Chernobylization
An English-language clubzine/genzine/newszine edited in the early 1990s in Kyiv, Ukraine, by Olexandr Vasylkivsky and Borys Sydiuk (using their then transliterations influenced by Russian, Alexander V. Vasilkovsky and Boris Sidyuk) of the Zoryaniy Shlyah SF Club (Ukrainian for "Star Trek"). It contained reviews, con reports, information on goings on in the (soon to become post-)Soviet fandom and SF in general, etc.
Vasylkivsky wrote in #1's editorial "At Last We Made It!" that the plan to start it was announced already in a May 1990 letter to foreign SF clubs, but various complications ensued. He originally "proposed to name it The City Condemned, incorporating ... our pain for our beloved city that suffered during Chernobyl disaster", but this "coincided with the title of one of the best Strugatsky brothers' novels (though it may differ in English translation), so they banned the use of this title." (Indeed, the 2016 translation used The Doomed City.) "New title have been chosen without my concern, so I have my own opinion on it, but the existing title is better than none."
In Opuntia 19.1 (June 1994), Dale Speirs called Chernobylization “One of the most important anglophone zines published today, providing as it does a window on the Slavic SF world.”
It folded after two years as the economic crisis and inflation made the production (presumably, especially postage abroad) unbearably expensive.
| Issue | Date | Pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 1991 | 28 | see content listing at The Big Sky Library of Asian Speculative Fiction |
| 2 | June 1991 | ||
| 3 | January 1992 | 44 | |
| 4–5 | June 1992 | 44 | |
| 6 | June 1993 | 44 | Contributors: Alexander V. Vasilkovsky, Inna Zharkevich, Michael McKenny, Alexander Didenko. Artist: Michael Kasanidi. For sale, with big cover scan |
- Issue 1 in the Russian State Library for Young Adults' Samizdat collection (page version in English but without description which is incorrect anyway), direct permalink to PDF (8,5 MiB, just images without OCR).
- Our Ukrainian Buddies: The Zoryany Shlyah SF Club of Kiev and Part 2: Eager to Celebrate SF by R. Graeme Cameron, Amazing Stories March 2014: article/interview with the editors on the club and zine, with cover scans and a quotes including of the 1990 letter.
| Publication | 1991—1993 |
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