May 1 was one of the biggest holidays in the Soviet calendar—the worker’s festival. In 1986, celebrations across the Soviet Union were overshadowed by what had happened just days before: the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. The Soviet leadership’s unsure response was to cost lives and, arguably, hasten the end of the USSR itself.
Chornobyl
OP-ED
James Rodgers: How Chornobyl shaped Russia and Ukraine’s modern history
An abandoned building is seen in the ghost town of Pripyat near the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant early on April 26, 2021 during an event to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.
