Volodymyr Pravyk


Volodymyr Pavlovych Pravyk was a Soviet firefighter who died of radiation burns sustained during the Chernobyl disaster. He was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, and the Ukrainian Star For Courage.

Life

Pravyk was only twenty-three years old when the Chernobyl disaster occurred. He was a college graduate, engaged in creative endeavors such as photography, drawing, and poetry. He was also a member of the Komsomol, the youth division of the Communist Party.
Pravyk was married to a kindergarten teacher, who had just given birth to their first child when he died.

Chernobyl disaster

When the Chernobyl incident occurred, Pravyk was supposed to be on his day off, but he had switched shifts with his friend Piotr Khmel. He led the third watch response to a fire alarm, which was sent to Pripyat minutes after the Chernobyl explosion. When he realized his small team would not be sufficient to control the blaze, he requested additional firefighters via a coded message sent to Pripyat, the town of Chernobyl, and Kiev.
Pravyk is thought to be the firefighter whose brown eyes turned blue due to massive radiation exposure. He died fifteen days after the incident and was laid to rest at Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow along with twenty-seven other victims of the disaster. He was supposedly buried in a sealed zinc coffin.