It was almost by accident that he found himself included in the state commission on response to the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, his daughter Inga Legasova recalls. He graduated from the Mendeleev Moscow Institute of Chemistry and Technology. He wasnt meant to be in Chernobyl. Doug Llewelyn is a member of Actor Age, Biography and Wiki Net worth: $100K - $1M Some Doug Llewelyn images Famous Quotes: What you are about to witness is real. [7] At Tomsk Polytechnic University, he started researching gaseous uranium hexachloride in a gaseous fission reactor. 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. There are exceptions, flashes of brilliance that shed light on the bizarre workings of Soviet hierarchies. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 21. r/chernobyl. Whatever I touch - everything is ruined: no one needs anything! Valery legasov was a nuclear physicist. This is not a good thing. And now Im in charge. He toasts, in what appears to be the middle of the day: To the workers of the world. No. And what made him take his own life? In August 1986, he was invited to speak at the IAEA in Vienna, presenting a report to foreign colleagues about the catastrophe and why it happened. So my father went to Vnukovo [airport] and left for Chernobyl the same day.. [22], On 2 May, he and other commission members reported to visiting high-ranking officials that this was no ordinary industrial accident but would require a significant containment effort, as well as a review of the future of the other reactors. [1] Legasov admired the leadership of Boris Shcherbina, particularly for his ability to grasp what the specialists were telling him and his decision making. 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. She is a truth-knower: the first time we see her, she is already figuring out that something has gone terribly wrong, and she is grasping it terribly fast, unlike the dense men at the actual scene of the disaster, who seem to need hours to take it in. [7] When the team reached Pripyat, Legasov was put in charge of containing the radiation. Besides, if we told them that they were leaving forever, it would Legasov has been made immortal by the TV show, but if you dig long enough, you'll find that he was a very different man in real life. The fact of the matter is, if he didnt know how it worked, he would never have had a lab. Later, dolomite was also added to act as a heat sink and a source of carbon dioxide to smother the fire. His decisions helped save millions of lives, but he paid the ultimate price. [5] Legasov was not religious but very interested in religious history and heritage. The engagement ring hasnt always been what it is today. It took more than 36 hours for officials to agree to the And cut the phone lines. She also gets herself arrested and then immediately seated at a meeting on the disaster, led by Gorbachev. It was almost by accident that he found himself included in the state commission on response to the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, his daughter Inga Legasova recalls. You may know Harris for his roles as Lane Pryce on Mad Men and King George VI on The Crown, among many other things. In this episode Zeinab Badawi travels to Angola, DRC and Congo in central Africa to bring the history of the great Kongo Empire.She hears about the critical role played by women in We're committed to providing the best documentaries from around the World. The answer is NO. It being television, and very well-received television at that, it is the series, rather than the books, that will probably finally fill the vacuum where the story of Chernobyl should be. at last is the gift of Chernobyl. Clothes, objects, and light itself seem to come straight out of nineteen-eighties Ukraine, Belarus, and Moscow. Two years later, on the anniversary of the accident, he committed suicide. now I only ask what is the cost of lies. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. Legasova, Valery was the one who ordered and organized the mass exodus of It was not the first time that he attempted suicide. "No one leaves. 56 in Moscow and graduated with a gold medal. The Mad Men actor is playing Valery Legasov. character commits real-life suicide. You can make all the birth plans in the world, but at the end of the day - go with the flow. It has the complete transcript of the tapes in english. So the creators of Chernobyl imagine confrontation where confrontation was unthinkableand, in doing so, they cross the line from conjuring a fiction to creating a lie. take quite a long time to pack their bags. Valery Legasov: 5 Fast Facts You Need to . More often, however, we are given to believe that the three men who were put on trialand especially one of them, a particularly unattractive villain by the name of Anatoly Dyatlov (Paul Ritter)are to blame. How the show differs from real life. He can be a philosopher, historian, an engineer"[5] The school now bears his name, and his bronze bust stands at the entrance. He wasn't threatened or bullied by the KGB, he wasn't thrown out of his office or anythin. Kongo and the Scramble for Africa - History Of Africa with Zeinab Badawi, Khmer Rouge Years of Terror and Genocide in Cambodia, Shark Fin Trade Facts Why do We Need to Stop It. During this time he married a woman . All rights reserved. I wanted to include quotes from the real tapes of Valery Legasov. The real conflict was between Legasov and another senior scientist not shown so far in the show. Viktor Alekseyevich Sidorenko had repeatedly criticised it. about Valery, and some of his memorable quotes. Valery legasov was a nuclear physicist. [15][16] From 1978 to 1983, he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. It is strange and impossible to imagine, how nobody thought I swear we get this question once a week on this sub No, the cost of lies quote is fictional. (miniseries) To them, a just world is a sane world. Whatever they are, they are not the truth. We cut the phone lines. Harris' character is based on the real Legasov, a Soviet Union nuclear physicist who . Tagged: radiation burns. permanent. In 2016, a bust and a commemorative plaque were installed on the wall of Valery Legasov's home in Tula.[39]. Yu. [7], Legasov married Margarita Mikhailovna and had two children, Inga Legasova and Aleksey Valeryevich. He was praised for his openness in discussing the causes Legasov gets the last word. Shasharin, said that "The personnel had no idea . In fact, Legasov would have lived in an entirely different kind of squalor than the fireman did. But this caused a storm in the Ministry. : Valeriy Alekseyevich Legasov 1936 91 - 1988 427 According to chemist Ivan Sorokin, "He wasn't some hero who jumped on a grenade, wishing to save the people. Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was born on 13 March 1961, in the Brahin District of the Gomel Region of the Byelorussian SSR. Valery Legasov: Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. And this part is tragic, confusing and incomprehensible. person behaved in another, etc., it is impossible to find a single culprit, a Just hours after he reported to the Chernobyl disaster [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. Soviet Response to Legasov's Report. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. " Legasov: [showing pictures of the damaged reactor] The atom is a humbling thing. Having put the tapes in the ventilation system of the house, he returns home, feeds his cat, smokes a cigarette, and hangs himself. Your notice should include (a) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (b) the URL where the allegedly infringing Site Content is located; (c) your full name, postal address, telephone number, and email address; (d) a statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the allegedly infringing material on our Sites is not authorized; (e) your physical or electronic signature; and (f) a statement that you are the copyright owner or an authorized agent of the copyright owner. Valery Alexeyevich Legasov1936911988427 A lady is nothing very specific. By that time, Legasov was the first deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. He adored her.. Valery Legasov. 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. [2] In 19491954, he attended School No. Valery Legasov didn't have problems with the government. disaster as an inevitable apotheosis of the USSRs economic system. Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Lyudmilla Ignatenko , Chernobyl , Miniseries : 1. He is now mainly remembered for his work in containment of the Chernobyl disaster and presenting the investigation findings to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Probably, he didnt want to be a burden on my mother. - MagicalQuote. Lies. One would think that a vacuum created by lies could be filled by truth. No carafe, no vodka in the workplace in front of a hostile stranger, and no boasting Im in charge.. 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 Also, his attempts to establish a industrial safety system authority made him a darling to no one in science. Even though one was only allowed to spend a maximum of two weeks at the site, Legasov spent four months (!) ", "Responsabilites Occidentales Dans les Consequences Sanitaires de la Catastrophe de Tchernobyl, en Bielorussie, Ukraine et Russie", "Western responsibility regarding the health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in Belarus, the Ukraine and Russia", "Chernobyl scientist's suicide described", " - .. Legasov worked without rest, often not paying attention to the dosimeter, a device that measures dose uptake of external ionizing radiation. Father used to bring the documents home. He was appointed Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Did Valery Legasov kill himself because of his problems with the Soviet government, as shown in HBO's Chernobyl? Shcherbina (turning to Legasov): What does that number mean? He came to the conclusion that the explosion was a result of a number of factors, including the reactors constructive flaws and human factor - the staff was unaware of the flaws and that the tests they had carried out could have provoked an explosion. (?) This plan was rejected on 26 April 1988, the day before his death. [5] When on trips to other regions, sometimes as part of his scientific duties, he often visited the nearby cultural, artistic and religious sites. On 27 April 1988,[32] the day after the second anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident and one day before he was due to release the outcomes of the investigation into the causes of the disaster,[23] Legasov hanged himself in the stairwell of his Moscow apartment[33] (though some sources say inside his apartment,[34][35] others in his office[23]). [5] The proposals triggered a significant backlash from the existing scientific leadership. [27] His treatment may have been that his independence, his habit of violating the chain of command and his lack of deference to the scientific establishment had irked senior members of the scientific community. Legasov was . MOSCOW (AP) _ Valery A. Legasov, a physical chemist who led the commission the investigated the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, has died at the age of 51, the official Soviet news agency Tass announced. 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? While nobody knows exactly the right reason for his suicide, Posted just six days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/chernobyl/comments/1198y6j/how_many_of_valery_legasovs_quotes_from_the_hbo/. Soviet-born Americansand, indeed, Soviet-born Russianshave been tweeting and blogging in awe at the uncanny precision with which the physical surroundings of Soviet people have been reproduced. presentation to the International Atomic Energy Agency. [1] Ustynyuk called Legasov at 22:30 on the same day saying he might still prevail with support from other top scientists that had not been consulted on the decision. [11], There are several theories concerning Legasov's motivations and state of mind. Chernobyl explosion. I wanted to include quotes from the real tapes of Valery Legasov. All rights reserved. Her baby lived for four hours after birth; she had apparently absorbed the radiation, saving her mothers life. [18] His colleague [citation needed] Extracts from his tapes were published in Pravda in May 1988. )", "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. 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. 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. We see him strong-arming younger, better men into actions that will ultimately lead to catastrophe. 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. The central figure in Chernobyl (screening in Australia on Foxtel) is Valery Legasov, a nuclear physicist sent to assess the reactor immediately following the initial explosion on 26 April 1986. An episode with an academic hiding cassettes - propaganda fiction, like 80% of serial. At 49 years old, Legasov is . Save. [28] Ustynyuk was called to Legasov's office and found him to be "extremely agitated and low-spirited" following the decision. How much do you know about the rich history of the engagement ring? Up until Chernobyl, he was being groomed to be the de facto leader of the Soviet scientific community - a place full of politics and nepotism. [7] Viktor Alekseyevich Sidorenko called for immediate evacuation of Pripyat, which Legasov supported, as the situation was expected to deteriorate in the town, and this decision was approved by Shcherbina. Legasov continued his attempts to introduce reforms in academic chemistry by establishing an interdepartmental council to try to overcome stagnation in the field. Emma Rose Fox. 'Chernobyl' creator and writer Craig Mazin discusses depicting the 1986 nuclear disaster, the HBO miniseries' slow-burn success and how the story resonates with climate change denialism. Add to that his unpopularity among the younger scientists due to his meteoric rise in Soviet science and his questionable handling of the situation after the accident, and Legasov found himself being pushed back from all quarters. This In the final episode, Legasov, testifying as a witness, tells a Soviet court that the disaster happened because the tips of the control rods were made of graphite, which sped up the reaction, when the control rod was supposed to slow it down. Recently, the United Kingdom became the first nation to ban the shark fin trade, with all imports, exports, and related Valery Legasov Facts and Quotes, Who Was the Chernobyl Investigator? 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. I am writing an informative speech on Chernobyl. [19] Legasov had the opportunity to visit nuclear power plants in the West, such as the Soviet designed Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, and was shocked at the higher safety standards, better equipment, a containment structure and superior construction. With that in mind, here are some facts the people. Valery Legasov : There was nothing sane about Chernobyl. 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. I dont believe any of the many lines said by the character were said by the real person. [1] Even before the Chernobyl disaster, Legasov was known to stress the need for new security and safety methods to prevent large catastrophes. daughter Inga, he knew from his first day on the scene he would eventually die. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. [1] After the meeting, Scherbina told him that he could work from Moscow but was quickly ordered back to Chernobyl. I've been trying to research further into Valery Legasov and his work after watching the HBO minisereies. "[5], Legasov researched hydrogen energy as a byproduct of nuclear energy, nuclear energy strategy, energy generation safety and synthesis of unusual compounds, which he regarded as a neglected niche within the institute's activities. What is happening in Chornobyl and how do self-settlers live here. It is necessary to get rid of people who interfere with work. The one noticeable mistake in this respect concerns the series makers apparent ignorance of the vast divisions between different socioeconomic classes in the Soviet Union: in the series, Valery Legasov (Jared Harris), a member of the Academy of Sciences, lives in nearly the same kind of squalor as a fireman in the Ukrainian town of Pripyat. evacuation of the town of Pripyat, at a time Soviet officials were trying to I know that in the miniseries he speaks of the cost of lies, but I know that the miniseries isnt very accurate sometimes. But the real story of Valery Legasov in Chernobyl, played by Jared Harris, makes it somehow even more tragic. The case of Valery is mysterious and unsettling to this Valery Legasov Real Person Mixed Historical Accuracy. It was the stories of those who suffered that most interested Alexievich. When the scientist hesitates to explain how a nuclear reactor works, he's . Biografia. 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. Two weeks later, on August 25, Valery Legasov, wearing a gray suit and striped tie, his face puffy and haggard behind thick glasses, took the floor on the opening day of the special . [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. Neither Tass nor the evening television news broadcast Vremya on Friday gave the cause or place of death. Scribbling and formalism have reached such a scale that it is already difficult for science to bear this cross. 86 years ago, on September 1, 1936 was born one of the most famous Soviet nuclear physicist in the world - Valery Legasov. 1."The truth doesn't care about our needs or wants- it doesn't care about our governments, our ideologies, our religions- to lie in wait for all time. He was eventually released and returned to [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. 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. And when I visited the Chernobyl station after the accident and saw what was happening there, I myself drew a precise and unequivocal conclusion, that the Chernobyl disaster is an apotheosis, the pinnacle of all the mismanagement that has been carried out for decades in our country. magicalquote.com. The people didn't speak English. Sooner or later that debt is paid". [5] These ideas were quickly quashed by the authorities. Leaders of the Party rightfully accused the scientific community for the disaster behind closed doors. Valery Legasov did kill himself and left audio tapes without hiding them behind the ventilation grill though. Did Valery Legasov really commit suicide? 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. Like in 1941, but even worse, Legasov later recalled. In a July 3 meeting of the Soviet politburo on the Chernobyl crisis, the Soviet deputy energy minister, G.A. [7] Legasov thought people worked together efficiently and this put them in good spirits. Two years later, he ended his own life unexpectedly. Obviously " you'll be begging for that bullet by the morning" And along those lines of how quickly death would arrive. This caused serious jealousy among his colleagues. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. For some reason, many believe that my father was disappointed by the fact that he wasnt awarded. 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. For two years he worked as a released secretary of the VLKSM committee, he was elected to the bureau of the Soviet District Committee of the Komsomol and to the Moscow City Committee of the Komsomol. [7] Nikolay Antoshkin, an air force general involved in the liquidation remembers: "I met Valery Alekseevich as soon as he arrived. Kiev is less than 400 miles from Chernobyl, I liked him from the very beginning. 2023 The Thought & Expression Company, LLC. 2023 Cond Nast. His specialty was physical chemistry, he worked on explosives, she explains(in Russian). He just happened to be where he was in the food chain of Soviet science, where someone is important enough to appear before the government . Boris Shcherbina In Chernobyl. A reactor explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's fourth Valery Alekseyevich Legasov was a Soviet inorganic chemist and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. [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]. Jun 2, 2019. [26] Legasov noted that the operators were able to disable the reactor safety systems and stated that improvements to existing RBMK reactors were underway. Footage of Legasov's address does exist -- but perhaps not the whole address. Slowly, once the most powerful in the country, they began to lose the standard of modern equipment. Those people, although diminished in influence, still had enough power to ruin Legasov's career. During their first day in Pripyat the commission encountered shortages of respirators and personal dosimeters. people. [8][9][10] He also had two grandchildren, Misha and Valerik. In the final episode, Legasov, testifying as a witness, tells a Soviet court that the disaster happened because the tips of the control rods were made of graphite, which sped up the reaction, when . Join. This is inaccurate: summary executions, or even delayed executions on orders of a single apparatchik, were not a feature of Soviet life after the nineteen-thirties. By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. This website uses cookies. [11] He often visited the theater with his wife, having a love of reading Russian and foreign literature, particularly the works of Yuri Bondarev. There were no books or movies or songs. [1] One senior scientist wrote "Legasov was a clear representative of that scientific mafia whose political leanings instead of scientific leadership led to the Chernobyl accident. there, and was exposed to 100 REM (Roentgen Equivalent Man) - four times the allowed maximum of 25 REM. The total amount of materials dumped on the reactor weighed about 5,000 tons, including about 40 tons of boron compounds, 2,400 tons of lead, 1,800 tons of sand and clay, and 600 tons of dolomite, as well as sodium phosphate and polymer liquids (Bu93). 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.