PerspectiveHBO’s “Chernobyl” exposes the horrifying scope of Soviet deception

Published 6 May 2019

The new five-part miniseries, premiering 6 May, examines the Chernobyl nuclear disaster—and the brave people who sacrificed their lives to reveal the shocking truth. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was the screw-up to end all screw-ups, playing a part in more than 93,000 deaths and turning the northern Ukrainian region uninhabitable. Nick Schager writes in the Daily Beast that, as HBO’s Chernobyl reveals, even more deadly than the radiation released by the accident were the lies that caused it in the first place—and, afterwards, stymied efforts to contain and combat it.