Communist Party of the Soviet Union Kiev Oblast Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party April 12 1989 to the Central Committee of the CPSU The Kyiv oblast committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine informs you that there has been an attempt to create a new independent organization the so-called Society of the Participants of the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at the Chernobyl NPS uniting citizens of the USSR in the city of Chernobyl of Kyiv oblast In the fall of 1988 an initiative group was formed at the production association Kombinat of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the USSR for the establishment of a council for veterans of the elimination of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPS This group was headed by Grigory Fedorovich Lepin born in 1931 a member of the CPSU Doctor of technical sciences who previously worked as a teacher at the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute and who arrived at the Chernobyl power station in November of 1986 to participate in the elimination of the consequences of the accident Since January of 1987 he worked as a head foreman of the decontamination department of the special enterprise 'Complex' of the production association Kombinat of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the USSR Comrade G F Lepin was disciplined by the party three times before In 1961 the Kramatorsk city committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine moved downgraded him from being member of the CPSU to being party candidate in 1970 the same party committee expelled him from the ranks of the CPSU and then reinstated his party membership by the decision of the Party Control Committee of the Central Committee of the CPSU with strict reprimand In 1983 he was again expelled from the party by the party committee of the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute and in October1988 the Kyiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine reinstated his membership of the CPSU with a declaration of a reprimand recorded in his registration card- for violation of party discipline which manifested in departure to a new place of work without withdrawing from local party records and the demonstrated immaturity regarding the matter of membership in the CPSU In December of 1988 the party committee of the production association Kombinat considered the application of the initiative group about founding a council of veterans of the elimination of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPS In the adopted resolution Comrade G F Lepin was advised to examine the possibility of establishing such councils in subsections of the production association Kombinat Due to the fact that the party committee did not this issue serously did not monitor the fulfilment of the approved decision the initiative group moved away from the idea of a volunteer council of veterans in the framework of the production association Kombinat and drew up the principles for founding the Society for the Participants of the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at the Chernobyl NPS On March 24 1989 the draft Charter of the Society for the Participants of the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at the Chernobyl NPS was published in the local newspaper Labor Watch of the production association Kombinat There also was an announcement about the up-coming founding conference of the Society on April 8th in the city of Chernobyl Analysis of the draft charter of the Society indicates that its members while recognizing the leadership of the CPSU are striving to obtain social benefits for citizens affected as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl NPS to provide them all kinds of assistance in solving social welfare problems and in improving medical care With this aim in view it intends to organize the registration of members of the Society and people affected as a result of the accident to create a network of primary organizations on the industrial and territorial basis not only in the 30-kilometer zone but also in other regions of the country The highest governing body of the Society is the conference which convenes once a year in the city of Chernobyl or in Kyiv In the period between conferences the Society is led by a council which exercises effective oversight of the effectiveness of the work to eliminate the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPS including oversight of the use of funds disbursed for these purposes On April 4 1989 the bureau of the Slavutych City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine having considered the question of the establishment of the Society for the Participants of the Elimination of the Consequences of the Accident at the Chernobyl NPS declared its creation inexpedient due to the lack of support for this idea in the labor collectives among the communists and the public of the city of Slavutych and the Chernobyl NPS Further the Executive Committee of the Ivankiv District Council of People's Deputies did not authorize the holding of the founding conference of the Society on April 8th in the city of Chernobyl due to the late receipt of the application The conference did not take place on that day no antisocial demonstrations were registered Secretary of the Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine G Revenko Source Russian and Eastern European Documents Database Center for the Preservation of Contemporary Documentation Fond 89 opis 53 d 82 Translated by Sarah Dunn for the National Security Archive This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu