The “Chernobyl Savior” Icon

The tragedy at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on April 26, 1986, changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people—those who found themselves in the affected areas and those who eliminated the consequences of the explosion at the nuclear reactor of the fourth power unit. According to official data, over 77,220 square miles were exposed to radioactive contamination, seventy percent of which were on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The most polluted areas were the northern parts of the Kiev and Zhytomyr regions of Ukraine, the Gomel region in Belarus and the Bryansk region in Russia. There was radioactive fallout as far away as the Leningrad region, and the autonomous republics of Mordovia and Chuvashia. Subsequently, the radioactive pollution reached the Arctic regions of the USSR, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Valery Demidetsky, a TASS journalist in Chisinau who came to Chernobyl, described what he had seen there as follows:

“The people there amazed me the most. They are real heroes! They were well aware of what they were doing, working day and night. I was struck by Pripyat—the beautiful town where the NPP workers had lived now resembled Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker zone.¹ Hastily abandoned houses, scattered children’s toys, and thousands of cars abandoned by residents.”

And even when tremendous efforts were made to eliminate the consequences, when people were doing everything in their power, they couldn’t help but ask God for help. Religion was still semi-legal in the Soviet Union at that time, and it was still dangerous to attend church openly, but as Tertullian wrote, every human soul is Christian by nature, and therefore people could only trust the All-merciful Lord. That’s when the idea was conceived to paint an icon, which later became known as the “Chernobyl Savior”.

Yuri Borisovich Andreyev, who devoted his life to nuclear power engineering and received a huge dose of radiation during the disaster, saw the icon in his dreams several times. But he considered having a painting of it to be an unrealizable dream and, in a sense, a heresy. But one day Yuri Andreyev asked Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine if it would be a good idea to paint an icon of the Savior together with the Chernobyl liquidators who had saved the planet from radiation. In 2003, the metropolitan blessed Vladislav Goretsky, an iconographer of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, to paint such an icon.

In the upper part of the icon there are figures of Jesus Christ, the Theotokos and the Archangel Michael leading God’s army of the living and departed Chernobyl liquidators. In the lower part of the icon, in the foreground, the authentic Chernobyl pine tree is depicted. During World War II, the Fascist punishment battalions hung Soviet patriots on this tree. After the war, a memorial was made of the tree and the surrounding area, which stood until the Chernobyl Disaster. The pine tree was in the epicenter of critical radiation levels from 100 to 1200 roentgens per hour, and did not survive. However, it was decided not to destroy it, and the dead pine stood until the 1990s.

The tree has become a symbol of the Chernobyl Disaster. It is given a prominent place at the bottom of the icon. On the left are the souls of the reposed Chernobyl victims, and on the right are the liquidators of the accident’s consequences: a firefighter in a respirator, a station employee, a pilot, and a nurse.

On the horizon, beyond the outlines of the “Sarcophagus”—the massive protective shelter of the Chernobyl Power Plant—the glow of sunrise is visible, and the star named Wormwood is flying in the skies. In the Bible this is a symbol of Divine punishment and the immeasurable bitterness of God’s judgment over unrepentant sinners. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter (Rev. 8:10, 11). Apparently, it is no coincidence that the popular name for wormwood is “Chernobyl”, “chernobylnik”.

The icon was blessed on August 28, 2003, outside the Holy Dormition Church of the Kiev-Caves Lavra. During the ceremony, a sign was revealed, which was seen by thousands of people. First a dove flew over the icon, then a rainbow in the form of a halo appeared high in the skies among fleecy clouds, although there had been no rain the previous day, and then an Orthodox cross with the sun in the center appeared in the firmament.

The icon was given to the Dormition Church, but at the request of the Chernobyl Disaster survivors, it is constantly traveling in cross processions throughout the regions of Ukraine. Today, copies of the “Chernobyl Savior” icon are kept not only in churches of Ukraine, but also of Belarus and Russia. In the town of Zarechny, Sverdlovsk region, a very special icon is kept at the Church of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God. It was painted by Nina Lee from Zarechny.

In the upper part of this icon, the Lord is depicted in the mandorla (the symbolic image of holiness). The Archangel Michael, with his sword on the ground, is frozen in a low obeisance to the Lord. A transparent sphere with the monogram of Jesus Christ in his left hand denotes being part of the Lord’s hosts. To the left of the Savior, the Mother of God is depicted with Her arms outstretched to the Lord in prayer for the human race. There are two angels, one with his wings spread and his arm raised over the liquidators of the accident, calling out to God, and the other standing behind the souls of the Chernobyl victims and raising a cross over them. They are separated by the river of Life. The exclusion zone is shown in gray, the color of death. This part of the icon, according to the iconographer, represents the present-day burning Ukrainian land. The star of Wormwood is above the exclusion zone.

Priest Vyacheslav Inyushkin, a cleric of the Holy Protection Church, noted that the icon occupies a special place at the church, and the faithful very much looked forward to its creation.

—We have a large community of veterans in nuclear power engineering—to a certain extent, the Ural region is its cradle. In 1957, during an accident at the Mayak plant, there was a radioactive leak. It was also a great tragedy, but it didn’t receive much coverage…So such an icon was really needed. In 2016, it was given to the church; we blessed it and have been praying in front of it ever since.

Of course, the icon painted by the iconographer Nina Lee of Zarechny is similar to the original in the scenes it depicts, but is different in style. The icon came out richer in colors, unlike the original, the style of which is more academic. So, we have a unique icon painted exclusively for our church.

It is noteworthy that the Chernobyl pine tree is in the form of the Greek letter Ψ, which means “soul”. It is symbolical! After all, if we have an irresponsible attitude to our lives, surrounding ourselves with potentially dangerous enterprises, tearing ourselves away from nature and from God (the icon depicts a falling ω), then eventually God may allow something that will destroy souls as well.

—Do the liquidators of the disaster still go to church? How many people in the town remember the tragedy now?

—The liquidators do attend church. A monument to the liquidators of man-made disasters was unveiled here. It is a cube symbolizing the “Sarcophagus”, which afterwards covered the nuclear reactor of the fourth power unit. And one of the electron’s trajectories is broken as evidence that this leads to an explosion. Every year on April 26, a rally is held next to the monument. It often falls on the days of Paschal celebrations. And then many clergymen from the diocese walk in cross procession with the icon to this monument. Veterans, the station workers, and fire department workers join us. This is a major event in the town. The memory of the liquidators of the disaster and those who died in the town as a result of the accident is honored.

View more photos in the original article here.