Annotated Script of Episode Five, ‘Vichnaya Pamyat’ — Part 1
EXT. PRIPYAT — DAY
The iconic “PRIPYAT 1970” sign on the outskirts of town. Crisp and white. Colorful flowers planted at its base.
MUSIC: score, recalling memories of glory, or perhaps a dream of a glory that never was.
EXT. PRIPYAT — VARIOUS — DAY
Even a planned Soviet city can look beautiful on a day like this. Alive. Someone’s dream of home…
Sredmash: Pripyat was in fact a desirable place to live by Soviet standards. Nuclear power was a prestigious field, and although the pay was not high, employment at the Chernobyl NPP came with significant perks. Pripyat was unusually well appointed with stores and amenities such as the famous swimming pool. Even unmarried young professionals were likely to have their own private apartments. The city’s 48,000 residents owned 12,000 cars.
SITNIKOV (who went to the roof) takes a stroll with his wife. They hold hands. Their DAUGHTER, 4, toddles along in front of them with their DOG.
Sredmash: Sitnikov was one of the operators who worked with Dyatlov at his laboratory in Russia’s Far East. His widow Elvira testified at the trial, relaying some his final words that the sacrifices of the plant workers were not in vain, and that they may have saved half of Europe. “He did not blame anyone for anything at all. And I also do not blame anyone.”[i]
OLD WOMEN sit together on a bench, gossiping and arguing as they do each day.
YUVCHENKO (who held the reactor door open) — pulls his 2-year old SON along in a little WAGON.
Sredmash: Aleksandr Yuvchenko and his family moved to Moscow during his treatment for acute radiation sickness (ARS). He endured a lengthy recovery and struggled with addiction to the painkillers he was given at the hospital. Yuvchenko eventually returned to work in the nuclear industry as an engineer, several years before his death in 2008. Yuvchenko’s son Kirill works in the medical field, with an interest in radiological therapy.[ii]
CITIZENS swim slowly across the community pool.
Sredmash: The iconic swimming pool stayed in operation for several years after the evacuation, for use by liquidators.
LYUDMILLA is in a shop with OKSANA. She looks out through the shop window to the street, where she sees VASILY standing with MIKHAIL, who holds his baby.
Sredmash: The characters of Oksana and Mikhail are not based on historical individuals.
Mikhail offers to let Vasily hold the baby, and he does.
Lyudmilla watches her husband cradling the infant. Vasily turns and sees her watching. He smiles at her. Pure love. And she smiles back. Her husband. Her life. One day it will be their baby. One day.
A figure passes behind Vasily in the background.
CLOSE ON — SHOES walking with purpose. We pull back to reveal — ANATOLY DYATLOV.
Lunch sack in his hand. Cigarette in his mouth. Walking as he does every single day. Walking to work. Ahead of him, up and off in the distance… the CHERNOBYL POWER PLANT.
Sredmash: Dyatlov did in fact walk the three kilometers to work on a daily basis.
CUT TO TITLES
END TITLES, CUT TO:
INT. BRYUKHANOV’S OFFICE — DAY
TITLE:
APRIL 25, 1986
2:00 PM
FOMIN sits patiently across from Bryukhanov’s desk. DYATLOV sits in the other guest seat. Glances at Fomin. Casually disdainful of him. Silence.
Then, finally:
FOMIN
I hear they might promote Bryukhanov. This little problem we have with the safety test? If it’s completed successfully… yes, I think a promotion is very likely. Who knows, maybe Moscow.
Sredmash: Bryukhanov was already slated for promotion to Moscow, with the announcement scheduled for May 1st, so the test was not relevant.[iii]
Dyatlov’s eyes narrow.
FOMIN
Naturally they’ll put me in charge once he’s gone. And then I’ll need someone to take my old job. I could pick Sitnikov…
It takes a moment for Dyatlov to swallow his pride. Then:
DYATLOV
I would like to be considered.
FOMIN
I’ll keep that in mind.
The door opens, and BRYUKHANOV enters. Fomin rises, but Bryukhanov gives him an annoyed wave to sit the fuck down. Then he starts opening desk drawers. Looking for something.
FOMIN
Viktor Petrovich, preparations for the test have gone smoothly. Comrade Dyatlov has been working per my instructions, and Reactor 4 output has been reduced to 1600 megawatts. With your approval, we’re ready to continue lowering power to —
Sredmash: Fomin was apparently not planning to be involved in supervision of the test. He was only just recovering from a severe car accident which left him partially paralyzed.
BRYUKHANOV
We have to wait.
Sredmash: Bryukhanov was apparently not aware that the test was planned for April 25–26, as Fomin testified at the trial.[iv] He viewed the test as a routine verification of equipment readiness.[v]
Fomin and Dyatlov weren’t expecting that. Not good.
FOMIN
Is there — ?
BRYUKHANOV
You’re going to ask me if there’s a problem, Nikolai? You can’t read a fucking face?
Sredmash: Despite his brusque portrayal on the screen, Bryukhanov was described by coworkers and family members as a bit of a soft touch, and was well liked.[vi]
He’s found a pack of cigarettes. Lights one. Tosses the lighter down on his desk.
Sredmash: Absorbing 1 Sievert of radiation (which requires hospitalization) increases cancer risk by 5.5%,[vii] but a lifelong smoking habit increases a male’s risk of lung cancer by 2200%.
BRYUKHANOV
Three years I’ve been trying to finish this test. Three years!
Sredmash: The turbine rundown test had been attempted at least three times previously, and required alterations to the electrical systems and reactor controls. The test had actually been completed at Chernobyl not long before, but the results had not been officially recorded. The test was scheduled in advance of the maintenance shutdown scheduled for Reactor 4 that weekend. Since the test program was essentially the same as that used in previous attempts, it was not formally cleared with outside authorities, who had taken essentially no interest in facilitating the procedure.[viii]
(beat)
I just got a call from the grid controller in Kiev. He says we can’t lower power any further. Not for another ten hours.
DYATLOV
A grid controller? Where does he get off telling us —
BRYUKHANOV
It’s not the grid controller’s decision, Dyatlov — it’s the end of the month. All the productivity quotas? Everyone’s working overtime, the factories need power, someone’s pushing down from above. Not that we’ll ever know who.
(smokes, then)
So do we have to scrap it or what?
FOMIN
No. I don’t think so. If we need to wait ten hours, we wait.
Sredmash: According to author Adam Higginbotham’s research, Fomin had a baritone voice and a barrel chest, with a personality more reminiscent of the on-screen Bryukhanov.
BRYUKHANOV Running at half power? We’re not going to have stability issues?
Sredmash: Running at half power is not particularly problematic for an RBMK reactor, and the ten-hour delay in fact mitigated the xenon poisoning process to some extent.[ix] However, pushing the test onto the April 26 night shift meant that it would be competing for time with another equipment test, related to turbine oscillations.
FOMIN
No, I should think —
BRYUKHANOV
I’m not asking you.
Sredmash: Fomin was an electrical — not a nuclear — engineer. He and Dyatlov were two of the authors of the safety test program, which is no doubt why Dyatlov felt authorized to improvise during the test itself. Formally, the program’s author was G. Metlenko, the representative from Dontekhenergo. Unlike Dyatlov, Metlenko was not a physicist, and his work focused on the electrical aspects of the procedure.[x]
Fomin musters a smile to cover his bile. As you wish, sir.
DYATLOV
It’s safe. We’ll maintain at 1600.I’ll go home, get some sleep, and come back tonight. We’ll proceed then. I’ll personally supervise the test. And it will be completed.
Bryukhanov considers that. Then a grunt of satisfaction.
BRYUKHANOV
Well I’m not waiting around. Call me when it’s done.
He gets up and walks out. Dyatlov follows. But Fomin lingers behind. Waits until they’re gone. Then runs his fingers covetously along the edge of Bryukhanov’s desk. The desk of a powerful man. A man in charge…
SOUND: a loud ELECTRONIC BUZZER/BELL
CITY — MORNING
A rambling, squat complex of white buildings dotted with barred windows. We hear the BUZZER BELL again. The sound of an institution on a rigid time schedule.
TITLE
LUKYANIVSKA PRISON, KIEV
MARCH, 1987
INT. LUKYANIVSKA PRISON CELL -SAME
We PAN slowly across the dismal cell to find: FOMIN, dressed in the uniform of a Soviet prisoner, sitting on his cot. Crying. He barely looks like the same man.
Fomin removes his glasses with trembling hands to wipe his eyes, but the tears don’t stop. They never stop. He stares at the glasses in his hand. Yes. Today.
INT. LUKYANIVSKA PRISON HALLWAY — MINUTES LATER
The cell block door opens, and three SOLDIERS enter and proceed down the hallway. The PRISON WARDEN stays behind. We remain with him as he calls out names.
WARDEN
Bryukhanov.
Sredmash: Bryukhanov was fired from his post as director several weeks following the accident, and arrested in August. Before his early release from prison, Bryukhanov worked in the boiler room, reminiscent of his days running thermal power plants. Bryukhanov currently lives in Ukraine with his wife, who was pregnant at the time of the disaster. [xi]
A soldier stops at the first door. Unlocks it and slides open. BRYUKHANOV, prison uniform, steps out. As the soldier escorts him toward the cell block door…
Sredmash: Upon his eventual release from prison, Bryukhanov received the status of Chernobyl Liquidator, with privileges such as free rides on public transport. He got a job with an agency handling the cleanup, in independent Ukraine.
WARDEN
Dyatlov.
A soldier opens a second door. DYATLOV steps out. He’s attempted to regrow his mustache, but it’s barely there. His posture is stooped. His skin is papery.
Sredmash: Dyatlov spent half a year recovering from ARS in Hospital №6, before moving to Kiev where he slowly regained the use of his badly burned (by water containing beta particles) legs. A month later he was arrested. His health never fully recovered from the experience, and Dyatlov wrote his memoirs before dying in 1995.[xii]
WARDEN
Fomin.
Down the hall, the third soldier opens a door. Then takes astep back. Frozen.
WARDEN
Fomin!
The soldier turns, then starts RUNNING back toward us.
INT. FOMIN’S CELL — CONTINUOUS
We’re ON THE FLOOR — looking across the room at the open door through a CRACKED LENS. Fomin’s SHATTERED GLASSES.
Shards are missing. BLOOD begins to SEEP FORWARD along the floor. It pools around the glasses, then continues ahead. More. And more. An ALARM sounds.
Sredmash: Fomin’s suicide attempt delayed the trial significantly. His mental health also deteriorated while in prison, which secured his early release. He would ultimately return to work at the Kalininskaya nuclear power plant in Tver.[xiii]
EXT. MOSCOW STREET — AFTERNOON
A QUEUE of people waiting to purchase tobacco from a KIOSK. It’s Legasov turn. He buys a pack of cigarettes, walks a few steps, takes out a cigarette, then almost runs into:
A MAN IN A SUIT (KGB DRIVER). The man doesn’t need to say a word. It’s obvious what he is. He nods for Legasov to follow. Legasov dutifully does. No choice.
Sredmash: Few screenwriters can resist the visual language of spycraft, but Legasov was a respected Communist Party member and could simply be extended a polite invitation to have a chat at KGB headquarters.
EXT. ALLEYWAY AROUND THE CORNER — CONTINUOUS
A BLACK ZIL LIMO is parked on the street. The KGB Driver opens the rear door, lets Legasov in, then CLOSES the door.
INT. SEDAN — MOMENTS LATER
CLOSE ON LEGASOV — sitting in the back seat, eyes forward.
CHARKOV (O.S.)
How do you feel?
Sredmash: Charkov is a fictional character.
Legasov turns. Reveal: CHARKOV, the head of the KGB, sitting next to him in the back.
Sredmash: Historically speaking, most of the pressure exerted by the KGB in the miniseries was actually the work of the Ministry of Medium Machinebuilding, along with various other Soviet scientific institutions who did not want the reactors’ flaws exposed to the world. Fellow scientists, not the secret police, were the true antagonists of this story. Both sides had their allies in the upper echelons of government. I will quote Higginbotham’s description:
“The very names of Sredmash facilities were classified, and sites that ranged in size from individual institutes in Moscow and Leningrad to entire cities were known by the men and women who worked there as pochtovye yashchiki — “post office boxes” — referred to only by code numbers. Led by Slavsky, a cunning political operator with access to the highest levels of government, the Ministry of Medium Machine Building became closed and almost entirely autonomous, a state within a state. Under the paranoid regime of permanent warfare maintained by Sredmash, any accident — no matter how minor — was regarded as a state secret, policed by the KGB. And even as the USSR’s nuclear power industry began to gather momentum in the mid-1960s, the clandestine impulse persisted.”[xiv]
CHARKOV
You went to the doctor yesterday. How is your health?
LEGASOV
You don’t know?
Sredmash: Legasov was diagnosed with radiation-related pancreatitis, and stage four radiation sickness. He had made seven trips to the plant, often leaving his personal dosimeter behind in the decontamination room so that his high doses would not be recorded and prevent him from working further. Such tricks were often resorted to by liquidators.[xv]
Charkov smiles. Very good. He opens his briefcase and removes a NEWSPAPER. Hands it to Legasov. It’s in German.
Below the fold on the front page, a PHOTOGRAPH of Legasov, from the IAEA conference. And a caption in German.
CHARKOV
From Vienna. Do you read German?
Sredmash: German was the most common foreign language studied in the Soviet Union.
(no?)
It says, “At last, a Soviet scientist who tells the truth.” Obviously I resent the insinuation, but I think it’s fair to say you made an excellent impression at the conference. It turns out you’re quite good at this.
Legasov stares at the photo. Guilt rising inside him.
LEGASOV
At what? Lying?
CHARKOV
Statecraft, Legasov. Statecraft.
Charkov takes the newspaper back from Legasov. Puts it back in his briefcase.
CHARKOV
The West is now satisfied that Chernobyl was solely the result of operator error. Which it essentially was. We have you to thank for that. And we intend to.
Sredmash: Viewers of HBO were also presented a vastly exaggerated account of operator error. Stay tuned.
He hands Legasov another piece of paper. A list.
LEGASOV
(reads)
“Hero of the Soviet Union.”
Sredmash: The actual award in question was a lower honor: Hero of Socialist Labor. Legasov was only ever on this list because his champion in the government, Soviet Premier Ryzhkov, browbeat Gorbachev into nominating him. Legasov’s detractors in the scientific community would ultimately succeed in having him snubbed for the award.[xvi]
CHARKOV
Our highest honor. They haven’t even given it to me.
LEGASOV
“Promotion to Director of the Kurchatov Institute.”
Sredmash: The current head of the Kurchatov Institute was 83 year-old Anatoly Aleksandrov, who oversaw the design and construction of the RBMK reactor. He was responsible for squelching any concerns about design flaws and retaliated against whistleblowers following the accident. Aleksandrov never acknowledged his role in the disaster and described the reactor operators as drivers that crash a car. However, in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, Aleksandrov desired to resign, and named Legasov as his successor.[xvii]
Charkov gives that thin smile of his. He knows that’s the one Legasov wants.
Sredmash: Before the trial, Legasov lost an election campaign for the scientific council of the Kurchatov Institute. 129 colleagues voted against him, recriminations for his efforts related to Chernobyl. He soon fell into a deep depression and overdosed on sleeping pills in the fall of 1987. While recovering in the hospital, he told his friends that “I am all burnt up inside.”[xviii]
LEGASOV
I’m humbled.
CHARKOV
I don’t think there’s anything humble about you, Valery Alexeyevich.
Charkov takes the paper back.
CHARKOV
And these rewards are not yours yet. First, your testimony at the trial.
Sredmash: As explained in the podcasts, Legasov was not involved in the trial.
LEGASOV
Comrade Charkov, I understand my duty to the State — but you gave us assurances. You said the reactors would be made safe. It’s been months. There have been no changes made, no changes even discussed…
Sredmash: Of course, the KGB had nothing to do with alterations made to nuclear power plants, and would do nothing to either help or hinder the process. By this point the flaws in the reactor had long since been identified and communicated to the authorities as well as the investigatory commissions.[xix]
CHARKOV
(again)
First, the trial. Once it’s over, we will have our villains, we will have our hero… we will have our truth.
(uninterested)
After that, we can deal with the reactors.
Sredmash: According to the IAEA, “the main technical measures to enhance the safety of the RBMK-1000 reactor were announced less than a month and a half after the accident.” At the same time, the USSR’s most prominent scientists, aided by state press and Politburo, worked overtime to convince the world that the RBMK had always been safe, unless malicious operators disabled the safety systems.
Charkov dismisses him with a wave of the hand. Nothing left to say. Legasov opens the door to exit, and:
CHARKOV
Oh, I should mention — the trial is going to be somewhat delayed.
LEGASOV
Why?
CHARKOV
Talk to Shcherbina.
LEGASOV
confused)
Shcherbina’s in Kiev. I haven’t heard from him in —
CHARKOV
He returned to Moscow an hour ago.
Charkov gives Legasov that smile again.
CHARKOV
Or so I’ve been told.
The KGB DRIVER opens the door fully to let Legasov out. Legasov EXITS and watches as the ZIL drives away.
INT. LIVING ROOM — SHCHERBINA’S APARTMENT — AFTERNOON
Sredmash: As a high-ranking official, Scherbina lived in a prestigious apartment in the city center, as well as a large dacha (country house). I was unable to find his address, but the House on the Embankment is an example of housing for the Party elite.
SHCHERBINA stands by the window, looking out. His hair is a touch thinner. A subtle aging to his skin.
LEGASOV (O.S.)
When?
Shcherbina turns to LEGASOV — who sits in a chair. Ashen.
SHCHERBINA
Early this morning. He broke his glasses and used the shards — his wrist)
They got to him in time. He’s in the hospital, under observation.
LEGASOV
Guilty conscience?
SHCHERBINA
Or he was making a statement.
SHCHERBINA’S DAUGHTER, 30, enters the room with a tea service. Her son, 4, runs in and HUGS Shcherbina on the leg. Shcherbina lights up. Lifts the boy with some effort.
SHCHERBINA
Did you bring grandpapa tea? Is that what you did? You brought him tea?
Sredmash: Viewers would be well-served to mentally replace most of the miniseries’ vodka with tea. Russian culture survived Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign, but would have entirely ceased to function if deprived of tea.
He kisses his grandson on the forehead, then puts him back down. Again, an effort. It was easy a year ago.
His daughter takes her son by the hand and exits. Shcherbina’s smile fades. Then:
SHCHERBINA
There’s something else. The trial won’t be in Kiev. They’ve changed the venue.
LEGASOV
Here, then?
SHCHERBINA
No. Chernobyl. To be clear, not the power plant. The town.
LEGASOV
The evacuated town thirty kilometers away from the reactor?
SHCHERBINA
Twenty, actually.
LEGASOV
For god’s sake, why?
SHCHERBINA
I presume they want to demonstrate that the exclusion zone is now safe enough to hold a trial.
Sredmash: In point of fact, Soviet law required that trials be held as close as possible to the site of the crime. Pripyat was still too dangerous.
LEGASOV
Well it isn’t.
SHCHERBINA
You don’t look good.
LEGASOV
I’m not sleeping.
SHCHERBINA
Is that all?
Sredmash: Besides his illness, Legasov was by this point under fire from detractors who questioned his decisions, such as the dumping of boric acid, sand and lead into the reactor.
Legasov doesn’t answer. He just removes his glasses, weary. Turns them around in his hand. Thinking about Fomin again. Mystified by the man’s actions.
LEGASOV
His glasses…
INT. KHOMYUK’S LABORATORY — DAY
EXTREME CLOSE ON: the letters A3–5 (AZ-5 in Cyrillic).
Khomyuk stares at the Volkov article. Exhausted from torturing herself. Wishing she’d never read it. Wishing she didn’t know.
Sredmash: V.P. Volkov of the Atomic Energy Institute is the closest real-life parallel for Khomyuk. Volkhov had been concerned about the RBMK’s design flaws for some time, and wrote a letter to Aleksandrov with his concerns, for which he was reprimanded. After the disaster, Volkhov immediately deduced that the large void coefficient and graphite control rods were to blame. He again raised the issue with Aleksandrov but was fired from the institute for his trouble (repressed by fellow scientists, not the KGB). Volkov then went outside the chain of command and Party discipline, writing a letter directly to Gorbachev. A committee was then formed, and it arrived at a highly accurate explanation of the reactor explosion only a month after it occurred. Volkov’s committee stated that such an accident was inevitable, and that reactor flaws, rather than operator error, were to blame. These findings were disregarded until years later.[xx]
Enough. She has work to do. She pushes the Volkov article aside. Picks up a stack of requisition forms. Paperwork. Endless paperwork. Scans the first form, then initials.
Next form. Initials. Next form…
She’s lost focus again. This time, it’s a FILE BOX that has
drawn her attention.
She hesitates, then crosses to the box, and lifts the lid.
Inside, NOTEBOOKS. About a dozen. She takes one out. Opens it. Pages and pages… all filled with her handwriting.
She runs her fingers over the neat Cyrillic penmanship.
MEMORY (O.S.)
My name is Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov. I am the Senior Reactor Control Chief…
Sredmash: The families of Toptunov and Akimov received a letter from the prosecutor’s office, stating that the criminal case against them was dropped due to their deaths. In other words, they would have been tried and imprisoned, had they lived.[xxi]
The voices are raspy. Strained. Turn a page…
MEMORY (O.S.)
Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko. 6th Paramilitary Fire/Rescue Unit…
Turn a page… the weakened voices begin to blend…
MEMORY (O.S.)
Svetlana Zinchenko, physician…
Anatoly Andreyevich Sitnikov, deputy chief engineer…
Aleksander Genadyevich Kudryavtsev, trainee…
She closes her eyes. She was with them all. Listened to them all. Knew them all.
MEMORY (O.S.)
Electrical engineer…
Turbine operator…
Security guard…
She opens her eyes. Looks down at the page.
MEMORY (O.S.)
My name is Aleksander Fyodorovich Akimov, Unit 4 Shift Leader.
Sredmash: The testimony of Akimov and other plant operators remains classified by the Central Prosecution Office in Moscow, as do the trial proceedings. Only the survivors of the explosion have passed on detailed eyewitness accounts. Akimov has been widely quoted as maintaining that ‘we did everything right.’[xxii]
She looks up from the notebook. An idea. And now more than an idea. A decision.
She snaps the book shut, and:
CUT TO:
INT. LEGASOV’S APARTMENT — KITCHEN — DAY
Sredmash: Legasov lived with his family in a well-appointed separate house (a duplex) in a leafy suburb near the Kurchatov Institute. This was essentially elite housing for highly placed scientists.
Legasov stares at: TECHNICAL SCHEMATICS spread out on his table like a visual representation of a CONTROL PANEL.
He smokes. Studies them silently. The table clock tick tick ticks. The cat pads softly over stacks of BOOKS.
Legasov notices: two strands of HAIR on the schematics. Long. Like they fell from the root.
Sredmash: After his death, Legasov’s apartment and personal effects were found to be highly contaminated.
He reaches up to his head and runs his fingers through his hair. A few more STRANDS pull away without effort.
He studies the hair in his hand, shakes it off and wipes the schematics clean. This isn’t the first time.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Legasov snaps out of it. Startled. Heads to the door.
INT. LEGASOV’S STUDY — MOMENTS LATER
Khomyuk sits across from Legasov, the file box on her lap. Neither of them sure who’s supposed to talk first. Then:
LEGASOV
Did you take a train?
KHOMYUK
Oh for god’s — Yes, I took a train, now let’s talk about Vienna.
as he reacts)
I haven’t come to scold you. I know how the world works. I’m a realist, no matter what Shcherbina thinks.
LEGASOV
Then why are you here?
KHOMYUK
Because I’m brutally stubborn. Which you were hoping for.
Right. So. As if to convince her…
LEGASOV
Charkov is saying they’re going to fix the reactors after the trial.
KHOMYUK
Do you believe him?
A pause. No. Of course not. But Khomyuk leans in.
KHOMYUK
The State will never willingly fix the reactors, because acknowledging the problem means admitting they lied. They will have to be forced.
Sredmash: After accidents at Leningrad and Ignalina, the RBMK’s ‘parents’ Aleksandrov and Dollezhal had in fact intended to do something to address the reactor’s flaws. Because the details of the accidents were classified, the staff at other plants were not adequately warned. Only an insufficient clause limiting ORM to 15 equivalent control rods was added to the regulations. Ordinary institutional dysfunction and professional negligence — as much as political concerns — saw the safety risks simply forgotten about.[xxiii]
Forced? What is she on about?
KHOMYUK
At the trial, you’re going to tell the truth. You’re going to convince a jury.
Legasov stares at her as if she’s lost her mind.
LEGASOV
It’s a show trial. The “jury” has already been given their verdict…
Sredmash: Technically speaking, Soviet courts had no jury, but a pair of People’s Assessors. Legasov’s concerns were borne out, as numerous spurious accusations were made at the trial, based on misrepresented facts. Several of these supposed violations are repeated by Legasov in the miniseries and presented to the audience as the truth.
KHOMYUK
I’m not talking about them. The Central Committee has invited members of the scientific community to observe the trial. Our colleagues. From Kurchatov, from Sredmash, from Minenergo…
Sredmash: Sredmash = the Ministry of Medium Machinebuilding.
And now Legasov sees where she’s going.
KHOMYUK
They will be sitting in the crowd, listening to every word you say. A jury only we know is there. And when your testimony arrives at the moment of the explosion… that is when our jury will finally hear the truth.
Sredmash: As stated earlier, the truth had first been heard by the Soviet scientific community and government back in June.
LEGASOV
And do what with it?
KHOMYUK
Insist on reforms. Not just to the RBMK, but the entire industry.
Sredmash: Whatever the cause of the accident, the Soviet nuclear industry exhibited a very poor safety culture both at the design and the exploitation stage. There was no single body responsible for safety at nuclear plants.[xxiv]
LEGASOV
No, no, no… no.
KHOMYUK
They need us to function. If we refuse to work unless —
LEGASOV
Do you know what happened to Volkov? The man who wrote the report you found? They just removed him from his position at the Institute. Sacked for the crime of knowing. And you think these scientists, handpicked to witness a show trial, will somehow be stirred to action? By me? Because of some heroic stand I take in defiance of the State?
KHOMYUK
Yes.
LEGASOV
Why?
KHOMYUK
Because you’re Legasov. And you mean something. I’d like to think if I spoke out, it would be enough.
beat)
But as I said, I know how the world works.
LEGASOV
They will shoot me, Khomyuk.
Sredmash: No one involved in the accident was ever in danger of being shot. As repeated by numerous commentators who lived through the late Soviet period, characters’ fear of summary execution is out of place in 1986 at the beginning of Glasnost, and is more reminiscent of the Stalin period. Not even outright political dissidents were executed in this period, or in the preceding two decades.
Khomyuk lifts the lid off the box. Pulls out her notebooks, and begins stacking them in a PILE on Legasov’s table.
KHOMYUK
You told me to find out what happened. I talked to dozens of people. Every word they said, I wrote down. All in these books.
The stack is about twelve books high. She pulls out two more notebooks, and places them next to the larger stack.
KHOMYUK
the two books)
These are the ones who are still alive.
Sredmash: Of the Chernobyl NPP employees officially on duty in the control room on the night of April 26, four died and three lived. However, numerous others were present in the room as observers, and they tended to fare better.
(the twelve books)
These are the ones who are dead. They died rescuing each other. Putting out fires. Tending to the wounded. They didn’t hesitate. They didn’t waver. They simply did what had to be done.
Sredmash: The turbine and reactor staff suffered the highest casualties. The most dangerous fires were located in the turbine hall and were put out by plant staff, rather than outside firefighters. The plant workers were being systematically slandered in the press, so the firefighters became the popular heroes of Chernobyl. Chief Telyatnikov served as a witness for the prosecution.
LEGASOV
So have I. I went willingly to an open reactor. I’ve also given my life. Is that not enough?
Sredmash: Legasov’s numerous visits to the reactor itself are not depicted in the miniseries, nor is the sangfroid and reassuring persona he presented to the world.
KHOMYUK
I’m sorry. But it is not.
RISING SOUND: a distant, whistling wind.
To be continued in Part 2.
Sources Cited in Part 1
[i] Карпан Н.В., Чернобыль. Месть мирного атома, IKK Balans-Klub, 2006., pp. 485. See also: ‘The pain doesn’t fade’, Meduza, Interview with Elvira Sitnikova, 4 June 2019, Link.
[ii] Кирилл Ювченко, сын ликвидатора-чернобыльца, продолживший династию, Strana Rosatom, 4 May 2016, Link.
[iii] Higginbotham, Adam, Midnight in Chernobyl, Simon & Schuster, 7 February 2019., Chapter 1.
[iv] Karpan, 448.
[v] Интервью с бывшим директором ЧАЭС В.П. Брюхановым, Pripyat City.ru,21 November 2010, Link.
[vi] Higginbotham, Chapter 1.
[vii] For more information: https://www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/s/stochastic-radiation-effect.htm.
[viii] Причины Чернобыльской аварии известны, Accidont.ru, 13 May 2006., <http://accidont.ru/runtest.html>.
[ix] Kupniy, Alexander, Pассказывает СИУР ЧАЭС — 1, Interview with Aleksei Fatakhov, 9 June 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZJVnvhgFIc>.
[x] Accidont.ru, http://accidont.ru/Prog1985.html.
[xi] Pripyat City.
[xii] Дятлов А.С., Чернобыль. Как это было, 2004.
[xiii] Радиоактивный процесс. 30 лет назад обвиняемых по делу об аварии на Чернобыльской АЭС судили прямо в зоне отчуждения, Mediazona, 26 April 2016, Link.
[xiv] Higginbotham, Chapter 2.
[xv] Как убивали академика Легасова, который провел собственное расследование Чернобыльской катастрофы, Moskovskii Komsomolets, 25 April 2017, Link.
[xvi] Ibid.
[xvii] Ibid.
[xviii] Ibid.
[xix] INSAG Series №7; The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1, International Atomic Energy Agency, 1993, Link., pp. 49.
[xx] Dyatlov, 62.
[xxi] Dyatlov, 9.
[xxii] Medvedev, Grigori, The Truth About Chernobyl, Basic Books, 1989.
[xxiii] INSAG-7, 15.
[xxiv] INSAG-7, 87.
