In the Shadow of Chernobyl: The True Story of Firefighter Vasily Ignatenko and His Loyal Lyudmila

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Vasily Ignatenko was one of the first firefighters who arrived at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to extinguish the fire. An ordinary fire, as they thought then. Today, the story of Vasily and Lyudmila Ignatenko is known to the whole world thanks to the series "Chernobyl", which premiered on May 6, 2019. Were the creators of the series honest with the audience, telling about the fate of the hero and the real feat of devotion and dedication that his 23-year-old wife performed?

With the hope of happiness

They met in Pripyat, 18-year-old Lyudmila and 20-year-old Vasily. The girl was born and raised in the Ukrainian city of Galich, Ivano-Frankivsk region, and ended up in Pripyat by distribution after graduating from a culinary college.

Vasily Ignatenko was from the Belarusian village of Sperizhe in the Bragin region. He received the profession of an electrician in Gomel, worked in Bobruisk, from where he was drafted into the army. He happened to serve in the fire department in Moscow, and after demobilization he began to work in the specialty received in the army. I found a job in Pripyat, just 40 kilometers from my native village.

At the very first meeting, Lyudmila was surprised at how talkative the new acquaintance was. He was telling stories all the time and incessantly sprinkling jokes. That evening he went to see her off. This was my first love. But then she did not even know how strong she could be. Three years later, Vasily and Lyudmila got married, lived in a hostel right above the fire station. We made plans, dreamed of children. They lived for three years and did not even have time to see each other. All the time they walked holding hands and confessed their love to each other.

When Vasily was on duty, Lyudmila often looked out the window and admired her husband. In the spring of 1986, they already knew that they would soon have a child. We dreamed of how gloriously the three of them would heal. On April 27, they were going to go with her husband to his family, it was necessary to help plant a vegetable garden. But April 26, 1986 dashed all hopes.

Beginning of the End

That night was just Vasily's shift. Lyudmila heard a noise in the street and looked out the window. The husband waved his hand at her and told her to rest, because at six in the morning they would already set off on their way to his parents in Sperighe. He only said that there was a fire at the nuclear power plant. Then no one knew about the explosion of the fourth power unit. Lyudmila looked at the glow on the horizon, the flame rose very high.

She could not sleep. I waited and waited for the shift to return to the unit. At seven in the morning, Lyudmila was told: Vasya is in the hospital. She ran without making out the road, but there was already a cordon at the hospital, no one was allowed there. The wives and relatives of other firefighters who were in the hospital were standing near the cordon. They rushed to each ambulance, but they were not allowed to visit them either. The girl found a doctor she knew, persuaded her to let her visit her husband for a few minutes. He asked her to leave, to save the child. But how could she leave him at such a moment ?!

The doctor said: everyone needs milk, three liters. Lyudmila and her friend went to the village, brought milk to all six firefighters who suffered first. Then everything was like a fog: armored personnel carriers in the streets, white foam that washed the streets, the military in respirators.

Then all the relatives were ordered to collect their bags for the firemen: they were sent on a special flight to Moscow at night. But when the wives returned to the hospital, the plane had already taken off. They were specially sent away from the hospital.

Always near

The evacuation began in the city, they promised to return everyone home in a few days, but for now they will settle in tents in nature. The people gathered merrily, no one yet knew the scale of the tragedy. We were getting ready to celebrate May Day, bringing meat with them for barbecue.

Lyudmila went to her husband's parents. I didn't remember the road. They managed to plant potatoes there, and then she got ready to go to Moscow, to Vassenka. She felt bad, she vomited all the time. And the mother-in-law did not let her go alone, she sent her father-in-law with her. In Moscow, the very first policeman showed them the way to the sixth hospital, a radiological one.

And again Lyudmila, by hook or by crook, achieved a date with her husband. She was thin, no one knew about her pregnancy. The head of the radiological department questioned the girl for a long time. And Lyudmila desperately lied about the fact that she and Vasya have two children, a son and a daughter. The head of the department, Angelina Vasilievna Guskova, believed and allowed her to go to her husband for half an hour, forbidding her to touch him. Lyudmila already knew then: she would not leave the hospital anywhere, she would be next to Vasya.

She entered the room and saw the men playing cards and laughing merrily. Seeing his wife, Vasya laughed happily: I got it, and then I found it! Such is his wife! He was proud and happy.

She was next to him almost inseparably. At first she lived with friends, then she was allowed to stay in a hotel at the hospital. She cooked broths and fed Vasya and his colleagues. Then they were all put in different wards. All were looked after by soldiers, because the personnel refused to approach the victims without special protection. And only Lyudmila was invariably next to Vassenka. And even then, she still did not represent the full power of her love.

14 days and whole life

She always held his hand. And did not pay any attention to the prohibitions of doctors. It seemed to her that she could save him by the power of her incredible love. She always thought about him. And then there was Victory Day. Previously, Vasily dreamed of showing her a fireworks display in Moscow. In the evening, he asked his wife to open the window, and immediately fiery bouquets began to bloom in the sky. He took out three carnations from under the pillow and handed them to Lyudmila: he promised to give her flowers for every holiday. And then he persuaded the nurse to buy a bouquet for his wife.

In the TV series "Chernobyl" this episode is described a little differently. There Lyudmila stands at the open window and describes the views of Moscow to her husband. And she cries soundlessly, because there is only a gray wall in front of her. Why did the filmmakers build this wall? One can only assume that in this way they wanted to show the attitude of the authorities towards people.

The doctors already knew she was pregnant. They scolded for deception, but Lyudmila knew for sure: she should be next to her husband. She was told that all these days she was near the reactor: he received 1600 roentgens. But Lyudmila was stubborn: she would not leave.

Lyudmila made him dream, even made her husband come up with a name for the unborn child: if the girl is Natasha, the boy is Vasya. True, Lyudmila did not agree to Vasya. As if there was no such horror in their lives. But it hasn't gone anywhere.

The changes were irreversible. Lyudmila will never forget these days in a Moscow hospital. She saw her husband getting worse every day. All organs were affected by the radiation. Skin color changed from normal to blue, burgundy, gray, then it was no longer a body, but one continuous wound. She changed his bed, lifted him on the bed and each time pieces of his skin remained on her hands.

There was a tiny hope that a bone marrow transplant would help him. One of the relatives could become a donor. His 14-year-old sister Natasha came up best of all, but Vasily objected: she is too small, the operation would hurt her. The elder sister Lyudmila became the donor. But the transplant did not help.

The fireman's wife almost never left him. As soon as she went to lie down for a few minutes in a hotel room, the nanny immediately came running: she was calling. And she got up and walked towards him. He always called her.

On that day, she went to the funeral of her husband's colleague. Lyudmila was gone for only three hours. When she returned, Vasily Ignatenko had already died. She managed to say goodbye to him: he was still in a special cell where he had been in the last days. Vasily Ignatenko was put in a zinc coffin in full dress, but barefoot: they could not find his shoes, his legs were so swollen. But they put on a full dress. They were buried at the Mitinskoye cemetery in a sealed zinc coffin.

Life after love

She continued to love him all her life. Every day, every minute. Their daughter Natasha was born in Moscow ahead of schedule, after Lyudmila's trip to the cemetery to see her husband. She gave birth to Angelina Vasilievna Guskova. In appearance, the girl was all right, but the baby had cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease. The doctor said: the daughter saved her mother by taking the radiation on herself. Natasha died four hours later, she was buried near her father.

Lyudmila was given an apartment in Kiev, where she literally went crazy. She still yearned for her husband, and no one could replace her beloved. When I realized that it was no longer possible to live like this, I decided to give birth to a child. The man explained the whole situation. Honestly admitted: she loves only her Vasya.

She became a mother, was glad that she now has someone to live for. The son grew up sickly, but Lyudmila was happy: her life took on meaning again. And Vasily dreamed of her almost every night. Happy, laughing. With Natasha in her arms.

The whole world knows about the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant today, but in the history of the Soviet Union there was another catastrophe that entailed a nuclear explosion. Information about this incident has not been disclosed for over thirty years. people continued to live in the contaminated zone in the Chelyabinsk region. The fates of the families left to live in the exclusion zone are tragedies about which they prefer to remain silent in official reports …