On April 25, the branch of the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv — the Museum of the Occupation of Kyiv — will host the official opening of the exhibition “Chornobyl. A Shadow Over Kyiv: To the 40th Anniversary of the Disaster.”

What did Kyiv feel in the first days after Chornobyl — a city that found itself close to the catastrophe, yet for a long time had no full information about its scale?

The exhibition offers a perspective on the events of April 1986 not only as a historical fact, but as the lived experience of a city and its residents. Through archival documents, photographs, personal testimonies, and everyday objects, the first days after the accident are reconstructed — from the moment of the explosion to the gradual realization of the tragedy.

Special attention is given to life in Kyiv: how the disaster affected daily routes, work, leisure, and care for children. The geographical proximity to Chornobyl was combined with a lack of reliable information, creating an atmosphere of invisible danger.

A separate emphasis is placed on the informational dimension. Suppression, delayed reports, and control over the dissemination of information became part of the reality that influenced people’s decisions and their sense of safety. For many Kyiv residents, Chornobyl became not only a technological disaster, but also a profound social and psychological experience.

Over time, the consequences of the disaster extended far beyond 1986, manifesting in environmental degradation, impacts on public health, and transformations in social attitudes.

“The exhibition interprets memory as a living and continuous process, in which Chornobyl appears not as a distant episode of the past, but as an experience that still shapes our sense of responsibility. At the same time, this is a story of silence. Kyiv found itself at the epicenter of an anxious quiet, next to an invisible threat, yet within the framework of the deliberate silence of the Soviet authorities. Today, we speak about this openly, restoring memory and giving back voices that for a long time remained unheard,” noted Viktoriia Mukha, Director General of the Museum of the History of the City of Kyiv.

The exhibition “Chornobyl. A Shadow Over Kyiv” addresses memory as a living process of reflection. It invites visitors to see Chornobyl not as distant history, but as an experience that continues to shape our sense of safety, truth, and responsibility.

Project partner: State Archives of the City of Kyiv