Pripyat

Lore & Background

Access to the city was not restricted before the disaster, unlike cities of military importance, because the Soviet Union considered nuclear power stations safer than other kinds of power plant. They were presented as achievements of Soviet engineering, and the slogan of the peaceful atom was popular. The original plan had been to build the plant only 25 km from Kyiv. After the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and other bodies objected that this was too close, the station and the city were built about 100 km from the capital.

Figures from 1 January 1986 give a sense of the place. The population was 49,400 and the average age about 26. There were 13,414 apartments in 160 apartment blocks, 15 kindergartens and elementary schools, five secondary schools, a hospital for up to 410 patients, 25 stores and malls, a cinema, a school of arts and the Palace of Culture Energetik.

Reader's Guide

The best-known landmark is the long-abandoned Ferris wheel in the amusement park, which had been due to open five days after the disaster. The Azure Swimming Pool and Avanhard Stadium are other sites popular with visitors.

The city lies inside the Chernobyl exclusion zone and is administered directly from Kyiv. On 4 February 2020 former residents gathered there to mark the 50th anniversary of its founding, the first such return since 1986. Wildfires in the zone that year reached the outskirts of the town.

Russian forces occupied the city during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Their troops withdrew from the plant on 31 March, and on 3 April Ukrainian troops retook control of Pripyat.

Did You Know?

• The city was served by Yaniv station on the railway.
• There were 33,000 rose plants in the city at the start of 1986.