WEBVTT

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Imagine eating meat 
laced with radioisotopes.

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Imagine your kids drinking 
contaminated milk.

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Imagine the walls in your house

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getting cracks from the earth
shaking underneath it -

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you are so fed up, 
you don't fix them anymore.

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More than a million people in Kazakhstan 
do not have to imagine.

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They had lived through this for 40 years

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while Kazakhstan was 
part of the Soviet Union.

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This talk today is my love letter

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to the courage of ordinary people.

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People who are not afraid 
to tell the truth,

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even when not convenient.

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People who are not afraid 
to challenge power,

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to challenge oppressive regimes.

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My stories today 
are the stories of my people,

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people of Kazakhstan,

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and their fight to stop 
nuclear tests on their land.

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These stories have inspired me,

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and I hope they will inspire you.

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I hope they will serve 
as a reminder to all of us

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that we, the people, can challenge power,

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and we can make a difference 
to the course of history.

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This is all very personal to me.

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Kazakhstan's nuclear story 
defined who I am.

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The family of my father 
lived in the city of Semipalatinsk,

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just seventy miles away 
from the nuclear test site.

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When the Soviet Union collapsed,

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and Kazakhstan found itself

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with a nuclear inheritance
it did not seek,

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more than a thousand 
Soviet nuclear weapons,

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my father,

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at the time, the head of the country’s
first analytical institution,

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helped the Kazakh government
to make nuclear policy decisions.

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My father died young.

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Eager to follow his footsteps

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and keenly aware how
nuclear politics shaped my country,

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I entered the field
of nuclear policy 18 years ago.

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I'm thrilled to be part of the community

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that works toward ridding
our planet of nuclear weapons.

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And just like my father, 
but many years later,

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I had the honor to serve

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as an advisor on disarmament 
to the UN Secretary-General.

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Soviet leaders rushed 
to develop nuclear weapons,

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eager to catch up with the United States.

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To test their weapons,
they chose the land of my ancestors,

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the region that holds sacred place 
in the Kazakh consciousness.

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Our most famous writers, poets,
intellectuals were born here.

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It is on this land 
that a nuclear test site,

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the size of Israel, was built.

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From ancient times,

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endless steppe and limitless blue skies
signified freedom to Kazakh nomads.

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Depending on the season,

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steppe changes color from vibrant green
to golden under scorching sun in summer.

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At the horizon, steppe meets the skies,

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dividing what you see 
in two blocks of color,

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with nothing to obstruct the view,

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just like a Rothko painting.

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Before the Soviet military arrived,

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Kazakh shepherds roamed the generous land
that provided food for their cattle.

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Soon, the region that prided itself

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on supplying the entire country
with the best quality meat, fresh milk -

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raising livestock became contaminated,

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Nuclear bombs were dropped from the skies,
just like in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Nuclear mushrooms became a regular 
feature of the steppe horizon.

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Nuclear bombs also exploded

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underneath the earth
in specially built tunnels.

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People started to get sick.

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Here is just one testimony from a woman 
who lived in a rural settlement nearby,

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“Nobody told us

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about the harmfulness
of nuclear explosions.

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Everything was secret.

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Now I'm ill myself, 
my son hanged himself,

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and only the test site 
is to blame for all my ills.

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Every single inhabitant in our village

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suffers the consequences
of nuclear explosions.”

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The rise in suicides and mental illness

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was the darkest side of the human tragedy 
unfolded in the Kazakh steppe.

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Suicide was previously 
such an alien concept to Kazakhs,

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they didn’t even have a word for it.

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The military, of course,

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denied that the tests
were doing any harm to local people.

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They blamed the deteriorating
health of locals

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on living conditions and poor diet.

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The Soviet government 
fully controlled the narrative.

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Nuclear scientists were not allowed 
to talk about their work;

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doctors were not allowed to diagnose
any radiation-related illnesses.

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In this atmosphere
of full control from Moscow,

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scientists from Kazakhstan
launched a medical expedition

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to examine the health of people
who lived near the test site.

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Those scientists worked
for the Institute of Regional Pathology,

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part of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences.

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For three years,

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in the late 1950s,

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they painstakingly examined 
thousands of people,

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going from one village to another.

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Those were courageous men and women.

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They truthfully recorded what they saw.

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And their account
is a very clinical record.

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It's full of medical jargon,

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but let me tell you,

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if you read the dry text

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and picture the innocent people
behind the abstract data points,

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it will break your heart.

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Blood did not circulate properly 
in people’s brains.

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Those who were exposed long-term 
to high amounts of radioactivity

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lost their sense of smell and taste.

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The neurological pathologies 
made people tired,

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caused dizziness and headaches.

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Many locals were losing
their swallowing reflex,

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the body's important defense mechanism 
against choking on food.

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Those scientists
were summoned to Moscow,

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where the representatives
of the military medical establishment

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argued with them, 
dismissing their findings.

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Under pressure from the military,

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further efforts of the Kazakh
scientists were suspended.

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The Soviet government 
classified their data,

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and for decades that data 
was unavailable to public.

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That was the time 
of information suppression -

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nobody was supposed to know the truth.

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Decades later,

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I found myself in the library

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of the Kazakh Academy
of Sciences in Almaty,

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and I was holding in my hands

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the original documents
from that medical expedition.

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Chill ran down my spine,

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and my entire body 
was covered in goosebumps,

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not only from the profound sadness
I felt for my people

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that they had to suffer 
through these ailments

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through no fault of their own,

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but from the realization

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that any of these authors
could have been accused of state treason.

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They were recording

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how the country’s most important 
national security project

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was ruining the health 
of their countrymen.

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I will never forget
the emotions I felt that day,

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and I will never forget 
the courage of those scientists.

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What this story represents to me 
is the search for truth,

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even when confronted
by a repressive regime.

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For decades, people 
in the Semipalatinsk region

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continued to live

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under the dark cloud of nuclear tests.

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They tried to make politicians hear them,

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to no avail.

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Their anger, fueled 
by pain, reached its peak,

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and finally, a window of opportunity
to act opened up for them.

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It was late 1980s -

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nobody yet could have predicted
the Soviet Union would collapse.

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I was too young

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and only have very vague recollections
of that particular moment in history,

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but I remember the wind of change we felt

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when a new Soviet leader,
Mikhail Gorbachev, came to power.

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He allowed more political freedom,

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but that freedom also uncovered 
the depth of the Soviet Union’s decay.

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The Soviet republics

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and their frustration
of the Soviet republics

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with the Moscow rule

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could not be contained any longer.

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In Kazakhstan, that frustration 
manifested itself

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in massive protests against nuclear tests.

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So it was February of 1989

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when yet another underground nuclear test 
rocked the Kazakh land.

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As the result of the test,

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radioactive gas escaped 
from underneath the earth -

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nothing unusual,

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it happened so many times before -

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but this time,

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because the Soviet government

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could no longer fully control 
the information flow,

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this news became public.

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A charismatic Kazakh poet, 
Olzhas Suleimenov,

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went on national TV and appealed
to the people of Kazakhstan

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to rally against nuclear tests.

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Three days later, 5,000 people 
showed up at the Writers House,

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a gathering place for literary
professionals in Almaty.

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The hall couldn't even hold everyone,

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and thousands stood 
outside in the winter chill.

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The energy that day in that hall
was galvanizing,

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and the world's most massive 
public movement

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against nuclear tests was born.

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They called it Nevada-Semipalatinsk.

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Kazakhs added Nevada

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because they wanted to feel connected
with the downwinders in the United States

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who were fighting to stop nuclear tests
at the Nevada Test Site.

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Millions of people of Kazakhstan 
joined the Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement.

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On the ground in the Semipalatinsk region,

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a courageous local leader,
Keshrim Boztaeyv,

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appealed to Gorbachev,

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asking him to stop
nuclear tests in his region.

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From Almaty, the president of Kazakhstan,
Nursultan Nazarbayev,

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appealed to Moscow,

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asking to spare his nation
from continued tests.

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One expects action
from leaders; it is their duty.

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What moves me most in this story

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is the courage and determination 
of regular people -

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people who marched for months,

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showed up in thousands to rallies -

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uniting for one common goal:

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to stop nuclear tests.

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People were reclaiming their land.

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They were standing up for their lives.

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Kazakh steppe was alive again.

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The Nevada-Semipalatinsk movement

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became truly global.

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In 1990, about 80 Americans 
came to Kazakhaztan,

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as well as Russians and Japanese.

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Among Americans, there were members
of the Shoshone tribe of Nevada,

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downwinders from Utah.

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And they all came to support Kazakhs
in the International Peace March,

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and so, more than 200 of them

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traveled through Kazakhstan
by planes, buses, and on foot,

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stopping in villages and cities.

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In places where there were not
enough buildings to house everyone,

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this international crowd put up the tents 
and slept under the open sky.

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Meanwhile, the Soviet Union 
was collapsing under its own weight.

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Military leaders in Moscow

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had to reduce the number 
of tests in Kazakhstan

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because of this public protest,

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but they were not planning to stop,

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at least not well into the '90s,

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and they were putting pressure 
on the Kazakh government to accept that.

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Entire Kazakhstan

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including the political establishments,

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but, more importantly,

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people did not succumb.

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People continued to march,

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people continued to protest,

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and finally, the tireless fight 
of millions of people of Kazakhstan

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culminated in their victory.

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On August 29th of 1991,

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Kazakhstan shut down the Semipalatinsk
Nuclear Test Site forever.

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A few -

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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A few months later,
the Soviet Union collapsed,

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and Kazakhstan found itself

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with more than a thousand 
Soviet nuclear weapons.

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If you look at other countries
that are dying to have nuclear weapons,

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you would assume
they would want to keep them,

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but no, Kazakhstan chose to get rid
of those nuclear weapons,

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to a large extent

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because of its experience 
with the nuclear tests.

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So I want to leave you with this:

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If you have a choice to tell the truth,

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please tell it!

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Like those scientists in Kazakhstan did.

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If you have an opportunity
to act on your civic duties,

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please act on it.

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Like millions of people of Kazakhstan did

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when they fought against nuclear tests.

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We can make a difference
to the course of history.

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We are the makers of our own destiny.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)