Valery Legasov

Valery Alekseyevich Legasov was born on 1 September 1936 in Tula, Russian SFSR, into a family of civil workers. He attended secondary school in Kursk. These ideas were quickly quashed by the authorities. His headmaster observed that Legasov "is a grown up man, a future statesman, a talented organizer. He can be a philosopher, а historian, an engineer..." where he learned how nuclear fuel is processed, handled and disposed of. ==Personal life==

Legasov married Margarita Mikhailovna and had two children. In his personal life, he composed poetry and encouraged its publication. He often visited the theater with his wife and loved reading Russian and foreign literature, particularly the works of Yuri Bondarev. Legasov was not religious but very interested in religious history and heritage. ==Career==

For around two years, Legasov worked as an engineer at the Siberian Chemical Combine in the city of Tomsk-7, as a shift supervisor. He took this role in order to gain practical experience that would be the basis for later research. first as a junior then senior researcher, and finally as head of the laboratory. At some stage, Legasov experienced facial injuries and minor scarring as a result of chemical experimentation. From 1978 to 1983, he was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. In 1981, he became a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the Department of Physical Chemistry and Technology of Inorganic Materials. He was a member of the Science and Technology Council of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building. His colleague Yu. A. Ustynyuk said of Legasov: "His main quality, which set him sharply apart from all the great organizing scientists I knew, was his exceptional dedication to the cause. Work was the main, almost the only meaning of his life." He had been involved in work on industrial safety with the State Committee for Science and Technology, in which he had explored the risks involved in energy generation. Legasov was particularly concerned with complex systems reliant on a single operator without adequate safety systems. Legasov had the opportunity to visit nuclear power plants in the West, such as the Soviet designed Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, and was shocked at the higher safety standards, better equipment, a containment structure and superior construction. == Chernobyl disaster ==

Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23:45 a.m., releasing a massive amount of radiation and contaminating a large area. By that time, Legasov was the first deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy. Although not a reactor specialist, he became a key member of the government commission formed to investigate the causes of the disaster and to plan the mitigation of its consequences. Legasov was told he was assigned to a government commission that was looking into the accident. Upon returning from Chernobyl for the second time on 12 May, he was a changed man, suffering from severe grief and radiation sickness. disclosed to Western media some defects in the RBMK reactor design such as the positive void coefficient, as well as problems with operator training. Some details were censored by the Central Committee, including the full extent of the design flaws, Legasov noted that the operators were able to disable the reactor safety systems and stated that improvements to existing RBMK reactors were underway. The conference was a public relations triumph for the Soviets as it reassured Western governments and scientists that the disaster was being contained and that the Soviets could competently manage nuclear power in the future. == After Vienna ==

As a result of this work in Vienna, Legasov "became very popular, in Europe he was named the person of the year, he entered the top ten scientists in the world. This caused serious jealousy among his colleagues." Resistance came from the old guard, who resisted change, and among younger reformers who regarded Legasov as a relic of the previous Era of Stagnation. Legasov's health had worsened and he often made visits to Moscow Hospital 6 for long term effects of radiation exposure. where he described his involvement with the Chernobyl liquidation. He had a lengthy stay in hospital during the fall of 1987, including experiencing acute appendicitis, during which he attempted suicide. During his stay, journalist Ales Adamovich interviewed Legasov, and he expressed concerns that a similar nuclear accident could still occur. Legasov had an article on industrial safety entitled "From Today to Tomorrow" published in Pravda on 5 October 1987, but it received little interest. He gave interviews to Novy Mir and Yunost in which he changed his public stance and expressed his concern that cultural failings and Soviet science losing its way had led inevitably to nuclear disaster. After a colleague said his leadership was still needed, he said "No, you don't understand. I know that it can be difficult; you need to endure, wait it out. And here is a completely different situation – everything inside me is burned..." and on another occasion "I'm now like the mythical Midas, only he turned everything he took into gold, and as for me – everything turns into air, even worse, into a vacuum. Whatever I touch – everything is ruined: no one needs anything! And there is still so much to do!" Legasov continued his attempts to introduce reforms in academic chemistry by establishing an interdepartmental council to try to overcome stagnation in the field. This plan was rejected on 26 April 1988, the day before his death. Ustynyuk was called to Legasov's office and found him to be "extremely agitated and low-spirited" following the decision. He felt that the leadership would be split between the council and the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, saying "This will lead to disaster. I must resign." That afternoon, he briefly visited his daughter. Ustynyuk called Legasov at 22:30 on the same day saying he might still prevail with support from other top scientists that had not been consulted on the decision. == Death ==

On 27 April 1988, the day after the second anniversary of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident and one day before he was due to release the outcomes of the investigation into the causes of the disaster, (though some sources say inside his apartment, others in his office). He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Legasov was 51 years old. By the time of his death, Legasov had been exposed to 150 rem (1.5 Sv) of radiation, which was far above safe levels. Legasov's daughter commented, "It was not an emotional breakdown, it was a deliberate, thoroughly considered act." Ustynyuk emphasized the role of the harassment of Legasov by other scientific leaders in their resistance to organizational reform. Boris Shcherbina said of him: "Valery was too great, I loved him more than all the people I knew, he gave all of himself to work, to Chernobyl. He burnt out." Journalists Vladimir Gubarev and Yuriy Shcherbak claim that his suicide was a conscious attempt to draw attention to the lack of nuclear safety in the Soviet Union. == Aftermath ==

As a national hero at the time of his death, Some in the scientific community were still displeased by Legasov and his legacy. A former colleague of Legasov said "There is no need to idealize Legasov. ... He is no better or worse than any manager of this rank, and he followed the accepted rules of the game, moving up the career and scientific ladder... he took on too much, especially in recent years. A chemist, he dared to define the topics of physics laboratories and departments. At the same time, he was not always right, he ordered what to do and how to do it. Who would like that? So they voted him down at the elections to the Academic Council. Physicists make up the majority. And you, chemists, are now making him almost a great martyr... And in Chernobyl he screwed up enough—the shelter of the fourth unit turned out to be far from optimal." However, the operators were found to have deviated from operational procedures, changing test protocols on the fly, as well as having made "ill judged" actions, making human error a major contributing factor. His wife Margarita wrote a considerable number of articles and books to preserve his legacy. In 2016, a bust and a commemorative plaque were installed on the wall of Valery Legasov's home in Tula. == In media ==

Legasov is portrayed by Ade Edmondson in the BBC docudrama Surviving Disaster (2006) and by Jared Harris in the Sky/HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019). He is also covered by Adam Curtis in his documentary series ''Pandora's Box'' (1992). ==See also==