This is from a man who'd likely been at Kursk or Stalingrad or Leningrad or Moscow or the drive West into Germany. Probably a very junior officer or enlisted man at the time, and he knew exactly what good leadership required. And now Putin's refusing to learn from men just like this. History is fucking insane, guys.
I couldn’t stop laughing when he asks his comrade “why did the deputy see graphite on the roof”. Literally embodies the whole disaster - individuals who did not want to take personal responsibilities, but rather blame it on others.
The whole culture is so focused on who is at fault, that they aren't actually solving the problems, which is how this happened in the first place. They are demonstrating the behavior that caused the accident. Chernobly wasn't about nuclear power. It is a dagger aimed at the heart of Authoritanism, and why it never works.
In a capitalist country, the corporation would be blamed. In communist, the corporation is the government. The government is the people, so send *everyone* to siberia.
@@randymagnum143 In a capitalist country the corporation would be bailed out with a trillion dollar zero interest loan funded by working class taxpayers who get a quarter of their subsistence paychecks expropriated and then the loan would be forgiven and the executives of the corporation would get $200 million bonuses.
Vladimir Pikalov. Survived Stalingrad, Kursk and the battle of Moscow, and this here hell. And died of old age at 78. If you need an example of luck and leadership, here is a good one.
My great grandmother set out on foot from Ukraine to a POW camp where my (jewish) great grandfather was kept towards the end of WW2. She negotiated some sort of 'deal' with the guards (you can probably guess what that was). And came back to Russia with him after that night. He died young from disease not long after the war sadly. But she powered on as a single mom until 89 years old. She is my example of good luck, leadership, and a whole lot more. RIP Nadya.
Pikalov did it both because he was a good leader, but also because he was watching the bureaucrats pass the buck and blame everyone else. They could dismiss some grunt or specialist who came back with the results. But they could not argue when he came back with them.
@@LillyAnarkitty It was such a beautiful contrast. Being all up until that moment, we are met with nothing but lethal negligence from authority figures. In one simple line, he shows the strength of the soviet people, the state props themselves up on. Sacrifice.
@@PlaidHiker The downfall of every society is the parasitic toadies who cling to it for their own benefit and throw each other off at the first sign of trouble.
Pikalov was an absolute gigachad in real life, as well as in this film. As far as Generals go, he's a man easy to respect. He was there, in the trenches in World War II, wounded numerous times. He's seen blood, seen death, seen the most horrible things imaginable. And he does not show fear.
@@calanon534 He was an absolute gigachad. However, in real life he didn't have to drive up in a makeshift truck. Legasov did it himself in an special vehicle designed to analyze nuclear bomb test results. In real life, they already knew the core had blown up. The reason for taking those measurements was to determine whether or not the core was still critical and burning Uranium i.e. they couldn't tell if the reactor should be considered on or off. The radiation was so high, in fact, that those readings were not useful, so Legasov determined that it was not critical by comparing the ratio of Xenon to Iodine isotopes released into the environment.
@@nokander I'm not sure i understand you well, but it seems that high rate of losses in russian army of high ranked officers shows this tradition is still there. Unlike the NATO/Ukrainian army in the Russian army officers and generals are among their soldiers, on frontline and die with soldiers, and do not just send them to the other side of the Dnieper to die in vain.
Historically, Boris and his father both worked in construction and he actually did have a lot of experience with concrete. He would know what burned concrete looks like.
By this point bullshit detection had become THE primary survival skill in the soviet union. It was just a massive pile of mutually blockading petty bureaucratic kingdoms. Imagine a country run entirely by the worst kind of middle management. The bullshit was miles deep and Heracles himself would have struggled to clean it up.
Legasov was far too professional to engage in the kind of pettiness that I'd be bringing to the table. I think a good answer would have been "I've studied every nut and every bolt of one of these machines. It should be impossible for one to explode..." *Dramatic slow turn towards pillar of smoke* "...and yet it would seem you have managed the impossible."
@@genericfakename8197 Except Legasov knew exactly how the thing could explode. That's one of the big points at the trial later. There was a study and it was a known risk but the information was hidden. The reason he's not being petty is because he knows that he himself is not without blame.
It's also surprisingly fitting for a soviet functionary written by a Western scriptwriter. Soviets loved their propaganda about how many millions of tonnes of concrete their factories poured or the millions of tonnes of coal their mines produced. "I know a lot about concrete" is exactly the sort of thing a high ranking soviet bureaucrat who's never poured concrete would say and have the same effect on other white-collar soviets as pictured.
@@AClockworkWizard You could be one of the foremost experts in the world on stars without having set foot on a single one. He himself said "I may not know much about nuclear reactors", yet he was still knowledgeable enough to know that graphite was used as a neutron flux moderator in the reactor, something that the average layman would have absolutely no clue about. If he used the same level of modesty in his next sentence, for him to say "I know a lot about concrete" would suggest that he was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject.
Ingenious scene, really shows off how subtle Boris' intelligence really is. Larasov had been pushing his buttons since he met him; BUT he had been honest and sincere with him every step of the way. Here these two clowns immediately tried to throw others under the bus, followed by attempting to belittle and discredit Larasov in full view of everyone (one of Boris' few personal pet peeves). And when Boris tested them with knowledge he gleaned from Larasov, they panicked and tried to bullshit him with an excuse covering a topic he could call them on. In less than two minutes Boris figured out both of these "experts" were just party shills not worth talking to and that Larasov was a legitamite asset. Brqvo.
@@allairekoWe all noticed it, but see no reason to correct it. You know what word he meant to spell. This is UA-cam, not a class at a University. He is allowed a spelling mistake. Life will go on.
You see this in every bureaucracy, in every nation, at every level. Schools, post offices, libraries, municipal pool, police, all the way up to the top ranks of the US Military. Sure, a soldier or sailor will bear any burden or pay any price-- except public embarrassment of the institution and personal consequences for the senior "leadership."
Not every bureaucrat. But under Stalin people were shot for even imagined incompetence. It was a government system based on fear. Now you can hate government all you want (without ever understanding that the government is us) but in democracies, we tend to focus on solutions. That is until Trump’s poorly educated elect a cult leader. Like Trump. Like Stalin. Then the only goal is pleasing “the dear leader.”
The Russian Government (Putin) didn’t like the series, saying it’s anti-Russian and Blabla, when in fact it showed how brave, intelligent and patriotic many Russians acted even in a corrupt and rotten system as it was.
Which is exactly why Putin didn't like it. Putin is an old soviet who still holds a candle for the regime. He's even started "rehabilitating" Stalin something thought inconceivable even during the late soviet era.
That it was noble people working for a corrupt system that held it together as long as it did encourages those serving in the government to act like Shcherbina, not like Fomin. Or, even worse, like Pikalov. People follow leaders like Pikalov, and another credible leader is a direct threat to an authoritarian.
You have to remember that Vladimir Putin was, quite literally, IN the KGB during the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course he's not going to have fond opinions of the show.
“Then I’ll do it myself.” This shit was tough right there. Dude just told him with all the lead protection you got you it still might not work and then volunteered to do it. King shit
Pikalov also knows that if a line soldier takes the reading, those same politicians will dismiss their findings. But with his tremendous reputation they wouldn't dare dismiss him.
A real leader of men won't send another into a job that is this dangerous. He does it himself. It unfortunately cost him his life. His leadership was sorely needed in this situation and in the USSR as a whole.
i really like how the show portrayed the sacrifice a lot of soviet officials made. like in here the army man who when faced with sending one of his men on a possible suicide mission, he does it himself as to not have to send anyone else. moments like that happen quite a lot, and where in the soviet spirit at the time. for the motherland.
We couldn't even prosecute George W Bush and Dick Cheney for plunging my country the U.S into a twenty year war and yet we have suburbanites feeling vindicated by this miniseries and proclaiming their victory at a middle class that nolonger exist.
That man is General Vladimir Karpovich Pikalov, survivor of the battles of Stalingrad, Moscow and Kursk, head of the Ministry of Defense task force in the Chernobyl disaster zone, Hero of the Soviet Union and certified badass.
i love how at 0:52 legasov is looking at the reactor fall out and is probably thinking, 'fuck, everyone here right now is slowly dying' he looks back again at 1:03 like its the only thing holding his attention
well im no particle physicist but i believe if they are that close it doesn't matter because the high radiation levels are coming directly from the reactor, the wind carries radioactive particles across continents. @@Optimistas777
@@cleanerwhite9470 In modern times, the officials are bought and paid for and are nothing more than a way for some "scientists" to make billions of dollars in profit.
Love Legasov’s look at 0:51. Really subtle acting. He sees they’re downwind from the reactor fallout and he knows that everyone there, including himself, is going to get incredibly sick and most likely die very early deaths.
I may be wrong because I watched this years ago, but if I recall correctly Legasov explained that to him in their helicopter ride just moments before this scene, so he couldn't have been surprised.
He detected their bullshit and already had something prepared to challenge them on, that they wouldn't expect to have to answer, so they wouldn't be able to lie about it convincingly.
I took that little glean of surprise from Legasov as a "whoa, he was actually listening intently to everything I said" cause let's face it, if someone explained a nuclear to us then 20 minutes later we were asked questions about it, I would feel safe making a wager on there being a plethora of "doohickey", "thingamabob", "whatchamacallit" and "you know, that little freakin' deelee" in the answers lol.
1:44 I love the subtle little glean of surprise by Legasov when he realizes that Boris WAS actually listening closely to him. This was the scene where they gained some respect for one another... Boris for listening to Legasov, and Legasov for not BSing him/downplaying the severity like these clowns attempted to do right off the bat.
Remember in later scenes when talking to the KGB guy, "Trust, but verify"? Boris has some preliminary trust in Legasovs words as he had no reason to suspect bullsittery beyond the standard level of 'this person could be bullshitting me...but they should know that would be very bad for them'. Boris took the new information he gained from Legasov, and verified it by asking 'graphite is used in the core as a moderator, correct?' When they didnt try to correct him (possibly in part because a known respected nuclear scientist was standing right there) it legitimized Legasovs words. Not once (in the show, remember its romanticized) did Boris see Legasov try to pass the buck and point fingers. Even when he didnt have an answer, Legasov stated, "I dont know at this time" instead of attempt to bullshit. Then the clowns snapped Boris' trap around their own necks. Boris was perhaps the one man in all of Soviet Russia you absolutely should never attempt to bullshit when it comes to construction materials. That guy had overseen enough concrete pours across hundreds of MASSIVE Soviet projects to bury that entire plant, all 4 reactor halls, halfway to hell. And leave enough left over for a nice monument in their place. As seen with the boron call, he had the clout to pick up a phone and get unreasonable amounts of materials delivered as quick as possible, and for them to keep coming. Boris knows concrete. The clowns should have known that, the fact they didnt was very bad for them....
1:23 This is the moment Boris tips towards Valery. Shcherbina sees Legasov get asked a question he doesn't know the answer to, and he sees him just say he doesn't know. Earlier in the committee meeting, when Gorbachev challenged him for basing all his conclusions off the description of graphite, Shcherbina saw again that Legasov didn't try to bluff or BS. Meanwhile these two chuckleheads met him claiming they've already know who's "accountable" even though the building is still literally on fire behind them.
Very interesting contrast between the bootlicking officials who refuse to take responsibility and the military officer who actually has the power to put the responsibility on someone else through authority and chain of command but decides to face the danger himself. If only everybody in this tragedy was as straightforward and brave as he.
He also knew that if it was as bad as he thought it was, He was going to have to order his men in there. He wasn't going to order his men to do anything he wouldn't do himself. 2:51
@@717pixels9In reality, it wasn't a track, it was a special vehicle with inbuilt led shielding and a high range dosimeter. And Legasov was there with Pikalov.
Do you know anything about Russian history? People like ones you call boot lickers were taken behind a building and shot for even imagined incompetence. Of course they were going to try to blame others.
@@pakman184 For me the toughest thing to get over was everyone speaking english. I really would prefer to watch Russian speakers with subtitles so it feels more authentic. Unfortunately most audiences would rather see what are supposed to be Russians speaking English with a Russian accent, even if its completely nonsensical.
I cant wholeheartedly agree... The visuals are good, the acting is good, but it falls far from the truth... Dyatlov wasnt a piece of shit, nor a rude bastard who forced men into a terrible situation... Nobody was responsible personally in that whole situation... The whole damn thing was a massive mistake only possible due to cover ups of important technical data... The series is most enjoyable when you don`t know much about what happened, but if you take a good look at the facts and biographies of everyone involved, everyone there was pretty much an unlucky s.o.b. who found himself or herself in the worst man made disaster that came as a result of not being told what everyone in there was supposed to have been told... As said, amazing series, but quite disgraceful in its depiction of people who were honorable, kind, generous and noble, while praising others who fit the same description, just because they needed someone to show as guilty to keep the drama up... I think that they should have showed everyone truthfully and showed them getting fucked over by the government selectively, which is what happened, rather than depicting some as heroes and others as scum when all people that worked there or were related to the plant were as heroic and noble as one could hope to be when shit hits the fan... All the best...
One piece of subtext in this scene that isn't often noted is Legasov's line, "I'm not prepared to explain it at this time." Not "I don't know", not "You're right, it doesn't make any sense, yet here we stand", instead "I'm not prepared to explain it at this time". Because, although we don't learn it until later in the series, he already has an idea of what might have gone wrong. The bureaucrats don't notice this subtext, but Boris clocks it immediately and decides to press them further.
It is used in religious debates all the time. Proof by contradiction requires careful use of proposition logic and a mathematical understanding of the subject mattee. It should stay rarely used, because most people don't know how to use it. Just because you can show that two doesn't equal three doesn't prove that two equals four.
"I may not know much about nuclear reactors, but I know a lot about concrete" - Not seen Chernobyl but I couldn't help but hear that line in Richard Ridings' voice in my head.
What a show. I see a clip and I want to watch the whole thing again. It's weird but people think a good story must be somehow unpredictable, but in my experience that's not true at all. I know exactly what happens in the Chernobyl series, but I watch it and rewatch it. A good story is a good story even when you know what's about to happen. No enjoyment is lost; knowing doesn't matter. Good stories are experienced and you can experience a good story as many times as you like.
I have been to the city, and am russian. There is a lot in the show they get wrong. They do it for Hollywood. I do recommend if you ever get a chance go visit the city Pripyat. I have, and it is what the world will look like when we are all gone. This scene is my favorite and is shows a true hero
I think this scene does a lot to point to the contradiction between the ideals of the USSR vs the practices that played out to rot it from the inside. We start with two bureaucrats talking about who is accountable for this while just trying to pass the buck and save their own skin representing the actuality of the systems in place. Meanwhile the man who volunteers himself to go in with the decimeter seemingly represents what would be the selflessness required of a system such as this.
Yeah and apparently not much else has changed in Russia. It's still just a collection of selfish power hungry savages leading the country into the dark ages.
I'm willing to bet that the general's men would follow him into Hell. There is no more loyal a soldier than one whose commander steps up and says 'That's dangerous, so I'll do it myself.'
There was a big problem in WWII bomber raids with 20% of crews claiming mechanical or medical issues and aborting their run without having to risk getting shot down. General Curtis LeMay was outraged and said he'd now be in the lead aircraft on every single run, and that any crew that didn't go over the target would be court-martialed. The abort rate dropped to almost nothing overnight.
People like him were literally the reason the Nazis failed to take Stalingrad. A leader worth following, he was awarded as a hero for his role in Chernobyl
I let out a chuckle when he jumps directly on point and asks them about the graphite instead of asking about the lies those 2 were spewing to divert his attention.😂
Pikalov was one of the most upstanding individuals that ever stepped foot onto that facility. Knowing full well the danger of the situation, he took extreme ownership and did it himself instead of allowing one of people he is responsible for to go through. I admire his mentality. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 Vladimir Pikalov, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov are, in my opinion, the four individuals that had the biggest positive impacts on containing this disaster.
It was a mix of this, plus him listening to the bureaucrats go back and forth throwing jabs at Legasov and deflecting the blame. They would surely dismiss one of his subordinates if they sent them, but if he himself went, they'd HAVE to listen.
Honestly, they should have all gotten Heroes of the Soviet Union medals and medals from the UN (if they did them). Men saved all of Europe and Russia from nuclear devastation.
Quoting a Bible verse about someone who was a filthy Communist in a regime that was as explicitly anti-Christian as the Soviet Union is just perverse 🤦♂️
@@cgallegos2106 They should have had special medals made just for them. Hero of the Soviet Union really didn't mean much other than the benefits that came with it, as far as recognition goes. They gave out that award like candy.
@@christosdeschaine9444 Oh I know, it lost its value under every Premier since it became more and more politicized (like the Presidential Medal of Freedom which has great achievers then it has political hacks or the occasional rare poet).
that general understands the possible dangers of what the professor says, and knows he may die, so doesnt safrifice his men. in the next scene when he explains its 15,000 i think he also knew since he was that close that hes a walking dead man
He also knew that if a simple soldier where to be send and read 15000 Röntgen everyone would say: "That is impossible, he must have made a mistake with the measurement" or just ignore them. But if it's a General, a WW2 war-hero, and the Commander of the 'Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence of the Russian Armed Forces' they have to take it seriously.
@@MrPumpkinsss He knew there was no other option but to sacrifice himself for the truth. A man so loyal to his ideals that he unwittingly helped dismantle his nation's government. He's possibly the most based person to ever have lived.
hell of a show. it was eerie and creepy, you keep expecting there to be a monster, and there is one. you just can't see it, hear it or smell it and it's killing the all the same as if it was some horribly mutated monstrosity. actually it's killing them in an even more horrible way than being eaten or attacked.
Pikalov is what we call in the service a true believer. He did what was right and what was needed his entire for the people. Not because of the party not for his own advancement but because he really believed that his service mattered.
Him and the firefighters. If their after-the-fact testimonies are to be believed, many of them did (unlike what the show implies) understand that something serious had happened and that they were getting serious radiation poisoning. Some of them describe feelings like tasting metal and feeling like needles were pricking their cheeks. But they did their duty, and if they hadn't done it, the fires might have spread and caused enough destruction to make Reactor 3 have a meltdown (though almost certainly not an explosion like Reactor 4).
When Pikalov says "then I'll do it myself" the reactions from the others are telling. The two plant managers look ashamed, Legasov looks surprised and Shcherbina looks relieved and saddened.
It’s a Mi-8 but the variant is odd. It has the rounded windows of earlier ones while having a cabin that seems similar to the Mi-8VIP variant which had square windows
Love the expression Pikalov gives (at 1:55) as Bryukhanov and Fomin try to deny the graphite issue and shift around blame in the typical bureacrat fashion, such a short thing, yet it adds a lot - and also adds to why he would take on the task of getting the dosimeter to the fire himself, to make sure none of these people could argue with the results
The general is Vladimir Pikalov. "He commanded the Chemical Troops of the USSR from 1968 to 1988." Wikipedia... Wounded 3 times in WW2. This man was not just somebody with whom you can argue, when he told he will measure personally their reaction was out of fear...
You know that bit in the next episode where the three brave engineers are sent in, in the dark, to find and open the valves to drain the water so the thermal explosion doesn't happen? And the Geiger counter one of them is carrying is turned on, starting off pretty crackly and steadily increases in a terrifying way as the only noise in the scene until its more or less a solid wave of sound? I honestly feel you can play the exact same track over much of this sequences and have it simply be Boris's *bullshit detector* as these two try to feed him lies.
That moment before he asks why he saw graphite on the roof. It's like the weight of the future is written on his face and this was the point of "are we going to continue with the bullshit and risk the planet, or should we maybe take this seriously now??"
As someone in an admittedly low ranking management position, I made a point of traveling with my staff and doing on site work as the pandemic went on when they were doing the same. If I’m telling them it’s safe enough and I’m not doing it, that sends a clear message. Pikalov is showing, by example, that the soldiers were still expected to do their jobs even with the risk.
He also knew no-one would *dare* question his findings. He was a hero even before he did this, surviving the battlesof Stalingrad, Kursk and Moscow. The man was basically a living legend. Better for him to go and report back, then risk one of his men being over-ruled.
My favorite thing about this scene was the General was a whole POV that entire time. In the background not saying anything, you just assume the scene's about Legasov's conscientiousness VS Boris' pragmatism VS the bureaucrats' politicking. But then in 2 short sentences, the old soldier at the end of his service makes himself very plain, having listened to each of them dutifully.
Watching this again, I realize that Legasov absolutely *can" explain how an RBMK reactor explodes - he just doesn't, because revealing what he knows would put him in serious trouble.
Boris was questioning and thinking from the start the problem was he was questioning and thinking about the wrong person. Boris is a part of and is used to the Soviet system of politics where half of everything or more is fake and useless nonsense and passing the buck. They used to have a term for this in Russia "the big lie". Boris thinks Legasov is lying to try and get some attention, fame, and clout with the party because Boris has seen almost nothing but that his entire political career. And because Marxism is inherently distrustful of what it deems to be the elite as part of the bourgeoisie. Most people with higher education were distrusted. Boris thinks Legasov sees this as his "time to shine" when the reality is Legasov sees it as his personally painful but necessary burden and wants nothing more than to be done with it and feel people are safe by being done with it.
1:35 This is the exact moment where Boris realizes that Legasov is the smart one from the group, that despite his reservations about him, he finds what he told him in the helicopter to be much more credible than with these two buffoons are cooking up.
The real tragedy of the whole thing was that the RBMK reactor did NOT fail. It was operating completely safe. Until the safety protocols were totally ignored by Dyatlov. In effect, it was forced to explode.
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs A reactor is a machine. Consider a car, airplane, chainsaw, etc... They all hold potential danger. However, any of them can (and will) be deadly if one refuses to follow the rules. Planes crash every year due to operator error. Follow the rules and they are safe. Dyatlov broke at least five to eight of the set in stone, never, EVER do this! Each violation compounded the previous one.
In the actual historical records, Dyatlov has since been given a lot more respect in recent years. He was accused of a lot of things that have since been shown to be false, it seems like it was "useful" to scapegoat him at the time.
@@rickhibdon11The manner of the failure mode is important. That a car can crash isn't the right comparison. It would be more akin to "if you press the accelator while the car is not in gear, it explodes." A reactor exploding shouldn't even be a possible *failure* mode, much like my car should not be capable of exploding even in an accident.
@@Alxnick And a catalytic converter can explode if you don't make sure your vehicle is up to safety standards, like ensuring your cooling is working properly. There are millions of "impossible" failure modes that shouldn't exist, but all it takes is an idiot who doesn't read the manual.
They haven't even contained the disaster, or even understood it - but are ready to point fingers immediately. Describes leadership perfectly, regardless of government or corporate.
I love how he takes a moment, senses their bullshit, then asks them "Why did I see graphite on the roof?" when just in the scene prior he seemed to not even believe it himself. He caught them completely off guard.
You can see that Pikalov understood immediately that the two bureaucrats were bulshitting when he told about the dosimeter and looked directly at Legasov instead of them.
Something about this conversation makes Boris feel like, two feet taller than everyone else. I'm not sure if its the cinematography, or just Skarsgard's bearing, but I love it.
This is the ideal I aspire to as a team lead. It may not be possible to always take the plunge myself but I shall lead by example and give my team members confidence in me and thus, themselves.
I love the subtle facial expressions on Boris when Legasov says "I'm not prepared to explain it 'at this time'", Boris is able to understand that Legasov truly thinks the reactor has exploded (in that he's not trying to sell a story he doesn't believe in truthfully) and that he's confident he will actually be able to explain why in the future. This is immediately followed by a scene where Nikolai and Viktor start thrashing him by attacking his character, and Legasov simply answers with stern silence, and Boris sees through the plant managers defensive bullshit/trashing and understands that Legasov is willing to let his actions speak in place of his words.
One of the best scenes of the series. Immediately cuts past the BS and proves they're either lying or don't know what they're talking about with one intelligent question plus subject matter knowledge on a theoretically unrelated field.
Picking up specialised information on the fly and immediately sending it to battle, like Scherbina does here, is the absolute pinnacle of of crisis management skills, and is extremely rare.
The moment that worm said, "Maybe you saw burned concrete..." the conversation was effectively over. The man that had traveled with Boris from Moscow had actively risked pissing him off (including countermanding an order in Boris' face) solely in an effort to try to emphasize the seriousness of the problem and try to fix it. Whereas these two had kissed his ass, derisively tried to throw Legasov under the bus without a second thought, and finally tried to bullshit Boris about HIS FIELD OF EXPERTISE. All to avoid blame rather than addressing the problem. Getting the radiation reading was just honoring party protocol of making things official. Boris already knew the only scientist on that field he could trust he had flown in with.
Jump to 2:04 for the line!
Thank you king
I think you missed the correct timestamp. This is what everyone is looking for:
@2:40
A F*cking Boss!
Ok cool. So happy to be in line! Whooooo
Why the f can't you pin the movie name. Is this so hard????? 😮😮😮😮
@@ashokan2812 what movie?
2:25 The moment, 3 competent people recognized each other and dismissed 2 clowns.
Full Throttle?
Literally
Nice observation
Reminds me of the old expression/joke:
"Quiet! While the adults are talking."
Dismissed to mean kicked out of the window?
'Then I'll do it myself' is a hell of a line
Yeah and the two at 2:45 realizing "Oh, so that's what it's like to have balls"
Instant tears when I heard that
@@HellionRexAnd the instant realization that they won't be able to argue against the findings.
A grunt would have been dismissed
This is from a man who'd likely been at Kursk or Stalingrad or Leningrad or Moscow or the drive West into Germany. Probably a very junior officer or enlisted man at the time, and he knew exactly what good leadership required.
And now Putin's refusing to learn from men just like this. History is fucking insane, guys.
He is a good actor. I think he also played the admiral in 'the last jedi'. Stood out to me. Would gladly see more of his work
I couldn’t stop laughing when he asks his comrade “why did the deputy see graphite on the roof”. Literally embodies the whole disaster - individuals who did not want to take personal responsibilities, but rather blame it on others.
The whole culture is so focused on who is at fault, that they aren't actually solving the problems, which is how this happened in the first place. They are demonstrating the behavior that caused the accident.
Chernobly wasn't about nuclear power. It is a dagger aimed at the heart of Authoritanism, and why it never works.
In a capitalist country, the corporation would be blamed. In communist, the corporation is the government. The government is the people, so send *everyone* to siberia.
@@randymagnum143 In a capitalist country the corporation would be bailed out with a trillion dollar zero interest loan funded by working class taxpayers who get a quarter of their subsistence paychecks expropriated and then the loan would be forgiven and the executives of the corporation would get $200 million bonuses.
@@BR-re7oz sounds more like cronyism. Send them to Siberia.
@@swordarmstudios6052this isn’t an issue with authoritarianism, it’s an issue with the lasting imprint of Stalin and the roots of the USSR
Vladimir Pikalov. Survived Stalingrad, Kursk and the battle of Moscow, and this here hell. And died of old age at 78. If you need an example of luck and leadership, here is a good one.
But he went blind from the exposure to the radiation. 😢
I’m surprised the good general could walk with those massive brass balls
@@MMccloudwell that's how he survived, they provided significant radiation shielding
My great grandmother set out on foot from Ukraine to a POW camp where my (jewish) great grandfather was kept towards the end of WW2.
She negotiated some sort of 'deal' with the guards (you can probably guess what that was). And came back to Russia with him after that night.
He died young from disease not long after the war sadly. But she powered on as a single mom until 89 years old.
She is my example of good luck, leadership, and a whole lot more. RIP Nadya.
No he didn't. Noone survived Kursk.
Pikalov did it both because he was a good leader, but also because he was watching the bureaucrats pass the buck and blame everyone else. They could dismiss some grunt or specialist who came back with the results. But they could not argue when he came back with them.
“All this constant bull shit means I have to do everything myself”-Pikalov
He’s also making a statement. The other leaders were being cowards and he showed them how to take responsibility.
@@LillyAnarkitty It was such a beautiful contrast. Being all up until that moment, we are met with nothing but lethal negligence from authority figures. In one simple line, he shows the strength of the soviet people, the state props themselves up on.
Sacrifice.
@@PlaidHiker The downfall of every society is the parasitic toadies who cling to it for their own benefit and throw each other off at the first sign of trouble.
@@PlaidHiker Strength of the soviet people :DD so the cannon fodder losers who die for the "dignity" of their overlord masters? You're full of shit
Pikalov demonstrates the honor of a true soldier. Even when surrounded by idiots he does what is needed.
Leadership, knowing when to send your men and when to take the mission in your own hands.
Pikalov was an absolute gigachad in real life, as well as in this film. As far as Generals go, he's a man easy to respect. He was there, in the trenches in World War II, wounded numerous times. He's seen blood, seen death, seen the most horrible things imaginable. And he does not show fear.
@@calanon534 He was an absolute gigachad. However, in real life he didn't have to drive up in a makeshift truck. Legasov did it himself in an special vehicle designed to analyze nuclear bomb test results. In real life, they already knew the core had blown up. The reason for taking those measurements was to determine whether or not the core was still critical and burning Uranium i.e. they couldn't tell if the reactor should be considered on or off. The radiation was so high, in fact, that those readings were not useful, so Legasov determined that it was not critical by comparing the ratio of Xenon to Iodine isotopes released into the environment.
A true Soviet hero! So much more moral backbone than what passes on for soldiers these days in that country.
@@nokander I'm not sure i understand you well, but it seems that high rate of losses in russian army of high ranked officers shows this tradition is still there. Unlike the NATO/Ukrainian army in the Russian army officers and generals are among their soldiers, on frontline and die with soldiers, and do not just send them to the other side of the Dnieper to die in vain.
Boris: "Ah, there you made a mistake. I may not know much about all this scientific stuff, but my bullshit detector is the finest in the Soviet Union"
Historically, Boris and his father both worked in construction and he actually did have a lot of experience with concrete. He would know what burned concrete looks like.
He had to wait for the high range BS detector to arrive.
@@JWK1101 The other one maxes out at 3.6 dookies.
@@alexiuscastrum To add to that he was a war veteran and probably saw all kinds of damage to concrete.
By this point bullshit detection had become THE primary survival skill in the soviet union. It was just a massive pile of mutually blockading petty bureaucratic kingdoms. Imagine a country run entirely by the worst kind of middle management. The bullshit was miles deep and Heracles himself would have struggled to clean it up.
“Please explain how an RBMK reactor explodes.”
“Lies. That’s how an RBMK reactor explodes.”
“Oh.”
"I don't know" *points to reactor* "You tell me"
@@justinferrell5369*gestures towards the general direction of where the explosion occurred*
Legasov was far too professional to engage in the kind of pettiness that I'd be bringing to the table. I think a good answer would have been "I've studied every nut and every bolt of one of these machines. It should be impossible for one to explode..." *Dramatic slow turn towards pillar of smoke* "...and yet it would seem you have managed the impossible."
"HAMMOND YOU BLITHERING IDIOT!" @@genericfakename8197
@@genericfakename8197 Except Legasov knew exactly how the thing could explode. That's one of the big points at the trial later. There was a study and it was a known risk but the information was hidden. The reason he's not being petty is because he knows that he himself is not without blame.
Everybody gangster till Baron Harkonnen shows up in his helicopter.
"If someone doesn't come up with an answer soon, I'll start levitating."
Ornithopter was in the workshop
My Reactor, My Chernobyl, My Graphite
He got bored of the spice, so he turned to uranium.
@@urban7514”Bring me that floating fat man!!”
Dude deserves an award for making "I know a lot about concrete" sound like the most badass boast imaginable
It's also surprisingly fitting for a soviet functionary written by a Western scriptwriter. Soviets loved their propaganda about how many millions of tonnes of concrete their factories poured or the millions of tonnes of coal their mines produced. "I know a lot about concrete" is exactly the sort of thing a high ranking soviet bureaucrat who's never poured concrete would say and have the same effect on other white-collar soviets as pictured.
@@AClockworkWizard You could be one of the foremost experts in the world on stars without having set foot on a single one. He himself said "I may not know much about nuclear reactors", yet he was still knowledgeable enough to know that graphite was used as a neutron flux moderator in the reactor, something that the average layman would have absolutely no clue about. If he used the same level of modesty in his next sentence, for him to say "I know a lot about concrete" would suggest that he was one of the foremost experts in the world on the subject.
Got himself a Golden Globe for this I believe. Fantastic show.
As a water veteran in Stalingrad im sure he has seen enough burned concrete to know better@@AClockworkWizard
@@AClockworkWizard Well, Felon Musk knows more about manufacturing than anyone alive, and he's never built anything.
Ingenious scene, really shows off how subtle Boris' intelligence really is.
Larasov had been pushing his buttons since he met him; BUT he had been honest and sincere with him every step of the way.
Here these two clowns immediately tried to throw others under the bus, followed by attempting to belittle and discredit Larasov in full view of everyone (one of Boris' few personal pet peeves). And when Boris tested them with knowledge he gleaned from Larasov, they panicked and tried to bullshit him with an excuse covering a topic he could call them on.
In less than two minutes Boris figured out both of these "experts" were just party shills not worth talking to and that Larasov was a legitamite asset.
Brqvo.
Very excellent summary. I only have one correction: His name is Legasov, not Larasov.
They remind me a few of my managers, they want to show how right they are without even knowing what they are saying.
*Laracroft@@MarqFJA87
Legasov* you mean?
@@allairekoWe all noticed it, but see no reason to correct it. You know what word he meant to spell. This is UA-cam, not a class at a University. He is allowed a spelling mistake. Life will go on.
I love how the first priority of the bureaucrat is to cover his own a** and provide a list of those that are ‘accountable’.
You see this in every bureaucracy, in every nation, at every level. Schools, post offices, libraries, municipal pool, police, all the way up to the top ranks of the US Military. Sure, a soldier or sailor will bear any burden or pay any price-- except public embarrassment of the institution and personal consequences for the senior "leadership."
As if the person in charge isn't ultimately responsible.
@@gromm93 "First rule of leadership: EVERYTHING is your fault." - Hopper, A Bug's Life.
Exactly how any manager and executive of a huge corporation acts.
Not every bureaucrat. But under Stalin people were shot for even imagined incompetence. It was a government system based on fear. Now you can hate government all you want (without ever understanding that the government is us) but in democracies, we tend to focus on solutions. That is until Trump’s poorly educated elect a cult leader. Like Trump. Like Stalin. Then the only goal is pleasing “the dear leader.”
The Russian Government (Putin) didn’t like the series, saying it’s anti-Russian and Blabla, when in fact it showed how brave, intelligent and patriotic many Russians acted even in a corrupt and rotten system as it was.
Which is exactly why Putin didn't like it. Putin is an old soviet who still holds a candle for the regime. He's even started "rehabilitating" Stalin something thought inconceivable even during the late soviet era.
That it was noble people working for a corrupt system that held it together as long as it did encourages those serving in the government to act like Shcherbina, not like Fomin.
Or, even worse, like Pikalov. People follow leaders like Pikalov, and another credible leader is a direct threat to an authoritarian.
You have to remember that Vladimir Putin was, quite literally, IN the KGB during the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course he's not going to have fond opinions of the show.
@@louiscypher4186 He never watched it in first place. Like he watches Western movies or shows
It's a shame Putin didn't get sent to the roof of the reactor building to report back.
“Then I’ll do it myself.” This shit was tough right there. Dude just told him with all the lead protection you got you it still might not work and then volunteered to do it. King shit
Pikalov also knows that if a line soldier takes the reading, those same politicians will dismiss their findings. But with his tremendous reputation they wouldn't dare dismiss him.
The lead wasn't there to protect Pikolov from the reactor, but to protect it from him.
A real leader of men won't send another into a job that is this dangerous. He does it himself. It unfortunately cost him his life. His leadership was sorely needed in this situation and in the USSR as a whole.
@@DanielMcGillis-f3w Wdym cost him his life? He lived to 73. He somehow survived this exposure.
@@epoch8150: Because he's was the Soviet that Churck Norris feared meeting in a movie.
Amongst all that went wrong, we should be grateful there were some who displayed remarkable courage. May they be remembered.
They were still filthy Communists
i really like how the show portrayed the sacrifice a lot of soviet officials made. like in here the army man who when faced with sending one of his men on a possible suicide mission, he does it himself as to not have to send anyone else. moments like that happen quite a lot, and where in the soviet spirit at the time. for the motherland.
We couldn't even prosecute George W Bush and Dick Cheney for plunging my country the U.S into a twenty year war and yet we have suburbanites feeling vindicated by this miniseries and proclaiming their victory at a middle class that nolonger exist.
@@h.l.malazan5782 found the terrorist sympathizer
@@h.l.malazan5782 lol what?
Lagasov casually looking over at the smoke trail billowing out and immediately knowing that it is spewing radioactive nuclides all over the place.
He was checking wind direction. You did not want to be under that plume; he knew that better than anyone there. Anyone still alive, anyway.
@@alexc4300 He also did not want it going over the nearby city, which was his main concern.
“I’ll do it myself.” One of the best depictions of leadership I have ever seen.
That man is General Vladimir Karpovich Pikalov, survivor of the battles of Stalingrad, Moscow and Kursk, head of the Ministry of Defense task force in the Chernobyl disaster zone, Hero of the Soviet Union and certified badass.
i love how at 0:52 legasov is looking at the reactor fall out and is probably thinking, 'fuck, everyone here right now is slowly dying' he looks back again at 1:03 like its the only thing holding his attention
why he didn't invite everyone to go to the other side where there's no downwind?
@@Optimistas777when you're in Soviet Russia, a humble scientist can't just tell a bunch of officials where to go even if he's saving their lives
well im no particle physicist but i believe if they are that close it doesn't matter because the high radiation levels are coming directly from the reactor, the wind carries radioactive particles across continents. @@Optimistas777
@@nuggetsaltshaker9520 Even in modern time, scientists are still having problems convincing officials to do anything 😂
@@cleanerwhite9470 In modern times, the officials are bought and paid for and are nothing more than a way for some "scientists" to make billions of dollars in profit.
2 cowardly bureaucrats a brave military man a very concerned scientist and a man who senses something is amiss. A great scene
Concrete expert
Love Legasov’s look at 0:51. Really subtle acting. He sees they’re downwind from the reactor fallout and he knows that everyone there, including himself, is going to get incredibly sick and most likely die very early deaths.
Looks like a concerning glance to me, not some kinda divine premonition of his fate in a few years.
@@Xfacta12482 lmao why do you think he has the face of concern? It's not divine premonition that he knew about the dangerous side effects.
@@Xfacta12482 Do you think that divine premonition is required to know how nuclear fallout works?
@@donvito159 He looks concerned over the situation, not predicting wind gust direction for the next several weeks.
why he didn't invite everyone to go to the other side where there's no downwind?
1:44 Legasov realizes Scherbina is not a totally inept bureaucrat.
This is when Scherbina begins to respect and trust Legasov's expertise. The start of what would become a true friendship.
Tsherbina was a dog of the communist party, but he was fair and a good leader.
I may be wrong because I watched this years ago, but if I recall correctly Legasov explained that to him in their helicopter ride just moments before this scene, so he couldn't have been surprised.
He detected their bullshit and already had something prepared to challenge them on, that they wouldn't expect to have to answer, so they wouldn't be able to lie about it convincingly.
I took that little glean of surprise from Legasov as a "whoa, he was actually listening intently to everything I said" cause let's face it, if someone explained a nuclear to us then 20 minutes later we were asked questions about it, I would feel safe making a wager on there being a plethora of "doohickey", "thingamabob", "whatchamacallit" and "you know, that little freakin' deelee" in the answers lol.
1:44 I love the subtle little glean of surprise by Legasov when he realizes that Boris WAS actually listening closely to him. This was the scene where they gained some respect for one another... Boris for listening to Legasov, and Legasov for not BSing him/downplaying the severity like these clowns attempted to do right off the bat.
Remember in later scenes when talking to the KGB guy, "Trust, but verify"? Boris has some preliminary trust in Legasovs words as he had no reason to suspect bullsittery beyond the standard level of 'this person could be bullshitting me...but they should know that would be very bad for them'.
Boris took the new information he gained from Legasov, and verified it by asking 'graphite is used in the core as a moderator, correct?' When they didnt try to correct him (possibly in part because a known respected nuclear scientist was standing right there) it legitimized Legasovs words. Not once (in the show, remember its romanticized) did Boris see Legasov try to pass the buck and point fingers. Even when he didnt have an answer, Legasov stated, "I dont know at this time" instead of attempt to bullshit. Then the clowns snapped Boris' trap around their own necks. Boris was perhaps the one man in all of Soviet Russia you absolutely should never attempt to bullshit when it comes to construction materials. That guy had overseen enough concrete pours across hundreds of MASSIVE Soviet projects to bury that entire plant, all 4 reactor halls, halfway to hell. And leave enough left over for a nice monument in their place. As seen with the boron call, he had the clout to pick up a phone and get unreasonable amounts of materials delivered as quick as possible, and for them to keep coming. Boris knows concrete. The clowns should have known that, the fact they didnt was very bad for them....
"I know a lot about concrete, you should see the massive arena I built on Geidi Prime."
1:23 This is the moment Boris tips towards Valery. Shcherbina sees Legasov get asked a question he doesn't know the answer to, and he sees him just say he doesn't know. Earlier in the committee meeting, when Gorbachev challenged him for basing all his conclusions off the description of graphite, Shcherbina saw again that Legasov didn't try to bluff or BS. Meanwhile these two chuckleheads met him claiming they've already know who's "accountable" even though the building is still literally on fire behind them.
Very interesting contrast between the bootlicking officials who refuse to take responsibility and the military officer who actually has the power to put the responsibility on someone else through authority and chain of command but decides to face the danger himself. If only everybody in this tragedy was as straightforward and brave as he.
He also knew that if it was as bad as he thought it was, He was going to have to order his men in there.
He wasn't going to order his men to do anything he wouldn't do himself. 2:51
It was based on the real thing by the way. The officer really drove the dosimeter in a led-covered truck.
And he went on to live a very long life IIRC. His death was totally unrelated to radiation. Died in 2003 born in 1924. Hard to kill!@@717pixels9
@@717pixels9In reality, it wasn't a track, it was a special vehicle with inbuilt led shielding and a high range dosimeter. And Legasov was there with Pikalov.
Do you know anything about Russian history? People like ones you call boot lickers were taken behind a building and shot for even imagined incompetence. Of course they were going to try to blame others.
2:43 The ultimate hero.
One of the finest series ever produced. The script, cast, acting, sets and storytelling are superb.
agree 100%
The only thing that really botched was the history and framing, which is a rather dark blot on whats supposed to be a historical piece.
how so?@@pakman184
@@pakman184 For me the toughest thing to get over was everyone speaking english. I really would prefer to watch Russian speakers with subtitles so it feels more authentic. Unfortunately most audiences would rather see what are supposed to be Russians speaking English with a Russian accent, even if its completely nonsensical.
I cant wholeheartedly agree... The visuals are good, the acting is good, but it falls far from the truth... Dyatlov wasnt a piece of shit, nor a rude bastard who forced men into a terrible situation... Nobody was responsible personally in that whole situation... The whole damn thing was a massive mistake only possible due to cover ups of important technical data... The series is most enjoyable when you don`t know much about what happened, but if you take a good look at the facts and biographies of everyone involved, everyone there was pretty much an unlucky s.o.b. who found himself or herself in the worst man made disaster that came as a result of not being told what everyone in there was supposed to have been told... As said, amazing series, but quite disgraceful in its depiction of people who were honorable, kind, generous and noble, while praising others who fit the same description, just because they needed someone to show as guilty to keep the drama up... I think that they should have showed everyone truthfully and showed them getting fucked over by the government selectively, which is what happened, rather than depicting some as heroes and others as scum when all people that worked there or were related to the plant were as heroic and noble as one could hope to be when shit hits the fan...
All the best...
General Piklov. You can tell Scherbina respects the Man more than his rank. And he should.
"Then I will do it myself." True leader, respect.
I love this scene for all the subtext. No one really wants to believe the core exploded yet no one wants to go near it either.
One piece of subtext in this scene that isn't often noted is Legasov's line, "I'm not prepared to explain it at this time." Not "I don't know", not "You're right, it doesn't make any sense, yet here we stand", instead "I'm not prepared to explain it at this time". Because, although we don't learn it until later in the series, he already has an idea of what might have gone wrong. The bureaucrats don't notice this subtext, but Boris clocks it immediately and decides to press them further.
Proof by contradiction. So very well used in mathematics, so rarely used in real life. Shcherbina's logic was brilliant in this scene.
It is used in religious debates all the time.
Proof by contradiction requires careful use of proposition logic and a mathematical understanding of the subject mattee. It should stay rarely used, because most people don't know how to use it. Just because you can show that two doesn't equal three doesn't prove that two equals four.
@@adorp I know lol. That's why I said it's rarely used in real life, because mathematical rigor is not common.
"I may not know much about nuclear reactors, but I know a lot about concrete" - Not seen Chernobyl but I couldn't help but hear that line in Richard Ridings' voice in my head.
What a show. I see a clip and I want to watch the whole thing again. It's weird but people think a good story must be somehow unpredictable, but in my experience that's not true at all. I know exactly what happens in the Chernobyl series, but I watch it and rewatch it. A good story is a good story even when you know what's about to happen. No enjoyment is lost; knowing doesn't matter. Good stories are experienced and you can experience a good story as many times as you like.
Are you a journalist?
@@AdhvaithSane No, why?
I thought exactly the same after seeing this 😂
You can thank Craig Mazin, had this been produced any different way, it may not have the same rewatchability.
I have been to the city, and am russian. There is a lot in the show they get wrong. They do it for Hollywood.
I do recommend if you ever get a chance go visit the city Pripyat. I have, and it is what the world will look like when we are all gone. This scene is my favorite and is shows a true hero
I think this scene does a lot to point to the contradiction between the ideals of the USSR vs the practices that played out to rot it from the inside. We start with two bureaucrats talking about who is accountable for this while just trying to pass the buck and save their own skin representing the actuality of the systems in place. Meanwhile the man who volunteers himself to go in with the decimeter seemingly represents what would be the selflessness required of a system such as this.
Yeah and apparently not much else has changed in Russia. It's still just a collection of selfish power hungry savages leading the country into the dark ages.
Decimeter is one tenth of a meter, you mean a dosimeter
@@filipbitala2624 the more you know! Tyvm
The man willing to sacrifice himself is why the men looking to pass the buck prosper, unfortunately.
I watched this entire series while doing 7 weeks of beam radiation treatment to my chest and neck. Fun times.
What an immersive experience!
For your sake, I hope that radiation did its job? Hope whatever it is has been fucked right out of you, and you're feeling better now.
You say entire series like it was 600 hours or so.
@@ennead322You say entire like you think it has to mean a large number.
I'ts cool because you get to truly understand what those people are feeling.
The scene where Legasov got a little validation, Boris became a protagonist, and Pikilov got his brass clackers.
I'm willing to bet that the general's men would follow him into Hell. There is no more loyal a soldier than one whose commander steps up and says 'That's dangerous, so I'll do it myself.'
They would follow him into Hell ... and conquer it!
They did. If there was a slice of hell on earth, it was Chernobyl during this crisis.
There was a big problem in WWII bomber raids with 20% of crews claiming mechanical or medical issues and aborting their run without having to risk getting shot down. General Curtis LeMay was outraged and said he'd now be in the lead aircraft on every single run, and that any crew that didn't go over the target would be court-martialed. The abort rate dropped to almost nothing overnight.
People like him were literally the reason the Nazis failed to take Stalingrad. A leader worth following, he was awarded as a hero for his role in Chernobyl
Some people understand you don't lead from the top, you lead from the front.
Boris paid attention to everything.
01:38 The moment bureaucrat Boris became a bro
I let out a chuckle when he jumps directly on point and asks them about the graphite instead of asking about the lies those 2 were spewing to divert his attention.😂
Not my joke but - The lead wasn't to shield Pikalov from the reactor, it was to shield the reactor from Pikalov.
Pikalov was one of the most upstanding individuals that ever stepped foot onto that facility. Knowing full well the danger of the situation, he took extreme ownership and did it himself instead of allowing one of people he is responsible for to go through. I admire his mentality. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Vladimir Pikalov, Alexei Ananenko, Valeri Bespalov, and Boris Baranov are, in my opinion, the four individuals that had the biggest positive impacts on containing this disaster.
It was a mix of this, plus him listening to the bureaucrats go back and forth throwing jabs at Legasov and deflecting the blame. They would surely dismiss one of his subordinates if they sent them, but if he himself went, they'd HAVE to listen.
Honestly, they should have all gotten Heroes of the Soviet Union medals and medals from the UN (if they did them). Men saved all of Europe and Russia from nuclear devastation.
Quoting a Bible verse about someone who was a filthy Communist in a regime that was as explicitly anti-Christian as the Soviet Union is just perverse 🤦♂️
@@cgallegos2106 They should have had special medals made just for them. Hero of the Soviet Union really didn't mean much other than the benefits that came with it, as far as recognition goes. They gave out that award like candy.
@@christosdeschaine9444 Oh I know, it lost its value under every Premier since it became more and more politicized (like the Presidential Medal of Freedom which has great achievers then it has political hacks or the occasional rare poet).
that general understands the possible dangers of what the professor says, and knows he may die, so doesnt safrifice his men. in the next scene when he explains its 15,000 i think he also knew since he was that close that hes a walking dead man
Aye. That's a general who cares for his men.
He also knew that if a simple soldier where to be send and read 15000 Röntgen everyone would say: "That is impossible, he must have made a mistake with the measurement" or just ignore them.
But if it's a General, a WW2 war-hero, and the Commander of the 'Troops of Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence of the Russian Armed Forces' they have to take it seriously.
@@MrPumpkinsss He knew there was no other option but to sacrifice himself for the truth. A man so loyal to his ideals that he unwittingly helped dismantle his nation's government. He's possibly the most based person to ever have lived.
He died in 2003 so walking dead is a bit much
that "dead man" walked for another 17 years XD XD XD
hell of a show. it was eerie and creepy, you keep expecting there to be a monster, and there is one. you just can't see it, hear it or smell it and it's killing the all the same as if it was some horribly mutated monstrosity. actually it's killing them in an even more horrible way than being eaten or attacked.
The worst kind of monster.
If you can see it, you know you are dead.
I haven't watched it yet, for these same reasons. Too eerie and creepy
Pikalov is what we call in the service a true believer. He did what was right and what was needed his entire for the people. Not because of the party not for his own advancement but because he really believed that his service mattered.
Him and the firefighters. If their after-the-fact testimonies are to be believed, many of them did (unlike what the show implies) understand that something serious had happened and that they were getting serious radiation poisoning. Some of them describe feelings like tasting metal and feeling like needles were pricking their cheeks. But they did their duty, and if they hadn't done it, the fires might have spread and caused enough destruction to make Reactor 3 have a meltdown (though almost certainly not an explosion like Reactor 4).
Pikalov, the man with lead balls. He didn't even need the shielding XD
"No lead will be necessary. I will wrap myself up with my balls."
Stellan Skarsgård is truly a fabulous actor. Harris is no slouch either, they casted this series perfectly.
When Pikalov says "then I'll do it myself" the reactions from the others are telling. The two plant managers look ashamed, Legasov looks surprised and Shcherbina looks relieved and saddened.
I've seen this scene probably like 50 times. I'm incapable of hearing the "I'll do it myself" line without whooping like I'm at a football game.
Grow up manchild
I get goosebumps everytime i see a cut from this show. The music, the raw emotion, chills.
"Then i'll do it myself" is the far more powerfull line.
was going to post that. won't put his men in danger
Great scene. But can someone tell me the model of aircraft on 0:06?
Mil Mi-8
It’s a Mi-8 but the variant is odd. It has the rounded windows of earlier ones while having a cabin that seems similar to the Mi-8VIP variant which had square windows
Badass
@@im_flatI think a similar aircraft mi27 is in my nearby Air Force station, rotting away
It’s called a ligma 308
Love the expression Pikalov gives (at 1:55) as Bryukhanov and Fomin try to deny the graphite issue and shift around blame in the typical bureacrat fashion, such a short thing, yet it adds a lot - and also adds to why he would take on the task of getting the dosimeter to the fire himself, to make sure none of these people could argue with the results
he's like "oh FFS"
The rising funnel of black smoke in the background adds a subtle element of horror. And Legasov furtively glancing back at it made my skin crawl.
The general is Vladimir Pikalov. "He commanded the Chemical Troops of the USSR from 1968 to 1988." Wikipedia... Wounded 3 times in WW2. This man was not just somebody with whom you can argue, when he told he will measure personally their reaction was out of fear...
"Why did I see graphite on the roof" is the best most striking comment and moment in the entire show .
You know that bit in the next episode where the three brave engineers are sent in, in the dark, to find and open the valves to drain the water so the thermal explosion doesn't happen? And the Geiger counter one of them is carrying is turned on, starting off pretty crackly and steadily increases in a terrifying way as the only noise in the scene until its more or less a solid wave of sound?
I honestly feel you can play the exact same track over much of this sequences and have it simply be Boris's *bullshit detector* as these two try to feed him lies.
Pikalov isn't scared of radiation. Radiation is scared of Pikalov.
I love the impact when Scherbina starts throwing around technical jargon that none of them thought he understood.
That moment before he asks why he saw graphite on the roof. It's like the weight of the future is written on his face and this was the point of "are we going to continue with the bullshit and risk the planet, or should we maybe take this seriously now??"
As someone in an admittedly low ranking management position, I made a point of traveling with my staff and doing on site work as the pandemic went on when they were doing the same.
If I’m telling them it’s safe enough and I’m not doing it, that sends a clear message.
Pikalov is showing, by example, that the soldiers were still expected to do their jobs even with the risk.
He also knew no-one would *dare* question his findings. He was a hero even before he did this, surviving the battlesof Stalingrad, Kursk and Moscow. The man was basically a living legend. Better for him to go and report back, then risk one of his men being over-ruled.
"then i'll do it myself"...yeah..., that is very , very rare in the higher ranks.
Pikalov: "Well, you can't grow concrete."
Scherbina: "Yeah, you can."
*awkward stare*
1:38 it was at this moment that the audience realised Boris was, in fact, a bro.
My favorite thing about this scene was the General was a whole POV that entire time. In the background not saying anything, you just assume the scene's about Legasov's conscientiousness VS Boris' pragmatism VS the bureaucrats' politicking. But then in 2 short sentences, the old soldier at the end of his service makes himself very plain, having listened to each of them dutifully.
one of my favorite scenes in a show full of fantastic scenes
Was so hoping for "I may not know much about nuclear reactors, but I know a bitch when I see one!"
The Military guy is cool af.
That’s Vladimir Pikalov, Commander of the Chemical troops at the time and he really did it.
@@TheCsaknorrisz Died on March 23rd 2003. Extra people were needed to carry his coffin due to the weight of his balls.
@@iambiggus😂 i laughed out load haha
I think the actor is also a voice actor; I'm 90% sure he's the voice of Leto from the Witcher Videogame Series.
Watching this again, I realize that Legasov absolutely *can" explain how an RBMK reactor explodes - he just doesn't, because revealing what he knows would put him in serious trouble.
"I have a list of individuals who we believe are accountable. Noticeably absent from this list: Us."
One of my favorite series of all time! Such a great cast of characters!
The moment when Boris Actually starts to question and think is a beautiful thing; the moment when you realize there is some hope for this situation.
Boris was questioning and thinking from the start the problem was he was questioning and thinking about the wrong person. Boris is a part of and is used to the Soviet system of politics where half of everything or more is fake and useless nonsense and passing the buck. They used to have a term for this in Russia "the big lie". Boris thinks Legasov is lying to try and get some attention, fame, and clout with the party because Boris has seen almost nothing but that his entire political career. And because Marxism is inherently distrustful of what it deems to be the elite as part of the bourgeoisie. Most people with higher education were distrusted. Boris thinks Legasov sees this as his "time to shine" when the reality is Legasov sees it as his personally painful but necessary burden and wants nothing more than to be done with it and feel people are safe by being done with it.
This series was so good. I don’t usually like shows like this but I was hooked from the start
1:35 This is the exact moment where Boris realizes that Legasov is the smart one from the group, that despite his reservations about him, he finds what he told him in the helicopter to be much more credible than with these two buffoons are cooking up.
They didn't even knew what happened but they already knew who did it...
The real tragedy of the whole thing was that the RBMK reactor did NOT fail. It was operating completely safe. Until the safety protocols were totally ignored by Dyatlov. In effect, it was forced to explode.
I'd argue that a nuclear reactor which can explode just from operator error in the control room is never operating safely, it just hasn't failed yet.
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs A reactor is a machine. Consider a car, airplane, chainsaw, etc... They all hold potential danger. However, any of them can (and will) be deadly if one refuses to follow the rules. Planes crash every year due to operator error. Follow the rules and they are safe. Dyatlov broke at least five to eight of the set in stone, never, EVER do this! Each violation compounded the previous one.
In the actual historical records, Dyatlov has since been given a lot more respect in recent years. He was accused of a lot of things that have since been shown to be false, it seems like it was "useful" to scapegoat him at the time.
@@rickhibdon11The manner of the failure mode is important. That a car can crash isn't the right comparison. It would be more akin to "if you press the accelator while the car is not in gear, it explodes." A reactor exploding shouldn't even be a possible *failure* mode, much like my car should not be capable of exploding even in an accident.
@@Alxnick And a catalytic converter can explode if you don't make sure your vehicle is up to safety standards, like ensuring your cooling is working properly. There are millions of "impossible" failure modes that shouldn't exist, but all it takes is an idiot who doesn't read the manual.
That “I’ll do it myself” is what real leadership looks like. Never give anyone under you influence a task you yourself would not do.
They haven't even contained the disaster, or even understood it - but are ready to point fingers immediately. Describes leadership perfectly, regardless of government or corporate.
My sand... my water... my concrete
3.6 Rontgen. Not great, not terrible.
They gave us the number they had.
Love how Scherbina immediately begins to trust Lagasov in this moment by asking the graphite question.
I love how he takes a moment, senses their bullshit, then asks them "Why did I see graphite on the roof?" when just in the scene prior he seemed to not even believe it himself. He caught them completely off guard.
You can see that Pikalov understood immediately that the two bureaucrats were bulshitting when he told about the dosimeter and looked directly at Legasov instead of them.
What a masterpiece this is . Bravo HBO
Favorite scene in the whole series, I've memorized most of this episode just to recite it back to myself whenever I want
You can see Pikalov's bs meter go off at 1:57. He knew the 2 standing next to him were full of BS and it was his duty to prove they were.
Something about this conversation makes Boris feel like, two feet taller than everyone else. I'm not sure if its the cinematography, or just Skarsgard's bearing, but I love it.
The best line in this scene is "Then I'll do it myself" What a badass
That high ranking soldier (general?) is one hell of a leader, putting himself in danger instead of one of his men. That a damn fine leader!
" Then ill do it myself " Thats a true leader.
: "Then I'll do it myself."
Balls to the wall. Hardcore. OG.
1:28 "spreading disinformation" that sounds familiar.
yep, the russians never stopped doing it
@@AClockworkWizard Go fluff your khokol bull.
This scene right here showcases just exactly why Boris is the "right man" by asking about the graphite on the roof
Pikalov: a perfect example of a real leader, and how few of them there actually are.
This is the ideal I aspire to as a team lead. It may not be possible to always take the plunge myself but I shall lead by example and give my team members confidence in me and thus, themselves.
I love the subtle facial expressions on Boris when Legasov says "I'm not prepared to explain it 'at this time'",
Boris is able to understand that Legasov truly thinks the reactor has exploded (in that he's not trying to sell a story he doesn't believe in truthfully) and that he's confident he will actually be able to explain why in the future.
This is immediately followed by a scene where Nikolai and Viktor start thrashing him by attacking his character, and Legasov simply answers with stern silence, and Boris sees through the plant managers defensive bullshit/trashing and understands that Legasov is willing to let his actions speak in place of his words.
One of the best scenes of the series. Immediately cuts past the BS and proves they're either lying or don't know what they're talking about with one intelligent question plus subject matter knowledge on a theoretically unrelated field.
“Then I’ll do it myself” - Man with absolute honour for the troops working under his command.
That's a leader right there, he wouldn't ask his subordinates to do anything he wouldn't do himself
Picking up specialised information on the fly and immediately sending it to battle, like Scherbina does here, is the absolute pinnacle of of crisis management skills, and is extremely rare.
Been looking for this one for a while. Thanks!
The moment that worm said, "Maybe you saw burned concrete..." the conversation was effectively over.
The man that had traveled with Boris from Moscow had actively risked pissing him off (including countermanding an order in Boris' face) solely in an effort to try to emphasize the seriousness of the problem and try to fix it.
Whereas these two had kissed his ass, derisively tried to throw Legasov under the bus without a second thought, and finally tried to bullshit Boris about HIS FIELD OF EXPERTISE. All to avoid blame rather than addressing the problem.
Getting the radiation reading was just honoring party protocol of making things official. Boris already knew the only scientist on that field he could trust he had flown in with.