By all accounts, the Soviet coverup of Chernobyl started years before its 1986 disaster. The first two of Chernobyl’s four reactors came online in the late 1970s, and reactors three and four came online in 1983. Numerous, subsequent investigations revealed that reactor four had an irregular, faulty design that wasn’t adopted by other geographical regions across the world, as the World Nuclear Association describes. Soviet officials didn’t merely disregard the dangers with the reactor, however, they actively suppressed them.

In 2021, Ukraine released documents indicating that the KGB and Soviet government were aware of problems at Chernobyl as far back as 1982, as Reuters reports. In order to “prevent panic and provocative rumor” the KGB kept radiation problems under wraps, as well as multiple, subsequent incidents in 1984. In 1983, when reactors three and four came online, the Kremlin was told directly that Chernobyl was one of “the most dangerous nuclear power plants in the USSR due to lack of safety equipment.” 

Around this time, Soviet engineer Valery Legasov also tried to tell colleagues at the USSR Academy of Sciences about the design problems with Chernobyl’s reactor four, but was disregarded. Fear ruled the USSR, and no one wanted to speak up about a potential disaster. Even after the reactor blew, local officials dilly-dallied because they were afraid to take responsibility.