[tryauuum]

Do remember that HBO Chernobyl is fiction, there was no shoe guy publicly drinking vodka irl

[kergonath]

It is perfectly plausible that someone from a shoe factory would end up in that guy’s position. He would just have been running the factory, not making shoes.

[nullorempty]

not in the USSR at the time of the events.

[varjag]

Yes in reality that guy was a machinist.