The word "stalker" can often be seen on websites, in books. But often people who have heard this term do not know what it means. Today this word has several meanings, which are united by something in common.
Stalker as an explorer of the danger zone
Stalker in translation from English stalker - hunter, catcher, pursuer. This is a person who enters dangerous areas and objects that pose a risk to life or health, for example, radioactive, and studies them.
So, environmental scientist Alexander Naumov is one of the most famous stalkers who studied the Chernobyl exclusion zone. His face was used to create the character of the popular game S. T. A. L. K. E. R.
Stalker in a broad sense
By now, the word has acquired many different meanings. For example, in Castaneda's self-improvement techniques, this is a person who consciously performs unusual actions or everyday actions in an unusual way and at the same time observes himself; someone who is always able to find the best way out of any situation.
Also, stalkers are called lovers of tourism for little studied or ignored for any reason objects, or lovers of industrial tourism associated with illegal entry into any territory or object.
The books and games of the S. T. A. L. K. E. R. series are very popular, where the inhabitants of the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant are called stalkers, exploring it, protecting it from destruction and looking for valuable artifacts there.
Stalkers are described in various works of art, for example, in the book "Roadside Picnic" by the writers of the Strugatsky brothers (1972), the film by Andrei Tarkovsky "Stalker" (1979), etc.
Why become stalkers
There are also real communities of people who call themselves stalkers and carry out trips to the territory of Pripyat, exploring and photographing abandoned places. Photos are posted on certain Internet sites. They have a number of rules - not to break anything, not to endure, not to leave traces behind.
Stalkers find it thrilling to travel through the wilderness where humans used to live. Many buildings and premises remain the same as a quarter of a century ago, before the disaster, and allow you to recreate in the imagination the way of life of the Soviet era.
Those who call themselves stalkers are attracted by the idea of testing themselves and their abilities to survive alone in an unknown area, and someone is looking for adrenaline, illegally entering the territories prohibited for visitors.
Someone wants to finally feel dependent only on themselves - in a place where there are no other people. Also, many are interested in how the wild nature recaptures the places that were once occupied by the city.