Series<\/a><\/p>\n Larissa,<\/strong> 2016<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n Poliske, a town of 11,000 inhabitants evacuated 6 years after the disaster.<\/p>\n The end of the world. The lifeless streets. The radiometer crackling on the contaminated plates. Packs of stray dogs. Disturbing silhouettes in the bushes. The sound of Stalkers’ hammers tearing through the metal of abandoned houses.<\/p>\n And then, in the distance, I had seen Larissa, dragging her cart.<\/p>\n Larissa, thin, brunette, her face marked. She lived here with about ten people, most of them elderly.<\/p>\n Larissa used to live in the centre, in a building. She worked for the town hall. After the disaster, she had helped the inhabitants left the city and she chose to stay.<\/p>\n Why leave elsewhere? To go where? To Kiev? And join the ranks of the unemployed?<\/p>\n No. To stay. To find a wooden house. To go back to the time of the harvest. To get water from the fountain. Sell metal. And with the few grivnas, buy cigarettes at the street grocery shop.<\/p>\n The Chernobyl zone is a nightmare. It is also a refuge.<\/p>\n When I returned in April 2016, the city centre had changed little. The birch tree that used to grow through the manhole is bigger. The murals in the Palace of Culture have disappeared. The metal looters have deserted, replaced by young illegal hikers from Kiev.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> Karl Marx Street. Larissa’s house is still standing. The garden is not maintained. The gate is closed. I knock. She doesn’t answer. I go inside.\u00a0 The kitchen is devastated, the fireplace broken, the table on the floor. There are in a jar, the fluorescent cocktail picks that we had bought for a festive dinner organised on the last day we spent together. Dried red flowers are still hanging on the wall.<\/p>\n In the bedroom, the beds have disappeared. A few objects remain. Plates from the Chernobyl canteen, wool, old syringes, a photo. And there is a pile of clothes belonging to Larissa. In the centre is a bloody jumper. A thick, red stain that starts at the top of the collar and ends on the chest.<\/p>\n As I left the town, the last four inhabitants told me that Larissa had died six months earlier. Alone, lying in bed. Her body was found by the fire brigade three days later.\u00a0 She had cancer in her throat which she wasn’t treating.<\/p>\n She had made the choice to live out of the world, in the abyss of history. A form of freedom in spite of the danger. She died. Forgotten by all.<\/p>\n Like a shadow.<\/p>\n Her name was Kramarova Larissa Olexandrivna. 1961 – 2015<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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\n<\/div><\/div><\/main><\/div><\/div>Guillaume Herbaut<\/a><\/h5>\n<\/div><\/section>\n
![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/01LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/02LARISSA.jpg\" "Downtown Poliske, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which had a population of 20,000, was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine.")
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![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/03LARISSA.jpg\" "The former \"children's world\" shop in downtown Poliske. The ghost town of Poliske, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, once had a population of 20, 000. It was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/04LARISSA.jpg\" "Young stalkers who have illegally entered the town of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to steal metal. This city of 20,000 inhabitants was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/05LARISSA.jpg\" "The ghost town of Poliske, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, once had a population of 20, 000. It was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/06LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/07LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/08LARISSA.jpg\" "Dmitry Guerassimenko with his wife in front of his house in Poliske. He is originally from the town Poliske and lives in Fastiv. He left the city in 1990, to return there in 1999. From then on, he returns every weekend. A former gymnastics teacher, he has been writing poems since his evacuation. Here in a Russian bath he built in an abandoned house next to his own. Poliske is located in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This city of 20,000 inhabitants was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/09LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. She is looking for wood to heat it in abandoned buildings. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/10LARISSA.jpg\" "Loudch\u00e9nko Nina Ivanovna, 84, Karl Marx Street in the ghost town of Poliske The ghost town of Poliske, inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, once had a population of 20, 000. It was evacuated ten years after the disaster. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/11LARISSA.jpg\" "Valery Bilotsytsa, 63, lying ill in the house he shares with Larissa Olexandrivna on Karl Marx Street. He is one of the last 20 inhabitants of the town of Poliske. This ghost town of 20,000 inhabitants was evacuated ten years after the disaster.Ukraine. Chernobyl Exclusion zone. Ukrain")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/12LARISSA.jpg\" "A tree grows in an apartment in the abandoned city of Poliske, located in the forbidden zone of Chernobyl. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/13LARISSA.jpg\" "Hall in the former buildings of the regional executive committee of the ghost town of Poliske. This ghost town of 20,000 inhabitants was evacuated ten years after the Chernobyl disaster. Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Ukraine")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/14LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/15LARISSA.jpg\" "Ransacked kitchen of Larissa Olexandrivna's house on Karl Marx Street in Poliske. Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.Ukraine. April 2016.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/16LARISSA.jpg\" "Bloody pullover belonging to Larissa Olexandrivna found in the room of her house on Karl Marx Street in Poliske. Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.Ukraine. April 2016.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/17LARISSA.jpg\" "Dried flowers hung by Larissa Olexandrivna in the kitchen of her house on Karl Marx Street in the ghost town of Poliske. Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.Ukraine. April 2016.")
<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>![](\"https:\/\/agencevu.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/18LARISSA.jpg\" "Larissa Olexandrivna (48), one of the last residents of Poliske inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The town which once had a population of 20,000 was evacuated ten years after the disaster. A dozen people still live there today. Ukraine.")
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