Ukrainian Helsinki Union, "Atomic Evil Out of Ukraine!," 1988
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was a terrible tragedy for the people and environment of Ukraine--and a body blow for Soviet leadership. It radicalized many Ukrainians, who found the courage to criticize the Soviet Union and call for reform. The Ukrainian Helsinki Union published this petition in 1988.
Questions to consider:
1. In what ways do Ukrainians justify a rejection of what they call Soviet 'centralism' and support for Ukrainian nationalism?
2. What evidence do you see of a loosening of the iron curtain? What do the Ukrainians know about the rest of the world?
3. Speculate: is it inevitable that an opening of outside ideas will encourage dissent?
An Appeal from the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union
Citizens of Ukraine!
The threat of destruction hangs over our country, the specter of degeneration over our people. As a result of the criminal centralist policies of the Stalinist-Brezhnevite leadership, which ignores the interests of the sovereign (on paper only) republics; as a result of the irresponsibility of the local authorities, who leased out Ukraine to the mafias in the ministries and departments, Ukraine is oversaturated with energy, mining, metallurgical, and chemical industries, those that produce the greatest amounts of harmful wastes. Nearly 50% of the atomic energy output of the Soviet Union is concentrated in Ukraine.
The Chernobyl tragedy, which shook the entire world, taught the ruling bureaucratic leadership nothing. New atomic reactors are being built or planned for the Rivne, the Novo-Ukrayinka, the Khmelnytsk and the Zaporizhzhia atomic power stations. Despite protests by the community, the construction of the Crimean atomic power station is near completion, while in Chyhyryn, the very historical center of Ukraine, quietly like thieves they continue building an atomic power plant. And this is at a time when Ukraine even now exports electricity to other countries, when, with efficient management, a reduction in the energy requirements to world standards, the entire electrical energy output of Ukrainian atomic power plants would become superfluous.
And this when atomic energy is banned in many countries or is being cut back, when such a superindustrial country as the U.S.A. has decided to renounce the further building of atomic power plants and shut down existing ones.
The time has come to put an end to predatory management practices in our land. At first we were forced to take pride in being the bread basket of Russia, then the all-Union forge and the all-Union boiler room. Today Ukraine is becoming the all-Union reactor, and, in perspective, the all-Union, and even the all-human cemetery. Today we are called upon to remind the rulers that this land has a master-the people, for whom it is not only the means of carrying out production plans, but also the historical cradle of the past, the native home in which present and future generations could live a life of happiness.
Glasnost brought the long overdue truth about the cruel thirties to the pages of our newspapers. But if we rejoice about the truth of the past alone then the years ahead will be even more horrific. Yes, the artificial famine of the thirties took eight million lives; the blood runs cold in the veins at the thought. But what about today's truth? Where is it? Why do they want to lull it to sleep, the truth about the seven and one half million who walk among us today and who, in the opinion of competent scientists, will be prematurely laid to rest in the earth? And this is only from one reactor in Chernobyl! But fifty have been planned for us!
Ukrainian scientists, writers and public figures appealed to the authorities and later to the 19th Conference of the ruling party, demanding that the further development of atomic energy in Ukraine be halted. The issue of a referendum was raised. However, as evidenced by the reaction to this appeal, or, more accurately, by the absence of any reaction whatsoever, no one has taken these demands seriously; no one even thinks about asking the people. Meanwhile the Ministry of Atomic Energy pushes forward by putting new reactors and new nuclear power plants into operation.
People! Let's stop the madmen! Let's stop them before it's too late!
May this collection of signatures become a national referendum by which the Ukrainian people and all other nationalities that live on the territory of Ukraine declare for life. Our land witnessed many enemy invasions. Our ancestors preserved it for us. Today the historical responsibility for Ukraine's fate falls with all its weight upon us. So let’s defend our native land against the merciless talons of centralism and from our own irresponsibility and indifference to our fate, the fate of our children and grandchildren, the fate of our suffering land.
Excerpted in Excerpted and introduced in Padraig Kenney, 1989: Democratic Revolutions at Cold War's End. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 147-149. Kenney cites this original source: From Ukrainian Helsinki Union, "'Atomic Evil-Out of Ukraine!' The Ukrainian Helsinki Union Demands a Nuclear Free Ukraine!" in Dissent in Ukraine under Gorbachev, ed. Taras Kuzio (London: Ukrainian Press Agency, 1989), 38-39.
Questions to consider:
1. In what ways do Ukrainians justify a rejection of what they call Soviet 'centralism' and support for Ukrainian nationalism?
2. What evidence do you see of a loosening of the iron curtain? What do the Ukrainians know about the rest of the world?
3. Speculate: is it inevitable that an opening of outside ideas will encourage dissent?
An Appeal from the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union
Citizens of Ukraine!
The threat of destruction hangs over our country, the specter of degeneration over our people. As a result of the criminal centralist policies of the Stalinist-Brezhnevite leadership, which ignores the interests of the sovereign (on paper only) republics; as a result of the irresponsibility of the local authorities, who leased out Ukraine to the mafias in the ministries and departments, Ukraine is oversaturated with energy, mining, metallurgical, and chemical industries, those that produce the greatest amounts of harmful wastes. Nearly 50% of the atomic energy output of the Soviet Union is concentrated in Ukraine.
The Chernobyl tragedy, which shook the entire world, taught the ruling bureaucratic leadership nothing. New atomic reactors are being built or planned for the Rivne, the Novo-Ukrayinka, the Khmelnytsk and the Zaporizhzhia atomic power stations. Despite protests by the community, the construction of the Crimean atomic power station is near completion, while in Chyhyryn, the very historical center of Ukraine, quietly like thieves they continue building an atomic power plant. And this is at a time when Ukraine even now exports electricity to other countries, when, with efficient management, a reduction in the energy requirements to world standards, the entire electrical energy output of Ukrainian atomic power plants would become superfluous.
And this when atomic energy is banned in many countries or is being cut back, when such a superindustrial country as the U.S.A. has decided to renounce the further building of atomic power plants and shut down existing ones.
The time has come to put an end to predatory management practices in our land. At first we were forced to take pride in being the bread basket of Russia, then the all-Union forge and the all-Union boiler room. Today Ukraine is becoming the all-Union reactor, and, in perspective, the all-Union, and even the all-human cemetery. Today we are called upon to remind the rulers that this land has a master-the people, for whom it is not only the means of carrying out production plans, but also the historical cradle of the past, the native home in which present and future generations could live a life of happiness.
Glasnost brought the long overdue truth about the cruel thirties to the pages of our newspapers. But if we rejoice about the truth of the past alone then the years ahead will be even more horrific. Yes, the artificial famine of the thirties took eight million lives; the blood runs cold in the veins at the thought. But what about today's truth? Where is it? Why do they want to lull it to sleep, the truth about the seven and one half million who walk among us today and who, in the opinion of competent scientists, will be prematurely laid to rest in the earth? And this is only from one reactor in Chernobyl! But fifty have been planned for us!
Ukrainian scientists, writers and public figures appealed to the authorities and later to the 19th Conference of the ruling party, demanding that the further development of atomic energy in Ukraine be halted. The issue of a referendum was raised. However, as evidenced by the reaction to this appeal, or, more accurately, by the absence of any reaction whatsoever, no one has taken these demands seriously; no one even thinks about asking the people. Meanwhile the Ministry of Atomic Energy pushes forward by putting new reactors and new nuclear power plants into operation.
People! Let's stop the madmen! Let's stop them before it's too late!
May this collection of signatures become a national referendum by which the Ukrainian people and all other nationalities that live on the territory of Ukraine declare for life. Our land witnessed many enemy invasions. Our ancestors preserved it for us. Today the historical responsibility for Ukraine's fate falls with all its weight upon us. So let’s defend our native land against the merciless talons of centralism and from our own irresponsibility and indifference to our fate, the fate of our children and grandchildren, the fate of our suffering land.
Excerpted in Excerpted and introduced in Padraig Kenney, 1989: Democratic Revolutions at Cold War's End. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 147-149. Kenney cites this original source: From Ukrainian Helsinki Union, "'Atomic Evil-Out of Ukraine!' The Ukrainian Helsinki Union Demands a Nuclear Free Ukraine!" in Dissent in Ukraine under Gorbachev, ed. Taras Kuzio (London: Ukrainian Press Agency, 1989), 38-39.