Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide - by Darmon Richter & Fuel (Hardcover)

About the Book

Following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a vast radiation-tainted zone was ruthlessly evacuated. Yet today it is teeming with life. This unique travelogue introduces the people and places of an uncharted Chernobyl, from ruined Soviet-era factories in Belarus, to secretive 'stalker' subcultures in Ukraine -- and finally to the epicentre of the disaster, the irradiated heart of the nuclear power plant itself.

Book Synopsis

Drawing on unprecedented access to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone--including insights gained while working as a tour guide and during an illegal "stalker" hike--Darmon Richter creates an entirely new portrait of Chernobyl's forgotten ghost towns, monuments and more

Since the first atomic bomb was dropped, humankind has been haunted by the idea of nuclear apocalypse. That nightmare almost became reality in 1986, when an accident at the USSR's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant triggered the world's worst radiological crisis. The events of that night are well documented--but history didn't stop there. Chernobyl, as a place, remains very much alive today. More than a quarter of a million tourists visited the Zone over the last few years, while millions more watched the acclaimed 2019 HBO mini-series Chernobyl.

In Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, researcher Darmon Richter journeys into the contemporary Exclusion Zone, venturing deeper than any previously published account. While thousands of foreign visitors congregate around a handful of curated sites, beyond the tourist hotspots lies a wild and mysterious land the size of a small country. In the forests of Chernobyl, historic village settlements and Soviet-era utopianism have lain abandoned since the time of the disaster--overshadowed by vast, unearthly megastructures designed to win the Cold War.

Richter combines photographs of discoveries made during his numerous visits to the Zone with the voices of those who witnessed history--engineers, scientists, police and evacuees. He explores evacuated regions in both Ukraine and Belarus, finding forgotten ghost towns and Soviet monuments lost deep in irradiated forests, gains exclusive access inside the most secure areas of the power plant itself, and joins the "stalkers" of Chernobyl as he sets out on a high-stakes illegal hike to the heart of the Exclusion Zone.

Review Quotes

Darmon Richter writes in his absorbing Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, "time seems to work differently." He has seen "monuments collapse, murals disintegrate." Chernobyl today is "a place of greenery and life...foxes will eat bread from the palm of your hand, while all around ponderous symbols of a former regime give way to flowers, berries and ants."-- "Telegraph"

A tremendous sense of freedom--a vast and complex terrain stretches...where nature thrives untamed, and those who remain submit themselves to its mercy. Strange utopian art from the old regime lies waiting to be discovered beneath the trees and steel giants--towering technological wonders of the Cold War era--rise up like rusted guardians over this timeless no-man's land.--Darmon Richter "Lit Hub"

As methods of urban revival go, it's an especially surreal one--Tobias Carroll "InsideHook"

Darmon Richter chafes against the rigid, schematized approach to experiencing the Zone that has emerged in recent years, and goes as deep into its forests and abandoned settlements as anybody is ever likely to. Richly illustrated with scores of photographs, it is a document of obsession, describing trips undertaken over the years since he first visited as a tourist in 2013. Starting in 2016 he began offering guided tours himself, and over the next four years took over one hundred visitors along routes that went beyond the usual sites to provide deeper insight into life in the area, with a focus on "village life and tradition, public art (murals, mosaics and monuments), and overlooked works of architecture".--Daniel Kalder "Unherd"

Richter says his hope for the project is that "by putting faces to the names of these lost villages, it might help to encourage people to think of the Chernobyl region as more than just the place where a power plant blew up in 1986."--Amos Chapple "Radio Free Europe"

Richter ventured deep into the irradiated forests of Chernobyl and documented what perhaps is the most striking illustration of the Anthropocene--the ruins of infrastructures and ghost towns reminding of Soviet-era utopianism, the belief in progress, and new ecologies formed in the space abandoned by humans. In his book, he combines photographs of rare discoveries made in parts of the Zone rarely visited by tourists, and the numerous accounts of those who witnessed history--engineers, scientists, police, and evacuees.-- "Strelka"

An eerie record of disaster, absence, the power of nature and frozen time.--Edwin Heathcote "Financial Times"

The latest in a continuing series about retro Soviet architecture and industrial design goes deep into the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and the nuclear power plant itself. Rare and exclusive photographs of the desolate site and ghostly abandoned cities, plus interviews with survivors, balance curiosity with solemnity.--Nathalie Atkinson "Globe and Mail"

In Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, Darmon Richter--an expert in Soviet architecture who has spent years photographing and gathering information about the buildings and monuments of the former USSR--tells the amazing story of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone from the inside.Combining his evocative imagery with a series of acute and well-researched essays, Richter takes us beyond the now-familiar iconography of the abandoned city of Pripyat, into untracked reaches of the Zone--and inside the abandoned power plant itself--to unravel the myths of Chernobyl and reveal rarely-seen glimpses of the radioactive lost world and the men and women who live and work there.'--Adam Higginbotham "author of Midnight in Chernobyl"

Richter's evocative, theoretically astute, and beautifully illustrated account of The Zone is drawn from a rich wellspring of passion and adventure. The depth of historical research, backed up by on-the-ground experience, makes A Stalkers' Guide a one-of-a-kind contribution to the Chernobyl archive. No other author has achieved such a comprehensive investigation of the Exclusion Zone--Bradley Garrett "author of Explore Everything and Bunker"

The book design lives up to the ambitions of the original film. Histories and topographies I thought I knew revealed from another angle. It's good to have the script and the images, and the book-smell the film can't deliver--Ian Sinclair "author of The Last London"

In Chernobyl: A Stalkers' Guide, Richter shares glimpses of the incredible access he had to a site that continues to send chills down the spine of people around the world.--Hrag Vartanian "Hyperallergic"