Filipp Demeshkevich: "When we learned what had happened, volunteers showed up quickly, including me."
On April 26, 1986, at 01:23, an explosion occurred at the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This day forever entered world history.
Thousands of Belarusians among rescuers, military personnel, medics, and police officers went to fight radiation. Among them is also the resident of Orsha Filipp Demeshkevich. He is now a retired police major.
Filipp Vasilievich was born and raised in Kopyss. After finishing the local school, he served in the Soviet Army in East Germany. Upon returning from service, he enrolled in a factory and plant apprenticeship school (now the Orsha College of Food named after N. A. Kornachyonok) specializing in "operator of refrigeration installations" and graduated with honors. By assignment, he moved to Brest, where he worked at the local meat processing plant. However, due to health problems of his parents, Filipp Demeshkevich returned to his homeland. After moving to Orsha, he got a job at the Orsha Department of the Security Service. He then transferred to the Orsha City Police Department and simultaneously enrolled in the correspondence department of the Mogilev Special Secondary School of Transport Police of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. He started with the patrol service. His mentor was police officer Bobkov Yuri, who died in the line of duty. Filipp Vasilievich admitted that he owes much to him, and much of what he knows about service was taught to him by Yuri Grigoryevich. Later, he was appointed as a district officer, where he worked until retirement.
– When the Chernobyl tragedy happened, we were informed that we needed to go to provide assistance and secure the territory, – said Filipp Demeshkevich. – People at that time were conscious; no one was sent against their will. Volunteers quickly came forward, including myself. We were taken to Vitebsk, and from there to the village of Savichi, which was located in the 30-kilometer zone from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
The relatives of our hero were very worried when they learned that he would go as a volunteer, as by that time he was already a father of two sons. But no one tried to dissuade him.
Upon arrival, the police officers had to settle in an abandoned kindergarten, where they set up beds, laid out their belongings, and adapted a minimally acceptable living environment. People understood that they had come not for a vacation.
– When I first started guarding the assigned area, I was simply shocked, – recalls Filipp Demeshkevich. – Hastily leaving in the first days of resettlement, heading to new places, the villagers left behind their homes, cars, furniture, equipment, and other acquired goods. Entire villages looked as if the locals had just gone somewhere and were about to return. All of this had to be protected from looters so that items with "doses" did not spread like a black plague throughout the former Soviet Union.
Filipp Vasilievich also mentioned that he saw how the liquidators eliminated the consequences of the explosion, how bags of sand were dropped from helicopters to reduce the intensity of radiation emissions.
In the resettlement zone, the resident of Orsha stayed for a month, after which a new shift arrived. After handing over the cases to his colleagues, sharing his findings and observations, the combined detachment gathered to go home. For his professionalism during the "Chernobyl mission," Filipp Demeshkevich was awarded the medal "Participant in the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant."
During the service in the zone of the tragedy, the police officers became very close. They maintained contact with each other for a long time, sometimes meeting in Vitebsk on the days of remembrance for the victims of the Chernobyl tragedy. However, over time, many comrades-in-arms passed away; the "Chernobyl mission" did not leave anyone without consequences.
Today, the resident of Orsha is enjoying a well-deserved retirement. He has raised two sons and a daughter. Together with his wife, they tend to a small garden and love it when their grandchildren come to visit.
Viktor SOSNOVSKY.
Photo by the author and from the archive of F. DEMESHKOVICH.