Narrativising a Disaster – Chernobyl and its consequences in the memoirs of Valeri Legasov

My Master’s thesis focuses on the Chernobyl disaster. The subject of the analysis is the memoirs of the Russian scientist and political figure Valeri Legasov. Against this backdrop, my thesis examines to what extent and why Legasov’s account of the disaster differs from the official narrative put forward by the Soviet government. The overarching research aim is to understand and trace how a scientist who helped manage the disaster and defended the Soviet account of events internationally went on to become one of the sharpest critics of precisely that system and its nuclear policy. During the presentation, the central theses and findings to date will be put forward for discussion.