A sculpture of the hero, ChNPP employee Oleksandr Lelechenko, was installed near the central entrance of the administrative and household building №1 of the Chornobyl NPP.
Modern liquidators hold an arch over themselves – under it an ordinary man who put his right hand to his heart. In this image you can recognize the deputy head of the electrical department of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant Alexander Lelechenko. A real hero who knew in advance that his life would end and continued to perform his duties, saving the lives of millions of others. And these are not loud words, but pure truth.
The sketch was developed several years ago by the Association of Masters of Arts of Ukraine. On its basis, a sculptural composition was recreated by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
The work was painstaking. First, we assembled a project-composition of parts that were made of building materials used in the laying of laminate flooring. When everything turned out like a pyramid, the details were printed on a 3D printer. The collected sculpture was plastered and painted.
“This sculptural composition is like the personification of all the liquidators and employees of the station who gave their lives or health to save others. People of various professions, including doctors, canteen workers, and cleaners, took part in the elimination of the consequences. All the links were interconnected, “said Oleksandr Novikov, deputy director of technical safety at the ChNPP.
On April 26, 1986, when the eighth turbine stopped at night during the explosion, Oleksandr Lelechenko personally pumped flammable substances from the seventh and eighth turbines. Three times he went to the cell, which was located near the blockage, to cut off the supply of hydrogen to emergency generators, and knee-deep in high-activity water, he tried to put voltage on the feed pumps. I did it manually, because all the systems failed, and prevented the fire from spreading to undamaged power units. He was taken to the medical unit №126 in Pripyat, but after receiving medical treatment he went to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant again.
Alexander received a dose incompatible with life. The total exposure dose received by him was 2.5 thousand X-rays. He was 47 years old…
There is a grave of Oleksandr Lelechenko in the Mitinsky cemetery in Moscow, but it is empty. In fact, he was buried in the village of Stepny in Poltava region.
For his heroic deeds in the name of life of present and future generations, personal courage and self-sacrifice shown in the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident, Oleksandr Lelechenko was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin in 1986, the President of Ukraine – the Cross of Courage in 1996.
Oleksandr Lelechenko was awarded the honorary title of Hero of Ukraine only in 2006. The Hero’s Golden Star was received by the Hero’s daughter from the hands of the third President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko during the celebrations dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident at the station’s industrial site.
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