Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

"The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is generally operating well. The problems mentioned in the 1985 KGB report are being rectified, and most of the construction quality defects in the 1979 report have been repaired in subsequent maintenance."

Then the chairman of the audit committee asked:

"In 1983, the Ignalina nuclear power plant discovered a terminal effect problem with the control rods. NIKIET sent a letter requiring all RBMK power plants to implement operational restrictions and control rod modifications. What is the status of the modifications implemented at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant?"

The Deputy Minister of Energy's expression changed.

"Regarding the control rod modification..." He flipped through the folder in front of him, then scratched his head. "This project... is listed in the modernization plan... the specific implementation schedule needs to be confirmed with the design team..."

"Okay, so that means nothing's changed." We're all old foxes, who's going to play these ghost stories with you? Everyone knows that.

The chairman of the audit committee turned to the representative of the Ministry of Machinery Industry:

"Please have the designers explain the technical nature of the end-effect and why the modification has not been implemented to date."

The director of the Ministry of Machinery Industry cleared his throat.

"...The control rod design of the RBMK reactor was the optimal choice based on the technological conditions available at the time."

Ignalina's commissioning data in 1983 showed that under certain extreme operating conditions—low operating responsiveness margin combined with full power operation—the insertion of the control rod could produce a brief positive responsiveness effect.

NIKIET analyzed this and offered suggestions...

"How has the letter been handled since it was sent?"

"Operational limitations have been written into the technical specifications—"

"But were the operators informed about the existence and dangers of the end effect?"

"this..."

silence.

The director of the Ministry of Machinery Industry glanced at the Vice Minister of Energy, his eyes conveying a dismissive attitude that said, "This is your problem, what does it have to do with me?" and then said:

"The letter was sent to the technical management of each power plant. As for specific operator training... that falls under the management scope of the operator."

"In other words, you sent a letter but are unsure whether the recipient truly understood and complied with it."

"The designer's responsibility is to provide technical suggestions; implementation is the operator's job, and it has nothing to do with us."

The hearing ended two hours later, and the meeting minutes were printed out on the spot by the audit committee for each participant to sign and confirm—in black and white, everything that everyone said, admitted, and evaded was recorded.

In short, both sides shifted blame at the hearing: the designers said they sent a letter, while the operators said the designers didn't explain the seriousness of the situation.

Now it's time to hand over the "victory" to Gorbachev; it's his turn to arbitrate.

On November 1, Ryzhkov placed the report on Gorbachev's desk:

"It is recommended that the Politburo instruct relevant ministries and commissions to immediately launch a comprehensive revision of all RBMK reactor modification plans and operating procedures."

This work should be incorporated into the technological support system of the accelerated development strategy, reflecting the determination of my country's nuclear industry to improve itself and pursue excellence in the new era.

Gorbachev would not refuse at all; after all, the Minister of the Ministry of Machine Building, Slavsky, was eighty-seven years old, the President of the Academy of Sciences, Alexandrov, was eighty-two, and the Director of the NIKIET Institute, Dolezali, was also quite old...

Coincidentally, Ryzhkov also mentioned in his report some young cadres who were dissatisfied with the Minister of the Ministry of Machinery Industry and with Alexandrov, who were the whistleblowers at the time.

Rejuvenating the cadre ranks is exactly what Gorbachev is most enthusiastic about right now! Replace them! Immediately replace them with young cadres!

In fact, all these people were brought to us by Director Nian from Romanov, and if they were to thank anyone, they should thank Director Nian first.

This can be considered a case of Gorbachev being NTR'd.

Because the International Atomic Energy Agency was scheduled to visit the Soviet Union in March 1986, Gorbachev demanded that all operating RBMK reactors in the Soviet Union be upgraded by March, in order to limit power and reduce production targets.

The operating procedures for each power plant will be jointly revised by the Ministry of Machinery Industry and the Ministry of Energy. Operators must receive specialized training. After that, all modification requirements from the design party must be communicated to the implementing party, with responsibility shared equally by both parties.

Let the General Secretary take the lead and shoulder the blame, let Slava handle the planning and coordination, and let the people ensure safety and health.

History may not record Slava's name now, but the people will remember him forever.

Chapter 56 No country can offend two superpowers at the same time and still have a dignified ending.

Despite previous actions by the alliance that had saved billions of dollars from losses, the oil price drop will still hit the alliance's economy after Saudi Arabia announced the start of massive oil production.

Considering that the Soviet Union had already withdrawn more than 65% of its troops from Afghanistan and significantly reduced its aid to Vietnam, leaving much of its weaponry unused, the Soviet military proposed a more attractive solution:

Intervene in the Iran-Iraq War, which has now escalated to a point of no return.

...

To understand what happened over the Persian Gulf in the autumn of 1985, we need to turn back the clock five years.

On September 22, 1980, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered a full-scale invasion of Iran.

At that time, Iran's Islamic Revolution had been completed for only a year and a half. Half of the old imperial army had been purged, but the new Revolutionary Guard had not yet established its combat capability.

The United States has completely broken ties with Iran because of the hostage crisis and will not stand up for Tehran.

Most importantly, the Gulf monarchies, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, were extremely afraid of Iran's export of Shiite revolution and were willing to pay Saddam Hussein to be their henchman.

Saddam's plan was a blitzkrieg: to seize the Arab-populated areas of Khuzestan province and the Abadan oil refinery within two weeks, forcing Khomeini to sue for peace, and then reclaim half of the sovereignty over the Shatt al-Arab River that had been ceded to Iran in the 1975 Algiers Agreement at the negotiating table.

But things didn't go as planned. Two weeks turned into two years, two years into five years, and by the fall of 1985, the war had claimed at least half a million lives and showed no end in sight.

The roles have now reversed. From 1980 to 1982, Iraq was on the offensive and Iran on the defensive. After Iran launched a counter-offensive in 1982 and recaptured lost territory, the front line stabilized near the international border. From 1983 onwards, it became a trench standoff reminiscent of World War I.

The two sides engaged in a bloodbath and used chemical weapons to wear each other down along a front hundreds of kilometers long. The front remained almost stationary, but the death toll continued to rise.

While the land battle remained deadlocked, a second front opened at sea—the tanker war.

The oil tanker war is an economic war. Iraq couldn't defeat Iran's human wave tactics, so it tried to suffocate its opponent with an economic blockade.

Iran's war machine operates on foreign exchange earned from oil exports—Kharg Island is its largest oil loading and unloading port, and the crude oil shipped out from here every day is the lifeline for Iran to feed millions of troops on the front lines!

Beginning in 1984, the Iraqi Air Force began systematically bombing Kharg Island and oil tankers bound for Iranian ports in an attempt to reduce Iran's export capacity to zero.

Iran's retaliation was a reciprocal response:

You want to bomb my oil tanker? Then I'll bomb oil tankers in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia!

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are major financial backers of Iraq. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard's speedboats and shore-to-ship missiles attacked neutral merchant ships near the Strait of Hormuz with the aim of making the entire Gulf unsafe and forcing the international community to pressure Iraq to stop its airstrikes.

Rafsanjani—the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament and one of the most powerful pragmatists in the revolutionary regime—said during this period:

"The Persian Gulf is either safe for everyone or unsafe for anyone."

This statement is Iran's only bargaining chip.

On land, it waged a war of attrition against Iraq. Diplomatically, it was hostile to four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, the USSR, the UK, and France). The only weapon that could make the world take it seriously was the Strait of Hormuz!

Twenty percent of the world's oil shipments pass through this 33-kilometer-wide waterway; controlling it is tantamount to controlling the throat of the world economy.

But Iran has never truly blocked the strait, because its own oil also flows out through it, and blocking it would be tantamount to suicide.

Unless its export capacity is completely destroyed.

At that point, those with nothing to lose are fearless, and the blockade transforms from a suicidal act into the only remaining bargaining chip.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The United States' stance in this war has often been characterized by the left brain attacking the right brain, with sharp edges replacing actual thought.

On the surface, Washington declared neutrality and refused to sell weapons to either side of the conflict, although this neutrality was never seriously enforced.

In essence, the United States has been tilting towards Iraq since 1982:

In April 1982, Iraq was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Diplomatic relations were restored in November 1984. Saudi Arabia provided Iraq with billions of dollars in low-interest loans through agricultural credit programs, transferred battlefield intelligence to Iraq through Saudi Arabia's AWACS early warning aircraft, and cut off arms supplies to Iran globally.

However, Iran's arms supply has never been cut off, and it has obtained a considerable amount of weapons through channels with neutral countries such as North Korea and Laos.

The fundamental reason why the United States leaned towards Iraq was not because it liked Saddam Hussein; nobody liked Saddam Hussein!

Like the Soviet Union, the United States feared the export of revolution following an Iranian victory. The United States worried that the Islamic revolution would sweep across the Gulf, while the Soviet Union worried that the Islamic revolution would destabilize the nation along its southern border.

If Iran wins this war, the wave of Shiite revolutions will impact Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE...

These countries possess the world's largest oil reserves, and the collapse of their regimes would fundamentally undermine the West's energy security.

But Washington has never been a monolithic entity.

While the State Department and the Department of Defense openly supported Iraq, a small group within the National Security Council, represented by Robert McFarlane, was secretly extending olive branches to Tehran.

Their faction pursues a long-term geopolitical strategy:

"Khomeini will eventually die, and Iran will definitely be the prize that the US and the Soviet Union fight over. If Iran is quickly defeated and the rule of the Revolutionary Guard is overthrown by pragmatists, then there is a very high probability that Iran will cooperate with the Soviet Union."

This hidden thread later evolved into the Iran-Contra scandal, involving the exchange of weapons for American hostages and the use of profits to fund Nicaraguan rebels, but in the fall of 1985 it was just a faint crack.

In this timeline, the US bias toward Iraq would only intensify, as the Soviet Union had already withdrawn from Afghanistan, and the threat posed by Iran's Islamic Revolution to Central Asia and the Caucasus was further amplified in the US intelligence community's assessment.

The last thing Washington wanted to see was for the Iranian revolution to ignite in the same Muslim world from another direction after the Soviet Union had achieved stability on its southern flank.

---

As for the Soviet Union, its position in the Iran-Iraq War was equally complex, and its relationship with Iraq was a traditional asset of the Soviet Union in the Middle East.

In 1972, the two countries signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation, and the Iraqi army's equipment, from tanks to fighter jets to air defense systems, was entirely Soviet-made.

But Saddam was never a docile customer. In the late 1970s, he imported French weapons on a large scale, buying everything from Mirage fighters and Super Étendard attack aircraft to Exocet anti-ship missiles.

He invaded Iran in 1980 without notifying Moscow beforehand, and after the war began, the Soviet Union temporarily cut off arms supplies to Iraq in protest.

However, the continuation of the war forced the two sides to come together again. Iraq needed Soviet arms, and the Soviet Union needed Iraq as a geopolitical foothold in the Gulf. By 1985, the Soviet Union had resumed full arms sales to Iraq.

Several years earlier, during the Andropov era, Slava had influenced Moscow to more clearly side with Baghdad. Now, with the Soviet Union having completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, freeing up significant military and diplomatic resources, Saudi Arabia's decision to increase oil production in September poses a serious threat to Soviet oil revenues...

Is there a way to raise oil prices?

Some comrades, yes, we just need to force Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

September, Moscow

The Politburo's Southern Issues Group held an emergency meeting, and under pressure from moderate reformers, Ogarkov approved a list of weapons to be provided as aid.

Two squadrons of Su-24 all-weather attack aircraft, along with Soviet instructors and ground crew, were deployed to Iraq. The Su-24 was the most advanced frontline bomber in the Soviet Air Force at the time, with a combat radius of over 1,000 kilometers. It could carry precision-guided munitions and, with aerial refueling capabilities, could strike any target deep in the Persian Gulf directly from Iraqi territory.

Then there's the Kh58 anti-radiation missile, which is specifically designed to suppress the Hawk air defense missile system deployed by Iran on Kharg Island and along its coastline.

Historically, the Iraqi Air Force's inefficiency in attacking Kharg Island was largely due to Iranian air defenses, which prevented pilots from making low-altitude incursions and severely impacted bombing accuracy.

The Kh-58 can be launched from outside the range of air defense missiles, first disabling Iran's radar and missile sites, and then the attack aircraft can calmly enter and drop its bombs.

Finally, a target intelligence group was established in Baghdad, and data from the "Legendary" ocean reconnaissance satellite system was processed and directly used by the Iraqi Air Force for strike planning.

The "Legend" system was originally designed for the Soviet Navy to track US carrier groups—it consisted of a group of radar and electronic intelligence satellites that could locate large ships in real time across the globe.

Using the data from this system to locate oil tankers and floating transshipment stations on Harker Island would be a game-changer.

It can only be said that Iran has lived a life where it was dealt with by both the United States and the Soviet Union.

Ogarkov's deputy added a detail during the presentation that drew the director's attention to the additional motives of the military reformists in this matter:

"...The equipment and ammunition of the Su24 squadron were transferred from the Far Eastern Military District's inventory, where there was a large amount of equipment and ammunition scheduled for rotation after the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rather than letting them expire and be scrapped in the warehouse, it was better to use them in actual combat, while making room for the next generation of equipment. The Kh-58 missiles were drawn from the Ural stockpile, also in a planned rotation batch."

Military reformists are not only cooperating with the reformists' geostrategic plan, but they are also using this opportunity to advance their own military modernization agenda.

The entire plan was approved within two hours, and the operation was codenamed "Trait Winds".

Trade winds are directional winds that remain constant throughout the tropical oceans, propelling the earliest ocean trade routes in human history.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

On September 12, the first satellite-guided precision air strike was launched at dawn.

The United States had been providing intelligence support to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War for several years. After learning that the Soviet Union was finally willing to intervene, the United States "leaked" a lot of detailed maps of Iranian ports.

Four Su-24Ms took off from an airport in southern Iraq and, with the support of aerial refueling tankers, flew over the Persian Gulf. They first used Kh-58 anti-radiation missiles to suppress the radars of two Hawk air defense missile batteries on the east side of Kharg Island, and then approached the deep-water berth in the open sea in a low-altitude penetration manner.

Each aircraft carried four 500-kilogram laser-guided bombs, and twelve of the sixteen bombs hit the loading arm and control room at the port of Halke Island.

If it were just an oil storage tank that was blown up, Iran would have the capability to repair it. But these loading arms for deep-water ports are not something that just anyone can easily produce; they must be imported from the West or the Soviet Union.

Clearly, neither the US nor the Soviet Union would give this young Islamic regime a chance to recover.

Kharg Island’s export capacity was reduced by 60 percent that morning, and Iran’s oil exports plummeted from about two million barrels before the war to less than 800,000 barrels.

...

Tehran.

The Supreme National Defense Council convened an emergency meeting late that night.

Revolutionary Guard Commander Mohsen Rezai advocated for the immediate blockade of the Strait of Hormuz:

"If they can bomb our export facilities, then we'll shut down all exit routes and make the whole world pay the price!"