Chernobyl Roulette

A War Story

By: Serhii Plokhy

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Paperback | 5 August 2025 | Edition Number 1

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240 Pages

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19.8 x 12.9 x 1.3

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The award-winning historian returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty-five days of war

On 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier. Russian occupation of the plant had begun. It would last thirty-five days.

Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives, this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident. We meet Valentyn Heiko, the foreman who had also been there for the clean-up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation; plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Women’s Day despite all odds; Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors; and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook.

Gripping and unforgettable, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in an unprecedented time, when plant workers are left to fight on their own while the world holds its breath. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy tells a remarkable story about human nature, uncertainty and courage.

About the Author

Serhii Plokhy is Professor of History at Harvard University and a leading authority on the Cold War and nuclear history. His books include the Baillie Gifford award-winner Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, Nuclear Folly, The Gates of Europe and The Last Empire.

Industry Reviews

Chernobyl Roulette is a fast-paced, illuminating narrative of the incredible heroism and courage shown by the personnel of Ukrainian nuclear facilities that were attacked by Russian forces, and of the stupefying recklessness with which the Russian military pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear disaster. A must-read -- Yaroslav Trofimov, author of Our Enemies Will Vanish

A terrifying blow-by-blow account of what could have been the most disastrous postscript to the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Plokhy's exacting, precise and ultimately humane account is an act of global public service. This is a necessary book – and I can think of no writer better qualified to write it -- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment

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