Pripyat: amusement park
Memories of Pripyat residents about the city park of culture and recreation
Photo restoration: chernobyl_archive
ysalata:
The Ferris wheel also managed to work before the accident. I rode it myself. And not for free, I bought a ticket. I wanted to take a ride on the bumper cars, but it was impossible to get on them - the crowd was huge.
But there were considerably fewer people who wanted to ride the Ferris wheel. But the woman who operated it apparently did not have time to study the instructions on how to seat people properly, so we had a serious mishap. We had a big scare at the time.
This worker put people in each cabin. And when half of the wheel was tightly filled and the other half was completely empty, the wheel spontaneously snapped and began to roll up and down, looking for balance, until the loaded cabins were at the bottom of the wheel. The sight was eerie, as the supports on which the wheel was attached wobbled violently as it did so. It felt like the wheel was going to fall on its side.
Some of the kids who were lower down jumped off in all directions. The woman herself was very frightened. She turned off the wheel. When it stopped, she started to turn it back on little by little and dropped off first every other cabin, then even more rarely, until she dropped everyone off. We were lucky, we did two more laps for free.
Maybe because of this incident it didn't work anymore, or maybe there was some flaw in it. We rode it exactly a week before the accident, because I only came home to Pripyat on weekends, I was in pedagogical practice in Polessky. That's such a fact took place in the history of the cultural park, which never opened.
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20180323122913/http://ruslanshestopal.com:80/goto/pripyat
Photo restoration: chernobyl_archive
Wormwood Star:
Over 35 years, the events of Chernobyl have become surrounded by a huge number of myths, fables, and outright nonsense. It's enough to post any nonsense on the Web, and the fakes take on a life of their own. For example, to this day there is false information about an amusement park in Pripyat, by which I walked to work and back home every day. Various bloggers and the media persist in saying that the amusement park never worked, but I personally saw the rides working on April 26, 1986.
And recently, in a social network, I got acquainted anew, if I may say so, with V*** K***, a Pripyat resident and former employee of the Pripyat amusement park, but first things first...
At the end of August 1985, I returned from my vacation and started working at the school of arts. Life was going on as usual: home - work - kindergarten - school No.5 - stores and so on. In October my family was given a new apartment in a new building in Stroiteley Avenue 34, the fifth microdistrict of Pripyat. Before that we lived in the first microdistrict, and most of the time we spent there, to school and kindergarten got by a roundabout bus, so the new place of residence was a new discovery of the geography of the city. To get home we had to pass by the Palace of Culture "Energetik", the park, where amusement park structures were being installed, and the new stadium, which was under construction.
In September 1985, the Ferris wheel was already assembled and the amusement park was undergoing routine work, but I wasn't paying attention at the time, because something was always being built, installed, and opened in the city, and houses were being moved into.
The rides were run periodically in test modes, and Pripyat residents often strolled nearby, watching the work. In February 1986 the staff of the park had already been formed, as evidenced by the entry in the employment book of V*** K***.
Record in the employment book:
03.02.1986. Accepted as the operator on the attraction "Circular View".
Record in the employment book:
22.08.1986. Dismissed at her own request Art. 38 of the Labor Code of the UkrSSR Inspector Signature
And she also said that specialists from Moscow were carrying out repair work. Pripyat residents also testify that tickets were sold at the ticket offices. On the eve of the accident the rides were already in their usual operating mode and a festive opening ceremony and traditional ribbon-cutting with greetings and speeches by representatives of Pripyat authorities and ChNPP was just planned for May, 1.
"Peace be with you Valentine. I was an amusement ride operator, and as I have written before, we were at work on Saturday until evening and Sunday until 13:00. I am always surprised when I hear that this wheel never made a single turn, and we had already been working for a month (even repaired by craftsmen from Moscow). There are no photos from the rides, only a record in the employment book."
"It was the housing office of the Chernobyl NPP. I worked with the Pripyat artist on the ride "Circular View", just on April 26 there was an endless line until the evening, and already on April 27 we waited until 13:00 and went home. When I got home, people were already boarding buses. We lived on Lenin Avenue 6, below Kolosok shop."
So there is no intrigue about the Ferris wheel, which was called the Circular View. I, too, was mistakenly sure that the park was open for only one single day. It turned out to be almost two months, until 13:00 on April 27, 1986.
The same applies to the new stadium, the field of which was beloved by local athletes long before the construction of the sports facility. Athletes and soccer players trained there, competitions were held, and construction was going on nearby. And May Day was also supposed to be the final point at which the stadium would be officially "consecrated".
Nowadays, thousands of tourists walk around the city, sometimes listen to who knows what from guides, take pictures against the background of the attraction, believing that they have almost accomplished a feat, and do not know that for most of the Pripyat residents, the amusement park was the most ordinary object and not a curiosity at all.
Source: https://polyn86.blogspot.com/2021/06/blog-post.html
From the memories of the Pripyatians:
Igor: It was launched 100%. I rode one lap. The crowd was huge!!! We boys got in as best we could.
Andrei: They didn't. I watched it being built from my window, and passed by it every other day for training. I missed the moment when it was spinning in test mode - probably random passersby could take a ride there. And in working mode - when everyone who wants to buy a ticket could, did not come. The wheel was standing and not spinning - waiting for the opening on May 1.
Igor: The Ferris wheel was spinning in test mode.
Victor: The wheel was launched in test mode.
Lyudmila: The wheel was launched! I was standing next to it, with a stroller, and my husband and son took a ride on this Ferris wheel, and then they also rode on cars.
Valentina: My husband and I also took a ride on the Ferris wheel.
Olympiad: And I used to ride on cars, they were launched earlier.
Marina: I also rode cars with my brother.
Sergey: They launched it. I personally rode with Andrey.
Natalia: I also managed to ride on the Ferris wheel :)
Svetlana: They launched it. But it's a pity I didn't have time to ride.
Sergey: Yes, they did. I saw it spinning myself.
Igor: It was definitely launched. We were in vocational school No. 8 at the time, and we were at recess when they tried it out. We were one of the first to ride it.
Victor: My brother also told me, he was at the testing.
Svetlana: I didn't ride. But probably in order not to climb, there was a story that one boy unsuccessfully rode on non-working carousels and was injured.
Tatiana: My dad and I rode the wheel.
Irina: The wheel was spinning. And the dodgems also worked. Test mode. My son and I managed to take a ride on the bumper cars. I also managed to scrap my knee.
Sergey: And this wheel still spun a couple of times, I studied in Bursa, we managed to ride it, the tests were, however unsuccessful, their brake did not work, we were spun three times or more!
Irina: I managed to ride, I was 12, I was in grade 5A.
Yulia: My husband's friend's uncle was testing a Ferris wheel, he offered them a ride and there were several other people there, including children, it's quite possible that Irina and other children rode during the tests, and the opening of the amusement park was really supposed to be on May 1. And yet it is a fact, before the official opening the rides were running.
Andrei: Still, there are people who rode the wheel, and children too. It was during the tests - they allowed all random passers-by to get on the wheel. I understand the week before the accident.
Vladimir: I was riding on a Ferris wheel with a friend and in the process the traffic in both directions and the stop was checked, and besides us there were both adults and children, a lot of people could have been there during the day.
