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.
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# Concatenated JPRS Reports, 1990 ## Document 6 of 16 in fluorocarbons. Bayev was also included there. I said to Skryabin that they should examine particularly carefully the clinical tests and see whether there were always the appropriate permits for them. 96. And then several members of the commission began to give in (and I set up two commissions!). Their conclusion was to postpone the nomination for the prize to the following year, and then once again to examine the results and to make the decision accordingly. 97. Later the rumors that in the KGB they had put pressure on the members of the commission, reached me. I shared my views with Academician Vladimir Nikolayevich Kudryavtsev. He said: 'What does the KGB have to do with this? If Beloyartsev and Ivanitskiy violated something, the procuracy and the militia should deal with it.' 98. Then the tragic events, about which you know, developed. In Pushchino they made a search at Professor Beloyartsev's place. Feliks Feliksovich committed suicide... I believe that he was unable to bear the suspicions of the unscrupulousness of the experiments. The works were banned. It has not been possible to rehabilitate them. Although medical personnel have a high opinion of them, for example, Academician Shumakov. It is not ruled out that the priority of the discovery will thus vanish from the country and we will buy the same blood substitute for foreign currency. I am talking about this in such detail, because it is still not too late to correct the situation with "'blue blood." Now the times are a little easier, although thus far I do not see serious positive results. 99. OGONEK: And what about glasnost? The appearance in our country of democratic freedoms? And what about Sakharov, finally? Is it really not a triumph of justice that he returned from Gorkiy and became a people's deputy? 100. A.P. Aleksandrov: I had in mind only the sphere of science. Sakharov, of course, is a strong example. And, believe me, for me the return of Andrey Dmitriyevich was a great joy. 101. OGONEK: Anatoliy Petrovich, Sakharov addressed a letter to you. Why did you not reply? 102. A.P. Aleksandrov: What could I have replied?! I have already said, after all, that it is necessary to fight while you can still change something. Neither I nor Keldysh, under whom this happened, could have revoked the exile of Sakharov to Gorkiy. Although, of course, we considered it unjust, very unjust, and unpleasant for everyone. True, I again spoke with Ustinov about whether it was possible to return Sakharov to Moscow and what it was necessary to do for this. He said: There is no hope. It is good that Sakharov is in
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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.