I was born in Ukraine, 1971. Parents - Soviet "intelligentsia": mother was a high school teacher, father - medical doctor in the military. By the time it happened, we lived near one of the strategic nuclear missile site deep in Siberia. Every year, during the summer school break we used to go to Ukraine, where we spent most of vocation. It should have been the same in 1986, but Chernobyl happened. Official info reiterated that there is nothing to worry about, unless you are in the vicinity of reactor itself. But we all had learned to read between the lines and my farther used his military channels to find out EXACTLY what kind of catastrophe was taking place. He had some info from KGB guys themselves. However, he was reassured that Kiev and certain parts of Ukraine was free of the nuclear fallout and the level of the radioactivity was within normal urban level. He was also clearly warned where NOT TO GO under any circumstances: North-West of Ukraine and big part of Belarus was a heavy fall-out zone. They also mentioned some European countries. Needless to say, that nobody else was talking about this on TV. We made a decision not to change our plans for the summer, but keep in mind those warnings.Each of us had DKP-50A - dosimeter that measures the exposure dose of gamma radiation. We checked the data afterwards and all measures were withing normal limits or less. I remember though, that it was restricted to collect mushrooms or wild berries in the forests anywhere in Ukraine. Any dusty environment was considered dangerous. All water wells were sealed with plastic etc etc
Mini series exceeded my expectations. Authors put quite an effort to correctly depict intricate details of this catastrophe. As other reviewers already mentioned, I had noticed so far ( 3 episodes) only minor discrepancies in the overall image of the life in the USSR. People, behavior, political relations etc. Example of such a minuscule inaccuracy - officials, let along common folks, didn't use "comrade" as frequently as it might seems from the episodes. It was very formal, official form of addressing. Usually, after first meeting, they addressed each other by the first AND middle name. In the military it was different - "comrade" + rank (as in modern Russia, BTW). I'm looking forward to see the rest.
I am thankful to the authors and actors for their job.
My deep bow to those who lost their lives and health, saving millions of lives.
EVERYONE should watch this show and see for himself the kind of horror that can be unleashed in the nuclear war.
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