The Thirty-One Victims of Chernobyl

Thirty-one people are recorded as direct victims of Chernobyl. This does not include, of course, the potentially thousands of people who died as a result of consequences from the exposure to radiation released by Unit Four in the days after the explosion. These thirty-one men and women all have unique stories attached to them - some rushed into the danger, and sacrificed their lives to contain an even greater disaster, while others simply happened to be in the absolute worst place at the worst time. Some of these have videos documenting their life on my channel already; the others will follow as more information comes to light.

[@Mr.HaraldTheMan]

One thing that confuses me is that, you see people on the list that died years later, for example Leonid Telyatnikov and he died due to cancer caused by radiation. Now at the same time, others that died years later, for example Aleksandr Yuvchenko, who died of leukemia which can be caused by radiation, but he doesn't count on the list of the 31 people that died.

[@thing_under_the_stairs]

That confuses me as well. Who decides who "qualifies" as a victim of Chernobyl, and how is that decision made? To my own mind, whether they survived or not, everyone there at the time was a victim of the disaster in one way or another.

[@btudrus]

@@thing_under_the_stairs That would be many, many thousands...

[@btudrus]

Dont' forget Valerij Legasov...

[@MinSredMash]

Telyatnikov was added to some 'official' lists as a victim precisely because he was the 'official' hero of the accident, as determined by the Soviet authorities. What's interesting is that in the early stages of the investigation, Telyatnikov was supposed to be charged with a crime for not limiting his subordinates' exposure to radiation. At that point several officials from the reactor's design bureau, the energy ministry and civil defense were supposed to be charged as well. But very quickly it was decided that only ChNPP employees would be prosecuted, and Telyatnikov became a hero instead.

[@quattrodrift3376]

@@thing_under_the_stairsSowjet Union/ Russia is not able telling the truth about the death after the explosion

[@jcdenton6074]

Great presentation as always.

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Thank you!

[@HaroldKuilman]

These 31 also do not included all the people who died of air pollution due to all the Cole burning powerplants that were not replaced by nuclear power... Being afraid of nuclear power costs more lives and makes more land inhabitable (Cole mines and solar farms)

[@MinSredMash]

Solar farms don't damage the land. In the future we can remove the solar panels and replace the generation with nuclear or other kinds of generation.

[@maxsaviation9512]

@@MinSredMashthousands of trees and other plants are teared down for huge solar farms when NPP’s don’t use as much land. Solar should only be put on top of buildings .

[@markusw7833]

@@maxsaviation9512 :/

[@MinSredMash]

@@maxsaviation9512 If you could build an NPP as fast as you could install 4000 MW of solar, and there wasn't a climate crisis, then I would agree...

[@Silvermoonshadow]

Coal, not cole

[@thereal757_ap]

I would love a Chernobyl stories style podcast. The awesome narration and story telling.

[@yarost12]

8:09 nice Thatcher fade-in, very fitting

[@davidbaca7853]

Yet another tragic and eye opening video. Rest in peace
Thank you for the great content

[@garethjohnstone9282]

I love how you always wedge that Mercedes truck in every video :-)

[@runner18x]

I was starting to notice this too, why the obsession?

[@wiretamer5710]

Thank you SO much for this. It's deeply upsetting that there are no good quality photos of these amazing people.
I still find it outrageous that the helicopter pilots who died are not officially recognised as direct victims of the burning reactor fire, after all they simply picked up where the first responders left off. In addition, the women who lost babies in the Pripyat hospital due to radioactive contamination.
I find it amazing that with the internet today, it is not possible to build a list of liquidators from the testimony of family and friends. And there was the medial issued to all the liquidators, along with the small payment for services rendered. There must be a data base for who got what, because the bureaucrats involved love to generate records, and their bosses insist on keeping track of expendature.

[@oddsman01]

I heard the official number is a lot lower than the real number.

[@MinSredMash]

No one knows the real number, because it's just statistical estimates based on science with considerable uncertainty

[@swokatsamsiyu3590]

Thank you for honouring them in this way. Another excellent video.

[@Yazovheimer]

even though saturday is mostly a boring day, your videos are something that makes me look forward to the whole week, great video as always

[@jimschiltz5343]

And then your masters will say anything to protect the state's liability.
#Sad

[@floryy_]

you know it's a good day when you post

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Whoo!

[@Shoppingcart0758]

May they all rest in peace, and may the world thank them

[@roamingcat5923]

Honestly, expected a longer video

[@markusw7833]

You got one coming next week, homey.

[@JustAnotherEuropeanGuy]

3:00 valery died in 2008 bc of a heart attack unrelated to the accident.

[@PlaneEra-yu9rk]

Perevozchenko died the 13 June 1986 of ARS

[@ahmadsantoso9712]

A Fun Fact: DJ Blyatman was never on the list.

[@sassycraftysagittarius.]

Did you do a video on vladimir savenkov yet ?I think I spelled his name right I hope so

[@PlaneEra-yu9rk]

Where do you find Savenkov picture ?!

[@GelloMania]

how did you get the photo of Viktor Proskurykov? photos of him are hard to find

[@Krahamus]

My grandma told me story that the day of explosion happened she was at farmhouse and at evening was going home by bus, the threes looked strange for spring time, some of them had brown leaves, some looked normal, the next day all came back to being green and normal color, only later she realized that it was due to radation, also she passed away due to skin cancer but who knows its because of radiation or something else, btw it took place in Lithuanian quite some distance, its just shows the scale of radioactivity.

[@postminchoppa]

Absolute heros

[@onufrypafnucy]

I have a question, what happened to rest of the firefighters? only seven died?

[@elric5371]

The rest survived, 186 responded, 86 extinguished fires, 54 were hospitalised, 20 developed Acute radiation syndrome, and 6 died. The 7th was Telyatnikov who was added for honorary reasons.

[@onufrypafnucy]

@@elric5371 but there was high radiation, on turbine block roof, on the ground and in other places

[@elric5371]

@@onufrypafnucy yes there was, but as I said only 20 developed ARS. Most of them received comparatively low doses.

[@bayo_yayo4317]

hydrogen plant was for the generator*

[@politicstoday8002]

imagine that khodemchuk is still rotting down there....

[@ahmadsantoso9712]

One day he would come back to life from the rubbles and become Blyatman's villain.

[@mathildewesendonck7225]

I‘m sure that there is nothing left of him. Due to the heat most of the rubble that collapsed above him has melted. And thousands of tons of sand and concrete had been dropped on top of him/the reactor, the equivalent of the weight of six times the Titanic. R.I.P. Khodemchuk 😢

[@bevinboulder5039]

What about those regular people from the "Bridge of Death" that all died? Don't they count?

[@HuNgerforrock]

There isn't any evidence of that happening, that is assumedly just an urban legend

[@Krahamus]

There was no such thing as a bridge of death it was a fictional thing made to look more dramatic.

[@radonsider9692]

Bridge of death is not real

[@soylentgreenb]

They do count, but they died of car accidents. That's why it was called the bridge of death.

[@fuciledisedano8625]

Beautiful

[@thatchernobylguy2915]

Thank you!