Bibigul’s choice: pregnancy, risk and radiation in Kazakhstan

Sheree Sartain
WVoN Co-editor

After the Apocalypse is the haunting story of one woman’s pregnancy played out against a background of Soviet nuclear testing, radiation science and genetic “improvement” in Kazakhstan.

Bibigul has unusual facial features. The central area of her face is widened so that her eyes are set far apart and her nose is wide and flattened.

Her own mother has the same features although her sister seems to be free of whatever has caused Bibigul’s distinctive appearance.

Bibigul’s son shows a family likeness to his mother with his wide-set almond eyes but it is not clear whether he has inherited whatever it is that affects his mother and grandmother.

Pregnant for the third time – her second pregnancy ended with a miscarriage – Bibigul seems reluctant to attend the maternity hospital for her pre-natal screening.

She is the wife of a farmer and they live in a remote settlement near Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan. Their home is sparsely furnished but they do have access to a mobile phone which seems to work on the Kazakh Steppes.

Bibigul’s mother and sister are concerned that she has not been to the hospital and encourage her to attend. She must bring with her the documents that identify her as a victim of the ‘The Polygon’ – the nuclear testing centre at Semipalatinsk 21.

These documents entitle her to ‘special’ medical services.

Semiplatatinsk 21 (now renamed Kurchatov) was the site of the Soviet Union’s secret nuclear testing centre.

On 29 August 1948 “First Lightning” was detonated on a rainy and windy day in weather conditions most likely to cause contamination of the local area.

Locals described feeling the earth tremble and seeing the now familiar mushroom cloud rising into the air.

Between 1948 and 1989 the USSR tested around 460 nuclear weapons. Many of these tests were conducted underground but over one hundred were at ground level or in the atmosphere.

Of these, five surface devices failed to explode, resulting in dispersal of plutonium into the environment.

Many of the subsurface explosions caused accidental venting of radioactive gases into the atmosphere.

The presence of underground coal seams at the site mean that burning still continues under the surface. New craters are constantly being formed and contaminated gas released into the air.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said: “They have totally destroyed the environment. Poisoned earth, rivers and lakes. Children suffer from cancer [and] birth defects.”

The International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) has said that contamination is relatively localised but they also recommend that access to the area be restricted because any permanent settlement would result in radiation exposure above acceptable levels.

This does not stop the nomadic farmers who regularly pasture their stock in and around the Polygon.

But this is the story of Bibigul who wants to give birth to her unborn child and Dr Nurmagambetov who wants to prevent Bibigul and others ‘like’ her from having children.

Nurmagambetov believes that nuclear testing and exposure to radiation has left a genetically damaged population.

This legacy, he claims, can only be erased by introducing a system of genetic passports which can be used to identify those with damaged genes who should be prevented from giving birth.

Nurmagambetov collects what he calls his ‘monsters’, specimens both living and dead.

In a room of glass jars he displays the grossly deformed foetuses that he says are a consequence of genetic mutation. He points to one, a ‘cyclops’ and another with two heads. This is a black museum with human exhibits.

In a nursery is Nurmagambetov’s living collection – infants without arms, without legs – children with birth defects that he claims have been left in his care by their parents.

Bibigul must meet Nurmagambetov at the maternity unit’s genetic clinic.

Somewhere in the translation from Kazakh to Russian and the subsequent English subtitling I wonder if I can trust the interpretation.

Nurmagambetov is a harsh man apparently fired by his cause who dishes out harsh treatment at the clinic.

“Here is the one with the frightful face”, he says as he is told of Bibigul’s arrival.

“You are a stupid woman”, she is told by a midwife.

“You are wrong about your last period”

“Why do think the child only moves at five months – who told you this?”

Bibigul is assailed with insults and disapproval.

“You must have an amniocentesis to make sure the child does not have Down’s,” although it is unclear why Nurmagambetov believes that radiation causes Down’s Syndrome.

She must go for a test before it is too late. Abortion is only carried out until the twenty-second week and her pregnancy is in the twenty-first week.

Nurmagambetov talks freely in Russian about Bibigul and I assume (hope) that she speaks only Kazakh because his words are chilling.

He promotes a form of genetic cleansing – if you eradicate a group on the basis of ethnicity then it is genocide but if you do it on the basis of genetics then it is medicine he says.

A Kazakh official agrees with Nurmagambetov and his genetic passport scheme. It will raise the intellect of Kazakhstan he says.

The problem is that no one knows what is wrong with Bibigul and she has not been genetically screened.

Nurmagambetov’s claims are not supported by science and although some scientists believe that radiation exposure may cause genetic instability in subsequent generations this has yet to be proved the case for human subjects.

It is unclear what, if any, the consequences are for the second and third generations living with the legacy of nuclear testing at Semipalatinsk.

Statistically the case is tenuous. The percentage of birth defects seen in and around the area is higher than the national average, but the population is so small that one or two additional cases make a significant difference to the overall rate.

Despite this, Nurmagambetov is resolute. Bibugul should not have her child.

Bibigul is reduced to tears by her encounter with Nurmagambetov but she remains defiant. She will not have any screening tests. She believes that her baby will be healthy.

Bibigul’s mother sits bouncing a healthy grandchild on her knee, a niece or nephew to Bibigul. It will be alright she says. There is no need for testing.

Later we see Bibigul alone in the hospital as she gives birth to a baby boy.

The baby is taken by the midwife. It lies motionless, its mouth wide and gaping.

The midwife slaps the infant, shakes it and slaps again.

Then the scream and the baby is alive. Suddenly his face is animated as it changes colour from grey to pink.

The midwife goes through the routine checks. Arms, legs, fingers, toes, no cleft palette, all clear. The baby is healthy with no birth defects.

Nurmagambetov, ever the pessimist, says it will take time for mental impairments to develop in the child.

After the Apocalypse is a documentary directed by Antony Butts and produced by Dartmouth Films and Tigerlilly Films, supported by Wellcome Trust.

Broadcast by More4, UK on 19, July, 2011.