Half Lives: Valery Khodemchuk, the First Victim of Chernobyl
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- Опубликовано: 1 дек 2023
- Half Lives is a series dedicated to telling the stories of the people who were involved in history's nuclear accidents, from their birth, to the mishap, and their life following. These lives are often mixed up with lies, rumors and controversies. This is their true story.
Thirty-one people are listed as direct deaths of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in 1986. They were not buried together; many, like Akimov and Toptunov, were buried in Moscow. Others, like Aleksandr Lelechenko, were given to their families - he was buried in Poltava, a small village in Ukraine. But one of them was never given an official burial; his body remains trapped under metres of concrete and rubble, within a vast structure known as the Sarcophagus. His name was Valery Khodemchuk, and he was the first victim of Chernobyl.
I hope you enjoy the video.
Eternal memory to Valery Khodemchuk (1951-1986)
May he rest in peace.
I’m half Ukrainian, my family fled during the Russian revolution so, before this accident. But my heart still twists every time. Thank you for this respectful and thorough video.
I never knew workers from Three Mile Island went to pay respect 😭. I'm old enough to remember both accidents in real time, and TMI probably released less radiation in 1979 than Chernobyl Unit 1 did in '82. Thanks for teaching me something new!
I didn't know that part either. I was around for both, but too young to remember TMI, and have since learned that it was actually far less serious than it could have been, and was rather blown out of proportion in the press. I get the feeling that that's mostly a result of American media, as the British Windscale accident was a larger release of radiation that affected more people, but is largely unknown to the American public.
I think it's lovely that the TMI workers went to Chernobyl in memory of one of their own and in spite of Cold War politics.
@thing_under_the_stairs I was only 9 during TMI, but the news talked about it every night for what seemed like months. I remember asking my dad to explain what a nuclear core meltdown was.
As an American, that moves me very much. Eternal memory to Valery!
What happend in unit 1? I never heard that story.
@oliwiercupa8243 Sept 9, 1982, a partial meltdown where the streets of Pripyat were cleaned with soapy foam and everyone just covered it up. Just Google "Chernobyl accident 1982."
the show chernobyl really puts a somewhat different light on diatlov
Yeah it paints a picture of him denying the reactor core being exposed but in reality I think he was one of the first to confirm it. It also painted Valery Legasov as a hero and from what I’ve researched he was far from that.
They needed a villain, and he was already painted as one after his trial, so they went with it. Paul Ritter did a great job playing that role, but I'm afraid that the real person behind the character that's been created of Dyatlov - the man who loved poetry, and held a deep, silent grief for his lost child - has been lost behind the screen role.
It is a shame that most documentaries and the HBO show paint Dyatlov and Bryukhanov as villains and completely incompetent people, when in fact they were highly intelligent and hardworking individuals.
@@Redsfanatic32 im sure he and others did a little denying about the core exploding at first but after a while it actually dawning on them that it really happened and it was more the higher ups that continued the denying of facts to save face because soviet union and well russia at present want to present itself as this flawless state
@@ObscureNemesis well gotta remember people were extremely compartmentalized back then you were to shut up and do your job not ask questions and deffinetly not to question the state the depiction of the KGB is perfectly depicted
Love it! Tragic tales, but told with respect, and well researched!
Respectful up until he stacked 6 pictures of titanic on top of poor Valera
Given what happened to his colleagues, in the days following the explosion, his death was likely the most merciful of them all.
I always felt this too. His exit was quite quick compared to the suffering of those who went through the burn and cell ☠️ phase.
These videos are the ones I love the most here. Going into the background of their life, and what exactly happened on the night. So many get a lot of this information wrong so it’s awesome to find what really happened
Absolutely. you can find technical information all over (though finding *accurate* technical info might be more difficult), but these videos show the humanity of the tragedy. I'm feeling so much for Valery Khodemchuk's mother and her losses right now! She raised a very good son.
@@thing_under_the_stairs that’s what I mean. There is information everywhere on the disaster but accurate information is difficult
I've thought about the end of his life, but never knew anything more about him. Thank you for the information about who Valery Khodemchuk was in life.
“he enlisted in the army like his father” - this phrase sounds like if Hodemchuk wasn’t required to serve in the army but rather joined voluntarily. The fact is that every male reaching age of 18 in USSR was due for mandatory conscription service.
I also believe he joined because he grew up without a father, never got to talk to his father, about war and army stories, so he went to experience some himself. I also grew up without my father (well, mostly, my mother moved out with me when I was 6), and I am quite sad about it. The life of an entire human, so many stories to be shared, and lessons to be learned. Writing this I just realized how much I really love my father, despite him not being perfect, but nobody is.
@@williamkanehe may wanted to serve in the army for the reasons you described, but he had no option not to any way. I don’t think word “joined” really applies to a conscript service draft.
@@awesomedn I agree!
I was waiting for this, it was worth it.
I’m constantly impressed with the quality of your content and how it’s always so respectful to those involved. I’ve always been fascinated by Chernobyl and have seen many documentaries over the years and it amazes me how much misinformation there is out there and how the stories of many individuals are completely overlooked (the same can be said of the Tokaimura accident). Keep up the good work.
As an American, that moves me very much. Eternal memory to Valery!
Dotto
Recently found your youtube channel, really good and informative.
You really outdid yourself again with this new video. Very well, and respectfully done. Most people know Khodemchuk was the first victim of the accident, but very little is ever shown about his life. I, for one, learned a couple of new things. Like the TMI operators going there, and paying their respect at the memorial. And all we can hope and pray for, is that his death really was as instanteneous as we think it was. Вечная Память to all those who sacrificed and died in this accident.
Whenever I hear Valery's story, I always think of Natalia and the rest of his family. I know it must have been very difficult for them both having no body to bury and knowing that a likely alternative could have been him dying a slow and painful death from ARS. I also remember hearing on another RUclips video that, as of 2019, Natalia was living in Kyiv while Larissa was living in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. With the current war in Ukraine and the fact that Belarus is Russia's ally, I can't help but wonder at times if Natalia is still alive and, if she is, how she, Larissa, and Oleg are fairing through this.
Your channel is truely underrated. I've been enjoying your videos a lot, keep up the good work!
I really feel bad for Valery, how his body wasn't found from the disaster and that he was buried under the wreckage. But I'm happy there's a memorial for him at the power plant for his memory.
RIP sir, there's something to be said about doing your job until the very end. I hope that nothing like this ever happens again.
Excellent video, as always
Chernobyl keeps reminding me how lucky my father was, and thus me too.
Long before I was born, my father just came back from the sea right after the explosion, he was on a fishing trawler. He had served in the Soviet army before and would have been definitely drafted as a liquidator. But men who returned from the sea at the time were not drafted, at least in the Baltics to my knowledge. He literally dodged the "bullet"... Some of his friends were drafted and only a few are alive, to be honest we don't even know actually if any of them are alive, since he has not contacted them recently.
Look at these family pictures seen in the video is surreal and sad...
So very sad and preventable. My profound hope is that his death was instantaneous as depicted. May he and all the deceased heros of Chernobyl rest in Eternal Peace!
Preventable like how? If you take into account that the control rods might have been modified (there is a video on the chanel about this) plus that the Swiss cheese model was already so far, how could this have been prevented? For him as person he was unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
@@jb5631 I wasn't referring to anything he himself could have done differently. I was referring to the reactor design and it's shortcomings.
Awesome research and footage! Thank you 😊
Another great video.
Thank You for another great video.
Thank you
Thanks a lot for this interesting video. Please keep at it
This is the best I’ve seen. Tha k you
I've been looking forward to this video since the iceberg video
Good as always
Whatever the failures that led to the accident they had some courageous people at that site.
Love your content
Collective farms were NOT meant to optimize farming. The communist government stole their lands and forced people to work them, mostly without pay. All the wealth was transferred to cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, and a couple others. If the farmers refused to work, they were executed, if they didn’t meet imposed quotas, they were either executed or sent to a gulag. They weren’t given the means to increase capacity, they were working the land by hand. I understand that’s not what this episode was about but nevertheless it’s worth mentioning.
Where in this reply is support for them not being optimized for yield?
@@markusw7833 Suffice to say, in the original implementation in the 1930s, the dual purposes of crushing the peasants and increasing grain exports were at cross purposes. Soviet collective agriculture was a lot less successful than Maoist efforts.
American college students: we need to implement this system
Hi i know that is not in the context but i have two question firts when you share picture or vidéo of the inside the reactor can you pls put in the description the URL of the video or of the picture pls and the second question is can you make video about the equepement that they use for the decontamination of Pripyat and the roof pls thanks to read this message. (Sorry for some error I use trenslate and my knowledge)
If there are any possibilities to talk about "luck" in such an event, then Khodemchuk is the "luckiest" of Chernobyl's victims.
I believe you quoted Titanic's "tonnage" (GRT), a unit having not to do with weight, in comparison to the mass of concrete used here. Her displacement is said to have been measured at 52310 tons.
Any chance of making an episode about Akimov? I’d really want to see it as the ones already made are brilliant!
This is so sad :’(
Another first rate video!
I didn’t know the TMI operators visited. I grew up near TMI but wasn’t alive then and my husband barely remembers it.
You videos are interesting and quite well done, please spend a few dollars, or pounds as the case may be, on a quality microphone; the current audio is comprehensible, but very muddy.
Whats the source of that photo at 9:40 showing the mcp hall of unit 3 and 4.
RIP.
Did he die from being crushed or from the explosion? I’ve always wondered that
Impossible to say, as his body was never recovered. The explosion could have knocked him off his feet or caused internal trauma. But the place where he was known to be only a minute before the disaster was completely crushed, so either way he was probably immediately dead. R.I.P. 😭
Conscripted not enlisted
you can say what you want but no one of you would take on the responsiblety of these people, and do what is needed
Your opinion states.
Can u do video about Belorussian part of exlusion zone?
He was a good looking man.
Watching these vintage footage and picture I cannot help but think that Socialist Soviet Union was more "liveable" than modern day liberal US. And that is tragic seeing as how my country was occupied by Soviets (not Russians) for like 50 years. By no means I am to disregard the 80-100 million deaths Communism is responsible around the world. It also has to be said that the 80s was the era of perestroika....they were no longer bashing in heads so often and less were deported to the Gulags.
I wouldn't call the khaloz/kibutz/collective-farm a 'socialist policy' I'd call them a Stalinist policy and a form of social control which was effectively a return to serfdom. The revolutionary party of the rural peasant majority, the SRs, advocated for land redistribution; carve up the old feudal estates and give every village the land and they will produce enough. But like the right-wing deviants they are Lenin and Stalin had to centralize and assume personal control of everything, and the agriculture sector never recovered from what a horrid vile catastrophe it was-- it was a defeat of socialism, if anything. And the bulsheviks (who were almost entirely from cities and urban centers) eliminated the SRs and, deigning them untrustworthy and too dumb to participate in their own governance, worked to put the peasantry back in chains quite intentionally. They didn't even have IDs until the 1970s; they were non-people. That's why everyone ended up fleeing to the cities any way they could and the countryside became totally depopulated by the time the USSR ended.
Please consider deleting the piano. Its really distracting
I’m not trying to be mean but the BGM is not even loud, plus it’s on and off. Half the time you won’t even notice it
That Chernobyl Guy has never looked this breedable ❤
What.
What are you on?
Mfer, how do you know boiler operator is simple?
That Chernobyl Guy has never looked this breedable and submissive ❤
Man, I love the music you use.
Maybe you can use something from the artist "How to Disappear Completely" in the future?
They mainly do dark ambient stuff, and have, I believe, 5 albums out already.
I suggest you to look at Mer de Revs I & II.
Thank you for your awesome videos, you are definitely a smart man, and I recommend that you get into (nuclear) engineering or physics, pays good and you seem to have an affinity for anything nuclear.
Much love,
William
And maybe some Boards of Canada as well!