Side By Side Comparisons Of The Real Chernobyl Vs. The HBO Version Of It (20 pics)

The majority of us have probably already seen or at least heard of the HBO series, Chernobyl. The show was acclaimed by critics and scored a rating of 9.7 stars out of 10 on IMDB, making it the highest-rated TV show on the platform. Many view the series as a TV masterpiece, which was loosely based on Voices of Chernobyl, a book written by Belarusian Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich. In addition to this, people who have lived in the former Soviet Union are praising the creators of Chernobyl for putting enough effort to recreate the chain of events and the environment itself as accurately as possible. Recently, a video essayist Thomas Flight made a fascinating video that does a side by side comparison of the footage from the series with the real videos that were captured during the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. Scroll down below to see the screenshots from real as well as fictional footage and don't forget to vote for the best of then and now!

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The Chernobyl disaster was a devastating nuclear plant accident that occurred on April 26, 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the north of Ukraine (then - Ukrainian SSR).

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To this date, Chernobyl is the biggest nuclear accident to have occurred, or as others put it - the worst man-made accident. The true cost of it is still unknown. Many people were affected directly, but even more of them - indirectly.

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In the HBO series, one of the central characters is Ulana Khomyuk, the scientist from the Belarusian Institute for Nuclear Energy. However, Ulana is fictional, but was based on any scientists that were trying to unravel the real truth behind the Chernobyl disaster. However, it certainly wouldn't be odd to have a woman nuclear scientist in the Soviet Union even at that time as the USSR had an impressive record of training women for STEM roles.

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Interestingly enough, one of the most realistic depictions in the show was an elderly Bolshevik Zharkov. Although fictional, Zharkov perfectly conveys the Soviet politics and ideology. Moments after the disaster, he is encouraging his comrades to not spread "misinformation," which basically means that no one should tell anything to the public. "No one leaves. And cut the phone lines. Contain the spread of misinformation," he says in the show.

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© Photo: Thomas Flight