Leonid Telyatnikov

Lore & Background

Telyatnikov was born in the village of Vvedenka in the Kazakh SSR. He worked briefly as an electrician before entering the Sverdlovsk Fire-Technical Academy in 1968, graduating in 1971. After further study in Moscow from 1974 to 1978 he headed fire departments in Kustanay. He moved to Kiev in 1982, and in 1983 he was given command of Paramilitary Fire Brigade No.2, the unit charged with protecting the power plant.

He was on leave at his dacha outside Pripyat when the explosions were heard, and he was telephoned by the dispatcher a few minutes later. Arriving at around 1:45, he took over command of the firefighting and ordered a visual survey of the building to locate the fires. Around 02:30 he sent three firemen to the roof of the ventilation block to relieve the first group, who were already suffering from radiation exposure, and ordered those men into an ambulance. By 03:30 he was himself showing the first symptoms and was taken to the Pripyat Hospital.

Reader's Guide

Telyatnikov was evacuated to Moscow, to Hospital No.6. His bone marrow had been damaged, and he ran a fever of over 40°C, but he began to improve and was allowed out of the isolation ward in July.

It was then that he learned of the deaths of six of his firemen. He left a convalescent home on September 5, 1986, and his treatment ended on December 22, 1986, after seven months. His accumulated dose is unclear; he put it at somewhere from 200 to 400 rem, and other sources give higher figures.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on September 25, 1986. In 1987 he was sent on an international goodwill tour that took him to Bulgaria, Japan, the United States and Great Britain, where he met Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Did You Know?

• He first took the explosions for the sound of supersonic aircraft passing overhead.
• He received a medal from a British firefighters' union.