On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at power unit No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

This disaster is considered the largest in the history of nuclear energy, and its real scale became clear only years later.

Hundreds of thousands of military and civilian specialists were sent to eliminate the consequences of the accident. 

To maintain their morale, Soviet pop artists came to the contamination zone.

At different times, Joseph Kobzon, Alla Pugacheva, Valery Leontyev, Irina Ponarovskaya, Alexander Barykin and many others have visited there.

Moreover, the first concerts took place a month after the explosion.

"Flowers are deadly"

Valery Leontyev was one of the first artists who went to give a concert in the accident zone for the liquidators of the consequences of the disaster.  

  • Pop singer Valery Leontiev (right) gives autographs to the liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident after a concert in the Green Mys camp

  • RIA News

  • © V. Chistyakov

- How did you come up with the idea of ​​such a concert?

- There was a proposal: would you like to go to work out a concert for the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident?

How can I not?

Want!

And I went, just like in my time to Afghanistan.

- Was it your own impulse or an appeal from the country's leadership?

- It was also my personal impulse.

I could not have driven, no one forced me.

I absolutely sincerely wanted to do something pleasant for the liquidators, to support them at least in some way.

It was my human duty, which I fulfilled.

There was no heroism in this for me.

I just decided to do it - I decided for myself.

And he was one of the first to do it.

- How did you select the repertoire?

- It was 1986, then I had the Star Plot program.

I sang it, and then everything that was asked for an encore.

In the Chernobyl disaster zone, I gave two concerts: in the village of Zeleny Mys, where the liquidators directly lived, right in an open field, and the next day - in Chernobyl in the recreation center, which was located a kilometer from the reactor.

I sang for three hours in a row, made a wheel, several times I had to change clothes, because I was all wet with sweat.

But these were fantastic concerts!

- It was scary?

- I am a desperate person - there was no fear.

I saw extremely tired, but alive people who were overwhelmed with desires and emotions.

The recreation center in Chernobyl could not accommodate everyone, the hall was overcrowded, people literally hung on what they could, climbed into the windows.

They gave me armfuls of flowers, no one warned me that flowers were not allowed, that it was deadly.

I took it, pressed it to me ... After all, the flowers were evidence of the audience's love ...

- Did the musicians and dancers who participated in the numbers easily agree?

- I did not drag anyone by force, no one was obliged to work at this concert.

But we are one team, so no one refused.

- Do you not know why the video recording of the concert has not been preserved?

- The concert was filmed by Ukrainian television.

He was shown once.

Then the concert tape turned out to be not just removed to the far shelf, as it happened in Soviet times, but demagnetized.

They just recorded something else over the concert.

Why?

What for?

Who gave this order?

This remained unknown to me.

"Like one second"

In September 1986, Alla Pugacheva addressed the liquidators.

Together with her, the musical group "Recital" and the dance trio "Expression", led by Boris Moiseev, came to Chernobyl.

He was also the choreographer of the entire concert.

“We didn’t even go to Moscow, we were constantly on tour,” recalls Boris Moiseev.

- And at one fine moment, Alla Borisovna gathered everyone and said that there is such an installation, a recommendation: to fly to Chernobyl, to work out a concert, to support our brothers.

It was like another touring trip.

Only it was not easy.

Explanations were not given too much, we flew and flew, and that's it.

She suggested, "Please make a decision who is driving, who is not driving."

Nobody refused.

All unanimously said that they were going.

And there were no questions.

Although we were driving it is not clear where and why, to be honest. "

  • Alla Pugacheva and Boris Moiseev, head of the Expressia trio.

    Concert in front of liquidators of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident.

    September 1986.

  • © Frame from the broadcast

Boris Moiseev recalls that the company on the trip was cheerful, there was no fear, everyone encouraged each other, although no one really understood what was what.

“The solo performance“ I came and I say ”has almost completely passed.

I worked on stage all the numbers in this program.

The welcome was very good.

After the concert there was a supper.

We were generously treated to red wine.

Everything flew by literally as one second.

All were still very young.

For us it was like going to the BAM.

The only thing, leaving Chernobyl, we handed over all our clothes for scrap, changed into another and flew to Moscow.

Then we continued the tour, ”said Moiseev.

"It was necessary to have a cultural rest!"

In the book “Chernobyl.

Labor and Feat ", published on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster by the Krasnoyarsk regional public organization of disabled people" Union of Chernobyl ", there are memories of the liquidators about these concerts. 

  • The book “Chernobyl.

    Labor and Feat ", dedicated to the Krasnoyarsk liquidators of the Chernobyl accident.

    Alexander Sinenko, driver, Chernobyl liquidator from Krasnoyarsk.

“I remember how Alla Pugacheva came to Green Cape with a concert.

Even the roofs of the buses, on which we were brought, collapsed under the weight of those who wanted to see the famous singer.

Ukrainian groups also came with concerts.

Cinema was brought, but there was neither strength nor desire to watch it.

There was no time to shave, ”says one of the liquidators Nikolai Iosifovich Alyoshin.  

Another participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, Olga Ivanovna Vishnyak, recalls: “In August of the same 86, we got to the concert of Alla Pugacheva, which she, together with Vladimir Kuzmin, gave in Cape Verde.

They performed on a large stage, it was a very good concert ... The concert went on for about three hours, the artists told us very kind words that we were doing a heroic deed.

It was very nice. "

"If no one goes, I will go myself."

The performances of the artists in Chernobyl were also shown on TV.

Grigory Taranenko, who held the post of first deputy chairman of the State Television and Radio of Ukraine in 1986, says that coverage of events in the Chernobyl disaster zone was regular.

  • Grigory Taranenko.

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  • © From personal archive

- How did you yourself find out about the disaster? 

- I was there two days before the accident. After the accident, I also went, not yet understanding what had happened. Then there was still no headquarters, there was nothing. I went to the old addresses, to the village of Pripyat. Unfortunately, I picked it up. Then he was in the hospital. They gave me 75 IVs, but I survived. The problem was that they were not informed. For a whole week there was nothing about what happened. 

“Remembering this road now, I must say that then it never occurred to me that we were moving towards an event of a supraplanetary scale, an event that, apparently, will forever go down in the history of mankind as the eruption of famous volcanoes, for example, the death of people in Pompeii or something close to that.

On the way, we did not know this yet ... To the 

eye of a specialist, a nuclear power plant is always an object that does not have any gases ... And then suddenly - like a metallurgical plant or a large chemical enterprise, over which there is such a huge crimson glow in half the sky.

It worried and made the situation unusual. "

From the memoirs of Academician Valery Legasov, a member of the government commission to investigate the causes of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

- When was the first message about what happened on Ukrainian television?

- The first message was on April 29th: a little oral information warning against travel and so on.

- A few days later a May Day demonstration took place in Kiev.

Is it true that many people were hurt that day?

- No that's not true.

Kiev was rescued by rain and wind, which was not blowing in our direction.

Therefore, more went to Belarus and the regions of Western Ukraine, less - to Kiev.

- Has anyone suggested canceling the May 1st demonstration?

- There were no objections at any level.

Demonstration - that's all.

- When did you manage to establish regular coverage of the situation at the nuclear power plant?

How was the decision to send the journalist made?

- On April 30th, we gathered a group of cameramen and leading journalists.

And I said: “We have to go.

The decision is voluntary.

If no one goes, I'll go myself. "

Four people said they were ready to go.

And so, in turn, the guys went there - a cameraman and a journalist.

Since May 3, we have been giving materials from there every day.

All this has been preserved in the archives of Ukrainian television.

- As I understand it, all the main work on covering the situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant fell on Ukrainian television?

Were there any losses among journalists? 

- Yes.

Our operators were killed.

I can't remember the last names now.

Four people.

Two very soon, and two later.

Documentary filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko has died. 

- How did you interact with Moscow?

- On May 4, I called Sergei Yuryevich Lapin, said that it was just a problem, let someone come.

They sent Alexander Krutov.

I met him.

Before him and together with him, our guys worked.

We gave materials from there every day.

Vladimir Dunaev came, our correspondent of the USSR State Radio and Television in the USA.

I flew with him to the scene of the accident.

Unfortunately, after visiting Chernobyl, two months later he died in the States - he received an unacceptable dose.

- I often hear that they were withholding information.

Maybe the problem was that they did not understand the scale of the tragedy?

- Absolutely.

The fact itself was talked about, but the scale was not particularly disseminated.

- Have you met with Legasov?

What do you think of his assessment of what happened?

- I talked to him twice.

I absolutely believe him.

All his examples, his conclusions - they are absolutely accurate.

  • Academician Valery Alekseevich Legasov

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  • © Boris Prikhodko

“Most of the time they

(journalists. -

RT

)

spent, of course, in the field.

We talked with people who were evacuated, or with people who were working on the 4th block for decontamination.

And this information was broadcast.

What was collected by them, what was printed, of course, in the historical, in the archival sense, is of colossal significance, as living documentary material.

And it is necessary and obligatory ... 

Our press gave a lot of second-rate information about people, about their impressions, about what was happening there, but very little information like Tassov's - regular information was given, what and how has happened today, what has changed.

This, in my opinion, was the defect of the information system, firstly, and secondly, there were few speeches of scientists-specialists ”.

From the memoirs of Academician Valery Legasov.

- Was the concerts given by the artists for the liquidators filmed by Ukrainian television?

- We gave PTS (mobile television stations. -

RT

) there.

Our comrades worked.

Alla Borisovna came, I talked to her on the phone, she set certain conditions.

Everything was decided.

Everyone was afraid to perform, of course.

But they did.

Unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, who arrived, he stayed in Kiev.

Raisa Maksimovna gave the command - and instead of Pripyat they left for Dnepropetrovsk.

Posner was going to come, he promised me, and we started a teleconference with America.

But he didn’t come.

- What was the idea of ​​such a teleconference?

Calm down the American public?

- Show our openness.

- The trial over those responsible for the accident took place in the exclusion zone.

Open court in a closed area.

Why there?

- To be honest, it was unacceptable.

The premises were deactivated, and the trial was held.

This option is almost heroic.

This is how I feel about it: it was not necessary to do it there.

- One of the most difficult operations to decontaminate the roof of the 4th reactor was led by General Nikolai Tarakanov.

Did you meet him while working in Chernobyl?

- Yes.

I can only evaluate it positively.

Was not afraid of anything.

If there were more Tarakanovs, there would be less troubles.

He was harsh in his assessment of what had happened.

He spoke very fairly.

Otherwise, starting with the leaders of the highest ranks, both the government and the party, they closed their eyes, and everyone else was forbidden to talk about it.