Boris Baranov

Boris Aleksandrovich Baranov was born on November 11, 1940, in Sozinovy, Kirov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Baranov had a brother five years older than him named Viktor. Their father died during World War II.{{Cite web |title=Баранов, Борис Олександрович |url=http://vue.gov.ua/%D0%91%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%91%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%81_%D0%9E%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=ВУЕ |language=uk}}

After completing his military service in the Soviet Army, Baranov moved to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. There, he worked from 1966 to 1976 as an engineer at the Kryvyi Rih Metallurgical Plant in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Baranov later became a shift supervisor at the plant. At the same time, Baranov graduated from the Ukrainian Engineering Pedagogics Academy in Kharkiv in 1974 with a degree in heat and power engineering. In 1976, he began working at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Kyiv Oblast as a shift supervisor.{{Cite web |date=5 November 2019 |title=Баранов Борис Олександрович |url=http://www.ukrgeroes.com.ua/BaranovBO.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105055837/http://www.ukrgeroes.com.ua/BaranovBO.html |archive-date=2019-11-05 }}

Also in 1976, Baranov's wife died and he was left to raise his six-year-old daughter and one-year-old son alone.

{{See also|Chernobyl disaster#Core meltdown risk mitigation}}

Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine SSR exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23 a.m, resulting in a release of large amounts of radiation across a large area. When the fire was put out, officials began worrying about the corium, a radioactive lava-like material, melting into the bubbler pools below and creating a steam explosion that would eject more radioactive material into the area.{{cite book |last=Medvedev |first=Z. |url=https://archive.org/details/legacyofchernoby00medv |title=The Legacy of Chernobyl |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company Incorporated |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-393-30814-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/legacyofchernoby00medv/page/58 58–59] |url-access=registration}} However, this fear was not true since corium had already began dripping into the bubbler pools, turning into a ceramic pumice that floated on the water's surface.{{cite journal |last1=Checherov |first1=Konstantin |date=2006 |title=The Unpeaceful Atom of Chernobyl |journal=Person |issue=1}} Government officials were unaware of this, and thus decided to drain the bubbler pools by opening its sluice gates. The sluice gates were controlled by valves located in a flooded subterranean annex adjacent to the Reactor 4 building.{{cite web |last1=Samodelova |first1=Svetlana |date=25 April 2011 |script-title=ru:Белые пятна Чернобыля |url=http://www.mk.ru/politics/sng/2011/04/25/584047-belyie-pyatna-chernobyilya.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009160659/http://www.mk.ru/politics/sng/2011/04/25/584047-belyie-pyatna-chernobyilya.html |archive-date=9 October 2016 |access-date=7 October 2016 |website=Московский комсомолец |language=ru}} The path to them had been made passable, with water up at knee-level in some parts, by the efforts of firefighters who had used specialized water hoses.{{Cite web |last=Kramer |first=Sarah |title=A Chernobyl 'suicide squad' of volunteers helped save Europe — here's their amazing true story |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/chernobyl-volunteers-divers-nuclear-mission-2016-4 |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}

The team responsible for carrying this out was composed of Oleksiy Ananenko and Valeri Bezpalov (engineers who had knowledge of where the valves were), and Boris Baranov. Unofficially called the 'suicide squad', all three men were volunteers. Equipped in diving suits with respirators for their protection from radioactive aerosols, and also carrying dosimeters, the men entered into the flooded area on May 7. Using their searchlights, they followed pipes to the valve and opened the sluice gates.{{Cite web |date=2014-04-29 |title=Soviet Press Reports Heroic Acts at Chernobyl Reactor With AM-Chernobyl-Nuclear, Bjt |url=http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/Soviet-Press-Reports-Heroic-Acts-at-Chernobyl-Reactor-With-AM-Chernobyl-Nuclear-Bjt/id-bfb4a0cf2479ee940116c74141e8a332 |access-date=2024-06-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429204527/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1986/Soviet-Press-Reports-Heroic-Acts-at-Chernobyl-Reactor-With-AM-Chernobyl-Nuclear-Bjt/id-bfb4a0cf2479ee940116c74141e8a332 |archive-date=2014-04-29 }} {{convert|20,000|t|LT ST}} of water was then pumped out using fire brigade pumps until it was gone by May 8.{{cite tech report|first=A. R.|last=Sich|title=The Chernobyl Accident|number=1|volume=35|institution=Oak Ridge National Laboratory|access-date=25 February 2022|url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10153756#page=6|year=1994|page=13|archive-date=25 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220225015921/https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10153756#page=6|url-status=live}}

Baranov was portrayed by Oscar Giese in the Sky/HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019).

• Oleksiy Ananenko
• Valery Bespalov

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Category:1940 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:Chernobyl liquidators

Category:Recipients of the Order of Gold Star (Ukraine)