"Paths towards a Culture of Transnational Remembrance"
9 - 18 July 2010, EUSTORY Study Trip to Minsk, Belarus

A Project of the Association for International Education and Exchange Dortmund (IBB) and the Mercator Foundation in cooperation with EUSTORY, Hamburg and the IBB „Johannes Rau“ Minsk

In connection with the upcoming 25th anniversary of the radioactive fall-out from the reactor of the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in April 1986, EUSTORY organized a study trip to Minsk for members of its alumni network between 9-18 July.
All of the 30 participants of our Study Trip to Minsk in July 2010 knew something about the nuclear accident, but no one  –at least from the “foreign” participants – had really an idea, what this catastrophe meant for Belarus, its inhabitants and the whole society.
Until today, Belarus is one of the countries that have suffered most from the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. During the study trip, the participants were able to grasp the scale of the tragedy through dealing with individual biographies and fates of people who were directly or indirectly affected by the accident. And they also inquired about the ecological and social legacy of Chernobyl in Belarus today, learning about how a normal live can be possible.

Day one:
After getting to know each other a bit better, the focus on the first day of the seminar was to get into the topic. So the participants presented their homework, a brief research about the use of nuclear power in their countries, in smaller groups and prepared a stage discussion about the security of nuclear power plants.
In the evening all attended a lecture of Dr. Astrid Sahm, the director of the IBB Minsk, historian and an expert about Chernobyl, about the accident and its perception in Europe.

Day two:
In order to get the whole view over the reactions to the accident all over Europe the participants presented all actions taken by their governments and put it together in one time-line. Like this all differences and similarities between the countries were visible, some almost unbelievable stories were shared, like the one with the salad from Western Germany that ended up in kinder gardens and schools in the GDR right after the accident, because the informed population of Western Germany didn’t want to buy it because of the risk of contamination.
Afterwards they had a brief introduction into the method of “oral history” in order to prepare their interviews.
Kristina (20), Serbia: „The introduction about Oral History was really special, I study history in Serbia but I never had the opportunity to hear such a lecture: How to prepare an interview, to find out what interests you about the interviewee and at the same time not to hurt the person you talk to.“ Dita (18), Latvia added: „It made me feel like a journalist and we made a great interview. Although I had some difficulties at the beginning because I didn’t feel comfortable by interrogating people.“
The whole group was split into six smaller groups in order to prepare and then conduct interviews with time-witnesses, liquidators and re-settlers. They started to think by themselves about possible questions and put them together later in their groups. They discussed about the selection of questions and the order.

Day three:
In the morning the interview groups had the chance for finishing the questionnaires, a brief rehearsal of the interviews and preparing the rooms.
Two groups went to the „Geschichtswerkstatt Minsk“ in order to conduct the interviews there. Developed in 2003 in one of the last buildings of the Jewish Ghetto Minsk, it (the Geschichtswerkstatt) turned over the last years into an important contact point for many victims of fascism. Here, contemporary witnesses and historians from Belarus, Germany and other countries work up a difficult piece of history. The other four groups stayed in the IBB. For all groups, either in the “historical” place or not, the interviews were really special. They gave them an insight not only about the behaviour of the government (at that time and today) but also about the mentality of the people and about their memories about what had happened almost 25 years ago.
Juliane (21), Denmark: „The interview with our witness left me deeply affected – it was horrible to see how her life had been effectively ruined by the disaster and how she would never be able to live a normal life again. However I was fascinated and touched by her ability to look positive on life and still carry on with her activities though she was in constant pain. It was clear that it was very important for her to tell that story. I felt that it was almost as rewarding for her than it was for the rest of us.“
Elena (20), Belarus: She was so positive and I didn’t expect jokes instead of tears. But I was really astonished when I heard about the resettlements: 500 students from the college of Narovlya were moved from the polluted area but 200 stayed, because they had to pass exams.“
Vlad (20), Romania: „I was really impressed by the strength of the liquidator we interviewed. Even though she had a very difficult and sad life she has the optimism and courage only few people have. She faces her problems alone, with strong dignity and she doesn’t expect any governmental help and I admire her for that.“
Dita (19), Latvia: „Somehow I was sure that Chernobyl was history, far, far history. But then there were these people who sat in front of us and talked about their pains. I thought that the catastrophe was far away – also geographically, but it is very close to Latvia where people were seriously affected.“
Liselotte (19), Belgium: „I have never really thought about the human part during and after the disaster. The interviews have open people’s eyes, also mines. Many people seem to be so indifferent and exactly that impressed me the most.“
In the evening the groups prepared a presentation of their interviews which took place the next day.

Day four+five: Nadezhda
After the presentation of the interviews and a brief exchange about the different impressions the whole group went out for a two-days excursion in the North-West of Minsk: to the children recovery center „Nadezhda“ (“hope”). With this change of places we also started a new chapter in our program: Dealing with Chernobyl today, normal life with the catastrophe. Nadezhda was founded in 1992 as a co-operation between different NGOs from Germany and a state committee from Belarus.
In order to get to know the center, its facilities and aims the young Europeans explored the whole area during a ralley. They asked about all the facilities and services provided by the Nadezhda center and they used the answers for making a creative presentation. The task was that they should present the centre as if they were the directors. The results were diverse, one group re-built the centre, another prepared a tv-show as a stage performance.
After their presentation they had the chance to meet children from the contaminated areas and talk to them about their daily lives, their attitude towards the catastrophe, health problems, etc. These meetings were really moving, after a short moment of getting to know each other the children showed the students their rooms, shared sweets and coffee with them and invited them to the rehearsal of their music show.
In the second evening in the centre the whole group came together for a discussion about the necessity of nuclear power plants, the risks, etc.
Vlad (20), Romania: “I really liked the trip to Nadezhda. Besides the interest I had in the small community, in the way it functions through all its components which are connected to each other (medical center, school, mensa, cultural center, sport center, sleeping houses, etc.), the place we explored was marked with an unique splendor: the forest, the lake, the countryside aspect.“

Day six:
On the way back to Minsk the whole group visited a village near the lake Naratsch, built by the organizations “Heim-statt-Tschernobyl” (Germany) and ÖkoDom (Belarus), together with and for resettled persons from the contaminated areas. All houses are built in an ecological way and they try to use renewable power; therefore the project brought wind turbines from Germany.
After coming back to Minsk the group met Jaroslaw Bekich who works for the “Green Net” (www.greenbelarus.info), a network for NGOs dealing with ecological questions in Belarus. He gave the group an insight not only about the ecological policy in Belarus but also about the situation NGOs have to work in.
Ondrej (20), Czech Republic: „I really enjoyed the discussion with Jaroslaw Bekich. He had real experiences with NGOs in Belarus and was not afraid to speak about things which could have caused him some trouble I guess.“
After the lecture and an intense discussion, one initiative of the IBB Minsk, the Ecological Club was presented by the director and two students. During the monthly club meetings students from different faculties have the possibility to discuss openly about environmental questions. Of course the accident of Chernobyl plays a huge role in there discussion, due to the fact that the Belarusian government is planning to build a nuclear power plant.

Day seven:
The group was split into two parts, one prepared the visit to the “Institute of Radiation safety BELRAD” and the other visited the “Belarusian Branch of the Russian-Belarusian Information Center on the problems of the consequences of the disaster at Chernobyl NPP”, a state institute.
„Belrad“ was situated in an old villa in the outskirts of Minsk. There, the director of the institute offered an overview of the history and work of the institute. The institute works with measuring radiation levels in food and humans and has mobile labs to do so. The institute also manufactures a food addictive made from apple pectine, which is supposed to lower the levels of radioactive units in the bodies of children and adults.
The RBIC is situated in the centre of Minsk. After the group stepped out of the bus that transported them to the governmental institute they were led to the conference room that was specially prepared for their visit. The meeting started with a presentation of the institute delivered by the Vice-President. After his presentation the participants asked the officials some questions regarding their professional activity. Not all of their answers were satisfying. After that, a ‘session’ of questions addressed to the participants started. In the end, they were given some paper and multimedia materials containing information about the institute and then they had some minutes of informal discussions with the officials. 
Tamara (19), Slovenia: „During this seminar I experienced things which are certainly not described in any report about Chernobyl, especially the visits at the governmental and the independent institute, which allowed me to go deeper into the problem, to see behind the reports and history books. And Vlad added: „I was surprised that 1.3 million people still live in the contaminated areas and that the governmental officials say that they were given the option to resettle and that it is not even necessary because it is not that dangerous living in those places. I thought that the government has a more serious strategy in this aspect.“ Christiane (19); Germany: „For me the most important thing I have learned is that life has to go on, no matter what happens. We (the participants) were worrying about our „high“ levels of Caesium 137 after staying one week in Belarus but the level of the people living there is really high and they somehow learned to live with their fate. That has put it in another perspective.“
The presentation of the visits took place the next day, both groups decided on different ways of presentation. The group that visited the independent institute took the others on a “journey“ that they could “experience” the visit, the other group replayed some scenes that happened in the official institute.

Day eight:
Already the last day and the participants had now to cope with the challenge to include all experiences they made and information they collected into a final presentation. It was clear that so many impressions and experiences needed different forms of presenting.
The participants split into four groups, one group developed a memorial for the catastrophe including an educational program consisting of a museum, a library and a place to meet with time witnesses of the catastrophe. One other prepared a fictionary debate between the Belorussian President and a member of the green party about the situation of the 1.3 mil. people still living in the contaminated areas. The third group worked out a guide for people interested in researching more about the consequences of the catastrophe for Belarus. The last group came up with a drama – including some self-written songs – which showed many impressions of the whole week.

Afterwards...:
Nelly (20), Bulgaria: „Since my return to Bulgaria I’ve been non-stop talking about how things went and about what we actually discovered there and my family, friends and colleagues are very interested and also discuss things about the accident – my trip to Belarus made so many people around me think and talk about Chernobyl. I was also interviewed by the Bulgarian National Radio about the seminar and its results and I’m now writing an article for a national newspaper which makes me think that people here are still interested in the topic and still care about it.“

Context:
The study trip was part of the project "25 years after Chernobyl - Paths to a Culture of Transnational Remembrance" of the IBB Dortmund and Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with EUSTORY and the IBB "Johannes Rau" in Minsk. The overall project runs from January 2010 through April 2011 and aims at contributing to an active European remembrance of Chernobyl. The participants of the study trip came from Belarus, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, and Switzerland.

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