Although the specialists who labored under Dyatlov at the Chernobyl plant may have disliked the way he treated them, many admired him, and few doubted his expertise. Eager to learn, they believed that he knew everything there was to know about reactors. And, by crushing dissent and conjuring an air of infallibility, Dyatlov—like the Soviet state itself—expected his underlings to carry out his commands with robotic acquiescence, regardless of their better judgment.
