Event Title
Chernobyl and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Presentation Type
Oral and/or Visual Presentation
Presenter Major(s)
Social Studies
Mentor Information
Edward A Cole, colee@gvsu.edu
Department
History
Location
Kirkhof Center 2266
Start Date
13-4-2011 4:00 PM
End Date
13-4-2011 4:30 PM
Keywords
Historical Perspectives
Abstract
This paper explores how the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant may have contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Historians have emphasized many factors explaining how and why the USSR imploded, but have paid relatively little attention to the Chernobyl accident. Because the secrecy and authoritarian impulses of the regime ran directly in conflict with the aims of glasnost, it forced the regime to choose between the past and the future, and that choice was key to the fall of the Soviet state.
Chernobyl and the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Kirkhof Center 2266
This paper explores how the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant may have contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Historians have emphasized many factors explaining how and why the USSR imploded, but have paid relatively little attention to the Chernobyl accident. Because the secrecy and authoritarian impulses of the regime ran directly in conflict with the aims of glasnost, it forced the regime to choose between the past and the future, and that choice was key to the fall of the Soviet state.