The Soviet Union claimed only 31 people died, most in the initial blast. That number has never been corrected and the estimates are in the hundreds of thousands. The scene where over a hundred people from town stood on a bridge to watch the fire and the blue glow coming off the exposed core was so spooky as fallout ash was raining down on them. The government denied it ever happened, but the public claims that everyone that was on the bridge was dead within a few months.
Here is a link to an excellent documentary on Chernobyl:
https://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html