Excerpts From Speech: ‘A Stern Test Has Been Passed’

Here are excerpts from Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s television address Wednesday on the Chernobyl nuclear accident as published by the English-language service of the official Soviet news agency Tass:

Good evening, comrades.

As you all know, a misfortune has befallen us--the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It has painfully affected Soviet people and caused the anxiety of the international public. For the first time ever we encountered in reality such a sinister force as nuclear energy that has escaped control.

So what did happen?

As specialists report, the reactor’s capacity suddenly increased during a scheduled shutdown of the fourth unit. The considerable emission of steam and subsequent reaction resulted in the formation of hydrogen, its explosion, damage to the reactor and the associated radioactive release.

It is yet early to pass final judgment on the causes of the accident. All aspects of the problem--design, projecting, operation and technical--are under the close scrutiny of the government commission.

It goes without saying that when the investigation of the accident is completed, all the necessary conclusions will be drawn and measures will be taken ruling out a repetition of anything of this sort.

The seriousness of the situation was obvious. It was necessary to evaluate it urgently and competently. And as soon as we received reliable initial information, it was made available to Soviet people and sent through diplomatic channels to the governments of foreign countries.

Effective Assistance

In the situation that had taken shape, we considered it our top priority duty, a duty of special importance to ensure the safety of the population and provide effective assistance to those who had been affected by the accident.

The inhabitants of the settlement near the station were evacuated within a matter of hours and then, when it had become clear that there was a potential threat to the health of people in the adjoining zone, they also were moved to safe areas.

Nevertheless, the measures that were taken failed to protect many people. Two died at the time of the accident--Vladimir Nikolayevich Shashenok, an adjuster of automatic systems, and Valery Ivanovich Khodemchuk, an operator at the nuclear power plant.

As of today, 299 people were in hospitals diagnosed as having radiation disease of varying degree of gravity. Seven of them have died. Every possible treatment is being given to the rest. The best scientific and medical specialists of the country, specialized clinics in Moscow and other cities are taking part in treating them and have at their disposal the most modern means of medicine.

Workers Saluted

A stern test has been passed and is being passed by all--firemen, transport and building workers, medics, special chemical protection units, helicopter crews and other detachments of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

I must say that people have acted and are continuing to act heroically, selflessly.

The most serious consequences have been averted. Of course, the end is not yet. It is not the time to rest. Extensive and long work still lies ahead. The level of radiation in the station’s zone and on the territory in the immediate vicinity still remains dangerous.

I cannot fail to mention one more aspect of that affair. I mean the reaction abroad to what happened at Chernobyl. In the world on the whole, and this should be emphasized, the misfortune that befell us and our actions in that complicated situation were treated with understanding.

We are profoundly grateful to our friends in socialist countries who have shown solidarity with the Soviet people at a difficult moment. We are grateful to the political and public figures in other states for the sincere sympathy and support.

Americans Mentioned

We express our kind feelings to foreign scientists and specialists who showed readiness to come up with assistance in overcoming the consequences of the accident. I would like to note the participation of American medics Robert Gale and Paul Terasaki in the treatment of affected persons and to express gratitude to the business circles of those countries which promptly reacted to our request for the purchase of certain types of equipment, materials and medicines.

But it is impossible to leave without attention and political assessment the way the event at Chernobyl was met by the governments, political figures and the mass media in certain NATO countries, especially the U.S.A.

‘Anti-Soviet Campaign’

They launched an unrestrained anti-Soviet campaign.

It is difficult to imagine what was said and written these days--’Thousands of Casualties,’ ‘Mass Graves of the Dead,’ ‘Desolate Kiev,’ that ‘The Entire . . . Ukraine Has Been Poisoned,’ and so on and so forth.

Generally speaking, we faced a veritable mountain of lies--most dishonest and malicious lies. It is unpleasant to recall all this, but it should be done. The international public should know what we had to face. This should be done to find the answer to the question: What, in actual fact, was behind that highly immoral campaign?

Its organizers, to be sure, were not interested in either true information about the accident or the fate of the people at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in any other place, in any other country. They needed a pretext by exploiting which they would try to defame the Soviet Union, its foreign policy, to lessen the impact of Soviet proposals on the termination of nuclear tests and on the elimination of nuclear weapons, and at the same time, to dampen the growing criticism of the U.S. conduct on the international scene and of its militaristic course.

Bluntly speaking, certain Western politicians were after very definite aims--to blast the possibilities for balancing international relations, to sow new seeds of mistrust and suspicion toward the socialist countries.