ROLLAN SEISENBAYEV (b. 1946, Semipalatinsk), a Kazakh writer and the editor of Amanat magazine, has published several novels, story collections, and plays. In the excerpt from The Day the World Collapsed (1990) that follows, the author remembers growing up in Semipalatinsk (now Semey), where the Soviet Army conducted nuclear tests for forty years (1949-89), when Kazakhstan was part of the former Soviet Union. The story, narrated from the author's point of view, reflects how the community was thrown into turmoil when the first nuclear tests forced residents to evacuate the town.