Boris Baranov

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Boris Aleksandrovich Baranov was born on November 11, 1940, in Sozinovy, Kirov Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. He had a brother five years older named Viktor. Their father died during World War II. 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, later becoming a shift supervisor. 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. Also in 1976, Baranov's wife died and he was left to raise his six-year-old daughter and one-year-old son alone.

In Their Own Story

Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded on 26 April 1986 at 1:23 a.m. When the fire was put out, officials began worrying about the corium melting into the bubbler pools below and creating a steam explosion that would eject more radioactive material. However, this fear was unfounded since corium had already begun dripping into the bubbler pools, turning into a ceramic pumice that floated on the water's surface. Government officials were unaware of this, and 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. 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. The team responsible was composed of Oleksiy Ananenko and Valeri Bezpalov (engineers who knew where the valves were), and Boris Baranov. Unofficially called the 'suicide squad', all three men were volunteers. Equipped in diving suits with respirators and carrying dosimeters, the men entered the flooded area on May 7. Using their searchlights, they followed pipes to the valve and opened the sluice gates. 20,000 tonnes of water was then pumped out using fire brigade pumps until it was gone by May 8.

Reader's Guide

Baranov was portrayed by Oscar Giese in the Sky/HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019). The 2020 game Liquidators puts players into the perspective of Baranov as he, Ananenko, and Bespalov work to drain the steam suppression pools under Reactor 4. Key anniversaries include the explosion date of April 26, commemorated with memorial services across Ukraine and Belarus. The disaster led to the creation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and remains the world's worst nuclear accident, prompting global changes in nuclear safety protocols.

Did You Know?

• Baranov was born on 11 November 1940 in Sozinovy, Kirov Oblast, Russian SFSR.
• He graduated from the Ukrainian Engineering Pedagogics Academy in Kharkiv in 1974 with a degree in heat and power engineering.
• Baranov's wife died in 1976, leaving him to raise a six-year-old daughter and one-year-old son alone.
• He and two others volunteered to drain the bubbler pools on May 7, 1986, opening sluice gates that released 20,000 tonnes of water.
• Baranov was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine in 2019.