Valery Hodemchuk, senior operator of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Victims of the Chernobyl accident

Valeri Hodemchuk, the only employee of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, who died in the 4th power unit, where he found a grave under one hundred and thirty tons of concrete blocks, fulfilled his civil duty . What kind of person was he and how was his destiny? And who else from his friends became victims of a terrible accident on the tragic day of April 26?

Mother's grief

Valery was a caring son who regularly visited his mother, who lives in the village of Krapivnoye in the Kiev region, in his small homeland. Spring is the time when the villagers traditionally plant potatoes, so after the shift on Saturday morning, his whole family together with the children planned to go to Anna's help in agricultural work.

Saturday 26.04.1986, the mother of Valeria Hodemchuk spent in anxiety, because the son never broke promises. Since morning on Sunday the alarm has amplified, and by the evening in the village there were first buses with evacuated. The daughter-in-law came to Anna Isaakovna's house with her children. She had to learn the terrible truth about the tragedy that had happened.

Her whole life ran before her eyes: how the wounded husband Ilya returned from the war. He was without a foot, with a burned soul and heavy physical ailments. Soon he died from his wounds, and she stayed, a simple collective farm link, with four children in her arms. Valera was the youngest, he was one and a half years old. He grew up quiet and shy, but early on I understood on the example of his parents what a sense of duty was. In relation to the mother, dear ones, the Motherland.

Pripyat is a dream city

In the seventies, along with the construction of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the city of Pripyat, founded on 04.02.1970, was destined to develop and become destined to become an atomic city. Places on the river Pripyat notable for recreation. A blessed place in which mushrooms in the summer, though oblique, can be caught in the river without baits on an ordinary hook, but under the feet grow forest berries. Favorite place for rest of thousands of people settled down with new settlers.

In a young settlement, new families were created, children were born more often than in other cities. By 1986 in Pripyat already lived about fifty thousand inhabitants, including 15 406 children. It was here that after the service in the Soviet Army Valery Khodemchuk arrived on the Komsomol voucher after his service, the biography of which closely intertwined with the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Work path, family

His labor career started with the profession of a driver, but very soon the Komsomol member started working directly at the nuclear power plant, having passed from the boiler operator to the senior operator of the MRC RTS-2. Valeriy Ilyich Chodemchuk, born in 1951, was respected by his colleagues, his portrait hung on the city's Honor Board. By the age of thirty he already had two government awards: the Order of the Badge of Honor and the Order of Labor Glory of the II degree.

Bleached his soul to the local places. He loved hunting, and Polesie was a paradise for lovers of such leisure. Here he created a family, having met a dark-haired girl with gray-green eyes. The wife of Valery Hodemchuk, Natalia Romanovna, also worked at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, as a machinist of a pumping station. By the will of fate April 22 spouses celebrated the anniversary of the wedding. In the family were brought up two children: by 1986 Oleg went to the second class, and Larissa - in the sixth. The daughter inherited from her father curly hair, eye color, eyebrows.

Life was going on as usual, and the family was making new plans. It seemed that nothing boded ill.

Chernobyl accident

In December 1983, the 4th power unit was commissioned. Employees were convinced that modern technologies, multiple locks and computer technology would protect them from any accidents. Alas, the creators of the new reactor did not provide important protection for people, and the chain of violations of the instructions for its operation was tragically ended on the night of the standard tests by a terrible explosion of the power unit. Radiation dust spread through Ukraine, Belarus, 14 regions of Russia, covering the terrible territory of Western Europe.

The Chernobyl accident occurred on the night of Saturday, April 26. From the explosions (there were two of them), the metal structures of the top of the reactor shifted, the pipes, the discharge side and the reactor makeup compartment collapsed, part of the building collapsed. Radioactive fragments hit the roof of not only the reactor, but also the turbine building. There was a partial collapse of the roof of the machine room (the second stage of the station), where the senior operator Khodemchuk carried his labor watch.

From the memoirs of eyewitnesses

At the station in the night 134 people worked. Those who were closer to the engine room, remember that they took the explosions, like blows, taking them for a blast of turbine blades. An alarm was triggered, highlighting the problem at Unit 4. Everyone ran there. Most interested in the machine hall, where there were flammable hydrogen and engine oil. Seeing the collapse of the roof, everyone tried to inform the information in the shield panel of the 4th block, mistakenly believing that it was necessary to pour water to cool the reactor.

In the first few minutes no one understood the scale of the tragedy, for the old dosimeters could not measure the real power of the radiation level. The Chernobyl accident revealed the complete unpreparedness of personnel for this development of events. And to meet the firefighters, who arrived on fire in seven minutes, already carried burnt Vladimir Shashenka, an engineer of the production enterprise Smolenskatameneragonalka, who came on a business trip to observe the nightly testing of the reactor. Until 1984, he worked directly at the nuclear power plant, having transferred to the starting-up and adjustment enterprise as a transfer order to work in the specialty after graduating from an industrial technical school in Konotop.

He will die at six in the morning from burns, an unthinkable fraction of radiation and a fracture of the spine. Being in shock from the pain, being conscious, he kept saying: "There's Valera ...". It was about his companion and one-year-old Valeria Hodemchuk.

The death of the senior operator of the MCP RTS -2

Before the first explosion at the station began shaking, sweeping circular pumps. Valery Hodemchuk, without hesitation for a second, rushed to the danger to identify the causes of the extraordinary situation. He acted automatically, as the duty dictated, not seeking to shift responsibility to subordinates. He was covered by an explosion, burying the body under one hundred and thirty tons of concrete debris. There was a gap between the entrance to the turbine hall and the main circular pumps. The commissioning engineer was the first witness of the death of a friend, rushing to his aid at the cost of his life.

Valery Khodemchuk and Vladimir Shashenok are the first victims of a terrible accident. In total, 108 people were hospitalized on the first day (24 more on the second day of the accident). Some of them are those who tried to save the senior operator until the last. V.Perevozchenko, the shift supervisor, crawled along the console through an educated failure to the operators room, but in vain. Nobody wanted to believe in the death of a friend. Senior mechanical engineer A. Yuvchenko three times tried to get into a dangerous place, gasping for radioactive dust and smoke. The search did not stop until seven in the morning. Only the order to transfer the shift and leave the dangerous object buried the hope of finding the body of the senior operator.

Other Chernobyl victims

Until today, no records are kept of those who died as a result of the disaster. WHO considers the official figure of 4 thousand people. It is known that on the day of the accident and within the next month, 31 people died, including the firemen, who prevented a more terrible catastrophe. Employees of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant did not count up twenty-one specialists. 19 died of radiation sickness, having received a dose of radiation incompatible with life, they all accepted death with dignity.

Full list of dead NPP employees:

1. Hodemchuk Valery Ilyich, buried under the rubble as a result of the explosion, the body was not found. Senior operator.
2. Shashenok Vladimir Nikolayevich, died of radiation sickness, burns and fracture of the spine. Engineer.
3. Alexander Lelechenko, died of radiation sickness, which developed as a result of four-day work to eliminate the accident together with the workers of the electrical shop. Deputy head of the shift.
4. Shapovalov Anatoly Ivanovich, participated in the localization of the accident at the electrical appliances of the station. Electrician.
5. Baranov Anatoly Ivanovich, who did not give the fire to other blocks. Electrician.
6. Lopatyuk Viktor Ivanovich, stood in the way of spreading the fire. Electrician.
7. Konoval Yury Ivanovich, prevented the development of a fire. Electrician.
8. Brazhnik Vyacheslav Stepanovich, blocked the oil pipeline, preventing the spread of fire. The machinist of a steam turbine.
9. Vershinin Yuri Anatolyevich, participated in extinguishing a fire in the engine room. The driver-crawler.
10. Degtyarenko Viktor Mikhailovich, in addition to putting out the fire, took colleagues out from under the rubble. Duty operator.
11. Ivanenko Yekaterina Alexandrovna, did not leave her post as an employee of private security until the end.
12. Luzganova Klavdiya Ivanovna, also an employee of private security.
13. Kurguz Anatoly Kharlampievich, saved people from the rubble. Senior operator.
14. Kudryavtsev Alexander Gennadievich, carried out a survey of the reactor after the accident. Senior engineer.
15. Novik Alexander Vasilievich, participated in putting out a fire in the engine room. The driver-crawler.
16. Akimov Alexander Fedorovich, was engaged in determining the scale of the disaster and the localization of consequences. Shift Supervisor.
17. Perevozchenko Valery Ivanovich, at the cost of his life saved his subordinates. Shift Supervisor.
18. Perschuk Konstantin Grigorievich, at the cost of his life, stopped the leakage of water from deaerators. Senior Engineer.
19. Proskuryakov Viktor Vasilievich, took all measures to prevent the spread of the accident. Senior engineer.
20. Sitnikov Anatoly Andreevich, personally examined the emergency reactor. Deputy Director of the Chernobyl NPP.
21. Toptunov Leonid Fyodorovich, took all measures on БЩ-4 on localization of the accident. Senior engineer.

One hundred and thirty-one people were diagnosed with radiation sickness, 80 of them died in the following years. Presumably another 60 thousand people (liquidators) suffer from other diseases due to high radiation doses.

The funeral of the first victims of the accident

Shashenok V.N. found a haven in a village cemetery in Chistogalovka, other heroes, including firefighters and employees of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, were buried in the Mitinskoye cemetery in Moscow, where all precautionary requirements were met. This is due to the fact that most of them died in the Moscow Clinical Hospital No. 6. Today it's a shame to realize that the domestic medicine has not done everything in its power to save people. There is an opinion about the erroneousness of Dr. Gale's method used to treat radiation sickness. This is confirmed by the success of Kiev doctors, who, in turn, managed to save all of their patients, in addition to Alexander Lelechenko, who received more than 1500 roentgens (a lethal dose of 700).

The bodies wrapped in a film were buried in wooden coffins, sewn in zinc, to avoid penetrating radiation. Later, the entire burial place was filled with concrete. After 11 years, justice was restored and a symbolic plate with a bust was installed on the site of the repose of the Chernobyl heroes at Mitinsky Cemetery. This is a kind of grave in which Valery Khodemchuk comes to life in a stone. Chernobyl took away from him the opportunity to be buried according to Christian customs.

Human memory

Every year, on the anniversary of the event, the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, relatives and simply not indifferent people come to the Mitinskoe cemetery. Here, the Memorial was created in memory of the dead, the Chapel was built. Mourning events are held, the "Chernobyl" Union of Russia helps to come to. The memorial is a remarkable monument of art, symbolizing a man who protected the world from a nuclear threat, as if shielding every inhabitant of the planet Earth from a radiation cloud. And the words from John crown the feat of everyone lying under concrete slabs:

"There is no greater love than if someone laid down his life for his friends."

Since Valery Hodemchuk was immortalized in this cemetery by a memorial plaque, his widow, Natalya Romanovna, came to Moscow every year, as if to meet with her husband. Her soul is not calm until now, because the body of a loved one has never been betrayed to the earth. Yes, and the last moments of life remained shrouded in a single known mystery, which is unlikely to be unraveled. On the web, there are photos of a disfigured mummy allegedly mutating the corpse of a senior operator found on the territory of the nuclear power plant. But there is no official confirmation of this fact.

The Chernobyl accident occurred thirty years ago. Natalia Hodemchuk could not come to the thirty-year anniversary of the tragic events in Moscow, that will remain on the conscience of those who did everything to quarrel between the peoples of Ukraine and Russia. But relatives have one more place, where they always try to reach the birthday of an expensive person (March 24). This is the third power unit that ceased functioning only in December 2000.

Valery Khodemchuk as a symbol of courage and duty

The first commemorative plaque with a portrait of the heroic senior operator is installed inside the power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, access to which is closed to all. The main intrigue is that she always has fresh fresh flowers. This gives us hope that the human memory is alive, and it is stronger than fear of the invisible force of radiation. This is done not only by people who knew personally this curly, kind, but just man, but also those who believe that such people are holding peace. Chernobyl is not only a tragedy, it is the greatest human feat and warning to all people of the Earth, as far as we are connected by a single invisible thread. Nuclear tragedy knows no bounds.

In 2008, Ukraine eliminated injustice against Valery Hedemchuk and his role in the elimination of the accident, awarding posthumously the Order of Courage III degree.