The Chernobyl nuclear disaster changed the course of history, but it has also become deeply embedded in popular culture. It endures in the work of Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich, in a TV series watched by millions, in video games, and—until recently—even as a tourist attraction. What does this mean for how we remember what actually happened?
Dr. Marlena Gołębiowska speaks with researchers from the Institute of Central Europe—Dr. Agata Tatarenko and Dr. Bartłomiej Krzysztan—about where commemoration ends and the consumption of tragedy begins, how the disaster is remembered across different countries in the region, and what the reactor failure reveals about the system in which it occurred.
40 Years After Chernobyl: Memory, Politics, and Popular Culture