A new book, Chernobyl Accident. 1986-1991, came out
A new book, Chernobyl Accident. 1986-1991, came out.
The edition is prepared by the Department for Liquidation of Consequences of Chernobyl Accident at the Ministry for Emergency Situations, the Department for Archives and RM at the Justice Ministry, the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, and the State Archives of Gomel Region.
The book is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe and continues the 2006 edition, Chernobyl. 26 April 1986 – December 1991. The new edition contains 114 documents, including 100 from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus, 12 from the State Archives of Gomel Region, and 2 from the Russian State Archives of Contemporary History, most of which have been published for the first time. These are resolutions, memoranda, data, certificates, meeting minutes, decisions by the Government Commission. A number of documents pertain to the activity of the Commission for Liquidation of Consequences of Chernobyl Accident. There are also documents that describe the population resettlement from the contaminated areas, the construction of housing for resettlers, the state of public health and medical care in the districts affected by the disaster, the international assistance, meetings, the demands of the work collectives. Of interest are the documents relating to the historical and cultural values that remained in the contaminated districts.
The aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in Belarus had no precedent in history: due to the meteorological conditions the country—s territory received nearly 35% of Cesium137 emitted from the Chernobyl reactor; the area of 46,5 thousand square kilometres was contaminated (23% of the country—s territory); about 3600 inhabited localities found themselves in the area of radioactive contamination, including 27 cities with the population of 2,3 million people; the total damage inflicted by the catastrophe to the country is estimated at 235 billion dollars. Of especial importance in this respect are the primary sources, archival records, which make possible to understand the situation in those days.