Our service consisted in patrolling. Basically, there was nothing to patrol, nothing to guard – it was all abandonned and overgrown with weeds. There were no local residents – practically no people where we were. We had a couple of detentions. Meaning, some people came to loot – to make a hand of something good. Because lots of things were just abandonned. Imagine, we enter a shop... And it was like a shop in a horror movie: you look around – everything is in its place, as if somebody had just left...There's everything – all, all, all – foodstaffs and what not. And nobody there – not a single person. That is, we were the only ones - absolutely on our own there.

One's whole mindset changed a lot. First of all, we returned from the zone being no longer “soviet persons”, so to speak. I no longer considered myself a “sovok” - indoctrinated bigot and a typical soviet person. (…). And one's world outlook changed completely, and one's life values. You no longer lived for the sake of the State, nor for the sake of your Soviet Motherland, but you understood, as it were, that you need to live for the sake of your family, for the sake of your children. Basically, your family values – that's the most important thing. Your health and your family.

Well, now, let's say, the Japanese people – seem to be a very clever nation, terribly clever, but all the same they, too, did have that explosion at the nuclear station. Look at that – them, of all people! I can understand it happening here – because it's all, like, “Vanya, Petya! Go get the hammer! Move on!” and on you go...But the Japanese – no, I think, it doesn't work like that with them. And yet, and still – their station blew up. And the water from the reactor is going to the see now! And that means they are up the hole – they've screwed it up! Yes, they might be very clever – but not clever enough to stop it somehow. 'cause it's a chain reaction – it's going on and on and on and on and on and on – and there's no stopping it.