State Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine published secret KGB documents: the very first report "up" about the explosion by the director of ChNPP Viktor Bryukhanov, the negotiations of the plant operators at the time of the accident, the evacuation of almost 45 residents of Pripyat and adjacent districts.
"Even 35 years after the terrible tragedy at the Chernobyl NPP, the chronology of those events remains unknown pages for most people. But millions of those whose lives were changed by the accident must learn the truth, and the whole world must remember its consequences," the SBU noted.
Among the published documents are other little-known facts that were hidden by the Soviet authorities.
Thus, archival records show that accidents at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred even before April 26, 1986. For example, in 1982, a significant release of radioactive substances occurred at the first power unit. But the KGB report on this ends with the usual "measures taken to prevent panic and provocative rumors." In 1984, emergency situations occurred at the third and fourth power units.
In addition, it is reported that in 1983 the leadership of Moscow received information that the ChNPP is one of the most dangerous nuclear plants in the USSR due to the lack of safety equipment. In the event of an accident, radioactivity was estimated to be "60 times higher than during the explosions of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
"After the accident, the Soviet government looked for various "conspiracy theories", but did not recognize the reality. Already on April 27, a list of "unreliable" residents of Pripyat, foreign delegations that visited ChNPP, as well as "sectarians, representatives of German nationality and those who correspond abroad" was ready. And then there are documents that the "nationalists" wanted to obtain samples of contaminated soil with the help of the "agency network in Kiev" in order to discredit the Soviet leadership in the world," the published documents say.
It also became known that on July 8, 1986, there was a directive that classified all the details of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant: its causes, the nature of the destruction, the composition of the mixture thrown into the air during the explosion, the radiation situation, the scope of liquidation work, morbidity, and others.
In October 1987, French newspaper correspondent Jean-Pierre Vaudon tried to take soil and water samples from Pripyat abroad. However, in a secret report, the KGB reported on a successful special operation: the samples taken by the foreigner were replaced with radioactively clean ones.
More facts about the accident can be found in the two collections "Chernobyl Dossier of the KGB", prepared by the SBU archive and the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. They are freely available.
