#perestroika film

[spiritcc]

Why were Soviet Films in 2 episodes? Like Office Romance

sup, generally i'd say it's definitely not all All Movies but also while the issue is mostly clear, it's also kinda unclear lmao

a lot of 2 parters are television-only. episode one - news - episode two kind of structure, and a nice portion of them were new year specials aka they'd be shown on january first (eg the ordinary miracle that is frankly not festive at all). ryazanov also has a couple of tv-only two-parters, which begs the question of why were they classified as telefilms while the office romance was absolutely a full-feature film meant for cinema.

my only explanation is the production specs, since different rigs are used for widescreen vs tv-only. and as to why two-parters are allowed on a wide screen, apparently there was a nice incentive that is, by movie theaters it's classified as two films therefore bwease purchase two separate tickets :) lmao. i saw people reminisce over looking forward to going to the buffet during intermission between parts so what gives. also if i believe someone who found an alleged quote from daneliya, two-parters were classified as two films internally as well, so that the crew would get paid a double rate, i guess overtime was treated fairly.

from my observations, up until a certain year you simply wouldn't get Long movies, the longest i saw was about 1.50h ish somewhere in the 50s. 1.45h is the absolute maximum i have barely seen to begin with. somewhere in the 1960s if a movie exceeded 1.40, it'd have to add more runtime in order to be split into two. minimum runtime in that case becomes 2 hours, maximum - about 2.45h. not a fan of the latter bc from experience that runtime was virtually never justified but sure besties get that coin. then we get exceptions like war and peace and moscow-cassiopea, then some stray individual mentions seeing the musketeers (3-parter tv-only) in the theaters and it all becomes a mess.

but if everything here is correct, 2 parters in cinema are a way to accomodate runtime while giving the audience a pee break, getting coin, and giving production their coin.

[tsertsvi]

here jacks beat kings

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

My top Russian Tv-Shows

Despite this being mainly a mandarinblr, I still try to practise my other languages so here are some of the most interesting tv-shows in russian for my fellow russian-learners and speakers and anyone interested.

Kitchen - Кухня This show has several spin-offs including Hotel Eleon and Grand which I will not mention as by the end of the last spin-off there are literally no characters from the original cast and the plot slightly goes of the rails. The actual show is set a french restaurant in Moscow where Max Lavrov, who just finished his military service decided to work at. The show follows the various challenges that Max faces at his new workplace, including the foul-tempered but very talented Chef Viktor Barinov who has a drinking problem and other interesting characters. It's quite funny and heart-warming, and it's a must-watch imo.

Youth - Молодёжка A pretty standard sports series tv plot. The hockey-team "Bears" are a meh team at best, but that all changes when a former National Hockey League player turned coach shows up to make a proper team out of them. I only watched the first season because after that the plot got a tad boring for me, but as far as sports series go, pretty good.

Law of the Lawless (Not the 1964 film!) - Бригада A cult-classic staple of only 15 episodes. The plot is a bit over the place at the beginning, as opening episodes sequence is a flashback to the start of the final episode but after that it's chronological, with the first episode w english subtitles here. 4 best friends start out as youths from early 1990s to 2000s, with one returning home after finishing his army service with plans for uni and the others just starting their lives. However, the Perestroika had significantly changed their lives, so eventually the gang turns from racketeering and petty crime to slowly becoming the mafia. The opening theme is worth watching alone, but then again I'm biased.

How I became Russian - Как я стал русским This comedy show is quite dear to me, as it follows an American journalist with russian and slavic roots navigating life and work in Russia as he works on a story about life in Russia for a major newspaper back home. He's back in his homeland but as a foreigner who finds his heritage utterly confusing. This series resonates with me, as despite having a good grasp of my cultures languages and customs, I still feel disconnected from my heritage at times, and this show has been a reassuring reminder that not being 100% attuned with your heritage is okay, and that there are many different ways of re-connecting with your culture.

Closed school - Закрытая Школа I was slightly tramuatized by this show when I first watched it 4ish years ago, in part due to how unhinged and off the rails the plot slowly but surely becomes. A descent into madness. Andrei and his sister are sent to study at the Logos boarding school, but are then informed that their parents have perished. Andrei doesn't believe this, so he sets off to investigate with his new friends and investigate he does. There are also some other background shenanigans going on, but the unraveling of the schools mystery remains the main interest, including its odd passageways and deeply disturbing history. As a thriller series, it honestly deserves that title.

Here are some shows that came out more recently that I think deserve a mention.

The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt- Слова пацана кровь на осфальте I've only seen a few episodes out of the 8, but it's very Brigada-esque so far. During the mid-late 1980s when Perestroika is going on and the USSR is soon to be no more, 14 year old Andrei is trying to survive as he's constantly bullied at school and by gang-members. He makes friends with one of said gang members Marat, as he slowly descends into the world of street life. I'll finish watching this series sometime probably.

The new guy - Новенький 16-year old Max moves from his glamorous life in Moscow to a small-town Yurovsk due to his parents constant arguing, where he immediately doesn't get along with his clasmmates who think him stuck-up and start bullying him. One day Max goes missing and his classmates are the obvious suspects, as slowly but surely secrets start to emerge revealing everyone's lies. A pretty good suspense/thriller show, which covers the topics of bullying, coming of age and what it means to be an adult pretty well, despite the 4th and final season being kind of lackluster.

Central Russia's Vampires - Вампиры средней полосы Where to even begin with this show. I don't know whether I should introduce the trailer or the opening theme song mv. Basically the life of a small and unconventional vampire family living in Smolensk, presumably in central Russia, who get disturbed when bodies with distinct bite marks are found nearby. This results in the Guardians (aka the guys keeping vampires a secret and ensuring that no one acts out) taking over and investigating with the vampire leader Svyatoslav Vernidubovich given a week to find and punish the culprit. My odd plot description aside, the cast is why I adore this show. The recently turned Gen-Z wannabe blogger Zhenyok, the thousand year old grandpa Svyatoslav, the constantly annoyed Dr. Zhan Ivanovich (who is actually french and decided to hang around after Napoleon was defeated) and his ex-wife The Countess who honestly should have a spin-off show and many more characters.

Doomsday - Конец Света Satan decides to come back to Earth and start the apocalypse, for which he needs his son Dimyan who should become the Antichrist but to his dismay, Dimyan doesn't really care about world domination and money, he just wants to get married to his fiancee Galya and live happily ever after. Chaos ensues as satan tries to persuade Dimyan to join him, whilst Angel vs Demon shenanigans occur in the background. I honestly had no idea that this type of show could even be produced due to the censors and yet it was. It's kind of slightly similar to Good Omens with all the apocalypse stuff and the Angels and Demons eventually teaming up? Good Omens adjacent. Except more gritty with much darker humour. The actor who plays satan is Yuri Kolokolnikov who actually starred in game of thrones so if you're a fan of his acting, do try this show.

Alisa can't wait - Алиса не может ждать Alisa is a 15-16 (don't remember her exact age) year old girl who is going blind and she decides to do something really drastic to ensure that her life will be comfortable after she loses all sight. There's a noticeable build-up to what she's actually planning during the episodes, as her homelife is less than ideal, with her older sister stuck in an unhappy marriage and a turbulent relationship with her parents. This is one of the few shows that really left a deep impression on me but it deals with some very sensitive and potentially upsetting topics so be aware if you're giving it a go.

This list may be updated in the future, so if there are any other shows that I may have missed do share them!

[russianyoshkinaneko]

while looking through all the intl Mikus (yeah i check blogs who like/reblog me) i noticed how there are two types of Russian Miku:

- the normal one (Miku in traditional attires, stylized Miku, etc)

- the kliukva one (depressed grey-brown-blue-colored Miku in a ushanka hat)

i'd understand if the kliukva ones were all coming from either foreigners or citizens of, like, Murmansk (which is north of the Arctic Circle). or if they were a parody of all the kiukva stereotypes.

but no.

it's the middle-to-south russians who are doing it.

i saw some post where a person was like "i love post-USSR countries with their sad people, strict buildings, snowy fields". and i look out the window ― +25° weather with average buildings barely visible behind all the tall green trees and with people strolling down the street normally ― and i say "b!tch where?"

just because you're depressed or unhappy and couldn't find a purpose in your life it doesn't mean the rest of the ~146 million people are like that or that the climate on over 17m km² is always cartoonishly gloomy. there's music other than post-punk or perestroika-to-90s rock. there are films other than Zviaghincev's. there are seasons & weathers other than rainy autumns.

it's not the 90s anymore, where there was an economic, political, cultural, societal collapse. the 90s ended over 20 years ago.

if your view of Russia consists only of the kliukva imagery, then it sure doesn't come from reality. it either comes from somewhere outside the country, or from something within yourself.

[mio-nika]

Annekirche

So. Does anyone remembers my previous icon? With a neon cross? Anyone?

Something like this one

This is Lutheran church of St. Anne. Build in a 18 century as church for a German citizens of Saint Petersburg it stands as an example of a more multi-religious Russia (Buddhist temple is gorgest).

Lookin fucking nice

After the revolution it was fastly remade in a cinema. And everything was fiiine for a long time.

Perestroika hits. People are like. How about we start holding services again? Maybe? But we still be showing films. So it transforms into this church but also sometimes cinema thing. Somewhere around here shit starts hitting a fan, it gets also adopted as a night club (???) Король и Шут/Korol I Shut totally playing concerts here but not for long.

The tragedy hits. Sixth of December 2002 the fire starts and the entire building burns. The roof are destroyed, the walls are covered in soot. From this point right to the 2010s church just stays abandoned. Reconstructions starts from the facade. I will not show you it, because it's boring.

And still going on, as you can see. But the beautiful light projections and overall decorations are making it a special place.

Now it's a real Lutheran church. Worship services are held here on Sundays in both russian and english languages. It serves as a place for lectures, concerts (not rock, organ music) and just as a museum. A place to be in.

[blech]

Broken Slide, Moscow, 1982 © Boris Savelev, via Photo Espana.

When perestroika came about, dealers in the United States and Europe travelled to Moscow and Saint Petersburg in the quest for ‘authentic voices’. Secret City: Photographs of the USSR by Boris Savelev (Thames and Hudson, 1988) was the outcome of this effort and became the first monograph in the West devoted to an unofficial photographer from the now-defunct USSR. Now this exhibition is presented as a broader retrospective on Savelev up to today. It surveys the six decades in which he captured the everyday making—not only taking—photographs: from his beginnings in black and white with his Iskra 6×6 and his Leica, including his colour pictures in the 1980s with both Soviet Owarchrome and Western Kodachrome film, until his incorporation of digital technology

From Time Magazine, covering an earlier exhibition at the Michael Hoppen gallery:

Savelev, who spent his working life in the former Soviet Union as a rocket engineer, brings the same methodical eye to his photography and printing process.

Personally I like this image for its small burst of colour in a nearly monochrome landscape, done without the trickery that's usually required for that effect. His other works are well worth a look, too.

[lyledebeast]

I was thinking last night, insanely, about what The Patriot would be like if Tony Kushner wrote the script.  And then I realized he’d already done that, and he called it Angels in America.  “The cracker who wrote the Star Spangled Banner knew what he was doing.  He set the note to ‘free’ so high nobody could reach it.”

This is Belize in his conversation with Louis about America early on in Perestroika, so Jason Isaacs got to hear it a lot.  I wonder if he ever thought about this line while filming the White America Propaganda Movie.

[halucygeno]

Roadside Picnic 2017 Bulgarian edition - “Translator’s note” by Milan Asadurov.

Original title: “Бележка на преводача” Translated by: yours truly

The first Bulgarian translation of “Roadside Picnic”, created in 1982, was, naturally, based on the butchered 1980 edition from the Moscow-based publisher “Molodaya Gvardiya”*. At that time, when Bulgaria was the most loyal satellite of the Soviet Union, there simply couldn’t be any other official edition. When I wrote to Arkady Natanovich in 1981, asking him to clarify the nature of some of the Zone’s artefacts so I may better translate their jargonistic names into Bulgarian, his polite and laconic answer amounted to: “Boy, instead of fixating on the details so much, quickly get the translation to print before they stop it!” The authors were excited because this was the first time the book was published abroad.

Apropos, we tried to do the same with "Tale of the Troika" six years later. After a long struggle, I managed to dig up a xerocopy of a few issues of the Siberian magazine "Angara". That's where the "scandalous" sequel to "Monday Begins on Saturday" was published, a decision which parted the magazine’s head editor from his post. I translated "Tale..." with great pleasure, but even though the perestroika had already started, the Plovdiv-based publisher "Hristo G. Danov" couldn't reach an agreement with VUOAP** about the release of this government-sanctioned novel. (It took all the way till 1993 before it was published here.)

When the publishing house "Ciela" proposed to re-release "Roadside Picnic", I read the old translation which my Plovdivian colleagues had published three times by 1989 (!) and happily determined that it hadn't aged at all. (In no small part thanks to my editor at the time, Zdravka Petrova!)

Of course, I immediately began purging it of any meddling from the editors of "Molodaya Gvardiya". I removed unwanted additions, restored cut down passages, made it so stalkers can once again swear, drink and sleep with girls. In other words, I tried my best to recreate, in Bulgarian, the version of “...Picnic” specially prepared by Boris Natanovich for the 2003 release of their collected works. The plot remains the same; editorial interference had left it almost undamaged. Except now, readers can see the novel in its full glory and understand why Andrei Tarkovsky fell in love with it, and wanted to recreate it in his genius film “Stalker”, differently, through a different language - the language of cinema.

Milan Adasurov

Varna, September 2017.

*Молодая гвардия; Russian for “Young Guard”. In 1980, they published “Неназначенные встречи: Научно-фантастические повести“ (”Unintended meetings: Science-fiction stories”), an anthology containing “Roadside Picnic”, “Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel” and “Space Mowgli”. This was the first time Roadside Picnic had been released as a full story, rather than serialised in magazines.

**ВУОАП – Всесоюзное управление по охране авторских прав. Translates to “All-Union Administration for the Protection of Copyrights“. There’s no English acronym.

Source:

Strugatsky, A & B. (2017). Пикник край пътя (M. Asadurov, Trans.) Сиела. (Original work published 1972). ISBN: 9789542824442

https://www.ciela.com/piknik-kray-patya.html

[minimaeclectica]

Kira Muratova - El síndrome asténico (1990)

Un filme que no tiene las funciones de ser un filme: algunas veces puede ser visto como un documental, un experimento y hasta un tratado teórico sobre la imagen y sus evanescencias fílmicas. Narra en su primera parte, si se puede argumentar, la historia de una doctora que ha perdido a su esposo, totalmente fuera de sí misma por el duelo que está sufriendo, sobre un tratamiento lleno de grisura y con el blanco y negro de la cinematografía, cambiando luego al color y lo heterodoxo del filme invade la percepción con la presencia de un protagonista masculino, quien sufre de narcolepsia, aquí es precisamente donde nos invade la astenia que nos dice el título, ese peculiar síndrome sobre la perdida de la energía y la actividad, la fatiga muscular como una apatía reluctante de vivir la decadencia de nuestros tiempos. El desencanto, la melancolía y la distancia es lo que impera sobre todo el cuerpo del filme, dándoles prioridad al espacio de los objetos y los lugares abandonados, las atmósferas de la era posindustrial y las locuciones que nos alejan cada vez más de lo narrado, pero ese es su fin, inoculando un cierto estado emocional que se transmite a los espectadores, donde no importan los argumentos ni las clara alusiones políticas hacia la Perestroika en Rusia, que la prohibió de estrenarse, sobre la caída del comunismo y la occidentalización de sus más grandes miedos, son los síntomas de una debilidad presumible a raíz de las ruinas de una sociedad, evidenciando su falta de comunicación a nivel colectivo, donde les invade el letargo emocional y la enajenación de masas, como una constante despiadada del sufrimiento, la desesperación y la violencia que escriben las actitudes humanas. A ratos nos parece un filme centrado en un experimento psicoanalítico, más por sus significantes desbordados de anomalías y enfermedades de lo llamado ‘lo posmoderno’: ansiedad, estrés, narcicismo y alienación, cuyo motor es aturdir al espectador hasta llegar al tedio más extremo y disímil de su vitalidad, con la entrega de una estilización de lo dispar y la distancia de la imagen y su mero acto de replicarse a través de los seres.

[russianreader]

Leningrad 4

If you have been to Chronicles Bar [in downtown St. Petersburg], you have definitely seen the photos discussed in this film. In today’s session of “Screening the Real,” we are watching Leningrad 4, a documentary about Sergei Podgorkov and other champions of Leningrad’s unofficial photography scene during perestroika. Yuri Mikhailin spoke to the filmmaker, Dmitry Fetisov, about dramatic structure,…

[inapat16]

Underground soviet rock and punk : Serebrennikov's Leto (Part 2/4)

To start this journey around Serebrennikov work and his dedication in this new wave of the dissident movement let’s look into his movie Leto. 

Leto, which means summer in Russian, is a movie that came out in December of 2018 which stars Roman Bilyk, Irini Starshenbaum and Yoo Teo. It’s a beautiful movie in black and white that describes the situation in the Soviet Union during the late 80s. During this period, the country was going through the perestroika, which is a time when people could only listen to Occident music, and especially rock and punk music, underground. Those types of music, such as Lou Reed and David Bowie were exchanged in those underground networks. Some major groups emerged during this time. Leto describes the foundation of one of the most famous Russian rock groups, Kino with Viktor Tsoï. The movie is about this group but also the way they change the rock’n’roll industry in the Soviet Union. To do so, the whole movie is in black and white, there’s even the use of fake archive footage, and metaphoric characters as the punk or the septical, to show the story of rock. Kirill Serebrennikov wanted to do a film that has an echo of the situation in Russia in 2018: 

“Leto is a rock’n’roll story, during a hostile climate for rock music and occidental influences. Our story is based on the necessary faith to pass through this context and the recklessness of our heroes for the restrictions”. 

[ghassanrassam]

Russian films near the end of the Soviet empire..and perestroika

[natyutya]

Лариса Гузеева на съёмках фильма «щенок», 1988 год.

[igorusha]

По прозвищу Зверь, 1990

[mylittlepleasuress]

“Could One Imagine?”

Soviet film.

[green-ann]

Exactly three years have passed since the Chernobyl disaster. It was the largest nuclear power plant accident, which shocked the whole world with its scale and the consequences of which we will feel for another decade. It is known that the disaster was prevented only thanks to the courage, resourcefulness and hard work of many people. Among them was academician Valery Alekseevich Legasov– one of the main persons in the work on the elimination of the accident. Uncompromising and direct in assessing the causes of the disaster, he gained respect from Soviet and foreign experts. Our editorial board had an agreement with the academician about a meeting and a conversation on the nuclear power plant safety problems. Alas, fate had other plans. After Chernobyl, Legasov passed away under tragic circumstances. The academician's speeches, fragments of which we present below, were recorded on Central Television by the journalist Igor Menzelintsev, who knew him well, but they never appeared on the screens and were not published. But the thoughts and statements of V.A. Legasov are more than relevant, because the problem of technology safety for humans and the environment has always stood and will stand before world science.

The last time Valery Alekseevich came to television was in July 1987 - before the very last vacation in his life. Friends asked him to come to Ostankino when a multi-part documentary for the 70th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was being prepared. They wanted to include Legasov's speech in this film so that he would share his thoughts about perestroika. I immediately noticed how he had changed. The corridors of Ostankino are as long as at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A year ago, Valery Alekseevich walked through its corridors with his usual fast gait. It wasn't easy to keep up with him. But now here he was already walking with some other step. He didn't even walk, but took steps…Everything that was filmed then was not included in the film. Well-deserved and worthy academicians are often can be disgraced. I remember when the shooting came to an end and we asked him:

- Valery Alekseevich, now one more piece. No question - Tell me what's bothering you.

- Allright then.... Now... let’s go ahead…

«Quiet on the set! Action!» The recording has begun.

LEGASOV: I am most concerned about the following circumstance. Now the greatest concern is the creation of new facilities. There are often protests against the construction of a particular enterprise. Against the construction of, say, new nuclear power plants. I would like to comment on this. These new facilities that are currently being designed, being created now, they are often built on new principles, taking into account safety requirements and in this regard they pose a lesser danger than the huge infrastructure of the previously created industry, already existing, operating. And therefore, the greatest concern, as it seems to me, should be shown today about how the previously created industry – whether a chemical enterprise, nuclear, mining and metallurgical - how these old enterprises, built according to the old canons, without using today's existing safety standards, can be brought back to normal. It is much more difficult to do this than to design new ones. These enterprises work, they employ a huge number of people, they are located near our cities, where many people live, or in these cities themselves. Therefore, the problem of bringing the established industry to a normal, from the point of view of safety, is one of the most complex and most important problems that requires a special approach and special attention.

Legasov had a special approach to our problems. But there was and is a special "approach" to his approach. These shots, these words of the academician, taken in close-up, with slightly trembling lips, said with pain and bitterness, were not included in this film. As well as other unique Chernobyl footage was not included in other films. One of the plots was prepared for a popular youth TV show two days after his death. The roll of film was already on the machine. But about 30 minutes before the start, the phone rang on the director's console, and ... another material went on the air.

There was a lot of gossip about Valery Alekseevich, and far from harmless...However, if some poured mud on Legasov and still doing it, then others almost praying, because he was clearly an extraordinary person. For many, Legasov's name is inextricably connected with the concept of morality in science. For others, it is associated with the unexpectedly important topic of safety not only for nuclear power plants, but also for technical civilization as a whole.

In the summer of 1987, at the end of July, Valery Alekseevich, after being discharged the hospital, went to rest in Nida and, leaving, asked me to come for a few days and talk. Talking to Legasov is far from easy. I wanted to listen to him, and he, in his manner, strove to pass the word to the interlocutor in order to sum up later.

When I came to him, it turned out that he was back in the hospital, now in the city of Klaipeda, obviously unsuitable for his rank. It turned out that Legasov went by car to the Curonian Spit - 50 kilometers from the health resort. And when he was crossing the bay on the ferry, he got sick. Gritting his teeth, he still drove his wife and grandson to the place and surrendered to medicine which determined ... a heart attack. He was taken back by ambulance along the same highway. The hospital made another diagnosis – it turned out that he didn’t have a heart attack, but an acute attack of appendicitis. He was immediately operated on…

That's where I found him. He was walking along the gray, poor and hopeless hospital corridor, feeling exhausted and angry, with his face cut by a razor. Of course, he did not have time to take his belongings to the hospital, and, probably, the nurse couldn’t buy him any other razor, except for the creation of the “Sputnik” factory. Then I noticed to myself that even in this case, the safety of the razor turned out to be clearly consistent with modern reality…

LEGASOV: It's fashionable now to talk about the wisdom of the ancients. Historians describe cases when warring tribes, making peace with each other, broke their arrows in front of each other. Of course, destroying modern missiles is much more difficult than breaking arrows with poisoned tips. We live in a probabilistic world. By signing non-proliferation treaties, limiting nuclear weapons and promising not to use them first, we only reduce the likelihood of their use. But if we destroy missiles, a class of missiles, then we can say that the probability of using this class of missiles is zero! It will be possible to say that one hundred percent safety from missiles of this class has been achieved. (This conversation took place several months before the signing of the INF Treaty, and, of course, V.A. Legasov could not have known about the document being prepared.)

But let's imagine for a moment that humanity was able to destroy weapons. There are no weapons. And then what? Will life become completely safe? But after all, all missiles, bombs and airplanes are the product of the same technical world in which we all live today. And people built this world - the technical world - that surrounds us today, something that we used to call the technosphere, in general, in the name of solving ... safety problems. They built it in order to protect themselves from hunger, cold, to increase the comfort of their existence. And as a result, they built such a complex, energy-saturated world that it itself began to pose a danger! Technical disasters can lead to much more trouble than those natural phenomena from which a person is protected with the help of technology. It would be extremely important to realize this fact…

People today hardly realize the fact that today we live in a world in which accidents cause damage comparable to damage from tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes… We were so proud of our achievements that our pride gradually turned into self-admiration, and then into complacency. We didn't realize what destructive forces we had created ourselves, and then we didn't know what we were doing, and then… This is similar to the attitude of parents towards their children. The parent is aware of the child's dependence on himself, gently educates him and believes that it will always be like that. But the child grows up, becomes independent, and the parents do not understand this, do not consider him, believing that he is still a "sunny", and the child begins to throw out "prominences". Maybe we didn't catch the moment of a qualitative transition of security into the danger that the technosphere brought us.

LEGASOV: The causes of many modern man-made disasters, the process of their development, the consequences – all this has been repeatedly described. In my opinion, all accidents, whether it is a nuclear facility, chemical production or other equipment, develop according to the same scenario. The accident develops according to certain stages. First, there is a quantitative accumulation of errors, then - a certain initiating moment, the formation of an emergency situation, then - unforeseen actions of personnel to stabilize the situation, and the emergency process turns out to be irreversible. So this is what happened in Bhopal, and in Chernobyl…

It is not without intent that I quote here all these general words of Legasov. Like all people who have reached not only the top, but also the highest ranks, he was able to keep within the limits, to tell the truth without saying too much,– the truth that he could and should have told. When experts from all over the world had already read the report on the accident at the 4th unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant, when all radiation levels were calculated, etc., etc., our departmental censors demanded to punish the authors of the seven-hundred-page report on the Chernobyl accident prepared for the session of the IAEA experts - for disclosing state secrets…

Now there is a paradoxical situation in solving all issues related to improving the safety of existing and energy-saturated industries, as well as with the design and construction of new ones. There are really two opposing forces, so to speak, two "clans" - "silent ones" and "noisy ones".

The "silent ones" include those who, by the nature of their work, are engaged in the design, construction and operation of various technological facilities: these are industrial ministries, design organizations, sectorial science.

The "noisy ones" - is, of course, the public concerned about the state and development of our industry, the safety of the world of technology for humans and the environment.

And these two "clans" cannot come to an agreement with each other. The first ones either cannot, or do not want, or are not at all capable of explaining their positions, their actions. The second, seeing this, gets even more excited, more and more often demand to close or not build one or another facility.

Nuclear power was no exception. The Chernobyl accident only added fuel to the flame. Sparks flew all over the world. Protests against the nuclear power plant have intensified. What will Legasov say about this? I'm listening to the tape again with my question: "Valery Alekseevich, when we talked about safety, technological safety, we have a slogan, God knows when and where it came from: "There should be no accident!" Everything seems to be right, everything is correct. This is how some meeting of party and economic activists at a nuclear power plant seems to be, where everyone entering the podium on behalf of apparatchiks, adjusters, dosimetrists and reactor workers yet again saying: "There can be no accident!" And if at least one of them says "An accident can happen!" - then one can be sure that a barrage of comrades’ criticism will fall on him until they completely "trample" the one who is walking out of step."

LEGASOV: The slogan "There can be no accident!" - it's like a quote from Lenin, taken out of context and stuck in wherever it is convenient and profitable. And our real, complete position should be as follows: “Proceeding from the fact that we live in a probabilistic world, and the very existence, the presence of one or another technological object makes an accident more or less likely, we (hereinafter – physicists, theorists, reactor engineers, designers, operators, etc.) have done everything in our power, and therefore there should not be an accident, since the probability of such is negligible. And if it does happen for some absolutely incredible reason, then we know how to protect the population and the surrounding area from dangerous effects». That's how it should have been said and done! After all, when a person began to fight for safety, he proceeded from the fact that the danger really exists. We, having proclaimed that there should not be an accident, seem to have forgotten that there could be an accident! The issue of safety for humans and the environment of an industrial, technological facility is a question of acceptability and unacceptability of risk… Where and when is risk needed?

Alas, instead of a serious, reasoned, scientific conversation with their people, experts only occasionally condescend to such an argument: "Honestly, it won't explode anymore!" No, in the era of democratization and glasnost, this argument no longer works. We need a dialogue between the people and specialists, which wouldn’t contain only "solemn statements".

Raised by the system and being in the clan of the "silent", V.A. Legasov after Chernobyl nevertheless said: "An accident can happen!"

LEGASOV: In general, of course, in a good way, this story should have been written. Such unpreparedness! Such carelessness! Such a fright. Like the forty-first year. Exactly. Forty-first year. Yes, even worse. With the same "Brest", with the same courage, with the same desperation, but also with the same unpreparedness...

(…)

...My voice is on the tape again:

"Valery Alekseevich, why nod at Bhopal or Three Mile Island? Let me return, so to speak, to the our native’s country material. Don't you think that our nuclear power industry has developed against the background of the general degradation of society?" He answered without hesitation.

LEGASOV: There is also this moment. First of all, this one. Developing technology, increasing capacity, we gradually etched out the humanistic principle, just brushed it off. The same Kurchatov was a man who, in his world, in his field, was guided by the ideals and himself developed the ideals of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky. He understood what he was doing, understood all the responsibility he bore to people. But to what extent they were ready to accept this legacy, to dispose of it is a big question. Willingly or not, people began to serve not humanistic ideals – I'm talking about the development of nuclear energy now - but the system, the development of nuclear energy, technology in general.

If you ask any engineer or researcher now why he is standing at the drawing board, then probably almost everyone will answer that they need to develop some kind of a unit or mechanism. No one will think that the entire technosphere was created and should be created by man to meet his needs, improve the quality of life, for human development, and for its safety… But is this a philosophical aspect, or if we talk about more specifically, closer to the topic… Humanistic values were excluded from the process of social production. The capacities of individual facilities were being increased. The objects were replicated quantitatively. The need for more and more personnel grew, the prestige of engineering work decreased. Moral values have descended to the level of consumer values… In the broadest sense, children have not stepped further than their parents, and maybe they even have degraded in comparison with their parents…

Replication of facilities, capacity building - all this, apparently, is intended to solve the problem of security, improve the quality of life. But in fact, this replicated "humanism" results in God knows what. All these accidents, so to speak, "actions", give rise to counteractions – public statements, demands to close or not to build this or that enterprise. Such, one might say, are the demands of the "moderates". Radical "green" demand to abandon technology, call on everyone to "free grazing". It seems that both of them are naive and frivolous. And not in the form of manifestation, but essentially. Closing or abandoning the construction of an object is not the solution to all problems… Abandon the technology? How can humanity survive without it now?..

That's where I finished transcribing the recordings with Academician Legasov.

But I will add from myself. How have we let in this case that now a person measures the safety of his existence on Earth on a scale where on the side of technogenic risk Chernobyl is the extreme point?

Scientists, specialists, power engineers and nuclear experts! Take off your vow of silence, tell us, your people, about what and how you are doing. Explain how you made mistakes when choosing the construction site of the Armenian, Rivne or Crimean NPP. Prove to us that you have the professional and moral right to lead modern industry, design and build new complex productions. Explain what are the possibilities to facilitate the life of a modern person and reduce the natural, socio-economic and man-made risk of human survival. Tell us what this risk is, and we will all choose for ourselves: which risk is acceptable for us and which is not, how we live in a fast and complex technically and energy-saturated world…

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