Soviet spies, nuclear secrets, and a CIA ghost haunting the world's worst disaster zone.
Season 1 • Episode 12
LatestThe action takes place from April to December 1986. The KGB department of the USSR becomes aware of the interest shown by foreign intelligence services in the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. To establish the whereabouts of an experienced CIA officer, Albert Lenz, who is suspected of espionage, on the territory of Pripyat, Lieutenant Colonel of military counterintelligence Andrey Nikolaev arrives in the city.
Production
Painstaking 1986 USSR recreation—every ashtray and bad wallpaper perfect.
Acting
Petrenko's exhausted eyes say everything the KGB forbids.
Direction
Muradov turns Pripyat into a character: beautiful, toxic, watching back.
Igor Petrenko
Nikolaev
Aleksandr Ilyin Jr
Aleksenko
Dmitri Ulyanov
Lents
Nadezhda Mikhalkova
Mila
Mariya Andreeva
Gloris Lents
Vitaliya Kornienko
Olya
Violetta Davydovskaya
Lida Aleksenko
Vladimir Yumatov
Shcherbina
Olga Demidova
Elena Yakovleva
Angelina Guskova
Yuriy Tsurilo
Akademik Aleksandrov
Aleksandr Ilin
Yudenkov
Ilya Gavrilenkov
Andrei Gusev
Segrey Tsepov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion, the series became accidentally political—Ukrainian critics noted it centers Russian perspectives while filming in occupied Crimea.
Director Muradov insisted on practical effects for radiation scenes: actors trained in exhaustion-mimicry rather than CGI glow, creating bodily dread you can't unsee.
RU
