The blast that put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.Andrew Jack talks with Pushkin House Book Prize 2019 winning author, Serhii Plokhy, about his book ‘Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy’. Serhii explores how the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, while workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Dan Yan-Key - Elegy for Argus, Dan Yan-Key - II Adagio First Snow.