---
title: Radio Moscow World Service on the Chernobyl accident and U.S. reports, FBIS Daily Report, 1 May 1986
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radio-moscow-chernobyl-us-reports-1986/
description: Page A 1 of the FBIS Daily Report for the Soviet Union, 1 May 1986, carrying a Radio Moscow World Service English broadcast of 30 April, four days after…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Soviet radio commentary on the Chernobyl disaster that reports two deaths and attributes Western coverage to an 'order'; later assessments recorded far larger casualties. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Radio Moscow World Service on the Chernobyl accident and U.S. reports, FBIS Daily Report, 1 May 1986](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/radio-moscow-chernobyl-us-reports-1986.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/radio-moscow-chernobyl-us-reports-1986.jpg)

# Radio Moscow World Service on the Chernobyl accident and U.S. reports, FBIS Daily Report, 1 May 1986

Page A 1 of the FBIS Daily Report for the Soviet Union, 1 May 1986, carrying a Radio Moscow World Service English broadcast of 30 April, four days after the reactor explosion. It gives a short official account (one unit damaged, 'two persons died', four communities evacuated, the radiation situation 'stabilized') and then turns on the U.S. press for 'spreading rumors', alleging an order behind the coverage and that American media wrote about the accident '100 times more' than about Nevada nuclear tests.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
III. 1 May 86 USSR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES & CANADA A 1
MOSCOW CRITICIZES U.S. REPORTS OF CHERNOBYL INCIDENT
LD301343 Moscow World Service in English 1310 GMT 30 Apr 86
[Text] As you heard in our broadcasts there was an accident at an atomic power station in the USSR at Chernobyl, 130 km north of Kiev. Parts of the structure of one of four units was destroyed and the reactor damaged, which caused some leakage of radioactive substances. Two persons died in the accident. The residents of the community next to the power station and another three communities in the area have been evacuated. Here is what Viktor Ilichev writes in this connection:
The causes of the breakdown are being are fully investivated by a special commission of leading scientists and experts led by Deputy Prime Minister Boris Scherbina. Emergency measures have been taken to eliminate the consequences of the breakdown. The other three units of the power station have been stopped. They were not damaged. The radiation situation at the power station and around it has been stabilized.
There have been reports in the press of a number of Eurpean countries that the level of radioactivity is returning to normal and gives no ground for concern. However, the propaganda machine in the West, in the first place the United States, has gone into high gear. The American mass media, as if on an order -- it is still more likely that there has been an order -- have started spreading rumors in connection with the breakdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, the first such accident in the USSR in more than 30 years.
There is an impression that they are interested not in truthful information about the accident -- we've repeatedly heard them claiming that they are -- but in spreading falsehoods as confirmed facts. They have still another aim, to call into question the reliability of Soviet nuclear power engineering and of Soviet science and technology in general although it has stood the test of time.
This, in turn, is being done to tone down criticism in the United States itself of lax security at a great number of nuclear power stations, where radioactive leads more than once seriously affected people and the environment. Against this background the reliable performance of nuclear power stations in the USSR serves as a strong argument in favor of building more power stations.
True, exploration of the unknown is always coupled with risk, be it nuclear research or space flights -- even on board a repeatedly tested craft. Progress cannot be stopped but the question is what objectives does it serve? Does it serve peace and the progress of humanity or war and death? The upsurge of anti-Soviet propaganda in the United States still adds another aspect: The American media have been speaking and writing about the accident at the Soviet nuclear power station 100 times more than about the systematic nuclear explosions in Nevada. Even schoolchildren understand that the future of humanity today is jeopardized not by the development of nuclear power engineering but by the buildup of nuclear weapons; not by the construction of more atomic power stations but by the production of ever more nuclear warheads.
Experts say that the nuclear charges stockpiled to date can destroy life on this planet many times over. This is the reason why the Soviet Union has been calling for eliminating nuclear weapons step by step by the end of this century.
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
The page is FBIS's English text of a Radio Moscow World Service broadcast that was itself in English; no translation. Typing errors of the FBIS typescript ('investivated', 'Eurpean') are retained.
```

Transcribed from the page image. The first letter of 'eliminating' in the last line is smudged on the scan and read as 'e'.

[← "Epoca Ceaușescu": 65th-anniversary billboard of the Romanian Communist Party, Bucharest, 1986](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ceausescu-65-ani-pcr-billboard-bucharest-1986/) ["Ihr Tod ist uns Verpflichtung": Pioneers at the border-troops memorial, Berlin →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gdr-pioneers-border-guard-memorial-berlin-1986/)

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