Alexander has always lived in a country with problems. The First World War left its mark. Later there was a civil war and then a war with Finland in 1940. During the Second World War Alexander was a young boy. When the area was liberated in 1943 his father went into the army, where he remained until the end of the War.
The family were actually peasant farmers but Alexander wanted to become a gardener and applied for a place at the agricultural college in Grodno. In the post-war years there were many people who received special benefits. For example, orphaned young people and children of invalids could get into university as a matter of course. Alexander had to attend four entrance examinations, but although he achieved the highest grades in three of them and the second highest in the final one he was not awarded a place.
As soon as the military committee heard that he had not been admitted they drafted him into the military. Alexander entered the navy and remained there for five years. In spite of his military training Alexander retained his desire to study. A few months before he was due to end his military service he bought some books and began to study for the entrance examinations again. This time it went well and he was accepted. Times were still hard and there was no money to live on while studying, so Alexander had to study part time and work for the remainder of the time.
In those days one could not simply live wherever one chose and since Alexander came from a small village family it was not easy to obtain a passport and permission to move to the town. So he moved back to his village and although he was very much overqualified he found a job at the village school where he remained ever since.
The inhabitants of the village should be pleased about that. Without a high level of education it can be difficult or almost impossible to understand what radioactivity is. ”It was perhaps easier for me than for the others, because I’m an agronomist,” says Alexander. ”I have an education as a biologist from Minsk and furthermore I have an education in ecology and the rational use of natural resources.”
”The scientists working in the field of radiology are very loyal to the government,” concludes Alexander. ”They produce data which the government wants. They inform us that in general there has been a 34 % drop in the level of radioactivity in the country over the last 14 years. They calculate this based on the half-lives of the elements. They don’t say anything about the fact that when strontium decays americium is produced and that plutonium produces yttrium. These elements are even more dangerous than the original strontium and plutonium. Furthermore, they have a much longer lifetime. On the one hand there is less strontium and plutonium, but on the other hand we don’t hear anything about the new situation.”
”Nobody tells us anything and it’s difficult to prove anything. People die of ordinary illnesses. If they admit that a person dies because of radioactivity then they have to award compensation afterwards. Who wants to do that? That’s why there are no doctors who are allowed to say anything to people about the fact that mortality is related to radioactivity. If someone dies of a weakened heart then that in itself is given as the reason”. http://www.chernobyl-international.org/alexander.html
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