Legasov is assigned to work with Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgrd), a Communist party higher-up whose general competence and interest in factuality grow in tandem over the course of dealing with the disaster's aftermath. [citation needed] He was a member of the Science and Technology Council of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. [7] He opposed a plan to extend the underground cooling system outside the reactor 4 building, as well as other projects he considered to be redundant. However, an event occurred, of such a scale, of such involvement of people with controversial interests, of errors and victories, failures and successes. Her baby lived for four hours after birth; she had apparently absorbed the radiation, saving her mothers life. Valery Legasov was a respected chemist who led the investigation behind what caused the meltdown at Chernobyl. From a safety point of view, it even stood out as being better, as I understood from the discussions. Valery legasov was a nuclear physicist. The apparatchikor, more accurately, the caricature of the apparatchikpours himself a glass of vodka from a carafe that sits on his desk and responds, Yes, I worked in a shoe factory. In private he campaigned for reactor safety and institutional reorganization. [38], His wife Margarita wrote a considerable number of articles and books to preserve his legacy. During the trial of three men who have been deemed responsible for the disaster, a member of the Central Committee overrules the judge, who then looks to the prosecutor for directionand the prosecutor gives that direction with a nod. Both Soviet nuclear scientist Valery Legasov (played by Jared Harris) and Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Boris Shcherbina (played by Stellan Skarsgrd) are real people; however, Soviet nuclear . Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Just hours after he reported to the Chernobyl disaster But this caused a storm in the Ministry. For some reason, many believe that my father was disappointed by the fact that he wasnt awarded. "[5] In public, Legasov supported the official story that operator error caused the accident. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. They gave the information that was allowed and the report was honest I think the problem was not in secret data. This is a lie. There were far greater criminals than him at work. To summarise briefly how incorrect and hypocritical the HBO series is, the opening scene mentions how the Chernobyl incident was blamed solely on Dyatlov because he was the easy candidate, before then showing us 2 episodes (1&5) where its Dyatlovs fault. I've been wanting to read it for a long time. Valery Legasov: 5 Fast Facts You Need to . The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. His specialty was physical chemistry, he worked on explosives, she explains(in Russian). MagicalQuote. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. 28k followers "[5] That afternoon, he briefly visited his daughter. He would fly over Chernobyl a few times a day, and it was under his command that it was decided to dump boron carbide in large quantities from helicopters to act as a neutron absorber and prevent any renewed chain reaction. Privacy Statement Lyudmilla Ignatenko , Chernobyl , Miniseries : 1. An excellent student and a born leader, he could have chosen any university, thanks to his top marks at school, but set his mind on the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology, which prepared specialists for the nuclear industry and energy sector. The final episode of Chernobyl also contains a scene that encapsulates the Soviet system perfectly. A subreddit to discuss the Chernobyl Disaster that happened on the night of April 26, 1986, and the Exclusion Zone that isolates the city of Pripyat from the rest of the world. She also gets herself arrested and then immediately seated at a meeting on the disaster, led by Gorbachev. at last is the gift of Chernobyl. "[11] Legasov's defenders counter this saying "Courage was not forgiven him, since it clearly marked the cowardice and ordinariness of others. Valery Legasov was the chief investigator of the Chernobyl accident. Contain the spread of misinformation. In "Chernobyl," starring Jared Harris and Emily Watson, the creators imagine confrontation where it was unthinkableand, in doing so, cross the line from conjuring a fiction to creating a lie. [1] Legasov recorded his memoir The Legasov Testament using audio tapes[7][30] where he described his involvement with the Chernobyl liquidation. Later came the steps to prevent melted radioactive material from reaching the water in the lower cooling system, so a tunnel was built to prevent radioactives from reaching groundwater. Legasov himself was a beneficiary of that systemic corruption; although he was talented enough to deserve his position, his rise to his office was in no small part due to being the protg of one of the biggest names in Soviet Nuclear science. The real Valery Legasov did not single-handedly avert the apocalypse. This, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl." (Its English title, depending on the translation, is Voices from Chernobyl or Chernobyl Prayer.) The reason, she said, was that none of her interlocutorspeople who lived in the area affected by the disasterknew how they were supposed to talk about it. The people didn't speak English. He felt the ill will from his colleagues and was depressed by the lack of initiatives to prevent more catastrophes like Chernobyl in the future. Legasov worked without rest, often not paying attention to the dosimeter, a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. cover up the causes of the disaster. now I only ask what is the cost of lies. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. I was filled with trust and respect for him Valery Alekseevich himself flew over the reactor by helicopter 5-6 times a day. Khomyuk appears to embody every possible Hollywood fantasy. [29], As a national hero at the time of his death,[27] Legasov's suicide caused shockwaves in the Soviet nuclear industry. Is this really the way it all works? Written by Craig Mazin. In Episode 3, for example, Legasov asks, rhetorically, Forgive memaybe Ive just spent too much time in my lab, or maybe Im just stupid. and the parade took place just days after the explosion. [3] [4] [5] Ele frequentou a escola secundria em Kursk. Those tapes sound like rambling of a very depressed man suffering from PTSD, because that's exactly what they are. Aleksandar Mishkov / published 3 years ago. and effects of the Chernobyl accident. his daughter said he had an excessive sense of responsibility. I liked him from the very beginning. . Soviet Response to Legasov's Report. Chernobyl is a 2019 HBO miniseries based on the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986. New approaches were not welcomed. It took more than 36 hours for officials to agree to the In Episode 2, for example, the Central Committee member Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgrd) threatens to have Legasov shot if he doesnt tell him how a nuclear reactor works. During this time he married a woman . Two years later, he ended his own life unexpectedly. https://legasovtapetranslation.blogspot.com/. [5] On the second or third day, Legasov suggested organizing an information group to collect and disseminate accurate information to the press, but this did not occur, and he later observed that the press often interviewed the most famous person present rather than the most knowledgeable, introducing many inaccuracies and omissions in reporting. I know that it can be difficult; you need to endure, wait it out. He wasn't threatened or bullied by the KGB, he wasn't thrown out of his office or anythin. [19] Upon returning from Chernobyl for the second time on 12 May, he was a changed man, suffering from severe grief and radiation sickness. closing title card: [with photo of real-life Legasov] Valery Legasov took his own life at the age of 51 on April 26, 1988, exactly two years after the explosion at Chernobyl. [7], After 10 May, the situation had somewhat stabilized and Legasov was able to spend less time at the accident site but still frequently visited. [1] He also considered the possibility of ground water contamination to be extremely low, but precautionary work was initiated to cool the reactor using an underground system. Ironic that lies were actually told by Legasov and the HBO show. He adored her.. [1] Water in the lower barboteur was drained but Legasov was convinced that an explosion was not possible,[7] in contrast to what some scientists and politicians feared. In his testament, he described the G. Alimov interview with Legasov, Izvestia newspaper, 1987. International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group, Last edited on 20 February 2023, at 15:52, D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology, State Committee for Science and Technology, Nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents, Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster, " , ", "Valery Legasov: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know", "Who was Valery Legasov, the Soviet scientist that saved the world from Chernobyl? [citation needed] Extracts from his tapes were published in Pravda in May 1988. The case of Valery is mysterious and unsettling to this day. It is true that Europe survived; it is not true that anyone got to the truth, or told it. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. [15][16] From 1978 to 1983, he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. David R. Marples has suggested the adversity of the Chernobyl disaster on his psychological state was the factor leading to his decision to take his own life[6] and that Legasov had become bitterly disillusioned with the failure of the authorities to confront the design flaws. The truth doesnt care about our needs or wants - it doesnt care about our Valery Legasov. [7] Legasov thought people worked together efficiently and this put them in good spirits. Gradually he stopped eating, stopped sleeping He knew well what will follow next, how painful it will be. Legasov was 51 years old. The conference was attended by more than 800 scientists and . When I looked at this device, I was confused by, for example, an unusual and, in my opinion, insufficient construction of safety systems, that would work in extreme situations. He has succeeded in sending his message: Legasov claims political pressure censored the mention of Soviet nuclear secrecy in his report to the IAEA, secrecy which forbade even plant operators having knowledge of previous accidents and known problems with reactor design. Clothes, objects, and light itself seem to come straight out of nineteen-eighties Ukraine, Belarus, and Moscow. The 1986 Chernobyl crisis was undoubtedly one of the worst nuclear disasters of all time. 56 in Moscow where he graduated with a gold metal. The first design mistake was that there should be at least two emergency protection systems, as required by international standards and as common sense suggests second emergency protection system must work independently, whatever the circumstances of the operator may be And finally, the third design mistake, which is hard to explain, was that all the numerous emergency protection systems were accessible to the station staff Of course, the mistakes made by the operators are well known and there is no need to list them yet again. [23], With the first draft of Legasov's report received by the Central Committee, some were shocked and one minister forwarded it to the KGB with the recommendation that the authors be prosecuted. Legasov nasceu em 1936, em Tula, ao sul de Moscou, em uma famlia de trabalhadores civis. His move was well executed and probably was the biggest PR/ propaganda victory during late Cold War, but the steps Legasov took to achieve it was very unpopular in the higher circle of scientists in his country, who thought that Legasov has revealed too much in Vienna. There could have been another reason for choosing Legasov - before the disaster took place, he had stressed the importance of new security methodology for preventing large catastrophes and, as his daughter recalls, pointed to the problems of RBMK-1000 reactors (the one that exploded) and the risks of operating nuclear reactors, offering to secure them with a protective shield - a proposal that was denied by colleagues. Following his brilliant thesis work, Valery received an offer to do a Ph.D. at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, but didnt accept the offer right away - he was eager to go to the Siberian Chemical Plant in Tomsk (aka Seversk) to work on the development of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Contain the spread of misinformation. I've been trying to research further into Valery Legasov and his work after watching the HBO minisereies. magicalquote.com. In a July 3 meeting of the Soviet politburo on the Chernobyl crisis, the Soviet deputy energy minister, G.A. And there is still so much to do! [27] Resistance came from the old guard who resisted change and among younger reformers who regarded Legasov as a relic of the previous Era of Stagnation. [5], the information I had convinced me that not everything was well in the development of nuclear energy, as it seemed to me Science organizations began to weaken, not strengthen. One man's lady is another man's woman; sometimes, one man's . A man in a sweater and large horn-rimmed glasses sits in a kitchen listening to his own voice coming from a cassette player. We never see these pets through the eyes of their owners. D. Mendeleev University Of Chemical Technology Of Russia, Political Parties: I swear we get this question once a week on this sub No, the cost of lies quote is fictional. Legasov was particularly concerned with complex systems reliant on a single operator without adequate safety systems. Valery Legasov , Chernobyl , Miniseries : 1. The show opens with Legasov's . As expected, this story has become surrounded by many different rumors. Article from . Instead, thousands of people came to Kiev, on (miniseries) To them, a just world is a sane world. site, he became very tan and weak. [7], At Vnukovo airport, Legasov met Boris Shcherbina, the head of the government commission dealing with the accident response. Express Valery Legasov presents his report in the Chernobyl investigation. The state plane was already waiting. Moreover, the measures that can be taken to prevent this from happening are known. He wanted to make sure all of the information was absolutely true.. Valery Alekseyevich Legasov (Russian: ; 1 September 1936 27 April 1988) was a Soviet and Russian inorganic chemist and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. Valery was a proponent of transparency between the commission's findings and the public in spite of the Soviet government's efforts to downplay the Chernobyl . [7] Legasov developed a plan to extinguish the reactor fire using nitrogen gas pumped throughout the plant's pipe network but the pipes were too badly damaged to be effective. An episode with an academic hiding cassettes - propaganda fiction, like 80% of serial. Liam Daniel/HBO. Did Valery Legasov really commit suicide? The grave of Valery Legasov (1936-1988) at the Novodevichye Cemetery in Moscow. It is better to move around the zone with a dosimeter. During their first day in Pripyat the commission encountered shortages of respirators and personal dosimeters. [11] He often visited the theater with his wife, having a love of reading Russian and foreign literature, particularly the works of Yuri Bondarev. In effect, Plokhy argues, it was the Soviet system that created Chernobyl and made the explosion inevitable. The Mad Men actor is playing Valery Legasov. [1] When the first government commission group returned to Moscow, Legasov was asked to stay by Scherbina but was replaced by his scientific rival Evgeny Velikhov in the formal hierarchy. The Soviet system of propaganda and censorship existed not so much for the purpose of spreading a particular message as for the purpose of making learning impossible, replacing facts with mush, and handing the faceless state a monopoly on defining an ever-shifting reality. There are a lot of people throughout the series who appear to act out of fear of being shot. All rights reserved. [1], The conference was a public relations triumph for the Soviets as it reassured Western governments and scientists that the disaster was being contained[26] and that the Soviets could competently manage nuclear power in the future. day. [7], Excessive hierarchy has always been contraindicated for science, it stifles it. A year earlier, in 1987, he took a lethal dose of . 1 mo. If you believe that any Site Content infringes upon your copyright, please notify us by email support@quotecatalog.com. How much do you know about the rich history of the engagement ring? [7] From 1983 until his death, he worked as chair of the department of Radiochemistry and Chemical Technology at the Faculty of Chemistry at Moscow State University. None of this is possible, and all of it is hackneyed. And as for what Dyatlov did do, the man does not deserve prison. This is the great-men (and one woman) narrative of history, where its a few steps, a few decisions, made by a few men that matter, rather than the mess that humans make and from which they suffer. Besides, if we told them that they were leaving forever, it would The case of Valery is mysterious and unsettling to this single initiator of events, because it was like a closed circle, To be a scientist is to be naive. Father used to bring the documents home. One of the first to grasp the scale of the catastrophe, Valery Legasov was on hand to mitigate the consequences. He was hospitalized with severe radiation poisoning, and [2] In 19491954, he attended School No. Chernobyl explosion. "What is the cost of lies?" This question, posed by scientist Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) opens HBO's Chernobyl and is the central focus of this television event.The series (created/written by Craig Mazin, directed by Johan Renck) follows the efforts of Legasov, Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skrsgard), and Ulana Khomyuk (Emily Watson) to respond to the .