Debunking the Myths of the HBO Chernobyl series (2023)

Summary

When I was a child, around 5-9 years old, I came across a story in the Reader’s Digest magazine (El-Mokhtar in its Arabic version) about the Chernobyl disaster. It was about Anatoly Grishchenko, a Soviet helicopter pilot who had served in Chernobyl and, like many others, had developed cancer as a result. An incredible act of kindness and empathy from pilots in the United States saw them arrange for Grishchenko to come to the US to receive treatment, yet sadly he did not survive. (I could not find the original article, but here is another article from that time). This story of humans from both sides of the aisle putting aside their differences to appreciate human life and sacrifice is something that I will never forget. I was moved by the HBO series about Chernobyl. I watched it repeatedly, and had it on my to-do list to review the cassette tapes that Professor Valerie Legasov (the main figure in the series) recorded before his suicide in 1988. It was with a sense of excitement that I finally did so a few weeks ago. However, what I found left me horrified. The tapes contradicted almost everything in the series, with the exception of the fact that the Chernobyl disaster did occur. I cannot fathom what the motives behind this series could be. Is it simply to make a profit through entertainment? Or is it an intentional falsification of history? Or, worse still, is it an attempt to feed the narrative that nuclear energy is bad? This would be an incredibly dangerous message to spread, as nuclear energy is in fact much safer than coal or petrol. It has been given a bad reputation due to the nuclear arms race and the fear that it will lead to the end of the world. You can find the transcripts of the tapes here. The recordings are also available on YouTube. Series VS tapes: point by point HBO series claimsLegasov tapesLegasov was portrayed as the primary scientist and the focal point of the entire Chernobyl operation.He was one of many. He played a role, but he was not the c...