Memories of Pripyat Before 1986 – Conversation With a Former Resident

A former Pripyat resident, who later followed in her parents’ footsteps and became a nuclear plant worker, recalled her lost youth and the fading image of a once prosperous city with Kyiv Post. Make us preferred on Google Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Viktoriia Babak (Photo by Sergii Kostezh / Kyiv Post) Content Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Bluesky Email Copy Copied Flip Make us preferred on Google When the Chornobyl reactor exploded and radioactive dust filled the night sky, Viktoriia Babak was only 16. She was living in Pripyat, the city housing employees at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), and her class at school was supposed to graduate. But on April 26, 1986, all plans were destroyed a month before the end of the school year. Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official . The nuclear disaster put an end to her schooling, her youth in Pripyat, and the city itself. Now, few people remember what the city was like before the disaster. It resembles only ruins overgrown with young forest. Abandoned apartment buildings in Pripyat. (Photo by Sergii Kostezh / Kyiv Post) But Babak remembers it differently – a city completely unlike others, a space built with unique designs, where youth was accompanied by prosperity – a rare phenomenon in Soviet times. Now she lives in the city of Slavutych – built for the evacuated employees of the Chornobyl NPP – and works at the Chornobyl station. Kyiv Post: Tell us how your family ended up in Pripyat? Did your parents work at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant ? Viktoriia Babak: Yes. My father went in 1970 to build the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and took us, the family, to Pripyat. My entire childhood passed in the city of Pripyat. I also went to school there. In 1986, I was 16. It was supposed to be a graduation year, but our class never had one. Other Topics of Interest Ramstein Coalition Provides Over $150 Billion in Military Aid to Ukraine The defense ministry confirmed that 50 nations have supplied critical weaponry, including F-16 jets and Patriot systems, while the PURL mechanism secured an additional $5 billion in US hardware. There was an accident at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and we were evacuated. And in 2011, one of the TV channels gathered our class for the 25th anniversary of the disaster – they organized a graduation for us in Kyiv, 25 years later! Our first teacher and our homeroom teacher were with us. Fifteen years have passed since then, and our class has not met again since. Where did you live? What do you remember about your neighbors? We had an apartment at Kurchatova Street 3, near the pier, near the first school where I studied. The city was very beautiful, cozy; there were many children, many young people. The city was newly built, and the average age in the city was young. There were many sports clubs, and everyone attended them. They were very popular. Schools celebrating “last bell,” a ceremony marking the end of a school year, in the city of Pripyat before the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Date unknown. (Photo via the archives of “Zemlyaki,” the public organization of Chernobyl liquidators / pripyat.com) The apartment had three rooms. I also have an older sister, and we had our own room. It was so unusual. The city itself was very beautiful and clean. The streets were planted with roses. There was the Pripyat River – there was a port, and a “Raketa” ran to Kyiv – a kind of high-speed passenger boat, you could say a river minibus. It was nice. Pripyat is not like Slavutych, nor, in general, like any other city. The city was very different from other cities of the Soviet Union, right? In some ways, yes. There really was no shortage. We had everything, I don’t remember queues in shops. We had sweets, mandarins, everything. And we were not a family of privileged party members or communists. My father worked as a builder. My mother worked at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant from 1976. She worked in the centralized repair shop. My parents have long since passed away. Did they want you to also work in that field? Being a nuclear specialist at that time was prestigious, even after 1986… I followed in my parents’ footsteps and, in 1990, also went to work at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant. I started working as a crane operator. Later, I became a supervisor for the operation of lifting mechanisms, and in 2012, I was elected deputy head of the Chornobyl NPP trade union, and until 2021, I worked in the trade union. Since 2021, I have been working again at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant – as an occupational safety engineer, and now as a specialist in health protection. Viktoriia Babak (Photo by Sergii Kostezh / Kyiv Post) How did the city live? How did people get around, communicate? People walked around the city on foot. There were no buses. The city was small, compact. Everyone could easily walk. My parents didn’t even have a car What did young people, you for example, do in the city in their free time? Do you remember that large building in the center that everyone who comes to the city visits now… Ah, that’s our House of Culture. There were many clubs there. There were dances. Youth discos were held there. A cultural center for young people. The swimming pool was in another place nearby, near the third school. “Energetik,” the Palace of Culture in the city of Pripyat, before the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Date unknown. (Photo via the archives of “Zemlyaki,” the public organization of Chernobyl liquidators / pripyat.com) Among the things we did in our free time – sports were popular then. I did athletics, like most of my friends, and my sister as well – she did running. Some did swimming, some did skating – every year we had an ice rink set up. Do you remember the evacuation of the city? No. My sister and I left earlier. As soon as it became clear on the 26th that something was wrong, our mother put us on the “Raketa” to Kyiv. My mother worked at the plant. She understood what had happened. So she immediately sent us to Kyiv. And our parents evacuated later with everyone else to the Poliske district. Did you return to your home after 1986? Yes, I returned to our apartment more than once. Not often, but regularly. A long time ago, in the late 1990s. I came back home. The furniture was already gone, but everything was clean, a soft corner from the furniture still remained. The apartment was on the 6th floor, and at that time, it was allowed to go there. The balcony and windows faced the first school and the hospital.