"Vichnaya pamyat" means "everlasting memory" in Russian/Ukrainian. Its is also a title of Eastern Orthodox Christian hymn sung at the funerals.

You guys are really respectful. It's nice to see

If im not mistaken, the big guy was fighting back tears after the credits. Dont worry dude u were not alone. I also got tears in my eyes after that episode 5 ending. And the scene where 3 divers volunteered also broke me. Epic mini series. Thank you so much for reacting to it!

I was at Chernobyl in 2011, while the containment structure was still under construction. You could not get too close (obviously) and you could not linger too long (Pripyat was different). The nearest you could get to reactor #4 was next to that monunment with the sculpted cupped hands holding the reactor. Some of us had the use of handheld radiation detectors. It was eerie watching the reading go up and down depending on where you happened to be. The highest reading was when we drove past the red forest, and we didn't stop there. I talked to our guide, who had spoken to one of the survivors of the incident, and asked him what was the most memorable thing the survivor had told him. He replied, "He said that after the explosion, the light coming from the reactor was all the colors of the rainbow". The food in the plant cafeteria was awful.

In the Russian judicial system, the judge worked for the prosecutor. The trial had to be held where the crime was committed, i.e., Chernobyl not Moscow. In actuality, Legasov wasn't at the trial, but the results were the same: he was shunned, and voted down by his colleagues for the directorship of the Kurchatov Institute, which he'd expected. That broke him. There wasn't a document with redacted pages. The designers were aware of the problem but--planned economy--ran out of time and budget to deal with it. So they documented it and prepared instructions for the operators. Those identified a problem in the Soviet nuclear system, and were deemed far too sensitive to be sent to Pripyat.

Can you imagine being a more-or-less normal Russian at that time and being in close personal contact with Mr. KGB himself? That thought terrifies me.

The show trial did not include Legasov at all, he had already fallen out of favour and was voted out of the leadership of the nuclear institute. There were 10's of scientists that did go through all of the documentation step by step, minute by minute, second by second. The show trial was the last broadcast show trial and was held in a theater in the city of Chernobyl, about 5km from the plant. The prosecutor of the show trial was the highest rank of all them, and thus were the one running the show and not the judge. There was no defense, they are literally just explaining why they are guilty. Dyatlov did speak up multiple times, trying to defend his co-workers while they were all being grilled. Dyatlov is to this day the most defiant person in a USSR show trial, and he was even interviewed multiple times while doing his sentence and kept defending the plant workers and blamed the USSR government until he died. Legasov held the speech for the nuclear comitee in Vienna before they had even cleared the rooftops. It completely shocked the west that he spoke to freely about it, as the USSR had previously not said much. It was only in 1991 that the west actually fully understood that he had with held the information about the design flaw.

25:46: "I wonder how loud that was inside the control room." It wasn't. The control room was far enough away from Reactor 4 that there was just a dull thud.

the center hanging picture reflects the tv images. 👍🏼🙂

just found u guys, absolutely loved ur reaction, y'all are hella entertaining to watch!! both of my parents were 21 yrs old at the time of the accident and my dad almost got sent to chernobyl which is totally crazy cos idk if i would be here writing this comment if he wasn't this lucky. thankfully, he got discharged from the mandatory military service soon enough. one of his friends wasn't so lucky tho, he got drafted and took part in the liquidation process. my dad is in his late fifties and very much alive today but his friend died in the 00's or so. the funny thing is our government still hasn't learned anything from this tragedy and as the narrator in the show keeps telling about the cost of lies, our government keeps lying and hiding the truth. different ppl, same way of handling things. yikes. greetings from the legasov's homeland ✌️

One of nice things about this series is that it create a great loop as last episode are describing what really happen and the continuation is episode 1. If you rewatch it again with new info and knowledge from previous episode/podcast, it give different perspective.

I was thinking about Liudmilla and her son too. I guess he will have to fight now as he would be in the age range of men who are drafted. I hope they are ok (or as ok as anyone could be in their situation).

The steel "lid" that was blown off weighed 500 tons.

Funny how it's in the news again. Who in their right mind would fire shells near a Nuclear power plant. And an already damaged one at that.

Chernobyl is such a beautiful show. The systemic failure, the mechanics built into the soviet system.. and the relevance they have on the current world events where some madman who reveres what should be gone tries to soak Europe in blood to have this happen again. Stellar acting, script, cinematography.. Just, beautiful. I think Americans have a healthy suspicion of their government, but when you compare it to the massively rotten stain that is the soviet/russian system, you desecrate yours and lift theirs. American system is based on good values, it's not always the best in advancing them and there's plenty of people who want to ruin it. But the soviet/russian system is just rotten.. it's fascist while claiming anti-fascist.. it's always ready to lay blame.. it's spending massive amounts of resources just to keep people ignorant and stupid.. Soviet system ate itself alive and we're seeing the russian fascist incarnation doing it as well.. I think Chernobyl captures this extremely well. Also about mixing russia and ussr.. there's a madman in Kremlin who does the same mistake ^.^

Denial: You had to maintain that the Soviet Union was a worker's paradise where nothing ever went wrong. Perception outweighed reality. If you raised an issue, it was all your fault. They set out to build a tractor factory. Work fell behind, but the paperwork moved on schedule because no one would take the hit. Finally the fire marshall arrived to inspect and found a cement slab. Dyatlov gave an interview late in life, and maintained to his dying day that he was not in the room at the time. Complacency: The SU taught that radiation was good and a sign of Soviet technological progress. And if the Americans nuke us, Civil Defense has it handled.

"It's very 1984." Well, 1984 was written primarily as a critique of the Soviet Union, so yeah. Gorbachev has gone on record as saying he believes that the massive cost of Cherynobl (economically, politically and in terms of trust) is what finally led to the dissolution the USSR.

Vichnaya Pamyat..Everlasting Memory

I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the inchworm was a happy accident that they made use of. Of course I didn't scour the credits for "inchworm wrangler"lol

Boris Yevdokimovich Shcherbina was a party man. He opposed Gorbachev for being too liberal. But at the same time, he understood that disaster is needed to be fixed for the Soviet Union to survive. He's also considered a hero for his work after an earthquake and the caucuses. I suppose he had the good fortune of dying before the Soviet Union collapsed and before he had to take a position on the coup against Gorbachev in 1991. On a completely unrelated note, there's been fighting around Chernobyl and in an even larger nuclear power plant in the south. Supposedly, that complex was set on fire. Fortunately, it was just the administrative building that was burning and not the reactor. On the other hand, Chernobyl has lost power. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about.

Great reaction! There is an interview of the real Dyatlov on KZfaq, you can watch it. Everyone there admires his competent speech without words-weeds, etc.

You guys are the only reactors I watched that immediately pointed out that the American government is not an exception from lying to the public. Other people seem to think our own government would react differently. I doubt much would have been different - do these people even know American History? Good job guys 👍

Something interesting to see after this would be the half-life histories videos by Kyle Hill on youtube.

The Soviet trials were mostly based on an idea of the supremacy of the State and the ideals of Communism. So, if you were presenting any opposing ideas against those, the chances you actually could have won the trial, were practically non-existent.

Actually the problem start with Boris in the first place because he demand the power plant to be completed that force people to take shortcut to save time and resources.

You don't really understand how different the soviet system and the US system is in government and every day philosophy!

0:10 did you know? nate is left handed 🖐🏻

So now there's reports that the Russian soldiers who occupied Chornobyl for the last few weeks were stupid enough to actually camp in The Red Forest. Not just move through it, but actually CAMP there. The Red Forest is the area they were talking about in the past episode where they had to shovel the dirt over to bury the fallout just downwind of the plant. And the Russians went through there and stirred up that dirt and released the long buried contaminated dust and breathed it in. This is an area even the plant workers who monitor the plant don't even allow themselves to go because its too dangerous and the soldiers actually *stayed there* for a few weeks. If these reports are true then that means modern Russia is lying to its people about the disaster *again*.

Ukrainian soldiers were getting cancers from digging slit trenches around the plant, were Putin actually moved in troops to protect the plant from getting further damage.

Thanks for leaving in that whole explanation as to what happened. 100 yr containment won't stop bombs though. :-((

27:42

ehe he said vachinya

16:54 nate, shaun, and lewis i was with you right up till you look the "under promise, under deliver" pledge 😑

Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦

Chornobyl is now under russian invading army occupation. Workers are working nonstop for 3 weeks now, not even changing clothes and close to mental and physical breakdown. Pray it will not be an another disaster! Glory to Ukraine

When I think about the state of not just our government, but other governments, I can't help but feel a great sense of sadness and disappointment. I've long since come to the conclusion that whatever system of government you try to devise, there will also be people who will try to twist and corrupt it to suit their needs. It happened with the Roman Republic, it happened with communism, and it happened with us. I mean really think about it. For decades our presidents have either belonged to the Democratic or Republican parties and, and most of the guys in office are white, well off, middle aged men. I don't want to get super political over this, I really hate it, but our system is broken and we really need to do something about it outside of talking on the internet.

Crazy Ukraine had this mass issue in the past and now another issue in today's world :/ I hope Ukraine gets justice

The guy in the middle badly needs to get some new friends. He’s clearly the smartest guy in the room, something you never really want to be. Creating a system without corruption is impossible, unless you let AI do the judgments for you, a thought that I resent. All things considered, we still have it alright in the west.

This was a stunning series. Still so relevant to whats been happening in the world today, both in America, the UK, Russia, etc, etc. " It will lie in wait for all time. And this, at last, is the gift of Chernobyl. Where I once would fear the cost of truth, now I only ask : What is the cost of lies ? " God, seeing how in the UK we have a lying government still twisting the truth when it comes to the Pandemic and you lot had Trump and all that entailed, that line is still holds a lot of power. And what with the Ukraine and Russia taking back the Chernobyl plant, god help us all....ETA re the phone thing, nah, recently the Russian government has been disbelieving of footage taken by those caught in the war zone as 'fakes'. so basically you can win.