Midnight in Chernobyl

by Adam Higginbotham

  Identifying marrow donors: Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 57.

  For those relatives shown by the tests: Details of procedure from Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 34 and 56; and Champlin, “With the Chernobyl Victims.”

  When Vasily Ignatenko heard: Bergdahl, Voice of Ludmilla, 48–49.

  By the end of the first week: According to Barabanova’s records, Toptunov received transplants on the second and seventh days after the accident (April 27 and May 2) and Akimov on the fourth day after the accident (April 29).

  But three more patients: Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 54–55.

  This treatment stood even less chance: Champlin, “With the Chernobyl Victims”; Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  By then, the limitations: Champlin, “With the Chernobyl Victims.”

  Yet this analysis: Guskova and Gusev, “Medical Aspects of the Accident at Chernobyl,” 200; Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  And as the visible signs: Barabanova recalled that beta burns began to manifest on day six or seven: author interview, 2016.

  On May 2 Dr. Baranov estimated: Read, Ablaze, 145.

  Their families had high hopes: Elvira Sitnikova, testimony in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 281.

  After checking in: Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 47–50 and 161; Barabanova, author interview, 2016; Read, Ablaze, 143–44.

  The two men were driven: Read, Ablaze, 152.

  On the eighth floor: Gale writes in Final Warning that the sterile unit was on the fifth floor, but in subsequent testimonies, several witnesses—including Arkady Uskov and Ludmilla Ignatenko—agree that it was on the eighth.

  Up here was the hospital’s sterile: Herbert L. Abrams, “How Radiation Victims Suffer,” Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 42, no. 7 (1986): 16; Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  In the sterile unit: Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 52–53; Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  Young soldiers now came: By May 2, a detachment of soldiers with special chemical protection uniforms and equipment had arrived in Hospital Number Six and pitched tents outside on the lawn. Bergdahl, Voice of Ludmilla, 51; and Yuri Grigoriev, interview by Alina Kharaz, “It was like being at the front” [Там было как на фронте], Vzgliad, April 26, 2010, www.vz.ru/society/2010/4/26/396742.html.

  Some of the staff, especially: Sitnikova, testimony in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 281.

  The dozens of pills: In his hospital diary, Arkady Uskov noted having to take “some 30 pills a day” on his second week of treatment. Uskov, account in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 131.

  His hair began to fall out: Bergdahl, Voice of Ludmilla, 49–53.

  The worst-affected patients: Mould, Chernobyl Record, 81–82; Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 62–63.

  Unlike thermal burns: Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  Within the first twelve days: Read, Ablaze, 152–53; Gale and Hauser, Final Warning, 79; Adriana Petryna, Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013), 45; Champlin, “With the Chernobyl Victims.”

  But the doctors knew: Geiger, “The Accident at Chernobyl and the Medical Response,” 610.

  His contaminated overalls alone: Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  “Don’t worry”: Read, Ablaze, 157.

  He told a friend: Davletbayev, “The Final Shift,” 382.

  “I’ll never go back”: Read, Ablaze, 156.

  By the time Sergei Yankovsky: Sergei Yankovsky, author interview, Kiev, February 7, 2016; Barabanova, author interview, 2016.

  On May 6: Davletbayev, “The Last Shift,” 382.

  The patients watched from the windows: Uskov, diary entry, quoted in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 131.

  Had begun to shed his skin: Bergdahl, Voice of Ludmilla, 52.

  Lying alone in his room: Khmel, author interview, 2016.

  The deaths began: Dates of all deaths are provided in “List of Fatalities in the Accident at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant,” Chernobyl and Pripyat electronic archive.

  Grotesque rumors: Zakharov, interview by Taras Shumeyko, 2006.

  His eyes open, his skin black: Luba Akimov, testimony in Grigori Medvedev, Truth About Chernobyl, 253–54.

  Dr. Guskova now forbade: Uskov, account in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 131–34.

  While the first of his comrades: Parry, “How I Survived Chernobyl.”

  Yuvchenko moved into intensive care: Ibid.; Natalia Yuvchenko, author interview, 2015; and Barabanova, author interview, 2016. Although Natalia Yuvchenko is firm on this point, Barabanova, her husband’s doctor, insists that she never considered the need to amputate.

  On Tuesday, May 13: Bergdahl, Voice of Ludmilla, 56–58.

  With 90 percent of his skin covered: Barabanova, author interview, 2016; Vera Toptunova, author interview, 2015; Toptunov’s medical records, in Barabanova’s personal archive.

  Viktor Proskuryakov: Uskov, diary entry, quoted in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 131–33.

  By the end of the third week in May: Natalia Yuvchenko, author interview, 2016; Alexander Yuvchenko, interview by Bond, New Scientist, 2004.

  Alone in their rooms: Ibid., 133.

  14. THE LIQUIDATORS

  On Wednesday, May 14, 1986: Marples, Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR, 32. For full text of the speech, see “M. S. Gorbachev’s address on Soviet television (Chernobyl)” [Выступление М. С. Горбачева посоветскому телевидению (Чернобыль)], May 14, 1986, Gorbachev Foundation, www.gorby.ru/userfiles/file/chernobyl_pril_6.pdf.

  Reading from a prepared statement: Don Kirk, “Gorbachev Tries Public Approach,” USA Today, May 15, 1986.

  The accident at Chernobyl: Celestine Bohlen, “Gorbachev Says 9 Died from Nuclear Accident; Extends Soviet Test Ban,” Washington Post, May 15, 1986.

  Gorbachev railed against the “mountain of lies”: BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, “Television Address by Gorbachev,” text of broadcast, Soviet television 1700 GMT, May 14, 1986, translated May 16, 1986.

  Forty-eight hours earlier: Maleyev, Chernobyl: Days and Years, 51.

  A military task force: Mikhail Revchuk, account in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 92; Marples, Social Impact, 184; Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 51: “Report of the UkSSR OG KGBM and the USSR KGB on the town of Chernobyl to the USSR KGB concerning the radioactive situation and the progress in works on the cleaning up operation after the accident at the Chernobyl NPS,” July 4, 1986.

  Now Marshal Sokolov: Maleyev, Chernobyl: Days and Years, 54.

  From every republic of the USSR: Kozlova, The Battle with Uncertainty, 67 and 378; V. Lukyanenko and S. Ryabov, “USSR Cities Rush to Send Critical Cargo,” Pravda Ukrainy, May 17, 1986, translated in JPRS, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents.

  The spirit of patriotic mass mobilization: Andrey Illesh, “Survivors Write about Night of April 26,” Izvestia, May 19, 1986; and V. Gubarev and M. Odinets, “Communists in the Front Ranks: The Chernobyl AES—Days of Heroism,” Pravda, May 16, 1986, both translated in JPRS, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents.

  “Had temporarily got out of control”: Eduard Pershin, “They Were the First to Enter the Fire,” Literaturna Ukraina, May 22, 1986, translated in JPRS, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents.

  The residents of the evacuated territory: V. Prokopchuk, “We Report the Details: Above and Around No. 4,” Trud, May 22, 1986, translated in JPRS, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents.

  The first cleanup efforts: Discussions on isolating the radiation and decontaminating the zone were already taking place on May 3, according to a KGB memo filed the next day. Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 26: “Report of the UkSSR KGB 6th Department to the USSR KGB concerning the radioactive situation and progress in investigating the accident at the Chernobyl NPS,” May 4, 1986.

  No formal plans: Positions of Pikalov and the Health Ministry are outlined in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 89�
�91. Maleyev, Chernobyl: Days and Years, 61, gives the date of this decree as May 24. Kopchinsky and Steinberg mention that the 25 rem limit was imposed by Ministry of Energy Order No. 254, dated May 12, 1986 (Chernobyl, 59).

  Horrified by the lack of preparation: Nikolai Istomin, head of the occupational health and safety department at Chernobyl, account in Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 83–85. See also Evgeny Akimov, testimony in Chernousenko, Chernobyl: Insight from the Inside, 120–21.

  No comprehensive survey: M. A. Klochkov, testimony in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 70.

  There was a chronic shortage: Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 88; Valery Koldin, author interview, Moscow, April 2017; Kiselev, testimony in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 39.

  The task of clearing: Klochkov, testimony in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 71.

  By May 4, the first two colossal: Ibid., 70–71. Interrogated by a lieutenant general and a Soviet minister on the reasons for the failure, the composure of the officer in charge of the operation eventually snapped: “Why?” he shouted. “Why? I don’t know! Go and see for yourself!” At this, the bosses’ technical curiosity abruptly evaporated.

  Abandoned in a nearby field: Zhores Medvedev, Legacy of Chernobyl, 101.

  While the Ministry of Energy urgently: “Protocol no. 8 of the meeting of the Politburo Operations Group,” May 7, 1986, in RGANI. Concrete covering: Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 33: “Report of the UkSSR KGB 6th Department concerning the radioactive situation and progress in investigating the accident,” May 13, 1986. See also document no. 31, which mentions readiness to begin on May 11: “Special report of the UkSSR OG KGB chief in Chernobyl to the UkSSR KGB Chairman,” May 11, 1986.

  Construction teams fed the gray slurry: Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 93.

  Special Battalion 731 began work: Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 126, Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 93.

  Their shifts lasted as little: Revchuk, account in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 92–93.

  Called to help clear chunks of reactor graphite: Kiselev, testimony in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 40; Yuri Kolyada, testimony in Shcherbak, Chernobyl, 199.

  Such tasks exposed: Petryna, Life Exposed, xix.

  Meanwhile, underground, the battle: Prianichnikov, author interview, 2006.

  600 degrees centigrade: Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 34: “Report of the UkSSR OG KGBM and the USSR KGB in the town of Chernobyl to the USSR KGB concerning the radioactive situation and progress in investigating the accident,” May 15, 1986.

  Using a plasma torch: Vladimir Demchenko, account in Gudov, 731 Special Battalion, 90.

  Four hundred miners: These workers included 234 miners from the Donbas region in Ukraine and 154 from the Moscow Coal Basin: Borovoi and Velikhov, Chernobyl Experience: Part 1, 32.

  Once again, the deadline: Orders came down for the miners to begin work on May 16 and complete all digging work by June 22. By July 2, the cooling pipe network was planned to be ready. Dmitriyev, account in Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 64–66.

  The miners began tunneling: Reikhtman, author interview, 2015.

  Digging with hand tools: Yuri Tamoykin, account in Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 71.

  When the chamber was complete: Ibid., 68–72.

  The forty-kilogram graphite blocks: Dmitriyev (66) and Tamoykin (72–73), accounts in Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 66.

  Final assembly began: Tamoykin, account in Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 72.

  But long before the project was completed: Prianichnikov, author interview, 2006; Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 75–77.

  General of the Army Valentin Varennikov: Steinberg, recollections in Kopchinsky and Steinberg, Chernobyl, 101. For Varennikov’s biography, see “Gen. Valentin Varennikov Dies at 85; Director of the Soviet War in Afghanistan,” Associated Press, May 6, 2009.

  When the general arrived: Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl, Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 43. Minenergo construction workers: “Protocol no. 8 of the meeting of the Politburo Operations Group,” May 7, 1986, in RGANI.

  The Politburo now recognized: Vladimir Maleyev, author interview, Moscow, April 2017. Details of alcoholism and drug use in the Soviet Armed Forces in Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly Jr., Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature under Siege (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 165–66.

  A decree unprecedented in peacetime: See relevant parts of the decree (no. 634-188) in Vladimir Maleyev, “Chernobyl: The Symbol of Courage” [Чернобыль: символ мужества], Krasnaya Zvezda, April 25, 2017, archive.redstar.ru/index.php/2011-07-25-15-55-35/item/33010-chernobyl-simvol-muzhestva.

  They were told they were required: Colonel Valery Koldin, author interview, Moscow, April 2017.

  By the beginning of July: Danilyuk, ed., “Chernobyl Tragedy,” Z arkhiviv, document no. 51: “Report of the UkSSR OG KGBM and the USSR KGB,” July 4, 1986.

  The journey was long and hot: V. Filatov, “Chernobyl AES—Test of Courage,” Krasnaya Zvezda, May 24, 1986, translated in JPRS, Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Documents.

  Whether rising from: Yuri Kozyrev (senior physicist at the Ukrainian Institute of Physics), author interview, Kiev, April 2016.

  Those who understood the threat: In one interview he gave after his release from prison, former deputy chief engineer Dyatlov, for example, demonstrated this habit. See Michael Dobbs, “Chernobyl’s ‘Shameless Lies,’ ” Washington Post, April 27, 1992.

  But others remained unaware: Kozyrev, author interview, 2016.

  Only the fate of the crows: Klochkov, testimony in Dyachenko, ed., Chernobyl: Duty and Courage, vol. 1, 73.

  Daily radiation surveys: Zhores Medvedev, Legacy of Chernobyl, 77–78.

  The threat to the population: International Atomic Energy Agency, “Cleanup of Large Areas Contaminated as a Result of a Nuclear Accident,” IAEA Technical Reports Series No. 330 (IAEA, Vienna, 1989), Annex A: The Cleanup After the Accident at the Chernobyl Power Plant, 104–8.

  Wind and weather: Legasov, “My duty is to tell about this,” in Mould, Chernobyl Record, 294n9.

  The work of decontaminating: IAEA, “Cleanup of Large Areas,” 109.

  The word “liquidation”: Brown, Plutopia, 234.

  No one in the USSR—or, indeed, anywhere else: International Atomic Energy Agency, INSAG-1, 40.

  When General Pikalov: Read, Ablaze, 102 and 130–31. During the May 5 Politburo meeting (minutes reproduced in Maleyev, Chernobyl. Days and Years, 255), Ryzhkov likewise described a longer cleanup time than estimated by Pikalov, although in Ryzhkov’s report, this estimate was between one and two years. “This is unacceptable,” Ryzhkov concluded.

  On their return to Moscow: “Protocol no. 10 of the meeting of the Politburo Operations Group of the CPSU Central Committee on problems related to the aftermath of the Chernobyl NPP accident” [Протокол № 10 заседания Оперативной группы Политбюро ЦК КПСС по вопросам, связанным с ликвидацией последствий аварии на Чернобыльской АЭC], May 10, 1986, in RGANI, opis 51, reel 1.1006, file 22.

  Its construction teams were overwhelmed: Igor Belyaev, author interview, Moscow, April 2017.

  The USSR had been the first: Gorbachev to the Politburo, May 15, 1986, quoted by Volkogonov and Shukman, Autopsy for an Empire, 480.

  Sredmash chief Efim Slavsky arrived the next day: Belyaev, author interview, April 2017; I. Belyaev, Chernobyl: Death Watch [Чернобыль: Вахта смерти], 2nd ed. (IPK Pareto-Print, 2009), 7. The date of Slavsky’s arrival, May 21, fell a day after the formation of Construction Supervisory Agency no. 605 (Kozlova, Battle with Uncertainty, 217).

  “Lads, you’ll have to take the risk”: Belyaev, author interview, 2017.

  The following afternoon: Ibid.; Read, Ablaze, 208; BBC
Summary of World Broadcasts, “Other Reports; Work at Reactor and in Chernobyl: Interviews with Silayev and Ministers,” select Soviet TV and radio programming on May 18 and 19, translated May 20, 1986.

  In public, the Soviet government: On May 8, Izvestia acknowledged that there was some surface contamination beyond the zone but emphasized that it posed no threat to human health: Zhores Medvedev, Legacy of Chernobyl, 158.

  But in its secret sessions: “Protocol no. 10 of the Politburo Operations Group meeting,” May 10, 1986, in RGANI.

  Civil defense troops threw: Nikolai Tarakanov, author interview, Moscow, October 2016; Tarakanov, The Bitter Truth of Chernobyl [Горькая правда Чернобыля] (Moscow: Center for Social Support of Chernobyl’s Invalids, 2011), 5–6.

  On May 12 it banned: “Resolution of a selective meeting of the executive committee, the Soviet of People’s Deputies of the Kiev region” [Решение суженного заседания исполкома Киевского областного Совета народных депутатов], May 12, 1986, archive of the Chernobyl Museum.

  On every approach to Kiev: Lyashko, Weight of Memory, 372.

  The Kremlin’s chief scientists: Read, Ablaze, 187–88; Lyashko, Weight of Memory, 373–75.

  Romanenko, appeared once more on TV: A. Y. Romanenko, “Ukrainian Minister of Health: School Year to End by 15th May,” transcript of TV appearance on May 8, 1986, translated by BBC Summary of World Broadcasts on May 12, 1986; Read, Ablaze, 189.

  The evacuation began five days later: Lyashko, Weight of Memory, 376–78; Alexander Sirota, author interview, Ivankov, 2017.

  On May 22 Scherbitsky put his signature: “On the activities of local Soviets of people’s deputies of the Kiev region in relation to the accident at Chernobyl” [О работе местных Советов народных депутатов Киевской области в связи с аварией на Чернобыльской АЭС], May 21, 1986, archive of the Chernobyl Museum; V. Scherbitsky, “Information on ongoing work pertaining to the accident at Chernobyl NPP” [Информация о проводимой работе в связи с аварией на Чернобыльской АЭС], report no. I/50 to Central Committee of the CPSU, May 22, 1986, archive of the Chernobyl Museum.