Preface by the author to the second edition of the book “The Chernobyl Dictionary of Mankind”
Author's preface to the second edition of the book I want to explain why I decided to write such a work, not so long getting ready, but very doubtful and tormented at the same time: too many words from the usual Russian dictionary from “АБАЖУР” to “ЯЩУР” revived my memory of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, which wanted to be forgotten. In order to avoid artificial oblivion and self-elimination of human society from the Chernobyl “A” to the Chernobyl “Z”, for the prospect of survival and life, for all living and living, survivors, innocent, victims, guilty, justified, escaped, allowed, militant, repentant — those who have remembered and forgotten — I try to do what I can and the way I can. The threatening word “Chernobyl” once crashed into the lives of many of us, into someone's life — with an explosive shell, into someone — with a blank cartridge, but it crashed forever. It burst into my life on the night of April 26-27, 1986 with an unexpected telephone call from the officer on duty at the Main Fire Department of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Through my sleep, I could not remember if I had ever heard the word “Chernobyl” before. But I woke up and realized that I didn't know him.
What is it? Where is it, finally?!
Very, very soon I will know everything, but it would be better not to know ever...
My husband, Vladimir Maksimchuk, Major General of the Internal Service, or rather, the Fire Service, became an active liquidator of the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster. In the very first tragedies, being a member of the Governmental Commission for Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster, he arrived at the site of the disaster. There he headed the combined fire brigade at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. On the night of May 22-23, 1986 he supervised the extinguishing of a fire at the 4th power unit of the nuclear power plant, classified as secret. He was directly involved in reconnaissance of the lesion focus. The consequences of those events were not slow to affect the further course of life and health. Despite everything, Vladimir Mikhailovich continued to fully devote himself to work, more than once he led the operations to prevent and eliminate major accidents and disasters in the country, moreover, he initiated the creation of a domestic emergency response service for emergencies, which became the prototype of the modern Ministry of Emergency Situations. He died on May 22, 1994 as a result of an incurable illness-sentence with a diagnosis of Chernobyl. By presidential decree on December 18, 2003 Vladimir Maksimchuk was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation posthumously.
I also want to emphasize that what happened to us in Chernobyl was not an accidental blow of fate that broke out in a planetary catastrophe. This is the result and measure of the human relationship to the world, to life, to each other. The secret fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is an act, and retribution, and a call to repentance and purification of our souls. Almost every word in “The Chernobyl Dictionary of Mankind” is a human deed or retribution for the same or similar deed.
What changes in the flow of time? Life does not stop at the particular, interspersing individual cases and summary circumstances into the subsequent course of events. The twenty-first century has made its own amendments to previous views and norms, set new accents in our memory, brought fresh touches and colors to the pictures of history, surprised with unexpected knowledge and ideas, filled life with new tragedies, confusion and experiences, thereby correcting and expanding the dictionary “from Chernobyl”. The stone that mankind constantly stumbles over on the way to its own progress, constantly changes its appearance, but not its meaning.
It is bitter and painful to realize that often the best pages of our life, our best deeds are lost in the archives of secondary activities. There are not so many of those, but they are precisely the arguments against which Chernobyl is powerless.
The modern multipolar world is very complex and contradictory. However, the word “Chernobyl” itself did not become a repository of a different content, did not become a carrier of another concept or a measurement of a different scale, but only exacerbated the anxiety associated with its previous meaning, which many could not unconditionally accept.
I dedicate “The Chernobyl Dictionary of Mankind” to those who lost their loved ones in the Chernobyl or similar world disasters, as well as to all others who have survived.
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В работе над книгой использованы документы из личного служебного дела В.М.Максимчука, аудио-, видео— материалы и документы из архива противопожарной службы Москвы и России, из личного архива Л.В.Максимчук, из личных архивов соратников В.М.Максимчука по совместной работе в УПО Москвы и ГУПО МВД СССР И.А.Степанова, В.А.Решетникова, В.В.Александрова, В.Я.Никитенко, В.А.Григорьева, С.А.Афанасьева и по совместной работе на Чернобыльской АЭС В.В.Чухарева, А.С.Гудкова, В.Я.Романюка, А.А.Черненко, спортсменов, тренеров, ветеранов и руководителей Федерации пожарно-спасательного спорта России и Европы А.М.Ивахненко, В.П.Корсакова, Н.И.Пейчева, важнейшие документы, переданные региональным куратором Красного Креста Швеции Марией Легат, фотографии, иллюстрации из частного собрания Л.В.Максимчук, а также фотографии и сведения, предоставленные ликвидаторами катастрофы на Чернобыльской АЭС и сотрудниками пожарно-спасательных служб Москвы, России, Германии, Болгарии, Австрии, США.
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