I rely on talking to brush the copy

[Menshak stopped in front of another tombstone: Alexandra Menshakevich Petrov (1925-1950): a member of the Communist Party, from Moscow to Berlin, he never retreated, always Move forward.

"His name is Menshakevich..." A young man exclaimed: "Is he your son?"

The elderly Menschak nodded and said with a proud smile: "He is my proud son. He counterattacked from Moscow to Berlin, Germany, and planted our red flag on the Reichstag."

He raised his eyes, met countless pairs of heavy gazes, and laughed loudly, with a sly smile like a child who had successfully tricked an adult, "Don't feel sorry for this boy Shania, this boy did not die in battle, he died of illness ”

"Shaniya has been an inconspicuous child since he was a child," Menschak shook his head helplessly, as if an ordinary old man was complaining to his neighbor about his unsatisfactory child, "He came back from the battlefield in perfect condition. I also praised him for being lucky, but who knew that in the winter of 1950, he died in bed due to fever."

"How could he die so easily..." The old man Menshak curled up his index finger and knocked on the tombstone, muttering in a low voice: "You kid is really annoying."

A few drops of water fell to the ground and soon evaporated.

…

………

The elderly Menshak stopped and stared intently at the name on the tombstone. The young people noticed that his fingers touching the tombstone were trembling.

There is a simple line of words engraved on the tombstone:

Ivan Ivanovich Petronov (1960-1986): a brave communist and firefighter, died in Chernobyl.

The young people fell silent because of that location.

The elderly Menshak gently wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and suddenly showed an extremely proud smile, "This is my grandson. He is a loyal and brave young man."

"Do you know about the Chernobyl accident?" The old man did not want the young people to answer this question. There was no need to answer this question. No one did not know about the Chernobyl accident. He continued: "When the reactor exploded, Ivan was One of the first 108 firefighters to put out the fire."

Picture after picture flashed one after another.

On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 in the morning, an earth-shattering explosion was heard from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and a few seconds later, a huge mushroom cloud rose.

"The dose of nuclear radiation released by this explosion was more than 400 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion, and the No. 4 reactor was a sea of ​​fire. At 1:26:03, Ivan and the others received the fire alarm. Two minutes later, they arrived at the scene. Started putting out the fire without wearing any radiation protection equipment.”

Young guys in firefighting uniforms jumped out of the fire truck and rushed to the nuclear reactor with high-pressure water cannons. Their exposed skin quickly turned black and fell off under the intense nuclear radiation, and large ulcers appeared on their bodies. Firefighters continued to collapse in the sea of ​​​​fire. Down, but no one stopped.

Menschak's voice echoed along with the picture: "Eighteen hours later, the government set up a special investigation team and rushed to the accident site to investigate. Generally speaking, a human body exposed to 500 roentgens of radiation for one hour will die, but this time The investigation found that the amount of radiation above Chernobyl was 20,000 roentgens, and that inside the exploded reactor was 30,000 roentgens.”

Different from the calmness when he introduced his son's tombstone just now, the elderly Menschak seemed to be unable to maintain his calm face anymore. He choked violently and tried to keep his eyes wide open to prevent tears from falling. He murmured to himself: "Because of the violent Due to the nuclear radiation, we have not seen Ivan’s body. We only heard that it was rotten...like...a mass of rotten...meat."

Since arriving at this cemetery, the young people have not stopped crying. At this time, they choked with sobs: "I am very sorry..."

"He is a hero..."

"...I will never forget him."

Instead, the elderly Menschak calmed down.

But his expression was more numb than calm.

He has witnessed too many deaths in his life.

"Ivan is a communist, this is what he should do." The elderly Menshak said: "At that time, many people died."

"On the 34th hour after the accident broke out, 53,000 residents of Chernobyl City were evacuated urgently. Later, the government evacuated all residents within 30 kilometers of the nuclear power plant. But... it was still too late. Because of the violent nuclear power Affected by radiation, many people died and many were disabled, and most of their descendants were deformed..."

The picture flashed up, showing all kinds of grotesque deformities. Their faces were hideous and their expressions were painful, making people shudder. 】

Xie Xun almost exclaimed.

This is a scene that only appears in thrillers.

Xie Xun knew very little about nuclear energy, a backward energy source. He didn’t expect that such a terrible energy source was used in the ancient earth period!

How will things develop next? How could the Soviet Union reduce the negative effects of nuclear radiation?

["In order to detect the radiation environment, the government dispatched helicopters more than 500 times to collect air samples over the nuclear reactors. Later, the helicopters came and went for many days, dumping 5,000 tons of boron carbide and sand on the exposed nuclear reactors. To absorb the neutrons produced by the chain reaction, the nuclear fission reaction was finally stopped, reducing the radioactivity around the nuclear power plant by a hundred times.”

Before the young people could reveal a happy smile on their lips, the old Menschak continued:

"The helicopter responsible for the airdrop did not adopt any radiation protection facilities. More than 600 pilots were exposed to severe nuclear radiation. Many of them died, and those who remained also suffered from radiation sickness... At that time, they were smiling on the helicopter Flying."

In one old photo after another, the pilots smiled and drank vodka, said goodbye with a smile, climbed into the helicopter with a smile, and died calmly.

"We may not see tomorrow." One pilot said to his friends with a smile.

So the happy smiles of young people in peaceful times froze at the corners of their mouths, and in their eyes was a kind of confusion and panic, as well as deep sadness.

Menschak's memories continued: "In order to extinguish the fire, Ivan and the others injected 20,000 tons of water above the reactor. The temperature of the nuclear reactor below was too high. The bottom was already a piece of lava, and a strong steam explosion was likely to occur. In order to prevent this disaster, three engineers carried out this suicide mission. They dived into the water in the basement, opened the drainage valve, and let the water drain out... There was a nuclear reactor underneath their bodies. Fortunately, they survived. Come down."

…

"In order to prevent the lava under the nuclear reactor from sinking and contaminating water resources, the workers dug tunnels from the side of the reactor and injected liquid nitrogen into them to lower the temperature of the lava so that it could solidify and be stored for later... Those workers were exposed to the nuclear radiation environment for a long time, and many people died. Even if it is reduced by half, many people suffer from incurable radiation sickness, and some people... give birth to deformed children. "

…

"Later, the army came. They were going to start building sarcophagi to isolate the radioactive source. Before that, they were going to clean up the reactor..."

The screen cut again, and a dignified middle-aged soldier stood at the front of the team, with a line of subtitles appearing in front of him: General Taraknov, Commander of the Soviet Engineering Corps.

He slowly glanced at the endless soldiers, with a brave and fearless look on his face. He waved his arms and said loudly: "Comrades, please rest! Everyone is aware of their tasks. The political commissar and I have just arrived on the roof. I went up there once, and there was nothing special about it. Everything was ready, everyone went up there! Shovel it twice and then come down quickly, remember the protection essentials! There are ten people in each group, no more than 90 seconds! I should go up first, followed by the political commissar, Communist Party members and Communist Youth League members, please pay attention to safety. And the Black Sea sanatorium is ready for us!”

…

Five months later, the nuclear reactor was completely cleaned and a red flag was flying at the highest point of the nuclear power plant.

“In the nearly two years of rescue operations, a total of 600,000 Soviet people were recruited, covering thousands of occupations and positions...My children and grandchildren also responded to the call and did some minor work...Fortunately, they The nuclear radiation involved in the infection was relatively mild, and I managed to survive..."

…

The old Menschak continued to move forward, and the silent tombstones were like signposts, marking the smoke of the past.

"This is...Andre, he and I are brothers in the trenches."

The birth and death years on the tombstone are 1910-1991.

The faces of the young people were a little relieved. At the age of eighty-one, it can be said that this person has lived a long life. Finally, this person did not die young.

"I'm sorry. Did he die of illness?"

The elderly Menshak shook his head and replied indifferently: "He committed suicide. On the day Gorbachev announced the disintegration, he ended his life with a shotgun."

“We are the remnants of the old era, and there is no ship that can carry us in the new era.”①

Menshak looked up at the sky, stretched out his hand to block the dazzling sunlight, squinted his eyes and muttered to himself: "Why am I still alive?\