Chernobyl: The Forbidden Truth

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this impassioned, shocking, and deeply personal story, Alla Yaroshinskaya, then a journalist from Zhitomir, Ukraine, near the Chernobyl power station, describes the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the bureaucratic and scientific corruption surrounding it. Despite the government's official silence, news and panic spread throughout the USSR and Europe after the horrific accident. Like others, Yaroshinskaya initially fled with her family in hopes of escaping the danger from radioactive fallout that exceeded that of Hiroshima by three hundred times. When she returned home, she discovered that people in highly contaminated areas were being resettled in ones barely less contaminated, that their serious health problems were officially denied, and that people had to eat locally grown contaminated food. Her newspaper refused to publish her stories and instead commissioned another journalist to write more reassuring accounts. Finally, Isvestia published her articles. Despite official pressure, Yaroshinskaya was nominated overwhelmingly to the new parliament in 1989. This position gained her access to classified documents known as the Kremlin's "Forty Secret Protocols." Undaunted by threats, she revealed an official cover-up, including lies about "permissible" higher radio-active levels. Her courageous campaign won her the Right Livelihood Award in 1992.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This is a shocking yet fascinating personal account of the events surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. Investigating the incident while working as a journalist, Yaroshinskaya struggled to publish her findings, which exposed the Soviet government's lack of action in relocating citizens to uncontaminated areas or providing "clean" food and milk. After her election to the new parliament in 1989, she was able to access and publish previously classified information regarding the government's early knowledge of the damaging health effects of the accident and prior warnings about the safety of the Chernobyl-type graphite-moderated reactor. Her revelation that the Soviets had deliberately withheld such critical scientific and health information not only from those affected but from the rest of the world as well is horrifying. Yaroshinskaya includes revealing quotes from former Soviet officials and portions of compelling interviews from people who remained or still remain in contaminated areas years after the incident. This work is filled with Russian place and personal names that may be unfamiliar to casual readers. For academic libraries.Judith L. Lesso, Health Sciences Lib, West Virgina, Univ., Morgantown

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