Chernobyl Vs. A Mercedes: The Untold Story

For those of you with a keen eye, you may have noticed an unusual red vehicle lurking in the background of some videos and photos of Chernobyl. This is no fire engine, nor a vehicle of any Soviet model. It’s in fact a Mercedes-Benz truck, that through an unlucky series of events managed to find itself inside of Chernobyl Unit Four during the explosion. This is the story of the battle to save the vehicle, and the mystery of its ultimate fate.

Sources:

CHERNOBYL REALITY OF KHARKOV TURBINE WORKERS

Ablaze: The Story of Chernobyl.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
00:34 A Tale of Two Sides
04:02 A Letter
06:16 Inferno
08:50 The Dust Settles
10:26 The Mystery
14:13 Outro and In Memory

[DartzIRL]

Somewhere in the Soviet Union, there was a random orange truck which didn't need to have its headlights on to be seen at night.

[Stefan_trekkie]

I am engineer from the eastern block and remember exactly the same thing.. When someone had some western equipment valued it very high, like a treasure.

[MrDannyboyhall]

This truck deserves its own movie it survived an explosion only to drive on out of the building and disappeared what a story

[raspucin]

Knowing what happened to decommissioned vehicles that were pulled out from the exclusion zone and than left out in the open, that truck has likely "donated" its parts to various other trucks throughout that part of the globe.

[FCTonTwoWheels]

This was great. Really hope that Mercedes truck knows its special wherever it's at nowadays. Imagine if they did a Vinwiki story on that thing if it were discovered

[kotelypiesely]

If this was Albania, they'd save the truck first

[eintyp]

Imagine it was never stolen by the kgb. Just some guy stole it and sold it and it is driven around somewhere in the world, stripped from the technology on the back and used as a simple truck

[goldnmnkyua]

Very interesting story. Last records mention that the vehicle got recovered for decontamination, but in 1987 at the Popovs funeral it was announced that the vehicle cant be decontaminated and will be buried. I wouldn't be surprised if it got most parts stolen before either being buried or written off as buried.

[georgeshulga]

Firstly, this is a great video essay and it’s the first time I’ve heard about this truck and it’s story! This is awesome. Considering, there were series of posts (ru) titled “the vehicles of Chernobyl” on the pikabu website and the Mercedes had never been mentioned. Secondly, it’s finally good to know the identity of that patient/one of the truck’s crew members - Savenkov. I’ve seen this video a few times and always wondered how this person ended up at/near the epicentre of the accident.
Thirdly, in my opinion I also doubt that the story that is told in the aforementioned book took place. Like some commenters mentioned under this video, the tech in the truck was highly valuable, especially for reverse engineering purpose. The KGB (together with the Stasi) would have done their inspection first thing after the purchase/shipment before the truck even reached Kharkiv.
I reckon that the truck was decontaminated to the best it could have been done. Then it was most likely used for the transport (modified) or in its original role in the 10 km zone (hence not seen on the vehicle graveyard photos). Don’t forget, there were lot’s of research organisations established post the accident, and the exclusion zone was pretty busy plus the reactor blocks 1, 2 and 3 continued to operate up until 2000. The truck could have been possibly written off in the late 90s and sold into (unsuspecting) private hands.

[florabee]

A bright red new piece of western mercedes truck full of expensive equipment with the keys left in parked in an area guarded by Soviets. It's just a mystery

[kubastachu]

My guess is some officer took it for his side transportation business or whatnot and it operated soundly until some 1995 when it was sold to another local firm, had it's engine overhauled and drove some millions kilometers more in the former soviet union area. It was too precious to just have it left for some crappy radiation examination.

[StuStafford]

Ran a few of that era of Merc truck in the fleet, absolutely bombproof. If its still about I'll guarantee its still running spot on!

[richardhighsmith]

Nice touch dedicating the vehicle to the men who kept their post during that catastrophe.
There were heroes at Chernobyl, like Georgi Popov and Vladimir Savenkov.
There were scoundrels at Chernobyl like Anatoly Dyatlov.
I read somewhere that Popov was trying to fight fires in the turbine room immediately after the explosion, which certainly sealed his fate. In any event, they were doing their jobs, stayed at their posts, and probably faced their fate like men. I’ve not seen that they received any sort of award or recognition. Was that reserved for firefighters, police, and army responders?

[jda]

I had a Merc 1317 lorry of a similar vintage and confirm they are indestructible.

[jooch_exe]

Imagine valuing your own life below that of a truck.

[jcdenton]

I have the first Chernobyl story issue of National Geographic, and this Benz is visible in several oh the photos.

[thomasfx]

Why the turbine manufacturing company didn't spin balance the turbines in their factory we'never know. And yes, we're still facinated by the Chernobyl disaster, it's like a train wreck where you can't look away.

[VanBourner]

ah the story of Soviet engineering - make something relatively impressive, then streamline it down so it barely even works to cut costs and then pay extra on the upkeep, going past the costs of the original item.

[MaciejŁucki]

I am seriously impressed how you managed to find this

[justjeff]

If the KGB wanted to analyze the electronics they would have just “borrowed” it anytime they wanted. If a pair of Russian generals were involved I’d be more likely to believe that they sold it. Wonder if a new turbine balancing service began operating sometime soon after.