“Single and childless people were not taken into the Chernobyl zone”

Mug, spoon, military registration and enlistment office

The black and white photograph, taken against the backdrop of a Soviet UAZ-452 car with a cross painted on its iron side, popularly called a “loaf,” shows a group of eight male doctors. Alexander Borisovich Poltobatko is among them. Perhaps this is due to his grandmother, with whom the boy grew up. She loved to take him with her to numerous medical appointments and gave instructions: “Sashka, go to the medical office, you will treat me!” There really were no doctors in their family, so he learned the art of cupping and performing simple medical procedures from childhood while helping his grandmother. After school, the future surgeon entered a medical school, and after being assigned he was sent to the Yakutsk USSR, where he worked as a paramedic for two and a half years, while working part-time in an ambulance. The Far North, frosts 50 – 60 degrees… One thing bothered him – he did not have time to serve in the army. But as soon as this opportunity arose, I immediately went to the military registration and enlistment office and declared there: “I want to serve!” At 23, having returned from the army, he entered the Voronezh Medical University for the 3rd year and got a job at the 18th hospital as a nurse, but only wanted to become a surgeon. That same year, at a friend’s wedding, he met his future wife, they were both witnesses: “As soon as I saw her, I immediately understood what to delay! After 3 months we became husband and wife.” In 1981, from the 18th hospital he was transferred to the newly opened eighth, where he worked as a surgeon almost from the day it opened, for 43 years.

On that sunny June day in 1986, he came to swim at the reservoir. They usually vacationed there with the whole family, since they lived nearby. “I see my eldest daughter running towards me: “Dad, you have received a summons!” It says: take a mug and spoon with you and report to the military registration and enlistment office. I arrived there and they reported to me: “We’re going to the Chernobyl zone!” Since our house was located next to the Left Bank military registration and enlistment office, I was allowed to say goodbye to my family, and the rest of the guys were put in a separate room so that they would not think of escaping. I come home, my wife is in tears…” In the morning the bus took him to Kursk, from there to Kyiv for 2.5 months, which will forever remain in his memory.

“Dirty Zone”

April 26 will mark 38 years since the largest accident in the history of nuclear energy that occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant – the destruction of the reactor of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as a result of which a large amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment. During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, and another 19 deaths from 1987 to 2004 can presumably be attributed to its direct consequences. 134 people from among the liquidators suffered acute radiation sickness of varying severity. High doses of radiation to people, mainly emergency workers and liquidators, have caused or may cause four thousand additional deaths from long-term effects of radiation.

Alexander Borisovich arrived there as a radiologist. His tasks were to go to the station of the fourth power unit, where military personnel worked, and measure the radiation level. The norm was 24.5 x-rays; if the reading was over 25, employees were sent to the hospital for examination. “They didn’t take everyone then, but I was an excellent candidate: married, not very young, two children: after irradiation there was a high risk of losing the opportunity to have children. Unmarried and childless people were not taken on such business trips. I worked at the station in the basement, so I didn’t catch it much. But more than half of those who were with me then are no longer alive. Every year there are fewer and fewer of us…”

The doctors lived 30 km from the station in a tent, taking turns visiting the area of ​​the fourth power unit every other day. “Pripyat was abandoned. The life was gone from her. When we got there on the first day, there was a feeling that the air was ringing – there was such tension around, an unpleasant, anxious feeling. We went out on trips in full uniform: masks, gas masks, lead-lined underwear. It is heavier than usual and uncomfortable to wear, but such were the safety measures, what can you do. In addition to protective equipment, we were all given vitamin C and a vitamin complex to maintain our general condition. Each time after leaving, we washed the car with special disinfectants several times, washing away the radiation. There was not a single woman in the brigade for obvious reasons.”

There were only old people left there to die

“We are patriots!” – this is how Alexander Borisovich explains to me his calmness at that time. He really wanted to help the country eliminate the consequences of the accident, so he perceived that business trip as a debt to his homeland. But the memories of that year seem to be still fresh: “I remember driving through Pripyat: laundry was drying on the balconies, which no one would ever take off the lines. A terrible sight. Abandoned dogs roamed the streets: they all had huge goiters due to an enlarged thyroid gland, the ponds were teeming with fish, and there was no one to catch them. There were only a few left there – old people who wanted to die at home.”

All “Chernobyl victims” received bonuses from the state: 2 weeks of additional vacation, a pension 10 years earlier, an additional payment of 1,000 rubles per month and a free sanatorium, which was canceled 10 years ago.

After almost 3 months of separation from his family, life went on as usual: work, daily shifts 7 – 9 times a month, for which his wife brought his favorite sandwiches with her, raising his daughters. The girls have grown up a long time ago, the eldest has become an economist, the youngest has become a veterinarian. “I categorically did not advise them to go to surgery, this is not a woman’s business: gastric resections, complex operations, once I had to pull a bullet out of the abdominal area after a gunshot wound.” Today, Dr. Poltorabatko has been known to more than one generation of patients. Alexander Borisovich was even embarrassed by his memorable surname, which he inherited from his ancestors, the Zaporozhye Cossacks, as a child, but with age he fell in love with it. And the daughter, when she got married, did not take her husband’s last name – she says that her maiden name is well remembered.

“Without me, the people are incomplete” – this is what one of the heroes of the writer Andrei Platonov said. In fact, the nation is incomplete without each of us, without each of you, our dear readers. We want to talk about people who do their job with love, live honestly and thereby make this world, our city, our lives better. If you want to talk about such a person, offer us your folk hero – send your application by email [email protected]. We are waiting for heroes!