Nikolai Tarakanov


Nikolai Dmitrievich Tarakanov is a former Soviet military leader, doctor of technical sciences, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, founder and chairman of the Coordination Council of the Presidential Club Trust, Center for Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities, a member of the Union of Russian Writers, laureate of the M.A. Sholokhov International Literary Prize.
Tarakanov led the operation to remove radioactive debris from the dangerous zones of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the restoration work after the Spitak earthquake. He became disabled due to consequences of his exposure to radiation in Chernobyl.

Biography

Tarakanov was born on the Don in the village of Gremyach'e to a large peasant family. In 1953 he graduated from the Gremyachensk secondary school, then Kharkov Military Technical School. He served in the school, later in the Red Banner regiment of civil defense troops as commander of an electrical platoon.
In 1963, he graduated from the Kharkiv Automobile and Highway Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering. He served in Saratov as a regimental engineer. In 1967 he became a teacher at the Moscow Military School of Civil Defense. In 1972 he graduated from the adjuncture of the Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy in Moscow. He served as a senior specialist in the Military Technical Committee of the USSR Civil Defense Forces, then in the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Civil Defense, Deputy Chief of the Civil Defense Staff of the RSFSR.
In 1986, he led an operation to remove highly radioactive elements from highly dangerous zones of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In 1988 he led the rescue work after the Spitak earthquake.
In June 2019, in an interview with Dozhd TV channel, discussing the HBO serial Chernobyl, he said that he had lost the savings that he had saved for treatment.
According to Tarakanov, for his leadership of the operation on the Chernobyl accident, he was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The general said this in an interview with journalist Alexey Pivovarov. But after, as Tarakanov says, the conflict with the chief of staff of the Kiev military district, General Fedorov, he was removed from the list.

Family

In the HBO television series Chernobyl, Tarakanov is played by the English actor Ralph Ineson. Tarakanov praised the series, calling it “brilliant work”, and also spoke highly of the portrayal by the British actor who played him in the series.
Despite his praise for the series, Tarakanov notes that young, newly drafted soldiers were never sent into residential areas to shoot animals, as depicted in HBO's Chernobyl. "Nothing even close to that ever happened...The shooting did take place, but it was in the forests, where wild animals still roamed, including deer, as well as cattle that wandered off after the evacuation. But to show this young boy, recently drafted, being given all this equipment straight away ."

Awards

Medals For Loyalty to the Fatherland, Peacemaker, Russian Land, Medal Bunin, Silver Medal of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, For merits in the revival of the nation to them. Peter the Great, 20 years of the Chernobyl disaster, For loyalty to duty, For merits in the field of veterinary medicine, George Zhukov, 55 years of the Moscow city writers' organization, Afghanistan 40th Army, Medal. Roentgen.

Scientific activities

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Books

Tarakanov N. D. Notes of the Russian General. . - M.: Branch of Voenizdat, 2007.