At the beginning of May of this year, the American-British mini-series "Chernobyl" premiered. The title completely predetermines the plot of the film - an accident at a nuclear power plant, which became the largest man-made disaster of that time. The series has already received the highest rating from viewers in the entire history of the International Movie Data Base (IMDb) service, overtaking the famous "Game of Thrones". A few days ago in Kiev, in Podil, an event called Chornobyl Hub took place. It was attended by the liquidators of the accident, journalists and ordinary people who were interested to know what is true from the film and what is creative fiction. Let's find out how those who, on April 26, 1986, themselves took part in the rescue of the atomic block, assess "Chernobyl".
Parallel to modernity
The creators of the series do not hide that the film is not just a tribute to the memory of the dead and admiration for the feat of the common people. The producer and screenwriter of "Chernobyl" Craig Mazin (by the way, Ukrainian by origin) says that one of the ideas of the series was the lies of the authorities and the suppression of the problem. On May 1, 1986, a planned demonstration of workers was held in Kiev on Khreshchatyk, although a mass evacuation of residents of the capital would be preferable.
Now people trust TV channels even more than before, which was shown, in my opinion, by the last presidential elections in Ukraine. But now the threat is bigger. She hung over the whole world. Global warming leads to the daily extinction of species of flora and fauna, but business tycoons are silent or belittling the consequences of this process. Environmentalists assure that now the adult generation is the last one that can still stop the greenhouse effect. If we continue to live in happy ignorance, our children and grandchildren will pay off for our carelessness.
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Atmosphere
The horror, fear, dedication of ordinary liquidators, confusion and breakdown of the management personnel - all this was conveyed accurately, the participants themselves believe. This is especially true of the fact that the residents of Pripyat were not explained the reasons for the collection. Many people came with only documents and only later learned that they could not return home either for pets, or for things, or money.
The film pays a lot of attention to the summit meetings. Simple liquidators can only guess what happened there. But they say that much of what they were ordered to do was motivated by the desire of the authorities to show their zeal, and not by real expediency. For example, dumping sand from helicopters onto a burning reactor was a waste of effort - there was a completely different reaction than in a conventional fire. But the pilots received an extra dose of radiation.
Human actions
The liquidators believe that much of the film is overly romanticized. So, some volunteers come, which simply cannot be true, because:
a) the general public did not know anything about what happened and
b) an outsider on the object would simply not be allowed.
In fact, the staff worked according to protocol. Each employee had a list of necessary measures in case of emergency. The servicemen, however, simply clearly and in a coordinated manner followed orders. Of course, this does not diminish the heroism of the liquidators, but still, why present everything completely differently?
Deputy Director of the NPP Sergei Parashin assures that the management staff behaved more ethically than shown in the film. Only the chief engineer broke down. But the rest of the station's management, according to Parashin, acted according to the protocol and thanks to him, the population was taken out of Pripyat in the shortest possible time.
Other movie bloopers
The film contains many anachronisms, such as plastic windows, more reliable than they were in reality, lifeguard suits, etc. The control room and offices of the station's management are also shown incorrectly. The audience was especially amused by the scene where the heroes after the disaster walk in ordinary clothes along the streets of Pripyat. The very draining of the notorious bubbler, presented as an act that saved the nuclear power plant from an even larger explosion, in fact, was one of those mediocre measures that were used by the panicked leadership. There was not much water in the tank, and the hot lava, contact with which they tried to avoid, had already seeped there. But the divers, who were ordered to close the taps, obediently went down there and did it.
By the way, only one of them died, Boris Baranov, but 20 years later, and not at all from radiation. Two other hero-divers, Ananenko and Bespalov, are alive. Americans often show in the film how the liquidators drink vodka. In fact, it was believed that alcohol, at least a little, but removes radionuclides from the body. That is, of course, they drank vodka, but not at all for the sake of drunkenness.
Overall impression of the film
The liquidators say that if you do not dwell on some blunders and inconsistencies, then the series is generally good. They especially enjoyed the first season. The writers very skillfully conveyed the horror that everyone felt on their skin. The film immediately engages and keeps the viewer in suspense.
So the liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster managed to overcome their personal fears and show real heroism. And I believe that the fact that they acted according to instructions or orders does not in the least diminish their feat. But the cowardice of the top leadership, especially the party leadership, shows how rotten the Soviet system was.
Cooking Svetlana
