Pripyat, 1970

The sign stands at the edge of the road the way all Soviet town signs stand, concrete and confident, the name and the founding year: 1970. Pripyat got sixteen years. Then April 1986, and the buses, and the sixteen years became the whole story.

I put a glove on the concrete and stood there while the snow came down. The sign is the town's tombstone and birth certificate in one object, and it does both jobs without a single additional word.

We drove in past it slowly. Even the driver, who does this weekly, went quiet at the sign. Some thresholds keep their charge no matter how often you cross them.