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
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"Chernobyl stands out among the books I have consulted on the Chernobyl disaster. . . . It is a vivid, first-hand account of the author’s long but ultimately victorious struggle against Soviet officialdom, which sought to suppress bad news, to blame the accident on low-level operators rather than policy-makers, and to ascribe widespread panic too sinister foreign influences."—David MacRae, cotranslator of The Truth about Chernobyl and No Breathing Room: The Aftermath of Chernobyl by Grigory Medvedev
(David MacRae )
"The author is a politician and activist . . . an ‘insider’ [who] directed a parliamentary investigation. . . . But she is more than a mere investigative journalist in that her family and roots lie in the area affected by the Chernobyl disaster."—David R. Marples, author of The Social Impact of the Chernobyl Disaster and Chernobyl and Nuclear Power in the USSR
(David R. Marples )
About the Author
Alla Yaroshinskaya is a member of President Yeltsin’s Council and continues working as a journalist. Her book has been translated into German, French, and Japanese, John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Medical Physics at the University of California-Berkeley, was corecipient of the 1992 Right Livelihood Award. He is the board chairman for the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility and author of four books on the health effects of radiation.
David R. Marples is a professor of Russian history at the University of Alberta.
