Tragic History: 5 Vintage Publications about The Chernobyl Disaster and the Soviet Nuclear Program (in which the
Soviets Guaranteed Safety):
First are two U.S. Publications describing the Chernobyl Disaster including the effect on the victims and the risk to the world:
- Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 1986 (3 days after the explosion of the Chernobyl #4 reactor): Full front page and full inside page detailing the incident and the ongoing impact of the radioactive cloud over European Countries.
- Life Magazine, August 1986 (about 4 months after the Chernobyl Explosion) - this is the first-hand account of a U.S. Doctor (Dr. Robert Gale) and the race to save the lives of the Chernobyl victims. Describes what was happening to them and the efforts to stop it.
The final three magazines are all Soviet Life monthly magazine editions between 1971 - 1981, all of which describe the wondrous Soviet Nuclear Program including how safe it is. Soviet Life was a State-run English Language propaganda magazine touting the glories of the Soviet way of life.
- Soviet Life October 1971 (about 14.5 years before after the Chernobyl Explosion) - three articles about the Success of the Soviet Nuclear Power Industry. Including one that describes "Radioactivity for Healing".
- Soviet Life November 1974 (about 11.5 years before after the Chernobyl Explosion) - three articles about Soviet Nuclear Power including its comparison to conventional sources of power (favorably of course) and how safe it is (of course)
- Soviet Life November 1981 (Just 3 years, 5 months before after the Chernobyl Explosion) - Big article titled "Nuclear Power Stations: Safety Guaranteed". The perspective of this article might now be comical if not for the disaster that followed.
The Soviet Life magazines naturally have other articles as well, all describing how great the country was. After the Soviet Union collapse, the magazine changed its name to "Russian Life" in 1993. It became privately owned in 1995 and, in 2022, condemned the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Things change.
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