Igrushka means “toy” in Russian. It retells the Chernobyl accident through the portraits of forsaken toys from a very particular nursery in the abandoned city of Pripyat. These toys illustrate a way of playing that changed after the accident and fall of the USSR. They are also a conduit to memories about Chernobyl. The images are paired with stories and fables found on open pages in the nursery, and with excerpts from interviews with persons who were children at the time. The project is ongoing, and includes social media sites where people register their memories.
Igrushka means “toy†in Russian. It retells the Chernobyl accident through the portraits of forsaken toys from a very particular nursery in the abandoned city of Pripyat. These toys illustrate a way of playing that changed after the accident and fall of the USSR. They are also a conduit to memories about Chernobyl. The images are paired with stories and fables found on open pages in the nursery, and with excerpts from interviews with persons who were children at the time. The project is ongoing, and includes social media sites where people register their memories.
Memories of Chernobyl : “At camp that summer. Whenever we teased somebody we would call them a Chernobyl kid and say they were radioactive, and not get close to them.†Vlad/ Age on April 26, 1986: Thirteen / Residence in 1986: Kiev
Memories of Chernobyl : “My parents threw my sister’s stroller away at the train station. They had heard that metal absorbed more radiation, so they didn’t want her in the stroller.†Sasha/ Age on April 26, 1986: Five / Residence in 1986: Kiev
Memories of Childhood: “One day the boy who had the locker next to mine closed the door and turned toward me. “Hello lover,†he said. Olexsandra/ Age on April 26, 1986: Five / Residence in 1986: Kiev
Favorite Toy : “As boys, we would either get a cosmonaut or a football. But if you wanted to be a cosmonaut you were kind of a looser, it was cooler to be a football star. “ Oleg V./ Age on April 26, 1986: Five /
Residence in 1986: Ivankiv