OFFICIAL PRIPYAT EVACUATION ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: May 27, 1986

TAPE VARIANT: Government Announcement

ISSUED BY:

Chernobyl Disaster Government Commision

ASSIST BY: The Chernobyl City Council

TRANSLATED TRANSCRIPT

“

For the attention of the residents of Pripyat! The City Council informs you that due to the accident at Chernobyl Power Station in the city of Pripyat the radioactive conditions in the vicinity are deteriorating. The Communist Party, its officials and the armed forces are taking necessary steps to combat this. Nevertheless, with the view to keep people as safe and healthy as possible, the children being top priority, we need to temporarily evacuate the citizens in the nearest towns of Kiev region. For these reasons, starting from 27 April 1986, 14:00 each apartment block will be able to have a bus at its disposal, supervised by the police and the city officials. It is highly advisable to take your documents, some vital personal belongings and a certain amount of food, just in case, with you. The senior executives of public and industrial facilities of the city has decided on the list of employees needed to stay in Pripyat to maintain these facilities in a good working order. All the houses will be guarded by the police during the evacuation period. Comrades, leaving your residences temporarily please make sure you have turned off the lights, electrical equipment and water and shut the windows. Please keep calm and orderly in the process of this short-term evacuation. ”

Recorded Statement From The Legasov Tapes

DATE: May 11, 1986

PART: #002

TAPE VARIANT: The Legasov Tapes (Tape 1 Side A)

RECORDED BY: Valery Legasov

SUBJECT:

Legasov explaning the process and the events of the Pripyat evacuation

STATEMENT TRANSACRIPT:

“ I must say that all physicists, especially Viktor Alekseevich Sidorenko, felt that the conditions would only change for the worse, and insisted on the mandatory evacuation. And the medics sort of supported this. Around 11 a.m. on the 26th of April, Boris Scherbina, after considering all our recommendations, decided to go ahead with the mandatory evacuation. After that, Ukraine representatives, comrade Plyusch and comrade Nikolaev, started to prepare for the evacuation of the city scheduled for the next day.

This by no means was an easy operation. Transport was needed; it was called from Kiev. Drivable roads had to be scouted to plan routes for the evacuation. General Berdov led this work, and also organized the task of informing the public so that they don’t come out of their houses. Unfortunately this meant that the information was disseminated only verbally - they visited each house, also posted notices. It seemed that not absolutely everyone was fully informed, because mothers with children were seen on the streets on the morning of the 27th.

At 11 a.m., we were officially informed that the whole city would be evacuated by 2 p.m.. All the transport had been gathered; all the routes had been identified; and at around 2-2:30 p.m. the entire city was empty. Except for the station workers, and some workers that were needed to operate public services.

The station personnel was transferred to a Pioneers camp “Skazochniy”, that was 10 km from Pripyat. The evacuation was fast and precise, despite being carried out in unusual conditions.

In such a way, many personal items that people took with them got out of Pripyat and carried the contamination with them. They, however, took a minimal number of items because they were hoping that the evacuation was temporary . However, I will repeat myself that the evacuation had been carried out at such a time when the radiation levels of Pripyat were not that high; It has become clear now that none of the almost 50,000 civilians of Pripyat, that were not at the station after the accident, had received any considerable amount of radiation.”