Colonel General Pikalov

Pikalov commands the Soviet Army's chemical troops, arriving at Chernobyl as a gruff, no-nonsense soldier used to orders making sense. When faced with radiation readings that defy belief, he trusts neither rumor nor rank—he wants proof, and he's willing to risk himself to get it, dosimeter in hand, wading toward the truth.

Mark Lewis Jones gives Pikalov a stubborn, physical dignity—a career military man forced to reckon with an enemy he can't see or shoot. The writing uses him as a hinge point: his blunt insistence on real numbers, not comforting lies, becomes one of the series' quiet moral centers amid so much institutional denial.”} -->|malformed trailing quote removed below| {