Secrecy and the Disinformation Campaign Surrounding Chernobyl

Abstract

This archival study focuses on secrecy, Soviet disinformation campaigns, and active measures designed to divert the attention of the international community from the 1986 Chernobyl accident, and to conceal state mismanagement, violence, and inefficiencies of the Soviet Union nuclear industry. More specifically, it illuminates the implications of the Soviet cover-up operation and its ultimate failure, particularly due to the efforts of the American intelligence community, including the CIA. American technological progress and intelligence were instrumental to the CIA’s understandings of the damage caused by Chernobyl, the dynamics of decontamination and its ethnic discriminatory practices, as well as the extent of the Soviet disinformation campaign. Importantly, Soviet active measures designed to obscure the scale and the consequences of the disaster had the opposite effect from what was expected, helping the American intelligence community accurately predict the potential political crisis in the USSR exacerbated by the Soviet cover-up operations and state violence. American analysts argued that popular concerns about the violent nature of the Soviet regime and discriminatory draft and decontamination policies would persist, amplifying ethnic tensions in Soviet republics. In hindsight, their analysis had profound predictive value.

Notes

1 Svetlana Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva: Khronika budushchego (Moskva: Vremia, 2016).

2 Nikolai Kravchuk, Zagadka Chernobylskoi katastrofy (Opyt nezavisimogo issledovaniia) (Moskva: “AIRO-XXI,” 2011), p. 13.

3 Liubov Kovalevskaia, Chernobyl. “DSP.” Posledstviia Chernobylia (Kiev: Abris, 1995). See also Chernobyl. Pripiat: Obo vsiom ponemnogu, 7 February 2012. http://pripyat-city.ru/books/178-chernobyl-dsp.html, accessed 30 May 2021.

4 Susan L. Maret, “Introduction: Overview and Organization of Government Secrecy: Classic and Contemporary Readings,” in Government Secrecy: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Susan L. Maret and Jan Goldman (Westport, CO and London: Libraries Unlimited, 2009), pp. xvii–xxviii, at p. xx.

5 Tsentralnyi Derzhavnyi Arkhiv Hromadskykh Ob’iednan Ukrainy/The Central State Archive of Civic Organizations in Ukraine (hereafter TsDAHOU), 1/10/939/53–57.

6 TsDAHOU, 1/25/1259/1–4.

7 V. Bar’yakhtar, V. Poyarkov, V. Kholosha, and N. Shteinberg, “The Accident: Chronology, Causes, and Releases,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 5–34, at p. 5.

8 Yurii Shcherbak, Chernobyl: A Documentary Story, translated by Ian Press (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989), p. 12.

9 Bar’yakhtar et al., “The Accident,” p. 9. See also Serhii Plokhy, Chernobyl: The History of Nuclear Catastrophe (New York: Basic Books, 2020).

10 Bar’yakhtar et al., “The Accident,” p. 14.

11 According to several studies, people’s (especially children’s and adolescents’) exposure to small doses of I-131 is the major cause of thyroid cancer, which develops due to residual tissue radiation damage caused by the radioisotope. Typically, people develop this type of cancer years after exposure, long after iodine-131 decays. See Steven L. Simon, André Bouville, and Charles E. Land, “Fallout from Nuclear Weapons Tests and Cancer Risks,” American Scientist, No. 94 (2006), pp. 48–57; Vladimir Drozdovitch, “Chernobyl Childhood Thyroid Dosimetry,” National Cancer Institute (2021). https://dceg.cancer.gov/research/how-we-study/exposure-assessment/chernobyl-childhood-thyroid-dosimetry (accessed 30 May 2021).

12 Zhores Medvedev, The Legacy of Chernobyl (New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 151. On the evacuation issue and numbers of displaced people, see also David R. Marples, Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986), pp. 141–46; V. Poyarkov, “Introduction,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 1–4, at p. 3.

13 V. Shestopalov and V. Poyarkov, “Environmental Contamination,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 97–179, at p. 168.

14 Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, p. 7.

15 Ibid., p. 6.

16 Ibid., p. 178; I. Los and V. Poyarkov, “Individuals: Accident Remediation Personnel and Public Doses,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 181–204, at p. 181.

17 Poyarkov, “Introduction,” p. 3. The construction of the shelter began in May and was completed in November 1986.

18 V. Bar’yakhtar, V. Poyarkov, V. Kholosha, and V. Kukhar, “The Shelter: Containing the Destroyed Reactor,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 35–84, at p. 40.

19 Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, p. 183.

20 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/119.

21 Kovalevskaia, Chernobyl. “DSP.”

22 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/128.

23 TsDAHOU, 1/11/1374/18.

24 The State Commission was created on the second day after the accident. The deputy head of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Boris Shcherbina, was appointed its chair.

25 TsDAHOU, 1/11/1398/24.

26 V. Bar’yakhtar et al., “The Shelter,” p. 74; V. Bar’yakhtar et al., “The Accident,” pp. 7–8; George J. Vargo, “Editor’s Foreword,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), p. xi.

27 Bar’yakhtar et al., “The Accident,” pp. 16–17.

28 Shcherbak, Chernobyl, pp. 15–21.

29 Natalie Grant, Disinformation: Soviet Political Warfare, 1917–1992 (Washington, DC: Leopolis Press, 2020), p. xxv; also, for an enlightening discussion about these tactics and Russian disinformation, see Michael Weiss’ talk, “The Menace of Unreality: Combatting Russian Disinformation in the 21st Century,” YouTube, 3 November 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZZFuiiQ2I (accessed 31 May 2021). The 30 October 2014 panel discussion “The Menace of Unreality” was hosted at the Legatum Institute in cooperation with the Atlantic Council and the U.S. Department of State.

30 Grant, Disinformation, p. xxv.

31 Ibid.

32 “Incidents in Soviet Nuclear Power Plants,” in Chernobyl’ Accident: Social and Political Implications (research paper), CIA/Directorate of Intelligence/Office of Soviet Analysis, 1 December 1987 (declassified 7 March 2012). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000300900002-4 (accessed 29 May 2021), p. 26.

33 David E. Kaplan, “Meltdown at Sea,” CIA, 2 May 1986 (declassified 9 February 2012). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90-00965r000403220005-9 (accessed 29 May 2021); see also Sergey Bukan, “Military Affairs: On the Trail of Submarine Disasters” (report), CIA/CIA Analysis of Soviet Navy, 15 September 1992 (declassified 16 June 1917). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/0000078940 (accessed 29 May 2021).

34 Haluzevyi Derzhavnyi Arkhiv Sluzhby Bezpeky Ukrainy/The Sectoral State Archive of the Security Service in Ukraine (hereafter HDA SBU), f. 11, spr. 992, t. 29, ark. 108.

35 Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, pp. 35, 87.

36 Serafim Vorobiov (interview by Sergei Babakov), “Vnachale mne ne poveril dazhe syn…,” Zerkalo nedeli/Ukraina, 23 April 1999. http://gazeta.zn.ua/SOCIETY/vnachale_mne_ne_poveril_dazhe_syn.html (accessed 29 May 2021).

37 HDA SBU, f. 11, spr. 992, t. 29, ark. 1076.

38 Vorobiov, “Vnachale mne ne poveril dazhe syn…”

39 Ibid.

40 N. V. Karpan, Ot Chernobylia do Fukusimy (Kiev: S. Podgornov. 2011), p. 14; Kravchuk, Zagadka chernobylskoi katastrofy, p. 74.

41 Kravchuk, Zagadka Chernobylskoi katastrofy, p. 92.

42 Ibid., p. 77.

43 Importantly, the secrecy veiling Chernobyl and the Soviet traditions of silencing inconvenient truths survived even in independent Ukraine, the most liberal post-Soviet state in terms of archival procedures. Archival documents related to Chernobyl that are located in TsDAHOU were declassified on 8 April 1998. See a note on declassifying Chernobyl documents in TsDAHOU, 1/11/1379. The SBU archive in Kyiv declassified some documents about Chernobyl in 2006 but researchers could freely access such documents only after the passage of the April 2015 law about access to archival documents of repressive organs of the Communist regime. See also Aleksievich’s take on deceit around the issue of Chernobyl in Chernobylskaia molitva, pp. 14, 189, 207, 229, 258.

44 Shcherbak, Chernobyl, p. 73.

45 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/113.

46 Ibid.

47 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/117.

48 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/115.

49 TsDAHOU, 1/25/2997/21.

50 See the 29 April 1986 protocol of the Politburo of the TsK KPSS, which was signed by A. Luk’ianov in Alla Yaroshinskaia, “Lozh na vesakh Chernobylia,” Zerkalo nedeli, 26 April 2007. https://zn.ua/ECOLOGY/lozh_na_vesah_chernobylya.html (accessed 29 May 2021); see also Secret Protocol no. 7, 6 May 1986. Present: members of the Politburo of the CC CPSU Comrades N. I. Ryzhkov, E. K. Ligachev, V. I. Vorotnikov, V. L. Chebrikov, the secretary of the CC CPSU A. N. Yakovlev, and others. Alla Yaroshinskaya, “Deception on the Scale of Chernobyl,” National Security Archive (date unknown). https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nunn-lugar-russia-programs/2019-08-15/top-secret-chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-through-eyes-soviet-politburo-kgb-us-intelligence (accessed 30 May 2021).

51 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/118.

52 TsDAHOU, 1/25/2996/17.

53 Yaroshinskaia, “Lozh na vesakh Chernobylia.”

54 Ibid.

55 In his 2014 interview, Romanenko blames Moscow for its politics of silence. See Anatolii Romanenko (interview by Sergei Kostezh), “15 let vo glave minzdrava,” 112.ua, 11 February 2014. https://112ua.tv/glavnye-novosti/15-let-vo-glave-minzdrava-eksklyuzivnoe-intervyu-s-anatoliem-romanenko-20139.html (accessed 29 May 2021); see also TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/117.

56 Anastasiia Zanuda, “Chornobyl-30: spohady, zasvidchenni arkhivamy KDB,” BBC Ukraina, 25 April 2016. http://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/society/2016/04/160419_chornobyl_kgb_archives_memories_az (accessed 29 May 2021).

57 TsDAHOU, 1/25/2996/14.

58 TsDAHOU, 1/25/2996/15.

59 Calder Walton, “The Deadly Fallout of Disinformation,” The Washington Post, 8 July 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/08/deadly-fallout-disinformation/ (accessed 30 May 2021).

60 TsDAHOU, 1/25/2996/1.

61 Svetlana Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, pp. 180, 260–262. On 27 April, by 6:00 PM, 1,390 buses relocated 44,460 people from the Exclusion Zone and Pryp’iat to 43 villages and towns in the Poliskyi district and to ten villages and towns in the Ivankivskyi district, areas that became extremely contaminated within several days after the explosion. See TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/114; 1/25/2996/5.

62 Walton, “The Deadly Fallout of Disinformation.”

63 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/116–17.

64 TsDAHOU, 1/11/1379/14.

65 TsDAHOU, 1/11/1359/5.

66 TsDAHOU, 1/11/1369/16.

67 Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, pp. 12–13, 35, 95.

68 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/120.

69 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/121.

70 Aleksievich, Chernobylskaia molitva, p. 106.

71 Ibid., pp. 24, 35, 88, 94.

72 “Chernobyl’: A Year Later” (research paper), CIA/Directorate of Intelligence, 1 August 1987 (declassified 2 December 2013). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000401290002-0 (accessed 29 May 2021), p. 20; see also “The Chernobyl’ Accident: Social and Political Implications,” CIA/Directorate of Intelligence, 1 December 1987 (declassified 7 March 2012). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000300900002-4 (accessed 29 May 2021), p. 21, esp. 22. The CIA obtained this information from the chairman of the Estonian Refugees Committee of Solidarity in Sweden.

73 Elena Shmaraieva, “Radioaktivnyi protsess” (abridged title), Mediazona, 26 April 2016. https://zona.media/article/2016/26/04/chernobyl (accessed 30 May 2021).

74 Piers Paul Read, Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl (New York: Random House, 1992), p. 228.

75 TsDAHOU, 1/25/3166/173.

76 Dosimetrists were those who measured radiation, using Gieger counters (dosimeters).

77 TsDAHOU, 1/2/1065/136, 138.

78 Read, Ablaze, p. 245.

79 Shmaraieva, “Radioaktivnyi protsess.”

80 Yaroshinskaya, “Deception on the Scale of Chernobyl”; Yaroshinskaia, “Lozh na vesakh Chernobylia.”

81 Timothy L. Ericson, “Building our Own ‘Iron Curtain’: The Emergence of Secrecy in American Government (2005),” in Government Secrecy: Classic and Contemporary Readings, edited by Susan L. Maret and Jan Goldman (Westport, CT and London: Libraries Unlimited, 2009), pp. 146–176, at p. 167.

82 Ericson, “Building our Own ‘Iron Curtain,’” p. 161.

83 See a CIA collection of documents entitled Soviet Nuclear Programs/Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents: CIA Files. http://swiss-ukrainian.ch/assets/files/ChernobylCIAFiles.pdf (accessed 30 May 2021).

84 See the 31 July 1986 memo of Deputy Director for Intelligence Richard J. Kerr to the Director of Central Intelligence William J. Casey, “Collection on Chernobyl Disaster,” CIA, 31 July 1986 (declassified 29 August 2011). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp90g01359r000300050004-8 (accessed 30 May 2021).

85 “Estimate of Fatalities at Chernobyl Reactor Accident,” CIA, 2 May 1986 (declassified 5 July 2011). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp88g01117r000401020003-1 (accessed 30 May 2021), p. 2.

86 “Chernobyl Summary,” CIA, 23 May 1986 (declassified 31 August 2011). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp91b00874r000100170009-5 (accessed 30 May 2021).

87 Ibid.

88 “Possible Use of Forced Labor at Chernobyl,” CIA, 5 June 1986 (declassified 31 August 2011). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp91b00874r000100170008-6 (accessed 30 May 2021).

89 “Chernobyl Summary,” CIA, 23 May 1986; see also Chernobyl’ Accident: Social and Political Implications (research paper), CIA/Directorate of Intelligence/Office of Soviet Analysis, 1 December 1987 (declassified 7 March 2012). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp08s01350r000300900002-4 (accessed 29 May 2021).

90 “Chernobyl: More Fallout in Eastern Europe,” CIA, 19 August 1986 (declassified 17 March 2011). https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp87r00529r000100070033-1 (accessed 30 May 2021).

91 Herbert Romerstein and Stanislav Levchenko, The KGB against the “Main Enemy”: How the Soviet Intelligence Service Operates against the United States (Toronto, Canada: Lexington Books, 1989), p. 303.

92 Romerstein and Levchenko, The KGB against the “Main Enemy,” p. 304; see also Joshua Rubenstein and Alexander Gribanov (Eds.), The KGB File of Andrei Sakharov (New Haven, CT & London: Yale University Press, 2005), pp. 318–319.

93 HDA SBU, f. 16, op. 1, spr. 1245, ark. 85–86; for more on Louis, see Grant, Disinformation, p. 375.

94 Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets: The Definitive Expose of Soviet Espionage in America (Washington, DC: Regnery History, 2014).

95 John M. Goshko, “For Forgery Specialist, A Case Close to Home: USIA Letter on Chernobyl Called Phony,” The Washington Post, 19 August 1986, p. A19.

96 Kovalevskaia, Chernobyl. “DSP.”

97 Read, Ablaze, p. 344.

98 Ian Fairlie and David Sumner, “The Other Report on Chernobyl (TORCH),” Chernobylreport (Berlin, Brüssel, London, and Kiev), 6 April 2006. http://www.chernobylreport.org/?p=summary (accessed 30 May 2021).

99 V. Poyarkov, V. Kholosha, and Yu. Saenko, “Society: Social Risks After the Accident,” in The Chernobyl Accident: A Comprehensive Risk Assessment, edited by George J. Vargo (Columbus and Richland, OH: Battelle Press, 2000), pp. 205–208, at p. p. 210.

100 Kovalevskaia, Chernobyl. “DSP.”

101 Oleh Bazhan, “Peredmova,” in Chornobylske dos’ie KGB: Suspilni nastroi. CHAES u postavariinyi period, edited by Oleh Bazhan, Volodymyr Birchak, and Hennadii Boriak (Kyiv: Instytut natsionalnoi pam’iati/HDA SBU, 2019), p. 7.

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Olga Bertelsen

Olga Bertelsen is an Associate Professor of Global Security and Intelligence at Tiffin University. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Medical State University (Ukraine), Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University, and the University of Nottingham (UK). Her previous publications focus on Russian operations of ideological subversion, political violence in the USSR, and the methods and traditions of the Soviet/Russian secret police. Her most recent books Russian Active Measures (2021) and In the Labyrinth of the KGB (2022) analyze and reconstruct Soviet/Russian covert operations.