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My uncle was a driver in Chernobyl cleanup works. There was no question asked if he agreed or not, the soldiers simply came in the middle of a night, told him t

by kbart 11y ago

My uncle was a driver in Chernobyl cleanup works. There was no question asked if he agreed or not, the soldiers simply came in the middle of a night, told him to pack things, took him having no clue what's going on or where he's going and left a wife with two young children in panic. Only the next day his wife received a message that he's ok and "somewhere in Ukraine". Thanks to his driver's profession, he avoided going inside the reactor building, what probably saved his health/life. Also, there was no official announcement of disaster until after few days later.

toyg 11y ago
I'm curious, what was your father's doing before then? Surely if "they" needed drivers, they wouldn't need to go all the way to another region to get them. You say being a driver saved his life, but it could be that it actually was what put him in harm's way...? Or did they have lists of "expendables" for such emergencies, which would have been sorted by profession directly on-situ? Surely it wasn't completely random... EDIT: hey downvoters, these are simple questions that help paint a better picture.
- pilsetnieks 11y ago
  They did go to other regions, probably because there weren't enough expendable human bodies in Ukraine alone. Altogether at least 600 000 people were involved in the cleanup (I've also seen numbers as high as 1 million.)[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators#Exposures_and_health_effects_experienced_by_liquidators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators#Exposure...
  - lostlogin 11y ago
    Not sure if it's a factor, but it's an age old technique to get people from far away regions to do the dirty work. The locals might understand or have opinions - those from far away have little prior knowledge.
    - pilsetnieks 11y ago
      > have opinions Not much of an issue in the Soviet Union, though.
- kbart 11y ago
  It was my uncle, not father. There's no way to know for fact as everything was done in secrecy and many archives were destroyed or are still locked in Russia, but I guess that the list of "expendables" were present for such cases. Some facts that highlights suspicion: 1) he was young (19-20 yo) and recently back from mandatory service in army, so still high in reserve list 2) he was not a member of Communist party, nor had any influential relatives 3) he was working as a truck driver and did not have any other qualifications, so easily replaceable. The fact that he had young children probably didn't bother anybody or made through bureaucratic apparatus in time. According to various sources, few to several thousands of Lithuanians were taken to Chernobyl during few years time (the exact numbers probably will never be known, as most other numbers regarding this disaster) and many of them were not so lucky and had to work inside/near the reactor building itself, so it's hard to speculate what could have been. Though the fact that he was taken with such haste, only few hours after the meltdown, might suggest that they had an emergency for drivers. "they wouldn't need to go all the way to another region to get them" It was a common practice for Soviets to get people from far regions to do dirty jobs, because it's easier to hide nasty deeds this way and prevent rumors from spreading. As an example, most of Lithuanians served in far regions of Siberia while at the same time most of soldiers stationed here were from Mongolia and the like.

by kbart 11y ago

toyg 11y ago

I'm curious, what was your father's doing before then? Surely if "they" needed drivers, they wouldn't need to go all the way to another region to get them. You say being a driver saved his life, but it could be that it actually was what put him in harm's way...? Or did they have lists of "expendables" for such emergencies, which would have been sorted by profession directly on-situ? Surely it wasn't completely random... EDIT: hey downvoters, these are simple questions that help paint a better picture.

pilsetnieks 11y ago
They did go to other regions, probably because there weren't enough expendable human bodies in Ukraine alone. Altogether at least 600 000 people were involved in the cleanup (I've also seen numbers as high as 1 million.)[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators#Exposures_and_health_effects_experienced_by_liquidators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_liquidators#Exposure...
- lostlogin 11y ago
  Not sure if it's a factor, but it's an age old technique to get people from far away regions to do the dirty work. The locals might understand or have opinions - those from far away have little prior knowledge.
  - pilsetnieks 11y ago
    > have opinions Not much of an issue in the Soviet Union, though.
kbart 11y ago
It was my uncle, not father. There's no way to know for fact as everything was done in secrecy and many archives were destroyed or are still locked in Russia, but I guess that the list of "expendables" were present for such cases. Some facts that highlights suspicion: 1) he was young (19-20 yo) and recently back from mandatory service in army, so still high in reserve list 2) he was not a member of Communist party, nor had any influential relatives 3) he was working as a truck driver and did not have any other qualifications, so easily replaceable. The fact that he had young children probably didn't bother anybody or made through bureaucratic apparatus in time. According to various sources, few to several thousands of Lithuanians were taken to Chernobyl during few years time (the exact numbers probably will never be known, as most other numbers regarding this disaster) and many of them were not so lucky and had to work inside/near the reactor building itself, so it's hard to speculate what could have been. Though the fact that he was taken with such haste, only few hours after the meltdown, might suggest that they had an emergency for drivers. "they wouldn't need to go all the way to another region to get them" It was a common practice for Soviets to get people from far regions to do dirty jobs, because it's easier to hide nasty deeds this way and prevent rumors from spreading. As an example, most of Lithuanians served in far regions of Siberia while at the same time most of soldiers stationed here were from Mongolia and the like.