Wild Trip to Chernobyl (Pripyat’) — Part 3 (ending)
The continuation of Part 2: https://medium.com/@alexanyanwolf/wild-trip-to-chernobyl-pripyat-part-2-bf4d1c3bad91
The story of the secret USSR factory (Jupiter), Games with the police on their field, leaving Pripyat’ and one of the top-secret military objects of Soviet-era — “Duga” — over-the-horizon radar system against NATO missiles.
…So leaving the post office we heard the sound of an approaching car so we hid behind the walls until the car left. I didn’t know who that was.
Continued going towards the Jupiter factory.
On our way there we decided to visit the police station. Climbed over a concrete fence and went into the district office (the name for police of those times).
Saw a checkpoint, cameras, a walking place for prisoners, interrogation rooms, and something like a torture chamber.
I looked through the precinct journal. Basically, protocols for traffic violations. Apparently it belonged to a traffic cop.
Came out, went further. On the left, we see the garages of locals. Many cars were left, which after many years became the prey of metalworkers. A little further, we saw an active electricity substation — it provides energy to the Yanov railway station, Laundry and several other facilities.
A little further we saw the old Pripyat’ checkpoint and another strange one-story object with a bunch of rooms. This object had very strange yellow lead windows several centimeters thick — probably to serve as advanced protection against radiation. After checking the journals it became clear that this building was for quartered troops that were sent here in 1986 to control the perimeter and do not let anyone enter the city after all the civilians were evacuated.
We returned to the road to Jupiter. It was just a few hundred meters away. The last thing we looked at before reaching was notorious “Death Bucket” — that’s the name of the huge bucket that stood on the crane and participated in work on the exploding damaged power unit. Now it was lying in the middle of the forest and around it were several badges warning about the danger of radiation. The bucket was resembling a huge bone arm in the center of which a person could fit. I checked — and everything was right — you could fit :D.
Finally we got to Jupiter! Mysterious place! ❤ . Absolute copy of the place that was in the “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” game.
Okay, so what we and all civilians knew is that the “Jupiter” factory was officially involved in the development of tape recorders, though the size of the factory is so huge that it must have been making tape recorders for the entire USSR.
In general, first we went to the very center of the factory (in the game there was a crashed helicopter). Everything is absolutely the same, and even a collapsed roof is the same. The only difference is that there is no helicopter :)).
Throughout the territory there were tons of instructions to workers like “Be careful and report immediately in case of fire and emergency”. Well, how could it be otherwise. Tape recorder is not a joke. Everywhere there were devices like “Digital Frequency-Periodometer,” “Low-Frequency Signal Generator” and the like.
Exploring further. A pile of encrypted message tapes in morse code. Perhaps the Soviets wanted to make the best tape recorder in the world and were afraid of the leak of trade secrets?
In one of the rooms, we found working journals describing the operation of some wave pulse analyzers. Another journal had information about working shifts of employees and their occupation here:
We approached the stairs, which in the game leads down to the door, from where on the assignment you go into the underground tunnel leading to Pripyat. We take a few steps — on the stairs lies a special. clothes against radiation.
In place of the door — that same door. It was huge and very thick, slightly ajar, but everything is flooded so it is impossible to step further. What these tape recorder assemblers were doing here is hard to imagine. We leave and go to the administrative building of Jupiter.
There are a lot of documents and with each office it becomes more and more interesting. A lot of encrypted entries came in. Crosswords were used for encryption, words from calendars, dates, and lining cannot be described, but it draws to another part of the movie about agent 007.
The closer we were to the administration rooms the more interesting materials we were finding. Captured photographic tapes and magazines with very interesting notes. In the room of some boss I found a large magazine in which the telegraphed messages were glued (correspondence was conducted in Moscow — Pripyat (Jupiter)). There were many messages, more than a thousand.
Well and so on. The products were, well, how to say … Something slightly different than tape recorders.
We got into the room of the Director of the factory. He had a notebook with the numbers of all sorts of Secretary Generals and other leaders of all USSR. In his office, we found a secret door in the wall leading to another room. The room had closed safe and very interesting photos around.
Examples of the tape recorders manufactured by the factory:
Some photos were taken at a factory in a central building (workshops):
Another interesting illustration that we found was the hierarchy of this tape recorder factory.
I especially liked the square “Parachute Airborne Division” (the green square under “234”:
Then we found a secret door behind the cupboard, well disguised as the color of the walls. In one of the drawers of the desk of some head of this office, we found illustrations of the “troops and weapons of the countries of the Western block”, which described in detail the military equipment of the NATO countries of those times.
Moved to the exit. The entire factory was cordoned off under high voltage, with several alarm lines and probably also surrounded by troops back on 198X. Not a single tape player to the enemy!
Open sources in web say that some stalkers went very deep and studied all the documentation left here. According to the results, they came to the conclusion that the factory worked for the defense industry, manufactured “black boxes”, military computers, and various cars and machine tools used in strategic military and space technology of the USSR.
We left the factory and moved back home. Suddenly, a car came ahead of us — we ran away, made a circle and came back to the road to check what’s happening — a man in blue clothes sticking out at the car, looks like a policeman, called someone. Probably called the cops.
We were burned by a dog barking at Armen — it was frightened of his stick, which he carried with him everywhere like a crutch because of his knee injury. For reinsurance, we changed our path and continued on to the house.
On our way we saw an unfinished school. After the “tape recorder factory” engaged in large-scale work for the defense industry of the USSR, and the “pioneer camp” Duga radar, I expected the school to be at least a mobile headquarters for controlling intercontinental ballistic missiles, or in the basement there will be a mine with a launcher for one of the nuclear missiles of the USSR “Perimeter” system, but no. It was a school. SCHOOL KARL, JUST A SCHOOL :D
In short, we returned home at 7:00PM, Tendal laid down, Armen began to filter the water that we got from the water station, and I prepared some food for us.
After an hour and a half, we were on the roof of our building. Sticking around on the Internet. I was drinking best tea of my life (:D), which I took with me from home.
We went down home, all gathered and prepared. It’s 10:20PM on the clock. Moving out in 5 minutes.
Our moving is cancelled due to heavy rain. If we get out at night we’ll get to the MTS totally wet, and Armen can completely spread his legs and then leaving the Zone will be very difficult. We remain in Pripyat for another day. Deep inside (maybe not even that deep :D) I’m so happy for this fact — this place is love. ❤
Today we walked 19.7km.
07/05/2017 — Games with the police on their field
11:00AM Tendal and I went towards the Yacht Club. Armen was tired and stayed at home to rest and fix his leg.
We saw a legal touristic excursion at the Stadium. A dog ran nearby — we called the dog and fed it — there are not many dogs here and it is profitable to feed and play with them as next time they see you — they won’t bark, which is a huge plus as barking is heard throughout the whole Pripyat’.
We went to the music school. In several large halls on the walls there were murals about Khatyn and the words “They were with us.” Khatyn is a Ukrainian village in which during the Second World War the Germans drove all the people to their homes, dumped them and burned them alive.
We saw a cat on the street, played around, saw more tourists at the recreation center, came up. Thirty meters from them stood a black Lada with a man next to it. Tourists immediately asked us whether we were legal or stalkers, because that guy who was next to the car was the policeman, who were assigned to them. We understood, thanked them, said goodbye and hid in an unknown direction :D
The policeman saw us and accurately reported us to the CP, so we made a big detour through the muses. school went into the thicket. Once there was a street “Embankment”. Found a manor, rummaged in it — according to the records it belonged to the Redchits family of s — immigrants from the Baltic.
From the boat station and went towards the checkpoint (CP). Accidentally we came almost under the control gear, turned, climbed through the barbed wire. From the thicket we went to the hostel building, opposite which there was a disco. Through the back door we entered the building and left through the front door.
Located at the building of the special laundry, which to this day serves the organization “Navarko”— those who are building the Arch at the 4th power unit of the nuclear power plant.
Visited the old cemetery — everything is wildly overgrown.
From there we went to the sanitary and epidemiological station, where there was a very specific smell.
We went to the morgue. Near the morgue, an army car, it is not clear what they are doing here. We examined the entire morgue very quietly, checked whether the car had left and went on.
…So this had to be our last day in Pripyat’, and I couldn’t know whether I’ll have another chance to get back here someday or not. We watched almost every possible thing in Pripyat’ so I asked Tendal did he had some wish to do something here but never had a chance to do? He smiled and said that nobody ever stepped to the Laundry area as it was prohibited and full of cops and army forces. Apparently it was the area that not any stalker moved through ever (obviously because it is stupid :D). After 5–7 minutes of motivational talks Tendal agreed that we should do this.
So we planned to into the working area full of governmental employees and to do so we had to cross old gym building.
So we silently crossed the gym and after a few minutes of investigating the area and making sure that there are no cops out there we moved to the area of Laundry:
Here we see administrative area of workers, 6 meters from us. Here is the famous statue of the Little Bear from the game, and the radiation indicators. Cutie flowers, everything is clean and tidy, weighs the Ukrainian flag. Civilization though :))
We could not resist and took the risk walking through the streets of the working complex, taking a few photos and videos.
This was not enough for us so we decided to went out along the main street of the Laundry.
After hiding from a passing Volkswagen, we walked along the main streets, looked into the old recreation center, climbed to its roof and decided to rest for an hour.A nice plus was the presence of a very weak, but communication.
After taking some rest we left the roof and leisurely went home — this is our last hours in Pripyat’. At this moment we have already explored at all the key objects in the city, and we went home to prepare for leaving.
We heard voices below, returned home. It doesn’t rain, calm as before a storm.
Prepared and drinked Chifir to be awake. It’s 10:10PM, moved out. Hoping that there will be no rain.
At night the visibility was zero. We were trying to go very fast with no lights to avoid spotting by police.
This night we passed 17.2km + 5.6km. Reached the MTS at 01:10AM
07/06/2017 — USSR “Duga” over-the-horizon missile radar.
We got up at 6:00AM and then went back towards the river Uzh. On the road to our left behind the trees was a missile depot (the same with huge doors is in the Stalker game).
By 8:00AM we were already close to the radar. Waited until 9 o’clock for the soldiers to change shift and go along the concrete road towards.
“Duga”is a radar station of the times of the USSR, which was classified and marked on all maps as an “unfinished pioneer camp.” It consisted of two huge antennas. High-frequency with a height of 100 meters and a length of about 200 meters, and a low-frequency antenna with a length of about 500 meters and a height of 150 meters (Yes, we will climb to the top of it!!! ❤ )
Obviously, we decided to go to the top. The chance that someone would notice us there was high but I could not afford to miss such a chance. We left our backpacks in the forest, approached to the radar and I started climbing whereas Tendal said that he’ll wait for me and Armen below.
After a few minutes of climbing Armen said that he’ll go down because of his injury and I continued my way up alone.
Climbed to the top of the radar (150 meters) in 19 minutes.
Video from the top (1080p):
After a few minutes of joy and happiness (and after getting some rest because of my hands burning) I came down, found Armen and Tendal and we all together walked around the command center of the radar.
Command center of the antenna.
The most interesting thing here was that all the sensitive information and instructions of working with the antenna were put on the walls :)) On the top section we found the NATO rockets with description and main characteristics:
I wouldn’t believe ever that these handwritten paintings were used in one of the most technological objects of powerful USSR in late 80s but it was true :)
A floor below was a huge ventilation system for computers, the entrance to the halls of which was closed by several doors, some of which were opened with mechanical keys, and some electronic, by wire.
After exploring all the main sections of the object (which was a huge building though) we left it, then taken our backpacks from the forest where we left it, moved to the river “Uzh”, crossed it by 4:00PM and got to the house in Rudnya Veresnya village where we stopped at our first day. We climbed into the same attic with a straw and went to sleep at 5:15PM.
At 10:00PM we woke up, ate lightly and went out. We were all tired, the food was almost over, the water took a liter on the whole further journey. Armen had a bad leg pain, but he, realizing that there was no way out, walked with us in the darkness trying not to slow down.
At 11:02PM, we saw the headlights behind us — it was a police patrol so we hid in a store, waited for the car to pass, got out on the road and went on. Last few kilometers were extremely difficult for Armen so I took his backpack and held him to continue walking. Remembering how much he helped me during our trip to Iraq a few months ago, I was glad that I could support him now in the same manner that he did.
At 01:20AM we left the Chernobyl Zone. Tendal congratulated us on this event and we went another 4 kilometers until we got to the village “Peski” at 02:27AM, where we spent the night. We were so wet and so cold that we did not change our army uniform and somehow wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags, crouching on a bench at the bus stop. We were lucky that the border guards who saw us in the morning from the street did not approach to us and did not ask who we were or what we were doing in this border area (Ukraine-Belarus).
I still don’t understand why they didn’t come to us. In the morning at 6 o’clock the bus arrived where we left for Kiev.
In total, from 1st to 7th, we passed: (30140 steps (23.3km) | 32746 steps (25.8km) | 31001 steps (23.2km) | 26598 (19.7km) | 23218 (17.2km) | 46056 (36.1km) | 19559 (14.7 km)) -> In total 209318 steps | 160 kilometers through forests, ruined houses, roofs and concrete.
Was it worth it? I think Armen will answer separately, but I will answer for myself and traditionally write a couple of long words to add some drama and meaning :)
As I said, this challenge should not have been weaker than my trip to Iraq, and had to bring something new to my life. It was supposed to let me see what is impossible to see on YouTube, impossible to read in books and impossible to understand in games and movies. This challenge was supposed to tear me from reality and throw me into wild conditions without communication, with a limited supply of food and water and not hope for any help from outside. Every my hour and every minute from the 1st to the 7th day I was saturated with the surrounding atmosphere trying to understand how people lived thirty years ago. I wanted to understand their experiences, their joys and drama. I wanted to touch the era that ended before I was born, along with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Fortunately for me, in a certain sense I succeeded. No matter where I was, I tried to understand how people lived in the last days and weeks before the government told them to take everything they needed, get on buses and leave their cities and villages .. forever. Hundreds and thousands of human lives suddenly changed due to one accident. Their lives were no longer the same, because they had to leave everything that they loved so much, leave their work, their friends, their homes, their hometown …
It was not just a challenge. This journey was a kind of a food for the mind. Now, trying to write a couple more lines, I understand that, alas, I will not be able to convey to you on these pages everything that Pripyat and Chernobyl gave me. My words will be too primitive for such a task …
And so we “played” S.T.A.L.K.E.R. — a game based on the sad story of tens of thousands of people and hundreds of ragged lives. And I hope that game developers in their scenarios will continue to rely on the real events of the past, and not vice versa so we won’t have to play Fallout in real life.
Get out of your comfort zone. Don’t let any worry to limit your desires and actions. You have only one life and no one will live it instead of you.
Thanks to all ❤.
