 26 of each year: the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. However, this is simply because of a coincidence with the virus author's birthday.

Impact on popular culture

 * The game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a 2007 computer game for the PC, where the player takes the role of a mercenary fighting for survival and wealth in "The Zone". The Zone is an alternate reality version of the area around the Chernobyl Power Plant after the disaster, and features the power plant and the city of Prypiat.
 * The story of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is closely tied to the Chernobyl accident and ultimate peace between the U.S. and Russia. This was played in the Star Trek universe by having the Klingon Empire experience a similar cataclysmic accident, and having to seek refuge with former enemies, the United Federation of Planets (humans, Vulcans and a variety of other species). This led to doubts about peace on both sides, and how those doubters attempted to destroy the developing peace.


 * In the 1988 film Scrooged, when the Marley-esque character visits Bill Murray's Scrooge-like character, Murray says the ghostly visitor is just "a hallucination brought on by alcohol, Russian vodka, poisoned by Chernobyl."


 * In the 1990 film Quick Change, one character's claim that a major foul-up was an "accident" prompts another to reply "You know, so was Chernobyl."


 * Sci-fi writer Karl Schroeder's short story "The Dragon of Pripyat" is centered around a man sent to investigate nuclear threats in the unpopulated areas closest to the site of the disaster at Chernobyl.


 * Shortly after the accident, the nickname "Mobile Chernobyl" was applied to the American aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered capital ship. She had already possessed the nickname "Three-Quarter Mile Island," a reference to the Three Mile Island near-disaster; both nicknames indicate the sense of gallows humor possessed by sailors.


 * In a second season episode of FOX's hit show The X-Files called "The Host," Mulder and Scully encounter the famous Flukeman, a mutated flukeworm/humanoid hybrid. The creature is later found out to have been created as a result of the Chernobyl accident.


 * In the Millennium episode, "Maranatha", a Russian agent calling himself Yaponchik is shown sabotaging the experiment and causing the meltdown.


 * In the 1998 film Godzilla, the Matthew Broderick character is taking a worm sample from the Chernobyl area to test for mutations.


 * The fact-based (but nevertheless controversial) US film, K-19: The Widowmaker portrays the handling of a nuclear reactor incident (on the K-19 nuclear submarine) within the Soviet political climate.


 * The Smiths's song Panic was reported to be based on Morrissey's annoyance that Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright played Wham's I'm Your Man straight after the news broke.


 * In the mystery novel Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith, investigator Arkady Renko is sent to Chernobyl to solve the murder of a Russian billionaire, and he spends several weeks with the inhabitants (legal and illegal, human and animal) of the Zone.


 * In the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Global Grilling", Master Shake buys a grill called "Char-Nobyl 6000," which is powered by radioactive vials from Chernobyl combined with pieces of the sun.


 * Brave Old World's album "Klezmer Music" contains a track entitled "Chernobyl," an ironic song about the once prominent Jewish Hasidic shtetl.


 * In the Married... with Children episode "A Dump Of My Own", Peg Bundy serves the family deformed and mutated chicken from "Chernobyl Farms" because it was extremely cheap compared to normal chicken.


 * In Dan Simmons' "Hyperion Cantos" series, so called 'The Big Mistake' (Earth have been destroyed by a miniature black hole created by Ukrainian scientists) is a clear reminiscence of Chernobyl accident