Iurii Scherbaks remarkable account of the Chernobyl disaster for April 1986 is based on interviews with many of the participants. Realising that the Chernobyl accident was to have a massive impact on the USSR and the world, the author felt impelled to the designated danger zone around the reactor, to live there and and to interview firemen, first-aid workers, perty and government offical and local media representatives. The result is a variety of vivid eyewitness account that are unprecedented in their detail and frankness. These accounts show why Iurii Scherbak considers the Chernobyl accident to be the most important event in the Soviet Union since World War II. The book, itself a product of glasnost, reveals how the Chernobyl accident was viewed from inside the Soviet Union.