A nuclear engineer who witnessed the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant committed suicide

In the Russian capital, 75-year-old nuclear engineer Viktor Smagin, a former shift supervisor at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant before the explosion in 1986, was found dead.

Body discovered under the windows of his apartment on Khoroshevskoye Highway, where he lived with his wife. The ambulance doctors could only confirm his death. The engineer left a suicide note in which he asked for forgiveness from relatives and said that the cause of suicide was health conditions.

For many years, Smagin suffered from the effects of radiation sickness. He underwent seven operations, and a few days ago he felt new tumors, which he told his wife about. In his pre-death message, he wrote, as quoted by moscowtimes: “It is unrealistic to treat them, and I don’t have enough strength to treat them. Please forgive me for leaving. Thank you very much for the years we have lived together. It was happiness.”

On April 26, 1986, Viktor Smagin was supposed to take over his shift at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but at night the reactor there exploded. In the morning, the engineer went to the station and, among others, took an active part in eliminating the consequences of the accident. As a result, he received a large dose of radiation, was transported to Moscow on an ambulance plane in serious condition, suffered radiation sickness and received group II disability. Smagin said:

“This accident, of course, ruined everyone’s fate. For example, I majored in nuclear engineering, graduated from Baumanka, and was assigned to Pripyat. My place of work is a nuclear power plant. But after I suffered from radiation sickness, I received a stigma for life – a ban on working in areas of ionizing radiation, a ban on working at night, a ban on business trips and a lot of other restrictions. Who needs such workers? “I, of course, continued to work in the energy field, but in administrative positions in the ministry.”

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