What were people saying on social media in Russia and the USA about the Chernobyl mini-series?
The final episode of HBO’s mini-series Chernobyl was aired last week. It is now the highest rated TV show in history on IMDb, resonating throughout US and, obviously, Russia.
So, Topface Media’s team decided to take a look at what piqued the audience’s interest, and compare the reaction in the two countries on social media.
We analyzed Chernobyl mentions from the date of its release using YouScan’s monitoring software. It revealed that in the States, the series generated 110 581 mentions which engaged 1 971 707 social media users. In Russia, we found 318 875 mentions and over 3 million likes and reposts, showing that the subject really hit a nerve with the Russian audience.
Where did people discuss Chernobyl?
Twitter was the most popular social network for discussing the series in the US. Reddit comes next, but is still way behind.
In Russia, Twitter placed third, with most of the posts and comments appearing on Vkontakte and Facebook.
Who discussed Chernobyl?
In the US, male audiences aged between 34 and 44 dominated the conversation.
The same picture can be seen in Russia, although it appears that people between 35 and 44 were far less active on social media.
What people were saying about Chernobyl: general perception
The series garnered very favorable reviews and comments on social media in both countries. Many were touched by the portrayals of the people involved in the catastrophe.
The mentions often contain a description of the huge emotional impact the series made, with occasional comparisons to the Game of Thrones (not to its favor).
Top discussed characters
The most discussed characters were the same in both countries
And the same character received the most criticism
The peaks in discussion of the characters correlate with the spikes in the whole conversation about the series. Both Russian and American audiences were mainly talking about Valery Legasov, but after the last episode the Russian audience’s interest was divided between all the main characters. In America, however, Legasov is by far the most mentioned character.
Conversation dynamics
Out of 5 episodes, the final one generated the most mentions in both the US and Russia. However, if we look closer at the dynamics we can see that the highest spikes in the conversation actually didn’t have anything to do with the artistic merits of the film. The overview of the digital chatter throughout the series helped us to analyse the key topics of the Chernobyl conversation in each country.
The biggest spike in conversation occurred between the 4th and 5th episodes. The mini-series prompted plenty of discussion about the current political situation in America and, obviously, Donald Trump…
…which then evolved into a discussion on the broader context of political thought, namely the horrors of socialism and its place in the current political landscape
On the 4th and 5th of June, after the final episode had aired, the conversation switched back to watching the series and its emotional impact.
Meanwhile, in Russia:
The 28th to the 31st of May saw the first jump in mentions. The Russian conversation also couldn’t escape being politicised. Russian viewers were quick to express their disappointment with the attitude to historical events like this by the current regime.
The biggest spike in conversation on the 5th of June was connected to the release of the interview with Major General Nikolai Tarakanov, who headed the ‘liquidators’ in 1986 and noticed some inconsistencies in the series, along with the opinion pieces from liquidators in other publications. This triggered conversations where Russian viewers subjected everything portrayed in the series to microscopic scrutiny.
However, a lot of people were praising the attention to detail in the series, including Russian political activist Alexey Navalny:
Everyone is discussing Chernobyl. I’d like to say a couple of words as a person who used to spend every summer there until 1986 in my grandmother’s village and went to the ‘zone’ multiple times after the accident.
This is an amazingly cool series made with a great deal of love for all people who were there: firemen, liquidators, soldiers, local kolkhozniks — some of whom were my relatives who used to live in what is now the zone of exclusion.
Yesterday, I watched another episode. Every last detail in the house of an old lady who refuses to leave — from the bluish photographs on the walls to the way she milked the cow — is a total flashback to childhood.
Later on, the conversation developed into an argument between liberals and pro-government conservatives, as expressed by journalist and videoblogger Yury Dud:
Finished watching Chernobyl Thursday night. In short, this is an outstanding work made on an incredibly high level. It was already clear to me why the government’s propaganda machine is directing a shitstorm at the series […].
First of all, Russia hasn’t learnt to heal its historical wounds through popular art, even though this is one of art’s main goals. It is easier to run the jingoistic crap about tanks than to explore the sins of times gone by deeply and painfully through the work of highly talented actors. Well, since we have not learned, we will see how it’s done in western cinema.
Nevertheless, as in America, social media users switched back to discussing the film’s high critical acclaim and viewer recognition on the 6th of June, after the last episode was released in Russia.
Chernobyl tourism
Another interesting trend that we noticed while monitoring social media is about the interest in visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat.
The release of the series has indeed sparked a real tourist boom. Tourist agencies report a spike of interest in Chernobyl and Pripyat. Reuters quotes the representatives from two Ukrainian companies who confirm that bookings of their tours for the next 3 months have increased by 30–40%.
Even before the current influx of tourists, the Chernobyl zone could not exactly be called deserted. GQ reports an influx of up to 2 thousand tourists each day as of May this year.
Until 2014, when the crisis between Russia and Ukraine kicked off and the relationship between the two countries deteriorated, more than half of the tourists used to come from Russia. Today, they are mostly foreigners.
