Soviet System Successfully Covered Up Third Largest Nuclear Accident in History

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 29 – For those of us who began studying the Moscow state in Soviet times, one of the saddest phenomena of the last 30 years has been the general neglect, after an initial burst of attention during glasnost, of new information about what now is known about some of that system’s greatest crimes.

            That is now a double tragedy: On the one hand, this neglect has continued to lead to a minimization of the horrors of the Soviet system, a system that was in many ways far worse than most now acknowledge. And on the other, Putin, the current Russian ruler, is seeking to take his country back to those horrors – and having success because so many have been forgotten.

            One of the worst of these was the September 1957 accident at the Kyshtym plant where plutonium was being refined for nuclear weapons. Ever more information is coming out about what was the third largest nuclear accident in history exceeded in some respects only by Chernobyl and Fukushima.

            New details about how the Soviet operators although generally copying what the Americans had done cut back in the construction of barriers which provided some protection against radiation so as to speed up production for Soviet nuclear weapons (nemoskva.net/2025/09/29/do-chernobylya-i-fukusimy/).

            As horrific as these steps were, perhaps even more horrible is that Soviet officials continued to deny that any of those working on the Kyshtym plant – including soldiers, prisoners, and free workers – had suffered any serious illness let alone death as a result of exposure to the nuclear cloud that rose from the plant.

            That was achieved primarily by three means: open lying about what had happened, dispersing the people involved to other plants before their illnesses could be diagnosed so that any deaths would be counted elsewhere, and forcing those who were involved in the cleanup to sign 25-year non-disclosure agreements.

            Those in Russia who see nothing wrong with a return to the Soviet system need to pay the closest attention to the reports about what happened at Kyshtym and how Moscow covered it up, and those in the West who want to understand the crimes of both the Soviet leadership and the post-Soviet Putin one need to do the same. 

‘There is No Basis for Talking about ‘a Thaw’ in Lukashenka’s Belarus, Rights Activist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 26 – Many in the West in response to Lukashenka’s release of a few political prisoners suggested that “a thaw” was taking place in Belarus and that Western governments should respond, but a leading Belarusian human rights activist, Anastasiya Vasilchuk, says there is “no basis” for talking about any “thaw” in her country.

            Instead, the representative of the Vyasna [Spring] organization told a meeting in Warsaw about repression in Belarus, that Lukashenka has been tightening the screws on opponents and other Belarusians (rfi.fr/ru/европа/20250926-правозащитники-несмотря-на-последние-освобождения-нет-никаких-оснований-говорить-об-оттепели-в-беларуси).

            Even as Lukashenka won plaudits from some in the West for releasing several political prisoners, he added another 33 people to the list of those his regime considers involved in terrorism. There are now 5817 people on that list, one so large that it is dangerously absurd to speak about any thaw, Vasilchuk said.

            Moreover, she continued, as has been true until the start of this year, the Lukashenka regime has been “actively concealing the facts of political persecution,” something that is so clear to close observers in Belarus that it is time to say that such hiding of information has become a component “part of state policy.”

            The Lukashenka regime is doing this in a transparent attempt to “create the impression that the situation in the country has stabilized,” Vasilchuk continued. Ut in fact, so far this year, Lukashenka and his minions have added more than 1000 people to its extremist list, “approximately 200 more than in all of 2024.”

 

Record-Breaking Melting of Svalbard Glaciers Likely to Have Security Implications

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 25 – A group of Norwegian scholars says that the melting of glaciers on the Svalbard archipelago took place at an unprecedented rate in 2024. In just a few months, the archipelago lost at least one percent of its ice cover; and the melting was responsible for 10 percent of the rise of the world oceans during that year.

            More than 50 percent of Svalbard is still covered by ice, the researchers said; but much of that is likely to melt in the coming years and possibly at an accelerating rate (pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2503806122 reported and discussed in detail at thebarentsobserver.com/news/recordbreaking-glacier-melt-on-svalbard/437798).

            The melting of the glaciers on Svalbard will open the possibility that countries like the Russian Federation will try to expand their coal mining operations there, something the 1920 treaty allows but that Moscow has used in recent times to test the resolve of Norway and NATO (jamestown.org/program/moscow-using-svalbard-to-test-natos-readiness-and-resolve/).

            And such expanded economic activity could easily lead to an increased Russian security interest in the archipelago, including even the possibility of a Russian military move against NATO there (jamestown.org/program/moscows-first-move-against-nato-could-take-place-in-norways-svalbard-archipelago/).

Moscow Patriarch, Russian Community Organization Welcome Openly Fascist Groups from Around the World to St. Petersburg Conference

Paul Goble     

            Staunton, Sept. 25 – Twenty fascist groups from around the world assembled in St. Petersburg in mid-September, where they were welcomed by Moscow Patriarch Kirill and members of the radical Russian Community organization that has targeted immigrants and migrants, an indication of Moscow’s close ties to these extremist groups.

            Others representing Russia at the meeting included Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofyeyev, right-wing philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, and Konstantin Chebykin, a United Russia Duma deputy (istories.media/news/2025/09/23/v-sankt-peterburge-proshla-mezhdunarodnii-sezd-fashistov/ and meduza.io/en/feature/2025/09/24/we-are-not-subject-to-russophobia).        

            The meeting began with a moment of silence in memory of slain American right-wing activist Charlie Kirk who has become a hero for these groups, especially in the Russian Federation (meduza.io/en/feature/2025/09/23/how-charlie-became-a-russian-propaganda-hero).

Collateral Victims of Putin’s Repressions -- Families of Enemies of Putin Regime and Those Under House Arrest

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 25 – Arguably everyone who lives in the Russian Federation is a victim of the Putin regime; but typically, observers count as victims those who have been imprisoned or forced into emigration because of their views. But there are two additional categories of collateral victims who should be remembered.

            These are the family members of those have been sent to the camps or forced into emigration, a group that was routinely repressed in Stalin’s time and is now being mistreated in Putin’s as well as family members of those subject to house arrest because their residences become a kind of jail not just for those awaiting trial but their family members as well.

            The first of these has attracted some attention because of the Stalinist precedent (https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/09/24/semi-vragov), but the second has garnered much less because many observers are inclined to treat house arrest as a softened form of detention and even something worthy of praise.

            But as the numbers of people put under arrest over the last 13 years has risen, it has affected all of their family members because apartments and houses are rapidly being converted into mini-prisons, a trend that same the state money but punishes people not convicted or even charged, Cherta journalist Anya Morentseva says (cherta.media/story/domashnij-arest/).

            Her article which describes this form of Putin repression strongly suggests that those concerned about his crackdown on Russians need to add the families of those under house arrest to the list and provide what attention to and support for them so as to make their lives better and discourage the Kremlin from extending this practice more broadly.

Grozny’s Changing of Three Cossack Place Names to Chechen Ones Reflects Demographic Changes – and Some Muscovites are Furious

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 25 – Grozny wants to give Chechen names to three former Cossack settlements, something Moscow is prepared to go along with given the demographic change in Chechnya since the end of Soviet times; but some Russians who fought in the first post-Soviet Chechen war are outraged at what they see as a betrayal of their efforts.

            At the end of Soviet times, roughly a quarter of the residents in the northern section of Chechnya were ethnic Russians; and there were numerous Russian and Russian Cossack toponyms. But as a result of Russian flight and still high Chechen birthrates, ethnic Russians have almost completely disappeared and Chechens dominate the area.

            As a result, the Chechen government in Grozny wants to rename three former Cossack settlements that are now populated by ethnic Chechens with Chechen names, something that seems entirely reasonable given the Kremlin’s deference to Ramzan Kadyrov and that the Russian Duma has voted to approve in its first reading of the bill.

            But some Duma members, including a former general who fought against the Chechens in the 1990s, are outraged and have suggested that this renaming betrays the memory of those who fought and died against Chechnya then and the Russian traditions that the Kremlin has pledged to defend.

            Obviously, in this as in so much else, Chechnya is a special case; but the assertion of the right of republics to rename places when demography changes is likely to catch the attention of other non-Russians – and Russian objections to that are certain to exacerbate relations between Russians and non-Russians.

            On this unusual case, a reminder that renaming involves more than doing away with Soviet place names, and the controversy, see  kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/414922 and zavtra.ru/events/general_shamanov_vozmutilsya_pereimenovaniem_kazach_ih_stanitc_v_chr_vi_chto_tvorite.

As Turkic Languages Converge, Ever More Speakers of Each are Using Others as Well and Becoming ‘Turkic Cosmopolitans’ -- or ‘Turkpolits’ for Short, Lamazhaa Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 22 – As the Turkic languages converge, Chimiza Lamazhaa, a Tuvan scholar at the Almaty Institute of Turcology and Altaistics says, ever more speakers of each are using the others as well and becoming what should be called “Turkic cosmopolitans’ – or Turkpolits for short. 

            The Turcologist pointed out at a meeting in Kazan of the Fifth International Seminar on Tatar Studies at a Time of Changing Paradigms that many have noted the convergence of Turkic languages but don’t have a term for those who take advantage of this new reality                                                                  (milliard.tatar/news/kak-voznikaet-vyrazenie-russkaya-literatura-tatar-russkaya-literatura-cuvas-i-drugie-8289).

            Her own life experience had prompted her to make this suggestion. “I myself am an ethnic Tuvin who grew up in Turkic-language Tyva,” Lamazhaa said. “Now I work with Kazakh colleagues in Kazakhstan and also with Turcologist colleagues in Kabardino-Balkaria, not to mention constantly growing ties with colleagues from other Turkic language regions.”

            To the extent her proposed word catches on, that will likely spark more interest in the phenomenon both academically and practically, something that some governments as in Central Asia will undoubtedly welcome and that others like that of the Russian Federation will be quite troubled.