The last dance floor in Chernobyl

23:48He stays there a while, trying to work out what to do, but he knows he has to go back out there. I needed to buy the wedding bouquet, so I went to the local market and there was not even one single person there. Floorless, he heads to the train station where he's meeting his best man who asks what's going on. The friend says his train passed the reactor, part of the roof is missing and there's a very big fire. There's still been no official announcement. Meanwhile, Irina hasn't had much sleep. Around six in the morning, we got calls from friends and doctors and we were told that we had to wet fabric to put in the doorways, to not go outside.

24:32We had to make sure there was no dust in the windows. We had to close the windows and doors And there was such a sun The weather was wonderful The morning was wonderful But here we started somehow Our parents were very nervous Everyone was waiting Mama said that we had to call the local authorities To ask what it meant to us Whether we were having a wedding or not But the authorities wouldn't be up at this hour So they waited nervously It's meant to be the best day of your life. The moment you've been dreaming of since you were young, with months of planning. And yet, there's all this confusion.

25:15What would you do? What would you want to believe? At nine in the morning, my mother called the local authorities and asked what to do about the wedding. They told her, don't panic, everything's fine. Yes, you should have the wedding. The authorities, the people in charge, the ones you're supposed to trust tell you this wedding must go ahead. The streets are busy with kids going to school and the citizens of Pripyat going about their business. Everything is fine. Everything is normal, comrade. Serhi is suited and booted. The shoes were Yugoslavian, the suit was Polish, the shirt was Italian and I was wearing a bow tie too.

26:00nothing was from the Soviet Union. And he's got his best man. He's determined to have a good day despite the fear and strangeness around him. He gathers the other men from the groom's party. He picks five small tulips from a nearby floor bed and they all cross Lennon Street to Irina's apartment. As is traditional, he knocks on the door and demands his bride. And for that I would pay the ransom. The bride's family tries to haggle a higher sum of money. Irina's relatives hid her away from me, so my guys, they just took the door off the hinges completely, took the bride and brought her to me. After that, the wedding procession was formed.

26:42The groom gets into one car, the bride into another one, and then, in our wedding procession, we went to the Palace of Culture, to the Hall of Solon Events. Two sturdy ladders drive slowly up to the grand concrete curve at the entrance of the Palace of Culture Here, eight months after Serhi first saw Irina's red belt on the dance floor and 14 hours since he felt that earthquake coming from the nuclear reactor they are officially married They spread an embroidered cloth in front of us My grandmother's embroidered wedding rooshnik and we are supposed to stand on this and pledge our allegiance to each other.

27:28It's embroidered on one side with the name Sergei and on the other side, Irina. They stand outside, Sergei in his bow tie and Irina resplendent in her sleek floaty white wedding dress. She proudly holds her flowers as they all smile for a photo. They pause, letting a flower girl join them and give a cheeky grin for the camera. After the ceremony, we went down. As husband and wife, we now got into the same car, and according to the tradition, we drove to Len's monument. We drove past three checkpoints where the soldiers wouldn't let us in. We said, we have a wedding. Guys, let us in. And eventually they let us through, and we drove to the Eternal Fire monument to lay flowers.

28:16They make their way to the reception. DJ Alex takes the mic and begins to do his best in hosting this wedding.

28:30Believe me, I had a lot of wedding experience. But this was one of the most difficult weddings I've ever done. Usually they would pour out different drinks, some champagne, some vodka. and then you only have a short time left for games or presents. But here, an hour passes and everyone looks at me. Well, but I had already finished all the games. It was very difficult. This is a less than ideal situation. Officially, nothing is wrong. But everyone knows something is wrong. They're just not quite sure what it is. And then there's not even booze to take the edge off. Really, it was not cool. The banquet was sad, as everyone understood that something had happened.

29:22But no one knew the details. Our toastmaster tried to create a cheerful mood, but it didn't really help. It didn't really work out. Then it's time for the first dance. They step onto the dance floor, preparing to show their guests the traditional waltz that they'd been practicing.

29:43But once we started thinking about what might have happened, from the first steps we went out of rhythm. So we just hugged each other and just swayed in the hug, without any walls.

30:04You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Jordan Dunbar and this is The Last Dancefloor in Chernobyl. With the wedding reception over, people head back to their ladders in the train station and make for home. We went to their new apartment so we could go to bed, because it had been a hard day. You could imagine, they must have been exhausted. Never mind the stress of the wedding or some kind of nuclear accident, Irina's feet were killing her. Those beautiful shoes were giving her blisters, but they didn't even have time to fall asleep. at 3am. Our witness from the wedding banged on our door and said, there will be an evacuation and we have to urgently gather our things and run back home.

30:50I was in a wedding dress and I was running barefoot through the puddles. The armoured personnel carriers drove through the city and poured water on the streets. I was barefoot because I couldn't put on my shoes. My feet were so sore. I ran home, and by this time, we had already seen that people were carrying children. Their own, strangers, neighbours, kids. They were trying to take their children to the station, because the information had already come that a diesel train would be leaving at five in the morning. So it wasn't official yet. But the evacuation had started. Irina bursts into her parents' apartment.

31:31It's still full of guests. Everyone's packing and getting ready to go. Irina's mother thrusts a bag into her hands. She said, here is a bag for you, because they told us to gather out documents and things and money for three days. They all go to the station together, the newlyweds, their guests and family, everyone. And it's chaos. There's a crowd of those who have been tipped off about the 5am train waiting at the station. Everyone's anxious to get on this train and get out. Finally, Irina and Sarhi squeeze in and turn to say goodbye to Irina's parents. Irina looks in the bag her mum packed for her and can't believe it.

32:09I had two identical bags ready. One with a fancy dress and hair colours for the second day of the wedding. And because of the chaos at home, somehow we mixed the bags up. And instead of the one that my mother prepared for me, I took the one with the fancy dress. And so, early on April 27th, just over 24 hours since the accident, the train pulls out of the station. It was still dark. The sun hadn't risen yet. The collapse of the reactor was visible. And there was such a big red ball, as if you were looking into the eye of a volcano. Everyone is staring straight at it. Some even open windows to lean out and get a closer look.

32:54But Sir, he shouts, close the windows, you can't do that. Because I understood. He understood that a burning reactor is not something you want to be breathing in. They've been awake almost 24 hours and there's still no confirmation of what's happened and more importantly, what will happen to them. As those in the train watched the smoking wreck of the power station disappear into the distance and wondered what went wrong, one engineer had seen exactly what had happened. Nikolai Solyov had been working at the plant the night before the wedding. Based in the cavernous turbine hall that stretched the entire length of the complex connecting all the units.

33:36I was told that these tests would be conducted that night when we took over the shift. It got to after midnight, and where I was standing, I could see all the turbines along the hall, including Unit 4. Nikolai, clad in long, white protective coat and chef-like hat, is surrounded by flashing lights, switches and pressure gauges. Further down the building, engineers were preparing for an important safety test of one of Unit 4's turbines. To conduct the procedure, engineers in the control room turned off the automatic shutdown systems at Unit 4. They begin the test at 1.23am Saturday 26th of April.

34:18But something is wrong. There isn't enough power in the system and the reactor's core had become unstable. An engineer pressed the emergency button to shut down the reactor manually. But instead of a shutdown... There's an explosion, followed shortly by a second one. At 1.23am the explosion happened. We felt something like an earthquake. There were sparks from the wiring. We saw the roof collapse and then a cloud of black dust flew in our direction. We have the radiation level monitors on each turbine. They're simple. If only three green lights are visible, everything's fine. Red lights mean high levels of radiation.

35:02The red lights went on. Then the alarm went on. Then the siren started.

35:22I called the control room. I told them there had been an accident. I ran over towards the explosion. I saw that the glass from the windows had been blown inside of the hall. These big pieces of glass were crunching under my feet where I was running. There was a turbine operator standing on turbine number 7. He was already feeling nauseous. He said, everything around me collapsed. I haven't got a scratch, but I feel really bad. I thought he'd inhaled too much dust. He's received a lethal dose of radiation. These are the first symptoms of a large dose, when you feel nauseous and vomit. I went back to the force turbine.

36:08My partner said there was a call from the control room. They needed one more person to join the rescue team. So Nikolai volunteers to go towards the exploded reactor to try and save his colleagues. Standing waiting to get their protective gear on, he starts to joke with the other men. I remember it like it was yesterday. The lead engineer says, well, we don't have much time to leave, guys. A week, two at most. Then we'll all die. And I had just quit smoking. I remember thinking, why did I bother to quit smoking? My colleague had these really strong Dutch cigarettes, so I took one and sparked up.

36:47The men put on simple gas masks and protective suits as they make their way towards the disaster zone.

37:01I saw a lot of fire trucks and ambulances with their lights flashing in the courtyard outside. A lot of people were running around in the street. And what struck me the most was the fire lighting up the reactor. A tall cylindrical glow of fire. It didn't look like normal fire. The emergency services are tending to the wounded and trying to get the fires under control. One of the workers who carried out the test, he was covered with burns from hot water. He was simply lying with his eyes closed on a stretcher. You see, there was a disconnect between my brain and my heart. My mind understood that it was dangerous, but my heart didn't want to accept it.

37:50Or maybe I actually didn't understand. In fact, no one really understood. Alex is still in the city. It's Sunday and he has no idea what's going on. So he continues to prepare for the disco planned that night. The official playlist has been approved, but he needs to get the real music sorted, so heads to the Palace of Culture. I came to the club at 12 o 'clock. I was going through the vinyls. I was searching for music and picking up the slides. One of the songs he'd picked out days before was by Berlach, a band from East Berlin. It's their anti-nuclear weapons song with the lyrics, no bomb, no radioactivity.

38:37Vniemanie, vniemanie. Vniemanie, vniemanie. Then I heard an announcement. that in one hour the city will be evacuated.

38:53It echoed throughout the city. There were tannies hung all through the streets.

39:03It said there was an unpleasant situation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Please take your money and some belongings you need to leave the city for three days. An epic rescue operation begins with thousands of buses arriving to evacuate over 100 ,000 residents. People still have no idea about what has really happened. I remember a bus stopped beside me and suddenly a 15-year-old boy's face came out of the window. He shouts, Hey Alex, is there going to be a disco tonight? I say, no, there won't be one tonight. But why? he asked. And I said, go. Go. They will tell you later. Meanwhile, Irina and Serhi have arrived in Hrabinka, 300 kilometres away from Chernobyl.

40:01They stay in Irina's grandma's small house, Irina with nothing but her curlers and a fancy dress, her mother with nothing at all. We thought we would be back in a few days. Soon there's a knock at the door with visitors no one would want to see They came to us in gas masks with dosimeters and they started measuring us Men dressed in terrifying protective suits faces covered like modern day plague doctors holding boxes connected to beeping wands scanning their patients The radiation levels they found on Serhi and Irina were high They would have to dispose of all their clothes immediately It was weird, but they both felt OK.

40:43Days pass. It's starting to become clear that they won't be going home for some time. The 9 o 'clock news from the BBC with Julia Somerville and Andrew Harvey.

40:58We officially learned what actually happened from the TV programme Chas, which was broadcast in the USSR at 9pm on the 1st of May. Before that, there was no information. The Russians announce a nuclear accident at a power station. There are casualties. Finally, 18 days after the explosion, Mikhail Gorbachev makes an official announcement to the nation.

41:27Good evening, gentlemen. Today, 299 people are hospitalized.

41:35Good evening. The Soviet Union admitted this evening that there's been an accident at one of its nuclear power stations, and it said there'd been casualties. It's believed to be the first time Moscow has admitted such an incident, and the way in which the news was given suggests it's a serious one. The announcement was still not the whole truth. The extent of the radiation released, the danger to health, and the reasons why it happened were still being covered up by the authorities. People had long been reassured that the plant was safe.

42:10So sure were they of their technology. The nuclear expert Oleg Nemetz had previously visited Chernobyl and said on a newsreel that he could, quote, completely declare that it is completely out of the question that a nuclear power plant could explode. He said it was, quote, impossible to even imagine such a thing. If Chernobyl had been an example of Soviet nuclear prowess, then it couldn't be allowed to become an illustration of Soviet incompetence. The world must see they had it under control. They did admit officially, however, that only 31 people had died in the so-called accident. We felt really angry that we learned everything so late.

42:54This news is especially worrying to Irina. She's gone to hospital for more tests. While there, the doctor takes her aside and gives her some news that rocks her world. I was pregnant. Three months pregnant. I myself was just a child. I was only 19 years old. At first there was fear. What would my mother say? And I was very happy. But it's complicated. If she was now three months pregnant, her unborn child had been exposed to all that radiation during the disaster. In the Soviet Union, the decision was made that all pregnant women from Pripyat should have an abortion. We had a slogan in the Soviet Union, our party, our role model.

43:43So everybody listened to instructions. The doctor said, We have orders. We have to warn everyone about the consequences and what kind of baby might be born. Tears flowed from my eyes and I was scared. Scared to have a baby. And scared to have an abortion. How would you feel? You're just 19. You've escaped an unthinkable tragedy and you're being warned that your baby might have deformities or be born sick. I managed to see a very good female doctor. She saw my tears and my face and how lost I was and she told me, don't worry, because the hands and legs are already formed at three months old. I believe that you should go for this and give birth.

44:33And that's why we decided to keep the baby.

44:42Good evening. Nearly a fortnight after the fire in the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. It's clear that the reactor is still burning. There's a growing sense of urgency in the Soviet Union about the attempts by thousands of people to contain it. Many more children are being evacuated from Kiev. Hundreds of thousands of people, including soldiers, are brought in to try and stop the meltdown and clean up the radiation. known officially as the liquidation of the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. Without the clean-up crews, the exposed reactor would continue to pour out radiation.

45:17A toxic plume had already reached as far away as Canada. It had the potential to devastate Europe if it wasn't stopped. And it had already released 400 times the radiation of the bomb at Hiroshima. He drew a picture of thousands of workers struggling with greater fury than ever to neutralise the reactor, to deaden it, not only working alongside the reactor, but under it. The liquidators, as they became known, are housed in tent cities. They've been given little information about what has happened, but have to carry out some of the most dangerous jobs imaginable. Clearing radioactive debris off the reactor's roof by hand, Helicopters dropping sand and materials into the mouth of the open reactor to stop radiation leaking out.

46:07Burying millions of tonnes of contaminated soil and clearing out homes too radioactive to ever return to.

46:19Tough, toxic and difficult work carried out, all with no idea when it would end. The zone, as it was known, was a nightmarish place. A forest there turned red by radiation. Mass graves of pets and animals left behind in the evacuation. For Alex, he's still trying to work out what would come next for him. Finally, it became clear that we would never come back to Pripyat. They announced that groups would go back to their homes and get some things. 40 minutes were allocated for a person so that they could get all their things and leave Pripyat for good. In those 40 minutes, he chooses his most precious possessions, his DJ equipment.

47:03Two of us would load the disco equipment into the bus. Then one would run home and grab his things. Then the others would go in turn. Alex and the remainder of the Club Edison team find themselves surrounded by people in need of destruction. Refugees from the exclusion zone and the liquidators coming off their dangerous shifts. So what else could he do? For him, the beat never stops. There were three of us left. We knew we couldn't go back to Prepit. So we decided to hold a club night here. And for a dance floor, there was a village square.

47:44It was a world away from the lights and show of Club Edison. but it's such a success that they get some unexpected fans. After we held this first disco, the law enforcement said that it was a great idea to organize it. They made a schedule for us and every three days we would go to a different place and hold dance events for the soldiers and liquidators involved in the cleanup. Sometimes it was villages and sometimes it was the camps. We spend the evenings on the streets holding discos in different places. What a surreal scene. The helicopters and soldiers and liquidators all battling the exposed reactor while pop music echoes across the forest.

48:31I would tailor the music to the crowd. If there were more elderly people or people older than 40, I would play the classics. If there was younger people, I would play the hits. Men and women dressed in their white protective suits and hats danced together outdoors, sometimes to a slow waltz hand in hand and sometimes while singing out classic songs. We were the most radioactive disco in the world. Rumours started to grow about unrest among the soldiers as the cleanup ground on. Unlike the previous discos, we didn't need to make playlists and then have them approved by the Department of Culture.

49:13We just did what was necessary for survivors and rescuers who were taking a break. That's it. We were finally free shooters. The authorities, so desperate to keep any rebellion down, decide to bring in rock bands and pop stars. The military even threaten some pop stars with hard labour unless they come and join Alex in the exclusion zone. Which sounds like the world's most surreal and haunting music festival. For the first time, nobody told us how to do anything. We had an element of complete freedom. The authorities were just happy that so many people came to the discos. They gave us an award from the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, an honorary certificate for organizing a cultural program for members of the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at Chernobyl.

50:08Far from illegally smuggling in records for the glitzy shows at Club Edison, Alex is now being lauded by the party for his discos in the exclusion zone. For the men and women who would become known as those who saved the world. The liquidation eventually wound down. With the broken reactor now covered and the exclusion zone emptied, the world moved on.

50:37Irina and Serhii moved on too, trying to build a new life. We moved to South Ukraine. We arrived there with four big plastic bags. Serhii had a new job and Irina's baby was nearly here. At 2am my waters broke and at 11.30am I gave birth to my daughter. Baby Katya is born. From the last wedding in Pripyat comes one of the last babies. I was so happy. So happy. I was jumping from happiness. The maternity unit was up on the second floor. I had the feeling I could jump all the way up there and fly into the window. Everyone was asking who is shouting and jumping outside. That was me. They lived a happy life with a happy baby.

51:25Thankfully, a much less eventful one. Our baby was born. There were things to take care of and somehow we didn't think about ourselves anymore. Everything was focused on our daughter. As the events of that night fade into memory, Gorbachev's changes fail and the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. DJ Alex, Serhi and Irina becoming part of an independent Ukraine. The consequences of the accident have accompanied us throughout our lives. They remained largely healthy. Eventually Irina had to have her knees replaced. While it wasn't confirmed by doctors, she thinks the radiation has worn down her bones.

52:06Her father has also lost a leg. She also thinks that's due to radiation exposure. And Serhii suffered a heart attack. To this day, the full health impacts of the accident are still not known. There was no long-term study on the victims. As the USSR broke up, the departments and experts that should have followed up no longer existed. The United Nations has estimated that 8.4 million Soviet citizens were exposed to radiation and up to 4 ,000 people in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus could die of cancer as a result.

52:49The battle for Kiev reports of explosions and gunshots in the Ukrainian capital hours after the country's president warns Russian forces are preparing to storm the city. Then, in 2022, history once again tapped Serhii and Irina on the shoulder. Their daughter Katya now has a child of her own. They live in the outskirts of the capital, Kiev, close to the airport. When Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened, we had deja vu. I remember very well how the war began. On the first night of the attack, Russia hit all the airports. At around 5am, we felt all these explosions. We all turned on the radio, listened to what was going on.

53:32It became clear that it was war. And our daughter, our granddaughter, they began to leave Kiev. Just like before, they feel the rumble of upcoming catastrophe. Several days later, Irina and Serhi were on the metro, on their way to check in their daughter's apartment, when... Our daughter sent us a message. It said a missile hit her house. It was a near miss for them, something they'd had more than enough of. They decide they need to get out of Kiev, out of Ukraine and flee to Germany to join Katya. We have had to adapt to somewhere new, again. Everything is foreign. There is no sense of stability.

54:16Once again, they're refugees. It's good that we are at least together. They say that love is born in difficulties. Love gets stronger And now after 40 years I can say that with certainty We are like a needle and thread We do everything together We're in the kitchen together We raise our daughter together We raise our grandchild together And somehow compliment each other

54:50Oh wow I'm climbing up this hill And in front of me is this grand sweep of concrete buildings in a semicircle. And on top, it shouts out in grand Cyrillic signage, the palace of culture, energetic. And this was the heart of Pripyat. Today, 40 years after the world's worst nuclear disaster Pripyat is not just dangerous because of radiation but also because of the war But despite the dangers I wanted to visit the abandoned city of Pripyat to see the place where Alex gave people a taste of freedom and Irina and Sirheese love story began This is where 50 ,000 people would come to the disco, the bars, the cafe where people met, where people would fall in love.

55:52And now... It's silent. I've got to go inside.

56:05Oh, wow. It's so strange. There's this beautiful balustrade above me. An incredible Soviet fresco. is really bright red, white, blue, yellow of farmers, local people seemingly having a great time. But underneath it, there's just fallen tiles. I'm going to go up the staircase to the top floor.

56:43and it opens out on the most incredible space it's three stories tall there's a balcony above where you could watch the bands there's a stage in front of me the stage that DJ Alex would have played on this is where Irina and Sergei would have learnt their waltz for five days actually it's still here there's still a light, it's absolutely massive it's rustling obviously but there it is, there's one of the DJ lights from the disco

57:32This place is now a world away from the utopia that I heard about and had seen pictures of. The city of the future now doomed to be forever stuck in the past. A place that feels almost haunted. The most important thing for me is that on April 26, Every year at 1.23, people come to the monument of the heroes of Chernobyl. They bring candles, they lay flowers. Someone might cry, someone might pray. Someone will remember what happened. What happened a long time ago. I often see Pripyat in my dreams. I have dreams that I return there, to my home, and I feel very happy. I have a feeling that I'm starting to breathe with my whole chest.

58:29When we left Pripyat, we took nothing with us. Imagine if your home, childhood and everything was taken away. No photos, no clothes. When we left Pripyat, we were young and our entire life was ahead of us. Pripyat remains in our memories as a bright, blossoming city, where we were young and healthy and all our lives were ahead of us.

59:11The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl was presented by me, Jordan Dunbar, and produced by Phoebe Keane and Neil Rizell. Sound design and mix by James Beard. The editor was Justine Lange. The voiceover actors were Hannah Kumar, Alexander Begma, Anatoly Pachenko and Gregory Zygloff. This documentary was made in collaboration with BBC World Service Longform. huge thanks to Paul Harris Ellie Jacobs Farah Tchaikovsky Jack Garland and her fixer Helena Yakushko for all their hard work and you can see our characters on the television documentary What Happened at Chernobyl on the BBC World Service YouTube channel or BBC iPlayer