Chernobyl A Stalkers Guide

Drawing on unprecedented access to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone--including insights gained while working as a tour guide and during an illegal "stalker" hike--Darmon Richter creates an entirely new portrait of Chernobyl's forgotten ghost towns, monuments and more Since the first atomic bomb was dropped, humankind has been haunted by the idea of nuclear apocalypse. That nightmare almost became reality in 1986, when an accident at the USSR's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant triggered the world's worst radiological crisis. The events of that night are well documented--but history didn't stop there. Chernobyl, as a place, remains very much alive today. More than a quarter of a million tourists visited the Zone over the last few years, while millions more watched the acclaimed 2019 HBO mini-series Chernobyl. In Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, researcher Darmon Richter journeys into the contemporary Exclusion Zone, venturing deeper than any previously published account. While thousands of foreign visitors congregate around a handful of curated sites, beyond the tourist hotspots lies a wild and mysterious land the size of a small country. In the forests of Chernobyl, historic village settlements and Soviet-era utopianism have lain abandoned since the time of the disaster--overshadowed by vast, unearthly megastructures designed to win the Cold War. Richter combines photographs of discoveries made during his numerous visits to the Zone with the voices of those who witnessed history--engineers, scientists, police and evacuees. He explores evacuated regions in both Ukraine and Belarus, finding forgotten ghost towns and Soviet monuments lost deep in irradiated forests, gains exclusive access inside the most secure areas of the power plant itself, and joins the "stalkers" of Chernobyl as he sets out on a high-stakes illegal hike to the heart of the Exclusion Zone.

Drawing on unprecedented access to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone--including insights gained while working as a tour guide and during an illegal "stalker" hike--Darmon Richter creates an entirely new portrait of Chernobyl's forgotten ghost towns, monuments and more Since the first atomic bomb was dropped, humankind has been haunted by the idea of nuclear apocalypse. That nightmare almost became reality in 1986, when an accident at the USSR's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant triggered the world's worst radiological crisis. The events of that night are well documented--but history didn't stop there. Chernobyl, as a place, remains very much alive today. More than a quarter of a million tourists visited the Zone over the last few years, while millions more watched the acclaimed 2019 HBO mini-series Chernobyl. In Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, researcher Darmon Richter journeys into the contemporary Exclusion Zone, venturing deeper than any previously published account. While thousands of foreign visitors congregate around a handful of curated sites, beyond the tourist hotspots lies a wild and mysterious land the size of a small country. In the forests of Chernobyl, historic village settlements and Soviet-era utopianism have lain abandoned since the time of the disaster--overshadowed by vast, unearthly megastructures designed to win the Cold War. Richter combines photographs of discoveries made during his numerous visits to the Zone with the voices of those who witnessed history--engineers, scientists, police and evacuees. He explores evacuated regions in both Ukraine and Belarus, finding forgotten ghost towns and Soviet monuments lost deep in irradiated forests, gains exclusive access inside the most secure areas of the power plant itself, and joins the "stalkers" of Chernobyl as he sets out on a high-stakes illegal hike to the heart of the Exclusion Zone.

“His is a voice that must be heard.” —Patti Smith “A poetic rush to madness. . . a stunning, original voice as lyrical as it is unnerving." —Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and Countdown "In the shadow of catastrophe, Markiyan Kamysh writes with all of youth’s wayward lyricism, like a nuclear Kerouac." —Rob Doyle, author of Threshold A rare portrait of the dystopian reality of Chornobyl, Ukraine, as it was before the Russian occupation of 2022. Since the nuclear disaster in April 1986, Chornobyl remains a toxic, forbidden wasteland. As with all dangerous places, it attracts a wild assortment of adventurers who feel called to climb over the barbed wire illegally and witness the aftermath for themselves. Breaking the law here is a pilgrimage: a defiant, sacred experience. In Stalking the Atomic City, Kamysh tells us about thieves who hide in the abandoned buildings, the policemen who chase them, and the romantic utopists who have built families here, even as deadly toxic waste lingers in the buildings, playgrounds, and streams. The book is complete with stunning photographs that may well be the last images to capture Chornobyl’s desolate beauty since occupying Russian forces started to loot and destroy the site in March 2022. An extraordinary guide to this alien world many of us will never see, Kamysh’s singular prose that is both brash and bold, compared to Kerouac and gonzo journalists, captures the understated elegance and timeless significance of this dystopian reality.

Inside Chernobyl - A Day in the Exclusion Zone The Chernobyl nuclear disaster is one of the most severe accidents in human history. The radiation released by this catastrophe caused unbelievable suffering to the population that once resided there and still has serious consequences on the environment today. Nevertheless, the exclusion zone with its ghost towns, dilapidated buildings, wild animals, and invisible radiation still exerts a certain fascination on adventurers. WE TAKE YOU ON A TOUR OF EXPLORATION In this report you will learn what we experienced on our tour in Chernobyl and how we felt. Our personal adventures are always put into historical context, so that experience and history merge together meaningfully. Numerous pictures take you with us to the most exciting places and give you the feeling of having been there yourself. WHO IS THE TRAVEL REPORT ADDRESSED AT? The travelogue is aimed primarily at: Adventurers and explorers who may plan to visit Chernobyl in the future all those who are interested in Chernobyl and who cannot imagine visiting the site themselves, but who would like to learn more about the real events in the "death zone", beyond the myths and horror stories. Friends and family who are looking for a gift for a travel enthusiast who has already visited almost every vacation destination and is now looking for a challenge, or who is often drawn to exotic places anyway. VOICES ABOUT THE BOOK: "I read through the book in one go because I couldn't stop. The travel story is insanely exciting and emotional at the same time. It touched me personally very much and I could put myself directly into the situations you experienced. It was as if I had been there with you myself."

A Chernobyl survivor and the New York Times bestselling author of The Gates of Europe "mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system" in this "vividly empathetic" account of the worst nuclear accident in history (Wall Street Journal). On the morning of April 26, 1986, Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine. Dozens died of radiation poisoning, fallout contaminated half the continent, and thousands fell ill. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy draws on new sources to tell the dramatic stories of the firefighters, scientists, and soldiers who heroically extinguished the nuclear inferno. He lays bare the flaws of the Soviet nuclear industry, tracing the disaster to the authoritarian character of the Communist party rule, the regime's control over scientific information, and its emphasis on economic development over all else. Today, the risk of another Chernobyl looms in the mismanagement of nuclear power in the developing world. A moving and definitive account, Chernobyl is also an urgent call to action.

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a &“full empty,&” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems. First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.

Following his bestselling quest for Soviet Bus Stops, Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig has completed a subterranean expedition photographing the stations of each Metro network of the former USSR. From extreme marble and chandelier opulence to brutal futuristic minimalist glory, Soviet Metro Stations documents this wealth of diverse architecture.