@@aluminium5738 i was just about to say that. I actually took some time to research and read about Dyatlov, because I, like everyone else, HATED him after seeing Chernobyl. I felt he was the main cause of the situation, but after reading a ton of articles and seeing tapes of him, i gotta say they really depicted him the wrong way in the series. To my understanding he was very commanding, but never was “abusive” or as “toxic” as he was made out to be in the show. I mean, he grew up in a time where kids were fighting wars, and I recall he had an incident in The Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipbuilding plant where he received a mild dose of radiation. So of course he’d want to be commanding. I am NOT trying to say he isnt a factor in the explosion at all. But the blame lies on many people. From the Plant Director Viktor Bryukhanov who had claimed all safety tests had been completed by signing the certificate to Chernobyl, all the way up to the top individuals in the Soviet Government
10:25 "i do not admit myself and _the personel_ guilty" this sentence actually shows Dyatlov wasn't an asshole as depicted in the show and didn't blame others for what happened, he even wrote a letter to Toptunov's parents and wasn't the one who claimed the reactor was still there.
I think he is still is, he sent his coworkers basically to death, pushed the reactor to the edge. Coward and arrogant from him not accepting he did things wrong knowingly. And then, they all hide the accident like "nothing happened everything is fine" exposing all the people to radiation, on purpose. pay attention how Dyatlov is hardly trying to change the accusation and responding something else.
I have been studying and collecting material on Chernobyl for years before the HBO series. Thank you so much for sharing this invaluable piece of Soviet history with us
The city of Chernobyl is in the second exclusion zone (30 km) which is not that restrictive actually. Unlike the first exclusion zone (10 km), which can only be visited by either workers or those with a special permission.
They made a scapegoat out of the plant's management, but neither the academics who developed the explosive reactor, nor the top management, who kept silent about the problems in the USSR nuclear industry, were punished.
Pretty much sums it up. At this point we're just waiting for history to repeat itself, and not necessarily in terms of nuclear disaster. "Let sleeping dogs lie" so they say.
Many reactors such as the model used in Chernobyl were deployed in many NPPs, yet the only one to explode was because of a human mistake most wouldn't want to assume the guilt of.
@@andreipavlovic368 It could have happened anywhere, it was just the bad luck of Chernobyl that it had to happen there on April 26 1986. After that, they made certain changes and the operators never took unnecessary risks with the RBMK reactors. It's like The Titanic, after it sank they made it a rule to have enough lifeboats for every single passenger. However, had the Titanic not sunk in such a tragic way, some other ship would have definitely sunk after a few years, only for this law to made after that tragedy. The only mistake of the operators I feel is that they dropped the power way below the "safe limit", but they had no idea about the flaw of the AZ5 button, because in all seriousness, it was never taught to them or mentioned in their manuals, so they did not technically break any rule. It was just because of over secrecy that CNPP R4 exploded.
It just shows us how farked up the system is..the system hasn't changed ever since, and never will..even in the western capitalist countries, the system is the same..everything is allowed in the name of science, and when something goes wrong and a big catastrophe happens then scientist are not deemed guilty at all..the finger is pointed towards the low level management..any new discoveries are "safe" in theory, but in practice much of theory is wrong or very important part of it is concealed..
Fascinating video. Thank you for uploading this so everyone can see it the world over. It's upsetting to see Dyatlov trying to put it all into words and admitting guilt because people died, but being cut off time and again before he can explain further what the situation was in his experience and how that affected his actions. Nothing but a show trial, an open court in a closed zone. Not very open at all.
It seems appropriate to cut him off there. He's being asked to enter his plea, but instead he keeps explaining himself. He's told repeatedly that he'll have a chance to testify later, but he can't seem to help himself and he keeps going on with his general thoughts and angst instead of just entering his plea and saving the rest for later. It's a show trial, but I can understand why the judge would be exasperated with him at the plea stage of it.
Bro he was asked a simple question and he was going off into tangents. He was simply asked if he was guilty, they all gave their testimonies, the trial was not 20 minutes long.
@@jgb8038 Dyatlov wasn't the monster the series made him out to be. Watch a couple of the OTHER documentaries and his interviews... they don't match up. If you're using the HBO series as your fact guide, I'm afraid I have some bad news.
It's appalling to see Dyatlov being cut off trying to explain the situation from his point of view, and the plant's management being made into the scapegoats for the designer's negligence and cover ups of the inherent faults of these reactors. While Dyatlov seems to be vilified I don't think he is entirely to blame for the disaster. The ultimate blame rests with the Soviet Union itself.
@@TheDarkAngel3579 No Dyatlov didn't do anything to even cause the disaster, it was basically just the displacer flaw of the RBMK that wasn't known until chernobyl. Witness testimony and INSAG-7 show Dyatlov as completely innocent in this situation. If anything the portrayal of him being an asshole to the plant workers telling them to raise power and cause an explosion isn't remotely true. Just an unfortunate situation all around for these men, especially considering Chernobyl had left Dyatlov completely unable to even walk properly after....
They have been, especially Dyatlov, sentenced based on the outcome, rather than what they did wrong. Orm permitted everything they have done, and ORM is the basis of the operations.
Thanks for uploading,it's sad that the people of Prypiat didn't know about the radiation. People who stand at the Chernobyl bridge to see the burning nuclear reactor (now called as the bridge of death).After year's March 11 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster , history is keeping on repeating itself.MAY their soul rest in peace .
KGB thought they would just bury the trial and the truth,but truth is like water,it may appear weak but it always finds a way even if it has to breakthrough mountains
Geez, that's so screwed. Dyatlov is so afraid of the Soviet State that he cannot admit guild fearing for his life if he does. At the same time, he's indirectly insisting that the Soviet State was at fault which is also risky because he's placing the blame on the people who decides his fate.
You are misreading Dyatlov severely. Dyatlov was not afraid of the state, he gave everything that he could to defend himself and the plant workers. He openly insisted that design flaw, more specifically, the displacer (tip) effect was to blame. When witnesses came up, such as Steinburg and Karpan dared to blame design flaw (and make similar points to Dyatlov) the prosecution still found ways to use what they said against the plant workers. Dyatlov is having trouble admitting guilt here because, he personally feels as if he was responsible for the deaths of plant workers (Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov specifically) yet does not believe in the charges against him.
I don't think Dyatlov was denying guilt out of fear for his life, because I don't think that the death penalty was on the table and also because he was also denying it later, when there was no risk for him at all. I think he was just to arrogant to admit he did anything wrong and he most certainly did. Yeah, there was a flaw in the system which he knew nothing about, but he broke every safety rule in the book and that he most certainly knew. So yeah, he had no idea how dangerous the things could get, but he most certainly knew he was breaking rules. He just thought he was risking a smaller accident which he would have been able blame someone elfe for.
"fearing for his life" he only got 10 years behind bars or something, let alone that he was released early on parole. Served pretty much the same time as did Bradley Manning for not doing anything bad at all
This video is of big importance, even if is just a small part..judiciary system was, and it still is, corrupted..back in the 80's or now in 2022, it is the same..and it is the same in every country in the world..a "small" man is always guilty, the "big" man, who should take all the responsibility, is not even in the "picture"..
I'd ask you to please do a little more research on the topic. Legasov unearthed nothing new. The flaw of the RBMK reactor were well known to most of the scientific community, it was just not included in their training and working manuals because it was a state secret. I'd recommend you to read the final IAEA report called INSAG-7 on this tragedy released in 1992, which clearly explains everything with scientific data and witness testimonies.
He had been asked a simple question. It's obvious that he sent people there without maintaining any kind of control over their exposure and he refused to admit it. It's understandahle that nobody wants to be jailed but he could refuse to answer instead of saying this gibberish in front of relatives of those who died.
@RBMK5000 is your username a sort of play on words to Powerman5000 the band? Rbmk=power you=man and 5000? I know it's a stretch, but it would be so sick if u did and i noticed....
In terms of their guilt - Fomin, Dyatlov, Brukhanov have their part in this whole mess and does not made them casualties of the Soviet system. The Chernobyl Reactor number 4 is completed ahead of schedule which always means that the top management would receive state rewards and this practice was done not only in the USSR but throughout the whole Warsaw Pact. Brukhanov as director of the plant personally supervise the construction of that reactor and was well aware that there was material stealing from the site which also had led to structural problems to the entire reactor. Fomin at 26 April 1986 was appointed to be in charge of this test however he decided to pass this responsibility to Dyatlov because he thought at the time that he is more capable and competent then him. After all Fomin is not even nuclear physicist or having any degree connected to nuclear energy. Dyatlov was instructed and knew very well at what power limit he should conduct the test. Ignoring the order giving him from his superior plus ignoring any safety violations regarding working with RBMK reactors he decided to proceed after the reactor has "died". In this case he should of cease all operation for the next 24 hours until the reactor could be brought back in safe working condition. The rest is history ....
They ultimately got blamed for a design fault. If that was a water moderated reactor instead of graphite this never would have even happened. Even if they took the exact same course.
Yes and no. They knew it's a graphite moderated reactor, that wasn't a secret, they didn't know about graphite tipped control rods. Also they did violate the regulations just by not shuting down the reactor after stalling it or conducting the test without following the requirements. It didn't exploded in Leningrad few years earlier, because the reactor wasn't strained or stalled there but it exploded here because the operators made it unstable.
He said the the reactor would explode soon or late even with or without any experiments. Its was unstable by manufacture and they knew everything except the workers. The did everything by the book but the book was wrong.
I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that you uploaded this history for us. The fact that I speak 8 languages fluently (Russian being one of them) once again I am grateful.
I never thought about the fact that Dyatlov, was so head strong that he didnt listened to the rest of his men, so he exposed ll those men to more radiation by sending them to open the water channel. Which is what he is guilty of
I guess you watched the show before this video so.. The series was good under many aspects, but really exaggerated in their villanization of Dyatlov. He wasn’t entirely blameless, and perhaps was not the best boss to work with, but he wasn’t the arrogant asshole he’s been depicted as, either. The real Dyatlov tried to help others in the aftermath of the explosion. He personally went looking for Khodemchuk (quite the contrary of “fuck Khodemchuk”), and he twice ordered Toptunov to go home and later tried to send away Akimov as well, at a time when they both could have still saved themselves - they had spent most time in the control room and had not yet absorbed a fatal dose of radiation, in fact Dyatlov had received more radiation than them at that point. Which is why he became sick sooner and was carried away, while Akimov and Toptunov, still feeling well, decided that they should stay and help and went to the coolant valves, where they received their fatal dose. And the real Dyatlov never, ever tried to blame Akimov and Toptunov for what had happened. On the contrary, he even wrote Toptunov’s parents telling them that their son had fully done his duty and that the accusations that had been laid against him (Toptunov) were injust.
please do not make hbo series as your benchmark on chernobyl details, it is indeed made to retell the story of chernobyl disaster but all in all it is still meant for entertainment purpose too, so ofcourse they added dramatic bits, the real dyatlov isn't like the series dyatlov
They know that they are guilty and because of their fault people died and many more died and were born with deficiencies, but still arrogantly state, that they are not guilty.
They who was responsible for this tragedy, should be lined up an shot on site. I still can't find it in my heart, why some people was left alone after this, and had the "luxury" to die after a long life, and those who tried to rescue the Aftermath, had to die a painful death💔 Makes no sense at all... And the manager on that late shift... Had the adosity to be filmed in a interview after the disaster 🤢🤬 I cod feel the anger watching it..
I'm afraid you have been misinformed; these men were made scapegoats. The entire plant management where made scapegoats, the real enemies were the academicians who designed the reactor and the bureaucrats that kept quiet about RBMK reactor flaws... Anatoly Stepanovich was not entirely innocent, but he was just a hero same as Akimov or Toptunov.
Oh the scary Soviet Union sending people off to prison labor... good thing the glorious United States still to this day never had a prison labor system...
