All language subtitles for Chernobyl.The.Lost.Tapes.2022.FULL-OCRED

In the Soviet Union the relationship with the truth was complicated.

In 1982 when Brezhnev died

every channel showed the same programme, Swan Lake.

It was clear without any explanation

that something had happened at the top.

This was the Soviet Union.

Attempts to control the truth

ended up with losing control of everything.

S' 1959

The west catastrophic example of this is the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

They documented everything

believing they would show the world a heroic victory...

..but the battle would prove far too costly.

Many died of radiation

those who survived the disaster were silenced

and the film footage hidden.

It's only now the truth can be told.

The explosion at Chernobyl would destroy so much.

The pride of the Soviet regime,

Bto wtod destoy Be reto

We will adopt the five-year plan to increase nuclear energy.

It is about how the. Soviet Union will enter the 21st century.

What will be the face,and position of Socialism in the world.

MBs SpwW®
KWSfcttOfcS...

WELCOME

I was sent to the town of energy w&rkers, Chernobyl.

ILA IHNATENKO, CHERNOBYL RESIDENT

When I got t® the f®wn, I felt like I was in heaven.

I'd never seen such a beautiful and vibrant town before.

Everything was nice, beautiful, green.

Such a beautiful town, on the bank of the river.

The town was very young,

the average age was 26 years old.

So the town really was for the young.

We (Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station is if&all respects the leader

among nuclear power stations being built

First, it leads in the speed of launching new power-generating units.

r

I arrived at Chernobyl as a nuclear engineer.

I worked shifts in the control room.

Understanding and controlling nuclear power generation

was extremely CQmplicated.

NUCLEAR ENERGY REACTORS

All types of reactors are of the highest quality

and their nuclear
and radiation safety is paramount.

The safety systems of Soviet nuclear power plants

fully meet international requirements.

It was drilled into all of us that

the Soviet nuclear program was the best and safest in the world.

Sometimes people ask, "Could a nuclear power plant explode?"

Well, I can completely responsibly declare

that this is completely out of the question.

It's impossible to even imagine such a thing.

It's impossible to even imagine such a thing. ---------------

Everyone believed our reactors simply could not explode.

Both the power plant, and the town that sat right next to it,

were built, confident of a long future.

Many more atomic cities like Chernobyl were planned.

The authorities wanted to create a mighty workforce

who could build and run them.

People came from every corner of the Soviet Republics.

There were girls studying for many different professions*.

Their brothers used to visit them

and that's how I met my husband, Vasya.

It really was love at first sight.

l/l/e had lots of plans.

Of course, we planned to have a large family

because Vasya was from a family with many children.

Our city is young.

bVe have very few concerns about diseases

but we are anxious about the birth rate.

We need a bigger maternity ward.

That's why together with the department for construction

we are building a maternity hospital for 75 beds.

Here it is, in front of you, you can see it.

This hospital will support our city and our young mothers

by helping with the birth of future nuclear energy builders.

Our birth rate was higher than the average in the USSR.

People enjoyed life there.

l/l/e wanted for nothing.

We lived well, I'd say.

ihiiuu

People same from all over our immense country

t© create the biggest nuclear power station on the earth.

So that the peaceful atom

could provide warmth, light, peace and joy on the earth.

Tfius you, people of the next generation,

please take up the torch from us

and carry it through your life!

Be worthy of your fathers and grandfathers, mothers and sisters

and of all who give their work

intellect and skills for the sake of humanity.

l/l/e had a nice relationship with the nuclear power plant.

They monitored releases of radioactive substances

practically on a daily basis.

Life was so relaxed.

It was so balanced, it felt so safe.

l/l/e get married.

I found out I was pnegnamt night- away.

I/Ve really/,w.anted*a child.

l/l/e couldn't even imagine the possibility of any threat.

Even though Vasya worked as a firefighter,

I never felt anything that could be a problem or a real threat.

IMkon'g Ooke tf&tfthat no^ht

01.26 AM

CHERNOBYL FIRE SERVICE, EMERGENCY CALLS

Hello, is this Paramilitary Fire Unit 2?

-Yes.
-What's on fire there?

There's been an explosion inside the main building

between Reactor 3 and Reactor 4.

Are there any people there?

Yes.

Call the commanders.

Already did, the chief is up.

OK, get all of them, all officers, officer corps!

That nig^ still hadntg

My balcony overlooked the garden

and I could see the road.

see three fire trucks pulling out

and I see Vasya running. I'm asking them as quietly as I can,

"Vasya, where are you going?"

And he replies, "There's a fire.

Something has happened at the nuclear plant."

"Oh, go to bed, it's late. Go rest."

And when I turned my head towards the power plant, I saw

the blaze and smoke rising

in the shape of a mushroom cloud.

Some said, they heard the explosion that night

but only when the sun rose

the full extent of the damage could be seen.

The 26th of April, 1986

at a height of 220 metres.

We're approaching the unit.

On the right we can see the central hall of Reactor 4.

Higher! There it is! Keep focusing on this spot!

Keep it where the smoke is coming from!

Keep it there! That's right!

I woke up in the morning to the alarm, had some coffee

and went to work by-bus.

I went to my shift without knowing what happened the night before.

I simply saw the destroyed power unit from the bus window.

I

It was obvious that it had an incredibly high level of radiation.

I was scared of entering the zone of this nuclear plague.

I entered the plant from the side of Reactor 4.

The scale ®f> the destruction became clear.

I could see the upper part of the reactor

the circulation pumps that would pump the coolant into the reactor.

All of those were visible, exposed.

All my equipment.

I was confused. Why am I here? What can be done?

The night shift had been working since the explosion.

It was their duty to help the firefighters

try and control the disaster.

When I arrived in the control room only a few of them remained.

There was Aleksandr Akimov.
I greeted him with a nod.

Lyonya Toptunov was also there. I shook his hand.

He was incredibly pale, white as a sheet.

Both of them were in a poor condition.

They'd already received lethal doses of radiation by morning.

I met Vyacheslav Brazhnik.

He was changing his clothes. His entire body was red.

We had to run all over the unit, looking for the. injured.

The conditions were absolutely horrifying.

There was fire, smoke, pieces of construction hanging down,

hot vapour, extreme radiation.

They say you cannot feel radiation.

%' x '-x>

It cannot be seen, smelled, or tasted.

I was invigorated, energised, even festive.

Later, I readitjfat it's called 'radiation euphoria.'

It passed qpickl^ giving way to n'ausea.

So high levels of radiation can be felt to some extent.

I Vvent to the sanitary checkpoint, updressed, took a shower.

I noticed that my body was bronze, as if suntanned.

My hands, face, and neck were red

and everything underneath my clothes was brown.

They checked the level of radiation in my body.

My right thighr and right arm were polluted.

rpsjHo flATHMK

I guessed that the right arm

was due to my handshake with Toptunov.

The 26th was a Saturday.

Back then we had a six-day school week,

so I woke up, had breakfast and went to school.

It was an average Saturday morning.

Mothers walking around with baby carriages,

people strolling around, kids going to school.

There was absolutely nothing in the city

that could make you think that something is wrong.

After the second lesson,

our'teacher didn't come to the class a fter the bell.

We heard something through the open classroom window, lots of sirens.

That was the moment we started to understand something is going on.

My friend and I climbed out of the window

and ran towards the sound of the sirens.

The sound was coming from the hospital.

There were ambulances there.

There was quite a big crowd of people.

l/l/e tried to find out what had happened,

and asked them some questions.

Everyone ignored us.
Until one man noticed us and said,

"Children, what are you doing here?"

"Why are you not in school?"

"There was a fire at the Power Plant.

That's the moment when everything started getting more interesting.

We ran to the overpass.

? w wo? wt teza

All the officers and generals' were ordered

to return to the Moscow headquarters.

They gathered us,

and said there had been a serious accident at Chernobyl.

l/l/e did not know anything yet. There was very little information.

l/l/e were responsible for protecting Russia.

It was down to us to prevent the consequences of Chernobyl

to stop the radioactivity getting to Moscow and other cities.

So firstly on all the major roads,

we placed special units with officers and soldiers to stop and check

all the transport going to Moscow.

We-didn't really think there would be radiation.

l/l/e thought it was just a precaution.

But it turned out that many cars were radioactive.

It was a big deal.

The flashes on the film

are caused by the radiation.

Just like a Geiger counter makes a sound,

the film shows fla’sh sp'ots.

At the beginning, the radiation indicators were unknown.

The radiation level was so high

that the devices we had were not powerful enough.

Everyone was outside, taking walks with baby carriages, children

schools and kindergartens were open.

Actually, this was...
Nobody was warned by anybody.

The only thing that happened

was that the streets were being cleaned in some places

with sorine foamy solution and that's it.

Everything else was so calm.

It could have been announced on the radio.

It was the duty of the city administration.

They had to give an order.

They knocked on all the rooms at once,

all the apartments they could reach and said the same thing,

"Due to the fire at the plant, radioactive emissions are possible."

"There will be an evacuation.

"Take everything you need f@r the first three days,"

"documents, food, and be ready for the evacuation."

Instead of telling everybody "Go home, shut the doors and windows,"

they take people to playgrounds

that have at least ten times more radiation than indoors.

Kids are playing in these radioactive playgrounds

and everybody is waiting for the evacuation

that, in the end, wouldn't start that day.

By evening people started dispersing

but we spent more than two hours outside.

That night mum got me to sleep in my clothes

in case the evacuation happened.

She spent a sleepless night beside the window

ft© ©OB© gOw
©>©r fflte f©r©©£

On the night of the 26th,

we were alerted at midnight and told to urgently come to the airfield.

We were told to fly to Chernobyl city

that the accident had happened at the power plant.

l/l/e were told to arrive ready to receive orders.

Attention please

In connection with the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,

the town is developing unfavourable radiation conditions.

In order to ensure the complete safety of people

and especially children,

it is necessary

to temporarily evacuate the town's residents

to nearby areas

of the Kyiv region.

At around midday,

I heard the evacuation announcement for the first time.

It was coming from the city loudspeakers and radio.

It is recommended that you take your documents with you

things of vital importance,

as well as food for the first few days.

Comrades!

Please keep calm and organised

during the temporary evacuation.

Thirty-six hours had passed.

For 36 hours, people had been inhaling contaminated air.

After the announcement of the evacuation,

2,200 buses came te Pripyat and Ghernobyl.

The people were told, "Don't worry!"

"This is a temporary evacuation. You will all come back."

It was all HeS

"You'll come back, just take your IDs, no big deal."

"The radiation level is acceptable."

In fact, the level of radiation was extraordinary.

If we told the truth, there would have been immense panic.

There would have been serious panic.

People sang songs. Behaving like it was just a day off, nothing more.

We didn't take much, thinking we were going for a short time.

We only took a few clothes and the clothes we had on,

documents and some money, that's all.

They boarded those buses,

leaving absolutely everything behind.

All pets, d&gs, e
< had to stay.

So before the evacuation there was such a howling from the dogs.

1 ft®

The main task was to find out

the levels of radiation around the power plant.

The levels were outrageous.

A huge amount of radioactive fallout was being pumped into the air.

We have to manage this catastrophe

and stop the release of more radiation into the atmosphere.

\Ne lift the cargo
and fly at 1OOm height to the reactor.

The operator's task: after the rnavigator aims at the target...

The pilots were ordered to load sacks of sand

and boron

and drop these bags from helicopters into the reactor.

You take a parachute, a parachute holds a few sacks.

You stick this thing in the helicopter.

All that is tied onto it?

It's all tied on.

When you get over the reactor you press the button and it’s released.

It was intense, flight after flight.

Take-off for a 10-15 minute flight, landing, loading, next flight...

By the end of the day, the tiredness was colossal

vtith the pressure of time, together with the radiation,

our health suffered.

Right after the first flights we started getting a metallic taste

and a constant scratch in the throat,

it was immediately noticeable.

The enemy there was everywhere and all the time,

but it was invisible.

All this was disorganised.

The work was very dajngeTojJs..

At sunset, they flew from east to west.

When the rays of the sun illuminated the cockpit, it blinded the pilot.

The helicopter caught fire and they all burned alive.

It was senseless.

They worked for a week.

They dumped the sand.
That didn't shut anything down.

Everything they were dumping

made just a huge mound in the reactor.

It collapsed and created an even bigger release

from that reactor than before.

So all the released radionuclides

were going straight into the air, into the atmosphere

and were flying all around the world.

That was Gorbachev's directive

not to say anything about the accident too early.

The hope was to fix the problem quickly

and report about the successful outcome.

। o / „■ ■' i ■ nc

riepBOMaiiCKiie npasjiinKH

IJai K i) .‘hraiionu

4Q I)‘ v Celeb
ons

In Kyiv, the people were living there

with levels of radiation there were about 50 times above normal.

As you can tell, contrary to western news

there has been no gigantic explosion or fire

and there are not thousands of dead

and now the level of radiation has lowered hack to normal.

The accident happened, but exaggeration and rumours

spread by western bourgeois media are not appropriate.

Helicopters were asked to help dust suppression.

Ten to 15 tons of liquid plastic were dispersed.

It bound it on the surfaces, roads, and even in the fields.

It was suggested that the bottom of the reactor could get so hot,

that the fuel would burn through it.

Huge, tremendous amounts of radionuclides

would have contaminated the water.

This would probably kill everyone in Ukraine and the USSR

and spread the contamination all around the world.

They gathered a large number of miners.

So they started building a concrete slab under the reactor.

COMRADES! OUR TASK IS TO PROGRESS

THE MINE 13 METRES EACH DAY

l/l/e were put into shifts.

R HODOSOV, CHERNOBYL MINER
Each of us had 8 shifts of 3 hours.

RHODOSOV, CHERNOBYL MINER
The work was not so much hard,

R HODOSOV. CHERNOBYL MINER
as it was stressful, tense.

KB o
6 WLMH
as it was stressful, tense.

as it was stressful, tense.

Let's do it faster, let's move.

Imagine three hours of intensive work without a break,

no stops, no nothing.

Raise it up.
Press a bit to the left. Lift it up!

We didn't know the radiation was harmful

and later would affect us so badly.

Two years later the first miner would die.

And after that,

we started to hear more and more about illness and deaths.

We^thought we would handle this accident very quickly.

But this was such a huge operation, it's hard to even describe it.

Let's go everybody, quickly!

God forbid anyone should pass through such a hell.

The miners built the tunnel under the 4th reactor,

Mt IhM Mfy J]M

Every firefighter who was sent to Chernobyl

ended up in hospital.

Vasya was taken to the Moscow Hospital Number Six.

ENTRY IS FORBIDDEN

l/l/e had to bribe our way in.

At that time
I was five months pregnant.

I didn't tell the doctor.

I understood they may not let me in because of this.

When she asked,

"Do you have children?"

I said, "Yes, I have two.

She then waved her hand, and said,

"Alright, if you don't plan any more babies, then you can go."

»

They told me,

"Their condition is very severe."

And warned us,

hugging or kissing is strictly forbidden.

And when she guided us to the ward,

I was shocked that they told me Vasya was in a critical condition.

They were sitting with their legs up on the beds

and playing sards.

And they were laughing. We could feel their laughter everywhere.

And when we opened the> door, Vasya looks cat me and .says,

"Even here you found me. Guys! She found me, even here!”

®f course, I hugged and kissed him.

whispered in his ear,

"Vasya, don't tell anyone that I am pregnant,

9

The Ministry of Health of the USSR had a so-called 'Fourth Department'

in charge of nuclear medicine.

Nuclear medicine was at quite a high level.

It had its awn clinics, including the Hospital Number Six in Moscow.

There were countless cases of people

with radiation sickness before Chernobyl

and the treatment schemes had already been developed.

The doctors were using them.

The doctors knew who would make it through

and who wouldn't from the first days.

They treated those who could be treated.

’0

Vasya would have to undergo bone marrow transplant surgery.

The bper'atioitwas carried out by Dr Gale.

The Soviets cared more about international perception

than its own people.

So Gale was invited,

but it was a bit of unfair play.

He was entrusted with the hopeless ones.

He told us that

he had hope that everything would be alright.

He saw that Vasya was very athletic

and that he was so

strong, muscular.

He thought that everything would be alright.

Vasya got much worse.

Much worse. There weren't any wounds on his body yet,

but they were already starting to show.

Certain radiation wounds.

They did nt look like normal wounds.

They were completely different.

His voice got weaker. On the inside.

It was tough.

He had wounds in his. mouth, he^started getting them everywhere.

During the bone marrow transplant surgery it wasn't that bad.

But after surgery...

Very scary.

Their bodies rejected food.

They didn't digest it.

We finally realised that big trouble was around the corner

when Vitya Kibenok and Volodya Pravyk died at night.

They died ten minutes apart from each other.

Then Tishura died,

he died on May 9th as well.

Then we realised that this was it.

But I just thought that nobody else got bone marrow transplants.

Only Vasya got it.

I thought that he'll survive, we'll make it through.

It was around May 9th.

l/l/e were taken by bus to see Gorbachev.

All the families got seated.

There were lots of us.

We were seated and Gorbachev came up to us.

He told us that they were heroes of our country,

that all of them will be buried in Moscow

and then they told us about the non-disclosure...

that we were signing non-disclosure agreements

and that we agreed for them to be buried in Moscow.

How can you talk about funerals, burials,

when my husband is still alive? Why was I brought here

and why should I sign anything?

My father was holding me back.

I asked him, "Why should I sign this? My husband is alive!"

And my poor father was looking at me.

I realised that he understood things much more than I did.

But he told me,

"Quiet, be quiet, my dear daughter. Everything will be alright.”

"Everything will be alright."

Vasya died on May 13th,

St iltlSU*,

You all know that a misfortune befell us recently

an accident
at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

It seriously hurt the Soviet people

and shook the international community.

As of this moment, 299 people have been hospitalised

diagnosed with radiation sickness of various degrees.

Seven of them are deceased.

Thanks to the effective measures taken

the worst is behind us.

The most serious consequences have been averted.

OUR TASK IS TO ACT HEROICALLY

There was an order from the Party to complete the clean up liquidation

before the anniversary of the October Revolution.

"No matter what it takes."

We put up a camp

tents, set up for the whole battalion.

Every day...

6am-

we head out, measure everything, 30-kilometre exclusion zone.

Monitoring the radiation measurements

the whole day, but, well, we signed a non-disclosure agreement.

We had a captain...

"Don't disclose the radiation levels! You mustn't!"

l/l/e knew nothing about what was going on.

Hothing-

The explosion at Chernobyl caused a toxic nuclear mess

the likes of which the world had never seen before.

An eruption of thick nuclear material had poured out over 1000sq km.

It was an epic story.

My soldiers started decontaminating houses.

There was a hope that people

could return to live here

to these houses.

But nothing worked.

radioactive particles were everywhere.

It was really horrible.

Our deadlines were quite clear,

we would be tfie last to complete the cleaning.

It was our military duty.

I/Ve had to obey our orders.

We had no other choice.

J

Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to the east continues.

We calculated the explosion was equivalent

to 400 nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

It completely destroyed the reactor.

Then the nuclear fuel was ejected from the structure.

The accident was not called a catastrophe for nothing.

By September, the hardest part of the liquidation remained.

A huge amount of nuclear fuel was lying on the roofs.

There were hundreds of tons,

not kilograms, but hundreds of tons,

so they bought a robot from Germany.

How are you goiing to turn it around?

Our mission was to seal the reactor shut.

l/l/e had to remove the nuclear fuel and bury it.

The level of radiation was substantial.

Hello, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, it's Samoilenko.

Yuri Samoilenko is a courageous, very capable man.

Deputy Chief Engineer of Chernobyl Power Plant.

This was the kind of work, where the leaders had to make quick decisions.

The buck stopped with us.

Listen carefully, this is General Tarakanov.

We had to complete the task

preferably, without having to put anyone in danger.

The robot will push the graphite pieces over the edge.

That is the plan.

Now we'll go upstairs, to the 50-metre mark,

to the control room where we operate the robot.

It was an extremely difficult job.

We needed the robot to do the work

instead of humans disposing of everything on the roof

because the conditions were too dangerous.

Drive it straight towards the block.

We needed it to work.

Drive him forward.

Where is it going?

It was such a tense psycho-emotional situation we had there,

it could literally crack your bones.

It moved around a bit, then went out of control.

Is it damaged?

It's not working!

It's falling apart.

What do we do now?

The electronics of these robots

immediately malfunctioned and they burned out.

The German robot is stuck.

\Ne just can't drag it off

because it's sitting on a graphite block.

The robot just spins around and that's it.

It's three and a half tons.

We're working on it.

There can be no failure.

Tte /©i ted te d©®@o

The major is the battalion commander, everyone gets lined-up

and General Tarakanov says,

"You have to complete the honourable mission of

shovelling the debris into the reactor and it'll be sealed shut."

"Only volunteers are going!"

Volunteers-'

The general told the commander,

"This needs to be done."

And the major told us,

"This is an order!"

I had a perfectly good idea what we were dealing with.

We are the professionals.

But the people who were subordinate to us,

they understood absolutely nothing.

This talk about radiation is nonsense, guys. We're healthy.

\Ne ane already used to it and it's gotten used to us.

Everyone is smiling here.

Everyone's content.
They even sell vodka here.

There was a rumour going around'Moscow,

you come here and you get given 150g of vodka everyday.

I was speaking to my wife, telling her abput

how you walk into the canteen and are given 150g of vodka.

You leave and are given another 150g.

She said, at least eat something with all this alcohol!

l/l/e are entering a high radiation area.

Close down the hatches, turn on the filtration units.

I asked the commission to choose the strongest, healthiest soldiers

AL NIKOLAI TARAKANOV

who were inventive and sporty.

Generals and officers went around all the regiments

and selected 5,000 volunteers.

A car brought lead sheets,

those millimetre-thick ones, some tie string, and that was it and

some underpants.

The guys sewed the lead into their clothes.

The robots failed, but we have bio-robots.

Our Major Klopotenko said, "Boys, you...

both of you are the best combatants, why are you slacking off?"

"I don't want to do this", I replied.

Because I realised

the radiation level skyrocketed.

You know what the punishment for disobeying an order now is?

And then you go to the first service ladder, get up to the first site,

then, from there, get out to the second one.

It's a bit destroyed.

Your task is to clean this coal-black graphite from here.

The Soviet machine, the Soviet Army was all powerful.

The order had been given.

It was suicidal.

Get around the pipe,

to its eastern side, and take a breath.

-Right here.
-Yes.

Maybe it's not easy for everyone to understand

how we could let people out there.

But we didn't just let them out thoughtlessly.

Nobody knew anything, especially the first ones.

They knew nothing and they were literally going to hell.

Look here, you have to take the graphite and throw it into the abyss.

But don't get too close. You can only approach this metal railing.

Look at these guys, they act correctly.

Do you have any questions for us?

No questions?

Well, then I thank you for your task and wish you good health.

Hurry up. Let's go.

Careful, guys!

l/l/e didn't even have proper protection.

You take a piece

giving out 600 roentgen of radiation,

the contact time is a few seconds.

But, it remained in the spine,

those molecules and atoms.

It accumulated, and accumulated, and accumulated in the body.

Let's go!

We are ready.

We'll be going.
The hole is to the right.

Got it!

Careful, be careful.

Sooner or later each of our bodies showed signs.

I/Ue all went through it, vomiting, coughing, extreme exhaustion.

Some guys couldn't get out of bed from fatigue by the second day.

l/l/e called the local medical instructor, he gave them some pills,

injections

something to drink.

The level of radiation accumulation was strictly concealed.

People worked until they fell from their feet.

On the fifth day, I started vomiting, started choking.

Eating, I hardly ate at all, just drank-drank-drank.

Roughly speaking, about 80% of the liquidators would die

in the years that followed.

You have completed the assigned task and completed it excellently.

I congratulate you on the completion of this task.

I wish you great health and a long life.

All of you are awarded a prize of 800 rubles.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

serve the Soviet Union.

Thank you.

serve the Soviet Union.

serve the Soviet Union.

serve the Soviet Union.

l/l/e were liquidators, just "cannon fodder", that's all.

I/Ve had been there for three months and this was the end of the mission.

They climbed to the highest ground

and raised the flag.

There was a prolonged alarm sound from the power plant.

It has the same symbolism as Victory Day.

1/l/eVe removed the high radiation level.

l/l/e reported to the commission that the operation was complete.

Be careful. Put the camera down. Hurry up.

My soldiers liquidated 200 tons of radioactive fuel and other debris.

People have acted heroically, selflessly.

I can say with good reason that for all the severity of the incident,

the damage was limited to a decisive extent

due to the courage and skill of our people.

Their loyalty to their duty

the coherence of the actions of everyone who took part

in eliminating the consequences of the accident.

-
My t.c "That3

but it was
a completely different story.

I had to wait years

before I could return home to visit.

Our balcony, kitchen window.

Here's an apple tree I planted with Vasya.

We
pad great

for the future.-

andthen-

everything was different.

was pregnant.

They admitted me to the hospital.

I ga ve birth to a girl.

Oh God.

Before he died, Vasya and I gave her a name

and Vasya said,

"Her name will be Natasha."

"I like the name Natasha,"

and so we named her.

After five hours..

she died-

At that time, I was told that she

protected me, she saved my life.

4
Tftat all the radiation...

that I was inhaling, she absorbed it.

l/l/e have seen an increase

in pregnancy and birth complications...

adrenal cancer

and thyroid cancer in newborns,

which was very rare before the accident.

Women are giving birth to so-called sirens,

when the whole lower part of the body

turns into..

like a fish tail.

There are no healthy people after the accident.

-What did you say your name is?
-Vasilina Ivanivna.

Absolutely all local people, who started having health problems

received a diagnosis from our doctors of 'Radiophobia.'

They claimed that all our problems appeared

because we were too afraid of radiation.

It was all just psychological.

This is the point where the Soviet version of events

completely disconnects from the truth.

YEVGENIY CHASZO^988 rOAi MINISTER OF HEALTH OF THE USSR

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant

had no impact on the health of the population.

A thorough medical examination

did not reveal any abnormalities

in the health of the population in the affected areas.

Every fourth kid has an enlarged thyroid gland and liver.

When they take a blood test,

they find leukaemia and other abnormalities.

They don't tel] u.s .about it and we don't understand it.

What do the doctors say? They say it's normal, it's fine, it's nothing.

They did some laboratory tests in the'^illage,

but didn't say a single word to us. No truth. No analysis. Nothing.

I feel weak, I get bad headaches.

The regime actively tried to sweep the consequences away.

Gorbachev's first visit to Chernobyl was two years after the disaster.

Hello, comrades.

Hello.

Any questions for me? Any questions? Please.

Yeah, this man here.

He spent five hours at the plant during the accident

now he barely leaves the hospital

and they say
it has no relation to radiation.

Doctors were forbidden to diagnose anything related to radiation.

So there were no more cases.

In reality, there were; officially, there weren't.

This was the rule.

^v'eiiyone here is a Chernobyl liquidator.

They do not rerorcl our illnesses as being caused by exposure to radiation.

They diagnosed me with brain damage.

Degradation of the body's bone base,

rectal prolapse, destruction of the pelvis and so on

What could have caused that?

It's ridiculous!

Robot. A biorobot!

Is it falling out for no reason?

LEONID ILYIN, VICE-PRESIDWr\OA4
ADVANCED SOVIET MATHEMATICS

Everyone in this room is well aware

that the problem is not scientific

but psychological, leading to the syndrome of 'Radiophobia.'

The Soviets blamed it all on 'Radiophobia,'

but the more they denied it,

the more real evidence emerged.

I can also mention those freak calves. I've lost count of them.

\Ne slaughtered a calf not s® long ago.

Its leg grew from its neck-.

Other milkmaids have their calves born three-legged.

More than forty mutant piglets have been born since the disaster.

Are you worried about this phenomenon?

Of course we are.

Let's go to the pig farm. We'll show you.

They t®ld us t® have coils implanted and have abortions.

They wouldn't have ordered that if there wasn't ra'diation.

They^wouldn't have forbidden us from having children.

This was the Soviet Union, the secrecy.

A lot of secrets surround Chernobyl, not only medical,

but also technological ones.

The government of the Soviet Union

prepared a report on the causes of the disaster.

In August 1986, the report was presented in Vienna to

In,August 1986, j the rteport was presented in Vienna to

■h.
atomic c

Back when this report was being prepared in the USSR in the summer,

the KGB started collecting non-disclosure agreements.

signed that KGB paper.

In the first paragraph,
I was forbidden to disclose, quote,

'the true causes of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster'

The State then diverted attention by finding someone to blame.

They set up a court in Chernobyl

and invited journalists from all over the world.

Former Director of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

They decided to blame it on the alleged mistakes and violations

of the operating personnel of the reactor.

V DIYATLOV, DEPUTY CHIEF OF CHERNOBYL NPP

Former Deputy Chief Engineer on Exploitation of the NPP

Of all the heads of the Station brought to the court,

he was the only professional nuclear physicist.

At the moment of the explosion he was at the reactor.

The Chernobyl trial, was certainly a show trial.

It wasn't a trial, it was a one-sided game.

The sentence in the name of the Union ®f Soviet Socialist Republics.

July 29, 1987, the city of Chernobyl.

^©wer plant's former

■■ ’ [ewwir (pteiniS's flomw

p»iroHro
ernoby on

n ('her no by I on

• ' iifi) Chsmobyll on

The main reasons that led to the accident

were gross violations of the safety rules.

The Russians say the Chernobyl accident was caused by no fewer

than 6 violations of safety procedures by staff,

that they say won't happen again.

To professionals, it was clear,

that personnel's mistakes weren't the cause.

The cause was the faulty design of the reactor.

After Chernobyl, all the US§:R reactors ®f this type

w.erie^shukdownJ.or modem isa ti.on.

In some situations,

the reactors,

functioned in a way that made them almost uncontrollable,

and the operators had no way of influe'ncingithe rieae.to.ris hehayMur.

In some situations,

the reactors started behaving worse than before the disaster.

Some mistakes were successfully corrected, others weren't correctable.

In 1987, the Soviet Union made this information classified

and the reactors continued operating.

Y DIYATLOV, DEPUTY CHIEF OF CHERNOBYL NPP

V DI Y ATIOV• jyP'ATY CHIEF OF RHERNAPYL NPP , . .
I didn t make any risky decisions about the reactor.

I considered that completely unacceptable.

The mistakes by the personnel are a lie.

A lie of the Soviet Union.

In the case of Chernobyl, the concealment of causes,

the concealment of the design flaws

led to the explosion of the reactor.

And politically, hiding the consequences of the accident...

I want to show you some photographs.

These are the children of the zone who are born today.

...led to a pdlitieal'ex&Qsion and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

No one likes being lied to.

By that time the Union became nothing but a bunch of lies.

Certainly, it was one of the nails in the Soviet Union's coffin.

Nature takes its revenge.

for immorality and dishonesty..

for cruelty and mediocrity,

greediness and secrecy

of the Soviet system.

l/l/e don't know how many people

have died from the Chernobyl accident

in these three years.

But we do know that we built

the world's largest coffin.

We havenyiearnt the samejessons

as ®ur foreign colleagues ha^/e

The lack of information frightened people.

Millions of inhabitants.

All of these are products of the command and control system.

l/l/e need to stop the vicious machine.

The decree of the Vice President of the USSR.

In view of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev's inability

for health reasons, to perform his duties as President of the USSR,

in keeping with Paragraph 7, Article 127 of the Constitution of the USSR,

Vice-President Yanayev took office

as President of the USSR on August 19, 1991.

UKRAINIAN SFtoiO OF CHRONICLE DOCUMENTARY FILMS, UKRAINIAN STUDIO OF TELEVISION & FILMS UKRTELEFILM. ANDRIIPRYIMACHENKO