Samosely

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Samosely (Ukrainian: самосели; Russian: самосёлы; Belarusian: самасёлы, lit. 'self-settlers') are residents of the 30-kilometer Chernobyl Exclusion Zone surrounding the most heavily contaminated areas near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Belarus and Ukraine. In Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian the semosel is a generic reference to these who settle without an official approval or permission. The zone contains a number of abandoned towns and villages whose current population is made up of people who either refused to evacuate the area or secretly resettled in the relatively unprotected region after it was cordoned off. The majority of the samosely are elderly people who made their home in the area prior to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, although some are disaffected settlers from outside the region. When the population was evacuated, they were initially told they could return in a few days, and many faced discrimination in areas of government resettlement. Originally there were 1,200...

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