A Story of Courage: Vladimir Makulkin and His Contribution to the Chernobyl Disaster Cleanup
By 1986, Vladimir Makulkin had already worked as a firefighter at SVPCh No. 1 in Orsha for several years and had recently become a squad leader.
– There is such a phrase: "The Party said: 'We must!' – the Komsomol answered: 'Aye!' It was the same in service; they told us to perform a certain task, and we did it, – says the interviewee. – A little over a month after the accident, I was part of the first detachment from the Vitebsk region that went to the Bragin district to extinguish fires. We arrived there in our regular uniforms, in our own vehicles, although we later left all the equipment there. No one imagined the scale of the tragedy then.
To this day, some settlements in the Bragin district are in the exclusion zone, which is the territory around the Chernobyl NPP within a 30 km radius. But back then, even in the villages where people live today, there was no one. Only dogs and chickens ran around, abandoned by their owners who had to evacuate quickly.
– We lived in Bragin itself, but we went out to the contaminated zones every day. First, we extinguished peat fires for several days, then these areas were closed off, and we never returned there. The rest of the time, we treated roads, trees, houses, and residential buildings with a special solution, – recalls Vladimir Makulkin. – Of course, we understood that it wasn't just a simple matter, but we were young, nothing scared us, it seemed like we could handle anything. We didn't have dosimeters, but we saw the device go off the scale when other liquidators removed layers of soil from the ground. I think we were lucky because we were there for three weeks, and on June 19, a new detachment arrived to relieve us.
Upon returning home, Vladimir Makulkin immediately went on duty. After some time, he became a dispatcher for the operational control center. For 15 years, he was the first to learn about emergencies that occurred in his native region.
– Sometimes it seems that I have seen so much in my life that it is difficult to be surprised. But, taking calls, you always worry about people, colleagues, – shares the former liquidator. – You always replay every situation in your head, how quickly you managed to report the call, whether the rescuers managed to extinguish the fire. The carelessness of people who leave their children unattended, and they start playing with matches and starting fires, is surprising.
Vladimir Makulkin worked in the Ministry of Emergency Situations for over 25 years and retired. Today, he actively participates in events of the Orsha district organization of the Belarusian public association of veterans of emergency bodies and divisions "Spasatel", attends excursions, and tells the current generation about his career path.