Chernobyl cracks

Land of the dead, extracted from Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl on the 21st anniversary of Chernobyl, contains an account by Lyudmilla Ignatenko of her fireman husband's death that is almost unbearably painful to read.

But good to see that the Russian sense of humour isn't quite dead. Here's Aleksandr Kudryagin, a "Liquidator":

We had good jokes. Here's one: an American robot is on the roof for five minutes, and then it breaks down. The Japanese robot is on the roof for five minutes, and then breaks down.

The Russian robot is up there two hours! Then a command comes in over the loudspeaker: "Private Ivanov! In two hours, you're welcome to come down and have a cigarette break."

Ha-ha!

The Zone. Sometimes, in moments between waking and sleeping, I wonder if we are still in Tarkovsky's world.