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November 29, 2011
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Nov 21, 2011, 6:05:16 AM
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(Contains: nudity, sexual themes, violence/gore, strong language and ideologically sensitive material)
:iconmjranum:
From my Chernobyl Journal (here: [link] )

A steel toy tank from the kindergarten in Pripyat.

One of the things that I noticed after a while in the kindergarten and high school in Pripyat was a general lack of military images or overt signs of militarism. This toy tank was the only thing I saw; otherwise, no: toy guys, soldier uniforms, images of soldiers in uniform, fallout shelter signs. When I was a kid, in the early 1970s, we were moderately propagandized against the USSR as being warlike, aggressive, and mean. I realized later that such nonsense serves only the purposes of those in power, who want "their" people to be scared so that they can be subservient.

The reactor blew up late in April, a week before the big USSR May Day celebrations. Apparently, the May Day celebration in Pripyat still took place, with the population parading about in radioactive fallout. I found some of the May Day parade signs (big Soviet-realist posters of Gorbachev and whatnot) in the basement of the community center. They weren't any more radioactive than the background level, but it was sobering to imagine people all dressed up marching down the street breathing radioactive dust that was falling invisibly from the beautiful May sky.
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:iconmjranum:
`mjranum Dec 3, 2011
Thank you!
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:iconrossum:
*Rossum Nov 29, 2011
Remember, this was the Perostrokia era. Had Brezhnev been around, things might have been different.
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:iconmjranum:
`mjranum Nov 30, 2011
Quite true.
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:iconrossum:
*Rossum Dec 2, 2011
THis whole series has been interest. Has there been anything that you saw that struck you about the... for lack of a better term, Sovietness of the place?
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:iconmjranum:
`mjranum Dec 3, 2011
The construction of the reactors was very very "soviet" - read my journal of the trip (day 1, the last part) for more.
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:iconedxcal:
~EdXCal Nov 29, 2011
Thats a stunning picture and a very interesting story, great work and thank you for posting it!
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:iconregis-and:
Mood: Sadness ~Regis-AND Nov 29, 2011  Hobbyist General Artist
"I realized later that such nonsense serves only the purposes of those in power, who want "their" people to be scared so that they can be subservient"

A sad reality... And what a coincidence! I was wondering about this yesterday and commenting with my wife; we are truky being engulfed in a 24h-non-stop society and lacking some important moral values with this kind of life. And this is becoming so common that few people realize that. Many people fear that machines and industry will rule the world; there are no reason to fear anymore, it already happened.

The most beautiful thing and the things that makes me feel complete are the simplest ones (wake up late; take the breakfast and laugh with my family, etc...). Hope my daughter can feel like this in her future.
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:iconmjranum:
`mjranum Dec 3, 2011
Hope my daughter can feel like this in her future.

I hope so, too!
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:iconnanp:
~nanp Nov 29, 2011
Beautifully shot. Have you seen Greenie's Chernobyl photo collage? He's here on dA.
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:iconnanp:
~nanp Nov 30, 2011
It's an incredibly evocative site, Chernobyl. I've been following Greenie's "urban spelunking" here on dA for awhile . . . good stuff. And might I add, it's kind of neat seeing you out of the studio! Not that I'm not a HUGE fan of your, aaaah, model-oriented work. :)
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