Russia Should Have Made HBO's Chernobyl

The Moscow Times ^ | May 31, 2019 | L. Bershidsky

[CondoleezzaProtege]

“Chernobyl,” the HBO mini-series that ends Monday in the U.S., isn’t easy to watch as someone who lived in the Soviet Union in 1986 and who has since visited the Chernobyl exclusion zone. But, like many of my compatriots, I’m watching it — and thinking it should have been made in Russia, Ukraine or Belarus, not by an American entertainment channel.

There are two reasons for this. One is authenticity — despite a valiant attempt at it, the series falls short. But the other, more important reason is that this kind of harsh sermon on the importance of listening to experts and running a government for the people, not for its own sake, should have come from one of the affected countries. Those countries, apparently, haven’t learned the lessons well enough to make a movie like this.

All... inaccuracies, big and small, mitigate the harshness of the movie for viewers with friends and family affected by the disaster. (My ex-father-in-law was one of the 600,000 so-called liquidators involved in the cleanup.) They serve as a filter, a reminder that this is, after all, an American TV series, not a documentary, and that none of the horrible things on the screen are real.

Now, the world at large will know the story from this version. That the post-Soviet nations left it to the HBO is, of course, not comparable with the original Soviet failure to report openly on the disaster. It is, however, a regrettable sin of omission that in the 33 years that have passed since Chernobyl’s Reactor 4 blew up that the post-Soviet world hasn’t produced anything as compelling as HBO’s flawed but riveting product.

[mass55th]

The U.S.S.R. had several nuclear accidents prior to Chernobyl, all of which went unreported for many years. I’m reading “Midnight in Chernobyl” by Adam Higginbotham. It’s very well sourced, and lays out the history of nuclear energy production in the U.S.S.R. from its beginning.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I always thought it was stupid that after Russia irradiated all of Europe, Western Europeans were still protesting America hot and heavy.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

As much as I despise subtitles, Russia does put out some good movies now.

[NobleFree]

Why is this excerpted? The posting page doesn’t require it (I tested) and the site’s not listed at https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1111944/posts

[frogjerk]

Watch “Zero Hour” the Chernobyl episode and get the story in one hour rather than watching crappy HBO

[mkleesma]

“Watch “Zero Hour” the Chernobyl episode and get the story in one hour rather than watching crappy HBO”

Whatever you think of HBO, the Chernobyl mini series was excellent - one of the best TV programs I’ve seen in years.

[mass55th]

One of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear accidents took place in the southern Urals on Sunday, September 29, 1957. The site was a highly guarded military location. According to Higginbotham's book, rumors of what had happened reached the west, and because the Soviet's refused to acknowledge anything had happened, their secretiveness eventually triggered the U-2 missions, and then on the second mission, Gary Francis Powers got shot down, and all hell broke loose.

Here's an article I found about the Chelybinsk-40 explosion:

The Most Contaminated Place on Earth

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Zero Hour: Disaster at Chernobyl Discovery Channel (2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITEXGdht3y8

Was amazing. Graphite in the boron control rods? Were they insane? As a young mechanic before the accident I understood the properties of graphite. Not only was it highly conductive but also corrosive.

[cowboyusa]

Socalism in action.

[Nateman]

I was on the USS Atlanta SSN 712 which ran aground at Gibraltar around the same time as Chernobyl blew up. The Soviets actually tried to the blame the radiation on my sub but the detectors showed the source was hundreds of miles from the Atlanta’s position.

[W650]

This site is a great read. The author the author travels through the dead zone and photos the remains of towns and villages.

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter6.html

[Callan]

Thanks for the link. I found that site years ago and it was fascinating. The HBO producer probably saw the same site and said, “let’s do a film about it.”

[NorseViking]

It was usable and efficient for combination of cost and performance. The issue of malfunctioned shutdown procedure on RBMK is akin the issue of riding a car on ice at 100 mph into a wall then pulling a parking brake 10 yards before the wall and blaming the parking brake for the crash.
Nothing would have been happened if the reactor was used in any semi-responbible manner.

[morphing libertarian]

The HBO series was riveting. Not bad for a crappy network, which runs some of my favorite shows..

[justa-hairyape]

Think more reactor material has melted down in US made reactors. The Japanese are second. The Russisns are only third on the melted nuclear core total list. At least that the world knows about lol.

[CrimsonTidegirl]

I’m not a fan of HBO but I subscribed specifically to watch “Chernobyl”.

I won’t renew my subscription after this month, but this miniseries was well worth paying for.

It was superb.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I was on the USS Atlanta SSN 712 which ran aground at Gibraltar around the same time as Chernobyl blew up. The Soviets actually tried to the blame the radiation on my sub but the detectors showed the source was hundreds of miles from the Atlanta’s position.

Wow! Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[sparklite2]

What happened to the skipper? Was the ‘reassigned?’

[Nateman]

Yep. It was mostly just the front that got dinged up so we went at slow speed all the way across the Atlantic , with a new skipper
, into dry dock at Norfolk.