ABSTRACT
The village of Voronevo in the Korosten district learned that it was sitting smack in the hard-radiation zone and was therefore entitled to the 25 percent extra pay in "coffin money". The unauthorized session of the Luginy District Soviet of people's deputies was broadcast outside the building. People stood in the street—listening. The four-hundred-seat hall was packed to capacity, though just seventy-five people's deputies were expected to attend. After several years of Chernobyl silence, for the first time in this country, Luginy deputies started acting the way they should have acted from the start. The letters were sent to the USSR prosecutor general and the chief state arbitrator. The losses incurred by the district following the accident were computed, and a damages bill was drawn up totaling 314,630 rubles. In Singai, the radioactivity level was 52 times the norm. The Zhitomir meatpacking and processing factory refused to accept meat from the village of Vyazovka—its radioactive contamination level proved monstrously high.
