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ABSTRACT
In the late 1940s, the Soviet Union rushed to build and test its first nuclear bomb to reach parity with the United States. The Soviet government chose the steppes of Kazakhstan as its first nuclear-testing site. In difficult conditions, weapons program participants built the site and, in 1949, tested the first Soviet nuclear bomb. Shrouded in secrecy, the Soviet military complex continued to conduct nuclear tests in Kazakhstan for forty years while the local population became an unwilling victim of the Soviet nuclear might. Nuclear tests, especially during the earlier years of atmospheric testing, resulted in severe health and environmental consequences for thousands of nearby residents. Mass protests in Kazakhstan against nuclear tests built the momentum that drove the Kazakh government's decision to close down the Semipalatinsk nuclear-testing site in 1989. Organized public movement against nuclear testing became an important part of Kazakhstan’s nation-building process. Since closing down the site, Kazakhstan has prioritized nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, using its tragic nuclear past as a platform for making meaningful contributions to international security. Kazakhstan now offers the former nuclear-test site at Semipalatinsk for exercises designed to strengthen the verification capacity of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). The country also plays a leading role in promoting CTBT entry into force.
Notes
1 F.A. Kholin, “Radost’ Truda i Bol’ Veterana [Happiness of Work and Pain of the Veteran],” Istoriya Atomnogo Proekta [History of the Atomic Project], Part 4 (Moscow: Kurchatov Institute, 1995), p. 49.
2 David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994) remains one of the best accounts of the Soviet nuclear program in English literature.
3 Affected population was not limited to ethnic Kazakhs and represented the multiethnic mix of Kazakhstan.
4 For first-hand accounts of nuclear test participants, see Istoriya Atomnogo Proekta.
5 Semipalatinskii Poligon: Obespechenie Obschei i Radiatscionnoi Bezopasnosti Yadernyh Ispytanii [Semipalatinsk Test Site: General and Radiation Security of Nuclear Test], Medbioekstrem, Ministry of Health, Moscow, 1997, p. 21.
6 Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb, p. 214.
7 Ibid., pp. 216–17.
8 Information from the Museum of Nuclear Testing, Kurchatov, Kazakhstan. Rem is a unit used to measure the dose equivalent (or effective dose), which combines the amount of energy (from any type of ionizing radiation that is deposited in human tissue), along with the medical effects of the given type of radiation. US NRC Glossary, <www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/rem-roentgen-equivalent-man.html>.
9 Other sources mention more than 200 rem, e.g. Vladimir S. Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site: Creation, Operation, and Conversion (Albuquerque New Mexico: Sandia National Laboratories, 2002), p. 72.
10 B.A. Atchabarov, Zabluzhndeniya, Lozh’ i Istina po Voprosu Ocenki Vliyaniya na Zdorov’ye Lyudei Ispytaniya Atomnogo Oruzhiya na Semipalatinskom Yadernom Poligone [Misconceptions, Lies, and Truth on the Issue of Impact of Nuclear Weapons Testing at Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on the Population Health] (Almaty: Karzhy-Karazhat, 2002), p. 21.
11 Semipalatinskii Poligon: Sozdanie, Stanovlenie, Deyatel’nost’ [Semipalatinsk Testing Site: Creation, Development, and Activity], Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Moscow, 2007, p. 116; “Ispytaniya Pervyh Termoyadernyh Zaryadov RDS-6S i RDS-37 [Tests of First Thermonuclear Devices RDS-6S and RDS-37],” in Yadernye Ispytaniya SSSR [Nuclear Tests of the USSR] Sarov, 1997, Volume 1, Chapter 5, section 5–6.
12 Ibid.
13 Information from the Museum of Nuclear Testing, Kurchatov, Kazakhstan.
14 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 75.
15 Information from the Museum of Nuclear Testing, Kurchatov, Kazakhstan.
16 “Ispytaniya Pervyh Termoyadernyh Zaryadov RDS-6S i RDS-37.”
17 Ibid.
18 Talgat Slyambekov, “Karaul” in Kanat Kabdrakhmanov, Odinochestvo -dom bez sten, dusha bez doma ; Transtsedentalnoe kocheve, konets puti ; 470 bomb v serdtse Kazakhstana 470 Bomb v Serdtsce Kazakhstana [470 Bombs in the Heart of Kazakhstan], (Almaty: Kazakhstan 1994), p. 105. Researchers from Texas A&M University and Claremont College interviewed one of the forty people who was forced to stay behind, pp. 26–27. In their account they refer to the settlement as Kainar. Other sources note that it was Karaul. See Cynthia Werner and Kathleen Purvis-Roberts, “Unravelling the Secrets of the Past: Contested Versions of Nuclear Testing in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan,” The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, November 28, 2005, <www.ucis.pitt.edu/nceeer/2005_818_16_Werner.pdf>.
19 Ibid.
20 “Ispytaniya Pervyh Termoyadernyh Zaryadov RDS-6S i RDS-37.”
21 Ibid. Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 49; “Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing by the Soviet Union,” CTBTO, <www.ctbto.org/nuclear-testing/the-effects-of-nuclear-testing/the-soviet-unionsnuclear-testing-programme/page-4-effects-of-nuclear-weapon-testing-by-the-soviet-union/>.
22 S.L. Davydov, “Zadacha, stavshaya delom zhizni [“Task That Became Matter of Life],” in Istoriya Atomnogo Proekta, Part 2, p. 296.
23 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 26.
24 “Act on Materials on the Number of Nuclear and Non-Nuclear Explosions Carried out at Semipalatinsk Test Site, from 1949 to 1989,” the Working Commission of the Presidential Administration, Council of Ministers, February 28, 1992, Kazakhstan President’s Archive, Almaty, Kazakhstan.
25 “Podzemnye Yadernye Ispytaniya: Tehnologii, Vozdeistvie na Okruzhayuschuyu Sredu, Mery po Obespecheniyu Bezopasnosti [Undeground Nuclear Tests: Technology, Impact on the Environment, Population Safety Measures],” in Yadernye Ispytaniya SSSR.
26 Radiation Safety Standards (RSS-69), Moscow, Atomizdat, 1970, Semipalatinskii Poligon: Obespechenie Obschei i Radiatscionnoi Bezopasnosti Yadernyh Ispytanii [Semipalatinsk Test Site: General and Radiation Security of Nuclear Tests], Medbioekstrem, Ministry of Health, Moscow, 1997, pp. 59–60.
27 Institute of Biophysics, Population Health in Regions Adjacent to the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, 1998, p. iii.
28 Ibid.
29 For first-hand accounts of nuclear test participants, see Istoriya Atomnogo Proekta.
30 High-yield weapon tests did not begin until the late 1950s. “Gosudarstvennaya Sistema Organizatscii Yadernyh Ispytanii v SSSR [State System of Nuclear Tests Organization in the USSR],” in Yadernye Ispytaniya SSSR, section 2–12.
31 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 86.
32 “Gosudarstvennaya Sistema Organizatscii Yadernyh Ispytanii v SSSR [State System of Nuclear Test Organization in the USSR].”
33 “Spravka o Rabote Gruppy Nauchnyh Sotrudnikov Instituta Biofiziki Akademii Medicinskih Nauk SSSR po Obsledovaniyu Naseleniya Semipalatinskoi Obl [Reference on the Work of a Group of Scientists from the Institute of Biophysics of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences]” in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir: Sbornik Dokumentov i Materialov [Kazakhstan For Nuclear-Free World: Collection of Documents and Materials], Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Central State Archive of Film and Photo Documents and Audiorecordings of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty, 2011, pp. 27–30.
34 Ibid., p. 29.
35 Ibid., p. 30.
36 Ibid.
37 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 100.
38 “Spravka Kollektiva Vrachei Dispansera #4 Sekretaryu Semipalatinskogo Obkoma KP Kazakhstana M.A. Suzhikovu o Radiologicheskoi Obstanovke Oblasti i ee Vliyanii na Lyudei [Reference of Dispanser #4 for the Secretary of the Semipalatinsk Region Communist Party Committee M.A. Suzhikov on Radiological Situation in the Region and on Its Impact on Population],” Semipalatinsk, February 24, 1958, classified as Top Secret, published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, pp. 21–27.
39 Ibid., p. 23.
40 Ibid., p. 24.
41 Ibid., p. 26.
42 Report of B.I. Gusev, Chief Physician of the USSR Ministry of Health’s Radiological Clinic, to USSR First Deputy Minister of Health Gennady V. Sergeyev, “Overview of the Health Status of Persons Residing on the Territories of Abay, Beskaragay, and Zhana-Semey Districts, Semipalatinsk Region Previously Exposed to Ionizing Radiation at Various Dose Ranges,” copy of original document in Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, pp. 324–28.
43 Institute of Biophysics, Population Health in Regions Adjacent to the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, pp. 5–6.
44 Ibid., p. 15.
45 Ibid., p. 19.
46 Institute of Biophysics, “Population Health in Regions Adjacent to the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing Site,” p. 5.
47 B.A. Atchabarov, Zabluzhndeniya, Lozh’ i Istina po Voprosu Ocenki Vliyaniya na Zdorov’ye Lyudei Ispytaniya Atomnogo Oruzhiya na Semipalatinskom Yadernom Poligone [Misconceptions, Lies, and Truth on the Issue of Impact of Nuclear Weapons Testing at Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site on the Population Health] (Almaty: Karzhy-Karazhat, 2002).
48 “Dokladnaya Zapiska Rukovoditelei Semipalatinskoi Obl. Predsedatelyu Soveta Ministrov SSSR N.S. Khruschevu, Predsedatelyu Soveta Ministrov Kazakhskoi SSR D.A. Kunaevu, Zamministra Zdravoohraneniya SSSR A.I. Burnazyanu ‘O Provedenii Ispytanii Yadernogo Oruzhiya’ [Memo of the leadership of Semipalatinsk region to the Chair of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.S. Khruschev, the Chair of the Council of Ministers of Kazakh SSR D.A. Kunaev, USSR deputy health minister A.I. Burnazyan ‘On Nuclear Tests at the Semipalatinsk Test Site’]” signed by I. Berezin and I. Kassenov, Semipalatinsk, December 10, 1958, published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, pp. 34–41.
49 “Informatsciya Pervogo Sekretarya Semipalatinskogo Obkoma KP Kazakhstana M.P. Karpenko Pervomu Sekretaryu KP Kazakhstana D.A. Kunaevu ob Obespechenii Naseleniya g. Semipalatinska Zhil’yem [From a letter of First Secretary of Semipalatinsk Obkom of the Communist Party M.P. Karpenko to First Secretary of the Community Party of Kazakhstan D. A. Kunaev on Supplying Population of Semipalatinsk with Dwelling],” August 18, 1962, published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, pp. 45–47.
50 “Informatsciya Nachal’nika UKGB pri Sovete Ministrov Kazakhskoi SSR po Semipalatinskoi obl. M. Dzhandil’dinova Pervomu Sekretaryu Semipalatinskogo Obkoma KP Kazakhstana M.P. Karpenko ob Otritscatel’noi Reaktscii Naseleniya na Atomnye Ispytaniya [Information of the head of KGB division of the Council of Ministers of Kazakh SSR in Semipalatinsk Region M. Dzhandil’dinov to First Secretary of the Semipalatinsk Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan M.P. Karpenko on the Negative Reaction of Local Population Towards Nuclear Tests],” published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, pp. 63–71.
51 Ibid., p. 64.
52 Ibid., p. 68.
53 “Informatsciya Sotscial’no-ekonomicheskogo otdela TscK KP Kazakhstana o Vyvodah, Sdelannyh pri Vyezde na Ispytatel’nyi Poligon Posle Vzryva 12 Fevralya 1989 g [Information of the Socio-Economic Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan on the Conclusions Made after a Visit of the Nuclear Testing Site After the Test of February 12, 1989],” published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, p. 71.
54 Ibid., p. 72.
55 Ibid., pp. 72–73.
56 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 170.
57 One of the leaders of the antinuclear movement Nevada-Semipalatinsk, Maidan Abishev, recalls that within days of Suleimenov’s appeal, around two million people signed the petition to close STS. Sayazhan Kaukenova, “Uchastnik Dvizheniya ‘Nevada-Semipalatinsk’ Podelilsya Vospominaniyami 25-Letnei Davnosti’ [Participant of Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement Shared His Memories from 25 Years Ago],” Bnews Kz, April 1, 2014, <http://bnews.kz/ru/news/atom_project/astana/spetsproekti/atom_project/uchastnik_dvizheniya_nevadasemipalatinsk_podelilsya_vospominaniyami_25letnei_davnosti-2014_04_01-945701>.
58 “Informatsciya Zamestitelya Predsedatelya Soveta Ministrov Kazakhskoi SSR E. Asanbayeva v TscK KP [Information of the Deputy Chair of the Council of Ministers of Kazakh SSR E. Assanbayev for the Central Committee of the Communist Party],” published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir, p. 84.
59 Shkolnik, ed., The Semipalatinsk Test Site, p. 175.
60 “Recomendatsii Nauchno-prakticheskoi Konferentsii ‘Zdorov’ye Naseleniya i Ekologicheskaya Obstanovka v g. Semipalatinske i Semipalatinskoi Obl. Kazakhskoi SSR [Recommendations of the Scientific-Practical Conference On Population Health and Ecological Situation in Semipalatinsk and Semipalantinsk Region of Kazakh SSR],” July 17-19, 1989, published in Kazakhstan Za Bez’yadernyi Mir: Sbornik Dokumentov i Materialov, pp. 90–97; A. Akanov, S. Yamashita, S. Merimanov, A. Indershyiev, A. Musakhanova, Atomnye Vzryvy i Razvitie Obschestvennogo Zdravohraneniya [Nuclear Explosions and Public Health Development], Nagasaki-Almaty, 2008, p. 113.
61 Author's interview with Gulsum Kakimzhanova, head of IRIS NGO, Almaty, 2009, originally quoted in Togzhan Kassenova, “The Lasting Toll of Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September 28, 2009, <http://thebulletin.org/lasting-toll-semipalatinsks-nuclear-testing>.
62 Letter from Kehsrim Boztayev to Mikhail Gorbachev, Keshrim Boztayev, Semipalatinskii Poligon [Semipalatinsk Test Site], Almaty, Kazakhstan, 1992, p. 191.
63 Decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, No. 409, August 29, 1989.
64 Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia, September 8, 2006, <http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/canwfz/text>.
65 Werner and Purvis-Roberts, “Unravelling the Secrets of the Past.”
66 B.I. Gusev, R.I. Rosenson, Z.N. Abylkassimova, “The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site: A First Analysis of Solid Cancer Incidence (Selected Sites) due to Test-Related Radiation,” Radiation and Environmental Biophysics 37, October 1998, p. 209.
67 Yuri E. Dubrova, Rakhmet I. Bersimbaev, Leila B. Djansugurova, Maira K. Tankimanova, Zaure Zh. Mamyrbaeva, Riita Mustonen, Carita Lindholm, Maj Hulten, and Sisko Salomaa, “Nuclear Weapons Tests and Human Germline Mutation Rate,” Science, 295, February 8, 2002, p. 1037.
68 Tom Parfitt, “Nuclear Tests Leave Kazakhstan Still Searching for Answers,” Lancet 376, October 16–22, 2010, pp. 1289–90.
69 L. Danyarova, “Combined effect of the environmental factors as ionizing radiation and a chronic iodine deficiency on the thyroid gland and the immune condition,” International Thyroid Conference, September 2010, <https://inis.iaea.org/search/searchsinglerecord.aspx?recordsFor=SingleRecord&RN=43054744>.
70 “Thyroid Disease Near Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, Kazakhstan,” National Cancer Institute Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics,” <http://dceg.cancer.gov/research/who-we-study/cohorts/semipalatinsk-nuclear-test-site-kazakhstan>.
71 Noriyuki Kawano, Kyoko Hirabayashi, Masatsugu Matsuo, Yasuyuki Taooka, Takashi Hiraoka, Kazbek Apsalikov, Talgat Moldagaliev, Masaharu Hoshi, “Human Suffering Effects of Nuclear Tests at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan: Established on the Basis of Questionnaire Surveys,” Journal of Radiation Research 47, pp. 209–17.
72 For a useful overview of scientific studies of the STS area, see Roman Vakulchik and Kristian Gjerde with Tatiana Belikhina and Kazbek Apsalikov, Semipalatinsk Nuclear Testing: The Humanitarian Consequences, NUPI, NUPI Report No. 1, 2014, p. 20, <http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/powell2/docs/vakulchuk.pdf>.
73 “The Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, Kazakhstan,” International Atomic Energy Agency, December 9, 2014, <www-ns.iaea.org/appraisals/semipalatinsk.asp>; Peter Kaiser, “IAEA Calls for Cordon Around Highly Contaminated Areas at Former Nuclear Site,” IAEA Division of Public Information, August 27, 2010, <www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/iaea-calls-cordon-around-highly-contaminated-areas-former-nuclear-site>.
74 ATOM Project, <www.theatomproject.org/en/>.
75 Rong-Song Jih, Robert A. Wagner, “Location Calibration of Kazakhstan Based on DTRA (US)-NNC (ROK) Joint Experiments (1997-1999) in the Former Semipalatinsk Test Site,” 22nd Seismic Research Symposium, September 12–14, 2000, <www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a573872.pdf>; W. Leith, W., L.J. Kluchko, C.P. Knowles, D.A. Linger, L. Gabriel, N.N. Belyashova, Sh.T. Tukhvatulin, V.N. Demin, and V.E. Konovalov, “CTBT Calibration Explosions at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (1997-2000),” Vestnik Natsional'nogo Yadernogo Tsentra Respubliki Kazakhstan 2, pp. 31–36; “Semipalatinsk Test Site,” Nuclear Threat Initiative, October 1, 2009, <www.nti.org/learn/facilities/732/>.
76 “Exercises,” CTBTO, <http://ctbto.org/verification-regime/on-site-inspection/exercises/>.
77 Ibid.
78 “Final Preparations for Major CTBT Inspection Exercise,” CTBTO, September 2008, <www.ctbto.org/the-organization/workshops-training-and-exercises/previous-technicalworkshops-selection/final-preparations-for-majorctbt-inspection-exercise>.
79 “On-Site Inspections: The Integrated Field Exercise 2008,” CTBTO Preparatory Commission, <www.ctbto.org/videos/ctbto-movieon-site-inspections-the-integrated-field-exercise-2008/>.
80 “Conference on Facilitating the Entrance Into Force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,” CTBTO, <www.ctbto.org/the-treaty/article-xiv-conferences/afc2015/>.
81 Erlan Idrissov, “Statement of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Erlan Idrissov at the Ministerial Meeting Dedicated to 20th Anniversary Since the Opening of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty for Signature,” Vienna, June 13, 2016, <www.ctbto.org/fileadmin/user_upload/statements/2016_Ministerial_Meeting/Kazakhstan.pdf>.