Chernobyl Liquidators and Kyrgyzstan: A Surprising Connection

One day not too long after moving to Osh, I was walking through a park next to our World War II memorial.  Off to the left and up a small path, we came to a second monument covered in names, but we weren’t quite sure what it was for.  Then we looked at the banners behind it and saw the unmistakeable image of Mil Mi-26 Halo helicopters hovering over the destroyed shell of Reactor 4 at Chernobyl.  But what was this monument to the Chernobyl liquidators doing here, in Osh, Kyrgyzstan over 2000 miles away? Continue reading “Chernobyl Liquidators and Kyrgyzstan: A Surprising Connection”