Chernobyl: An Internal Contradiction of Glasnost Strategy + A Look at Modern Covert Technology (1/2)

Glasnost, Mikhail Gorbachev’s new found policy of openness and transparency within the Soviet Union was a dominant aspect of his strategic thought. However, this policy of openness faced difficulties when it came to a long tradition of doing whatever necessary to ensure the country did not lose face with the rest of the world – with the USSR being a country that was historically quite obsessed with not being humiliated. This internal contradiction was especially evident when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster happened on 26th of April 1986 in Chernobyl, Ukraine where a nuclear reactor core exploded due to reactor design flaws and breach of protocol during a simulated power outage safety test. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in the world’s history. With Greenpeace estimating the death toll to be over 200,000 people, the official death toll still to this day in Russia remains at 31 people (McLaughlin, 2019) . It is clear that this is a country that has been always in denial about this travesty, and the buck stops with Gorbachev.

At the time of Chernobyl, the Soviet Union was on its last political legs due to a growing consensus that the system had become unstable and ineffective. Severe shortages of basic food staples due to the ongoing intervention in Afghanistan and catastrophic failures of the planned economy were already exerting a severe strain on the system (Moore, 2016) . Thus, such a disaster couldn’t have occurred at a worse time for Gorbachev, with many retrospectively attributing Chernobyl as the final straw that led to the ultimate downfall of the Soviet Union. This is why many comment that Gorbachev would have felt like he had no option but to stage a cover up at the time, as the fallout would be too great for the USSR to withstand. As mentioned, the cover up directly contradicted Gorbachev’s core strategy of Glasnost, which sought to build greater transparency and openness with the Soviet public.

Over a two-part series, this post will examine examples of this cover up in Chernobyl. It will also look at how Gorbachev might have leveraged modern covert information systems by examining examples of how such technologies are being used across the world for censorship related purposes.

Examples of the Gorbachev led Cover Up in Chernobyl

A ticket inviting school children to a May Day parade in Kiev days after the accident (Moore, 2016).

Above is an example of the deceitful health advice regarding the levels of radiation in the surrounding areas of Chernobyl, where the government demanded children be brought out onto the street in Kiev for a parade to show that the city was safe. However, children of the Communist Party elite had been flown out of the area and would not be attending the parade. (Moore, 2016)

The cover up started almost as soon as the explosion occurred, with firemen sent to the scene to control the blaze like cattle to an abattoir, and the KGB blocking phone calls between the plant and the rest of the Soviet Union and censoring telegrams from nearby town Pripyat. In fact, Gorbachev maintained a national information blackout on the accident for a full two days until April 28th, at which point Sweden raised the alarm about a radiation cloud coming over northern Europe. (McLaughlin, 2019)

A photo of a child’s bedroom in the ghost-city of Pripyat (Solohubenko, 2016).

Today the nearby town of Pripyat, just 3km from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, is now an abandoned ghost-city with a 30km exclusion zone as levels of radiation are still so high that it is highly unsafe for human habitation. Despite this, the town was not evacuated until 36 hours after the disaster. Residents were given 50 minutes notice and told to only bring few belongings and clothes as they would be returning in a few days, another example of the callous lies and total disregard for the health of ordinary citizens. (Moore, 2016)

The 2nd part of this post will examine the examples of covert information systems that Gorbachev may have needed to use to stage such a cover up in today’s digital age where the spread of information makes cover ups more complex to carry out than ever before. Particularly, how similar regimes of today such as North Korea and China are engaging in information system censorship using these technologies.

References

McLaughlin, D. (2019). Chernobyl: The lies, the heroes, the horrors. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio-web/chernobyl-the-lies-the-heroes-the-horrors-1.3878468 [Accessed 5 Nov. 2019].

Moore, C. (2016). Haunting photos show abandoned town 30 years after Chernobyl disaster. [online] Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556058/Haunting-photographs-abandoned-hospital-beds-rotting-gas-marks-town-devastated-Chernobyl-nuclear-disaster-30-years-ago.html [Accessed 5 Nov. 2019].

Solohubenko, O. (2016). How Chernobyl shook the USSR. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36139863 [Accessed 5 Nov. 2019].