City 40 Page #4

These people who lived

in the city of Ozersk,

they had things like caviar

and condensed milk,

which was really something rare

and something that every kid

in the Soviet Union dreamed about.

You need to understand what

the Soviet Union was like back then.

It was prestigious for those people

to be here.

They didn't feel restricted.

They had the best they'd need.

It was prestigious. They had the best.

Besides, scientists are obsessed

with what they do...

splitting atoms. If they're happy

with how the atoms split, they won't

notice anything else around them.

I can tell you an interesting story.

Not a story, a fact.

Once there was a spill of powder...

the radioactive kind of powder.

And my father, following party rules,

bent over and with no tools, nothing,

collected the powder with his hands.

My father died...

of lung cancer at the age of 55.

I think one of the factors

that contributed to it

was that he inhaled that powder.

My family moved

to City 40, now Ozersk.

There were many deaths.

We didn't know

the cause then and had not established

the connection.

But mostly people were dying

of carcinogenic diseases.

Of course, we did not suspect

that the town at that time...

was already...

unfit for humans.

Several of my young cousins

died...

between the ages of 18-38.

Such were the stories.

In a way, it was a form of heroism.

This is one of those tragic cases

when people "burned" with enthusiasm.

But, the work had to be done.

SHERSHNEV ANTON:

VELIKANOV VLADIMIR

Absorbed in the Cold War...

those working on their main task

of creating a nuclear shield...

They worked honestly,

in good faith, selflessly,

and were always proud

of belonging to this industry...

and proud of working

at the first nuclear power enterprise.

It was the demand of the time.

It was the period of the Cold War.

It wasn't us who instigated it.

I grew up in Ozersk.

I finished school in Ozersk.

When I was a little kid,

we had bomb shelters

in case of an emergency.

One bomb shelter

for every few residential buildings.

At school, starting from first grade,

they taught us how to use the shelters.

As they developed nuclear weapons...

the danger of a small-scale nuclear war

or accidental explosion became real,

and as nuclear plants developed,

a power plant accident was also possible.

I got a job with an experimental

scientific research station here.

It was a secret institute

to study the impact of radiation

on health and the environment.

For that year I was head

of the "Chernobyl Union" in Ozersk.

To the right...

is central block number four.

Higher!

Wow, hold on that spot.

Hold where the smoke is!

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