Tšernobõl 1986
Subtitle: The memoirs of a Estonian cleanup worker.
By: Tiit Tarlap.
Publisher: JUKS
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Pärnu
Language: est
Number of pages: 68
Subjects: Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986.
Description: This book is based on the letters that the author sent home while being in Chernobyl. While it is all true it is presented in a comedic manner. It follows the journey from his home to training camps to clean-up crews to the reactor itself and in the end back home. Mostly it describes the way men defied the often idiotic orders that they were given.
Notes: This is only a small fraction of events that happened to the author, because the original letters were long and even more sarcastic. It is influenced by Estonian image of Soviet Union, it was viewed upon as idiotic and self-destructive. The book manifests itself in 2 ways: first is hilarious comedy and the second is utterly serious and depressive. The second stage can only be reached once the book is fully read, because it is hard to see the true misery behind some of the situations.
Example: They were ordered to dig around the ground (so that the radioactive dirt would be underground), but after some time they understood that it was useless because they only dug up the last days dirt. So when they were ordered to dig from a house to the yard, they just moved the fence closer to the house.
Besides many such retarded situations there was a constant hunt for alcohol, that has been said in many other memoirs to be the main activity in the soviet army (either finding it or consuming it).