When the scientist hesitates to explain how a nuclear reactor works, he's . It was him who insisted on the evacuation of the neighboring town of Pripyat and his decisions that helped to limit the impact of the catastrophe that threatened Europe. [1] Legasov recorded his memoir The Legasov Testament using audio tapes[7][30] where he described his involvement with the Chernobyl liquidation. 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. Slowly, once the most powerful in the country, they began to lose the standard of modern equipment. MagicalQuote. Probably, he didnt want to be a burden on my mother. Ad Choices, Putin and Trumps Ominous Nostalgia for the Second World War. [28] He was very disappointed that he was the only member of his Chernobyl team that did not receive the award "hero of socialist labor". I was reading some portions of it but it felt as if he was mainly speaking on what happened and his experiences. Directed by Johan Renck. If you want to include real quotes, this page might be interesting for you: https://legasovtapetranslation.blogspot.com/. [7] Under his leadership, a scientific school was created in the newest section of inorganic chemistry chemistry of noble gases. "[28] In spring 1987, a vote was held by the Kurchatov Institute to their Scientific-Technical Council with Legasov standing at the insistence of his mentor Anatoly Alexandrov. Legasov continued his attempts to introduce reforms in academic chemistry by establishing an interdepartmental council to try to overcome stagnation in the field. [1] After a colleague said his leadership was still needed, he said "No, you dont understand. [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. [8][9][10] He also had two grandchildren, Misha and Valerik. A lot changed after Chernobyl. Does anyone know where to find a complete English translation of Dyatlov's book? It is necessary to get rid of people who interfere with work. He was the third child of Tatiana Petrovna Ignatenko and Ivan Tarasovish Ignatenko. [13][9] In 1967,[citation needed] he defended his thesis at the Kurchatov Institute, under the supervisor Isaak Kikoin, on the synthesis of compounds of noble gases and the study of their properties[citation needed]. I am a nuclear physicist, she tells an apparatchik, in Episode 2. were destroyed. the Chernobyl accident, why one person behaved in such a way and why another Yu. According to his daughter, Inga Khomyuk appears to embody every possible Hollywood fantasy. We see him strong-arming younger, better men into actions that will ultimately lead to catastrophe. I know you'll try your best.". Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Tagged: radiation burns. 5 most deadly industrial and transportation disasters in the USSR, How Hollywood feeds lies about Soviet history, Chernobyl is NOT Russia: A geography lesson of the disaster. This was one of the biggest challenges for the creators He is no better or worse than any manager of this rank, and he followed the accepted rules of the game, moving up the career and scientific ladder he took on too much, especially in recent years. But when she asked survivors about Chernobyl they accessed their own stories more easily, because the story hadnt been told. and the parade took place just days after the explosion. A man in a sweater and large horn-rimmed glasses sits in a kitchen listening to his own voice coming from a cassette player. David Remnick speaks with Masha Gessen about the chance that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin, whether it matters, and surprising pockets of resistance in Russia. In the final episode of HBO's Emmy award-winning miniseries Chernobyl, Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) stated this while explaining the Soviet Union's role in the nuclear disaster and subsequent cover . Obviously " you'll be begging for that bullet by the morning" And along those lines of how quickly death would arrive. evacuation of the town of Pripyat, at a time Soviet officials were trying to [28], Some in the scientific community were still displeased by Legasov and his legacy. [29], As a national hero at the time of his death,[27] Legasov's suicide caused shockwaves in the Soviet nuclear industry. Biografia. "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 . Valery Legasov , Chernobyl , Miniseries : 1. Valery Legasov: Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. 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 . That is how we keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor. This statement has everything: the bureaucratic indirectness of Soviet speech, the privileging of fruits of labor over the people who created them, and, of course, the utter disregard for human life. [12]:261 He received the degree of Candidate in 1967 and his doctorate in chemistry in 1972. Valery Legasov is most famous for being the deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Legasov: It means the core is open.It means the fire we're watching with our own eyes is giving off nearly . Iannone, 48, professes little concern, arguing that a sales surge from shoppers afraid to visit stores during the Covid-19 outbreak could provide the kind of OS Supported: Windows 98SE, Windows Millenium, Windows XP (any edition), Windows Vista, Windows 7 & Windows 8 (32 & 64 Bit). 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. Father checked the numbers over and over again. A lady is nothing very specific. That is how we keep the people from undermining the fruits of their own labor.". The people didn't speak English. Valery Alekseyevich Legasov (1 September 1936-27 April 1988) was a Soviet Inorganic Chemist who is known for his involvement in the cleanup of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. [1] Legasov only spoke up to admit that scientists had failed in their duty[1] and that he had been warning about the safety problems of the RBMK reactor for years but nothing had been done. Legasov was also the person who delivered a five-hour oral report on the causes of the disaster at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna - an honest and detailed report that calmed down the international community but angered colleagues at home. Tula, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, Educated At: Velikhov in particular was concerned that the reactor remains could melt deep into the ground, as shown in the US film The China Syndrome. At the same time, he was not always right, he ordered what to do and how to do it. There, Legasov built his name as one of the most prominent scientists in the field of inorganic chemistry - ie. A chemist, he dared to define the topics of physics laboratories and departments. Shcherbina (turning to Legasov): What does that number mean? [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. It was Legasov who was directly involved in organizing the liquidation process of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. All rights reserved. [1] Around 910 May, Gorbachev requested a chronology of events and the cause of the accident in preparation for an interview, which Legasov provided in writing with a few edits from other investigators. Although not a reactor specialist, he became a key member of the government commission formed to investigate the causes of the disaster and to plan the mitigation of its consequences. Svetlana Alexievich, the Russian-language Belarusian writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 2015, for her work with oral history, has said that the book she found easiest to report was her book about Chernobyl. Her baby lived for four hours after birth; she had apparently absorbed the radiation, saving her mothers life. One man's lady is another man's woman; sometimes, one man's . The engagement ring hasnt always been what it is today. [22] The report ran to 388 pages and was presented by Legasov to the conference in a 5-hour presentation, which many in the audience found disturbing. Most of the first government commission were replaced by new staff due to radiation exposure. day. There are exceptions, flashes of brilliance that shed light on the bizarre workings of Soviet hierarchies. 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. https://legasovtapetranslation.blogspot.com/. We cut the phone lines. world, Id be shot for my lies, but not for this, not for the truth, When one considers the chain of events leading up to According to chemist Ivan Sorokin, "He wasn't some hero who jumped on a grenade, wishing to save the people. )", "Chemist, investigator of Chernobyl nuclear accident dies at 51", "Legasov suicide leaves unanswered questions", INSAG-7 The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, "A bust of Hero of Russia Valery Alekseevich Legasov will be installed in Tula", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valery_Legasov&oldid=1140547362, Chief Scientific Advisor of the commission investigating the Chernobyl disaster, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 15:52. They'll deny it, of course. Assessment of the problem and implementation of operations had to be undertaken by the government commission. Click here to find out more. It is better to move around the zone with a dosimeter. The series begins with Legasov's suicide which is . [7], At Vnukovo airport, Legasov met Boris Shcherbina, the head of the government commission dealing with the accident response. That's all there is; there isn't anymore. Ethel Barrymore, D. Mendeleev University Of Chemical Technology Of Russia. Second, the apparatchik might have worked at a shoe factory, but, if he was an apparatchik, he was no cobbler; he has come up the Party ladder, which might indeed have begun at the factorybut in an office, not on the factory floor. The series actually makes use of one of the stories in her book: the story of Lyudmilla Ignatenko (Jessie Buckley), who broke the rules by staying with her firefighter husband in the hospital until he died, even though she was pregnant. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. [5] While Legasov attempted to include all the top scientists in the new organization, many objected to Legasov being given a top leadership position, considering him an upstart. 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. So my father went to Vnukovo [airport] and left for Chernobyl the same day.. Even the house pets left in the exclusion zone after people are evacuated are shown through the eyes of men who are sent there to execute them. Two years later, he ended his own life unexpectedly. Glimmers of this understanding appear in the HBO series, too. Valery Legasov. [7], Excessive hierarchy has always been contraindicated for science, it stifles it. All because, it seems, he wants a promotion. [I began] to speak about the necessity of the next generation of reactors to be safer; say TTER reactors or liquid salt reactors that I was trying to present as the next steps towards safer reactors. "[11], While the initial Soviet investigation put almost all the blame on the operators, later findings by the IAEA found that the reactor design and how the operators were informed of safety information was more significant. But in the past year two books, one by a historian and the other by a journalist, have attempted to tell the definitive documentary story of the disaster. Having put the tapes in the ventilation system of the house, he returns home, feeds his cat, smokes a cigarette, and hangs himself. It was the system, made up primarily of pliant men and women, that cut its own corners, ignored its own precautions, and ultimately blew up its own nuclear reactor for no good reason except that this was how things were done. 1. Legasov worked without rest, often not paying attention to the dosimeter, a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. 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. (I once asked Alexievich if people actually talk like that; she agreed that the quality of Ignatenkos speech was Shakespearean.) In the series, though, Ignatenkos story is partly shown and partly told by Khomyuk. He was eventually released and returned to This opening scene of HBOs Chernobyl mini-series sets the tone for the horrific story of the 1986 nuclear disaster and Valery Legasov, a prominent Soviet inorganic chemist, who played a key role in Chernobyls response team and subsequent investigation into its causes. Legasov nasceu em 1936, em Tula, ao sul de Moscou, em uma famlia de trabalhadores civis. Here are some quotes for you to read about the Chernobyl incident as described in the series. Instead, thousands of people came to Kiev, on [7] Legasov and Anatoly Alexandrov described the meltdown scenarios, and Legasov agreed with the plan to tunnel under the reactor to provide cooling. As if the subject matter of Chernobyl wasn't dark enough, the HBO miniseries began with the suicide of the man who led the investigation of this nuclear accident . Legasov in the show is basically a fictional character. https://legasovtapetranslation.blogspot.com/, https://www.reddit.com/r/chernobyl/comments/1198y6j/how_many_of_valery_legasovs_quotes_from_the_hbo/. Poppy Montgomery. A happily married father of two grown children, Valery Legasov was 49 years old at the time of the accident and approaching the pinnacle of his career at the top of the Soviet scientific . A scientist was needed to join the state commission and all Alexandrovs deputies from the Kurchatov Institute were unreachable. 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. On May 5, he already showed signs of radiation sickness (nuclear tan and hair loss) and by May 15, cough and insomnia began to kick in. 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. And this part is tragic, confusing and incomprehensible. The tapes were recorded at the lowest point of a very successful man's life, and it shows. The conference was attended by more than 800 scientists and . 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. Happy to read and share the best inspirational Valery Legasov Real quotes, sayings and quotations on Wise Famous Quotes. A. Ustynyuk said of Legasov: "His main quality, which set him sharply apart from all the great organizing scientists I knew, was his exceptional dedication to the cause. In Episode 3, for example, Legasov asks, rhetorically, Forgive memaybe Ive just spent too much time in my lab, or maybe Im just stupid. 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. Those tapes sound like rambling of a very depressed man suffering from PTSD, because that's exactly what they are. He was hospitalized with severe radiation poisoning, and I am writing an informative speech on Chernobyl. In the second episode of the HBO series, Boris Shcherbina (portrayed by Stellan Skarsgrd) and Valery Legasov a physicist and member of the Academy of Sciences portrayed by Jared Harris are en route to Chernobyl via helicopter. Top Valery Legasov Quotes. And as for what Dyatlov did do, the man does not deserve prison. [7] One Kurchatov scientist warned him that the helicopter drops might not be effective but Legasov replied that they had to be seen to do something. He wasnt meant to be in Chernobyl. [28] During his stay, journalist Ales Adamovich interviewed Legasov and he expressed concerns that a similar nuclear accident could still occur. Bryukhanov was accused of mismanagement and that operator error was the primary cause of the accident, while design flaws were also a factor. Contain the spread of misinformation. All rights reserved. Science, like art, does not tolerate intermediate links. 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. In a just He was a physical scientist who determined what caused the Chernobyl disaster. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. Legasov was told he was assigned to a government commission that was looking into the accident. He deserves death. When asked, by the prosecutor, why the reactor was designed this way, Legasov cites the same reason that other safety precautions are ignored and other corners are cut: Its cheaper. He seems to be damning the whole system. He was the real Soviet Union nuclear physicist who was in charge of investigating the disaster. Soviet nuclear physicist Valery Legasov led the commission that investigated the Chernobyl catastrophe. 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. Physicists make up the majority. However, an event occurred, of such a scale, of such involvement of people with controversial interests, of errors and victories, failures and successes. (?) The truth doesnt care about our needs or wants - it doesnt care about our Perhaps in response to this, Legasov received criticism of his leadership and his handling of the containment of the Chernobyl reactor and was ostracized by some of his fellow scientists. [1], Legasov attended a turbulent meeting with the Politburo, on 3 July in which the causes of the accident and flaws in the RBMK reactor were discussed. To make direct measurements of the reactor, Legasov was driven in an armored personnel carrier to the site which established the reactor had shut down. 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. On the second anniversary of the world's worst manmade disaster the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, Valery Legasov, Russia's top scientist, was found dead in his apartment on April 27, 1988. There were no books or movies or songs. by the Soviet Government to investigate the Chernobyl disaster less than 24 By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. In the first episode, for example, during an emergency meeting of the Pripyat ispolkom, the towns governing council, an elder statesman, Zharkov (Donald Sumpter), delivers a chilling, and chillingly accurate, speech, urging his compatriots to have faith. We seal off the city, Zharkov says. We are so focused on Written by Craig Mazin. Take the series as entertainment but not fact, in a general sense its true to life but only the larger events, not necessarily the smaller details the accuracy of those is few and far between. Valery Legasov didn't have problems with the government. I've been trying to research further into Valery Legasov and his work after watching the HBO minisereies. He was a patriot and grieved for what that happened, for the country, for people that suffered His empathy was disturbed and, it seems, it did eat him up from the inside., Plus, as she recalls, the radiation sickness didnt make it easier. [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. Read more quotes from Valery Legasov. Photo: Liam Daniel/HBO. Steven Brust. His specialty was physical chemistry, he worked on explosives, she explains(in Russian). It is true that Europe survived; it is not true that anyone got to the truth, or told it. 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. So, even if he didn't necessarily speak about that, did he say any notable things in his tapes? This is what I was passionately working on, mainly figuring out the dangers in sources of energy alternative to nuclear energy. An uninformed, arbitrary decision that will cost who knows how many lives that is made by some apparatchik, some career Party man? Yes, of course this is the way it works, and, no, he hasnt been in his lab so long that he didnt realize that this is how it works. Instead, it is filled by an entirely fictional, fantastical trial at which a large group of peoplescientists, we are toldare given an accurate assessment of events in an accessible, brilliant speech, the likes of which Soviet courts didnt feature. There was no suicide note but he left a series of recorded tapes detailing how disillusioned he had become of the . Kiev is less than 400 miles from Chernobyl, Before you were Deputy Secretary, you worked in a shoe factory. First, shed never say this. Chernobyl explosion. [7] Legasov considered these containment steps to be excessive but understandable, while also provided the infrastructure for the eventual construction of a shelter sarcophagus over the reactor. The best part of those tapes are his admission that the roots Chernobyl disaster lies in a systematic fault in Soviet science and bureaucracy, along with his interview with Adamovich. By the morning of April 26 and Legasovs arrival, the fire has been extinguished, but a massive amount of radioactive elements were being pumped into the atmosphere and what was left of the reactor continued to pose a serious threat.