Vladimir Pravik

There were only 28 fireworkers in Chernobyl town and all of them were in charge of the nuclear power station (the most powerful one in the former USSR). In one day, people from all over the world knew about these firemen. This tragic day occurred from April 25-26, 1986. Unfortunately, very few people even in the former USSR republics know about them now...people’s memory is very short sometimes.

Our teacher told us about the tragic event during human rights classes and about the people who fought and died one-by-one because of this nuclear power disaster. In Belarus we call these people Team N1 because they were the first in the line of defense for the safety of others. Their wives, parents and children, who lived in the same town, remember them. As documents show, the firemen did not panic, despite definitely knowing that they were facing death and that it was their last working day in their life.

Photo from World Nuclear Association

40,000 people from the small Ukrainian town were sleeping that night without knowledge that somebody was fighting for their lives. Our teacher said that it was a mentality of the former Soviet people to think about others and to die for the happiness of others.

I think that every nation has its own heroes as an example to follow. I want to remind others of the names of these heroic fireworkers. Here is what I have found in our books about that time:

Lieutenant Vladimir Pravik – He was born on June 13th, 1962, in Chernobyl town. At age 24 this town became one big grave for him and his partners. We do not have very many documents and materials about these people, maybe because they were so young to do something heroic. Only their death made them well-known in current history.
Mr. Nick Gitenok, Vladimir Timuk, Victor Kibenok, Vasyl Ignatenko, Nick Vashuk - They worked together as a team with Vladimir Pravik and died some hours after their work in the nuclear station because of the high rate of radionucleads. But they did everything possible to stop the reactor and save others from immediate death. The Chernobyl explosion was equal to 1000 Hiroshima's and Nagasaki's together. People can’t even begin to understand how it was possible to survive, because people from Japan are still suffering today.

Chernobyl is a geopolitical disaster and catastrophe not only for Ukraine, but for Russia, and especially for us in Belarus because 40% of our land was effected by radionucleads, and, most of all, children are suffering because of cancer. It is a pity that my country has to fight this disaster alone, but I do believe that we will survive because we have in our history many times of surviving tragic events, especially WW2 when every third Belorussian died because of Naziism.

So my conclusion is that we have to remember our heroes who died in a peaceful time to defend others. Without such a memory, we have no future as a nation.