Chernobyl, the confrontation between the characters of the TV series and the real people of the disaster

Jessie Buckley as Lyudmilla Ignatenko, the wife of firefighter Vasily Ignatenko, who died shortly after the explosion due to radiation. In order to be close to her husband in the hospital, Lyudmilla ignored the doctors’ directions, with the result that the daughter she was carrying in her womb – Natashenka, this is the name Vasily wanted for her – died a few hours after giving birth due to a heart defect and of a very serious liver cirrhosis caused precisely by exposure to radiation emitted by the father. Despite the advice of doctors, convinced that she could never have children again, she Lyudmilla a few years later she became pregnant and had a baby.

Stellan Skarsgård as Boris Shcherbina, the Deputy Prime Minister who headed the Chernobyl Investigation Commission. The real Shcherbina died in 1990, at the age of 70, from health problems almost certainly due to prolonged exposure to radiation.

Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov, the deputy chief engineer of the Chernobyl power plant. It was he who initiated the test which, partly due to human error and partly due to an error in the design and construction of the plant, led to the explosion of reactor number 4. He was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp for the Chernobyl accident, but, in fact, he only made 5, because he was released earlier. He died in 1995 due to complications from the effects of radiation.

David Dencik as Mikhail Sergeevič Gorbačëv, the last general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, from 1985 to 1991.

Jared Harris as Valery Legasov, the atomic chemistry expert called by the Kremlin to better manage the aftermath of the explosion. Legasov did everything in his power to avoid ecological and human catastrophe, often clashing with Shcherbina, the representative of the state, and did everything in his power to tell the whole world the truth. Forced to omit fundamental information and in some cases even to lie, he lived very badly the psychological pressure caused by his involvement in the post-disaster. Despite this, during the trial of Dyatlov, Bryukhanov and Fomin in a moment of courage and madness, he told the truth, that is, that, to spend less, the Soviet government decided to produce reactors which, just as happened in Chernobyl ‘, at any moment, due to a human error of assessment, they could have been transformed into real atomic bombs. Telling the truth cost him dearly: he was not physically eliminated from the KGB, but was removed from everything and everyone. He committed suicide two years after the explosion. Eight years after his death he was awarded the title of “Hero of the Russian Federation” by President Boris Yeltsin.

Adrian Rawlins as Nikolai Fomin, Chief Engineer of Chernobyl ‘. Together with Dyatlov in Bryukhanov he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, precisely in a labor camp. However, he too left earlier than expected due to his health condition.

With O’neill as Viktor Bryukhanov, the operations director of the Chernobyl power plant ‘. It was he who gave the order to carry out the test despite the lack of optimal conditions to do it safely, and, in the end, it was he who had to communicate to Moscow that “there had been a problem at the plant.” Like Dyatlov and Fomin he was sentenced to 10 years, but only served 5 years due to health problems.

Sam Troughton as Aleksandr Akimov, the night shift supervisor of reactor number 4. Akimov tried to inform Dyatlov that the situation was getting out of hand, but that was not enough. He then he put in place the procedure foreseen for emergency situations, with the result of blowing up the reactor. He did not know about the design and construction flaw, and he did not have the experience and knowledge to handle such a situation. After the explosion he went with Toptunov to manually open the hydraulic pumps, exposing himself to fatal levels of radiation. He died two weeks later in Moscow.

Adam Nagaitis as Vasily Ignatenko, one of the Pryp “jat ‘firefighters called to put out the fire that broke out from the explosion of reactor number 4. He was Lyudmilla’s husband. He died in Moscow about two weeks after responding to that. damn night call.

Ralph Ineson as General Nikolai Tarakanov, head of the Liquidators and the other teams that had the task of reclaiming The Zone, the alienation zone, the area surrounding the Chernobyl ‘power plant, a huge area, with a radius of 30 kilometres.

The Liquidators in action. The Liquidators were both military and civilian called to perform their duty. There were more than 3,000, and each worked for up to 90 seconds to clear a portion of the roof of building number 4 overrun by radioactive debris that had arrived there due to the explosion. Years later it was revealed that it would actually be good to halve the exposure time. In fact, many of them died from the consequences of radiation. They are the “nameless heroes” of the Chernobyl disaster.

Fomin, Dyatlov and Bryukhanov during the trial, which took place in 1987.

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@HBO

And Ulana Khomyuk? Ulana isn’t there for a good reason: Emily Watson’s character never really existed. Ulana, however, represents the dozens of scientists who helped Legasov and Shcherbina in the weeks and months following the disaster. It is a very successful tribute to the women and men of science who worked to avoid a real environmental and human catastrophe.