chernobyl national museum

I've watched many documentaries on Chernobyl and already knew quite a lot about the incident and aftermath. While this museum did not necessarily teach me anything profoundly new, it did cover the event in considerably greater detail that I had previously learned, and also from many different and unique perspectives. We opted for the audio tour and I highly, highly recommend it especially if you do not speak Russian since the readable displays are all in Russian. The English audio tour is nearly 2 hours long and if you have an interest in energy, science, history, etc., then you are sure to find it quite interesting. Note the museum entrance is only 10 hryvnia per person, but the audio tour is an extra 50 hryvnia per person. Also, you need to provide a 100 hryvnia deposit for the audio device and you will receive the 100 hryvnia refund once you give back the device. The staff was helpful and pointed us in the right direction to get started. We reached the museum by taking the funicular down the hill and then walking the rest of the distance to the museum. The walk was pleasant, along a shop filled street. Highly recommended!!

This was very interesting and I received valuable information. A lot of it I do not want to hear. But it is worth a trip. Find a guide that will help you through the maze and you will have a better time. Now I want to go to the "Site"!

It was very interesting but I found the audio guide a bit long and tedious. It takes a couple hours of just standing in front of the artifacts listening. Overall though, if you can't make it to a tour of Chernobyl itself, this is the next best thing.

A great little museum and a must see when in Kiev! Have lots of pictures from here and there is lots to see.. Strange feeling when inside and the displays really make you feel for the people involved. A sad time in history and very informative exhibition..

First let me say three things: Because of the situation in Ukraine today, folks should wait to make a trip there until all is settled again. Next, we took this trip in October 2012, not 2013 as the site has forced me to select, but I will remember it well forever! Finally, I speak and read Russian rather well.We were on a tour with English guides, so our entry fees already had been paid and no translation was necessary. You will pay a small sum extra if you wish to take photos. And speaking of photos, pay attention to those of the abandoned towns and villages. They are haunting. Even when the populace was evacuated, they weren't really told what was going on. There also are many photos of the emergency workers who eventually died of radiation poisoning.There is a good demonstration of just what happened. Of course, arguments still persist about what caused the accident. We had the good fortune to hear a speaker who actually worked at the plant. He went to work his normal shift without knowing the explosion had occurred earlier. Once he arrived, he worked hard with his friends and co-workers to shut down the reactor. They all died, except him. He has been studied by doctors since the accident, at first every 4 months, now only once a year. No one knows why he is still healthy.On the way into the museum proper are signs with the placenames one would see when entering a town or village. On the way out of the main museum, the reverse of the sign has the diagonal red line through the name as is used in much of Europe to indicate one is leaving the town or village. But in this case that line means the town or village is dead, never to be lived in again.This museum is very moving. Do not miss it. But leave the children at home or at the hotel.

If there is one museum I'm likely not to forget anytime soon, it would be the Chernobyl National Museum in Kiev. It is very clearly and very movingly documentated. Once you leave this museum, you will have a much clearer and sharper picture of what really took place on April 26, 1986 and the terrible consequences thereafter. In fact those consequences continue even to today. The photographs taken on site are vivid and shocking. And I learned in this exhibition something that really blew me away. Despite the fact that the site is still contaminated, people still live there! They are elderly and lived all their lives in Chernobyl. In the exhibition you learn that these people refused the government's plan to resettle them elsewhere (which principally was Belarus). Even if their lives today are at risk, and they are impoverished, their water and agricultural food contaminated, they still remain. The exhibition deals with the national government's actions taken to clean up the disaster (not always meeting the rest of the world's approval). Among the exhibits is a study that followed workers who helped clean up the mess over the span of 20 years. Out of the thousand or so workers, about 140 of them over time had leukemia. The exhibits are very well set up with a light and sound show and photographs that will make you ponder the Chernobyl disaster long after your visit....

Having done the Chernobyl Tour a few days before, this museum was also on our list. It's not huge but has a lot in it. Pay for the English audio guide - you also need to leave a deposit. There is perhaps rather too much detail in the narrative but definitely worth it. It takes you round at a decent pace through the exhibits which tell the story from the original explosion, through the evacuations and clean-up and the consequences of the disaster. At the beginning there is an exhibition about how the wildlife is now thriving in the Exclusion Zone and another section remembering the 2011 Fukashima disaster. At the end are exhibits to reflect on the world in which it happened and the changes since: in a video interview with Mikhail Gorbachev we watched on the tour it struck that the necessity for international help following the disaster almost certainly gave momentum to his policy of Glasnost at a the time it had major opponents from the old Soviet guard.Even if you don't go to Chernobyl, go here.

Ok, most information are written in ukrainian only and thus, very little English is displayed. Still, I spent 2 hours in it just watching the numerous glasswindows, pictures and videos! Thanks to japanese support, good reconstitutions are displayed. This is in no way a boring museum! It is thrilling and full of emotions! On top of that, the entrance fee is ridiculously cheap (only 10 Hr) if you declare not to wish to take pictures... Instead of stupidly going to Pripiat/Tchernobyl better content yourself with this excellent museum you will never forget in the rest of your life! An absolute must during your visit in Kiev together with Ste-Sophie and Lavra!

The displays and everything were ok, but no real order or anything - I would have liked more to walk around and follow the story from that day. Not much is in English either

First of all, it was a bit hard for me to find this place without speaking local language. The contents were completely under expectation. I expected a lot of pictures of injured or dead persons suffered from nuclear such as Hiroshima or War Museum between US and Vietnam in Ho ChiMin city. Could be enough for academic but no impressive, regardless of positive or negative.

There's so much to talk about and learn from the Chernobyl Museum, but the place is let down by poor presentation, a lack of English content, and an unclear user experience.It's definitely worth a visit, but do your homework before you get there to understand what all the exhibitions mean.

Difficult to find but well worth a visit. Very moving and informative. We had the English audio guide which told you all about it. Cheap to get in.

Another place in Kyiv I have visited frequently; by myself, with visitors, and with classes (I am a teacher).This museum gives you the chance to learn about the Chornobyl accident in great detail without having to actually visit the area of Pripyat, as getting to Pripyat itself can be time consuming and/or costly, and removes the risk of radiation exposure if you are worried about this. Conversely it makes a great visit as prep if you go before a trip to Chornobyl (which I did), or in case you miss anything whilst at Chornobyl if you go afterwards.Incredibly informative and sobering this is a great museum that educates - either for personal interest or for school groups. It also highlights the need for renewable energy sources, and the hope that many victims of the accident have for a brighter future.There are guides available, and models and diagrams that help explain just what happened. Audio players in several languages are also available to rent.The only issue really is the difficulty in finding the museum - it is off a side street just after a Music Academy in Podil.

I decided to visit the museum after taking a day trip to Chernobyl yesterday. This was definitely the way to go! None of the captions are in English, but the combination of the audioguide and the firsthand experience of having been there made it perfect for filling in gaps or questions I had after the trip. The pictures, artifacts, and displays are wonderfully presented, and the 100 minute audioguide gives you a complete description of what really happened and how it affected humankind. I highly recommend making this stop!

This is best museum in the terms of displays we saw in Ukraine. The exhibits were thought provoking. We had a English speaking guide who explained different things to us . It is sad that such a excellent museum was done on such a horrible event.