Midnight in Chernobyl

by Adam Higginbotham

  Koliadin, Anatoly. Electrician in thermal automation and measurement workshop, Unit Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant; editor of Chernobyl Post, 2003–2017, Kiev. July 10, 2015.

  Kopchinsky, Georgi. Senior advisor on nuclear power, Communist Party Central Committee, Moscow. Kiev, November 28, 2016.

  Korneyev, Yuri. Turbine operator, Fifth Shift, Unit Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, September 8 2015.

  Korol, Alexander. Trainee reactor control engineer, Unit Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, September 9, 2015 (interview by author) and April 17, 2018 (interview by Taras Shumeyko).

  Korolevska, Anna. In 2018, deputy director for science of the Chernobyl Museum. Kiev, July 10, 2015; February 8, 2016.

  Kovtutsky, Viktor. Chief accountant at Chernobyl nuclear power plant construction department. Kiev, April 23, 2016.

  Kozlova, Elena. Materials research technician, NIKIMT. Moscow, April 17, 2017.

  Kozyrev, Yuri. Senior scientist at the Gaseous Electronics Department of the Institute of Physics in Kiev. Kiev, April 21, 2017.

  Kryat, Anatoly. Chief of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory in the Department of Nuclear Safety, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, February 15, 2016.

  Kupny, Valentin. Director of Zaporizhia NPP; director of Chernobyl Shelter, 1995–2002. Slavutych, Ukraine, February 12, 2016.

  Legasov, Inga. Daughter of Academician Valery Legasov. Moscow, April 18, 2017.

  Leonenko, Vitali. Director of Medical-Sanitary Center Number 126, Pripyat. Vepryk, Ukraine, December 3, 2016.

  Lisovenko, Vasily; Major, head of the Third Division of the Sixth Department, Ukrainian KGB. Vyshenski, Ukraine, September 10, 2015.

  Logachev, Alexander. Senior lieutenant; chief radiation scout of the 427th Red Banner Mechanized Regiment of the Civil Defense Forces stationed in Kiev. Kiev, June 1, 2017 (conducted by the author) and June 3, 2017 (conducted by Taras Shumeyko).

  Mabuchi, Dr. Kiyohiko. Head of Chernobyl Research Unit and senior scientist, National Cancer Institute, Division of Epidemiology and Genetics. Telephone, September 13, 2018.

  Maleyev, Vladimir. In 1987, lieutenant colonel commanding 14th Radiation and Chemical Reconnaissance regiment of the Soviet Chemical Warfare Forces. Moscow, April 16, 2017.

  Masol, Vitali. Head of the Ukrainian State Committee for Material and Technical Supply (GOSSNAB); prime minister of Ukraine, 1994–1995. Kiev, June 1, 2017.

  McNeil, Oscar. Managing director of Chernobyl Shelter Implementation Plan, 2015–present, Telephone, June 11, 2018.

  Mimka, Lubomir. Colonel; deputy chief of staff of the Soviet Air Defense Forces’ Seventeenth Airborne Army, Kiev military district. Kiev, February 13, 2016.

  Moller, Anders. Research director; in 2018, Ecology, Systematics and Evolution Laboratory, University of Paris-Sud. Paris, France, January 26, 2011.

  Mousseau, Timothy. In 2018, professor of biological sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Columbia, SC, January 2011.

  Nazarkovsky, Alexander. Senior electromechanical engineer in charge of construction and installation quality control, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, February 16, 2006.

  Nesterov, Boris. Colonel; deputy commander of the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District. Dnipro, Ukraine, December 2, 2016.

  Nosko, Valeri. Major, Third Division of the Sixth Department, Ukrainian KGB. Kiev, September 9, 2015.

  Parashyn, Serhiy. Communist Party secretary, Chernobyl nuclear power plant; director, Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 1994–1998. Kiev, November 30, 2016.

  Petrovsky, Alexander. Sergeant, Third Watch, Paramilitary Fire Brigade Number Two. Bohdany, Ukraine, November 30, 2016.

  Prianichnikov, Veniamin. Director of plant technical training programs, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, February 13, 2006.

  Protsenko, Maria. Chief architect for the city of Pripyat. Kiev, September 5, 2015; April 24, 2016; and May 28, 2017.

  Reikhtman, Georgi. Deputy head of shift, Unit One, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, September 9, 2015.

  Robinson, Cliff. Radiochemistry laboratory technician, Forsmark nuclear power station, Sweden. Telephone, March 2, 2016.

  Sevastianov, Alexander. In 2016, shift engineer of Main Building Department, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Chernobyl nuclear power plant, February 10, 2016.

  Shcherbak, Iurii. Author; research professor in the epidemiological department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, Kiev; special correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta, Moscow, from May 1986 onward; founding member of Green World; delegate to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1989–1991. Kiev, February 9, 2016.

  Shyrokov, Sergei. Chief of the Atomic Energy Department, Ministry of Energy and Electrification, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Kiev, December 1, 2016.

  Sich, Alexander. MIT nuclear engineering PhD candidate and member of the Chernobyl Complex Expedition under the Kurchatov Institute and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, November 1990–April 1992. Telephone, December 21, 2016, and Steubenville, Ohio, April 20–21, 2018.

  Sirota, Alexander. Student attending School Number One, Pripyat. Ivankov, Ukraine, June 4, 2017.

  Sklyarov, Vitali. Minister of energy and electrification, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Kiev, February 6, 2016, and May 30, 2017.

  Slutsky, Valery. Bus driver in the city of Pripyat. Pripyat, Ukraine, February 17, 2006.

  Sorokin, Yuri. Defense attorney for Viktor Brukhanov. Moscow, October 13, 2016.

  Steinberg, Nikolai. Engineer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant beginning in 1971, and leaving in 1983 as chief turbine engineer, Units Three and Four. In April 1986, deputy chief engineer of Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant. Kiev, February 14, 2006; September 4, 2015, and May 28, 2017.

  Stolyarchuk, Boris. Senior unit engineer (SUIB), Fifth Shift, Unit Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, July 14, 2015 and December 5, 2016.

  Svetetsky, Anatoly. Head of technological safety systems, reactor and turbine department of Units Three and Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Kiev, May 28, 2017 (interview by Taras Shumeyko).

  Tarakanov, Nikolai. Major general; deputy chief of staff, Civil Defense Forces of the USSR. Moscow, October 22, 2015.

  Toptunova, Vera. Mother of Leonid Toptunov. Kiev, September 7 and September 10, 2015.

  Usatenko, Vladimir. Chief electrical engineer of the Dnieper Science Institute, Kharkov; drafted in October 1986 and posted to the Chernobyl zone as a sergeant in military repair company 73413. Kiev, December 1, 2016.

  Volodin, Sergei. Captain; helicopter pilot with the 225th Composite Air Squadron, Kiev military district. Kiev, February 15, 2006, and July 12, 2015.

  Von Hippel, Frank. Chairman of the Federation of American Scientists, 1983–1991. Princeton, NJ, February 15, 2018.

  Wilson, Richard. Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University; chairman of the American Physical Society Study Group on Severe Reactor Accidents. Cambridge, MA, August 11, 2016.

  Yankovsky, Sergei. Chief investigator of the Kiev region prosecutor’s office. Kiev, February 7, 2016, and May 31, 2017.

  Young, Martin. In 2018, director, policy and risk, World Energy Council. Telephone, August 3, 2018.

  Yuvchenko, Alexander. Senior mechanical engineer, Fifth Shift, Unit Four, Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Moscow, February 12, 2006.

  Yuvchenko, Natalia. Schoolteacher in Pripyat School Number Four; wife of Alexander Yuvchenko. Moscow, October 22, 2015, and October 11, 2016.

  Zakharov, Anatoly. Driver, Third Watch, Paramilitary Fire Brigade Number Two. Kiev, February 15, 2006, and February 8, 2016.

  Books and Memoirs

  Akhromeyev, Sergei, and Georgi Korniyenko. Through the Eyes of a Marshal and a Diplomat: A Critical Look at USSR Foreign Policy Before and After 1985 [Глазами маршала и дипломата: Критический взгляд на внешнюю политику СССР до и после 1985 года]. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 1992.

  Albats, Yevgenia. The State Within a
State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia—Past, Present, and Future. Translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994.

  Alexievich, Svetlana. Voices From Chernobyl. Translated by Keith Gessen. London: Dalkey Archive Press, 2005.

  Andriyanov, V., and V. Chirskov. Boris Scherbina [Борис Щербина]. Moscow: Molodaya Gvardiya, 2009.

  Antoshkin, Nikolai. Regarding Chernobyl [По Чернобылю]. Unpublished memoir.

  ———. The Role of Aviation in Localizing the Consequences of the Catastrophe at Chernobyl [Роль авиации в локализации последствий катастрофы на Чернобыльской АЭС]. Unpublished memoir.

  Arnold, Lorna. Windscale, 1957: Anatomy of a Nuclear Accident. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

  Baranovska, N., ed. The Chernobyl Tragedy: Documents and Materials [Чорнобильська Трагедія: Документи і матеріали]. Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1996.

  Belyaev, Igor. Chernobyl: Death Watch [Чернобыль: Вахта Смерти]. 2nd ed. IPK Pareto-Print, 2009.

  Belyaev, Igor A. Sredmash Brand Concrete [Бетон марки “Средмаш”]. Moscow: Izdat, 1996, http://elib.biblioatom.ru/text/belyaev_beton-marki-sredmash_1996.

  Bergdahl, Gunnar. The Voice of Ludmilla. Translated by Alexander Keiller. Goteborg: Goteborg Film Festival, 2002.

  Boldin, Valery. Ten Years That Shook the World: The Gorbachev Era as Witnessed by His Chief of Staff. New York: Basic Books, 1994.

  Borodavka, Anton. Faces of Chernobyl: Exclusion Zone [Лица Чернобыля: Зона отчуж дения]. Kiev: Statsky Sovetnik, 2013.

  Borovoi, A. A., and E. P. Velikhov. The Chernobyl Experience: Part 1 (Work on the “Shelter” Structure) [Опыт Чернобыля: Часть 1 (работы на объекте «Укрытие»)]. Moscow: Kurchatov Institute, 2012, www.nrcki.ru/files/pdf/1464174600.pdf.

  Brown, Kate. Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

  Chernousenko, Vladimir M. Chernobyl: Insight from the Inside. New York: Springer, 1991.

  Chernyaev, Anatoly, A. Veber, and Vadim Medvedev, eds. In the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . . . From the Notes of Anatoly Chernyaev, Vadim Medvedev, Georgi Shakhnazarov (1985–1991) [В Политбюро ЦК КПСС . . . По записям Анатолия Черняева, Вадима Медведева, Георгия Шахназарова (1985–1991)]. 2nd ed. Moscow: Alpina Business Books, 2008.

  Chernyaev, Anatoly S. My Six Years With Gorbachev. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

  Cooke, Stephanie. In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010.

  Cravens, Gwyneth. Power to Save the World: The Truth about Nuclear Energy. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.

  Crawley, Gerard M., ed. Energy from the Nucleus: The Science and Engineering of Fission and Fusion. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific Publishing, 2017.

  Daniloff, Nicholas. Of Spies and Spokesmen: My Life as a Cold War Correspondent. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008.

  Danilyuk, Yuri, ed. “Chernobyl Tragedy in Documents and Materials” [Чорнобильська трагедія в документах та матеріалах]. Special issue, Z arkhiviv VUChK–GPU–NKVD–KGB 1, no. 16, 2001.

  Denisevich, K. B., et al. Book 4: The Development of Atomic Power and Unified Electricity Systems [Книга 4: Развитие атомной энергетики и объединенных энергосистем]. Kiev: Energetika, 2011, http://energetika.in.ua/ru/books/book-4/section-2/section-3.

  Dobbs, Michael. Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.

  Dodd, Charles K. Industrial Decision-Making and High-Risk Technology: Siting Nuclear Power Facilities in the USSR. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.

  Donets, Natalia, et al. 25 Years of the National Olympic and Sports Committee of the Republic of Moldova [25 de ani ai Comitetului Naţional Olimpic şi Sportiv din Republica Moldova]. Chisinau: Elan Poligraph, 2016.

  Dyachenko, A. A., ed. Chernobyl: Duty and Courage [Чернобыль. Долг и мужество]. Vols. 1 and 2. Moscow: Voenizdat, 2001.

  Dyatlov, Anatoly. Chernobyl: How It Was [Чернобыль: Как это было]. Moscow: Nauchtekhlitizdat, 2003. Online at http://pripyat-city.ru/books/25-chernobyl-kak-yeto-bylo.html.

  Epstein, Edward Jay. Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer. New York: Random House, 1996.

  Esaulov, Alexander. The City That Doesn’t Exist [Город, которого нет]. Vinnytsia: Teza, 2013.

  Fischer, David. History of the Atomic Energy Agency: The First Forty Years. Vienna: IAEA, 1997.

  Gale, Robert Peter, and Thomas Hauser. Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl. New York: Warner Books, 1989.

  Gale, Robert Peter, and Eric Lax. Radiation: What It Is, What You Need to Know. New York: Vintage Books, 2013.

  Gorbachev, Mikhail S. Collected Works [Собрание сочинений]. Moscow: Ves Mir, 2008.

  Gubarev, Vladimir. Sarcophagus: A Tragedy. New York: Vintage Books, 1987.

  Gudov, Vladimir. Special Battalion no. 731 [731 спецбатальон]. Kiev: Kyivskyi Universitet Publishing Center, 2010. Translated by Tamara Abramenkova as 731 Special Battalion: Documentary Story (Kiev: N. Veselicka, 2012).

  Gusev, Igor A., Angelina K. Guskova, and Fred A. Mettler Jr., eds. Medical Management of Radiation Accidents. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2001.

  Guskova, A. K., and G. D. Baysogolov. Radiation Sickness in Man [Лучевая болезнь человека]. Moscow: Meditsina, 1971.

  Guskova, Angelina. The Country’s Nuclear Industry Through the Eyes of a Doctor [Атомная отрасль страны глазами врача]. Moscow: Real Time, 2004. Online at http://elib.biblioatom.ru/text/guskova_atomnaya-otrasl-glazami-vracha_2004.

  Ham, Paul. Hiroshima Nagasaki: The Real Story of the Atomic Bombings and Their Aftermath. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2014.

  Hansen, Chuck. U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History. Arlington, TX: Aerofax, 1988.

  Hawkes, Nigel, et al. The Worst Accident in the World: Chernobyl, the End of the Nuclear Dream. London: William Heinemann and Pan Books, 1988.

  Haynes, Viktor, and Marco Bojcun. The Chernobyl Disaster. London: Hogarth Press, 1988.

  Holloway, David. Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939–1956. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.

  Howes, Ruth H., and Caroline L. Herzenberg. Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999.

  Ignatenko, Evgeny, ed. Chernobyl: Events and Lessons [Чернобыль: события и уроки]. Moscow: Politizdat, 1989.

  Illesh, Andrey V. Chernobyl: A Russian Journalist’s Eyewitness Account. New York: Richardson & Steirman, 1987.

  Izrael, Y., ed. Chernobyl: Radioactive Contamination of the Environment [Чернобыль: Радиоактивное загрязнение природных сред]. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat, 1990.

  Jorgensen, Timothy J. Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.

  Josephson, Paul R. Red Atom: Russia’s Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

  ———. “Rockets, Reactors and Soviet Culture.” In Loren Graham, ed. Science and the Soviet Social Order. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

  Karpan, Nikolay. “First days of the Chernobyl accident. Private experience.” Memoir, 2008. Retrieved from the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute website, at www.rri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/NSRG/en/Karpan2008English.pdf.

  ———. From Chernobyl to Fukushima [От Чернобыля до Фукусимы]. Kiev: S. Podgorno
v, 2011. Translated by Andrey Arkhipets. Kiev: S. Podgornov, 2012.

  ———. Chernobyl: Revenge of the Peaceful Atom [Чернобыль. Месть мирного атома]. Kiev: CHP Country Life, 2005.

  Kopchinsky, Georgi, and Nikolai Steinberg, Chernobyl: On the Past, Present and Future [Чернобыль: О прошлом, настоящем и будущем] (Kiev: Osnova, 2011)

  Kostin, Igor. Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter. New York: Umbrage Editions, 2006.

  Kotkin, Stephen. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970–2000. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  Kozlova, Elena. The Battle with Uncertainty [Схватка с неизвестностью]. Moscow: Izdat, 2011. Online at http://elib.biblioatom.ru/text/kozlova_shvatka-s-neizvestnostyu_2011.

  Kruglov, A. K. The History of the Soviet Atomic Industry. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2002.

  Kupny, Alexander. Memories of Lives Given: Memories of Liquidators [Живы, пока нас помнят: Воспоминания ликвидаторов]. Kharkiv: Zoloty Storynki, 2011.

  Larin, Vladislav. “Mayak” Kombinat: A Problem for the Ages [Комбинат “Маяк”—проблема на века], 2nd ed. Moscow: Ecopresscenter, 2001.

  Legasova, Margarita. Academician Valery Alekseyevich Legasov [Академик Валерий Алексеевич Легасов]. Moscow: Spektr, 2014.

  ———. “Defenceless Victor: From the Recollections of Academician V. Legasov’s Widow” [Беззащитный победитель: Из воспоминаний вдовы акад. В. Легасова], Trud, June 1996. Translated in Mould, Chernobyl Record.

  Lewin, Moshe. The Soviet Century. Reprint. Edited by Gregory Elliott. New York: Verso, 2016.

  Ligachev, Yegor. Inside Gorbachev’s Kremlin: The Memoirs of Yegor Ligachev. Translated by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, Michele A. Berdy, and Dobrochna Dyrcz-Freeman. Introduction by Stephen F. Cohen. New York: Pantheon, 1993.

  Logachev, Alexander. The Truth [Истина]. Unpublished memoir, 2005.

  Lyashko, Alexander. The Weight of Memory: On the Rungs of Power [Груз памяти: На ступенях власти]. Volume 2 in a trilogy. Kiev: Delovaya Ukraina, 2001.