Chernobyl Circus

This is my last post before undergoing spinal fusion surgery tomorrow morning. For this occasion, I decided to write about something that surfaced on the internet several years ago. This post is about a circus that supposedly arrived in the town of Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 and spent the next eight months entertaining liquidators and residents.

Here is the basic story (according to the Russian State Circus Company):

The Rostov troupe of the Shapito circus arrived on tour in Chernobyl on April 26, 1986. For eight months, clowns and acrobats were the only entertainment for the liquidators and remaining residents of the Exclusion Zone.

Ten years later, of the troupe’s 54 artists, only eight were still alive. The following are recollections of performer Maria Chernitsyna (summarized):

The troupe arrived in Chernobyl from Dnipropetrovsk. She remembers people in the villages sitting on suitcases, waiting for a train that never came. As they entered the town of Chernobyl, the sky was dark and the performers believed it was from a thunderstorm. There was no checkpoint at the city’s entrance.

They began unloading the wagons. One sensitive elephant came down with a case of diarrhea, something that only happens at times of high stress. The elephant refused to come out of its cage.

Chernobyl’s streets were flooded with a white foam. People in bright green overalls cleaned the asphalt. Many helicopters were seen in the skies.

Each performer received 100 rubles pay for each day - a huge amount of money in the Soviet Union at the time.

Many performers soon experienced symptoms of radiation sickness, but they thought it was just fatigue - headaches, painful joints and nausea. Despite the illnesses, it was decided that the troupe would remain until the liquidators were successful in cleaning up the disaster. At the time, people in town started talking about the evacuation of residents.

As the circus artists began to die, the remaining troupe members attempted to obtain treatment due to radiation exposure from Chernobyl. It was at this time they discovered there were no written records of the the troupe being in Chernobyl, and therefore could not get government-covered treatment.

By 1996, 46 members of the troupe had died. Most had not reached 40 years of age. Some of the female members had children with birth defects. Many of the animals also perished.

That is a brief, translated summary of the original story. There is no solid evidence to support the writer’s claim of a circus in Chernobyl, but there is no evidence to refute it either. There was a discussion on the Pripyat.com forums about this circus, and no one (residents or liquidators) remembered such a troupe in town. Some people remember occasional concerts from pop artists, but that is all.

You should also take into consideration that in the months following the disaster, well over 100,000 people were evacuated from the immediate area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, including the town of Chernobyl. Therefore, it is doubtful the authorities would allow a group of circus performers to stay there for eight months.

Is this story real, a piece of historical fiction, or a case of journalistic deception? Fact or fiction, it certainly is an interesting story. Do you think the circus was really in Chernobyl for eight months?


Original Story (in Russian): http://www.circus.ru/history/history_5.html