Chernobyl Before and After the Disaster 

Yes, please. It's always interesting to get both eras.

With pleasure!

Yes, please. It would be nice to have also some photos of interiers. I still wonder how the regular apartments looked like then and dreaming how it would be if...

Yes Please... amazing video

That will take some time, but yes!

The first 10-20 years it was still not that visible. But as I watch it already nearly 15 years sometimes on daily basis, in the last years it started to go exponentially-too many generations of trees are growing simultaneously.

Centralia, Pennsylvania also had a massive disaster around the time of Chernobyl. It's literally now one house and all forest. Pretty amazing that some of the buildings are still seemingly structurally sound.

@DGTelevsionNetwork yes, I'm fascinated by that story (which is, well, sad). Should visit one day.

To quote Jeff Goldblum: “Life finds a way.”

I'll better point out nature adaptability

We used to guide former residents sometimes; well, the word "guide" here means a provision of safety in the changed environment. Frankly, this was always a very hard experience, emotionally.

@@ChernobylFamily I can't imagine what was the feeling for them, can't imagine the fate of the ones who gave their lives to contain the situation back then.

Fallout reference

Very true.

In other contries, you prune trees, in radioactive Soviet, trees prune you!

@@dintadoba4808 THIS IS FUNNY AS HELL! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thank you! From time to time we will make episodes focused on the city. For now, check our previous episodes, there is much interesting.

I've often wondered what life was like. I had a teacher who regukarky visited the USSR, and saud we were not to believe what we saw on western news. Looking at Pripyat, yes, the architecture is 'Brutalist'. But we see flower beds, playgrounds, swimming pools...nice things that make for a better quality of life.

It is modernist. Well. Pripyat was a showcase facility, not a fake one, but nevertheless, showcase. When I used to guide there tours, I often told that Pripyat is close to Ukrainian cities of the 90s rather than Soviet of the 80s. To get a glimpse of a Soviet city it is more descriptive to look at Chernobyl town. That is a representation of a very average Soviet town - quite grey and in many aspects faceless.

Now it's beautiful in a different way.

In some places in summer it is barely possible to recognize it is a city, not a forest. There is one yard near the famous swimming pool where this went to extreme, I'll show that in future videos.

Some found their way to return - they work there... I know a few such people. Thank you!

Thank you. So far we made the second part,you can check it out; but soon will be more.

After years of going to Pripyat, sometimes every day, I still cannot comprehend with my mind how big all this story actually is. Check our previous videos as well, it is worth it :)

True, it was. And still is. Check our previous episodes.

Thank you! Check also our earlier episodes. We have two good movies about the power plant inside and self-settlers of the Zone.

Thank you! Check our newer ones!

Thank you for these words.

Thank you...! With a pleasure will do - we have a very, very big amount of exclusive content. Consider joining us on Patreon - for just $10/mo you can get an access to rarest Chernobyl archives explained.

Seconded!

pockaj a o nedlho bude toto s celej planety po jadrovej vojne...

Glad you like! It was really challenging work on location to get a close match. Check our other videos, we have more!

Thank you! We have a very large archive of historical images, but the work on location really was a challenge - and in many cases it was a big surprise to discover what was the actual point where the photographer stood. This weekend will come the continuation - stay tuned!

@@ChernobylFamily Looking forward to that video. Can one ask what work you were doing in the zone, or would you have to kill us if you told us?

In various times different. Work with delegations/visitors (guiding), movie making, administrative work. But at any time - field research.

Thank you too! Check our previous episodes!

Thank you! Check our newer episodes

Thank you, Jim! To make the video itself it took one evening, but well, to make the today shots on location was The Task... :)

Thank you! In the case of Pripyat, the biggest trouble was that original shots were taken from pedestrian areas, which are generally totally overgrown - now everyone walks there by the roads for vehicles, gladly, traffic which we have there is not that intensive. Plus, people used different lens...

All those people are still mostly alive; however they were spread across all the former union. Some are still in the Zone, already as its staff.

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much! Check our previous videos too!

Thank you! There is a continuation, check it out.

Check the next episode as well!

@@ChernobylFamily it is already in my "watch later" list! Thank you!

Thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it! Love your country, visited Delhi once, and very much hoping to visit Himachan Pradesh one day..)

Glad that you liked!

Thank you! More to come!

Thanks so much!

Glad that you liked! Check our other episodes!

Thank you too! Check the previous episodes please!

Thank you! We are planning this year to release a very detailed video about life in Pripyat.

Thank you for coming! Check our previous episodes...!

And yet, after literally thousands of times of visiting it, I still cannot imagine it alive in, let's say, 3D.

Thank you!

Our pleasure, that places and their story is life for us...! Check our Patreon - for $10/mo you can get an access to unique archives explained and commented as well :)

Thank you very much!

Ďakujeme, tento víkend bude ďalší diel Pripjať pred a po

Check also our previous videos. You will find a lot interesting!

Glad you enjoyed it! Check our other videos!

Thank you! Glad you liked it!

Yes. The saddest thing is, many - around 40% - of those who lived at district 1 (you can see a continiation video about it) passed away now. Radiation co ditions varied very very much, and where was that apaerment you mentioned above levels were x10000 lower than at D1.

Thank you!

Thank you! Check our newer episodes as well :)

@@ChernobylFamily seeing these pictures, reminds me of what the before and after photos of the interior of titanic are like. There are pictures of some of the first class, dining areas and suites back in 1912 and when the ship was just about to be finished a little bit before that. In a few cases expeditions to titanic since the 1980s have managed to find that some of the areas where these pictures were taken where is accessible to small underwater robots, known as ROV’s. In the instances where photographs could be taken in the exact positions where the old early 20th century pictures were taken, there were some startling comparisons to be made. Aside from the obvious fact that a century of decay has happened, and that the wood is long gone having been eaten by parasites and underwater worms there is a surprising amount of metals still around. One notable occurrence from the 2001 expedition to titanic successfully more or less re-created a picture from a first class dining room from 1912 when the light from a submersible shined through a metal and glass window into the dining area where a small ROV was filming. To the surprise of the explorers, the glass from the window was still intact despite the shock of the ship impacting the bottom, during the sinking, and the subsequent decay of a century. The shine of the light through the window was both beautiful and haunting in it’s similarity to the 1912 picture. I can only imagine what it must be to go through Chernobyl and doing similar things to locations especially when there are still a lot of people who remember the event and can still go back there unlike titanic.

Thank you! Please check our other videos, you will find a lot interesting!

Yes, but it is a delicate story;)

Well, if you will come, we happily can guide you :)

Thank you!

Thank you! Check newer episodes as well!

Thank you! There is a continuation, andbwe are planning to have more.

@@ChernobylFamily - I was watching it during my lunch. I’ve seen loads of footage from Pripyat before but this felt really eerie. It really made me feel for the folks who lived here.

Thank you! Stay tuned. We will show more, much more in a meaningful way.

Yes. Very well said. Though the clock continued running, just in a strange afterlife which turned it into a lab city, and then - after 2000, when the power plant stopped electricity generation, there happened the second, and seemingly final exodus. Right now there is only one facility which is running, and it looks surreal to see bright glowing windows opposed by long abandoned overgrown buildings.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thank you! For now, check the second episode we released after this one...

Very right words.

Yes, we had a chance to meet some engineers. Get ready for a big documentary aboyt Duga that will come from us this year!

Thank you! Will do!

The resettling process spread them all across the ex-Soviet union. Many are in Ukraine, many live in Kyiv or in Slavutych, some even work in the Zone... Pripyat is a paradoxical environment, as in one hand there is eternal 1986; in other hand it was never totally abandoned, and even now there are people working. However, when you are there, you deal with that eternal 1986, do you want it or not.

Thank you! Going to have tech episodes soon as well...)

Thank you! There is a continiation of it, and there will be more

Happily will make - you know, it should be not only Chernobyl tech stuff, because if we will not talk about the Zone, many will miss some inportant contextual details.

Thank you... soon more!

It has a.... different life now. We have been there on 26 April... good old lovely city, sent it greetings on behalf of all of you, guys....

I am working on a big Computers Of Chornobyl episode, so I decided to try this as well. Glad that you like it!

Glad that you liked! Well, we can have a live example - city of Slavutych, that replaced Pripyat to accommodate the ChNPP staff - it is different, but keeps the style it was given in 1986-88. A really good place to live if we forget about its very remote location.

Glad you liked! Check our other episodes, we have a lot interesting here.

Yes.

I know personally a few persons who decided not to visit Pripyat ever after the evacuation (despite they can), because they want to remember the city alive.

Thanks!

Glad to bring them to you! More to come this week!

Well, we are in the Zone for a long time and know many people, that's it... even more is on our Patreon page. For your questions: 1) there was a ring route and a shuttle to the power plant. Both were relatively little used, a ring one - to see/show the city in particular. The shuttle had a stop at the central square near sewage pump building. Most people however, went to their work on foot by a trail through the forest. 2) Those two places only. Near Jupiter due to the size of a crossroad (standards), near School #3 - for a greater safety of kids because that one accommodated 1600 students and pre-school kids, so it was bigger than others. 3) There was a flood. There is a photographic evidence that water reached upper levels of the stairs in the river port. Not in the last reason memories of this was the reason why in 1986 a long dam between the river port and the city has been created following Naberezhna - Ogneva st. 4) Fekalka (there were many of them) are black water pumping facilities that used to distribute that to water cleanup station near oil base of the ChNPP. After 1986 pipes mostty were cut and blocked to prevent contamination getting to the river. Some are accessible, but they are VERY contaminated. Some parts that cross the central square were/are functioning to service operational facilities of the city.

@@ChernobylFamily Awesome! Thank you for your answers!

So true

When the ongoing war will be over, contact us, maybe we will be able to make your dream come true.

Thank you!))

Jeez

...sadly, a month before the invasion we walked in the city with engineers and an artist from Ivan Litovchenko's art workshop (I. L. created those mosaics). There was a plan to chemically enforce them to prevent further destruction. With the war, we can only guess when again we will be able to come to such projects.

@@ChernobylFamily oh wow!!! He’s still alive? I hope there is some preservation. Hopefully soon as well. I would love to visit someday, hopefully during a peaceful time. So much history in the exclusion zone.

Litovchenko died in 1986. But such works as large mosaics you rarely do alone - he had a team, many of those people are alive. I got from them a rarest album about him and his works... will try to scan (it has "interesting" binding) and will put on Patreon. As for mosaics, although Litovchenko's biggest heritage as a single ensemble is Pripyat, he has a lot of works one can see e.g. in Kyiv, such as 6 giant mosaics on Beresteisky ave or mosaics under the dome of the central terminal of Kyiv railway station (those are from the 50-s).

@@ChernobylFamily wow, that’s amazing. Did he and his team do work in the other Soviet republics?

In Uzbekistan seems to me. Need to check the album.

Yes. While this effect in this particular place is region-specific. Pripyat appeared basically out of nowhere in super humid swampy region of Chornobyl Polissya. That humidity is something, for specific plants it gives an incredible boost.

Is that where the big catfish are

@@nappa41 Yes and no - as we speak about the region, which is veeery big :) That catfish lived in channels of the power plant, approx. 3 km out of city. Unfortunately, most of them are gone after decommissioning of the cooling pond, but middle-sized are still there. We fed them last week :)

Yes. Though the post-accident picture is from a bit different angle than the pre-disaster one, which was taken approximately 50 m forward that alley. There were around 6 those propaganda installations in the middle. The park where it is located is so overgrown that now it is really hard to trace any sidewalks. But, good for animals - there is a group of elks living there...)

Well, post-disaster operation of the Chernobyl NPP with all modernization applied proved that is possible. But my god, at which cost.

I have to say - it is a common misconception that nature lost something great from this disaster. The only real direct loss from contamination was the lethal zone of Red Forest (10sq.km). The past decades showed that all subsequent damage was from human intrusion, otherwise it is an area blossoming enough that it became a biosphere reserve. However, you are right - if the disaster would not stop people, the area had all the chances to become pretty industrialized according to never-accomplished plans; same with agriculture, which would expand in extensive way. I guess the city would look the same (though they planned to add at least 2 more districts). The reason why I think so is because we have a live example of Slavutych - with their massive efforts to keep the architectual look of that city, that replaced Pripyat, as clear and authentic as possible.

Thank you for sharing

And the place itself is very impressive.

True. But so much to learn from it.

Там є життя, просто дуже, дуже інше. В тому числі, і для людей.

I am not sure I understand what you want to say.

It might sound crazy, but even after more than a decade exploring this city, I cannot imagine it alive. I mean... its presebt beauty makes that impossible.

Yes. And the progress of this is notable even if we take the recent 10 years.

Oh yess...

Thank you! Robot is in progress - gathering budgets and parts, but we will be super happy for a collab!

You’re welcome 😊 check our other videos!