The Liquidators

The Liquidators

the invisible

reigns

in the tomb

where the warriors

had to do battle

think of them

doomed

and how they were slain

picture their pain

and remember

the name:

Cher-no-byl

_____

gw2011

The so-called Liquidators were the thousands of men brought in from various parts of Russia and sent into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to 'clean-up' following the 1986 explosion. Victor Tkatchouk was such a man.

The majority of these Liquidators suffered terrible and painful cancers and died within a few years. In a word, they liquidated themselves as they struggled to deal with the disaster.

Photographs on display at the memorial event I attended (the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl) showed that most of the Liquidators died between 1992 and 1996; in other words within 6 to 10 years of the date of their arrival at the scene of the explosion.

The invisible danger still lurks under the crumbling sarcophagus.