--- title: Chornobyl and independence in 1991 — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Chornobyl and independence in 1991», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: On 26 April 1986 reactor 4 at the Chornobyl nuclear plant exploded; the authorities kept quiet for days, the May Day parade in Kyiv wen --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Chornobyl and independence in 1991 # Chornobyl and independence in 1991 Lesson 48 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/1/) — On 26 April 1986 reactor 4 at the Chornobyl nuclear plant exploded; the authorities kept quiet for days, the May Day parade in Kyiv went ahead, and Sweden noticed the radiation first, like a neighbour smelling smoke before the family next door admits the kitchen is on fire. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/2/) — Danylo said Chornobyl «killed millions», and the teacher said «only 31 died»; both were wrong in opposite ways: about 31 died in the first months, while later deaths from radiation are still studied and estimates range from thousands to tens of thousands. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/4/) — The new country chose old symbols, the trident and the hryvnia, and gave up the nuclear weapons left on its soil for promises in the Budapest Memorandum; the 1990s were hard, and the wise thing is to ask parents and grandparents about the history they lived. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/5/) — In the 1960s the «Sixtiers», such as Lina Kostenko, Vasyl Symonenko and Ivan Dziuba, defended the Ukrainian language and free thought; many were later jailed, and Vasyl Stus died in a Soviet camp in 1985. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/6/) — On 26 April 1986 reactor 4 of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded; about 31 people died in the first months, tens of thousands were evacuated for good, and later deaths from radiation (invisible harmful rays) are debated, because cancers can appear years later and also have other causes, with estimates from thousands to tens of thousands. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/7/) — Soviet authorities first kept quiet about Chornobyl; Sweden detected the radiation on 28 April, Moscow announced it only briefly that evening, and the May Day parade in Kyiv went ahead on 1 May. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/8/) — Chornobyl is the name of a kind of mugwort, a wormwood plant; some people later linked it to the «star Wormwood» in the Book of Revelation, a coincidence noticed after the disaster. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/9/) — Wildlife such as wolves and Przewalski's horses returned to the Chornobyl exclusion zone (the closed area around the plant), and before the 2022 war guided visits were possible; a New Safe Confinement, a huge arched shelter, was placed over reactor 4 in 2016, Russian troops occupied the area in 2022, and a drone damaged the confinement in 2025, as was reported. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/10/) — The Ukrainian parliament declared independence on 24 August 1991, after a failed coup (an attempt to seize power) in Moscow; in the referendum of 1 December 1991 over 90% voted for independence, with majorities in every region, including Crimea. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/11/) — In 1991 Ukraine had the world's third-largest stock of nuclear weapons on its soil, though Moscow held the launch controls; under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum it gave them up for assurances from the USA, the UK and Russia to respect its borders, which Russia later broke. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/12/) — The hryvnia was a silver unit in Kyivan Rus; the modern hryvnia, Ukraine's money, was introduced in 1996. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/14/) — The blue-and-yellow flag comes from Galician coats of arms and was used by Ukrainians in 1848; it was used in 1918 and adopted again in 1992, and the «sky over wheat» reading is popular and later. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/48-chornobyl-and-independence-in-1991/15/) — The 1990s in independent Ukraine brought hyperinflation, when prices rise extremely fast, closed factories, poverty and corruption, as in many post-Soviet states; growth came in the 2000s. - ← previous: [Ukraine in the Second World War](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/47-ukraine-in-the-second-world-war/) - next →: [The Orange Revolution, the Maidan and the war](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/49-the-orange-revolution-the-maidan-and-the-war/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)