Chernobyl: Chronicle of Difficult Weeks

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• 1987
• 0 hr 54 mins
• Documentary

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• Watchlist

A radiation detector crackles ominously as a helicopter circles the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the live-action footage shot by director Vladimir Shevchenko's crew - the first to film the results of the Chernobyl meltdown. In a televised address by Mikhail Gorbachev on 14 May 1986, the Russian leader outlines the scope of the terrible problems created by that April 26th disaster; this video then goes on to document the heroism of doctors and firemen, the evacuation of residents, the decision to produce a "sarcophagus" to cover the still-burning reactor, and the contributions made by many Soviets in the weeks following the meltdown - highlighting the ability of the Russian people to respond to this crisis. A Soviet official calls the community response an act of mass heroism and cites individual workers for their courage. The cowardice of a few - a teacher who deserted his class, an engineer who hid out in the villages - is the subject of a party meeting; offenders are expelled, not executed, since this is peacetime, although the subtitles indicate that "the people's contempt would serve as eternal punishment," while the Communist Party and Komsomol cards of those heroes who lost their lives responding to the disaster "would be displayed in our museums." The video ends with shots of Chernobyl entombed under tons of concrete and lead. The subtitles state that the heroism of some was necessary because of the thoughtlessness, irresponsibility, and bungling of others - and that the Party has waged a struggle to the end against complacency, incompetence, careerism, demagoguery, and flattery, "the true causes of the Chernobyl disaster and of others as well."