127160). . Secret. Almost 200 tonnes of melted nuclear fuel rods remain within the damaged reactor. Large amounts of radioactive material were released into the atmosphere, where it was carried great distances by air currents. Research Starter encyclopedia article about the Chernobyl nuclear accident. SSR Academy of Sciences (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). Yakovlev () as of 09:00 hours on May 6th, the total number of the hospitalized amounted to 3,454 peoplethe number stricken with radiation sickness amounted to 367 people. According to the protocols, the number of the sick is growing every day. Secret. (One of the authors of the idea of returning children and pregnant women to the danger zoneYuri Israelwas subsequently awarded the Order of Lenin for Chernobyl.), Secret recipes from the Politburo on the use of radioactive meat and milk are undoubtedly one of the strongest parts of the Kremlin-Chernobyl bestseller. For help citing interviews such as Voices from Chernobyl (below), Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, INR Information Memorandum from Morton Abramowitz to the Secretary of State: Estimate of Fatalities at Chernobyl Reactor Accident, Extraordinary Session of the CC CPSU Politburo, April 28, 1986, Working copy, Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, Untitled Notice on Levels of Radiation in Chernobyl NPP and Steps Taken in Response, Deputy Head of the 6th Department of the KGB Administration Lieut. Not two months after the evacuation of people from the black zoneas the 30kilometer zone was termed in the secret letters of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Vladimir Shcherbitskythe authorities hastily began the reverse process: re-evacuation! SSR KGB Administration for the City of Kiev and Kiev Oblast, Lieutenant Colonel Comrade Iu. It goes on to discuss the increased global use of nuclear energy and requests information from the USSR on the cause of the explosion so that the other nuclear countries can avoid such an accident. Wilson Center History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive. Excerpt from May 2, 1986 International Herald Tribune (Schmemann and New York Times Service 1986). Moreover, the Chernobyl accident reignited calls, for increased safety regulations on nuclear energy, that received significant attention after the Three Mile Island accident. Arthur Purcell, director of the Washington Resource Policy Institute, emphasized Chernobyls damning contribution to the international nuclear policy debate; the Chernobyl accident demonstrated that nuclear power is inherently unsafe (Purcell 1986). monument to emergency workers who responded to Chernobyl disaster Some sources state that two people were killed in the initial explosions, whereas others report that the figure was closer to 50. This undated report shows levels of radioactivity of air and water in Kiev, Borodyanka, Polyesskoe, and Ivankov. On 26 April 1986, the Number Four reactor at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant in what then was the Soviet Union during improper testing at low-power, resulted in loss of control that led to an explosion and fire that demolished the reactor building and released large amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. Image: The first photograph of Unit Four after the accident, shot from a helicopter by Chernobyl plant photographer Anatoly Rasskazov, at approximately 3.00pm on April 26 1986 (Anatoly Rasskazov/Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum). In conclusion, Major Komarevich reports that his informers were instructed to identify and locate those who were spreading these panicked rumors. Technological Momentum and System Failure. (HDA SBU, Fond 16, Sprava 1028). Key sources include protocols of the Politburo Operational Group on Chernobyl that were published in Russian by the journalist and former Supreme Soviet deputy Alla Yaroshinskaya in 1992. These protocols, and all the granular details of how the Soviet leadership dealt with the accident day-by-day, are available to scholars and citizens due to the courage and decisiveness of a brave Russian journalist and subsequently member of the first democratically elected Supreme Soviet, Alla Yaroshinskaya, who published these protocols after the August 1991 coup in Moscow. In the Cold War era, as the world waited anxiously for a potential nuclear war, the Chernobyl disaster confirmed for many that the nuclear energy industry posed significant threats along with nuclear weapons. And we did not have those who were guilty in the Chernobyl outrages under the party bosses, who called to intensify propaganda efforts aimed at the exposure of false fabrications of the bourgeois information and intelligence agencies about the events at the Chernobyl NPP, nor under democraciessovereign public prosecutors still keep a deathlike silence. 29. The new accessions include technical memos on the construction and operation of the Chernobyl plant in its early years, immediate post-disaster reports, as well as discussions of societal views of and responses to the 1986 accident. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 991, Tom 1). It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Tracking Chernobyl's effects on wildlife Evolutionary ecologist Germn Orizaola Pereda analyses how species have been affected, 35 years after the world's worst nuclear accident. After the Chernobyl accident, both the USA and the USSR had major incidents involving civilian nuclear power. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 991, Tom 2). When the accident occurred the Soviet Union was using 17 RBMKs and Lithuania was using two. He notes the complete paralysis of local authorities who were unable to do anything without orders from Moscow. Copy # 1 NOTICE As of 8 o'clock on the April 27 th, 1986, changes were detected in the radiation environment in the 3rd and 4th energy blocks of the Chernobyl atomic energy station.. July 3rd, 1986 Gordienko, 'Notice on "OS" [Environmental Conditions]'. May 6, 1986. Churchill and India: Manipulation or Betrayal? INR Information Memorandum from Morton Abramowitz to the Secretary of State: Estimate of Fatalities at Chernobyl Reactor Accident. Protocol No. Turko, Director of the 6th Department of the KGB Administration, to the Director of the Pripyat City Department of the Ukr. Photo Credit: Ukrainian Society for Friendship and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries (USFCRFC), The book by Alla Yaroshinskaya, "Chernobyl. Historic disaster. He also sharply criticizes scientists for their independence and lack of party oversight of the institutes. Matlock describes the Soviet response to the Chernobyl disaster as a PR fiasco, and predicts that it will make the Soviets testy. He cautions that the issue of Chernobyl and the Soviet failures should not be excessively exploited as it might backfire with the European publics and could also drive Gorbachev into a corner in terms of further negotiations. Secret. (1986, May 03). This document discusses the violation of technical rules of reinforcement and concrete work in the construction of the Chernobyl plant, concluding that these deficiencies will diminish the quality of the energy output. Quote from Jorma K. Miettinen, a Finnish Helsinki University professor, lamenting Finlands failure to condemn the USSR (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). (HDA SBU, Fond. Outside of the Soviet Union (USSR), the world was unaware of the Chernobyl accident until April 28, 1986, two days after the meltdown of Reactor No. July 20th, 1984 Captain A. E. Nikifiorov, Operative Plenipotentiary of Division I, Department 2 of the Sixth Service USSR KGB Administration for Moscow and Moscow Oblast, 'Information about an Interview with Trusted Individual "Zh. This document refers to the detention of a civilian vehicle which exceeded the level of radiation permitted by the decontamination project of the Institute for Nuclear Research, USSR Academy of Sciences. Abramowitz, M. (1986, May 2). Protocol No. Articles and. He calmly uttered: in order to get the authorization to copy documents, I must address the organization that classified them. The document refers to the level of radiation in the area affected and the measures undertaken for planned evacuations. (Academic Council Institute of History of Ukraine, 2019). These excerpts from the official working copy of Politburo sessions were published by Rudolph Pikhoia. It was a day and a half before the people living in Pripyat were ordered to evacuate. 12. The memo notes images of fire trucks and other personnel in the area, but those were dispatched to the reactor after the accident. In areas with radiation levels of less than 5 mR/hr it is critical to introduce strict control for radioactive food, especially milk., It is interesting to compare with the secret Report of the head of the Chemical Corps of the Ministry Defense of the USSR V. Pikalov at a meeting of the CC CPSU on June 15, 1987.: in the red forest, because of the turn-down and the conservation of the forest, the radiation levels are lowered from 5 Roentgen/hr to 7.5 mR/hr, which surpasses admissible values by 15 times. Red was the name of the forest close to the NPP, which had been killed by a nuclear blast. Chernyaevs notes from the same Politburo session as Document 14 are less detailed than those made by official stenographers, but they capture the heated emotional atmosphere of the meeting and they cover the entire Chernobyl discussion. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 6). These records complement 17 records contributed earlier in 2019 by Anna Korolevska of the Archive of the Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum and author Adam Higginbotham. December 19th, 1978 Director of the Chernobyl District Department of the Ukr. Gubarev compares standards and regulations in the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Energy and finds the latter ones much weaker. It is emphasized that this is purely speculation as inside details are unknown. This statement comes from the leaders of seven industrialized European countries and expresses sympathy and offers aid to the USSR and the town of Pripyat. PRIMARY SOURCE. And suddenly it dawned on me: now the secret Chernobyl protocols will be carried off, even though we, the deputies, have not even had the time to read them yet! This routine KGB report features information about the number of foreigners who visited the Ukrainian SSR, rumors of military training of OUN fighters in Southern England, the suspected murder of a Soviet ship captain in international waters, and an accident at the Chernobyl Unit 1 reactor. Allow the re-evacuation (return) of children and pregnant women to all residential areas where the combined calculated dose will not exceed 10 rem for the first year (237 residential areas in total), and there where the calculated doses of radiation exposure (without the restriction of the consumption of contaminated foods) surpasses 10 rem,from October 1, 1986(174 residential areas) Israel, Burenkov, Aleksandrov. This is despite the fact that a month earlier the head of the State Committee for Hydrometeorology Yuri Israel reported: Areas with radiation levels higher than 5 mR/hr () are recognized as dangerous for people to live in. This note describes the levels of radiation around the reactor, decontamination techniques, the number of troops involved in the cleanup process. This document discusses weaknesses in the technical designs of nuclear power plants in the USSR and their potential consequences, concluding that the Leningrad, Kursk, and Chernobyl plants are extremely dangerous. A monument dedicated to the liquidators stands in front of the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement that covers reactor No. This containment shelter was not intended to be a permanent solution for containing the radioactive material. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 991, Tom 1). Col. Aksenov, 'Notice of emergency incident.'" This burst of energy resulted in an instantaneous and violent surge of heat and pressure, rupturing fuel channels and releasing steam that disrupted large portions of the core. The surge destroyed the core of reactor unit four, containing approximately 200 tons of nuclear fuel. The initial explosion at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Chernobyl killed two people. (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 991, Tom 1). Indeed, they also could have been put on Soviet schoolchildrens doughnuts! 4. Andreyev answered my official inquiry 5 years after the accident: in the period of 1986 to 1989, in the specified zones 47,500 tons of meat and 2 million tons of milk over the limit of the level of contamination were produced.These circumstances put around 75 million people in dangerous living conditions (Authors Note- ! Image: A helicopter sprays a decontamination liquid nearby the Chernobyl reactor in 1986. His main criticism is about the lack of information, the level of secrecy, and the degree of incompetency that led to unnecessary human losses, especially among the fire-fighters. The Chairman lists a series of directives and responses to the Chernobyl incident, addressed to different levels of KGB cadre, discussing ways to strengthen standards at nuclear power facilities, calling for increased responsibility for the failure of local KGB staff to inform the central command on plant issues, recommending that specialists be pulled in to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities going forward, and implementing more intense oversight at all nuclear plants and scientific research facilities to ensure that issues which may lead to accidents are known. These meeting minutes detail the various forms of protection against radiation undertaken in and around the city of Kiev following the Chernobyl disaster. 32. Virginia Gewin. The hot core material of reactor 4 started about 30 separate fires in the unit 4 reactor hall and turbine building, as well as on the roof of the adjoining unit 3. SSR Council of Ministers for Kiev Oblast, Fesenko, to Comrade Tsybulko V.M., First Secretary of the Kiev Oblast Committee of the CP of Ukraine. Although Polish scientists were aware of abnormally high radiation levels on April 27, 1986, before Sweden sounded international alarms, Polish scientists later shared that they were fearful of sparking mass hysteria (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). Secret. Additionally, reports from the USSR suggested that Soviet government officials issued assurances that nothing all that terrible had happened, and the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) issued a far longer dispatch detailing the Three Mile Island accident (Schmemann and New York Times Service 1986). I opened the safe again, took out the first protocol from therethe originaland put the copy in its place. Col. Aksenov, 'Notice of Emergency Incident' (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). May 8th, 1986 Notice: Information from Places of Evacuation. The first photograph of Unit Four after the accident, shot from a helicopter by Chernobyl plant photographer Anatoly Rasskazov, at approximately 3.00pm on April 26, 1986. The test was meant to measure a turbogenerator's ability to provide in-house emergency power after shutting off its steam supply. Slavic Review, 74(1), 104126. The observed stronger relationship in Fukushima could reflect the difference between acute and chronic exposures, with Chernobyl bird populations showing a response to 20+ years of selection for resistance, or this could reflect the effects of other radionuclides (e.g., I-131 and Cs-134) that were present at high levels in Fukushima during the . And the main deadly isotope leaking out the Chernobyl reactor was not Cesium-137, but Deception-86. As it follows from the documents, the first meeting of the Politburo group was held on April 29, 1986. They never returned. Vorotnikov, V.I. On April 26, 1986, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the republic of Ukraine. Also at this link is: Untitled Notice on Public Attitudes Toward the Chernobyl Accident, Research Topic List: Inequality and Human Rights, Research Topic List: Political Revolutions, Research Topic List: Climate Change and Environmental Issues. Murakhovskys report. Even in Bulgaria criminal proceedings took place for those who had lied to the people about the radiation. IIn this secret letter to the Central Committee, Gubarev shares his observations and recommendations. Also included are excerpts from the diary of Politburo member Vitaly Vorotnikov, notes on Politburo sessions by Anatoly Chernyaev, and excerpts from rare official working copies of Politburo sessions that were publishedin Russian by former Rosarchiv director Rudolf Pikhoia in 2000. April 26th, 1986 Untitled notice about the categories of the population and body parts most susceptible to radiation. Instead, the radioactive materials had come from 900 miles away in Ukraine (Browne 1986). Russian State Archive of Contemporary History, Fond 89, opis 53, delo 6. In the morning the leadership formed a State Commission headed by Boris Shcherbina, which departed for Chernobyl later in the day. On Sunday April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near Pripyat, Ukraine, reactor #4 exploded. Scroll down for primary and secondary sources). According to Malcolm Browne, a journalist for The New York Times, Sweden was ideally situated to peek under Moscows veil of secrecy surrounding the Chernobyl accident due its close proximity to the USSR. April 27th, 1986 Untitled notice on levels of radiation in Chernobyl NPP and steps taken in response. Col. Aksenov, "Notice of Emergency Incident', Notice: Information from Places of Evacuation, Political Fallout: The Failure of Emergency Management at Chernobyl'. Committee for State Security (KGB/KDB), Untitled notice on levels of radiation in Chernobyl NPP and steps taken in response, Deputy Head of the 6th Department of the KGB Administration Lieut. Isnt this criminal? This collection contains Ukrainian and national KGB reports, Communist Party directives, and Ukrainian Academy of Science measurements which discuss technical issues with the plant, details of the accident, and emergency responses across the republic. The second part will include Soviet military reporting on the radiation contamination, the process of liquidation of the consequences, and more foreign reactions to the disaster. The conclusion about the possibility of the return of children and pregnant women to the areas where the radiation levels fall within the limits of 2 to 5 mR/hr. Both Cold War superpowers attempted to draw emphasis away from their own technological failings by criticizing their counterparts nuclear programs. Top Secret. The archival location data is transliterated from Ukrainian, while titles, locations, and descriptions are transliterated from Russian, the language of the original source material. A brief note from Vitaly Vorotnikovs diary shows a reassessment of the situation by Moscow. The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project and the Cold War International History Project, both part of the Wilson Centers History and Public Policy Program, have published new translations of 28 documents about the Chernobyl nuclear accident from the archives of the Ukrainian Security Service, or the Ukrainian KGB. August 15th, 1986 Report Memo from S. Mukha to Comrade A.P. The report quotes students mainly from the Middle East who discuss various rumors about the cause of the accidentthat it was political revenge, punishment for Communists, or karma. At the same time, Matlock believes that there are ways we can capitalize on this indirectly. He predicts correctly that one could expect an upsurge in generalized anti-nuclear sentiments, unless we act rapidly to lead public opinion. Matlock also outlines a notional proposal for the elimination of nuclear weapons clearly responding to Gorbachevs proposal of January 1986. This notice relays the level of radiation in the affected area and the measures undertaken for planned evacuations. 4, and several hundred staff and firefighters tackled a blaze that burned for 10 days and sent. At the Wilson Center, it is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Based on the latest data that has been gathered since we learned of the accident, it appears that the radioactive air mass from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor . https://doi.org/10.5612/slavicreview.74.1.104. I decided to go to the newspaper Izvestia, where I found the coveted Xerox. This memo reviews early Soviet information and information received through U.S. intelligence and speculates about the number of fatalities on the day of the explosion. The English-speaking international press was particularly focused on the lack of information surrounding Chernobyl. Some of the shattered core material was propelled through the roof of the reactor building. Protocol No. Chernobilsky Dossier KGB. ) and created the conditions for increased mortality, the increase in the number of malignant tumors, the increase of the number of deformities, hereditary and somatic medical problems, and a change in the populations capacity for work. This document summarizes the specialists' report on the lack of reliability of the reactors at Chernobyl, citing that the lack of protective layers and other structural flaws in the reactor that could lead to radioactive contamination and accidents. 4. (HDA SBU, Fond 65, Sprava 1, Tom 37). Protocol No. This note explains the processes of localizing the effects of the accident, lead deposits in the area, and the evacuation of collective farms and the city of Chernobyl. All Rights Reserved, International Dimensions of Decolonization in the Middle East and North Africa: A Primary Source Collection, The Jupiter Missiles and the Endgame of the Cuban Missile Crisis: Sealing the Deal with Italy and Turkey, Iraqi Archives and the Failure of Saddams Worldview in 2003, The CIA and the Committee for Free Asia under Project DTPILLAR, FJHUMMING: Radio Libertys Russian Language Broadcasts from Taiwan. Documents in the collection are in Russian and some in Ukrainian, with all titles translated . Many news sources pointed to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the USA, and both the USA and the USSR aimed to de-emphasize their nuclear technology failings. The Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear disaster in history, forced change upon the Soviet government as it was not possible to disguise the damage. Alexievich, S. (2006). Volume 2. This protocol of the second session of the Politburo Operational Group Chernobyl focuses on tasking representatives of government agencies with various emergency management duties. We will write a custom Research Paper on Chernobyl Nuclear Plant Disaster: Primary and Secondary Sources specifically for you. Key sources include protocols of the Politburo Operational Group on Chernobyl that were published in Russian by the journalist and former Supreme Soviet deputy Alla Yaroshinskaya in 1992. 4: The Story of Chernobyl in Documents I dropped in on the head of the special units of the Secretariat of the Armed Forces of the USSR Anatoly Burko, and explained that I had the right. Quote from Mieczyslaw Sowinski, head of the Polish atomic energy agency, explaining why Poland refrained from mentioning high radiation levels measured on April 27, 1986 (Kaufman and New York Times 1986). (HDA SBU, Fond 11, Sprava 992, Tom 29). (In 1991 in the USSR, Xerox copying machines were still inaccessible not only to ordinary citizens, but, as one can see, to members of parliament.) 4,010 pages of CIA, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Congressional, GAO, and foreign press monitoring files related to the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident. The collection also demonstrates that the government failed to inform the public of the true scope of radiation damage for years after the accident. The George Washington University Thousands of workers, called liquidators, were employed during the following years of the cleanup.Around October, 1986 the construction of a 21 story high metal and concrete shelter was completed, enclosing the reactor and the radioactive material that remained. (HDA SBU, Fond 31, Sprava 1). How much radioactivity has escaped and over how broad an area? The DOE team analyzed the accident in detail, assessed the plausibility and completeness of the information provided by the Soviets, and performed studies relevant to understanding the accident. According to Vladimir Dolgikh, the Central Committee Secretary in charge of heavy industry and energy production who received information from Station Director Viktor Bryukhanov, the fire was extinguished and the reactor was not damaged. [Authors Note- ! May 1986 Radiation Conditions in Kiev, Borodianka, Polesskoe, and Ivankov. On my return to my deputys office, I put the originals back in the safe and thought: in this country everything is so unsteady, and if the communists end up in power again tomorrow, what will become of my family? The level of gamma radiation particles is up to 1000 microroentgens per second. February 3rd, 1987 Intelligence Message on the Chernobyl Accident. I managed to fight my way to the most secret Kremlin documents only in 1991, when I was elected a Peoples Deputy of the USSR from the city of Zhytomyr, which is 86 miles from Chernobyl.