Research by scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Chernobyl accident zone

Sokerin Timofei Anatolevich Junior Researcher; Department of Humanities Interdisciplinary Research; Federal Research Centre “Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences” 167982, Russia, Komi Republic, Syktyvkar, Kommunisticheskaya str., 24, room 311 tima.cok@mail.ru

In the 21st century, the nuclear industry and energy play an important role in the life of society. Despite the improvement and modernization of nuclear industry facilities, the risk of man-made accidents remains. Society and government authorities, concerned about their possible consequences for public health and the environment, are in need of reliable and reliable information on the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms. Their request can be met by scientific institutions that study the state of ecosystem components and predict the presence of radiation threats to the environment and the population. In this regard, the study of the historical experience of radioecological research at the Institute of Biology of the Komi Federal Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Chernobyl accident zone is relevant.

Environmental history is an interdisciplinary field of historical research. Historian I. V. Sibiryakov noted that this concept has recently become part of the Russian scientific discourse. In his opinion, "the Russian historiography of environmental history is still being formed" ^{[1, p. 49]}. Earlier, the source scholar V. I. Durnovtsev spoke skeptically about the popularity of this scientific discipline in the Russian scientific community, noting that it is "difficult to attribute it to the mainstream of modern Russian historiography" ^{[2, p. 62]}. An analysis of the scientific literature in this field of science allows us to assert that environmental historians paid great attention to the problems of irrational policy of nature protection and use of natural resources in the USSR. One of the most notable examples was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. In 2013, a group of scientists led by American historian Paul Josephson published the book "The Ecological History of Russia", in which the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was called "one of the factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union" ^{[3, pp. 258-259]}. Even if one does not assign such a role to the largest radiation accident, it is difficult to dispute that the consequences of the explosion of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant contributed to significant socio-political transformations in the USSR in the late 1980s. The accident had a significant impact on the development of the USSR Academy of Sciences, whose significant resources were devoted to eliminating the consequences of the disaster.

The connection between the history of science and environmental history has previously been the subject of scientific research. Yu. A. Layus, a Russian expert in the field of environmental history, emphasized that a common issue for these scientific disciplines is the idea of knowledge as power: "studying the views of experts on nature and the relationship of society with nature are important for understanding how programs for the use of natural resources and environmental change are formed on the basis of these views" ^{[4, p. 47]}. American historian John McNeill proposed dividing environmental history into three subdisciplines: physical, political, and cultural (intellectual). Within the framework of the latter subdiscipline, the subject of study is "what people thought, believed, wrote, or, less often, painted, sculpted, sang or danced on the topic of the relationship between society and nature" ^{[5, pp. 347-348]}. Science is an integral element of human culture. Scientific works and sources of personal origin of scientists related to research are the fruits of their intellectual activity. In our opinion, these sources contain valuable information about how human interaction with the environment took place in the past. Part of it is radiation and environmental research, which examines the consequences of human economic activities related to the use of radioactivity for living organisms, their populations and ecosystems.

The radiation accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986 was an event after which the society paid close attention to the problem of increasing man-made radiation effects on the environment. It began to grow due to the development of nuclear energy in the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, and other countries of the world in the 1950s and 1980s. One of the largest man-made disasters in history is the frontier of the development of knowledge about the effects of radiation on living organisms and their populations. The accident provided radioecologists with the opportunity to study the effects of ionizing radiation on plant and animal populations in natural conditions, which were previously carried out on a limited scale — at landfills with increased radioactivity and in specialized laboratories. In order to study in detail the impact of the consequences of the accident on the components of natural ecosystems, it was necessary to develop research programs designed for a long time.

On May 24, 1986, Academician B. E. Paton, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, noted that "according to the updated version of the forecast assessment of the situation after the accident, preliminary situational calculations indicated the need to develop a serious long-term strategic program to eliminate the consequences of the Chernobyl accident" (From the analytical material of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the CPSU regarding the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) ^{[6, p. 161]}. The issue of creating a special research program was raised at a meeting of the Bureau of the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Chemistry of Physiologically Active Compounds of the USSR Academy of Sciences on June 3, 1986. The Bureau asked the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences "to make a decision on the creation of a comprehensive program of radiobiological research and the organization of a permanent expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences to Chernobyl" ^{[7, L. 70-71]}. These requests were implemented by a Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated November 1, 1986: "in order to coordinate scientific research related to the identification and elimination of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident <...> The Council of Ministers of the USSR decided <...> within two weeks, prepare and submit for approval to the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology and the USSR Academy of Sciences a comprehensive research program for the study and elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl accident" (Resolution of the CCCP Council of Ministers "On the establishment of the CCCP Coordinating Council for Scientific Problems related to the Elimination of the Consequences of Accidents at the Presidium of the CCCP Academy of Sciences at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant") ^{[6, pp. 377-378]}. One of the sections of this program was devoted to environmental issues. The scientific supervisor of the Ecology section was Academician, Director of the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. E. Sokolov. The institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences and other departments were the executors of environmental studies aimed at a comprehensive study of the consequences of the accident at the nuclear power plant.

In 1986-1992, scientific staff of the Department of Radioecology of the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences worked in the accident zone under the leadership of the head of the department A. I. Taskaev. Their participation in research work in the accident zone became possible due to their experience in conducting research on the effects of radioactive contamination on flora and fauna.

Scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who participated in conducting research in the Chernobyl accident zone, determined their significance from the perspective of specialists in the field of radioecology: the analysis of the consequences of the accident contributed to the development of ideas about the biological effect of ionizing radiation, which may be needed in the future due to the dangers of scientific and technological progress ^[8-12]. In order to identify the importance of radioecological research in the context of environmental history, we set the task to determine what is the relationship between radioecological research and ecohistory using the example of research by scientists from the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Chernobyl accident zone.

The initiator of the development of radioecological research in the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was geneticist P. F. Rokitsky, who in 1949-1957 headed the Department of animal husbandry and zoology. In March 1957, he took part in the coordination meeting of the Department of Biological Sciences of the USSR Academy of Sciences, which was held in Moscow. The meeting discussed the issues of reorientation of biologists' forces on radiobiological topics. Upon Pyotr Fomich's return to Syktyvkar, a meeting of the Scientific council under the Presidium of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences was held, dedicated to the results of the meeting. P. F. Rokitsky had information that in the Vodny settlement of the Ukhta district in 1931-1956 there was an enterprise for the extraction of radium from natural radium-containing waters. He invited the Chairman of the Presidium, P. P. Vavilov, to begin studying the effects of radiation on living organisms. Pyotr Petrovich supported this proposal, and the first scientific expedition was sent to the Ukhta district of the Komi ASSR on July 10, 1957 ^{[13, pp. 114-115]}. Employees of the biological departments of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who participated in the expedition, surveyed vast territories, performed laborious dosimetric work, and collected a significant amount of materials. The first assessments of the results of the expedition raised the question of the need to conduct research on a multi-year basis and create a specialized structural unit within the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

In 1959, the Laboratory of Radiobiology was established at the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Her staff, who had started research in a new field of science, needed methodological help. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences collaborated with biologists N. V. Timofeev-Resovsky and I. N. Verkhovskaya, who played a significant role in training personnel for Soviet radioecology. They helped novice radioecologists to master the basics of the methodology of radiation and environmental research. In 1965, the laboratory was transformed into the Department of Radiobiology. The control and evaluation of the research of researchers was carried out by the commissions of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The results of their research activities were highly appreciated in 1968 and 1973 by members of the verification commissions, which included well-known radioecologists V. M. Klechkovsky, A.M. Kuzin, and R. M. Aleksakhin. In the second half of the 1960s, radioecologists from the Komi Institute of Biology, a branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, became active participants in major scientific events. Many years of experience in studying the effect of elevated background radiation on the components of terrestrial biogeocenoses was discussed at scientific forums at the international and All-Union level: in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1966, in Kadarache (France) in 1969, in Syktyvkar in 1967, 1973, 1983. The results of these studies became known in the scientific community and were recognized by radioecologists. In 1978, the department was renamed the Department of Radioecology due to a change in the direction of research. Researcher A. I. Kichigin noted that "at the beginning of 1986, they practically decided to liquidate the Department of Radioecology <...> It was believed that "perestroika" had come and the danger of nuclear war had decreased, which reduced the relevance of radiobiological research. The Chernobyl disaster radically shifted scientific emphasis, thereby preventing the liquidation of the department" ^[14].

Primary attention in the study of the reaction of living organisms to the effects of ionizing radiation was paid to its effect on the human body. In post-emergency conditions, it was urgently necessary to assess the effects of radiation on people who were exposed to radiation. According to the memoirs of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Komi Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, M. P. Roshchevsky ^{[15, pp. 16-17]}, in May 1986 he went to Moscow to meet with the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences, A. N. Alexandrov, at which it was planned to discuss the development of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. During the conversation, it turned out that it was unknown which research teams in the USSR were prepared to conduct radioecological monitoring of the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. The Chairman of the Presidium of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences told A. N. Alexandrov about the research of radioecologists of the Institute of Biology, and the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences approved their participation in research conducted in the accident zone.

The first trip of the staff of the Radioecology Department to Chernobyl took place in June 1986. Researchers P. A. Borodkin, V. G. Zainullin, and senior laboratory assistant L. A. Bashlykova analyzed chromosome abnormalities in the blood of local residents and liquidators ^{[16, L. 2-3]}. The work was conducted under the guidance of V. A. Shevchenko, a recognized specialist in the field of genetics from the Institute of General Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, who had extensive experience in studying the genetic effects of radiation ^{[17, p. 93]}. Radioecologists of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences have established that the radiation dose of 25 santisieverts received by affected people is not capable of causing significant somatic effects in them in the near future, but in the long term they may experience an increase in the number of oncological diseases and hereditary pathologies ^{[16, L. 3]}.

In 1986, under the leadership of the head of the Department of Radioecology A. I. Taskaev, 26 sites were selected in a 30-kilometer zone for staging long-term stationary studies ^{[9, p. 38]}. They were used to select material from herbaceous plants and pine trees, and to capture mouse-like rodents, fruit flies, and soil invertebrates. Radioecologist E. B. Kupriyanova, investigating the soil fauna in the accident zone, discovered a change in the species structure of woodlouse communities ^{[10, pp. 7-8]}.

Researchers of the Department of Radioecology O. V. Ermakova, N. G. Zagorskaya, A.V. Kichigin, A. G. Kudyasheva, L. D. Materii, A. I. Taskaev studied the somatic effects of radiation on mouse-like rodents. As a result of the research, a "complex mosaic of metabolic shifts in the tissues of mouse-like rodents in response to radioactive pollution of the environment" was revealed ^{[18, l. 159]}. Scientists found somatic effects that "indicated a very unstable state of the organism and the animal population in conditions of radioactive contamination of the habitat" ^{[19, l. 117]}. They suggested that the established effects may occur in people who lived in territories contaminated with radionuclides ^{[20, l. 136]}.

Radioecologists of the Komi Institute of Biology of the National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences L. A. Bashlykova, V. G. Zainullin, A. O. Rakin, A. A. Khomichenko, V. I. Shershunova studied the genetic consequences of radiation exposure to herbaceous plants, natural populations of drosophila and mouse-like rodents from the Chernobyl accident area. Scientists have revealed that "radioactive contamination of the territory as a result of the accident in the first years after the disaster led to significant changes in the genetic load in natural populations of animals and plants." V.G. Zainullin hypothesized that the universal nature of the reaction of living organisms to small doses of ionizing radiation is due to the processes of destabilization of the genotype caused by exposure to small doses ^{[21, L. 3, 161-162]}. The results of research in the accident zone allowed radioecologists of the Komi Scientific Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to determine the somatic and genetic consequences of a radiation disaster for animals and plants in natural ecosystems.

For many biological species that lived in the Chernobyl accident zone, the habitat was coniferous forests. Observations of the sensitivity of coniferous trees to the effects of ionizing radiation were carried out by employees of the Experimental Research Station of the Mayak Production Association (PO) back in the late 1950s on the territory of the East Ural radioactive trace ^{[22, pp. 59-60]}. This trace was formed on the territory of the Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions as a result of a radiation accident at the Mayak chemical plant in the closed city of Chelyabinsk-40, which occurred on September 29, 1957, and was accompanied by the release of a significant amount of radionuclides into the atmosphere. Even then, the great sensitivity of coniferous trees to radiation was revealed.

As a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, significant areas covered with coniferous forests were exposed to radioactive contamination. At the initial stage of the accident, emergency measures were taken to reduce possible damage from radioactive contamination of forests. The stands were sprayed with fixing solutions to fix the fallen radioactive aerosols on the crown surface. The remains of the "red forest" were buried together with the topsoil in trenches to a depth of about 2 meters, as a result of which radionuclides entered the groundwater. These measures turned out to be either ineffective or harmful to ecosystems, as they were implemented without taking into account the experience previously accumulated in radioecology ^{[23, pp. 403-404]}.

The development of proposals to stabilize the radiation situation in the 30-kilometer zone was the task of many years of research by a group of scientists from the Department of Forest Biological Problems of the North of the Institute of Biology of the Komi branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The head of the department, G. M. Kozubov, was the head of the work. It was the only scientific division of the Institute of Biology, except for the Department of Radioecology, which took part in scientific activities in the accident zone. In October 1986, employees of the department V. V. Alekseev, G. M. Kozubov, S. V. Kuzivanova (Zagirova), N. V. Ladanova and began research in the 30-kilometer zone. In accordance with the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1306-357 dated November 1, 1986, the Institute of Biology was a co-executor of the Comprehensive Program for Eliminating the Consequences of the Chernobyl accident "The effect of radioactive contamination on flora and fauna". The scientific staff of the Department of Forest Biological Problems of the North participated in the implementation of scientific research on the topic of the program "To conduct comprehensive studies of changes in flora and fauna under the influence of radioactive contamination, to study its effect on the structure and functions of plants and animals, on their genetic apparatus. To develop the basics of environmental forecasting and proposals to reduce the harmful effects of the Chernobyl accident on flora and fauna" (1986-1990). Within the framework of this topic, the scientific staff of the department studied the features of morphogenesis, growth processes and individual radiosensitivity of Scots pine in various radioecological conditions; the effect of radiation on the subcellular organization of assimilating tissues (tissues whose main function is photosynthesis) of coniferous plants; the effect of radiation on cytoembryological processes and biological parameters of scots pine seeds. They found that the most radiosensitive woody plant in the 30 km zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the European spruce (common), and not the common pine. The pre–threshold dose during irradiation of pine mesophyll, after which no destructive phenomena in the ultrastructural organization of photosynthetic cells were detected, was estimated at an absorbed dose of 4-5 Gray, and spruce mesophyll - 2-2.5 Gray (by gamma radiation). The dependence of the biological parameters of pine cones and seeds on absorbed doses was most clearly manifested in 1986 as a consequence of acute irradiation at maximum power ^{[24, pp. 81, 171, 193, 226-227]}.

In May 1988, proposals prepared by G.M. Kozubov to stabilize the radiation situation in the area of the Chernobyl accident by afforesting wastelands and increasing the stability of forests exposed to radiation were sent to the Government Commission for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Chernobyl accident. They were approved by the Government Commission on June 2, 1988. In pursuance of this decision, a comprehensive program "Forest of the Near Zone" was drawn up, approved on July 4, 1990. Within the framework of this program, the Institute of Biology conducted research on the contractual research topic: CD 8-89 "Assessment and forecast of restoration processes in coniferous forests of the 30 km zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant". In January 1991, the section "Development and publication of a radiation damage map of pine forests in the 30 km zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant" was additionally added to this topic. In September 1991, a schematic map (M 1:100,000) with an Explanatory note to it was published in Syktyvkar ^[25] and on September 25, 1000 copies. They were transferred to the NGO "Pripyat" ^{[24, p. 82]}. A. I. Taskaev and G. M. Kozubov took part in its compilation. They obtained data on the spatial distribution of coniferous forests in the accident zone.

In 1992, all work in the Kiev region had to be stopped for reasons beyond the control of the performers. Due to the collapse of the USSR, funding for research work at the NGO Pripyat, with which scientists from the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences interacted, was stopped, and difficulties arose with registration of entry documents to the Chernobyl accident zone, which was located on the territory of Ukraine ^{[24, pp. 83-84]}.

The information obtained during the conducted radioecological studies allowed scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to conclude that the effect of ionizing radiation on coniferous forests in the Chernobyl accident zone was reversible in the vast majority of forest areas. Radiation exposure caused the complete death of about 800-1000 hectares of forests in the 30-km zone, which amounted to 0.8–1% of its entire forested area. A. I. Taskaev and G. M. Kozubov proposed to introduce a special protection regime in the 10-km zone due to its value as an experimental landfill for radioecological and radiobiological research, which can be used for several hundred years. Scientists of the Institute of Biology proposed to create a buffer zone around a 10-km zone with a width of 1 km, from which it was planned to remove all pine plantations, and prohibit the uncontrolled export of pine seeds and pollen from the Chernobyl accident zone ^{[24, pp. 236, 246-247]}.

The proposal to create a protected area in the accident zone was put forward earlier by the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. On April 30, 1987, the Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, K. M. Sytnik, sent their proposals to Gosagroprom of the Ukrainian SSR "to organize a radioecological reserve, including a 30-kilometer protection zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with a total area of about 150 thousand hectares" and to create research grounds that "were intended for conducting radioecological observations" (Proposals of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR to Gosagroprom of the Ukrainian SSR on creation of scientific research structures in a 30-kilometer zone) ^{[6, pp. 419-420]}. Despite the fact that the issue of creating a radiation-ecological reserve was of great importance for biologists and ecologists, the Chernobyl Radiation-ecological Biosphere Reserve was established only on April 26, 2016 (Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 174/2016 "On the creation of the Chernobyl Radiation-ecological Biosphere Reserve").

The interaction between scientific institutions that participated in the implementation of the comprehensive program of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Chernobyl accident zone consisted not only in participating in joint research, but also in providing assistance at various stages of their implementation. L. A. Bashlykova noted that employees of the Department of Radioecology of the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences after the selection of organs mouse-like rodents caught in the accident zone were given their intestines to helminthologists from the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences for their study. According to radioecologist A. G. Kudyasheva, her colleagues received the help of scientists from the Institute of General Genetics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Evolutionary Morphology and Ecology of Animals of the USSR Academy of Sciences in organizing field research and "solving many economic issues" ^{[15, pp. 56, 64]}. This support made it possible to ensure the conduct of radioecological research in the face of organizational problems and lack of resources that were observed during the aftermath of the disaster.

A scientifically verified assessment of the consequences of the accident by scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences allowed us to obtain new information about the effects of low doses of radiation on living organisms. However, the results of studying the effects of radioactive contamination on plants, animals, and humans in the accident zone had not only scientific, but also applied significance. The results of determining absorbed doses from liquidators were used to make reasoned decisions about the treatment of victims: depending on the level of exposure, people were sent for treatment either to the nearest polyclinics or to specialized clinics in Moscow, Chelyabinsk and other cities ^{[11, p. 32]}.

The evaluation of the research results was given by the scientific staff of the Department of Radioecology after the completion of research work in the accident area. On April 25, 1996, a joint extended meeting of the Presidium of the Komi Scientific Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Council of the Institute of Biology was held in Syktyvkar, dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. A. I. Taskaev noted in the report presented at the meeting that "in the first year, based on the research conducted, we [scientists of the Institute of Biology] submitted 16 memos- proposals on stabilization of the radiation situation in the exclusion zone, genetic and sanitary-epidemiological prognosis, as well as on the organization of scientific research <...> 80% of them have been fully implemented" ^{[15, p. 12]}.

Radioactive contamination of territories due to the Chernobyl accident gave a powerful impetus to the development of research in the field of biological efficacy of small doses worldwide ^{[26, L. 48]}. New information has been obtained on the effects of radiation on living organisms and their communities. Scientific staff of the Department of Radioecology A. G. Kudyasheva, O. V. Ermakova, T. I. Evseeva noted that the publications of radioecologists of the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences make up a significant part of scientific works on Chernobyl: in the FREDERICA radiation effects database (an electronic database that contains information on the effects of ionizing radiation on representatives of other biological species other than from a person) they own 15% of bibliographic references on this topic ^{[12, pp. 34-35]}.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant has actualized the problem of ensuring the protection of ecosystems from the adverse effects of the radiation factor. To ensure it, knowledge was required about the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms in the field, which were obtained by scientists from the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Chernobyl accident zone. The research was carried out within the framework of scientific research aimed at a comprehensive study of the consequences of a radiation accident. The results of these studies were of scientific and practical importance, made it possible to assess the impact of radiation on the components of natural ecosystems in the accident zone and make adjustments to the set of measures to eliminate its consequences.It is determined that the radioecological research of scientists from the Institute of Biology of the Komi National Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the area of the accident is closely related to environmental history, since their scientific activities were part of the process of the relationship between humanity and the environment. Studying the experience of conducting radioecological research makes it possible to reduce the consequences of past mistakes made in relation to nature, and helps to prevent situations leading to environmental degradation.

The article was prepared as part of the state assignment on the topic of research No. 122040600068-9 "Studying the northern territories of European Russia: formation of scientific communities".