EDITOR’S NOTE: In the weeks after the April 26, 1986, explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, it was difficult to get any information about the scope of the disaster, aside from terse announcements from the government of the Soviet Union.
Acting on a telephone tip, then-Associated Press Moscow correspondent Carol J. Williams and another Western journalist drove to a cemetery in the northwestern part of the capital, where they discovered the simple graves of some of the victims. The journalists were briefly detained by police at the cemetery and accused of trespassing but were able to see workers digging the graves for the victims.
As part of its coverage of the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, AP is republishing Williams’ story from June 24, 1986:
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By CAROL J. WILLIAMS
The 23 fresh graves just inside the main entrance of the Mitinskoye Cemetery are all alike. There is no sign to identify the dead as victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Each grave has flowers on the mound of earth and a concrete border. Workmen are erecting identical marble tombstones. Eerily empty spaces indicate more deaths are expected.
Six of the headstones bear the names of firefighters the Soviet press has identified as victims of radiation at Chernobyl, and a cemetery official said Tuesday the plot was for those who died as a result of the nuclear accident.
At the cemetery on Moscow’s northwest outskirts, workers toiled in steady drizzle putting up marble headstones bearing the victims’ names, birthdates and the day they died in gold-painted inscription. All the dates of death were after the April 26 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Some graves had temporary, hand-printed signs with the names and dates.
A cemetery official who declined to give his name to two Western reporters who visited Mitinskoye said a monument will eventually be built to those who died.
“They will all be brought here,” the official said, declining to say how many deaths have occurred as a result of the Chernobyl accident.
The last official report on casualties from the Ukrainian power station was given on June 5, when Soviet officials said 26 people had died, including two killed during the initial fire and explosion.
One of the victims, power plant worker Valery Khodemchuk, will be entombed with the ruined No. 4 reactor because his body was never recovered, the Communist Party daily Pravda reported on May 23.
The newspaper reported that another man, Vladimir Shashenok, had been killed instantly and buried at a village near the power station.
American bone marrow specialist Dr. Robert Gale, who helped Soviet doctors treat those suffering from radiation sickness, has said there would probably be more deaths among the 55 or 60 people still in serious condition.
Those suffering radiation sickness were brought to a Moscow hospital and the deaths presumably occurred there.
At Mitinskoye Cemetery, more deaths seem expected. Fifteen graves form a row at the back of the Chernobyl plot. There is a second row of eight graves, with three graves to the right and five to the left of a gap that would accommodate seven graves.
On the headstones of firefighters Viktor Kibenok, Vladimir Pravik, Nikolai Vashchuk, Vasily Ignatenko, Vladimir Tishchura and Nikolai Titenok are etched gold stars and the ranks they held in the military fire brigade that first responded to the accident.
Graveyard workers declined to say how long ago the burials took place, or whether rituals were separate for each victim or held together for the group.
Bouquets of red and pink flowers left by relatives were carefully placed on the mounded earth on each grave.
“It’s very sad, they were so young,” commented an elderly woman visiting another area of the cemetery. “They were brought here to be treated at hospitals, but they couldn’t be sent home to be buried.”
A danger zone has been drawn around an area of the nuclear power station and all residents of the area have been evacuated.
Cemetery officials confiscated the notes and film of the two reporters, saying reporters needed permission to visit the cemetery.
A policeman stationed at the cemetery said it was off limits to all except family members and special permission was needed from local authorities to copy the names on the headstones or take pictures.
The official later escorted the two reporters to the graves on condition they not make notes or take pictures.
