Residents of secret Soviet-era town share life in 'most nuked place on Earth'

17 March 2024 , 19:26

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Locals spoke about their experiences in Kurchatov and being kept in the dark by authorities (Image: @YesTheory/YouTube)

Surviving residents of secret Soviet-era town once used a nuclear test facility have revealed life inside the "most nuked place on Earth".

YouTube documentary '50hrs in the most nuked place on Earth erased from maps,' sees filmmakers Thomas Brag and Staffan Taylor speak to locals from Kurchatov, Kazakhstan, who spoke about the nuclear experiments they witnessed. They insisted they had no idea what was occurring as people were kept in the dark by authorities. The town was established in 1947 as the headquarters of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program - and could not be seen on maps.

Only a few thousand people remain in derelict buildings which have been stripped bare. People said houses would shake violently with dust plumes seen in the distance. The after effects were blamed on extreme weather cycles. Nadezhda Golovina, saw hundreds of nuclear bombs when she was younger but did not know what they were.

She said: "We didn't know it was so bad. Now everybody writes and talks about it. And then, what did we know? We didn't know anything. Just what the teacher taught at school. They used to tell us to leave the house in case it collapsed, a window or the door of the stove would open and ashes would fall out. [Even] the chandeliers were swinging."

The remains of a building in Kurchatov which was the headquarters of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons program (@YesTheory/YouTube)

One explosion in the area in the 50s is said to have caused four times the number of cases of acute radiation sickness than the Chernobyl disaster. 'Uncle Serikpay' also spoke in the video after moving to the area as a miner and says he was warned "prepare everything for the [nuclear] tests." He knew about the 'Semipalatinsk' test site, located fewer than 100 miles from Kurchatov, but signed a non-disclosure agreement.

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Those who did speak about it, he said, would disappear, as was the case with one man. "We never saw him again," he added. He was only allowed to work 30-minute shifts in places with high levels of radiation. He added: "They used to tell us to leave the house in case it collapsed, a window or the door of the stove would open and ashes would fall out. Even the chandeliers were swinging. If there was a low level of radiation, we could work longer."

Filmmakers Thomas Brag and Staffan Taylor spoke to people in Kurchatov in their film (@YesTheory/YouTube)

Uncle Serikpay wasn't exposed to high levels of radiation and at almost 73 years old, he says he still "feels good." Lyubov Filina said many people were affected by the radiation. She said: "Of course it affected people's health. People have cancer. Cancer, cancer, cancer, cancer. There was radiation and people started getting sick. There are the books from the hospital where only cases of radiation and anaemia are written.

"We were kids back then and we didn't understand anything. Even adults didn't know that the mushroom cloud was more dangerous than vibration or broken windows. In 1989, I was pregnant with my son and he was born with congenital cataracts of 16 diopters.I believe it was caused by the radiation exposure. I read about it in the medical encyclopedia. We saw helicopters over the city measuring something and now we understood there was a radiation release at that time."

Graeme Murray