“Your testimony today will not be accepted by the state. It will not be disseminated in the press. It never happened. No. You will live however long you have. But not as a scientist. Not anymore. You keep your title, your office. No duties. No authority. No friends. No one will talk to you. No one will listen to you. Other men, lesser men, will receive credit for the things you have done. Your legacy is now their legacy. You will live long enough to see that.”
—
The KGB
Friendly reminder that this almost exactly happened. Legasov was cut out of the Chernobyl story while he was still alive. Things he said and did was credited to either other people, or nameless scientists. For proof, read Chernobyl Notebook, written in 1987 when Legasov was still alive. Then read Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe, written in 2018. It took years to uncover Legasov’s story.
