Hacker News Reader

I still remember watching the Chernobyl accident report in TV with my family when I was a boy. We started crying spontaneously when it was explained that many volunteers knew they were working knowing they would not survive (when the situation was still out of control). It was terrible.

View on HN

From my reading, the volunteers were not actually informed of the true danger they faced. In multiple instances either no warning was given or the truth hidden, saying that the background levels were harmless when in fact they simply had no equipment that could measure high enough.

In addition, I'm skeptical that the biorobots and liquidators were true volunteers. If the Soviet government comes to your house and hands you three sets of clothing saying "we need volunteers", you didn't really have a choice.

I have watched a lot of footage and read many accounts of Liquidators who thought they really were fulfilling their duty to the Motherland.

I suppose it could all be a Soviet psyop, but to me it's convincing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com