Before our staff trip to Ukraine, I felt a bit ambivalent about including the Chernobyl Museum into our agenda. I did not know how such a complex and politicized tragedy can be encompassed into an institution. To my surprise, this museum ended up being a highlight of our visit to Kiev. The exhibition manages to be detailed and informative but also deeply touching at the same time. The obvious culprit of Chernobyl’s demise was human hubris and the former regime that so severely mishandled the catastrophe, but while being very honest about it, the exhibition is not interested in placing the blame. Its focus is mainly on the human aspect of the disaster.
The Nuclear Plant is not presented as a monster, far from it, the people that worked there, from the engineers to the maintenance staff, drew enormous pride from being part of what was considered one of the biggest achievements of the Soviet science and industry. One of the most surprising moments of the exhibition was a short movie dedicated to the closing of the remaining reactors years after the disaster showing engineers literally crying over the plant’s end. Another short movie shows soldiers promised to be released from the rest of their two year military service in exchange for two minutes of clearing the radioactive debris directly on the site of the explosion. My heart was breaking for these young men dressed in ridiculously inadequate protective gear who were so tragically oblivious to the fact that these two minutes would most probably cost them years and years of healthy life.
Besides concrete information, the Museum also gives space to artists to approach the disaster from a more internal and if at all possible even more emotional perspective. The result is a complex experience that will stay with you for a very long time.
The Museum is open Monday through Friday, 10:00AM – 6:00PM, Saturday 10:00AM – 5:00PM.
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