Chornobyl: Forty years after

Chornobyl proved not only the dangers of nuclear power, but also how concealing the truth from the people contributed to the collapse of the mighty Soviet state

- MRIDULA GHOSH/KYIV

Forty years ago, on April 26, 1986, it was a weekend in Kyiv, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy. An evening fest had been planned at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. We, the international students, rushed to attend, but for no clear reason it was cancelled. The first real shock came around 1am, when my friend from Bulgaria relayed what the BBC had reported: there had been a nuclear accident near Kyiv.

The Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden had detected abnormally high levels of airborne radiation drifting from the direction of the USSR. At night, when signal jamming was weaker, foreign students would often listen to the BBC and VOA under the pretext of improving our English. We scarcely grasped the scale of the disaster.

Our thoughts drifted through the windows into the dark streets, where chestnut trees swayed quietly.

A KGB report noted that by 8am on April 28, radiation levels at units 3 and 4 were 1,000-2,600 microroentgen per second, while in parts of the city they ranged from 30 to 160. The then party chief of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, scribbled his now-famous note: "What does this mean?" It was a telling sign that even senior officials did not fully understand the danger. From the next day, we saw bright yellow Hungarian-made Ikarus buses, filled with children, leaving the city under militia escort.

People spoke in whispers, fearful of saying too much. It took two full days for the Soviet authorities to acknowledge the accldent publicly. A brief statement was aired on the 9 o'clock evening news programme Vremya on April 28, assuring viewers there was no cause for panic. The first advice on protecting oneself from radiation exposure appeared only on May 9 in Pravda Ukrainy, urging people to avoid dust. The general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, addressed the nation as late as May 14.