ABSTRACT
On May 25, 1989, the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR opened in Moscow. Against the backdrop of the inconceivable economic and moral crisis, some people might deem the Chernobyl issue rather too local, a disaster. Ukrainian parliamentarians were asking to be heard by the Congress. A USSR people's deputy for Kiev, chairman of the republic's cinematographers union, Mikhail Belikov, called for meeting in the Hotel Moskva. He said he had some footage filmed in the contaminated areas of the administrative region. Several party functionaries of Belorussia and the Ukraine also shed their inhibitions. It was hard to believe that they were saying this. From their speeches, the country was gradually learning the Chernobyl secrets of the Kremlin court. The Congress was over, and the time came to show the people's deputies footage of how people were living in contaminated areas. After a while the first session of the USSR Supreme Soviet was convened again.
