In its more typical usage of the word, a liquidator is someone with the responsibility for collecting all the assets of a company and settling all claims against the company before putting it into dissolution due to its wind-up or liquidation. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster that occurred on 26 April 1986 required a very different kind of ‘liquidation’, but the civilian and military personnel who made up the Chernobyl liquidators performed a similar, albeit far more dangerous, job. Sergei Belyakov's Liquidator: The Chernobyl Story provides us with a series of insightful recollections into this job and Sergei's ‘Chernobyl’ (p. 21).

Belyakov splits his first-hand account of the clean-up at Chernobyl into three chronological parts, almost in the format of a diary: with the basic structure of any story with a beginning, a middle and an end. There is also an appendix that provides a comprehensive understanding of the RBMK-100 reactor, the events leading up to the accident and its aftermath, and what Belyakov deems as the factors leading to the accident's occurrence. This might have worked better as an introduction, especially for those new to the subject. I found it beneficial to read the appendix before the bulk of the text, to better understand why Belyakov decided to publish his account of his time as a liquidator, and also where his work fits into the wider context of the events around it. For instance, Belyakov provides an answer to the question why the Soviet government chose to continue using the plant after the accident. He argues that this was because the Soviets wanted to ‘convince the world that all was good in the empire’ (p. 161). Coming to the appendix after the main text would have made the main text harder to interpret, as you are provided with critical background context.

Belyakov's account begins after the accident had happened and covers nearly three months’ worth of events before his time as a liquidator. We are taken through the rumours circulating in his home city of Dnepr, as well as the discrimination towards products coming from Kyiv (p. 7). The reader is taken on his journey to the base camp of the 25th Brigade of Chemical Defence, which begins to reveal the deep sense of cynicism and dark humour that some of the personnel held towards the serious nature of their role as liquidators (p. 21). Part One reveals more about how civilian populations in Ukraine reacted to the Chernobyl accidents, the fear and rumours. However, we are not given further details on whether his volunteering was unique or on whether the rumours persisted. Nevertheless, the purpose of this book is Belyakov's account of his time as a liquidator, not his time before becoming one.

A significant portion of the book focuses on life at the camp, rather than his work at the station. The reader will notice what for Belyakov seem like long periods of boredom, boiling in the scorching Ukrainian summer; while consistently being concerned about the contamination he was absorbing and how it might impact his body at the time, and in the future (p. 55). Part Two includes two of the nineteen hodkas or ‘jumps’, or work shifts, that Belyakov undertook as a liquidator. Both of these ‘jumps’ provide us with the perception that work as a liquidator, while consistently under the threat of radiation exposure, could also be extremely uneventful, trivial and monotonous, with the second ‘jump’ seeing Belyakov and his team dig up mounds of soil to remove the radionuclides buried within them. Yet the perceived monotony and lack of excitement are a useful reminder to the reader that the Chernobyl nuclear disaster was not all drama and, more importantly, was not just about the scientists and engineers. It was also an event that required some 600,000 men and women to undertake simple, yet dangerous, hard physical labour as part of the clean-up efforts. Part Three, and most useful in terms of understanding the physical and mental strain placed on the liquidators, details the third, ninth, thirteenth and nineteenth ‘jumps’. In Part Three we go through Belyakov's memory of his first roof jump, possibly the most dangerous job for a liquidator, whereby liquidators would shift radioactive debris off the roof of Reactor Three. The reader goes on an emotional journey with Belyakov as he goes through how he ‘physically felt every second’ (p. 80). We can also see how this perilous experience on the roof is akin to a rite of passage, for the author and his tone and approach to those around him begin to mimic those who were there before he arrived, and now he too was ‘anxiously’ waiting for his zamena or replacement (p. 116). However, what is most striking in this part is the cold reception he received upon his arrival in Kyiv, where he and his fellow liquidators were treated as ‘outcasts’ (p. 121). The reception of liquidators integrating back into society certainly is worthy of investigation and this book provides a small insight into this.

This volume is of value to those who want a detailed account of a Chernobyl liquidator's experience or of Chernobyl in general. I do have one major concern regarding its use as a source of information. What it lacks is any clear indication of its context of production; what motivated it; what, if any, contemporary sources it was based on; and so on. Without these, we cannot say how well it serves as a source of information about the work of a liquidator or what it reveals about the memory culture of Chernobyl, to which this is a welcome addition.