Turning the pages back...
May 4, 1986
In the days following the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, The Ukrainian Weekly published many news stories, analyses and commentaries related to the cataclysm. Following are excerpts of a story headlined "The ramifications of the Chornobyl catastrophe," which appeared on May 4, 1986.
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JERSEY CITY, N.J. - "The nuclear disaster at Chornobyl has major implications and undermines the credibility of the Gorbachev regime."
That's how a noted expert on the Soviet Union assessed the political fallout from the accident at the Soviet nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Prof. Bohdan Bociurkiw, a 1984-1985 fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the credibility of the Gorbachev regime - both domestically and internationally - has been dealt a serious blow by last week's disaster.
Dr. Bociurkiw, during a telephone interview with The Ukrainian Weekly on May 1, pointed out that the extraordinary Soviet effort to restrict information about the nuclear accident flies in the face of promises of openness made by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev during the 27th Soviet Party Congress.
Mr. Gorbachev, in his keynote speech at the congress, said: "Extensive, timely and frank information is evidence of trust in the people, respect for their intelligence and feelings and of their ability to understand events of one kind or another on their own."
Prof. Bociurkiw expects the relation between Moscow and its neighbors will sour because of its early silence about the accident. He added that the authorities in Poland likely received much more information about the effects of the nuclear disaster than officials in Ukraine.
The handling of the Chornobyl accident, Dr. Bociurkiw said, brings to mind the vague Soviet coverage of the 1965 earthquake disaster in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, when TASS admitted to only four fatalities. In the days following the Tashkent disaster, Soviet citizens were shocked to discover that the number of people killed by the earthquake was much higher: more than 8,000 people actually died in that disaster.
"This, along with the misleading Soviet coverage of the South Korean airline incident exposes the Soviet predilection for lying," Dr. Bociurkiw said.
After the smoke clears from the Chornobyl accident, Dr. Bociurkiw believes Moscow will make strident attempts at "searching for a scapegoat" for internal purposes. In an attempt to maintain face before its own people, the Kremlin leaders will likely point an accusing finger for the embarrassing mishap not at themselves, but towards the management of the Chornobyl power plant and possibly the Soviet ministry responsible for energy, Dr. Bociurkiw said.
The nuclear accident may very well provide the Kremlin with an excuse to conduct a long-awaited leadership shake-up in Ukraine. Dr. Bociurkiw believes Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, the first secretary of the Communist Party in Ukraine, will likely be the first victim of a leadership purge, he said, especially since the Ukrainian leader is depicted as a leftover from the Brezhnev era.
"The people who were in charge locally will also be among the first victims of any reprisals from the Kremlin," Dr. Bociurkiw added. ...
Source: "The Ramifications on the Chornobyl catastrophe" by David R. Marples, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 4, 1986, Vol. LIV, No. 18 (reprinted on April 21, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 16, in a special issue published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster.)
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 30, 2000, No. 18, Vol. LXVIII
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