Sickness and death are seeking their families, friends and neighbors silently with a vengeance. They are victims of the former Soviet Union government's ambition to be a nuclear superpower. For more than 45 years, these residents have been unwittingly exposed to a daily dose of high radiation. In the late 1940's, in what was perceived as a grand design of the former government to strengthen its military prowess, a complex called Mayak was built some 90km in north Chelyabinsk to produce atomic weapons. The deadly radioactive waste it generated was quietly and systematically dumped into the Techa River.
Children swim in it in the summer and skate on it in the winter.
It was only in recent years that the villagers were told that the river is contaminated. But no efforts were made to evacuate the four largest villages. Children from Myslyumovo, Brodokalmak, Tishma and Argayash still fish and swim in the river. To the it is a Hobson's choice because there are no recreational facilities available. Driven by poverty and a strong attachment to the land of their forefathers, most residents of Chelyabinsk choose to stay put, despite the anger and the pain they have to endure even as nuclear was embedded in their soil continues to give out its fatal radiation.