Any More Stalinists Out There Who Think Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine Should Be Part of Russia? Maybe You Want to Re-Partition Poland Again?

@HootyTheNightOwl

What's ironic is that the people defending that point of view on SW are more likely to be in North America than Europe.

@beckyromero i can't comment on that, given that i tend to avoid a lot of the debate around here.

Having done some study of it (i'm no means an expert on the topic), though, i can see pros and cons on both sides of the argument. In one respect, they may have been wealthier as part of the USSR (assuming that everything was shared fairly) but, the amount of secrecy that they went through was alarming, too.

Thanks to that recent mini series, Chernobyl is once again in everyone's minds and on everyone's lips - but, how many of us know that Chernobyl isn't the first (or only) nuclear accident that the Soviets covered up or at least tried to???

How many of us really care about the scale of those disasters and the fact that the effects of the USSR are still being felt to this day??? Just because the headlines are gone and USSR is no more, it doesn't mean that the suffering and problems disappeared along with them.

Why isn't more being done to help and support those who chose to return to their homes within the exclusion zone??? Some of their homes are in need of repair and not everyone has electricity or even running water - despite the fact that there is a solar farm within the zone now. Maybe they don't want electricity, but candles and a hurricane lamp might be welcome.

It ticks me off big time that we don't have anyone working with these people to see how we could help them and make life easier for them. Sure, they chose to return, but they are just as worthy of help and support as all those who evacuated are.

@HootyTheNightOwl

Closed socities like the Soviet Union was do tend to get away with covering things up much easier than Western democracies.

But, yes, far more should have been done to help the people suffering from the aftereffects of Chernobyl.

But that happened under Soviet rule. Once the breakup of the Soviet Union occurred, successor-state Russia felt it was not their problem.

@beckyromero i know that this is a question that no one can answer, but i often wonder just how long such states think they can get away with what they are doing to their people???

Yes, modern day Russia was only too happy to stick Ukraine with the bills for its mistakes... and sit back, watching others fight battles that weren't theirs to start with.

@HootyTheNightOwl What exactly are they doing to these people aside from making sure they have supplies and access to a doctor? You really expect them to run utilities into the zone, even as they're still trying to pressure those people to leave? Samosely are insular (and at times even dangerous), they will never listen to reason.

What they should have done was lock the area down in '86, and make sure these kooks stayed where they were resettled - at gunpoint if needed.

@QuixoticSoul If they haven't left in over 30 years, it's pretty safe to say that they aren't going to wake up one morning and say "Gee, you're right, maybe we should leave after all". Try to see things from their angle, they've seen family and friends who were evacuated die anyway, to them evacuation is as much the enemy as radiation is to the rest of the world.

If you've tried beating them with a stick and it hasn't worked... at least offer them some crumbs of comfort to make life more bearable.

No, they won't get utilities and that's not what i was suggesting. Take a look around you for a moment. Technology has come a long way since the 1980's and we have basic survival items that are of use to us after a tornado, hurricane or earthquake. Why not make these available to them at low cost - a hand cranked lantern isn't that expensive to produce or supply to someone who lives off grid, doesn't involve disturbing any irradiated soil in the gardens that they eat out of and doesn't come with any increased fire risk, so give them that and a radio for entertainment.

Sure, forcing them to stay was certainly the answer, right??? Maybe we should have saved the money on the new safe confinement, too - because we certainly need the radiation belching out into the world and polluting us again, don't we??? You Americans came out of the situation much better than those who live closer to the former USSR, who bore a greater impact from it in our own lives. Why didn't you go to Fukushima and point a gun at those reactors as you yell "If you explode, I'm going to fill you full of lead" - who knows, maybe you could have been the hero in that situation, too.

@HootyTheNightOwl They do get help - the government is giving them basic supplies and sends out a doctor for regular checkups. Among those supplies is kerosene, which they use in the same lamps they've been lighting their entire lives. Come on, you really expect a crazy old lady to wind up a lantern by hand?

And yes, they should have been forced to remain at their resettlement area and assimilate. They went back to the exclusion zone before getting to see anyone die of long-term complications, it was pure culture shock and a spazout. Samosely is a manifestation of mental illness, pure and simple.

And it has nothing to do with money, letting them do what they're doing now is certainly cheaper than making sure they have modern housing with utilities, and access to mental health resources.

I am from the former USSR. Even vaguely remember everyone freaking the fuck out in '86.