All Victories Inevitably Come At a Cost

About

"All Victories Inevitably Come At a Cost" is a memorable quote uttered by Mikhail Gorbachev on the HBO historical miniseries Chernobyl. Online, people use a screenshot of the scene as a reaction image macro for jokes about sacrifice.

Origin

On May 13th, 2019, HBO aired the second episode of the miniseries Chernobyl.^[1] In the episode, Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev (portrayed by David Denick) orders three men to stop the spread of nuclear contamination, which will cost them their lives. Gorbachev says of the decision, "All victories inevitably come at a cost" (clip below).

The earliest known usage of the scene as a meme was posted on the @burritocyclist Instagram ^[2] page on June 8th, 2019. The post received more than 520 likes in less than one year.

Spread

On February 3rd, 2020, Redditor ^[3] alish_sapkota posted a version of the screenshot with the caption "Hot girl: roast me if you can! Me: You're in my league." The post received more than 29,000 reactions (98% upvoted) and 100 comments in less than one month (shown below, left).

Weeks later, on February 17th, Redditor^[4] mijuzz7 posted a variation of the meme with a caption about winning the lottery. The post received more than 42,000 points (95% upvoted) and 125 comments in less than one week (shown below, center). The following day, Redditor^[5] MilkyChast shared a variation with a person respond with "me" to a question about how fetishes no one has. The post received more than 33,000 points (97% upvoted) and 225 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

Various Examples

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External References