In 1986, during the Soviet Government’s haste to become a nuclear world power, they concealed the fact that they had not taken the necessary safety precautions to protect Chernobyl residents and at-risk workers inside the plant. Due to the government’s failed communication and lack of transparency, the Chernobyl plant explosion affected millions of people’s lives, both inside and outside the USSR.
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“We're afraid of everything. We're afraid for our children, and for our grandchildren, who don't exist yet. They don't exist, and we're already afraid. People smile less, they sing less at holidays. The landscape changes, because instead of fields the forest rises up again, but the national character changes too. Everyone's depressed. It's a feeling of doom. Chernobyl is a metaphor, a symbol. And it's changed our everyday life, and our thinking.”
― Svetlana Alexievich, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster