Memories of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl still send shock waves through the world. The disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl power station in Prypíyat, now in Ukraine. Its radioactive fallout was 400 times bigger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, reaching over most of the western U.S.S.R and even other European countries.
The Chernobyl disaster brought a moment of disillusionment for the people who had felt jubilant over the policy of glasnost. Glasnost had promised more open communication, but what happened now was that the Communist Party officials suppressed information about the disaster and its dangers. May Day parades were held as planned in the affected areas, in spite of the radiation risks. Gorbachev issued an official statement on the disaster only on May 14, eighteen days later. He said in it that the Chernobyl incident was a misfortune, but blamed the Western media for spreading lies. But people in the fallout zone and beyond were actually suffering the after-effects of radiation, and the policy of glasnost lost the public’s trust.
Picture Credit : Google
