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 Page 9 57. A.P. Aleksandrov: I remember my presidency with a heavy feeling. When the burden fell, I felt better. I cannot tolerate administrative positions, I was completely unprepared morally for the high post and did not want to take it. 58. OGONEK: But why did you agree? I remember how scientists said at that time that the situation at the Academy was complex. The majority would vote only for you, but you all the same would not agree to become president. 59. A.P. Aleksandrov: How much effort I spent to resist! From the sentiment of scientists and my colleagues and friends I actually had grounds to assume that they would not accept my refusal to accept and, very likely, the majority would vote for me. 60. It is no secret that the candidate for president of the Academy of Sciences in our country was always discussed in the government, more precisely in the Politburo. If it were not for the secret vote of academicians, they would, very likely, simply have appointed him there. 61. Having found out that the choice had fallen on me, I set off to see Ustinov, whom I knew and with whom I was connected through work for long years. I asked him to persuade them to leave me in peace. I tried in vain--'I do not want even to discuss it, agree!'' I also met with Suslov. The result was the same. 62. However, I still did not consent! Mstislav Vsevolodovich Keldysh convinced me. Here is in whom the sense of duty and responsibility was developed! Apparently, at one time he was himself faced with the same dilemma as I was. 63. Well, and when they elected me, I worked and did not spare myself. 64. OGONEK: Did you often have to agree to compromises? 65. A.P. Aleksandrov: It depends on what kinds. All compromises are not alike. I, you know, do not like bold clever people who, while sitting today in safe warmth and comfort, condemn everyone in succession. They self-confirm themselves that way, do they? They have not dreamed about our problems and difficulties. It is customary to curse scientists in particular. That one worked during the years of Stalin repressions, this one worked during the years of Brezhnev's stagnation. Just where would our science be, if it had not been for these scientists?! 66. OGONEK: Yes, one has occasion sometimes to hear that Sergey
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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.