The archive department of the SBU State Security Service and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory have presented the second book of the collection, titled "The Dossier of the KGB. From Construction to the Accident." The collection contains documents that cover the period from the beginning of the 1970s to November 1986, that is, before the work was started on building the Shelter (Sarcophagus) of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) after the disaster.

"This collection contains 229 documents, most of which were published for the first time. By the way, according to archival files, the Chernobyl accident happened before April 1986, but documents were hidden," the SBU's press center said on Monday.

According to information, the presentation symbolically took place in the Chornobyl exclusion zone with online broadcasting on the page of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.

"Among the documents included in the new book, there are reports of accidents that occurred in 1986, a transcript of telephone conversations at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on the night of April 26, a copy of the first report of the accident, information about the beginning of the investigation and the construction of the Sarcophagus," said SBU State Archive Director Andriy Kohut.

Chairman of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Anton Drobovych said the materials will help people better understand the tragedy: the prerequisites for the disaster, reports and materials that indicate "small" accidents that occurred at the atomic energy station earlier and were hidden.

"This will allow humanity to expand access to the truth about the crimes of the totalitarian system and learn the right lessons," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the State Agency of Ukraine for the Management of the Exclusion Zone Maksym Shevchuk said the book removes part of the discussions about how the station was built, how it worked and how the accident happened.

"Although more than 30 years have passed, such a massive tragedy cannot be forgotten," First Deputy General Director of the Chernobyl NPP Valeriy Seyda said.

The documents in the book are published in the original language in chronological order.

"The KGB Chornobyl dossier. From construction to an accident" is a joint project of the SBU, the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. The publication is a continuation of a series of documentary books. The first, which contains 210 documents, was published in the spring of 2019.

You can download the first collection at this link - https://bit.ly/3fEBiAG.

Read the second collection here - https://bit.ly/3hCFMJD.