Irina Stetsenko

We went to every one of these discos. I was young, just finished school. My makeup was heavy, definitely overdone. And my bangs were combed up and held in place with lots of hairspray. Irina Stetsenko was just 19 and was a regular on the dance floor.

I had on a linen suit with a red belt. You couldn't miss me. My red belt drew attention to my waist.

It's spring 1985. Irina is just back from a holiday by the sea with her mother. She's come home with a great tan and having just finished school has time to kill. I would read fashion magazines like German Burda. I would look at all the stylish photos of clothes and I would sew fashionable clothes for myself. One day her mother gets a phone call.

My mother's boss called and said that they had a lot of courgettes from their summer house. And if we want some, we can go over and get some. My mother said, good timing, we need courgettes. So I got dressed, went around there, the door opened, and I saw this guy sitting in the kitchen.

And that was it for me. They invited me to join them, but I didn't want to. I didn't drink some mohon. I was young. I just finished school. But they insisted. I told them, my mother sent me to pick up some kozets. But they said they didn't have any. I was so confused.

There were lots of young people there, especially from the power plant. Serhi worked shifts at the nuclear power plant. There were morning, evening and night shifts. And after work, people would go to the swimming pool. It was such a healthy way of living.

I loved Boney M, Jinkis Khan, Smokey, The Beatles, Deep Purple. We had a very cool disco called Edison 2. The organizer of this disco, Oleksandr Demidov, not only played music. His discos were also themed and like a show. It was great to be able to listen to new music.

It wasn't just a cool disco. It was officially voted the third best trade union disco in all of the USSR, don't you know? It was so interesting to go to these discos, because they had all types of modern music, not just from the Soviet Union, but also from the West. The information we were getting from the media in the USSR was quite limited. So these events gave us an idea of the rest of the world. You'd learn something.

And never Russian words. Always foreign. Because jeans and all those t-shirts were in such a short supply, there were these people who were called speculators or dealers. They could get things from abroad. They would smuggle them in and sell them on the black market to young people. It wasn't just clothes being sold on the black market. DJ Alex was risking his job and freedom to bring a forbidden crack of the Western world to the people of Pripyat. Each spin of the decks, an act of rebellion.

Our very own DJ Alex. It was an offer they couldn't refuse. But Irina's mother finds a way to sweeten the deal for the wedding guests. My mother agreed. She said our wedding will be on the 26th of April and on the 27th it was my father's birthday. So we decided that all the guests can stay and we can celebrate then with alcohol.

I was a young bride, so I wanted to have a beautiful dress, shoes, and I don't know where it came from, but I wanted the ring with diamonds. But Sergei came and said, maybe we can somehow manage without diamonds? To which I pursed my lips and said, then the wedding is cancelled, and that I want a ring with diamonds. Come on, Sergei. Then there's the all-important matter of the first dance.

Koska meidän täytyi tehdä esimerkiksi soviittinen kahvila, meidän täytyi tanssia. Mutta emme tietäneet miten. Joten järjestelmä organisoitiin, että meillä olisi koulutuksia tanssivuilta Kulttuurin palastilassa.

I did a manicure before going to bed. Then I heard the Soviet anthem on the radio. They always played at midnight. And I realized that it's time to go to bed. Because tomorrow is the wedding day. And it's late. I dried my nails. I opened the balcony doors. And I went to bed. And so I started to fall asleep. A little later she hears a distant noise.

I heard such a rumble in the air. It was as if a lot of planes were flying overhead. Everything was humming and the glass in the window shook. It's coming from the direction of the Chernobyl plant. The phone starts ringing. She can hear mum talking frantically and calling for her father. The phone won't stop ringing. We were getting calls every hour. My mother didn't know what to do.

Sen jälkeen kaupungit, jotka kutsuivat hänet, sanoivat hänelle, että jotain pahaa on tapahtunut ja meidän täytyy olla valmiita. Isä meni ylös ja lopetti palkan hyvin lauluksi. Mä kysyin, mitä tapahtui? Hän sanoi, että jotain tapahtumaa. Me odotimme jotain edistämistä, mutta lopulta ei kukaan sanonut mitään. Meillä oli paikallinen radiostation. Me odotimme, että joku sanoo jotain.

Silenssi, täysin silenssi.

Around six in the morning we got calls from friends and doctors and we were told that we had to wet fabric to put in the doorways, to not go outside. We had to make sure there was no dust in the windows. We had to close the windows and doors. And there was such a sun. The weather was wonderful. The morning was wonderful. But here we started somehow.

Meidän vanhemmat olivat erittäin nervoineet. Kaikki odotettiin. Mamma sanoi, että meidän pitäisi kutsua paikalliset hallitukset ja kysyä, mitä se tarkoittaa meille. Onko meillä onnistunut kahdesta tai ei.

At nine in the morning, my mother called the local authorities and asked what to do about the wedding. They told her, don't panic, everything's fine. Yes, you should have the wedding. The authorities, the people in charge, the ones you're supposed to trust tell you, this wedding must go ahead.

They spread an embroidered cloth in front of us. My grandmothers embroidered wedding rosnek. And we are supposed to stand on this and pledge our allegiance to each other. It's embroidered on one side with the name Sergei and on the other side Irina.