In reality, the director of the Chernobyl station has got about 3 deathly dozes of radiation. He's got 10 years in prison. And you know what? He's still alive.
Брюханов, Виктор Петрович
P.S. When I was a teenager, I shared a train compartment with one of those guys who worked on deactivation of Chernobyl. The young dude was absolutely bald...
A lot of Soviet soldiers were used there, but those were not drafted ones. If you look at the chronicles, you will see they are definitely older than 27 (only 18-27 y/o males can be drafted to the army here). Everyone older than 27 is a professional and he does it for money. So in fact, all those guys (soldiers and engineers) who worked there were volunteers. They all
knew that they are doomed. Look at the last seconds of the video above. Those are the engineers that worked on the station. They are highly educated professionals and they know just everything about nuclear power and radiation. They all know that they are dead already, but they are happy because they have stopped the catastrophe which could bury a whole Europe. They were not send there at a gun point. They knew their responsibility and they were afraid for their own families in case if the condemnation won't be localized and the radiation will spread to the continent.
Can't say the same about the firemen that extinguished fire after the explosion. Those didn't know anything. Nobody knew it at that moment...