List of books about the Chernobyl disaster

Last updated

This is an incomplete list of books about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Soon after the events of Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 generated global attention, numerous fiction and non-fiction titles have been published on the subject. Very early examples included a 1987 fiction book by science-fiction author Frederik Pohl, titled Chernobyl , while many famous non-fiction titles about Chernobyl were unwritten and unpublished until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Contents

This list is not exhaustive and may not reflect all books, including recently-published, pre-released and self-published books.

Non-fiction

Fiction

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyril M. Kornbluth</span> American science fiction author (1923–1958)

Cyril M. Kornbluth was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond, and Scott Mariner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant</span> Decommissioned nuclear power plant in Ukraine

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. ChNPP is located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, 16.5 kilometers (10 mi) northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 kilometers (10 mi) from the Belarus–Ukraine border, and about 100 kilometers (62 mi) north of Kyiv. The plant was cooled by an engineered pond, fed by the Pripyat River about 5 kilometers (3 mi) northwest from its juncture with the Dnieper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhores Medvedev</span>

Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev was a Russian agronomist, biologist, historian and dissident. His twin brother is the historian Roy Medvedev.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chernobyl disaster</span> 1986 nuclear accident in the Soviet Union

The Chernobyl disaster began on 26 April 1986 with the explosion of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR, close to the border with the Byelorussian SSR, in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated at seven—the maximum severity—on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the other being the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. The initial emergency response and subsequent mitigation efforts involved more than 500,000 personnel and cost an estimated 18 billion roubles—roughly US$68 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aleksandr Akimov</span> Soviet engineer (1953–1986)

Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural impact of the Chernobyl disaster</span> References to the Chernobyl disaster in popular culture

The Chernobyl disaster is the world's worst nuclear accident to date.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Svetlana Alexievich</span> Belarusian investigative journalist and essayist

Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Gessen</span> American writer

Keith A. Gessen is a Russian-born American novelist, journalist, and literary translator. He is co-founder and co-editor of American literary magazine n+1 and an assistant professor of journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2008 he was named a "5 under 35" honoree by the National Book Foundation.

<i>Voices from Chernobyl</i> Book by Svetlana Alexievich

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, published as Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future in the United Kingdom, is a book about the Chernobyl disaster by the Belarusian Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich. At the time of the disaster, Alexievich was a journalist living in Minsk, the capital of what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Alexievich interviewed more than 500 eyewitnesses, including firefighters, liquidators, politicians, physicians, physicists, and ordinary citizens over a period of 10 years. The book relates the psychological and personal tragedy of the Chernobyl accident, and explores the experiences of individuals and how the disaster affected their lives.

The Truth About Chernobyl is a 1991 book by Grigori Medvedev. Medvedev served as deputy chief engineer at the No. 1 reactor unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant while the plant was under construction. At the time of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, Medvedev was deputy director of the main industrial department in the Soviet Ministry of Energy dealing with the construction of nuclear power stations. Since Medvedev knew the Chernobyl plant well, he was sent back as a special investigator immediately after the 1986 catastrophe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kyshtym disaster</span> 1957 radiological contamination disaster in the Soviet Union

The Kyshtym disaster, sometimes referred to as the Mayak disaster or Ozyorsk disaster in newer sources, was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on 29 September 1957 at Mayak, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant located in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.

<i>Nebula Winners Fourteen</i> 1980 anthology edited by Frederik Pohl

Nebula Winners Fourteen is an anthology of award winning science fiction short works edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardcover by Harper & Row in August 1980. The first British edition was published in hardcover by W. H. Allen in April 1981. Paperback editions followed from Star in the U.K. in March 1982 and Bantam Books in the U.S. in July 1982.

<i>Chernobyl</i> (miniseries) 2019 historical drama TV miniseries

Chernobyl is a 2019 historical drama television miniseries that revolves around the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the cleanup efforts that followed. The series was created and written by Craig Mazin and directed by Johan Renck. It features an ensemble cast led by Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson, and Paul Ritter. The series was produced by HBO in the United States and Sky UK in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vasily Ignatenko</span> Soviet firefighter at the Chernobyl disaster (1961-1986)

Vasily Ivanovich Ignatenko was a Soviet firefighter who was among the first responders to the Chernobyl disaster. He worked as an electrician before being conscripted into the Soviet Armed Forces in 1980, where he completed his two years of service as a military firefighter. Afterwards, he took up employment as a paramilitary firefighter with Fire Brigade No. 6, which was based out of Pripyat. On 26 April 1986, Ignatenko's fire brigade was involved in mitigating the immediate aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster; fighting the fires that broke out following the initial explosion of Reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. While on site, Ignatenko received a high dose of radiation, leading to his death at a radiological hospital in Moscow eighteen days later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viktor Kibenok</span> Chernobyl firefighter, Hero of the Soviet Union

Viktor Nikolaevich Kibenok was a Chernobyl firefighter who was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union after he died of radiation sickness.

Adam Higginbotham is a British journalist who is the former U.S. correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine and former editor-in-chief of The Face. He has also served as a contributing writer for The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times.

<i>The Best of Frederik Pohl</i> 1975 collection of science fiction short stories by Frederik Pohl

The Best of Frederik Pohl is a collection of science fiction short stories by American author Frederik Pohl, edited by Lester del Rey. It was first published in hardcover by Nelson Doubleday in March 1975 as a selection of its Science Fiction Book Club, and in paperback by Ballantine Books in June of the same year as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction, and reprinted in April 1976. The book was reissued in hardcover by Taplinger in 1977. The first British edition was issued in Hardcover in January 1977 by Sidgwick & Jackson, which later gathered it together with The Best of Harry Harrison (1976) into the omnibus volume Science Fiction Special 29 (1978). It has also been translated into Italian and German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mykola Tytenok</span> Soviet firefighter

Nikolai Ivanovich Titenok was a Soviet firefighter and first responder to the Chernobyl disaster. He received a lethal dose of radiation whilst firefighting and was hospitalised in Moscow Hospital No.6, and died 20 days later from radiation poisoning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Nobel Prize in Literature</span> Award

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". She is described as the first journalist and the first Belarusian national to receive the Nobel prize since December 10, 2015.

References

  1. Alibek, Ken; Handelman, Stephen (2000). Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from the Inside by the Man Who Ran It (paperback ed.). Delta. ISBN   9780385334969.
  2. Higginbotham, Adam (2019). Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster. Simon & Schuster. ISBN   9781501134616.
  3. White, Maureen A. (2008). Out of Chernobyl: A Girl Named Olga (paperback ed.). ISBN   9781434396686.
  4. Medvedev, Grigori (1991). The Truth About Chernobyl (hardcover ed.). Basic Books. ISBN   9780465087754.
  5. Alexievich, Svetlana (2006). Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (paperback ed.). Picador. ISBN   9780312425845.
  6. "Voices from Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievich". Complete Review . Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  7. Pohl, Frederik (1987). Chernobyl. Spectra. ISBN   9780553052107.
  8. Smith, Martin Cruz (2004). Wolves Eat Dogs (hardcover ed.). Simon & Schuster. ISBN   9780671775957.