Jurko Prochasko

Yurko Prochasko (1970) is a Ukrainian literature scholar and translator based in Lviv, where he works at the Academy of Science Literature Institute. He is a writer and translator from Polish and German (his translations include works by Joseph Roth and Robert Musil).

Chernobyl: How We Became What We Are Today

Before the first astronaut was sent into space, someone who could meet several ideological criteria had to be carefully selected to lend the enterprise a distinctive human face. Yuri Gagarin was chosen to be that man. After the explosion of the No. 4 nuclear reactor at Chornobyl (this is the Ukrainian form of the place-name) it was the countless liquidators who came to symbolize the disaster. There were a great many of them. It was no longer a single face. Robert Musil was right to claim that a man can’t be angry at his own time without suffering some damage. […]