Almost should have more praise for that....... But yeah he was an ideologue, but pretty much every one in the iron curtain had no other choice...... By the way... Wasn't Putin in the Kgb at the time of the disaster.......just saying
I liked the film but this is a historical drama, not a documentary, with fictional stories and LOT OF exaggeration. Legasov was never at the Chernobyl trial. He wasn't pursued (at least not at the way it is shown in the movie) actually he was offered honorary titles for work done in Chernobyl which denied. Although, after the Chernobyl, he was viewed as a man in opposition to the government line. Great movie! great man! But it is better to teach about the Chernobyl and people involved in the liquidation from the history books.
@@AmethystNote I mean I do not think being ideologic is wrong, it is just that the KGBCheif made it sound to Legasov that while he was trying to be good he was one of them all along.
@@crewrangergaming9582 the jew thing is another propaganda from the series. For example, this guy (unfortunately, there is no page in English) ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Славский,_Ефим_Павлович was a key figure in the whole Soviet nuclear program. And he was a jew.
@@agentsmith2yearsagoedited597, they survived the mission. Only one of them died, but he died almost twenty years after the incident from a heart attack.
If you listen to the Chernobyl Podcast, which includes the writer, they explain that the dramatization of the trial does not correspond to reality very well. For instance, Legasov did not attend the trial: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m0NFfgrb-ks.html
Well, this video proves that the main message of the series -- that the KGB tried to hide the truth about problems with reactors and that Legasov had to fight for it and took his life to attract attention to the problem -- is a complete fiction. Here he is openly discussing with western journalists flaws in the reactor.
@@vsrr83 you don't need to attend any trial personally, you can just write papers and sign it, thus you virtually attend it. it is just like visualisation of his job.
@@dmitry5319 I believe it's the case that instead of flack for the trial that occured in the mini-series, in reality, his openness at the Vienna conference actually got him in trouble, and he was indeed removed from several positions. And his suicide DID lead to the nuclear industry in the Soviet Union to address the flaws in RBMKs.
I don't think this man ever imagined that an American corporation like HBO would ever make a documentary series about Chernobyl with him as the lead character.
@@user-gs9ny8cf4j We all know some scenes from the movie are fictional for dramatic purpose. Neverthless, having said that does not change anything about what we think about KGB implications.
Some "wise" guy in the comment section said that Valery Legasov will go to hell, because he committed suicide. I don't know if that's how it works. What I do know is that... after dealing with the nuclear reactor core in Chernobyl, if he goes to hell, he will shut it down!
He committed suicide the day he got close to the Chernobyl Reactor that exploded. He was a dead man walking, he knew it and made peace with it. The guy who said that is just a sad extreme religious fool.
No. Typically nobody even asks whether certain kind of footage exists. I just had to find TV footage related to Chernobyl and extract the interview. Note that also the Legasov tapes are on RU-vid. Similarly, there is significant amount (probably several hours) of footage about the cleanup efforts.
@@vsrr83 in the movie he said he wanted Anatoly Dyatlov death and in the real tapes i cant find this. something i didn't understand in the movie who found hes tapes and how did kgb not kill him?
@@roxydzey I just browsed through Chernobyl-related news footage collected by somebody else. The original channel (linked in the video description) with all the footage seems to have been removed.
Well, he looks fidgety and pauses a lot, but that's hopefully just him dealing with his translator. Nevertheless, as I understand it, the guy tried his best to tell the truth, but had two lists of truths in his head; the stuff he was allowed to tell people, and the stuff he actually knew. The first list was a lot smaller.
Legasov legacy. Its sad that a world where someone saves millions of people and prevents further catastrophic events, is shunned to the brink of suicide. He did not die in vain. He, amongst others(liquidators, firemen, mine workers, scientists) is a hero.
Could not imagine the feeling he had knowing every word he said would be taken as gospel to the KGB and Americans. He had to really think it thru before speaking knowing he could put himself and others at risk
I like to think so. But I’m not so sure about that. I can’t help but wonder how many that the KGB off’d for speaking up like he did and no one was brave enough to spread that truth around.
"all these politicians made a scapegoat of him" - this is fiction. As you can see, Legasov openly discusses problems of the reactors with western journalists already in August 1986. The whole story about KGB preventing him from speaking is Hollywood fiction
You can just tell here...He's so nervous, so careful to say anything. As my dad said "They practically had a gun to his head." And of course, Valery knew that too. Our brave hero, thank you greatly Comrade❤️
@Linda brown I'm not sure how accurate the mini series is, but I'm sure it's not far removed from it with how they took nearly every identifying factor of his individual life away. He didn't kill himself, the KGB did it for him.
@@danielpeppa-pigpowers9386his daughter has even said he killed himself. It was a very thought out choice, it wasn’t like he was just distraught one day and off himself. He knew thanks to the insane amounts of radiation he took in over the long stretch of time he spent in the exclusion zone he wasn’t long for this world. He was also pretty intimately acquainted with some of the worst types of misery the world around us as well as our own bodies could possibly inflict on us. He didn’t want to go out that way, and frankly who can blame him. He decided to make sure his life ended on a day that mattered to him, and in such a way that the people wouldn’t possibly be able to ignore it. Everything he did from Chernobyl onward was a sacrifice until his dying breath.
@@danielpeppa-pigpowers9386 the KGB had no reason to kill him. His reputation at the Kurchatov Institute was beyond repair and he wouldn't have gotten any work done regarding safety regulations, though that doesn't mean measures weren't taken by other members of the Institute and academians. He suffered from severe depression and his health was getting worse. The radiation had damaged his bone marrow. He wouldn't have lived for longer than five years, even that was a stretch. His suicide was a calculated measure, although his previous attempts were more emotional, his last attempt was thought out.
Yes, he was so ill and traumatized by Chernobyl that he did indeed take his own life but there was more to it. He had been ostracized by his colleagues at the Kerchatov institute to an extent, passed over for an award he should’ve earned and Gorbachov didn’t like him and basically chummed up with his rival to undermine his career. He was too outspoken in the opinion of party leaders. His career was declining along with his health. Up until the disaster he was a devoted communist, popular with his peers and the likely successor to be the head of the kurchatov institute when his mentor retired.
I have no idea why but I felt like crying watching him speak. What a man! Thanks to HBO to bring a hero out of the shadows. A monument needs to be constructed for him if there isn’t already.
There are. The school he attended in Moscow now bears his name and a statue of him is erected in front of the building. I read that after the HBO show his (and Boris Shcherbina's) grave was flooded with flowers and so many people were asking the Novodevichy cemetery employees the whereabouts of his grave that tour guides considered including his final resting place in their cemetery walkarounds (a lot of prominent Russians are buried there). He has a bust and a commemorative plaque on the wall of the house in Tula where he was born.
@@traydevon clearly you don't understand the topic clearly, solar cannot be turned on/off when required, nuclear plant can be. Also power from solar or renewable sources needs to be stored - adding into cost, waste and carbon footprint - basically putting itself at the level of polution as coal. So nuclear reactor is the clearest source of power yet which can be used in great numbers and is switchable into off state. What we need is completely new technology and that is fusion reactor - tokamak instead the nuclear fission reactor. Fusion reactor are being worked on at this very moments.
@@traydevon nope again, it is not true and it proves you don't understand basic engineering principles. We choose the easiest and the safest way - that is nuclear and coal for now, another safer and more clear source will be fusion (but conditions to start fusion reaction are extremely difficult to achieve here on Earth - that is why we don't have it yet) ... Renewable energy sources will be used as some kind of unswitchable energy bedrock which varies depending on the direction and speed of wind, or intensity of the sunlight ... in addition fission/fussion/coal - those energy sources will be used at energy spending spikes to meet the demand of the consumers which renewables can't and will never cover. So no, it doesn't matter whether you perfect renewable energy sector or not, the problem of storing it, very big variation in energy yield, additional manufacturing and management and from all of that the polution. Those problems prevents using renewable energy sources widely and as efficiently as nuclear energy source, coal or hydro.
thanks to chernobyl series, I respect You MR LEGASOV, your legacy will be alive forever! Im not from europe neither rusia but as a human THANKS for savings those lifes, I WISH YOU THE BEST WHEREVER YOU ARE IN THE OTHER SIDE!! RESPECT.
For those wondering, he had KGB agents watching him. He was told what he was allowed to say to the public in order to keep the security interests of the Soviet Union private. The world already knew some information on what happened due to satellite images by the Americans, and western power plants finding radiation and identifying it coming from Soviet territory. But the Soviets, even in this video, wanted to keep as much private on Chernobyl as they could
@@Emre-og2cr USSR reality is the source. I don't think anyone believes that in the USSR nobody would watch what Legasov says, since the fault lay with the USSR.
You can see how uneasy he is, Watching his words carefully. He knows what would happen if he said anything but yet he gave his own life to save the lives of Millions. What a truly remarkable man, He should be celebrated
ah masa. jadi dia kira kira tetap masuk neraka gak karena gk ngakuin n nyembah tuhan ? tuhan itu pemarah. mana lbh nyata humanisme atau amarah suatu tuhan ya. lo disini komunis dijelek jelekan sejeleknya umat manusia, katanya kebaikan dan humanisme itu cuma punya suatu agama. komunis dibilang amoral lah, bagi bagi isteri, kejam, tidak punya kemanusian kata pemuja agama tertentu. kontradiksi dong. masalah nya apakah ia dibakar di neraka selama nya oleh tuhan tertentu tanpa memandang kemanusian nya ? Ada hal jelek di negeri ini walaupun orang yg melakukan beragama tertentu yg dikambing hitamkan selalu PKI atau komunis. maaf saya bertanya karena pola pikir anda bertolak belakang dgn mayoritas masyarakat kita yg anti komunis dan mengklaim anti tuhan (terutama tuhan idola nya) pasti dikatakan seburuk buruk nya mahluk. 🙏
5 лет назад
Valery Legasov. *The* man to be remembered. He stood in the face of the soviet govt for the welfare of his countrymen and told the truth. A hero.
Legasov is hidden hero of this world! All the things he had balls to do and was very genius of atomic energy. Many experts would have paniced at Chernobyl.... just sad how his work was hidden in SU
"I keep in my safe records of the operators' telephone conversations on the eve of the accident. It makes one's skin crawl to read them. One operator telephones another and asks: "The program here states what must be done, but a lot has been crossed out..?" The other thinks for a moment and then says: "Act according to what has been crossed out." "In Kiev, we set off for the nuclear power station. It didn't enter my head that we were moving towards an event on a planetary scale. On the following day, when I went into the ruins of the reactor in an armoured troop carrier, I had that sense of anger that there were no solutions, no technical remedies worked out in advance. Of course, we had said such an accident could only happen once in a thousand years; but who said that this once would fall in our year 1986?" "It is easy to imagine the enemy is the nuclear reactor, but the enemy isn’t technology. I have come to the paradoxical conclusion that technology must be protected from man. In the past, the time that included the old reactors, the time that ended with Gagarin’s flight into space, the technology was created by those who stood on the shoulders of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky; they were educated in the spirit of the great humanitarian ideas; in the spirit of a beautiful and correct moral sense. They had a clear political idea of the society they were trying to create; one that would be the most advanced in the world. But already in the generations that succeeded them, there were engineers who stood on their shoulders and saw only the technical side of things. But if someone is educated only in technical ideas, they cannot create anything new, anything for which they are responsible. The operators of the reactor that night considered they were doing everything well and correctly; and they were breaking the rules for the sake of doing it even better, but they had lost sight of the purpose…what they were doing it for." Valery Legasov, tape recorded in an interview with Yurii Scherbak, Autumn 1986
I know this sounds silly, but I will build a small memorial for this man in my house. I just have to ! Look what they did to him.......absolutely disgusting, and disgraceful ! This man is a Hero 🙏
this is such a rare interview, i dont think there is any other interview like this from a soviet directly to a western news source. ESPECIALLY right after/during the chernobyl incident.
I think during this interview Legasov was hinting at the possibility of known safety flaws of the RBMK reactor that had not yet been resolved. His answers after being asked if he shared the same pessimism of another known nuclear Physicist were vague and non committal.
Today on NBC, an advertisement for a toothbrush is more important than a nuclear disaster, what has changed? nothing. we are even dumber than we where before. God help us.
NBC! They had a great story in their hands interviewing this scientist and they show him in a Morning tv show and cut him off for commercials! Damn that was stupid.
Look at him. He knows hes lying he keeps looking away. R.I.P Legasov you were a hero to all humanity for the rest of time. So much respect for that man it's insane what he had to go through.
Yes i was thinking about that this whole video. His eyes were running around all the place, his face gimmicks or mimics whatever the proper word for it is. Mannerisms maybe :D he definetly felt sreessed out here by the burden and the amount of the audience which was watching him, and by knowing that what a stress must it be when he cant talk 100 percent open and truthful. And thats probably why he chose to end his nightmares. This hero deserved more than that :/
@@roxydzey On top of that he may also break his speaking up to give the english translator time to translate properly. Wouldn't want a mistranslation to happen when you are speaking fast about something highly technical the translator might not know about
This man went through hell and back with all the liquidators, firemen and etc. So sad to see how the men and women who are good and helping go earlier than they should...
I cant help but draw a parallel between this and what Feynman did with the Challenger disaster. Its a shame he ended his life. God bless those speaking the truth
I think both incidents reflect problems on larger societal level regardless of the economic system. Success of any large project is often highly dependent on being able meet deadlines, which often forces management to take risks. If a manager has to choose between career advancement linked to some risk and being unemployed, the choice is often clear and the risk is hidden with PR (or party propaganda). Feynman was a creature of the academic world, where problems with deadlines and PR certainly exist but do not play such a central role. Note that what we are talking about in both cases are multi-billion dollar projects with probably hundreds of subcontractors.
If you listen to the Chernobyl Podcast, which includes the writer, they explain that the dramatization of the trial does not correspond to reality very well. For instance, Legasov did not attend the trial: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m0NFfgrb-ks.html
Interesting to watch it now, understanding that he was forced to lie. His is very careful in a way he is wording the answers, trying to not actually lie despite not being truthful at the same time.
Yes. I found this clip interesting since there is quite a difference in the mannerisms between the portrayal by Jared Harris and the real-life Legasov. You can get some additional contrast in from this ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-EviEN0ScOwg.html
NBC got the extremely rare opportunity to interview a leading soviet scientist and the chairman of the chernobyl committee and those jerks even don´t give him enough space to speak but abort the interview due to lack of time. this is the example how journalism shouldn´t be commenced.
He does a good job keeping his composure during this, even if barely. At that time he already knew the grim reality but was being forced to lie for his own safety. Eventually he got the truth out, at a great personal cast, and for that he should be considered a hero
В чем мрак? Взрыва не было. Крышка скороварки подскачила и раскидала ядерные материалы. Легасов говорит ровно то, что известно до сих пор, ни больше, ни меньше. Сериал ложь
I've actually cried and I've had to drink something alcoholic after watching the last episode from Chernobyl mini-serie. I've seen shit tons of documentaries about the disaster, but none of them said something about Legasov. And I've cried... I've cried because I felt fucking bad for Legasov... He actually was the only human being in the whole USSR who had the balls to publicly say the truth no matter what, in a country where the truth was considered a national threat. I live in a country (Romania) where the neo-communists are still in charge, after 30 years from the official fall of the communism. Anytime when I'll had to go elections I will watch Chernobyl before, just to remind me not to fucking vote the neo-communists or their allies.
Many people liked communism because it gave them something to be proud about. Russia before the Soviet Union was always a backward country, but then the Soviet Union achieved great success in industry and science, the Soviet man was the first human in space, Soviet weapons were the most destructive. Many people were proud and they're still proud of success. I'm from Russia.
Try the "Surviving Disaster" series - Ade Edmondson makes a damned good effort at doing Legasov justice, though of course the budget is nothing to what HBO can muster. Adam Curtis' "A is for Atom" episode of his "Pandora's Box" series also has footage of the real Legasov during the disaster itself (but since that series was made a long time ago, when getting reliable information out of the former USSR was a tricky business because a lot of Russians themselves still hadn't actually found out yet, a lot of what it says about the accident is conjecture, and thus rather inaccurate at times compared to what we know now).
This series made me hyperaware that we in the USA need solid leadership from our President in a nuclear, viral, or any type of crisis. Sadly, our President does not possess the mental fortitude or integrity to provide confidence in decisions he might make.
I find it spectacularly ironic that HBO series exposes the Soviet show trial as looking for a simple narrative with a hero (Legasov) and a villain (Dyatlov) when HBO did exactly the same thing in the TV series. You can't blame Dyatlov for the accident even if he was a venal bully (was he really?) if you design a nuclear reactor that can explode like that. You have to expect stupid people to do stupid things. Similarly Legasov and the other scientists cannot be simply celebrated as the "heros" without recognition they they were also part of the system that designed and built Chernobyl #4. He was absolutely a great man but also not the politically naive scientist we was portrayed to be. His performance in this interview is a masterpiece of political communication in a very difficult situation.
The series acknowledge that Legasov was involved in state institutions. You don't get to his position without being a party member. There was even a scene in episode 5 where it was revealed that Legasov allowed or ignored some atrocities to be committed. Nevertheless he did the right thing in the end by exposing the faults with the reactor with great risk to himself. Dyatlov was reckless in the way he operated the reactor during that test. He ignored several instructions on how to perform the test properly but he was under huge pressure to perform the test then and there. If it were not for the pressure he could have safely cancelled the test and rescheduled it for another time. But as the show depicts, it wasn't an option for him and he pressed on, relying on his past experience. You could argue that if it weren't Dyatlov in that room that day, there would be a similar person with similar motivations and background pushing the operators to press on with the test. But it was Dyatlov's decision to run the test under the specified power level because in his interpretation it would be safer. The real reason for the higher power level in the instructions wasn't given because it was a state secret - the flaw in the RBMK reactor.
The series did mention his relationship with the system, especially when he was intorregated by the KGB. In this scene it was revealed that he for example spoke out against promotion of jewish scientists, for getting in favour to party officials.