Academician Valery A. Legasov: biography, awards

Approaching the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as part of the government commission, on the eve of the accident, Valery Alekseevich Legasov, deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, did not expect that he was on his way to an event of superplanetary importance. It will go down in history as a tragedy comparable to the death of Pompeii, and will radically change his life and the very idea of it. And it will cause death on the 52nd year of life.

Biography pages

An inorganic chemist with a world name was born in Tula on September 1, 1936, but studied in Moscow. His parents were simple employees, and his son was making serious hopes already on the school bench, graduating with a gold medal. Being a Komsomol secretary, he became famous for having rewritten the charter of the Komsomol, regarding his separate provisions as incorrect. Later he became a convinced communist with thirty years of experience, having absorbed the air of free "sixties".

Entered in 1956 at the Physico-Chemical Department of Moscow Art Theater. Mendeleev (now RCTU), Valery A. Legasov, along with all participated in the poetry evenings of B. Akhmadullina, E. Evtushenko, A. Voznesensky, rejoiced in man's flight into space and quoted the film "Nine Days of One Year". In his environment, the names of Kurchatov and Korolev were often pronounced. As an activist, at the end of his studies he headed the Komsomol committee, participated in organizing the 1957 Youth and Student Festival, accepting delegations from foreign countries.

He studied so great that immediately after graduating from the institute he received a postgraduate course. But he left for distribution to the chemical plant in Tomsk, because he simply could not do otherwise.

Scientific advances

In 31 Legasov Valery Alekseevich became a candidate, and in 36 - a doctor of chemical sciences, dealing with the problems of noble gases. Already in 40 developments in the field of their chemical compounds will be evaluated by the State Prize. His work of 1977-1984. Brought this direction to the world's peaks, for which the leader and his group were awarded the highest award - the Lenin Prize. The second direction of its activity was energy technology systems, which is also associated with noble gases. Combining science, technology and design, he participated in the development of a new type of fuel, which was an important step towards the creation of nuclear reactors.

Safety issues in the industry worried him long before the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. He developed the concept of zero and acceptable risk, which also met the understanding of the scientific community. The scientist became the youngest Soviet academician, having been elected to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR at the age of 45.

Working at the Department of Chemistry of Moscow State University, since 1983 he became deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute, headed by Academician Aleksandrov.

Academician of Legasov at the Chernobyl NPP

On the morning of April 26, 1986, Moscow discussed the events in Chernobyl, where the information about the accident came from. No one imagined its scale, although the Ministry of Energy received a cipher with signals 1,2,3,4, which meant the emergence of a nuclear, radiation, fire and explosive danger situation. In the composition of the commission of the government of the USSR, under the leadership of Boris Shcherbiny, Valery Alekseevich Legasov also entered. He was not a nuclear physicist, but he dealt with security issues, so the choice fell on him.

Approaching the government cars to Chernobyl and seeing the crimson sky, Legasov, like many others, realized that a real catastrophe had happened. When the flight of the exploded reactor flew by helicopters, the question of the possibility of a re-explosion remained open. Having shown his personal courage, the academician on an armored personnel carrier belonging to chemical forces, drove up to the reactor in order to check the presence of neutron emission. Already in the first moments of being at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, he supposedly received his first 100 x-rays.

His merit is that he organized immediate actions, which later saved lives for many people: he insisted on the evacuation of Pripyat, although the doctors were hesitating, waiting for the team from Moscow, organized the throwing of the reactor with a mixture of sand, lead and boron, suppressing the release of radioactive substances and Graphite. And it does not matter that in the future the effectiveness of this measure will be challenged. In a situation where Chernobyl was underestimated, Legasov would not be afraid to speak at a meeting of the Politburo on May 5 with a question and proposals on how to eliminate the consequences of a terrible accident, revealing the real picture of the tragedy and demanding the adoption of systemic conclusions.

Speech to IAEA experts

From the composition of the first government commission, after a meeting of the Politburo in Chernobyl, no one will return except the academician. He will spend four months at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, hiding the testimony of a personal dosimeter showing the level of radiation received by him during rescue operations. He was impressed by the slowness of the country's leadership and the disregard of safety requirements at the emergency nuclear power plant in the absence of means of protection. The above considerations on the Politburo caused Gorbachev's dislike, nevertheless he will be instructed to address the IAEA at the end of the summer in Vienna.

It was expected that the experts would demand the punishment of the USSR and reparations for damage from the radioactive cloud that rushed to Europe. But the openness and competence of the Soviet scientist who spoke for five hours, revealing the true nature and scale of the tragedy, saved the country's reputation and raised concern about the security system at all nuclear power plants. Academician Legazov will be recognized by the United States as the Person of the Year, but not everyone will like the triumph after his performance.

Harassment of the scientist

The last two years of Legasov's life were overshadowed by the state of health, the lack of support from colleagues against the backdrop of the authorities' dislike and indifference to the scientist's deed to eliminate the Chernobyl accident. Some specialists of the institute began to consider Valery Alekseevich's speech as a podsizhivanie academician Alexandrov, always reiterated the safety of nuclear reactors. In fact, Anatoly Petrovich himself fought for their construction with "protection caps", but surrendered under the pressure of financiers, for such reactors would cost the country 30% more. He did not feel himself in a state of conflict with Legasov and was the first to report on the upcoming award of Deputy Hero Star.

But when the lists of those awarded for eliminating the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were published, the academician's surname was not in them. Later this was explained by MS's sole decision. Gorbachev, who believes that it is impossible to reward representatives of the Kurchatov Institute, because "the people will not understand." In 1987, there was an insulting situation, when Legasova was not elected to the Academic Council. He understood the situation in the institute and wanted to withdraw, but Alexandrov felt that it was wrong if his deputy was not a member of the Academic Council. The results of the vote shocked the scientist.

Coughing, nausea, loss of sleep - all evidence of the development of the disease. Legasov suffered a serious depression back in 1987, taking a huge dose of sleeping pills. Then he was rescued, and this fact did not become public. The scientist understood that he possessed important knowledge about the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, trying to publish an article in the newspaper Pravda. He is refused in the editorial office. As they do not support the proposal in the scientific community to establish a nuclear safety institute.

The death of Academician Legasov

On the eve of the second anniversary of the tragedy in Chernobyl, Legasov brought home a lot of papers. But he did not give them a single minute of attention, considering family photographs all evening. The wife of Margarita Mikhailovna was somewhat surprised that her husband did not answer his colleagues' phone calls, but did not attach any serious importance to this. In the mansion on the Infantry with them lived a son with his family, who first returned the next day from work to lunch break. It was he who found his father hanged without a suicide note.

The mystery of Legasov's death was studied by the investigation, which put forward two versions: murder and bringing to suicide. Investigator Boris Pogorelov reports that none of them found their confirmation. It was a suicide brought to the despair of a patient physically and mentally. But in this business there is still a white stain causing questions. Legasov left five audiocassettes, where he uttered memories and his conclusions on the events in Chernobyl. The main one is that the accident was the apotheosis of wrong management of the economy for several decades. Some of the records on these tapes have been deleted in some mysterious way.

Hero of Russia

Justice triumphed in 1996. Valery Alekseevich Legasov was posthumously represented to the title of Hero of Russia for showing courage during the liquidation of the Chernobyl accident by President Yeltsin.