Please find below a few of the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching statements I found in Chapter 2 of "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" by Svetlana Alexievich.
Mother:
"She's disabled from Chernobyl."
Lecturer:
"In the days straight after the accident, all the books on radiation - on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even on X-rays - vanished from the library."
"There was even a joke that, if Chernobyl had exploded on Papua New Guinea, everyone but Papuans would be shaking with fear."
Hunter:
"They were excited to see us, came running to a human voice. They welcomed us."
Pripyat resident:
"But the words rang in my ears: `My dear, for some people procreation would be a sin.'"
Photographer:
"It wasn't obvious what to film. Nothing was blowing up anywhere." [silent killer; in stealth-mode]
Teachers:
"There is nothing that can surprise them, and nothing that can cheer them up."
Journalist:
"For the third month they are telling us on the radio, `The situation is stablilizing...The situation is stabilizing...The situation is stabilizing...'"
Academic:
"Because they will always go together in history: the downfall of Socialism and the Chernobyl disaster."
"From the viewpoint of our culture, thinking about yourself was selfish. It showed a lack of spirit. There was always something more important than you and your life."
Agricultural Scientist:
"Everybody is shouting that it's not possible to live on that land, but I say it is. We need to learn how to live on it."
The Folk Choir:
"If I had known what was going to happen, I would have shut the door, stood blocking the front entrance and locked them all ten times over..."
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