Well, actually, I can say that not everybody knows it. For example, a woman who came to our post told me, she was pregnant for something about 3 months or even less – such pregnancies were always aborted. They told us that it was rarely that somebody left them. But one woman […] from that zone, she said that she didn’t want to do the abortion. Triplets was about to be born I guess. But it all grew in together, she was operated on and she had huge problems. So, that is what I know ‘cause I heard it myself and I saw this woman.

My wife is a medic. The next day she brought some pills with iodine and made us take them. Later I found out more about it at the Institue of Chemistry (of the Academy of Sciences). At the very first stage – the most terrible one – we were not involved. There was nothing for us to do there. But after the sarcophagus had been erected – almost erected – they started repairing the roof, and immediately the issue of containment and hermetic tightening came up - of the sarcophagus itself, of the building, the walls and the roof itself. And then we went there, too. (…) How come – there's a tragedy, and we are doing nothing? We must be doing something! Nobody called us up for service – because we are civilians, nobody could call us up. But the Academy was set an absolutely particular task pertaining to containment and hermetic tightening, and our Institute – a leading institution of the Academy – dealt with polymer materials, and , naturally, we got involved. And the department where I worked, in particular.

It was hard at the beginning. It was scary – what's this radiation? - many people couldn't grasp. Later on we found out: you come into the zone – it's scary because there's nobody there, not a soul. Birds don't sing, cows go past with huge udders and moo, unmilked. Everything's abandoned – new equipment, trucks. You drive into a village – there's not a soul, just chickens walk around.

We just went to work an did our job like a regular job. Just went to work and fulfilled the tasks which were set us. It's only afterwards, a lot later – when health problems and hospitals began – did we realize where we had been and what was going on with us. But at that moment we didn't mind it – just didn't give a damn. It's kind of funny now, but I tried to send a gift to my child from there – some canned condensed milk.

I was a Party member. I was brought up and taught by my family and by the society to think of our Motherland first and only then think of myself. And that's what I did: on June, 15th we arrived in the unknown. We had to go, because someone had to feed the people -so we went. There were 6 people like me. We were based in the Chernobyl zone and we fed the builders who were building the concrete factories. My impressions... I haven’t seen the plant itself because there was no time for sightseeing, even if I had wanted to see it – knowing nothing about it. There was no time – the 6 of us had to serve 800 people. It is very difficult, believe me! My only impression was – I want to sleep!. Just lie down and fall asleep – that was the only thing I wanted in life. This is how difficult it was – the load on us was terrible. Sometimes I meet some boys who say“Good afternoon, Vera Andreyanovna!” – “Good afternoon, boys!” – “Do you remember us?” – And I say “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t”. I remember them all wearing a field service cap. In their clothes – they’re all the same. And you never look at their faces – you work at a run all day.