Chernobyl, 20 years on.
One of my favourite blogs that I have on my rss feed is the English-Russia blog. The latest entry today was a photo tour of Chernobyl, 20 years after the nuclear reactor went boom. It's a fascinating, if sad photo tour, the pictures speak louder than words. (The comments at the end are mostly crap, it's like troll city when trolls get bored.) The entry itself is fascinating. The blogger talks about how there is absolutely no sound, how it is deathly quiet and how the trees are reclaiming the city and surrounds, nature taking back what man ruined.
Because I am a Russiaphile and I love history, and I (like many of my flist I'm sure) remember the Chernobyl disaster, I followed the merry link hopping trail as you do and ended up at the site of Elena Filatova, a Russian lady living in Kiev, daughter of a nuclear physicist, who riders her Ninja motorcycle around what's called the Dead Zone and the Wolf Lands of Chernobyl and photographs it. On her site, she says, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to hell, girls on motorcycles go where they want." I like her attitude.
I just finished reading her photo journals of her rides into the Dead Zone and surrounds. I link because I love, but I'm also warning you that some photos may distress some people. Remember, this is a nucelar fallout zone, and some of the photos in the journals are...heartbreaking. Elena talks in her journals without any softening of the topic, and I think she's absolutely right to do so. She tells things like she sees them, and the majority of the photos and entries are absolutely amazing and astounding. (In her site map, for those who might be interested, she also has a page on Stalin's Gulags in Siberia. Again, warnings for those who might find the topic distressing.)
Anywa, after all that blah blah from me, here's her journal. My name is Elena. I run this website and I don't have anything to sell. What I do have is my motorbike and the absolute freedom to ride it wherever curiosity and the speed demon take me.
Because I am a Russiaphile and I love history, and I (like many of my flist I'm sure) remember the Chernobyl disaster, I followed the merry link hopping trail as you do and ended up at the site of Elena Filatova, a Russian lady living in Kiev, daughter of a nuclear physicist, who riders her Ninja motorcycle around what's called the Dead Zone and the Wolf Lands of Chernobyl and photographs it. On her site, she says, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to hell, girls on motorcycles go where they want." I like her attitude.
I just finished reading her photo journals of her rides into the Dead Zone and surrounds. I link because I love, but I'm also warning you that some photos may distress some people. Remember, this is a nucelar fallout zone, and some of the photos in the journals are...heartbreaking. Elena talks in her journals without any softening of the topic, and I think she's absolutely right to do so. She tells things like she sees them, and the majority of the photos and entries are absolutely amazing and astounding. (In her site map, for those who might be interested, she also has a page on Stalin's Gulags in Siberia. Again, warnings for those who might find the topic distressing.)
Anywa, after all that blah blah from me, here's her journal. My name is Elena. I run this website and I don't have anything to sell. What I do have is my motorbike and the absolute freedom to ride it wherever curiosity and the speed demon take me.