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City 40 (2016)
Easy.
Wake up. Nina! We'll get dressed. Did you stain it? Will we glue? Glue? My name is Nadezhda Kutepova and I'm a native of Ozersk. I was born here. My mother used to warn me, "Darling, never say where you are from... or a Black Maria will take us away and you'll never see your parents again." We were told we lived in a secret place. There were spies all over, sneaking around, gathering information. My mother told me, "Let state secrets stay secret." As I was growing up as a kid in the city of Chelyabinsk, I was aware of the existence of another world, a strange place, a closed place, a top-secret place. The city was called Ozersk at that time but I never heard that name as a kid, because everybody referred to it as Chelyabinsk-40... or City 40. City no. 40 was the name everybody used. It was not until 1994... that I understood that this was actually the place where they made the plutonium bomb. A town in South Ural, Russia. It has a population of almost 100,000. The town has streets, avenues, parks and squares... stadiums, gyms, theaters and museums. It reminds you of some peaceful resort town, doesn't it? My parents had good friends who lived in Ozersk, or in City no. 40. They came to visit us and they told us that they lived in a very beautiful city. But we never visited them back, and my parents explained to me that this was not possible because this was a very special place that couldn't be reached by train or by bus from Chelyabinsk. They said it was, like, a one-way thing, so these people could visit us, but we could never see the place where they lived. What are these closed cities? Each is a state within a state. Even inside such fenced-off cities there are separate facilities, which are also fenced off. People in these cities can exit the city, but it takes a special pass. This City 40 is where almost all reserve of Russia's nuclear materials is stockpiled. The system cuts off attempts at unauthorized access at an early stage. Unauthorized access there cannot even be imagined. I read about a tell-tale sign how you know someone is a terrorist. They are usually dressed warmer than necessary. To get in there, you would need... a full-scale army operation, with major assault force, tanks and everything. It's a cozy town. It's a cozy and beautiful town. But a closed one. For instance, it was problematic for you to enter. Our town is a town of intellectuals. You can't buy them for anything. They are... getting a good education. The schools have good funding. They also get good health care, even if it is getting worse now. Our citizens are used to the very best. A closed city implies not only the comforts of life... but also implies safety. Here, in this city, we can let our children go out at 11:00 p.m. without worries... something that people in other towns cannot do. Their children have to be accompanied. The people who were born here stay here. Do you want it? Some more. Share with your brother. Be careful. You will be dirty. I want sour cream. What sour cream? Only yogurt. We're out of sour cream. We'll have it this evening. I want sour cream. It's with raspberries, look. See how tasty it is with raspberries? We have a woman here, Nadezhda Kutepova. She is a human rights activist... who fights for the opening of the city. She once asked me, "Aren't you concerned with the barbed wire? It violates your rights." I told her... "My rights are not violated. Read my lips," as President Reagan would say when they asked him too many questions. "My rights are not violated." I like people who are stubborn and firm in their positions. But I don't like crazy people. I work in two fields, human rights in closed cities... and the rights of people affected by radiation. Nadezhda, when Romashov comes, let's comfort him. With Romashov, we'll have a therapeutic talk. Did he get the court decision? No. Today he will come and tell us everything. I asked him to please come. They have done something. Poor thing. He asked me to call. I called the judge. It seemed like she was writing the decision that moment. And she asked me, "Nadezhda, please, explain to me..." -Who was it? -Let's not say who it was. A judge. I thought to myself, well, read the name of the law! I run an organization, "Planet of Hopes," in Ozersk. Officially, the authorities don't recognize us, because we're "enemies of the city." But whenever a city officer, or their friends or relatives run into serious legal problems, they come to us, because no one else would help. For many people, there is no one else to confide in. I work in the reception room, greeting people. It's fun working with her. She has the same character as myself. She doesn't have a husband, or parents. She manages everything... her work, her home, her kids. I simply cannot leave this person. My health is no good, I buried my son, he had caused me anguish for two years. And, how should I put it... I have had a Mayak related illness since birth. I have no health left. She has helped me and now I can't refuse her, I am helping her. Ozersk has been a closed city since day one. Originally the Soviet Union was looking for a site to produce plutonium for weapons. Such a site was found, a spot in the woods. I remember, we were in school. It was 1990 or 1989. We were getting ready for a trip. A man came to us, dressed in a solemn suit, and warned us, "You guys are not from Ozersk. You are from Chelyabinsk. You live on Lenin Street. Because there are enemies everywhere, and they aren't sleeping. Blabbermouths help the enemy." The forbidden quality of our town has made people beware of strangers. I remember an episode when my father went to a resort. A fellow train passenger asked him... for a long time... about his city, the life, etc... Father tried to get rid of him by saying he was born in Chelyabinsk. That he lived on Lenin Street, and so on. At the next stop, before leaving, the passenger said to him, "Good for you. You haven't disclosed anything about our city. Because our town does not accept traitors." Even though Mayak is just a factory in Ozersk, historically, Mayak has always been more important than the city. It was on July 5, 1947. I was met at the Kyshtym station. It was 11 o'clock in the evening. They drove me... in an unknown direction. They didn't tell me where I was being taken. I thought it would be a factory. in Kyshtym. I realized... there were no enterprises there that would fit my specialization. I began to worry. Especially when we passed through the center of the town. Then we went up the hill to the church... and then the woods began. There was nothing to see. This is when I really began to worry. I had a sinking feeling. Had I been arrested for something? My mother came here at the age of eight, with my grandmother who was a chemical engineer. You were named after your grandmother? Yes, my mother named me in honor of my grandmother. Whose mother was she? Mother told me it was a very long train journey. People were telling all kinds of tall stories. That it was a subterranean city, they would live underground. Nobody knew anything. To build the factory, they used forced labor from the prison camps as construction workers. They also brought in elite physicists from all over the country. Nuclear physics was only just being born. It was for the best and most intelligent. Mother told me Grandmother was working with Kurchatov to produce plutonium. At that time, they were scooping it up with spoons. As she recollected. People worked with plutonium with bare hands. Many died, so they had to bring in more and more people. Families were created... children born. This is how the town became a real town. Everything was heavily controlled by Stalin's secret police. If someone refused to work, they'd be taken to a prison camp and executed, because they were introduced to state secrets. They had no choice. We got used to the fact that, like pawns, we were moved from one place to another. We accepted it as a natural process... of socialist construction. Though, of course, the situation here was, I would say, like a prison camp. When did they allow people to go outside the city? I don't remember exactly, but, I think, after eight years. My mom told me people who were relocated to Ozersk were considered missing by relatives. EMPLOYMENT RECORD BOOK Of course, there was a terrible secrecy. They weren't allowed to leave town, weren't allowed to write letters. It was as if they disappeared into oblivion. People tortured by the war, famine, prison camps were brought to a place that felt like paradise. Suddenly there's food, social life and entertainment. Their silence was payment to the state for a better life. They created their own ideology, "We're the saviors of the world, creators of the nuclear shield." This ideology is what keeps them running to this day. We lived like well-fed animals in a zoo. We were provided everything. I never wondered... why it was like that and nobody explained to me why we were so lucky to live such happy lives. We had plenty of kielbasa, food, sports clubs for kids, everything. Beautiful! My father made enough money to give the family everything. He could afford to give me a ruble each day for food. We had stacks of chocolate stored at home. You bet. That is why they called us "Chocolate Kids." I didn't tell my family... where I was working, or what I was doing. I always told my daughter that I was working at a chocolate factory. So I always had to buy good chocolates... to bring her. Let me tell you about the resentment outsiders have, calling us the "Chocolate People." How privileged we are and so on. I can say that in our ranks, they were getting good money and still do. We are used to it and this is how we want to live. The majority of people want it this way, and I want it too. Ozersk is a big city. The friends of my parents who lived in the city of Ozersk told us that their life was different. And I can think of one episode when I was seven, I was a first-grader at school. They came to visit us, our friends from Ozersk, and they brought me a present. It was a bunch of bananas. For someone who grew up as a kid, in the Soviet times, in the city of Chelyabinsk, a bunch of bananas was like... a part of a fairy tale. It was absolutely out of this world. When I traveled outside our town, I was shocked they had nothing in their shops. They had no bread, no sausage, no milk. They had empty shelves. These people who lived in the city of Ozersk, they had things like caviar and condensed milk, which was really something rare and something that every kid in the Soviet Union dreamed about. You need to understand what the Soviet Union was like back then. It was prestigious for those people to be here. They didn't feel restricted. They had the best they'd need. It was prestigious. They had the best. Besides, scientists are obsessed with what they do... splitting atoms. If they're happy with how the atoms split, they won't notice anything else around them. I can tell you an interesting story. Not a story, a fact. Once there was a spill of powder... the radioactive kind of powder. And my father, following party rules, bent over and with no tools, nothing, collected the powder with his hands. My father died... of lung cancer at the age of 55. I think one of the factors that contributed to it was that he inhaled that powder. My family moved to City 40, now Ozersk. There were many deaths. We didn't know the cause then and had not established the connection. But mostly people were dying of carcinogenic diseases. Of course, we did not suspect that the town at that time... was already... unfit for humans. Several of my young cousins died... between the ages of 18-38. Such were the stories. In a way, it was a form of heroism. This is one of those tragic cases when people "burned" with enthusiasm. But, the work had to be done. SHERSHNEV ANTON VELIKANOV VLADIMIR Absorbed in the Cold War... those working on their main task of creating a nuclear shield... They worked honestly, in good faith, selflessly, and were always proud of belonging to this industry... and proud of working at the first nuclear power enterprise. It was the demand of the time. It was the period of the Cold War. It wasn't us who instigated it. I grew up in Ozersk. I finished school in Ozersk. When I was a little kid, we had bomb shelters in case of an emergency. One bomb shelter for every few residential buildings. At school, starting from first grade, they taught us how to use the shelters. As they developed nuclear weapons... the danger of a small-scale nuclear war or accidental explosion became real, and as nuclear plants developed, a power plant accident was also possible. I got a job with an experimental scientific research station here. It was a secret institute to study the impact of radiation on health and the environment. For that year I was head of the "Chernobyl Union" in Ozersk. To the right... is central block number four. Higher! Wow, hold on that spot. Hold where the smoke is! An accident has occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Steps are being taken to deal with the situation, and aid is being given to those affected. My research, suddenly... became relevant, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, when a large population were living and farming in a contaminated territory. This expertise would be necessary in case of a local nuclear war. People need to eat, they live in a radioactive zone. So methods of survival have to be worked out. After that, I began working in the organization "Planet of Hopes," with Nadezhda Kutepova in Ozersk. We have a lesson today. Will you take him? It's Wednesday. Okay, bye. Daddy is ill. Finish your breakfast, get dressed. Daddy says he's ill. Both grandfathers of Nadezhda's son, as well as his father, spent more than a decade working at Mayak. As a result, the baby was born with a weak immune system. This is clearly a result of long-term radiation impact. His body was working in a way that any food caused an allergy in this kid. My third son had a very serious skin disease from birth. For the first two years of his life, he was covered with scabs and dermatologists couldn't find the cause. Now he's better and again I don't know why. What if my son marries a local girl with three generations of the same genetic problems? What kind of grandchildren will I have? I will do everything possible to keep my kids from getting married in Ozersk, and from having children here. When I worked at the research station, a classmate was writing her dissertation... on the impact of radiation on future generations. I read her drafts and there was a lot of data on different types of diseases. But when her dissertation was ready and published as a book, all the diseases were left out and only allergies were left in. There was definitely pressure against publications of long-term health effects of radiation... and how radiation affects children. This was just not allowed. My mother gave me detailed instructions, when my baby was born... about the streets, I shouldn't go on when I took the baby out for a walk. For example, the bus stops where workers from Mayak... would disembark from work... were to be avoided at all costs to keep the radioactive dust from my home. In the past, the town had strict radiological and sanitary controls. And every street was thoroughly washed on a certain day of the week. Dry leaves were collected, grass was mowed, which helped cope with small-scale aerial emissions. The town was under constant sanitary control. You know, we had strict standards. After getting a dose of radioactivity, you had to leave the place, take a break, go to the smoking-room. You weren't sent home because transportation worked only at a particular time. So you went to do something else... after working in the so-called "dirty" place. The only "safety valve" they had was to go to a beer hall and sit with a mug of beer. Beer was considered to have a therapeutic cleansing effect. Now nobody cares anymore. Radiation self-control skills are lost. The new authorities do not do anything. For the last five years, I haven't seen them wash the streets, or remove grass once. You go in a car and you pass a very spectacular chain of beautiful lakes. Like, one lake is beautiful, the next one is even more beautiful, but then the local people tell you that this lake is nicknamed... "The Lake of Death" or a "Plutonium Lake", because it is so heavily contaminated with plutonium. NO TRESPASSING EITHER BY CAR OR ON FOO During its early years of operation, when the technology was new and experimental, nobody cared about what might happen to the environment. The workers weren't concerned, because they were ordered to build the nuclear bomb. They did what they were ordered to do. Nobody thought the waste would be radioactive for millions of years. And so they just dumped... the by-products of chemical reactions into the river. In the early 90s, when the information about pollution and accidents appeared, I thought, like a typical resident of closed city, everybody wants to close our good factory, and we're the good people who made the atomic bomb. Later, when I met ecologists from the green movement, when I saw the documents with my own eyes, when I saw government officials who said totally different things in public than what they told us... I realized that it was all a lie. The first major documented disaster is officially called an accident. But in fact it was a planned dumping of highly radioactive waste into the River Techa. The second major accident happened in 1957... when an underground container of liquid radioactive waste exploded. This is where on the site of Mayak on the quiet evening of September 29, 1957, a tank of liquid nuclear waste exploded. The deadly radioactive cloud began to move in a north-east direction. As a result, a huge territory, 105 km long and 9 km wide, was contaminated with radionuclides, Both people and animals became victims. DANGER ZONE 23 villages had to be destroyed. More than 10,000 people were evacuated to safe areas. For how long can we stay in this place? If we calculate... using official daily norms... 20 seconds. There is a radioactive river. The village cattle comes up to the river and drinks its water. If the cattle just drank, it would get much less radionuclides. But the cattle steps in the river, mixing the sediment... with the upper level of clear water. The cattle drinks that water and it gets into its milk. People use that milk to make dairy products... and also drink it raw. Of course, we didn't know anything about this. We used to swim and fish in that river. I learned later that at some point the International Atomic Energy Agency discovered strontium in the Arctic Ocean. And then the investigation found out... where that strontium had come from. They traced it all the way back to the River Techa. Officially, my father got 600 roentgen of radiation from his work. DANGEROUS SITE It's a very high dose. My mother got 400 roentgen, officially. My mother died at 62. She got stomach cancer. She underwent surgery, but died. The third major accident took place in 1967, when Lake Karachay... where they were dumping and are still dumping radioactive waste, dried out and created a dust storm that contaminated a vast territory, in particular, several villages upon the River Techa. The aftermath of Mayak's activities is really disastrous. One can say that Mayak was built on dead and ruined human bodies. You're coming back, right? Certainly. I'll just see him out. Nadezhda Kutepova is not afraid of going against the opinion of the majority of people around her. She was the first to see violations of the law, and human rights violations in the treatment of people. When I walk down the corridor past her office, I see people waiting to see her. When I walk, I see people. People really trust her. Ozersk is not included in the list of towns polluted by the 1957 disaster. Officially, Ozersk was not affected. Of course, that's not true and everybody knows it. The number of people the state is ready to compensate -is increasingly narrowing down. -And we are dying. This is their policy. Recently, we got a visit from a State Duma member. And he said, "You are so many!" I thought the problem had already been resolved. What does it mean, "The problem has been resolved? That everybody has died?" Anyway, I have nothing good to tell you. Thank you. Good morning. I'll tell you the situation now, but, unfortunately, I have nothing good to tell you. The situation with the court cases is at a dead end. The committee is closed. From tomorrow, they will not grant anything to anyone. People from closed cities defend their rights in court very unwillingly. People are still afraid, and they'll go... to court only when they're in deep despair. Closed cities still resemble the Soviet Union. In the Soviet Union, legal status of closed cities was never defined. The Soviet Union had come a long way under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. He talked of perestroika or reform, and glasnost, meaning greater freedom of speech. Mingling with the rush hour traffic, Red Army armored personnel carriers on the streets of Moscow this morning, the first sign of the coup d'etat that removed Mikhail Gorbachev from power. Long live Yeltsin! In the Yeltsin times, around 1996, things started to improve... and go back to normal. Order was reintroduced and it was in those Yeltsin times that Russia and its closed cities began to restructure to get rid of that old Soviet dust. Let us stand firmly together. The reactionary forces will not pass! The closed cities got their legal status in 1994 when, by governmental decree, they were given public names. Ozersk was officially named Ozersk and these cities were put on the map. But the state invented a clever way to keep us in legal limbo. We didn't think much about it, but in 1994... when our town received its legal status, newborns received birth certificates that stated Ozersk as their birthplace. But everybody born in Ozersk before 1994 was officially listed as born in Chelyabinsk. They couldn't exclude the possibility that a disaster would wipe the town off the earth. So they registered us in a way that we could be erased legally if necessary. We asked the registry office in Chelyabinsk to correct our birthplace, but we weren't even listed in their archives. They said, "Sorry, you were not born in our region." -Can I come in? -Yes. People who registered place of birth after 2005, they exist, but hesitate to go to court because there are no precedents. You will make history as the first person to file a lawsuit in this situation, and the court decision in your case will be precedent in other decisions. So, I will be in history forever? Forever, of course. How else is history made, if not forever? They may appeal, but the probability is 70% against it. I can't guarantee you 100%. So, we just have to wait. But, we've come a long way with you. I've been coming here for a year already. Let's hope they don't appeal. Everything seems to be happening the way I told you. It's working. Well, well. She takes cases that are difficult to resolve. She takes to heart the problems of other people and volunteers to resolve them. She's an amazing person who makes everything her business. There are only two such people, myself and her. Take care of your health. Okay, lets go. I have to make him kiss your hand, too. I remember the wave of accusations, after a case was opened against her. That she did things wrongly, that she went against the opinion of the Ministry of Health, against existing norms. That she was taking cases above and beyond her abilities. But she did start to resolve them. Ever since I began my human rights activities and began helping people who live in the contaminated areas, the authorities have been persecuting me and my organization. It was two years ago that the authorities started putting pressure on us at every step. -Glue. -We'll glue now. Sit. Now we'll do cut outs. There were constant checks on our organization. Year after year, they do tax inspections on us, just now they did a tax inspection. The authorities constantly visit my home and even visit my child in kindergarten. Even our landlord asked to terminate our lease. He said, "I'm not against what you're doing, and I would like you to stay." "But I got a phone call asking me to kick you out." When someone goes public, it's much easier to declare him an enemy and fight him, instead of trying to change something in the system. -I made it first. -Yes, I heard that. Today, Mayak produces isotopes for the medical and space industries. But they're still doing something for the country's defense and that's state secret. There are 14,000 people working at Mayak. If we multiply that by three, counting a wife and a grown-up child, that's 42,000 people related to the facilities. Plus 28,000 pensioners. So, there are 60,000 people who are connected with Mayak and informed about its activities. Most of those who work at Mayak, at weapons production, they work with state secrets. Each of them has an FSB officer who records their private lives. Where they go, who they meet, how much money they spend, what they buy. They check everything. That means that in fact it's only about thought control. The core of their job is to silence dissidents. To silence dissidents, not to care about efficient security. We have the FSM unit at Mayak. Our troops... special troops... guard the sealed perimeter. And this setup is checked annually by designated inspections that make sure everything is secure and kept in proper shape. If, for example, you find out... that the polonium used in the Litvinenko assassination in the U.K. came from Mayak, you can be almost 100% sure the material was... released via the security gates, and it was sanctioned by the top management of Mayak. 100% sure. Former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko was killed by radioactive poisoning leading to a clouding of relations between London and Moscow. The polonium trail across London implies that he was poisoned by polonium 210 that was slipped into his tea. Whoever killed Litvinenko would have expected him to die in a few days. It was only because he died three weeks later that the doctors had the chance to discover the truth. If someone comes here with a suitcase full of cash, they will pick up the phone and ask, "Mr. Putin, can we do this?" Money would not matter in it. This is not measured in money anymore. People need to know what's being done, what risks are involved. After the Mayak disaster of 1957 and the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, Russians have learned not to trust the state. In some cases society is right, because once you lie nobody will believe you. Historical memories are a very important component of our culture, our history, our lives. And of course, we should also consider the future. I'd like to remind you, Russia is one of the biggest nuclear powers. This is not just words, this is real, and we are strengthening our forces of nuclear containment. They are more compact now, but they're also more efficient. They're more modern. They have modern weaponry. This is not to threaten anybody. This is just for us to feel protected. We do not want it, and we aren't going to do it. Of course, we should always be ready to repel any aggression, any attack on Russia, regardless of the situation our partner nations are in. They should always realize they would be better off not messing with us. I love my motherland, this small piece of land which is my home. I hate this government that exists on my land. I love these trees, these mushrooms, this water, the fish in it. But I can't be at peace with this regime. I can't live with this. It is difficult for me to imagine that the state, the authorities, still allow people to live in that area. Because, I mean, this... This is really a nightmare. And I really feel about... I think there is a certain "blindness" in our people. A certain pride... not unexplainable. "We are special, we are from a closed city..." In fact, they are ordinary people, nothing special. In reality, it's difficult to leave and I faced that myself. If you account for the opinions of many people and, as a journalist, I speak with many, people always want to have stability. "It may be for the better, it may be for the worse, but for now just leave us alone, please. Let me live quietly." I always had an inner desire to break free from this confinement. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, this town won't let me go. No matter how many times I try to leave, seemingly forever, fate keeps bringing me back. Of course, I worry about my safety, but I don't know what to do about that. I want to go on helping the people who everybody else has turned away. We will work behind enemy lines, like our partisans did in World War II. |
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