The Kremenchuk Reservoir Tragedy

Cherkasy Television. The TV film "For Whom the Bell Tolls" from July 28, 2001 is dedicated to the history of the flooding of Dnieper villages during the construction of the Kremenchuk Reservoir.

On the video: villages affected by the flooding; villagers talk about the consequences of the tragedy, destroyed lands and livestock farms; the history of the construction of the Kremenchuk Reservoir, fragments of black and white Soviet chronicles.

Comments: Director of the Starytsky Agricultural Enterprise of the village of Klishchentsi, Chornobaivskyi district, Grigory Zbaravsky; Head of the Chekhov Fishing District, Grigory Vodyanyk; Journalist Nina Chernyak.

The film was performed by actors from the Cherkasy Regional Music and Drama Theater: Ivan Klymenko, Viktor Kolomiyets, Nataliya Kolomiyets, Oleksandr Oleksiuk, Andriy Zhyla, Anatoliy Knyshuk, Valentyn Slyusar, Serhiy Bobrov, Oleksandr Kuzmenko, Iryna Glazova, Nataliya Zhurova, Oleg Polynko.

Author — Mykhailo Kalinichenko.

Reference: The creation of the Kremenchuk Reservoir in 1959–1961 caused one of the largest man-made floods in the history of Ukraine. 212 settlements, over 39.6 thousand households and about 133 thousand displaced persons were under water. The flooding radically changed the landscape of the Middle Dnieper, destroying ancient settlements, natural complexes and a unique system of islands. The consequences of artificial flooding still determine the ecological, hydrological and cultural profile of the region today.