The Legal Heritage of the Atom 147
Since the beginning of the 2000s, more than 180 complaints have been
filed with the European Court of Human Rights by Chernobyl victims from
Russia against the Russian state, who complained that they have not received
their promised compensation payments. These were liquidators who were
used to clean up the reactor and the contaminated areas. Since the Chernobyl
disaster, 33 victims of nuclear accidents have received public perception in
the late Soviet Union. They, too, can in some way be regarded as victims
of the Soviet system, because it deliberately left them ignorant of the risks
and dangers of radioactive contamination of their environment, or deliberately exposed them to these dangers. The Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 not
only caused an “anthropological shock” 34 among the international public –
as Ulrich Beck put it. Even within the Soviet Union, the accident gave rise
to criticism of the ruling system. “It was not just a nuclear power plant that
exploded, but the whole complex of irresponsibility, lack of discipline and
bureaucracy,” wrote the Belarusian writer Ales’ Adamovich in a 1986 letter
to Mikhail Gorbachev. 35
The case of the plaintiff Malinovskii, who filed a lawsuit against the
Russian state at ECHR in July 2005, stands as an example for many similar
cases. 36 Malinovskii (born in 1962) lives in Staryi Oskol in the Belgorod
Region of Central Russia, close to the Ukrainian border. In 1986, as a young
man of 24 years, he was engaged in emergency operations at the site of the
Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Later, as a result of the deterioration in
his health arising from that event, the applicant became entitled to certain
State benefits, linked to the category of disability assigned to him. In 1999,
Malinovskii applied for free accommodation from the State. His housing
conditions were recognized as substandard and he was placed on a waiting
list. Two years later, in 2001, the applicant brought proceedings against the
Belgorod regional administration, contesting its failure to make accommodation available to him. The Starooskolskii Town Court of the Belgorod
Region ruled in Malinovskii’s favor, referring to the Law “On social protection of citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear
power station explosion.” The Town Court ordered the Belgorod regional
administration to provide the applicant with a flat in accordance with the
applicable standard conditions. Until March 2004, the judgment was still not
enforced and Malinovskii was still waiting for his new apartment. Only after
Malinovskii, who on March 5, 2004 (with a group of five people), went on
hunger strike to protest against the poor level of welfare protection provided
for the Chernobyl victims, did the mayor of Staryi Oskol launch a public call
for donations in support of the protestors and collected the amount necessary
to provide all of them with satisfactory housing.
The ECHR declared that Malinovskii’s application was admissible and
there had been a clear violation of the Convention. The judges decided that
the Russian state had to pay the applicant within three months the amount
of EUR 3,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage, to be converted into the
national currency. Several other former Chernobyl liquidators successfully
Since the beginning of the 2000s, more than 180 complaints have been
filed with the European Court of Human Rights by Chernobyl victims from
Russia against the Russian state, who complained that they have not received
their promised compensation payments. These were liquidators who were
used to clean up the reactor and the contaminated areas. Since the Chernobyl
disaster, 33 victims of nuclear accidents have received public perception in
the late Soviet Union. They, too, can in some way be regarded as victims
of the Soviet system, because it deliberately left them ignorant of the risks
and dangers of radioactive contamination of their environment, or deliberately exposed them to these dangers. The Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 not
only caused an “anthropological shock” 34 among the international public –
as Ulrich Beck put it. Even within the Soviet Union, the accident gave rise
to criticism of the ruling system. “It was not just a nuclear power plant that
exploded, but the whole complex of irresponsibility, lack of discipline and
bureaucracy,” wrote the Belarusian writer Ales’ Adamovich in a 1986 letter
to Mikhail Gorbachev. 35
The case of the plaintiff Malinovskii, who filed a lawsuit against the
Russian state at ECHR in July 2005, stands as an example for many similar
cases. 36 Malinovskii (born in 1962) lives in Staryi Oskol in the Belgorod
Region of Central Russia, close to the Ukrainian border. In 1986, as a young
man of 24 years, he was engaged in emergency operations at the site of the
Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster. Later, as a result of the deterioration in
his health arising from that event, the applicant became entitled to certain
State benefits, linked to the category of disability assigned to him. In 1999,
Malinovskii applied for free accommodation from the State. His housing
conditions were recognized as substandard and he was placed on a waiting
list. Two years later, in 2001, the applicant brought proceedings against the
Belgorod regional administration, contesting its failure to make accommodation available to him. The Starooskolskii Town Court of the Belgorod
Region ruled in Malinovskii’s favor, referring to the Law “On social protection of citizens exposed to radiation as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear
power station explosion.” The Town Court ordered the Belgorod regional
administration to provide the applicant with a flat in accordance with the
applicable standard conditions. Until March 2004, the judgment was still not
enforced and Malinovskii was still waiting for his new apartment. Only after
Malinovskii, who on March 5, 2004 (with a group of five people), went on
hunger strike to protest against the poor level of welfare protection provided
for the Chernobyl victims, did the mayor of Staryi Oskol launch a public call
for donations in support of the protestors and collected the amount necessary
to provide all of them with satisfactory housing.
The ECHR declared that Malinovskii’s application was admissible and
there had been a clear violation of the Convention. The judges decided that
the Russian state had to pay the applicant within three months the amount
of EUR 3,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage, to be converted into the
national currency. Several other former Chernobyl liquidators successfully