Bohdan Ševčuk

“Nobody told us anything for four days. Nobody knew anything for four days, and they still sent people to the 1st of May manifestation. Only the local Jews knew and immediately disappeared as far as possible within the Soviet Union. As people knew that they were fleeing they understood that something was happening, and the following day we were told that Chernobyl exploded. We knew what it was and the first thing that happened was that when it rained, there were these yellow remains afterwards. Something else was also in the air. But what to do, where to go? That’s just how people lived.”

“When the churches started opening during big holidays, the communists were standing there and watching which kids were going to go there. Then they reported it at school and the school started expelling. Those who were in Komsomol or the Pioneer, those would be expelled. You know what that meant, to be expelled from the Komsomol? That was horrible. And it wasn’t for a serious reason. (And you were religious?) Yeah. Not that religious but I do believe in something. But the kids are baptised. The priest was quietly driven by a different car to the cottage. Nobody knew. They baptised my son, we sat down, ate dinner, and then they left. It wasn’t registered anywhere that he was a Christian, that was not common.”