DOI: 10.4324/9781003246893-9
7 The Legal Heritage of the Atom
Dealing with Victims of Radioactive
Contamination in the Post-Soviet Space
Tanja Penter
Looking at the different compensation policies, laws, and practices in postSoviet Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, I develop comparative
perspectives on the ways in which these new states dealt with victims of radioactive contamination and how the societies constructed victims’ identities. I
argue that post-Soviet compensation programs can serve as a “window” into
the transformation societies. It seems to be specific for the developments in
the former Soviet space that here environmental victims stand on an equal
footing with the victims of the Stalinist and National Socialist dictatorships.
The process of coming to terms with the experience of dictatorship after the
end of the Soviet Union therefore has a strong ecological component, which
requires that approaches to transitional and environmental justice be thought
of as interconnected. More recently, this process has also taken on an international dimension, manifested in a growing number of appeals to the ECHR
by Russian and Ukrainian environmental victims. The once unnoticed environmental victims of the Soviet past have learned to assert their rights vis-àvis national and international institutions and organizations.
The heritage of the atom in the former Soviet space includes not only
radioactively contaminated landscapes but also specific legal legacies, new
historical resources (e.g. thousands of private letters with claims for compensation), and a new place for environmental victims in the national cultures of remembrance. The end of the Soviet Union was accompanied by
the extensive uncovering and documentation of the crimes of the past hand
in hand with an erosion of old Soviet patriotic memory and the development of a new culture of remembrance. Next to the victims of Stalinism and
National Socialist crimes in World War II, the victims of nuclear accidents
and radioactive contamination also played a central role in the nation- and
state-building processes in some of the successor states of the Soviet Union.
Historical knowledge about places of Stalinist and National Socialist mass
crimes as well as environmental disasters, which before 1989 were often
known only by rumor and within the borders of local communities, has since
grown. In addition, various victim groups received (often for the first time)
state and social recognition in the form of rehabilitation, compensation, and
social protection laws. This process gave rise to a variety of social negotiation
7 The Legal Heritage of the Atom
Dealing with Victims of Radioactive
Contamination in the Post-Soviet Space
Tanja Penter
Looking at the different compensation policies, laws, and practices in postSoviet Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, I develop comparative
perspectives on the ways in which these new states dealt with victims of radioactive contamination and how the societies constructed victims’ identities. I
argue that post-Soviet compensation programs can serve as a “window” into
the transformation societies. It seems to be specific for the developments in
the former Soviet space that here environmental victims stand on an equal
footing with the victims of the Stalinist and National Socialist dictatorships.
The process of coming to terms with the experience of dictatorship after the
end of the Soviet Union therefore has a strong ecological component, which
requires that approaches to transitional and environmental justice be thought
of as interconnected. More recently, this process has also taken on an international dimension, manifested in a growing number of appeals to the ECHR
by Russian and Ukrainian environmental victims. The once unnoticed environmental victims of the Soviet past have learned to assert their rights vis-àvis national and international institutions and organizations.
The heritage of the atom in the former Soviet space includes not only
radioactively contaminated landscapes but also specific legal legacies, new
historical resources (e.g. thousands of private letters with claims for compensation), and a new place for environmental victims in the national cultures of remembrance. The end of the Soviet Union was accompanied by
the extensive uncovering and documentation of the crimes of the past hand
in hand with an erosion of old Soviet patriotic memory and the development of a new culture of remembrance. Next to the victims of Stalinism and
National Socialist crimes in World War II, the victims of nuclear accidents
and radioactive contamination also played a central role in the nation- and
state-building processes in some of the successor states of the Soviet Union.
Historical knowledge about places of Stalinist and National Socialist mass
crimes as well as environmental disasters, which before 1989 were often
known only by rumor and within the borders of local communities, has since
grown. In addition, various victim groups received (often for the first time)
state and social recognition in the form of rehabilitation, compensation, and
social protection laws. This process gave rise to a variety of social negotiation