Chernobyl - Name origin, History

51°16N 30°15E. City in Ukraine; near the junction of the Pripyat and Ushk Rivers, N of Kiev; scene of the world's largest known nuclear disaster (26 Apr 1986); nuclear reactor complex shut down in 2000. In 2003 the International Chernobyl Research and Information Network (ICRIN) was launched by the UN Inter-Agency Task Force.

Coordinates: 51°16′N 30°13′E

Chernobyl (Chornobyl, Ukrainian: Чорнобиль, Russian: Чернобыль) is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, in the Kiev Oblast (province) near the border with Belarus (51°16′N 30°13′E).

The city was abandoned in 1986 due to the Chernobyl disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which is located 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) north-northwest. The power plant has been named after the city, and was located in Chernobyl Raion (district), but the city and the plant were not directly connected. At the time of power plant construction a twin city of the plant, Prypiat was built for power plant workers.

Even though the city is mostly uninhabited, a few people still live there.

Name origin

The city name comes from a combination of chornyi (чорний, black) and byllia (билля, grass blades or stalks); It is also the Ukrainian word for mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), which is "chornobyl". The plants are pale green, and wormwood has a whitish tinge from a fine fuzz on the bottom of its leaves.

On occasion, Chernobyl has been translated controversially to mean simply "wormwood" (which most commonly refers to Artemisia absinthium), with consequent apocalyptic associations, that spread as far as Poland before Serge Schmemann of the New York Times published "Chernobyl Fallout: Apocalyptic Tale", July 26, 1986. The article quoted an unnamed "prominent Russian writer" as claiming the Ukrainian word for wormwood was chernobyl.

In fact, there are over 160 kinds of Artemisia, and the terminology is not generally accepted. Some sources refer to Artemisia vulgaris as "common wormwood", while others claim that "common wormwood" is Artemisia absinthium.

Wormwood is a different (but related) plant, Artemisia absinthium, Полин (Polyn).

Still more confusion comes from the fact that the word "wormwood" is used in the English text of the Apocalypse, whose usage as the name of a plant does not necessarily match that of the original Greek.

Chernobyl bears poetic connotations in folklore, for a number of reasons. Chernobyl roots were used in folk medicine for deworming and to heal neurotic conditions, although an overdose could lead to neurological disorders, including memory loss.

The word "Chernobyl" is also sometimes used as slang to describe certain nuclear installations, as well any grossly oversized or misshapen vegetable or fruit, jokingly implying that radiation affected its growth.

History

Chernobyl first appeared in a charter of 1193 described as a hunting-lodge of knyaz Rostislavich. In 1566, three years before the Grand Duchy's rule, Ukrainian provinces were transferred to the Kingdom of Poland and Chernobyl was granted in perpetuity to a Captain of the royal cavalry, Filon Kmita, who thereafter styled himself Kmita Czarnobylski.

Chernobyl had a very rich religious history. The traditionally Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian peasantry of the district was largely forced by Poland to the Greek Catholic (Uniate) religion after 1596, and returned to Russian Orthodoxy after Ukraine's unification with Russia.

The Dominican church and monastery were founded in 1626 by Lukasz Sapieha, at the height of the Counter-reformation.

The Dominican monastery was sequestrated in 1832, the church of the Raskolniki in 1852. Since 1880, Chernobyl has seen many changes of fortune. In the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20, it was taken first by the Polish Army and then by the Red Cavalry of the Red Army.

In 1898 Chornobyl had a population of 10,759, including 7,189 Jews ().

Chernobyl disaster

On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, exploded at 01:23 AM local time. All permanent residents of Chernobyl and Zone of alienation were evacuated because radiation levels in the area had become unsafe.