Slavutych

Slavutych is the city that was built as a result of the disaster. Located 50 kilometers from Chernobyl, Slavutych was made to house many of those that had to evacuate from Pripyat. Construction for the city began in the Fall of 1986 and by October of 1988 the first settlers had moved in.

There were construction delays, labor disputes, bureaucratic obstructions, and problems that occurred during this time such as the central heating system for the city breaking down which pushed back the move in date. However, the city was still able to be created and occupied in only two years. The city was intended to be both an apology to the displaced population of the Exclusion Zone and to the communist empire for the disaster while also showcasing Soviet unity through its design. It has different districts with architectural styles from Caucasus, Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltic states to represent this unity. Slavutych has been called a kaleidoscope of cultures because of this and was one of the last major feats of social and physical engineering from the Soviet Union.

Higginbotham, Adam. Midnight in Chernobyl. New York. Simon and Schuster, 2019.

Fedykovych, Pavlo. Inside Slavutych, the city created by the Chernobyl explosion, CNN.com. August 20th 2019. Accessed July 2nd 2021. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/chernobyl-slavutych-ukraine/index.html.

Willsher, Kim. Chernobyl 30 years on: former residents remember life in the ghost city of Pripyat, Theguardian.com. March 7th 2016. Accessed July 8th 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/07/chernobyl-30-years-residents-life-ghost-city-pripyat.