STALKING THE ATOMIC CITY

TITLE - STALKING THE ATOMIC CITY

WRITTEN BY - MARKIYAN KAMYSH 

PUBLISHED BY - PUSHKIN PRESS 

PUBLICATION DATE - 7TH JULY 2022 

Beginning with a potted and putrid history of the Chornobyl accident and displaying unconcealed disgust at the creation of nuclear power which promised an Utopia but delivered Hell on Earth, Markiyan Kamysh’s “Stalking The Atomic City” screams relentlessly from the pages in vivid, honest and profane language. 

This is a story about Stalkers, a subculture of adventurers unafraid of the radiation that still permeates the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and its surroundings, described here as being the size of Luxembourg, including the infamous town of Prypyat. Kamysh, who is one of many such people, recounts his experiences as an “illegal tourist”, spending days or often weeks hiking through the Zone, sometimes with friends, camping out, getting drunk and exploring the deserted buildings. Run-ins with police, looters and wildlife, sleeping next to the remains of dead wolves and battles with the merciless Russian elements are tempered with the breathtaking sights of the Zone such as the Chornobyl-2 antennas, described vividly as “behemoths” and “titans”. In the abandoned houses, Markiyan finds peace, and considers himself to be the real deal amongst the rich hipsters who visit the Zone.

Markiyan also offers a field guide of sorts to the virgin visitor to the Zone,- what to wear, what to take - but advises us to do it not because he tells us to, but because we are degenerate; that normal people have no business even being there. He tells us about his father who was one of the original clean-up crew after the Chornobyl accident, of shepherding naive first-timers on trips into the Zone through waist-deep snow, and shares a beginner’s guide to looting. The Zone is almost like an addiction for Kamysh; he curses the Zone, hates it and swears he’ll never go back, but he always does, if only to feel the overwhelming relief of leaving it. He feels proprietorial towards the Zone, much like the titular stalker in the film by Andrei Tarkovsky; it is like a lover, the ultimate non-sexual relationship. He mourns the dismantled Chornobyl landmarks, victims of the most recent clean-up. Asked about the dangers to his health, he has no fears, taking life as it comes, his way. 

Haunting, monochrome photographs from inside the Zone, pepper the book, stark reminders captured for all time. The English translation by Hanna Lelia and Reilly Costigan-Humes of the 2015 Russian original is excellent, creating an unfussy style that is very easy to read. The writing is lean and immediate with hardly a word wasted. 

Markiyan’s story is told with a sense of freedom and irreverence throughout, and I felt a little envious of his having found joy and contentment, even in such an ostensibly awful place. We can envy him this, if not exactly the location where he finds it. “Stalking The Atomic City” is a short and affecting book that is full of life in a place of death and I cannot recommend it highly enough.