Wow Chernobyl already has us fully invested! to think this is based on our history is insane.. All 5 Episode Reactions are available 4 weeks EARLY and UNCUT over on Patreon! www.patreon.com/spartanandpudgey
Hi guys so the thing is people back than didnt know how a nuclear plant works or what is radiation.. thats why they were so careless and easy going liike it was nothing.. :) also it was a communist country no information whats so ever... and u couldn't argue with your supervisors or u might end up in a labor camp.. :D Different world back than especially in Russia and Ukraine...
How bad was the schooling in Vic that you were unaware of Chernobyl? Guess standards must have dropped? Spartan, Aussie history isn’t something to just dismiss btw… immigrants like your family benefited from what was offered here… that’s something to acknowledge and be thankful for😊, yeah?👍
I honestly can't believe that you didn't know of Chernobyl, one of the worlds worst disasters of the modern age.... And one of Russia's worst moments. The Iron Curtain and cold war were in full effect and Russia's paranoia and fear of the west caused untold damage.... Don't forget at the levels of Radiation involved being anywhere near meant certain death.
Its always frustrating watching these reactions when they havent listened to the podcast with Craig Manzin. There is SO much subtlety that went into this show that is often missed.
When i saw the series for the first time it was a reaction from another person I didn't need a pod cast to understand the different levels going on @mariekeho
It's easy to say "oh, they are so stupid" Remember, they didn't have a soundtrack telling them it was dangerous The core was not supposed to explode, it was impossible. they didn't act right, but it was impossible for those in the control room to figure what happened.
They actually were stupid, the people in charge were experts knew exactly how dangerous the situation was, they chose to deny the obvious thinking the problem could go away or quickly covered up. The civilian population did not know
I thought the same thing. 😂 they are probably playing the fool on purpose for the “reaction” . it’s hard to believe anyone can be this ignorant of Chernobyl/the Soviet union. Reaction creators love stating videos claiming “ we honestly have very heard of this” and tilting it “first time watching- “
I get that vibe from a lot of reviewers, but not them. I've learned to trust my gut and I have a good feeling about them. They were born after the Soviet Union fell and they live in Australia. I think it's perfectly reasonable what they're saying.
@@Alexandra_Indina my parents born in 1973 and this tragedy was at 1986, so basically my grandparents know much better this history than my teenage parents back in the days
The reality is that they didn't need any threats from the government to make the sacrifices they needed to to save their families and communities. They did what they had to because of their love of those groups.
So many people miss the forest overview scene. The trees are all starting to die along the path of the smoke from the fire, they are still green on either side of it.
@@chrismcginnis1407 Yeah, the worst effected part they felled all the trees and buried them, but for a large part of the area that was still effected but not all of the trees died, they have a problem with in the modern day because the radiation effected small microbial life and insects, causing the wood to not rot down as fast, which puts the area at risk of wildfires. I think back in 2019/2020 there was a wildfire quite near, which they were worried would spread to the most contaminated area and contaminants might get carried with the smoke. When Russia invaded Ukraine they also stupidly dug trenches and camped in the Red Forest, a few of the rooms at Chernobyl where some of the Russian troops stayed have belongings that are contaminated with Red Forest soil, and it's thought many of them were evacuated back to Belarus and Russia with acute radiation syndrome, they didn't heed warnings from the civilian Chernobyl staff.
@@G1NZOU Yeah contaminants being spread by not just smoke but ash as well would be a huge concern if there was a wild fire. I keep hearing people say 'burn them' in reference to the clothes in the basement of the hospital but that would be a horrible idea for the exact same reason. the ash and smoke would carry contaminants wherever the wind went. Kinda sad that with everything we know today, especially from the lessons learned from the Chernobyl disaster, those soldiers didn't heed the warnings of the staff.
@@tilltronje1623 if its not taught in school how can you expect someone to know about it? someone would either have to tell them about it or they would have to by chance see a post on social media talking about it, and thats not gonna happen to everyone in the world. do you know about Halifax?
Living in Australia, I understand that you were not affected by Chernobyl, especially being a young couple. Did you hear about the Japanese earthquake / tsunami that affected the Fukushima nuclear plant in 2011? A reason why there wasn’t a massive disaster in 2011 is because of lessons learnt of Chernobyl. This is a fantastic mini-series, which apparently, is pretty accurate.
What lessons learned? Don't be an idiot? Don't build your reactor shutdown rods with a material that briefly spikes fission? Chernobyl would not have happened if they either just followed the protocols or didn't build a fatal flaw into the reactor design due to greed.
@@gavinderulo12So... There were lessons to ve learned, you just have to word ot in a way that makes you seem more correct than OP. What silliness, Gavin.
@@gavinderulo12 I think I see your point, but none of these are what happened at Fukushima. The problem there was a terrible reactor design that had the control rods raising up from the bottom. When the tsunami hit, it took out power and the back up generators, they were unable to raise the control rods to scram the reactors. I think the lessons learned were how to contain and recover from a nuclear disaster. Fukushima is still an ongoing problem, just like Chernobyl still is today.
@@BigMateo24 Fukushima and Chernobyl were very different. Imo there was no real flaw in the design nor the procedure of Fukushima. They just completely underestimated the force of nature at it's worsed. And still the earthquake itself claimed way more lives then the powerplant.
That was my first lockdown. I'm from Berlin and we weren't allowed to play outside all summer. Berlin is about 1000 miles away from Chenobyl. We even had to spend our school breaks indoors. As I already knew a lot about physics and chemistry at that time (i was 12 years old), it was quite scary.
@@mrcool7358 At least not in Germany, but in Ukraine the cancer rate around Kiev is far higher. However, increased radioactivity can still be detected in wild mushrooms in Germany today.
Similar age in Wales and remember it like yesterday. Growing up during the cold war years was wild. Our local reactor would release enormous amounts of “waste” to avoid melt downs and stay very quiet about it, but after months of weird happenings they would eventually make tiny statements hidden in middle pages of the news. The media would help keep it quiet too. West and East were both adepts of propaganda.
To many, history is words and dates on a page. This mini series is a small miracle in not overly sensationalize the events. They still condense a lot for a compelling narrative, but the message survived. We should be thankful for the sacrifice of ordinary people cleaning up the disaster.
You need to know, that Soviet union doesn't make mistakes. Propaganda says it. That's why Diatlov refuses to see what has been Done. He really doesn't believe, that something in SU or he could done wrong.
He had also survived serious radiation accidents before so I think he actually thought it couldn't possibly be that bad. His generation was shockingly cavalier about the dangers of nuclear power.
Also the way politics work in the Soviet Union, people in middle positions are determined to pass the buck of blame and try to advance. Really though the series did Dyatlov dirty, in reality he realised quickly what had happened and helped walk around to inspect the exterior, some of the lines of denial were actually from Akimov who didn't believe such a thing could happen, I understand why they did it, they need a more clear villain type character rather than a bunch of relatively more competent individuals who made a mistake based on incomplete info and also complacency about procedure and safety.
Communism/Fascism/Socialism is the replacement of a religious deity with the state as god. That's why its perfect and you cannot question it. Of course the state didn't screw up despite evidence to the contrary, you were obviously seeing things. One more reason why Communist insane asylums are full of political prisoners, they're obviously crazy.
It's not quite that straightforward - this was a black swan event - Nuclear reactors do not explode. There was no reason to believe what peple were saying - it simply didn't make any sense. Diatlov was very experienced at his job - and had every reason to trust his own judgement and to assume the impossible thing people were says was impossible. Imagine taking your car to a mechanic and him calling you up to tell you the engine melted. Not caught fire, or exploded, but melted. You'd just assuming he was mad.
@@DaveF. And they were going off limited information, a closed control room where panels stopped working and the damage control procedures were to keep the core cool and prevent a meltdown.
Chernobyl is today actually in Ukraine, and at the time was controlled by the USRR. It's never too late to learn, glad you guys are reacting to this :)
I was 17 years old at the time, living in southern Sweden. The Soviet government tried to keep the accident secret from the rest of the world. But a few days after the accident, personnel from a Swedish nuclear plant on the Baltic coast detected increased levels of radiation in the surrounding areas. Analysis quickly revealed that the radiation didn't come from the local nuclear plant but instead had to have come from the southeast with the winds. The Soviet government eventually acknowledged to the world that there had been an accident at Chernobyl, but the full extent was still kept secret. All of Sweden was affected by the radioactive dust from the accident, but northern Sweden was hit the hardest with particularly a huge impact on the food industry there. Meat from pasturing animals had to be destroyed, and so on.
I have even read that Swedes were warned off from eating fruit off trees and that a particular berry, forgive me for not remembering which, was only recently declared safe to eat...
Growing up in the north of Sweden during this period, and the aftermath, all adults also told us not fish in the lakes and absolutely not eat the fish.
Given that they haven't seen the show and it stays mostly accurate to historical events, it may be best to leave cool personal stories for after the show, otherwise it could be a spoiler :P
@@Griexxt I’m referring to Soviet Union trying to hide the accident and other countries discovering that the accident happened because they detected radiation and traced it back to Chernobyl - you literally listed things that happen in the show in the next few episodes, what do you mean that you “don’t get” what your comment spoils?
Hey guys, great reaction! I know you have seen the entire series by this time. One thing I would like to point out, since you both are too young to experience it, but the Soviet Union was a police state. Their socialistic society was "perfect" and anything that contradicted that was classified as a state secret and withheld from the public and anyone who spoke out against it was either jailed or outright killed. The people were never told of the dangers of radiation. Also, the people of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics did not have the right to refuse. Anything.
@@gavinderulo12 If we're being technical, the system was socialist. The whole business of state ownership of the means of production is classic, textbook socialism. The Soviet system was ideologically founded in communism in that the goal was to build a true communist society as outlined by Marx but where the socialist system established by the Bolsheviks was to be the transition between capitalism and the intended communist future.
How nice, that people who never lived in the USSR discuss whether it was socialist. How easy to live with myths about the KGB, totalitarian state and others. Study fucking history, not by the one side - luckily today it is possible. Otherwise, the world will stay black and white.
Yeah this is frightening to see these oblivious westerners who have absolutely no clue about whats going on beforehand. This must be what its like to be attractive people and having life on easy mode. Cant believe these people are gonna reproduce. They probably dont even know about the soviet union and how the socialism in the soviet union was way worse than the national socialist under hitler.
It isn't a global event of importance. You would learn about it in higher education like Uni classes, bur primary and secondary? If this isn't an important part of your local history, why would you learn it?
@@TheMilkMan8008 i learnt it in primary/secondary school. In physics class during the topic of radiation. But i do live in Denmark, so it's closer to home for Europeans than Americans, our government advised the public to not be outside because of the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. So it's definitely more important for us to learn about, compared to the US where you have never experienced an event like this. I bet most children in Europe learn about it in the formative years of school. We don't have primary/secondary school, most countries in EU have just one school from around 6 years old to about 15, called grade 1-9 or "Folk school" because everyone has to have it, and it's free. Then you can go to "Gymnasium" which is a high school equivalent, and then university like the US, with bachelor and candidate degrees. So it's a bit different in Europe than in the Americas.
@@sp0r26 Yes, I believe that is the thing. The closer you were to the disaster, the more you learned about it. Some parts of Europe were totally unaffected. That is where we see nobody learn it. The same is true with the Americas and such. It makes sense that people don't learn things that aren't big for them. If you were closer to Russia during this and had a real threat of issue or real scare, then you would learn some. If you have a real threat and non hypothetical issue, you learned more. If you were in the range of danger, you learned even more, and so on and so on.
"The wise man knows he doesn’t know. The fool doesn’t know he doesn’t know." -Lao Tzu. We are all ignorant to certain things, but a fool doesn't bother and take the time to learn. I wouldn't dare laugh about someone's ignorance, and better late than never to find out about new things. I hope you two enjoy(ed) the show, no matter how dark and haunting it may be.
This. I can only second that. S&P are very fast with their judgement and forget that this is about real life, real events, real people. Well, they are young and naive, who think they know everything. Hopefully, they will learn in time.
All your questions about their weird behavior can be answered with 1 sentence: It's the Soviet Union. They're all terrified of the consequences of messing up because messing up like this means death, disobeying means death, so Dyatlov is gaslighting because he doesn't want to be held responsible and experience said consequences. Also, you can't just "say no" to authority or leave, because that's also death.
It's amazing to see how they're taking it! I've watched a lot of reaction to this series, and researching nuclear disasters has been a hobby of mine for decades. Seeing this through the eyes of people who know zero about it is both wild and fascinating
As an Aussie who teaches high school history, what happened in 1986 in Chernobyl is most definitely included in our curriculum. However, the Cold War is usually a topic of senior schools' syllabus, so if S&P didnt take history as an elective subject, they would've missed this... but really even the young should be aware of global events... Edit: I was 8 yrs old watching this horror unfold on the news at the time, and feeling scared shitless that this occurred and not being able to even understand what it meant for Europe or indeed the rest of us...
Why is history an elective? In Germany, at least when I went to school, you were obligated to take history until 10th grade in "real school" and until the end in "high school" (12th or 13th grade). Yes, the German curriculum is absolutely crammed but the state tries hard to teach all students a comprehensive knowledge about mankind's history from 20000 BC to now. Other subjects such as geography and biology expand and complete the timeline back to how homo sapiens emerged and further back to 4.567 billion years ago when Earth emerged from the proto-solar disc. History as a subject starts in 5th grade and focuses on the transition from nomadic mankind (hunters and gatherers) to men settling down, with the Sumerians creating the first ever civilisation and high culture. Later, after intense months and years on the history of Germany and Europe, and some brief excursions to the Americas, Africa and Asia, 9th grade arrives in the 20th century. There, German students get bombarded with the chapters Wilhelminian Empire, First World War, Weimar Republic, world economic crisis, fascist dictatorship/Hitler-Germany and Second World War. It is a neverending barrage carried out in other subjects as well. It dominates larger aspects of schooling in 9th and 10th grade, and in the months before the examination at the end of 10th grade there are chapters on the Cold War, on the second half of the 20th century, and on the German reunification. Students who carry on to attend high school will then spent most of their time in the subject history with the trifecta of Wilhelminian period, Weimar Republic and Hitler-fascism again, followed by a substantial amount of time on 1950-2000 and onwards. The difference between middle school and high school is that the history courses in high school typically integrate the subject history with the subject civics and politics (Gesellschaftskunde) while in middle school those remain separated. I personally think it should be illegal to make history an elective. It is one of the most important subjects in school. If people would pay more attention, we would stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again, and younger people would be better enabled to make good choices at the age of 18 when they are allowed to vote for the first time. A lot of teenagers do not know enough about the world, the political parties and the many failures of many political parties and politicians.
@@bobbwc7011 I couldn't agree with you more! In Australia, education and curriculum are set by state governments. I was schooled and teach in Sydney so under the New South Wales Dept. of Education. Our reactors S&P are Victorians so I can't speak as to what they did or didn't learn. Now in NSW, history is first taught in primary school,Kindergarten to sixth grade. We introduce students to ancient civilisations and cultures around 5th grade (age 10 for most kids) and Ancient Egypt seems most popular. In the 6th grade we teach British/Irish and therefore early Australian history, with emphasis on the aboriginal culture. A recent criticism is that 'woke' teachers are 'black washing' and preaching the displacement of native peoples at the detriment of 'Australian' and white history and culture. High school begins 7th grade, aged 12 or so and junior high school is grades 7 to 10. In yr 7 we teach more English history, with emphasis on the War of the Roses and Tudor England. We introduce histiography and analysis. This is where many students are done with history. In 8th grade they select elective subjects, choosing between History and Geography. Not to malign the subject of geography, but lazier students will have elected this. Their reasoning? 'I won't have to learn dates'... The separation here between History and Geography especially in public schools, comes down to numbers...not enough teachers and not enough money or resources. In the private school system, they can be offered both, but this tradition of history or geography seems to have prevailed, since when I was in high school 1990-1995... Students who continue with the subject in 8th grade will continue learning and honing critical analysis methods. We delve further into ancient civilisations Chinese and Egypt most popular. Then more British Empire...and we now introduce WWI and WWII. In 9th grade they focus more heavily on the wars. In 10th grade post bellum Europe and Cold War, including Korean war and Vietnam. By the 11th grade, you will find you can tell which students enjoy ancient vs modern history. Senior high school is grades 11 and 12. We split the subject into 2 subjects: Ancient History and Modern History. Interestingly few students select both...but this is where we lose a lot of kids who are into history. 11 and 12 grades are for preparation for the Higher School Certificate exams taken at the end of 12th grade and secure entry into university. Many students' parents will have them drop history to concentrate their efforts into so called 'real' subjects like Economics or the sciences. In 11th and 12th grade we focus on The Revolutions, American, French and Russian. This is where they delve further into political and civic concepts. This very long answer (apologies 😂) is very generalised but unfortunately these days, students and their parents are very much looking to take the subjects that are likely to gain them entry into undergraduate degrees of more prestige. Many students call it the Curry 5: taking English, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics for their final exams. English is the only compulsory subject and 'Curry' is a slur on students who are the children of Asian and particularly Indian migrants, who tend to push their kids towards medical, engineering and scientific careers. But those of us who love history and love to teach history are also teaching English and English literature. This keeps us in work...the demand for us as educators would be severely diminished if we only taught history unfortunately...and while our education system is nowhere near as broken as say the American public school system, it leaves a lot to be desired, especially in comparison to Western European education standards...in the private schools in Australia it is more on par with you guys and indeed our students will take the international baccalaureate program to attend at least one yr in a European university. Sadly education is becoming monetised here too....
I don’t think we learned about Chernobyl in school either. Granted, we’re in Asia, and there’s so much Asian history to cover lol. And to add to that all ancient history, European history, up to WWII. But I’ve heard of Chernobyl from other stuff. It’s just a very important event that it would too hard to miss. You must be living under a rock to miss it at all growing up 😂.
@@darcypenn6702both of you have explained it really well but I hope that your claim to love history and therefore teach english stuff too doesn’t mean you prioritise that over Aboriginal one and the real history of the country (and world) and you’re against those racist beliefs claiming teaching the truth is blackwashing…
One thing to keep in mind, back then most citizens didn't understand radiation or its effects. The Iron curtain was a real thing. The firemen and authorities responded to something that never happened before, that was not supposed to happen with that type of nuclear reactor.
@@hoon_solSurely they have filmed most of the series so far, but for anyone else who may not know... But honestly, I'm thinking it doesn't really ruin anything
Ya it’s insane they weren’t prepped for something like this, as in how to deal with it safely! Aka RUN AS FAR AS AWAY AS POSSIBLE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! Not evacuating everyone in the town immediately IS CRIMINAL
This is a True Horror Show, What makes it scary is how much of it is true. Obviously the show took some Creative licenses but for the most part they stuck to History as much as possible.
Yes my husband studied every facet of the Chernobyl tragedy at the US Naval Nuclear school. We heard about the show from his fellow Nuclear sailors who gave it rave reviews. According to my husband, this is the most accurate nuclear based show he's ever seen.
I was born just a few days before the chernobyl accident. While the whole western world knew practically within 24 hours that something major happened. the sad part is, that all the eastern countries under Russian control like poland, and eastern Germany were not informed and warned until it could no longer be hidden. But by that point my mother was outside with me for extended periods of time because the doctor said all the fresh air would be good for me. I realised what that had done when we had a geiger counter in physics class in school i believe i was 12. The teacher had showed us some natural radiation sources, so it was on the most sensitive settings. when the hour was over i passed the teachers table on my way out. a buddy from west germany passed the table without issues. but when i passed the geiger counter started clicking like crazy. My teacher jumped away from me until he remembered the settings and checked me for real. i have above average radiation emission than other normal humans, but nothing concerning. I will have an increased cancer chance so its now bi- yearly medical checkups.
@@Cassxowary soviet union is just a name for russia and its puppets. until they disbanded after east germany was finally allowed to merge back into germany and the puppets figured now is the time to break free. And no, i love my meat.
Never heard of Chernobyl? Ohh dear, get ready for a bumpy ride! Edit for after watching: Remember, when you're calling people Idiots in this Show, this is the Soviet Union (Ukraine), so, the control of the Narrative is paramount above all else, regardless of truth, keep Legasov's openning monologue in mind throughout this show.
@@nephastgweiz1022 Well they're Aussie, about as far away as you can get from Chernobyl. I'm sure there's a lot of Australian history I am oblivious too, and I like my history.
@@nephastgweiz1022 i knwow plenty of people who never heard of it i mean its sad but true most people go through life without learning about some events and i come from germany we where effected from the icident
At the time of event the USSR did as much as possible to downplay. Most people knew it exploded but not how bad it was. It wasn’t until recently years after the collapse of the USSR that the details were revealed.
Person from northern Sweden here. To this day, wild boar in Sweden are still checked for radiation levels within the meat, and once in a while you hear of cases where the levels found are still INSANELY high. (Boars forage for food, especially mushrooms etc, so they absorb a lot of it)
Mushrooms here in Finland still have radiation. Not dangerously high, but it's there. When this happened the authorities recommendend not to eat mushrooms and berries for the next couple of years.
I was 11 years old when it happened. Chernobly to Frankfurt, Germany is 950 miles/1500 km, we had to stay inside during recess and if it started raining and you were outside on the way home you were supposed to seek shelter immediatly. Since nuclear fallout was a harsh reality during the Cold War and living in Germany meant you were some of the first in a blast zone we allready were aware of dangers ( The Day After in '83, in '87 Die Wolke a book about a nuclear event at a powerplant in Germany was released ). My school was in the event zone for the nearest nuclear powerplant in Biblis, Germany, so in case something happened there we wouldn't be allowed to leave the containment zone anymore. I remember a few of my friends and me participated in anemergency drill playing injured civilians simulating such an event ( decontamination etc. ) around '88 or '89. Crazy times....if you wanna see something remotely similiar in the West, check out the The Mile Island incident in '79.
I was tiny when it happened. My father told be about how parents bought instant milk powder, because they were afraid that mother's milk was contaminated. Just imagine that thought of "we consume contaminated food and water, but at least our children should be save".
Some "fun" facts: there was a reference about shining floodlights. People indeed saw a blue beam shining up in the sky, but that was actually radiation from the exposed reactor core making the atmosphere glow. The amount and the intensity of the radiation released are incredible. The reactor may have gone up to a 100 times it's rated power and the only reason it didn't get even worse, is that the reactor blasted itself apart. The core got so hot, it burned through 2 meters / 7ft of reinforced concrete. The area around the melted blob that was once the reactor core is the most radioactive place on Earth and even today it's so dangerous, that going near it for 5 minutes leaves you a mere 50% chance of surviving the next few days. The second most radioactive place is the basement of the hospital in the nearby town of Pripyat, where they dumped the clothing and equipment of the first responders. Very few of them survived for more than a year.
Reminded me of a very dark joke: a Soviet news reporter appears on the television. "Comrades, we bring you good news! Early this morning the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine SSR achieved it's 40 year target for energy production in 0.1 seconds!"
My uncle was one of the men who went to Chernobyl after the explosion to help manage the aftermath. Even though this series is not entirely accurate, it provides a good insight into this terrifying accident. I hope you enjoy watching it!
The graphite itself isn't really the big problem. The problem is the graphite is part of the reactor core and if the graphite is on the ground that means the core is now outside of the building, including extremely radioactive irradiated nuclear fuel.
When the core exploded, fuel rods and fuel pellets containing Uranium and fission byproducts also ruptured and so a lot of radioactive isotopes were literally mixed into graphite that was shot out of the core. That said the depiction of the firefighters hand being basically burned from the inside out in minutes of holding the graphite is unrealistic. A lot of the depiction of radiation and it's effects were off in this show. Good entertainment but inaccurate.
@@Lovemy1911a1The graphite, itself, will have becoming highly radioactive, itself, because of activation products due to prolonged exposure to very high neutron flux.
@@DavidEllis94 carbon activation is not that big a problem, at least not in context of what else is happening. Yes it happens but C14 has a 5000 year half life so it's not very active and the capture rate of carbon is very low, that's why it's used as a moderator. I will maintain that by far the greatest threat was fission products also blasted from the core. Which would be around, on or in the graphite chunks.
@@Lovemy1911a1 That's fair, and you're certainly right that fission products could also be an issue since you have a meltdown in this context. Under normal circumstances, when a reactor doesn't melt fown, fission products shouldn't get outside of the fuel cladding. In this case..... yeah you'd get a lot of nasty stuff embedded in the graphite, but when that graphite is exposed to high neutron flux for a long time (I forget how long reactor 4 was active), it's not just that C14 you need to care about, but also the activation products of previous activation products. In much lower concentrations, sure, but they build up.
One would think that people would evolve from this Soviet (now Russian) mindset of a strange cultural pride in total obedience and generational sacrifice - but they mostly haven't. The proof is in the fact that Russian troops went into the Chernobyl zone two years ago and dug into the irradiated ground during their invasion of Ukraine, and how the Russian army mindlessly charge to their deaths today in so-called 'meat wave' attacks in Ukraine.
This is an amazing miniseries. Looking back at cold war USSR and how the world and the russian people were kept in the dark, even to this day. I was in high school when this happened and I remembered a lot of this. My son and I watched this together and he thought it was based on a fiction novel. I had to explain the time and the world to him.
Ok i couldn't resist replying to Spartan saying "you're bringing a baby to see a nuclear power plant on fore , come on use your brain." This was the 80's, the common knowledge of how radiation works was just not known by normal people, they honesty thought it was just a fire. It's not like they could google it. I was in elementary school that day in Belgium, and we were told to stay inside because a radioactive cloud was coming our way. Even though i I didn't know what that meant as a child it was so scary!
I was 4 in 1986, so I don't exactly remember the disaster, but I was alive for it. I live in Norway, well over 2000 km away from Prypjat, but I know Norway was one of the countries that recieved the most radioactive fallout except from the immediate neighboring countries. The radioactive contamination is still measurable in some areas still to this day, although of course it's thankfully declined significantly over the years. It's insane, the impact that event had.
I was 21 and was horrified to my soul upon being told by our media in the US what the ramifications would be. I grew up terrified of the nuclear capabilities of the USSR and they were still trying to pass this off as nbd in Russia for weeks after that reactor blew.
Yeah. And it also heavily affected Reindeers due to them eating moss, lichen and fungi, which absorbed radiaton easily. The Norwegian government allows a _relatively high level of radiation_ in reindeer meat, 3,000 becquerel. To this day, they still monitor radiation levels in many of the Norwegian plateaus. Most affected I believe was the area around Jotunheimen/Dombås and Nord-Trøndelag.
I got randomly recommended this video today for the first time, so I'm a bit late. I grew up in a communist dictatorship, when this happened I was 8, living approx. 950 km from THAT power plant. I can give you a little bit of insight, but I'm sure you got that already. In any case, here you go: 1) Dyatlov acted the way he did, because in that type of government, you got good postings, like a director of a power plant, not by what you know, but how much are you loyal to the ruling party. 2) His position of "nothing serious happened" is based on the information he was given from the people above him in the command chain. Also, see point 1 again. Party loyalty was above all. Leaving one's post in this scenario would guarantee couple of years in a labour camp somewhere east of Ural mountains, or even execution for sabotage. Such punishments also affected one's family. Kids would be denied higher education and spouse might be transferred to some shit job on the other side of the country.
This is one of the best series of all time...EVERY actor was brilliant in any role in every episode. Also I want to add something: I have been to the Chernobyl museum in Kyiv as well to the radiation zone to Prypjat and that is the single scariest sh*t I have done in my life...the series captures the fear and horror really well..but reality is far worse...the fact that you cannot see or taste the danger..it is really scary...once you have seen this your view on nuclear tech as well as bombs changes completely and I urge everyone to research on the matter because it can affect us all and we went THAT close on being fcked..so we must prevent that in the future at all costs..They have pictures of people who died there not knowing whats going on and of those liquidators...I cant forget their faces and eyes looking at me from pictures...
Since you watched the show it must be clear to you that chernobyl was caused by a mixture of extreme incompetence and a severely flawed reactor design. And even still it caused only about 50 casualties. That's less than fossil fuels cause each year. If you look at the stats it's quite apparent that nuclear energy is the safest and cleanest energy source we currently have.
@@gavinderulo12 It did not cause "about 50 casualties" That's the propaganda number DIRECTLY it may have caused that few, but its lasting effects on tens of thousands of people cannot be ignored
@@gavinderulo12this comment might take the cake for being the brain dead comment ever. I never thought I’d see someone actually believe only 50 people died from this. You watched the show then believed the Soviet Union? You learned nothing from watching this then.
@@cam794 those are the UN numbers. The propaganda is all of the nuclear fear mongering. You believe a drama series over official United Nations numbers and I am the idiot?
Australian education system must be in a really bad way if you have never even heard about Chernobyl. What next, never heard about 9/11? It's just wild lmao
I’m Australian and I’m super confused as to how they’ve never heard of it. 😂 I definitely learned about it at school and I’m a similar age to these guys.
of course they know about it, they just have to have some "excuse" so they can say they are reacting blind, they never seen it, they never heard about it, they know nothing about it as with every other tv show or movie. People are so naive.
@@Molda22 I knew about this obviously. But the show didn't get less interesting because of it. In fact, me knowing about the event, actually made the series even more interesting. So I really don't think there's a reason to lie over this specific TV show. If they did though, they definitely didn't need to.
I'm 34 and had heard of Chernobyl but didn't understand exactly what it was or how bad it was until this show. I was horrified watching this mini series. I've only watched it once and even watching this condensed reaction is rough. Spartan and Pudgey have no idea what they are in for.
Remember, this was during the time of the Soviet Union, so they tried to prevent this information from spreading to the rest of the world, because that would have badly impacted the S.U. It explains so much when you have this in mind when you watch on.
@@AJ-jf7cl I didn't honest. My friend and I had a deep discussion of this and the Union after we both watched it. Plus those things are taught here in history classes
Fun fact: Russian Troops Suffer ‘Acute Radiation Sickness’ After Digging Chernobyl Trenches in March 2022. The occupiers received significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of illness. And it showed up very quickly.
The Russian troops had also never hear of Chernobyl, it was not something the Soviet government had taught in school. They didn't know what had happened and they had no clue what trouble they were in.
@@killerbas40yeah in my school (Wales) we learned about Chernobyl and the aftermath of it as we were learning about the Cold War and the potential of nuclear conflict.
I'm from Finland. I was 15 when Chernobyl exploded. Finnish military detected radiation 1-2 days after explosion, but kept quiet because of fear of the Soviet Union. Swedes detected the radiation too and soon after that it was top news around the globe. Nuclear fallout from Chernobyl travelled From Ukraine across Europe all the way to Nordics. It can still be detected in our forests, in berries and mushrooms. This is scary shit, while Russia and Ukraine ar at war, there is risk that even more devastating "accident" happens in the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe. That could make large parts of Europe vey toxic.
How have you never heard of Chernobyl? 😭 It’s one of the most known human disasters in history. It’s up there with Titanic and World War II in terms of recognizability.
I think it is not a bad thing if you dont know about those things, because you made an effort to learn it now and show interest..even if a tv show guides you to it. So you should be commended on not to stay on status quo but to expand knowledge
It is understandable. There are immediate reasons comes to my mind how you can heard of Chernobyl: 1) you lived in the time of event, 2) you live somewhere close so the aftermath was long lasting and people who lived in the time of event like your parents kept talking about it time to time for reasons like increased rate of thyroid cancer cases in the Blacksea region, 3) you heard from a video game, 4) you heard from a some youtube content like Kyle Hill or Veritasium and Tom Scott etc because they have talked about it or visited the site. 5) you have a special interest for history of radioactivity, nuclear energy etc. I can checkmark 4 out of 5 right away, so that's how I do know about Chernobyl even if I did not lived in the time of event. But I did never heard about Chernobyl in history classes. And I don't think there are history classes teaching about Chernobyl unless you are from Ukraine or your history class is specialized on history of USSR/CCCP.
Fun fact is you look at the Ukraine radiation map, you can still very easily see where Chernobyl happened. Another fun fact, thanks to the war we get a fire here and there near nuclear plants even these days ...so if you are Easter European, the fun enver stops. We just had a nice scare a few days ago. Additionally, to be fair to all of them in the Chernobyl story, it is hard to accept something that scientifically by then was seen as impossible, and not only accept that, but also accept you are dead and probably everyone around you is gonna die the worst possible death...Honestly, I d be in denial too probably, which is why I d never take that job, coz I doubt I d be able to process something as horrible and act accordingly.
My mum told me how after the reactor explosion the authorities in Poland gave iodine to children. A lot of women, including my aunt, had miscarriages and a lot of children got cancer. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, the local authorities immediately ensured that iodine was stocked for citizens just in case. They literally wrote about it in the newspapers to reassure elderly residents.
I was one of these children. It's one of my earliest memories going with my mom to our local hospital in Poland to drink the iodine solution. I was 4 really hated the whole experience.
@@AJ-jf7cl I don't really understand the comment... According to you I have a brain disease because I mentioned the giving of iodine by the authorities?
I remember my older sisters telling me they could not go into the woods to play and everyone was prohibited from picking mushrooms even here in germany cause the particles from the incident came over with the wind and settled with the rain. Radiation is a scary invisible killer.
When those three guys went to look in the reactor all that smoke and steam is basically radioactive it was radiation going right through their bodies. At that moment that was the most dangerous place on the planet.
@@technofilejr3401 most of them didn't live long enough to tell anyone... the KGB is so proud of the way the reactor silenced those who would counter the narrative of the central government
There have been reactor mishaps from the very beginning. It is a very unforgiving technology. The very first core meltdown occurred in 1952 at Chalk River, Canada. One of the technicians who helped with the cleanup was future US President Jimmy Carter. He was in the US Navy and was one of the few people on the planet certified to enter the reactor room. BTW. The cleanup was done " by the numbers " and nobody was hurt. All involved had to submit body fluid samples for the next 5 years.
One thing about first responders like firemen they will rush into danger without giving it a second thought. Just like during 9/11 all the firemen that went to the towers. My childhood next door neighbor was one of the firefighters that went into the building that day and never came out.
Does Australian history education just really suck or something? I'm Canadian and I don't even remember when I learned about the Chernobyl reactor incident because it's just been one of those things I learned about so early that it just seems like something in the pool of "general knowledge" I've had practically my entire life. Like, even thinking back to being a single-digit age, I still can't remember a time when I _didn't_ already know about this.
So surprising! I live next to this place and many of my patients' friends and even my physics teacher used to live in Chernobyl and would tell me stories about this period. Horrible times.
the director refuses to consider the fact that the Reactor Core EXPLODED! in his mind it is just an issue of water not flowing into the reactor in his mind the reactor is still intact now blown to chunks with the Rods actually ON FIRE! THe core was made from *GRAPHITE* (like pencell leads) NOT METAL
One thing you have to keep in mind: All the things that we know nowadays about the dangers and effect of radioactivity, came only after and partly BECAUSE of Chernobyl. So you can't really blame the ordinary people for not knowing some things that might seem common sense to us now.
"I've honestly have never heard the term of Chernobyl untill this show" I'm 38 year old. I was born the month Chernobyl explode!! So basicly I have the exact same age the baby we saw on the bridge
That you don't know what the show is about is FANTASTIC for a reaction video! Just paused to say this. Now, onto the actual reaction! 😅 Don't sweat not knowing about Chernobyl. There's so many gruesome historical events many people don't know about. I only recently learned of Japan's WW2 unit 713. And I only learned about the Tulsa massacre through the HBO show Watchmen. And that's coming from someone who has a history degree. 🙃
Chernobyl is in Ukraine and it is still radioactive to this day in such an amount that the entire zone around it is still locked. The reactor is even encased in a huge dome to contain the radiation. It is very tricky with the war going on in Ukraine at the moment because at one point they were bombing/fighting very close to the reactor.
The zone does not have any harmful amount of radiation anymore. There still are some contaminated items there but you can visit with out any issues. Did they actually fight there during the current war? What for? And the building is made to withstand all kinds of bombs.
@@gavinderulo12 Dude have you seen the pictures of the recently released Chernobyl workers? They look like holocaust victims. Typical Russian prisoner treatment.
The zone itself doesn't have much radiation, it's comparable to the natural radiation in my country (held a dosimeter in my country and in the zone) There are certainly areas *within* the show that are still radioactive, and of course underneath the confinement built for Plant 4 there's still a ton of radiation.
Oh hell yeah. SO thrilled y’all are reacting to this one. One of my favorite “based on a true story” shows ever. The fact y’all know NOTHING is even better!
a few key points. 1) most of those immediate effects of radiation was there for dramatic effect. it wasn't that obvious for people on site. 2) That was undocumented flaw in the reactor. Crew were clueless of that's really had happened. The situation was way beyond the worst-case scenario. There was no contingency plan for that. 3) The station was on fire; it was the middle of the night, and the situation was truly unthinkable. It was almost impossible to night shift crew assess full scale of the event.
This is one good series. I am a bit surprised, that u didn't actually heared about Chernobyl, but I can understand, that it is something on the other side of the world for you. I am from the middle Europe and this event affected many countries here, so it is common knowledge, although this happened 4 years before my birth. About the radiaton effect, in this series it is a bit faster, than it would be in real life I think, but except that, it is quite accurate. And don't forget that those people lived in different political regime. They had no informations, so they really weren't aware of the danger. They had no idea what happened at that point.
What do you know about 911? Also, how do you know about Chernobyl from such a pseudo-documentary? 0 information about the incident, the main thing is to shed tears to the viewer, put pressure on emotions, and during this period blame whoever is profitable. psychology...And there is already so much distorted information about the Second World War. The Japanese believe that the USSR dropped atomic bombs on them, given that it did not yet have these weapons.
I think you guys are gonna learn a bit about soviet Russia and how mental it was, no one wants to become privy to or have to pass on any information to higher ups that makes the Soviet Union look bad cause they will silence that information whatever it takes
30:40 "Luscious, green.." the orange colour of the forestis the radiation ionizing and killing the trees, hence why they're all only orange underneath the cloud of smoke. Neat touch. The music is incredible. All of the music in this show was composed from sounds made inside a nuclear reactor - the composer went to various nuclear power plants around the world and recorded the machinery, pumps, bellows, screeching sounds etc.
It's amazing how you say "you're an idiot you don't bring your kids there" when at the same moment showing that you have absolutely no clue about radiation. The only reason you said that was because of the show showing the ashes and playing sad music. And this was almost 40 years ago. It's ok to not know stuff and learning about it, but don't call people ignorant when showing five times the ignorance yourselves. This is a great show though and you will truly learn a lot. Keep it up!
You know when you're watching a horror and you're yelling at the screen, but if you were in the position you'd be none the wiser... same, same. We just really got into the show
You know, the reality is boring, expecially on timing, so the show is a little bit over the reality, but let's say it's 75% accurate. I'm in Italy and was 11 yo when this happened. We went to a some sort of a lockdown and politicians told us to not drink sink water and fresh milk. Also playing in the grass was forbidden. We had animals born with severe handicaps, deseases and malformations because of the radiations.
Yes, Chernobyl! Great show, great acting and absolutely terrifying! I live in Sweden and heard about this as a child, but didn't understand the reality of it until i grew up. I felt really uneasy watching this because it really happened.
What is funny (?) and terrifying (!) is that the two of you probably would have been on the bridge. You were completely clueless to all of this. At this point, we've had Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima..... and you just know nothing. One of the reasons that this series is so important. I lived this (from a distance anyway). I was in Berlin when it was going on. If they didn't get this fixed, they could have destroyed most of Europe. Also funny: what would be the consequences if they said we just fucked up? Keep watching. The consequences changed the world when they finally did this.
There was no one on the mythical “bridge of death” at the time of the accident. It was late at night. Immediately after the accident, a radiation survey of the nuclear power plant and the city of Pripyat was organized. There was no radiation on the bridge at night yet. During the day, the bridge was generally closed to the public. So no one was there and no one died from it. But the screenwriters need more blood, more deaths, more suffering - after all, this is a film about the bloody Soviet Mordor.
One of the few actually cool things to note: The composer, Hildur Guðnadóttir, used actual sounds from nuclear reactors for the soundtrack for this show
I found this show almost by accident when it aired, my friends and I were watching GoT and it just came out... soon it became the show we were looking for every week, I hope you guys enjoy it. “Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later that debt is paid.”
"I know it's a history event, I just don't know which!" is crazy. It's Chernobyl, that's the event.😅 It's about an 80% documentary, 20% filled in the blanks with drama.
Great to see y'all watching this wonderful documentary! Happened in 1986 and today there are still over 2,000 square kilometers of land that's restricted due to high levels of radioactive contamination. Horrible catastrophe! ♥
Well, let me explain something about the Soviet Union. You've been asking a question in your finale discussion, why everyone is trying to underestimate what happened instead of just admitting we fucked up and do what is needed to fix it. So, here it is, the most fundamental pillar of entire Soviet propaganda: NOTHING. BAD. EVER. HAPPENS. IN. SOVIET. UNION. Period. Everything bad happens on Capitalist countries, not in the perfect society. So every disaster was contained as secret as possible. Like take the Space program - all successes were celebrated widely. But reported post-factum as a success. All failures, many of them, were not reported at all.
Imagine learning about Chernobyl disaster the hard way by getting radiation poisoning after digging trenches in the red forest, one of the most heavily polluted locations in Pripyat, and breathing in radioactive dust kicked up by tanks driving around willy-nilly, like some of the russian soldiers who occupied Chernobyl in February/March 2022.
As you watch this series, try to keep in mind two things: 1) Much of the world was a little ignorant about the effects of radiation around this time, so no one really knew what they were getting themselves into during any of this mess. 2) This was the first time anything like this has ever happened in the history of planet earth. The entire process afterwards was uncharted territory and no one had any precedent or reference for how to handle such a catastrophe.
It's really crazy how ANY school can just not teach about Chernobyl. It'd be like not teaching about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Learning the danger of nuclear power is like, a basis we should all have in this modern era. PS; Jared Harris is SO PERFECT in this show. Tbh in every one of his roles. As for the liquid dripping on the guy, it is water. But it is exactly like when it rained above Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb. Everyone ran to drink the rainwater and get some fresh water on their faces, but the water was full of radiation, so soooooo many people died because of this rain.
