Chernobyl

A Chernobyl survivor and New York Times bestselling author delivers the definitive history of the worst nuclear accident in history. 

“The most comprehensive and convincing history of Chernobyl yet to appear in English.” ―Financial Times 

On the morning of April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. The outburst put the region on the brink of nuclear annihilation and contaminated over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy follows the stories of the firefighters, scientists, engineers, workers, soldiers, and policemen who found themselves caught in a nuclear Armageddon and succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible: extinguishing the inferno and putting the reactor to sleep. As Plokhy convincingly argues, the disaster was not just the result of a turbine test gone wrong, but also the failure of the Soviet political system and the prioritization of economic development over humanitarian concern. Chernobyl is the definitive history of the nuclear disaster, but also an urgent call to action by one of its survivors.

• "A masterful account of how the USSR's bureaucratic dysfunction, censorship, and impossible economic targets produced the disaster and hindered the response."
  New York Review of Books
• "Gripping, meticulously researched…Mr. Plokhy mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system and the arrogance of its apparatchiks. But the fact that he grew up fewer than 500 kilometers south of Chernobyl probably accounts for his vividly empathetic descriptions of the people on the ground -- the plant managers and employees, the firefighters, soldiers and others -- who risked their lives to contain the damage."
  Wall Street Journal
• "The bare outline of the Chernobyl fire and the Soviet silence have been well covered...Mr. Plokhy, who directs the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard, adds much detail to the...construction that caused the failure, and the false assignment of blame to operating engineers…His most telling disclosures deal with how the Soviet subterfuges played a major role in Ukraine's decision to become an independent nation once the Soviet Union disintegrated."
  Washington Times
• "A lucid account of how the Soviet mania for nuclear power combined with endemic shoddiness in the industrial sector and near-paranoid habits of state secrecy led to the 1986 disaster...The most comprehensive and convincing history of Chernobyl yet to appear in English."
  Financial Times
• "The first comprehensive history of the Chernobyl disaster...here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves."
  Julie McDowall, Times
• "A work of deep scholarship and powerful stroytelling. Plokhy is the master of the telling detail."
  Victory Sebestyen, Sunday Times
• "Compelling...Plokhy's well-paced narrative plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl control room on the fateful night when human frailty and design flaws combined to such devastating effect."
  Guardian
• "Plokhy's book...sustains a tone of thoughtful observation that is neither too detached nor heavily invested in a particular agenda... He delves deeper into the political fallout of Chernobyl, which played a significant role in the break-up of the Soviet Union."
  New Statesman
• "Haunting...Plokhy's...voice is humane and inflected with nostalgia. His Chernobyl and Prypiat emerge vividly—as perhaps all disaster—afflicted cities must-as shattered idylls."
  Spectator
• "Plokhy recounts the circumstances of the accident and its aftermath in painstaking detail...He tells the story with great assurance and style...A fierce and at times personal indictment of the ideology, bureaucracy and overconfidence of the Soviet system, as well as a strident condemnation of all modern states that continue to pursue military or economic objectives to the detriment of their populations and the environment."
  Literary Review
• "A history of the nuclear disaster that set precedents -- and standards -- for future mishaps of the kind...Plokhy...concludes that even in the wake of Chernobyl, we have not gotten much better at containing meltdowns...A thoughtful study of catastrophe, unintended consequences, and, likely, nuclear calamities to come."
  Kirkus Reviews
• "The most comprehensive exploration of the events that led to the Chernobyl disaster.... Engrossing."
  Library Journal
• "Plokhy...is a brilliant interpreter not only of the events themselves but of their long-term historical significance...As moving as it is painstakingly researched, this book is a tour de force and a cracking read."
  Observer
• "Historian Serhii Plokhy's deft, richly detailed account draws on newly opened archives and weaves in stories of players such as Chernobyl director Viktor Briukhanov."
  Nature
• "Plokhy casts his lyrical eye on a vast amount of detail, giving readers a sense of dramatic urgency that makes his account difficult to put down.... The further Chernobyl recedes in time, Plokhy writes, the more it fades into myth. His book, however, should help bring us back to reality."
  Kristen Iversen, American Scholar
• "Serhii Plokhy provides the definitive story of the Chernobyl crisis and its aftermath, skillfully covering all angles from the scientific story, the humanitarian and economic costs of the clean-up, the manner in which the explosion forced Gorbachev to jump-start his perestroika reforms, and the igniting of Ukrainian nationalism."
  Andrew Wilson, University College London
• "Serhii Plokhy has produced a highly readable account of the Chernobyl disaster and its political impact. It is destined to be the authoritative account for years to come."
  
  John Herbst, Eurasia Center
• "Serhii Plokhy is uniquely qualified to tell this tragic story: he writes not only as a major historian, but also as someone who was living with his family under the cloud of the Chernobyl disaster at the time. The result is as riveting as a novel."
  
  Mary Elise Sarotte, author of The Collapse
• "Chernobyl lays out in devastating detail how the Soviets were vastly unprepared, in ways small and large, for what became the worst disaster in the history of nuclear energy...A riveting account...Is it possible that the world might someday forget the horrors that unfolded there three decades ago? Books like Plokhy's should help ensure that that doesn't happen."
  Henry Fountain, Undark
• "An insightful and important book, that often reads like a good thriller, and that exposes the danger of mixing powerful technology with irresponsible politics."
  
  Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens