My thoughts on Russia

Or more appropriately, the USSR.

I am in 3 20th century history classes. We have reached the pivotal moment in all three: 1989.

In my class this evening, we discussed the fall of the USSR. My whole walk home all I did was try and remember what I could about that time.

Most of the people I go to school with now were born between 1988-1992. They have no frame of reference for the time. I was really young, yes. But I remember sitting in my kindergarten class, staring up at a huge red splotch on a map (it was always red, wasn't it? I'm sure it was no coincidence), repeating "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." I didn't learn what the capitol of Ukraine or Belarus was. I didn't know those were countries. They weren't countries. I still have a hard time keeping the former SSRs straight.

I was 5 when the Berlin Wall came down. Actually, it was 6 days after my 5th birthday. My mother woke me up and sat me down in front of the TV. "You have to watch this, Elise. This is important. This is history." I don't remember any of it. Just my mom waking me up and saying that. I think maybe I remember seeing people standing on a wall and I didn't really get it? It seemed silly to me. Why didn't they just take it down before? 5 year olds should rule the world.

Seems like every time I read the news now it is something about Ukraine vs. Gazprom (isn't it funny that Russia has totally gone back to state utilities. I mean, pretty much. And it is pretty much a one party state too). I think Ukraine should take what they can get. They got straight fucked when the USSR broke up. People in Belarus are still dying of thyroid cancer from Chernobyl fallout.

I watched a documentary on Chernobyl a while ago. It was about the Chernobyl Children's fund or whatever that charity is. They went to all these orphanages. The children were all horribly sick. One child had a fully formed skull, but his brain was in a large skin sack protruding off the back of his neck. His brain was exposed.

I will say one thing for the USSR. Only they could have mobilized 25,000 people in 3 days, evacuated a million people, cleaned up fallout, and tented the plant. It takes a strong central government to pull that shit off.

The sarcophagus they built to house the reactor is falling apart. It needs to be rebuilt. But without the funding of Moscow, the Ukraine cannot possibly manage it. It is still super dangerous. If any of the rods come into contact with water the entire northern Ukraine and most of Belarus is vaporized. Good thing there are drips in the ceiling. And a reservoir underneath.

In that documentary they talked about the cleanup process. 30 men at a time, with those vests they put you in for x-rays, got 45 seconds to shovel as much shit off the roof as they could. Then a break. Then back at it. Most of them are dead. They let a photographer up there to document. The bottom of the frame is all wavy, like someone lit it on fire.

This is the sarcophagus. Its basically a concrete dome.

This is what it looked like after it blew, before the concrete masterpiece:

A picture taken on the roof with the fucked up exposure:

A schoolroom in the now ghost-town of Pripyat. Super creepy.

And for good measure, a child born after the accident:

I'm sorry. That is heartbreaking.

This only further solidifies that in the even of nuclear disaster I want to evaporate.

Sorry again. Its been on my mind all night! I have been totally distracted thinking about Russia. Chernobyl was an unfortunate tangent.