Radiation. Chernobyl. These two terrible words came into life of USSR residents so long ago that now ex-soviet people almost forgot about the nuclear disaster hiding behind those words. People in my native Belarusian village do not care about them too… And they did not care even 5 years since the accident.

The first time after the catastrophe I visited my native village Kyselyevka (Belarus, Mogilev region, Kostukovichskiy district) in 1990. Nothing has changed in the rural way: people raise children, plow fields, and young people have fun in the evening around campfire. But near the gardens appeared signs "Radioactivity. Danger zone!"

- Now we know there is a little radiation in our region, - said my neighbor. - But what level of radiation was after the accident in 1986, no one knows. If we knew earlier about all the troubles that Chernobyl disaster causes, we left, maybe, and now it's late...

- We have got some truth many years later after we were relocated by force, - added my uncle Victor. - New houses was built in thirty kilometers away the village. We have been told there is less radiation, but it's hard to believe. We had two options: to live as we did before, or lie down and die...

Three decades the villagers were holding on, healing themselves by a hooch and gradually dying for different reasons.

It is difficult to say what was more difficult for me: to overcome the internal discomfort (a few days I was shooting at 40 curies radiation) or to accept my impossibility to help my relatives to leave the village. And if they could leave their land, houses and farms, where to go?

By my photo series "Chernobyl village" I want to depict not my family's or the village's tragedy, but the drama of the entire USSR.

P.S. Last houses of Kyselyevka, my forefathers's home land, were demolished and buried in the summer of 2015... Our native village were located between three cemeteries, and now it is nothing but a large cemetery.

Chernobyl Village_001

Elena Myakenkaya 87 years old is very worried that due to radiation they were evicted from the village and their houses were buried

Chernobyl Village_002

There are 9 children in the friendly Astapenko family Thank God that the children were born and are growing healthy and active

Chernobyl Village_003

Platon is the smallest child in the Astapenko family a favorite in the family Both serious and a little funny

Chernobyl Village_004

Children pet and play with a stray dog

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Alexander Chepikov is a disabled person from childhood He suffers from mental disorders schizophrenia But he has to live he works he helps his brother chop wood

Chernobyl Village_006

Ignat and Ilona Astapenko drive their goat home

Chernobyl Village_007

The Chernobyl disaster did not bypass Irina Davydenko she suffered a stroke and has very poor eyesight - cataracts

Chernobyl Village_008

Liliya Astapenko agrotown Novye Samotevichi is having fun with friends at the new playground

Chernobyl Village_009

Nadezhda Lebedeva and her brothers visited their grandparents cemetery again The village was buried in 2015 and has become very overgrown since then so they have to cross the river on fallen trees

Chernobyl Village_010

The radiation sign reminds us of the Chernobyl tragedy And it informs that entry and entry into the closed zone without a pass is prohibited

Chernobyl Village_011

Slava Soldatenko is very worried that their life in new brick houses is not fun The village was buried after the radiation and they have to live 25 km from their homeland

Chernobyl Village_012

A black cross stands alone in the local cemetery agro-town Novy Samotevichi