Career
Despite the radiological dangers, they had no radiation suits, no respirators, and no working dosimeters. From results of a blood test it was estimated he received 4 grays of radiation. According to one source, Telyatnikov headed the fire fighting effort at Chernobyl Reactor Unit 4 after the explosion on April 26, 1986.
At that time Telyatnikov was the chief of military fire prevention at the Chernobyl nuclear-power station.
Telyatnikov and his subordinates ascended the badly damaged and heavily radiation contaminated roof of Reactor Unit 4 more than once in order to prevent the fires from spreading and endangering Reactor Unit 3. Another source gives a slightly different account:
Two of his subordinates, Vladimir Pravik and Viktor Kibenok, were given the award posthumously, as they died from acute radiation sickness soon after the disaster.
Telyatnikov continued his service in the Ministry of the Interior of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, and, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, in Ukraine. In 1998, Telyatnikov headed the volunteer fire department of Kiev, and designed the "Junior Firefighter" program
He died of cancer at the age of 53.
On April 25, 2006, the twentieth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, a monument was dedicated to him at the Baykove cemetery in Kiev where he is buried.
