Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency JPRS report, dated 1 August 1990, translates an OGONEK interview by Vanda Beletskaya with Academician Anatoliy Petrovich Aleksandrov, former president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Aleksandrov blames the Chernobyl accident on an ill-considered experiment prepared by Donenergo that violated operating instructions. He also describes earlier nuclear plant defects, Legasov's suicide, and his dealings with Beria and Kapitsa. He argues for continued atomic power engineering and a law on nuclear power.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990
## Document 6 of 16
Ivanovich Vavilov is bad ('How did he agree to be president of the Academy, when his brother was in prison?''), Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa is not good ('Why did he write to Stalin and, besides, attempt to make him change his mind?''), Kurchatov is the wrong person ('How could he admit in Beria's torture chambers that he, and at the same time the entire institute of Kapitsa, sold out to the capitalists?'), and Korolev and Keldysh--all are bad.
67. A.P. Aleksandrov: I knew many of them. They had behind them not bold speeches at rallies and on television, but scientific works and deeds. They were forced to proceed from the rigid framework of the circumstances, into which fate had placed them. And it hurts me when they judge them today. It is an ignoble role.
68. Well, about myself personally... In science I did not allow compromise. At least I tried not to. But in relations with people, in politics, in relations with the authorities...
69. At the beginning of the war our group worked on the degaussing of ships, so that fascist mines would not destroy them. The work had been conducted back before the war. Professor Regel, a very talented scientist and a fine person, belonged to our group. He and I were close. But after the war, when the work on the atomic problem began, they removed Vadim Robertovich. And I agreed, but meanwhile I could have gotten my way. But I was afraid not for myself, but for him. I was afraid that they would oppress and torment him. I could have insisted that they give him to me, at that time my work was very necessary, but was there certainty that under those circumstances his life would be preserved? Alas... That is why I agreed.
70. OGONEK: Did Vadim Robertovich understand this? Did you talk with him?
71. A.P. Aleksandrov: Such things are not discussed among men. We trusted each other--that is sufficient.
## 72. OGONEK: Were you also friends later?
73. A.P. Aleksandrov: Of course. Or here are my relations with Petr Leonidovich Kapitsa. When Beria removed him from the post of director of the Institute of Physical Problems, which he established, they appointed me in place of him. Do you imagine that it was pleasant for me? Before this there was an analogous situation at the Kharkov Physical Technical Institute, for which they also intended me in place of the removed director. True, at that time I extricated myself: It is not, I said, my theme, I work in Leningrad in Kurchatov's direction. This time I did not have a leg to stand on. The heavy water plant, according to Kapitsa's idea, was along the Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 22 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.