Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko ( uk, Василь Іванович Ігнатенко; be, Васіль Іванавіч Ігнаценка; russian: Василий Иванович Игнатенко; 13 March 1961 – 13 May 1986) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
firefighter and first responder to the
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...
in 1986. Ignatenko was raised on a collective farm near Gomel in the Byelorussian SSR, and worked for a time as an electrician. He became a firefighter in 1980 as part of his service in the Soviet Military, and was employed as a paramilitary firefighter afterwards. On 26 April 1986, Ignatenko's fire brigade was involved in mitigating the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, fighting the fires started by the initial explosion. In the process, Ignatenko received a high dose of radiation, leading to his death in a Moscow radiological hospital eighteen days later.
Early life
![Сперижье, 7](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/%D0%A1%D0%BF%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B6%D1%8C%D0%B5%2C_7.jpg)
Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was born on 13 March 1961, in the
Brahin District
Brahin District or Brahinski Rajon ( be, Брагінскі раён, russian: Брагинский район, Bragin District), is a district of Gomel Region, in Belarus. Its administrative seat is the small town of Brahin.
Geography
The dist ...
of the
Gomel Region
Gomel Region or Gomel Oblast or Homiel Voblasts ( be, Го́мельская во́бласць, Homielskaja vobłasć, russian: Гомельская область, Gomelskaya oblast) is one of the regions of Belarus. Its administrative center i ...
of the
Byelorussian SSR
The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор ...
. He was the third child of Tatiana Petrovna Ignatenko and Ivan Tarasovish Ignatenko. Tatiana Ignatenko was a collective farm fieldworker, and Ivan Ignatenko a tractor, and later truck driver.
They had been married in 1958.
Ignatenko had an older sister, Lyudmilla, a younger brother, Nikolai, and a younger sister, Natasha. Lyudmilla trained in medicine and worked as an ambulance paramedic, Nikolai became a bus and truck driver, and Natasha, after working in a state-run kindergarten for a time, would follow Ignatenko into the fire service. Ignatenko also had an older brother named Vitya, who had died from fever at age two or three, before Ignatenko was born.
As a child, Vasily Ignatenko lived in the village of
Sperizh'e with his family, helping with chores on the collective farm after school every day. He was especially fond of sports, spending Sundays playing football and other games.
Firefighting career
After Ignatenko completed the requisite 10 classes of schooling, he enrolled in the
Gomel
Gomel (russian: Гомель, ) or Homiel ( be, Гомель, ) is the administrative centre of Gomel Region and the second-largest city in Belarus with 526,872 inhabitants (2015 census).
Etymology
There are at least six narratives of the ori ...
vocational school of electrical engineering (
PTU No. 81), studying to become an electrician. Following his graduation in 1978, he was assigned work at a mechanical fertilizer machine factory in
Bobruisk
Babruysk, Babrujsk or Bobruisk ( be, Бабруйск , Łacinka: , rus, Бобруйск, Bobrujsk, bɐˈbruɪ̯s̪k, yi, באָברויסק ) is a city in the Mogilev Region of eastern Belarus on the Berezina River. , its population was 2 ...
. Ignatenko worked at the factory as an electrician for two years before he was called up into the
Soviet Military
The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and th ...
.
Military service
Ignatenko's firefighting career began during his time in military service. Following his call up in April 1980, he was assigned to the military fire department of
Internal Troops
The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs (MVD) (russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del; abbreviat ...
of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs
An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs.
Lists of current ministries of internal affairs
Named "ministry"
* Ministry ...
(MVD), in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. (The Moscow fire department, at this time, was manned by conscripted military personnel.) It was here that he received his initial training in firefighting, and took the oath of service at the end of his training period.
During his time in the Moscow fire department, Ignatenko became involved in
fire-applied sports, contributing significantly to his fire brigade's success in competition.
Service in the Paramilitary Fire Brigade
![Pripjat 2019 60](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Pripjat_2019_60.jpg)
Ignatenko was discharged at the end of his two year obligatory service on 25 August 1982, and returned home to Sperizh'e.
On his return, he immediately began to look for employment as a firefighter in nearby cities. His mother recalled: "After the army, he decided to go to the fire department. He went to
Chernigov
Chernihiv ( uk, Черні́гів, , russian: Черни́гов, ; pl, Czernihów, ; la, Czernihovia), is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative ...
, and for some reason he was not taken there. Our neighbor worked at the nuclear power plant, and Vasya decided to try it too. From Chernigov he went straight there. He was hired immediately. Not even a month had passed since the army."
With his firefighting training and experience, Ignatenko was hired in the city of
Pripyat
Pripyat ( ; russian: При́пять), also known as Prypiat ( uk, При́пʼять, , ), is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 19 ...
, becoming an employee of the Paramilitary Fire Service, a uniformed, yet civilian-manned, MVD firefighting organization. He soon moved into an apartment in the city fire station, beginning what would be a four-year term of service.
During his time with Paramilitary Fire Brigade No.6 (СВПЧ-6), he was promoted to Senior Sergeant, becoming a squad leader. He also continued to be active as an applied-fire sport athlete, becoming known as the brigade's champion.
Chernobyl disaster
![IAEA 02790015 (5613115146)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/IAEA_02790015_%285613115146%29.jpg)
On 26 April 1986, following the initial explosion at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP; ; ), is a nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. ChNPP is located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine northwest of the city of Chernobyl, from the Belarus–Ukraine border, ...
, Paramilitary Fire Brigade No. 6 was quickly called to the scene, the call out coming at 2:29 a.m.
As Ignatenko was on duty that night, he was among the first 14 duty-watch firefighters from Pripyat to depart for the power station, located a mere away from the city.
On the scene, Ignatenko fought fires on the roof of the ventilation building and unit three (adjacent to the destroyed fourth reactor), where numerous small blazes had been started by super-heated pieces of
graphite
Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...
,
zirconium
Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name ''zirconium'' is taken from the name of the mineral zircon, the most important source of zirconium. The word is related to Persian '' zargun'' (zircon; ''zar-gun'', ...
, and other components flung from the
RBMK
The RBMK (russian: реактор большой мощности канальный, РБМК; ''reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalnyy'', "high-power channel-type reactor") is a class of graphite-moderated nuclear power reactor designed and buil ...
reactor during the explosion. Using the unit three fire escape to reach the top of the 20-story structure, he, along with fellow firefighters Vladimir Tishura,
Nikolai Titenok
Nikolai Ivanovich Titenok ( uk, Микола Іванович Титенок; russian: Николай Иванович Титенок; 5 December 1962 – 16 May 1986) was a Soviet firefighter and first responder to the Chernobyl disaster. He rece ...
, and Nikolai Vashchuck were led by Lieutenants
Viktor Kibenok
Viktor Nikolaevich Kibenok ( ua, Віктор Миколайович Кібенок, russian: Виктор Николаевич Кибенок; 17 February 1963 11 May 1986) was a Chernobyl firefighter who was posthumously awarded the title He ...
and
Volodymyr Pravyk
Volodymyr Pavlovych Pravyk ( uk, Володимир Павлович Правик, russian: Владимир Павлович Правик, translit=Vladimir Pravik; 13 June 1962 – 11 May 1986) was a Soviet firefighter notable for his role ...
in using water to extinguish these localized fires, while coordinating efforts to run firehoses up to the roof. This was necessary because the building's internal firefighting water-pipes had been fractured by the explosion and water pumped through them was lost before it could reach the roof.
The high level of
radioactivity present on the roof, however, quickly began to take its toll. Ignatenko and the others were inhaling irradiated smoke, and working amid piles of ejected nuclear material, and soon began to experience the initial effects of
acute radiation syndrome. Firefighters ordered by Major
Leonid Telyatnikov
Leonid Petrovich Telyatnikov ( uk, Леонід Петрович Телятніков; 25 January 1951 – 2 December 2004) was a Soviet, and later Ukrainian, fire brigade commander notable for his role in directing the early stages initial respo ...
to ascend the fire escape and assist met them halfway up as they struggled to descend, vomiting uncontrollably and unable to fully support themselves without one another's help. Helped to the ground by fellow firefighters, Ignatenko was evacuated to the Pripyat Hospital, around 4 a.m.
Hospitalisation and death
Ignatenko was initially hospitalised in Pripyat, but as the extent of the disaster began to be understood, all of the firefighters and plant personnel suffering from radiation exposure were evacuated by road to the
Boryspil Airport
Boryspil International Airport ( uk, Міжнародний аеропорт «Бориспіль») is an international airport in Boryspil, east of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is Ukraine's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger ...
near
Kiev
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, and from there to Moscow by air. There he and the others were transported to Hospital No. 6, a hospital operated by
Sredmash (the Soviet state nuclear energy agency) and the All-Union Physics Institute which had a specialized radiological department.
There, in hopes of mitigating the effects of Acute Radiation Syndrome, Ignatenko was administered a
bone marrow transplant
Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is the transplantation of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood in order to replicate inside of a patient and to produce ...
on 2 May 1986, with his older sister as the donor.
Ignatenko's younger sister Natasha had been identified as the preferable candidate and summoned to Moscow with her sister by telegram on April 28,
but as she was then only thirteen years of age, Ignatenko rejected her out of concern for her health.
It was hoped the procedure would raise his white blood cell count, which had been lowered sharply by radiation exposure, leaving him extremely vulnerable to infection.
Unfortunately, though Ignatenko recovered from the operation, the transplant was unsuccessful in producing the desired result and his condition continued to worsen. He experienced hair loss and skin necrosis as his digestive and respiratory system continued to degrade. By May 4, he was unable to stand. Infection brought on by damage to his immune system eventually led to organ failure. Vasily Ignatenko died at 11:20 in the morning on 13 May 1986.
Ignatenko's funeral was held two days later on 15 May, attended by his family and the families of other injured and deceased firefighters.
Ignatenko was interred in two coffins, an inner one made of zinc, and an outer of wood.
He was buried with full military honours alongside other Chernobyl victims in
Mitinskoe Cemetery
Mitinskoe Cemetery (russian: Ми́тинское кла́дбище) is a cemetery located in Moscow's North-Western administrative district. It was established on September 15, 1978. A Russian Orthodox church, which was built in 1998, is locat ...
, Moscow.
Personal life
Vasily Ignatenko remained very close to his family throughout his life, regularly taking the train from Pripyat to visit them on weekends. He helped around the house and with garden chores during these visits, even making furniture.
After the accident, his family's village was contaminated, forcing them to resettle elsewhere.
Their house, which the family had built in 1981, burned down soon after its abandonment.
From 1983, Ignatenko was married to Lyudmilla Ignatenko (born 1963; not to be confused with Ignatenko's sister of the same name). She was from central Ukraine, and worked at the confectionery shop of a factory-kitchen enterprise in Pripyat.
Meeting through mutual friends at an apartment party in Pripyat,
they courted and were legally married on 24 September 1983.
Two separate celebrations were held for the families of both the bride and groom in their respective hometowns following a civil ceremony.
After the disaster, Lyudmilla traveled to Moscow with Ignatenko's father.
There, she remained at the hospital through her husband's illness, helping to care for him through his decline in health up until his death.
It was she who summoned the family to Moscow by telephone as Ignatenko entered terminal decline.
Vasily and Lyudmilla Ignatenko had one child following a previous unsuccessful pregnancy: Natasha Ignatenko. Reportedly born with congenital heart defects and cirrhosis of the liver, she died shortly after she was born and was buried with her father in Mitinskoe Cemetery, Moscow.
As Lyudmilla was pregnant with her daughter at the time of the accident and during her husband's hospitalization, it has been speculated that her daughter's death was the result of radiation exposure from her husband. In a 1996 interview, Lyudmilla said that her baby "took the whole radioactive shock
..She was like a lightning rod for it". However Ukrainian medical responder Alla Shapiro, in a 2019 interview with ''
Vanity Fair'', said such beliefs were false, and that once Ignatenko was showered and out of his contaminated clothing, he would not have been dangerous to others, precluding this possibility.
Robert Peter Gale
Robert Peter Gale (born October 11, 1945) is an American physician and medical researcher. He is known for research in leukemia and other bone marrow disorders (such as aplastic anemia).
Education
Gale received his A.B. degree with honors in ...
, an American hematologist who was directly involved in the treatment of Chernobyl radiation patients, also writes that victims were not radioactive themselves and therefore did not pose a danger of radiation exposure to others, although this was unknown at the time of the disaster.
Legacy
![000 Brahin 11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/000_Brahin_11.JPG)
Vasily Ignatenko was awarded the Soviet
Order of the Red Banner
The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...
posthumously in 1986. In 2006, he was posthumously awarded the title of the
Hero of Ukraine
Hero of Ukraine (HOU; uk, Герой України, ''Heroi Ukrainy'') is the highest national title that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the President of Ukraine. The title was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma and as ...
, the highest national award in the country, along with the Ukrainian
Order for Courage. Several monuments have been erected in his honor, including in
Berezino
Byerazino ( be, Беразіно́, Bierazino), or Berezino (russian: Березино́, pl, Berezyna, lt, Berezinas), also known as Biarezan (Бярэзань, yi, בערעזין, Berezin), is a town on the Berezina River in Minsk Region o ...
and his home district of Brahin, where a museum exhibit has also been dedicated to him. There are streets named in his honor in
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...
and Berezino.
In popular culture
Ignatenko's wife, Lyudmilla Ignatenko, provided an account reflecting on her husband's death to Belorussian author
Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suff ...
for her 1997 book
''Voices From Chernobyl''. This story was adapted for use in streaming service
HBO's 2019 miniseries ''
Chernobyl
Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...
'' (where Ignatenko and his wife were portrayed by
Adam Nagaitis
Adam Matthew Nagaitis (; born 7 June 1985) is a British actor best known for his roles as Caulker's Mate Cornelius Hickey in the AMC television series ''The Terror'' and firefighter Vasily Ignatenko in the HBO miniseries ''Chernobyl''. Nagait ...
and
Jessie Buckley
Jessie Buckley (born 28 December 1989) is an Irish actress and singer. The recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards, she was listed at number 38 on ''The Irish Times'' list of ...
respectively) and the subject of ''Ljudmilas Röst'', a 2001 documentary film by Gunnar Bergdahl.
Awards
See also
*
Individual involvement in the Chernobyl disaster
References
General sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ignatenko, Vasily
1961 births
1986 deaths
People from Brahin District
Chernobyl liquidators
Recipients of the Order of Gold Star (Ukraine)
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
Ukrainian firefighters
Soviet firefighters
Victims of radiological poisoning