On 30th December 1922, the world’s largest nation was established and governed by its first leader, Vladimir Lenin. It grew to become a world superpower, with one of the best military forces and economies in the world. Unexpectedly, on the 26th of December, 1991, this great and mighty nation fell after the resignation of its last leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. Many historians have been coming up with various theories regarding the reason why this great nation fell, but I think that the Chernobyl incident was the main reason which led to the fall of the USSR. Although it may not be the most obvious reason, it was the tipping point which triggered a domino effect of successive economic and warfare issues which culminated in the complete dissolution of the USSR. This statement will be supported through historical data and also primary and secondary sources will further reinforce the validity of my research and reasons.
Summary of Evidence
From the recent Japan Fukushima nuclear crisis, we can already see how a nuclear meltdown can cost not only lives, but also billions of dollars. However, the scale of the Chernobyl was many times larger compared to the Japan one. The Chernobyl incident caused the economy in the USSR to deteriorate, accelerating the dissolution of the country. According to the World Institute for Nuclear Security, the USSR had to spend USD 4,000,000 dollars to help relocate hundreds of thousands of civilians living in areas near the plant such as Kiev (now the capital of Ukraine).
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In addition to the heavy monetary losses from the incident, the Soviets suffered from the high demanding oil prices, and also had to pay compensation to neighbouring Scandinavian countries such as Sweden because of the spreading radiation. Protecting the river Dnieper, which flowed past Chernobyl towards the city of Kiev, was another heavy cost for the USSR. Many dams had to be built in order to prevent the radiation leak from Chernobyl to get into the Dnieper River and flow to Kiev, endangering the health of many people. This involved expensive resources which had to be brought from other countries as the USSR had little natural resources due to its permafrost terrain and cold climate which makes growing natural resources difficult. Therefore, the USSR had to divert a lot of its economic resources to protect the natural environment and the people around Chernobyl.
For communism in the USSR to work more effectively, Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to improve publicity, transparency and promote openness. Hence, in the 1980s, Gorbachev introduced Glasnost. Glasnost translated into English meant more transparency, openness and maximal publicity. This meant that policies were more open to debate and opinion, meaning more effective development in the USSR. However, Glasnost was proved to be false after the Chernobyl Incident of 26th of April 1986. This nuclear crisis caused great losses in the USSR, and even posed dangers to other countries. However, the Politburo of USSR decided to disclose the incident towards everybody, which meant that Glasnost was not happening. Only until May 1986, which was one month after the disaster, did Gorbachev actually reveal the reasons and details about the disaster. But according to survivor Sergey Nasirof who lived in Kiev during the disaster, the information revealed to the Kiev population were significantly below the real figures, in order to minimize public concern. Of course, the Ukrainian people later found out the real astonishing figures which were revealed by Swedish scientists who also traced radioactive material in their country.
Source Evaluation
Source 1: Source 2:
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My first source was a government propaganda poster used to promote Glasnost after the cover up of the Chernobyl incident. The Soviet government needed to gain the trust from the people and show them that Glasnost was really going to happen, so they had to produce posters like source 1 to let the public know about Glasnost. The content of the poster translated into English means: “Be bold, comrade! Openness – Our strength!” As the poster shows, the small man is hesitating to go into the small microphone hole, but the other man walking out from the more open side of the microphone is moving boldly forward. This is a primary source as it was produced in the time of the Soviet era (specifically late 1980s) and during the same Chernobyl era, which means it should be very accurate. However, the weakness of this source is that it is somewhat biased as it was produced by the Agitprop (Department for Agitation and Propaganda) of the USSR government. This meant that it was pro – government and only talks about how the government Is really imposing Glasnost and not covering anything, when in fact; there were many figures and important details from the Chernobyl incident still covered up.
The second main source I used was a secondary source as it is a book retelling the events which led to the dissolution of the USSR. As the book was produced fairly recently in 2010, it may be not as accurate as the primary source I used. However, this source was more reliable for me because it was less biased as the author produced it by including information from different perspectives. This ensured that I could absorb my research from different angles not only from a pro-government perspective (source 1) in order to draw fair conclusions for my line of argument. The “foreword section” of the book explains that the book was for learning purposes by “showing different perspectives which led to such a significant historical event.” Because the purpose of the book was for learning, it was factual, further supporting the point that the book is not biased.
Analysis
As the research shows, there were heavy costs from the Chernobyl incident. From all the heavy costs because of Chernobyl, the USSR economy failed and eventually led to riot and the fall of the USSR. In addition, the Chernobyl incident worried the public about nuclear safety, and loss the trust between the people and the Central Communist Party. Furthermore, because of the loss of trust between the Ukraine people towards the Central Communist Party, it led the people of feeling a sense of betrayal from the USSR. This probably also contributed to the hatred from Ukraine towards the Central Communist Party, and culminated in the urge of independence from the USSR. Because of the Chernobyl incident, the USSR’s economy was ruined which accelerated the fall of the Soviet Union and also gained opposition (especially from Ukraine) because of its nuclear security and safety issues.
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From the research in the ‘summary of evidence’ section, we can see that Glasnost was proven wrong after the Chernobyl incident. After building the Chernobyl plant in 1977, the USSR government emphasized to the public that it was safe energy and better for the future of the USSR. However, little did the public actually know about the dangers of nuclear power plants. This is why when the Chernobyl plant disaster happened, the public found out that there was no real openness and publicity which meant that there was not enough Glasnost. Furthermore, Glasnost was further proved not true because of this late response from Gorbachev about the incident. This made the public very angry and outraged as they did not know that there were health risks because of Chernobyl. Henceforth, the public gave pressure to Gorbachev by questioning him if there was any Glasnost and without choice, Gorbachev had to actually “put his words of Glasnost into action.” From the Chernobyl incident onwards, there was a great increase of freedom of speech and transparency. This eventually led to an overwhelming increase of freedom of speech in the USSR, and finally caused a coup d’état from the people against the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Hence, there was the famous August 1991 coup that brought an end of the Soviet rule of Russia and its other states. That is why, because of the Chernobyl incident, it lead to real Glasnost which led to the decline of the Soviet Union; in fact, the Chernobyl incident was the main trigger of the “bomb” that eventually made the USSR fall. Of course, many argue that it was Glasnost that led to the fall of the USSR; however, they have not really thought of what really caused the real Glasnost and that was the Chernobyl Incident.
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Conclusion:
The reason for the fall of the USSR is now still a great question, as there are many factors which contributed to it. However, through detailed analysis of the evidence and sources from the Chernobyl incident, we can see that Chernobyl caused countless negative effects such as the great economic losses and the loss of trust between the government and the people. Furthermore, because of Gorbachev implementing Glasnost because of the hide – up of Chernobyl, the public decided to attempt the coup d’état because of their anger on the government; hence, bringing the USSR to complete dissolution.
