Reddit reviews Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

> You don't understand.

No YOU don't understand. Go read a book about how the Soviets dealt with Chernobyl. Go read about their concern for the environment and their own citizens. Here, educate yourself what communism does to the environment before you start blaming all of the environmental woes on capitalism. See what the communists think about the environment not to mention the human price paid as well. Go read what the people who lived under communism witnessed and endured. That's communism for you. Everywhere you look communism just shits on the environment. But, it's capitalism's fault!

> but capitalism is the single biggest contributing factor to environmental destruction

Almost like 95% of the world is capitalist or something!

> China has the ability to direct and force itself to be more environmentally focused... and its already starting to shift in that direction.

Well, they can really only go up? Because China is so much better, with their state-controlled economy, at caring for the environment then all those 'capitalist' countries. All those shortcuts they have to take to remain competitive certainly comes at the expense of the environment. Name me a non-capitalist country that protects the environment? Venezuela? Cuba? USSR again?

You want to know what actually protects the environment? Capitalism. Ya know how there are all those companies that actually promote how sustainable their products are? Or how environmentally friendly their companies and work places are? Yeah, that's capitalism at work for you. That's the consumers saying 'I'd like the products I buy to have as minimal impact as they could' and the companies, through market forces, responding.

Humans are bad for the environment, no matter the system they live in. The ignorance to blame it solely on 'capitalism' is quite laughable. What alternative is better? Because it sure as hell ain't anything marxist.

Edit: added some links

The show is based off the accounts from various historical depictions, writings, stories, including the words from survivors themselves. Like this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Chernobyl-History-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0312425848

>Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown---from innocent citizens to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster---and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live

It is exceptionally accurate.

https://www.bustle.com/p/how-accurate-is-chernobyl-the-upcoming-hbo-miniseries-pays-so-much-attention-to-detail-17304704

>Craig Mazin, who wrote and served as executive producer for the five-part miniseries, told Deadline, “We want to be as accurate as we can be. We never changed anything to make it more dramatic or to hype it up. The last thing we wanted to do is fall in to the same trap that liars fall into." He also promised that Chernobyl is "is as close to reality as possible within five hours."

>So far, critics are generally in agreement that the showrunners have lived up to their promise. In his five-star review of the show, the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz called Chernobyl "horrifyingly accurate."

Also the show was filmed mainly in Lithuania with cast members who lived under Soviet rule. They had many people read the script before hand in order to make the tiniest details accurate - like the first scene where we see the cat eating leftover food on a regular plate.

There was no "cat food" or pet bowls and this tiny detail is one aspect of their attention to accuracy.

In Kiev they gave me an apartment. It was in a large building, where they put everyone from the atomic station. It's a big apartment, with two rooms, the kind Vasya and I had dreamed of. And I was going crazy in it!

I found a husband eventually. I told him everything—the whole truth—that I have one love, for my whole life. I told him everything. We'd meet, but I'd never invite him to my home, that's where Vasya was.

I worked in a candy shop. I'd be making cake, and tears would be rolling down my cheeks. I'm not crying, but there are tears rolling down.

I gave birth to a boy, Andrei. Andreika. My friends tried to stop me. "You can't have a baby." And the doctors tried to scare me: "Your body won't be able to handle it." Then, later—later they told me that he'd be missing an arm. His right arm. The instrument showed it. "Well, so what?" I thought. "I'll teach him to write with his left hand."

But he came out fine. A beautiful boy. He's in school now, he gets good grades. Now I have someone—I can live and breathe him. He's the light in my life. He understands everything perfectly. "Mom, if I go visit grandma for two days, will you be able to breathe?"

I won't! I fear the day I'll have to leave him. One day we're walking down the street. And I feel that I'm falling. That's when I had my first stroke. Right on the street.

"Mom, do you need some water?"

"No, just stand here next to me. Don't go anywhere." And I grabbed his arm. I don't remember what happened next. I came to in the hospital. But I grabbed him so hard that the doctors were barely able to pry my fingers open. His arm was blue for a long time.

Now we walk out of the house, he says, "Mommie, just don't grab my arm. I won't go anywhere." He's also sick: two weeks in school, two weeks at home with a doctor. That's how we live.

[She stands up, goes over to the window.]

There are many of us here. A whole street. That's what it's called—Chernobylskaya. These people worked at the station their whole lives. A lot of them still go there to work on a provisional basis, that's how they work there now, no one lives there anymore. They have bad diseases, they're invalids, but they don't leave their jobs, they're scared to even think of the reactor closing down. Who needs them now anywhere else?

Often they die. In an instant. They just drop—someone will be walking, he falls down, goes to sleep, never wakes up. He was carrying flowers for his nurse and his heart stopped. They die, but no one's really asked us. No one's asked what we've been through. What we saw. No one wants to hear about death. About what scares them.

But I was telling you about love. About my love . . .

--Lyudmilla Ignatenko, wife of deceased fireman Vasily Ignatenko. Excerpt from Voices of Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexeivich (Part 6/6)

This is the list I have right now, but I might take something off before tomorrow.

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

The Blind Watchmaker – Richard Dawkins


The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains – Nicholas Carr

Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics – John J. Mearsheimer

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster – Svetlana Alexievich

Voices from Chernobyl

Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich is an oral history, and that makes it different from every other book on the subject. (It's also the only one written by a Nobel Prize winner.) Lyudmilla Ignatenko's part in the miniseries was largely taken from her story in this book, but there are more other stories than HBO would possibly have time for.

There are several new books giving a more historical/technical account of what happened, and I haven't had time to get any of them yet. But even if you get one of those, you should read this one, too.

Read Voices From Chernobyl by Nobel Prize winning Svetlana Alexievich. Great account of what happened at Chernobyl.

I bet some twitter feminists are gonna run crazy with this, like how man are only concern about their dick, toxic masculinity or shit like that.

But these things were actually used

http://www.m1key.me/photography/chernobyl_questions_answers_2/#09

> The men working on the roof of Chernobyl would wear ordinary cheap imitation-leather booth and what they called the egg basket - a lead protection for their testicles. It's not perfect but may help, although the Chernobyl Liquidators were not considered terribly appropriate partners after the disaster, as people feared genetic disease their offspring might have. [1]
>
> https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0312425848/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0312425848&linkCode=as2&tag=blogm1keyme-21

I read this a couple of weeks ago. Life/view altering

https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Chernobyl-History-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0312425848/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481826083&sr=1-1&keywords=9780312425845

Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich

Unfortunately even the chemical warfare suits weren't the norm for many liquidators during the early months. Many of them just had long sleeves on, or only masks.

Additionally, it was rare to actually see them wearing anything like this, because the danger wasn't fully understood, and summer in the region is exceptionally hot and humid.

For further reading, I highly recommend Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana Alexievich
https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Chernobyl-History-Nuclear-Disaster/dp/0312425848#

radiation poisoning...

pages six through twenty-three

Wife of Firefighter from Chernobyl's Story

My personal favorite non-fiction books that sound incredibly boring, but are actually really interesting:

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky It's a book about salt! The history of salt, the cultural significance of salt, salt production through the ages, all about salt. It's amazing.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky It's the history of Cod! The author spends a good portion of the book talking about how Cod is both incredibly bland and tasteless, but also how western culture loves that bland fish and all of the interesting political movements for Cod.

And for a more serious topic: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich. This is multiple personal accounts of the Chernobyl disaster, all deeply interesting, and deeply sad. I'm only an episode into the Chernobyl HBO series, but I'm pretty sure that show is following some of characters from this book. It's a high quality book that I think is worth everyone's time, it doesn't go super in depth with the technology, just the human aspect.

Idiotic. Go and clean up the mess, or live nearby. Then come back and tell me how great nuclear is. Read this book, then tell me you're pissed that people are alarmed by nuclear energy.

All the bullshit, nerding around about wattage return per material/cost invested means shit when your organs are oozing out of your body and your loved ones aren't allowed to stay in the same room with you. Not only is it a false dilemma, ("we gotta risk safety to meet our consumption", or the more ridiculous "it's not bad because it's not as bad as other things"), it's the kind of retarded thinking that only intellectuals find comfort in.