Day honoring participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant — is a memorable date of Ukraine, which is celebrated annually on December 14.
On April 26, 1986, one of the largest accidents at nuclear power plants occurred — accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP).
With the aim of worthy celebration of the courage, dedication and high professionalism of the participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and in support of the initiative of public organizations and the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of Ukraine, on November 10, 2006, by Decree of the President of Ukraine № 945/2006, today’s memorable date was established — Day honoring participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (second name of the holiday — «Liquidator Day»).
Date of celebration — December 14 — day of completion of construction of the sarcophagus over the destroyed fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In general, the construction of the sarcophagus was completed on November 30, 1986, and on December 14, the newspaper «Pravda» published a message that the state commission had put into operation a complex of protective structures. And today on this day, various events dedicated to the memory of the liquidators of this accident, — rallies, laying flowers at the monuments to the liquidators, prayer services and other memorial events are being held throughout the country.
Experts who consider December 14 their holiday have long called this day Liquidator Day. Back in 1986, the liquidation participants came together to celebrate their first victory. In 1994, public organizations of Chernobyl victims of Ukraine sent a letter to the leaders of the state, in which they proposed establishing a day of participants in the liquidation of the Chernobyl disaster in the calendar. No official decision was made then, but the liquidators began to celebrate this date on their own.
Later, the celebration was officially allowed, a guard of honor was allocated from various law enforcement agencies, wreaths were laid from state leaders, foreign embassies and public organizations, but there was no recognition of this day at the state level.
Giving state status to the Day of the Liquidator once again reminds society of the problems of Chernobyl liquidators, the most important of which is — pension amount insufficient for a normal life. Another — problem of the status of liquidators of the Chernobyl accident is directly related to this problem. Only the first 5 thousand people who eliminated the accident officially began to be called liquidators, having received the appropriate certificates. Since 1992, everyone else has been given «crusts» of victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
Despite all the difficulties and problems, the liquidators themselves call December 14 a holiday. More than 650 thousand people from all over the Soviet Union took part in eliminating the Chernobyl disaster, more than half of whom were residents of the Ukrainian SSR.
In Russia, Liquidator Day became an official holiday in April 2012, when Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the Federal Law «On Amendments to Article 1.1 of the Federal Law «On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates of Russia», according to which a memorable date – Day was established in Russia participants in the liquidation of the consequences of radiation accidents and disasters and the memory of the victims of these accidents and disasters, — which is celebrated on April 26.