Nuclear tests in the USSR
05.08.2009 15:41:26
The first nuclear explosion of the USSR was carried out on August 29, 1949, and the last nuclear explosion on October 24, 1990. The USSR nuclear test program lasted 41 years 1 month 26 days between these dates. During this time, 715 nuclear explosions were made, both for peaceful purposes and for combat.
The first nuclear explosion was carried out at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (SIP), and the last nuclear explosion of the USSR at the Northern Test Site Novaya Zemlya (SIPNZ).
To test nuclear weapons in the interests of the Soviet Navy, the government decided to build a test site on Novaya Zemlya. On July 31, 1954, the Council of Ministers issued a decree No. 1559-699 on the creation of such a test site on Novaya Zemlya. The newly organized construction was named Spetsstroy-700. Object-700 was subordinate to the commander of the White Sea flotilla during the year. Then, by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy No. 00451 of August 12, 1955, this object was removed from the subordination of the flotilla and subordinated to the head of the 6th Directorate of the Navy.
The first nuclear explosion at the Novaya Zemlya test site took place on the morning of September 21, 1955, in Chernaya Bay. This was the first Soviet underwater nuclear explosion. By this time, the United States had already made two underwater nuclear explosions in the Pacific Ocean - in July 1946 and in May 1955. In addition, the United States conducted 44 explosions in the air, 18 on the ground and 2 underground. In October 1952 Great Britain made a surface explosion on Monte Bello Island, and 21 nuclear devices were tested at the Semipalatinsk test site.
To carry out an underwater explosion, the warhead of the 3.5 kt T-5 nuclear torpedo was lowered from a specially converted minesweeper of Project 253-L to a depth of 12 m. Naturally, after the explosion, the minesweeper was blown to smithereens.
The destroyer "Reut" was standing about three hundred meters from the epicenter. He hit the edge of the Sultan, jumped and immediately went to the bottom. On the other hand, further away, there was "Kuibyshev", which remained afloat, having escaped with serious damage. "
On October 10, 1957, a T-5 torpedo with a nuclear warhead was re-fired at the Novaya Zemlyniy training ground in Chernaya Guba. At 10 o'clock, the project 613 S-144 submarine, which was at periscope depth, fired a T-5 torpedo. The torpedo was traveling at a speed of 40 knots, the explosion occurred at a depth of 35 m.Thanks to the improvement of the charge, the power turned out to be slightly higher than when tested in 1955.
After the explosion (but not immediately), the destroyers Enraged and Grozny, submarines S-20 and S-19, as well as two minesweepers sank. A number of ships, including the destroyer "Gremyashchy", the K-56 submarine and others, were damaged. The T-5 torpedo was put into service and became the first shipborne nuclear weapon of the Soviet fleet.
On October 20, 1961, during the exercise, the R-13 ballistic missile with a nuclear charge was launched from a Project 629 diesel submarine. The explosion took place at the Novaya Zemlya test site. Immediately after this explosion, the Coral exercise began, during which the nuclear warheads of various torpedoes were detonated. Project 641 diesel submarine (commander 1st rank captain N.A.Shumnov) fired.
In the early 1960s. on Novaya Zemlya, a number of super-powerful thermonuclear (hydrogen) bombs with a capacity of up to 50 megatons were dropped from the Tu-95 strategic bombers. The creation of the 100 Mgt bomb also became a reality.
After the first nuclear explosions, it became clear that nuclear weapons are most effective against large cities (remember Hiroshima), but their action on ships or ground forces is ten times less effective. We already know about the effect of nuclear bombs on ships, and as for the ground forces, the explosion of a nuclear bomb of 20 kt, as in Hiroshima, could disable an average motorized rifle or tank battalion.
Shooting at ships at sea with long-range ballistic or cruise missiles without a homing system, even with astrocorrection, is generally ineffective, since the tabular circular probable deviation (CEP) of such missiles in the 1950s - 1960s. was about 4 km, but in fact it was 6 - 8 km.
It should be noted that servicemen, even those who received lethal doses of radiation, were able to carry out their assigned combat missions for several hours or even days.
Teaching at the Totsk training ground.
In total, two military exercises with the use of nuclear weapons were held in the Soviet Army: on September 14, 1954 - at the Totsk artillery range in the Orenburg region and on September 10, 1956 - a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site with the participation of military units. 
Eight similar exercises were conducted in the USA
TASS message:
"In accordance with the plan of research and experimental work in the last days in the Soviet Union, a test of one of the types of atomic weapons was carried out. The purpose of the test was to study the effect of an atomic explosion. During the test, valuable results were obtained that will help Soviet scientists and engineers to successfully solve problems for protection against atomic attack "
The military exercise with the use of atomic weapons on September 14, 1954 took place after the USSR government made a decision to deploy the preparation of the country's Armed Forces for action in the conditions of the real use of nuclear weapons by a potential enemy. Making such a decision had its own history.
The first development of proposals on this issue at the level of the country's leading ministries date back to the end of 1949. This was due not only to the successful first nuclear tests in the former Soviet Union, but also to the influence of the American media, which fed our foreign intelligence with information that the Armed The US Forces and Civil Defense are actively preparing for action in the event of the use of nuclear weapons in the event of an armed conflict. The initiator of the preparation of proposals for conducting exercises with the use of nuclear weapons was the USSR Ministry of Defense (at that time the Ministry of the Armed Forces) in agreement with the ministries of atomic energy (at that time the first main directorate under the USSR Council of Ministers), health, chemical and radio engineering industries of the USSR. The direct developer of the first proposals was the special department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR (V.A. Bolyatko, A.A. Osin, E.F. Lozovoy). The Deputy Minister of Defense for Armaments Marshal of Artillery ND Yakovlev supervised the development of the proposals.
The first presentation of the proposal for the exercise was signed by Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, B.L. Vannikov, E.I.Smirnov, P.M. Kruglov, and other responsible persons and sent to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N.A. Bulganin. Over four years (1949-1953), more than twenty performances were developed, which were sent mainly to N.A. Bulganin, as well as L.M. Kaganovich, L.P. Beria, G.M. Malenkov and V.M. Molotov.
On September 29, 1953, a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers was issued, which marked the beginning of the preparation of the Armed Forces and the country for action in special conditions. At the same time, at the suggestion of V.A. Bolyatko, N.A. Bulganin approved for publication a list of guidance documents previously developed by the 6th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, in particular, a Handbook on Nuclear Weapons, a manual for officers "The Combat Properties of Nuclear Weapons", Manual on the conduct of operations and hostilities in the context of the use of nuclear weapons, Manual on Nuclear Defense, Manual on the Protection of Cities. Medical Support Manual, Radiation Prospecting Manual. Guidelines for Decontamination and Sanitation and Memo to Soldiers, Sailors and the Population on Protection Against Nuclear Weapons. On the personal instructions of N. Bulganin, within a month, all these documents were published by the Military Publishing House and delivered to groups of forces, military districts, air defense districts and fleets. At the same time, special films on testing nuclear weapons were shown for the leadership of the army and navy.
The practical test of new views on the conduct of war began with the Totsk military exercises using a real atomic bomb, created by scientists and designers of KB-11 (Arzamas-16).
In 1954, the US strategic aviation was armed with more than 700 atomic bombs. The United States conducted 45 nuclear tests, including 2 nuclear bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the polls, the use of atomic weapons and protection against them were widely tested not only at training ranges, but also at military exercises of the US Army.
By this time, only 8 tests of atomic weapons were carried out in the USSR. The results of the atomic bombing by US aircraft of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 are studied. The nature and scale of the destructive effect of this formidable weapon were well known. This made it possible to develop the first instructions on the conduct of hostilities in the conditions of the use of atomic weapons and methods of protecting troops from the damaging effects of atomic explosions. From the point of view of modern concepts, the recommendations set out in them are largely correct today.
To conduct the exercises, consolidated military units and formations were formed, assembled from all regions of the country from all branches of the Armed Forces and branches of the armed forces, intended in the future to transfer the experience gained to those who did not take part in these exercises.
To ensure safety during an atomic explosion, a plan for ensuring safety during an atomic explosion, instructions for ensuring the safety of troops in a corps exercise, a memo to a soldier and a sergeant on safety during an exercise and a memo to the local population were developed.
The main measures to ensure safety during an atomic explosion were developed based on the expected consequences of an atomic bomb explosion at an altitude of 350 m above the ground (air explosion) in the region of the 195.1 mark. In addition, special measures were envisaged to ensure the troops and the population from being hit by radioactive substances in the event that an explosion occurs with large deviations from the specified conditions in range and height. All troop personnel were provided with gas masks, protective paper capes, protective stockings and gloves.
To prevent the shock wave from being hit, the troops located most closely (at a distance of 5-7.5 km) had to be in shelters, then 7.5 km in open and blocked trenches, in a sitting or lying position. Chemical troops were assigned to ensure the safety of troops from damage by penetrating radiation. The rates of permissible contamination of personnel and military equipment were reduced by four times compared with the then permissible rates in the troops.
To carry out measures to ensure the safety of the population, the exercise area within a radius of up to 50 km from the explosion site was divided into five zones: zone 1 (restricted zone) - up to 8 km from the explosion center; zone 2 - from 8 to 12 km; zone 3 - from 12 to 15 km; zone 4 - from 15 to 50 km (in a sector of 300-0-110 degrees) and zone 5, located north of the target along the combat course of the carrier aircraft in a strip 10 km wide and 20 km deep, over which the carrier aircraft flew with an open bomb bay.
The military exercise on the topic "Breakthrough of the prepared tactical defense of the enemy with the use of atomic weapons" was scheduled for the fall of 1954. The exercises used an atomic bomb with a capacity of 40 kt, tested at the Semipalatinsk test site in 1951. The leadership of the exercise was entrusted to Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov (at that time the Deputy Minister of Defense). The leadership of the USSR Ministry of Medium Machine Building, headed by V.A. Malyshev, as well as leading scientists - the creators of nuclear weapons I.V. Kurchatov, K.I. Click, etc.
The main task in the preparatory period was the combat coordination of troops and staffs, as well as the individual training of specialists in the combat arms for operations in the conditions of the actual use of atomic weapons. The training of the troops involved in the exercise was carried out according to special programs designed for 45 days. The teaching itself lasted one day. Various types of training and special exercises were organized in a terrain similar to the training area. In all the memories of the participants of the exercise, without exception, there is an intensive combat training, training in protective equipment, engineering equipment of the area - in general, hard army work, in which both the soldier and the marshal participated
ORDER
September 9, 1954 Camp Totskoe
On ensuring security in corps exercises
In order to ensure the safety of personnel of the troops during the September 14 this year. corps teaching
I ORDER:
1. For the period of an atomic explosion, responsibility for the safety of military personnel shall be assigned:
A) for the deputy head of the exercise on special issues - in the town of Medvezhya and in the area number 2 - Pronkyio, (claim) Pavlovka, height 238.6 m, elevation 140.9 m, south the edge of the grove, (claim.) MTS, Makhovka;
B) at the commander 128sk in the initial position of the corps (area No. 2) within the boundaries: from the north and south - dividing lines 128sk; from the east - along the Mal.Uran river; from the west along the Makhovka river;
C) for the deputy chief of staff of the leadership on organizational issues - in the town of Petrovskaya Shishka, "Comma" and in the town of the headquarters of the leadership "Grove".
2. On the rest of the territory of the exercise, organize security measures by order of the commander of the YuzhUrVO.
3. Direct responsibility for the observance of security measures by the personnel of the troops shall be assigned to the commanders of subunits, units and formations.
4. To control the security of troops and their observance of security measures, the districts should be divided into sections and the commandants of the sections shall be appointed to whom to assign personal responsibility for the observance of all security measures by all servicemen and employees.
Site commandants must know exactly who and where will be on the day of the exercise on their site.
5. The commanders of formations and separate units should take into account all personnel and equipment that will be separated from their subunits and units during an atomic explosion. To bring single servicemen into teams, appoint elders and prepare shelters for them. The composition and location of these teams to the commanders of formations and individual units by 18.00 11.9 in writing to inform the chiefs of areas.
Heads of districts to check these teams, the availability of shelters for them and organize their notification of the atomic alarm.
6. On the day of the exercise, from 5.00 to 9.00 in the indicated areas, prohibit the movement of individuals and cars. Allow movement only in teams with responsible officers. Prohibit any movement from 9.00 to 10.00.
7. Responsibility for the organization and implementation of security measures shall be assigned: during live artillery firing - to the deputy head of the artillery exercise, during combat bombing - to the deputy head of the aviation exercise, during imitation - to the deputy head of the exercise for engineering troops.
8. The areas of Lysaya (northern) and Kalanchevaya, on which combat bombing is carried out, shall be declared prohibited zones for the entire period of the exercise, and fenced off with wire and red flags. At the end of the bombing, by order of the deputy head of the exercise for engineering troops, set up a cordon.
9. Transmission of warning signals from the control center of the management should be carried out by radio warning networks at frequencies of 2500, 2875 and 36.500 kHz. At all command and control, NP and instrumentation, up to the battalion (division) inclusive, as well as in the parts of the camp gathering, have radio receivers (radio stations) on duty operating on one of these frequencies.
To the commanders of formations and units, allocate for this purpose the best radio operators with perfectly serviceable radio receivers (radio stations) and personally check their readiness for work.
To conduct training of personnel in work in radio networks according to the schedule approved by my deputy for communications troops.
10. In the period from 6.00 to 8.00 on September 12, by order of the commander of 128sk, to conduct training of troops and staffs in actions on signals of atomic and chemical alarms.
11. To complete the withdrawal of troops outside the restricted areas by the end of September 9 and inform me in writing. All prepared shelters and shelters, as well as the readiness of communication facilities to receive and transmit signals, should be checked by special commissions and the results of the verification should be formalized by acts.
12. On other issues of troop security, strictly follow the "Instruction on troop security during corps exercises in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Totsk camps."
13. The order shall be communicated to all commanders of formations and units.
14. Report on the implementation of this order to the management headquarters by 19.00 on 11.09.54.
Head of the exercise Marshal of the Soviet Union
G. K. ZHUKOV
Historical reference. The Totsk training ground is a military training ground in the South Ural military district, 40 km east of the city of Buzuluk, north of the village of Totskoe (Orinurgskaya oblast). Landfill area 45 700 ha
The proving ground gained fame thanks to the tactical exercises of troops under the code name "Snowball" held on its territory on September 14, 1964. The essence of the exercises was to test the possibilities of breaking through enemy defenses using nuclear weapons. The materials associated with these exercises have not yet been declassified, so the accuracy and interpretation of events cannot be fully verified.
During the exercise, the bomber dropped a nuclear bomb with TNT equivalent of 40 kilotons from a height of 13 kilometers, and at 9 hours 53 minutes an air explosion was carried out at an altitude of 350 meters. Two simulators of nuclear charges were also blown up. 3 hours after the explosion, Zhukov sent 600 tanks, 600 armored personnel carriers and 320 aircraft to attack the epicenter of the explosion.
The total number of servicemen who took part in the exercises was about 45 thousand people (according to other sources, 45 thousand were only the forces of the "attacking" side, to which another 15 thousand from the "defending" side should be added). The task of the "advancing" side was to take advantage of the gap in the defense formed after the explosion; the task of the "defenders" is to close this gap.
What the nuclear war brought to mankind can be judged by the story of the "Atomic soldier" - T. Shevchenko, retired colonel, participant in the exercises at the Totsk test site
“In the life of every person, an event happens that, in the full understanding of this word, turns his fate upside down and marks a new starting point. For me, such an event was an extremely secret secondment to the nuclear test site. About him, as well as about the devilish experiments that were carried out there, about the severe consequences for the health of their participants, I was silent for almost 50 years, although the receipt that I gave officially obliged me, like other participants in the tests of the "product" (the first Soviet atomic bombs ), forget about the landfill "only" for a quarter of a century.
My first acquaintance with the atomic monster happened long ago, almost half a century ago. It was the time of my becoming an officer and the first serious test of spiritual and physical strength on an unknown, but voluntarily chosen path of a difficult, but seemingly, such a prestigious and romantic service.
A lot has been written on the atomic topic. The infamous military exercises, as close as possible to military operations, with the real use of nuclear weapons at the Totskoye test site (near the village of Totskoye, Orenburg region, Russia) are described in detail.
In those exercises (their code name "Snowball"), 44 thousand servicemen took part, of which on the first day of the third millennium less than one thousand remained alive. The exercise was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union G. Zhukov.
On September 14, 1954, at 0932 hours local time, an atomic bomb with a capacity of 40 kilotons from a Tu-4 aircraft was dropped onto the "enemy's lair" from an altitude of 8 thousand meters, which exploded over the range at an altitude of 300 meters.
REFERENCE. The power of the atomic bomb "Kid" dropped from an American military aircraft on Hiroshima, 16, and the "Fat Man" dropped on Nagasaki - 21 kilotons. The explosion of the American atomic bomb in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 took the lives of more than 70 thousand people. 130 thousand inhabitants of this Japanese city later died from radiation sickness.
The task of the Totsk exercises was to organize offensive actions of our troops against an imaginary enemy through its epicenter after the explosion of an atomic bomb. For the first time, the soldiers and officers who took part in the exercises were tested for resistance to destruction by nuclear weapons. On the obelisk at the epicenter is engraved: "For those who despised danger, who fulfilled their military duty in the name of the defensive might of the Motherland." Needless to say, it is written beautifully and majestically, but, obviously, they quickly forgot both the inscription and the "atomic" heroes.
A completed team of 300-400 people (mostly young officers) was put in the teplushki of the "five hundred funny" train, and four days later they were transported to the station, which is 50 km south of Semipalatinsk. At the checkpoint, the security officers guarding the territory of the landfill meticulously checked our documents. It became clear: we are at an object of special importance and secrecy.
I got into the K-300 team. Our task is to deliver animals on a specially equipped transport to the place of the bomb explosion, and then return them to the vivarium laboratory.
We were given overalls: cotton overalls and garrison caps, underwear soaked in some kind of special solution, rubber gloves, shoe covers, gas masks. In the pocket of the overalls there was a black, hermetically sealed storage dosimeter capsule with an individual number, by which it was possible to find out who it belonged to if something irreparable happened ...
We are waiting for the hour "H" (as the military call the receipt of an order to start a combat operation). The wait drags on unbearably slowly. Finally, in the dead silence, the command from their megaphone sounded: "Close your eyes!" And seconds passed, each of which seemed like an eternity.
Another moment, and the first thing we felt was blinding by the explosion. Even with my eyes closed, it felt like a strong lightning flashed somewhere nearby. Then there was a prolonged, unlike anything else, the grinding of a sound wave - and after one or two seconds the earth shook and groaned loudly.
Without waiting for a command, the most impatient ones timidly raised their heads, turning in the direction from which the rumble came. Before our eyes, a gray-black, ominous, fantastic mushroom was born and kept growing.
He, as if alive, moved the edges of the terrible hat. And obscured the sun. The impression was as if dusk was coming.
At first we were petrified with fear. But the numbness was interrupted by the commands: "Get up!", "Put on gas masks!", "Drive!" We knew what to do next, and we set off on certain routes to our facilities. After 3-5 km. a thick cloud of dust and burning enveloped our car. It was stuffy and hot, but the windows in the car were not allowed to be opened in order to avoid the ingress of radioactive dust ... to "protect" from radiation.
A huge mushroom, which rose several kilometers above the ground, began to tilt, lose its shape, and with it the gray-brown clouds slowly floated to the midday west. For 5-7 km. from the center of the explosion, there were individual animals, which, having broken off the leash, wandered in all directions, just as far as possible from the hell. They looked pitiful and terrible.
Burnt, crippled bodies, watery or blind eyes. In some animals, ichor oozed from the mouth. A monstrous sight! And it became even more frightening when approaching the epicenter of the explosion. Here the grass burned more intensely, the charred earth smoked, on which the mutilated corpses of animals were lying. New military equipment, damaged and thrown off from its starting places yesterday, lay everywhere. Brick and reinforced concrete buildings turned into heaps of stones and reinforcement. What could burn - burned. A groan, a howl of animals was heard from everywhere. Truly hell ...
The driver and I worked as if we were running, realizing that every extra minute of being here does not promise anything good. And our job was to load the surviving animals onto the vehicles and send them to the vivarium, where the veterinary specialists were waiting for them ...
On the platform of the Saratov station, to our great surprise, we heard a TASS report about an event whose direct participants were: "A formidable new weapon has been tested in the Soviet Union, which will put an end to the blackmailing of the aggressive forces of world imperialism and will be a reliable guarantor of peace on earth ..."
We, involved in this event, caught our breath, eyes sparkled. We felt proud for the worthy fulfillment of military duties and the ordeal that befell us. Each thought about his own - what he experienced, what he saw, unforgettable ...
A few years after the exercises, I was sent to Kazakhstan for harvesting. There he met with friends from the military school, whom he had last seen at the training ground. Without saying a word, we repeatedly in conversations returned to him, to the landfill. It turned out that none of the participants in the nuclear exercises could, as before, boast of good health. One does not leave hospitals and clinics because his liver and kidneys hurt. In the second, the doctors discovered a disorder of the nervous system and, as a result, chronic insomnia, fatigue, apathy for everything around him and for life. And the third did not have a personal life - a consequence of the negative effects of radiation.
And some friends were remembered according to folk custom, wishing: "Let the earth rest in peace." No one - neither friends in the service, nor wives, nor children, ever found out that another hostage of the nuclear age passed away - the guinea pig of the system, to which he swore in silence, which he did until he fell silent forever.
There are few "atomic" soldiers left in Ukraine. Most of them died without waiting for the legalization of the status of a participant in military exercises with the use of nuclear weapons.
We have to bitterly regret that we will never know the truth: have they forgiven, who died prematurely, these "atomic" hostages, us, sinners, for callousness and indifference? Although, perhaps, it was better for them - they did not feel the fatal blow of the official phrase: "I didn't send you there."
The Totsk test site went down in history thanks to the tactical exercises of troops under the code name "Snowball", conducted on its territory, during which military personnel and civilians were directly exposed to radiation. The essence of the exercises was to test the possibilities of breaking through enemy defenses using nuclear weapons. The materials related to these exercises are still not fully declassified.
Neither the participants in the Totsk experiment, nor the residents of the villages closest to the test site, still know what consequences those secret tests led and are leading. The AiF.ru correspondent spoke with residents of the village of Totskoye and a direct participant in the nuclear experiment.
Leonid Pogrebny still dreams of exercises at the Totsky training ground. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
A nightmare in reality
“We were buried alive. Together with my detachment, I was lying in a trench 2.5 meters deep at a distance of 6 km from the explosion. At first there was a bright flash, then they heard such a loud sound that they went deaf for a minute or two. In a moment, they felt a wild heat, immediately became wet, it was hard to breathe. The walls of our trench closed over us. They were saved only thanks to Kolya, who, a second before the explosion, sat down to fix his cap. So he was able to get out of the trench and dug us out, "recalls participant of the Totsk exercises Leonid Pogrebnoy.
Meanwhile, a pillar of fire was growing on the horizon. Where birds had recently sung and ancient oaks stood, an atomic mushroom rose, blocking half the sky. It smelled of burning, and there was nothing alive around. Later, the man will understand that the consequences of the teachings to which he was called as a reserve officer are no less terrible than the contemplation of the "mushroom" itself.
This is one of the few available photographs of the atomic explosion at the Totsk test site. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
The explosion of an atomic bomb with a capacity of about 40 kt was carried out at 9 hours 33 minutes Moscow time. The bomb was dropped from a height of 8 km. The explosion occurred when the bomb was 350 meters from the ground. The power of the explosion was twice the power of the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. About 45 thousand servicemen took part in the exercises. Some of them passed through the affected area immediately after the explosion.
“Out of nine people who worked as part of a special biological group, I am the only one left. I am a veterinarian, so I was assigned to select clinically healthy animals - horses, cattle and small ruminants, pigs and even rabbits. We placed them at a distance of 500 meters from the alleged epicenter of the explosion under various systemic shelters. Horses - under concrete shelters, pigs - under boards, cows - under piles, rabbits and goats - in planes and tanks. Only horses and a few cows survived, but it was a pity to look at them - the horns melted, and the bodies seemed to be doused with boiling water.
From the rest of the animals, only ash or separate fragments remained - hooves and tails. The temperature melted the planes, and the sand turned into granular glass. The shock wave overturned multi-ton tanks, tore off their towers and threw them half a kilometer.
The explosion was made in the immediate vicinity of the villages. Diagram from the book. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
In place of the trees, burnt stakes stood, many steppe animals and birds died, and a few survivors were blinded. In houses at a distance of 25 kilometers, window frames flew out, walls cracked. Two villages, fortunately relocated in advance, burned to the ground.
Leonid Petrovich admits that the explosion itself and the animals still dream of him in nightmares.
Dying of cancer
After the tests, a healthy 26-year-old Leonid began to complain of incurable headaches and constant weakness. Three years later, his youngest daughter was born, also suffering from headaches. The girl was diagnosed with congenital migraine. The disease was later transmitted to her son. "Gene mutation", - Leonid Petrovich shakes his head.
Many participants in the Totsk nuclear experiment died of oncology. Two veterinary paramedics, who worked under the direction of Pogrebny, died of cancer within a year after the exercise: one from lung cancer, although he had never smoked, the other from pancreatic cancer.
At the site of the explosion, grass is growing again and there is a memorial with bells. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
Relatives of Leonid Petrovich, who lived near the landfill, also died of cancer. Now there are two versions of the harmful effects of the experiment: either the harmful effects of radiation were not well studied and the civilian population risked out of ignorance, or the authorities specifically tested the effects of radiation on the human body.
“Then the shock wave was considered the most terrible consequence of the explosion, so everyone sat in shelters. We were given raincoats and gas masks. Now such uniforms seem ridiculous, but it was thanks to the gas masks that we survived when the trench was filled up, ”says Leonid Pogrebnoy.
Leonid Petrovich himself also stood with one foot in the grave: hemoglobin was almost zero, it was going to leukemia. The man was saved from a fatal disease only by a miracle: his brother constantly sent parcels from the Far East with black and red caviar.
“Today, they do not want to establish a relationship between oncology and a nuclear explosion, although everyone has long known that the number of cancer patients in our region is significantly higher than the average in Russia,” sighs a veteran of special risk units.
Such uniforms were received by participants in the nuclear experiment. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
Saved bicycles
Claudia Karaseva in 1954 was 17 years old. She well remembers the crowds of the military in her native Totskoye. Everyone knew about the upcoming large-scale exercises, no one was surprised by the huge equipment - tanks, aircraft, armored personnel carriers. For every ten yards, a person was assigned who led explanatory conversations, advised them to go away from here and gave instructions on how to behave during the explosion.“My mother sent me on the road with her friend, but she stayed at home. The neighbors gave us their bicycles so that they would not get hurt in case of something. We drove all night through the forest, another 20 people walked with us. Towards morning, we had no strength left, everyone wanted to sleep. But then something crashed behind our backs, we turned around - and there was a "mushroom", as if over our village. They immediately forgot about fatigue and rushed home, ”says Klavdia Nikiforovna, a pensioner who is now a pensioner 60 years ago.
Local residents are accustomed to constant shooting at the range: after all, it existed long before the exercises 60 years ago. The villagers, of course, were not told that atomic weapons would be tested there, but rumors still circulated.
A quote from Georgy Zhukov from the book about the Totskoy explosion. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
Then no one could imagine the dangerous consequences of a nuclear explosion. Children played near the epicenter, adults picked unprecedentedly large mushrooms and berries in the forests. Many people stoked their stoves with wood burnt after the explosion.
Participants in the Totsk trial signed a non-disclosure agreement for a period of 25 years, although their stories are not much different from those of eyewitnesses. Leonid Pogrebnoy still does not know anything about those surviving animals that they sent for examination somewhere in the capital. For 60 years after the explosion, little reliable information about the tests has appeared.
For 60 years, several books have been published with the memoirs of the participants in the Totsky tests. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
Few free access and photographs - at that time the work of professional photographers and cameramen was withdrawn, and amateur cameras in the 50s could boast of only a few, and most of them did not live in the provinces. But the legendary photograph of a resident of Sorochinsk has survived to this day.
On the morning of September 14, 1954, the musical director of the district house of culture Ivan Sharoningoing out into the street, I saw a huge fiery cloud. The man grabbed the camera, which the day before "clicked" the children, and took a picture, but in a hurry did not move the frame. So the children froze forever against the background of a nuclear mushroom.
The photo of the atomic "mushroom" was superimposed on the frame with children. Photo: Ivan Sharonin
The end justified the means?
Journalist Tatiana Filimonovamore than once talked with eyewitnesses and participants in the 1954 events. She says that then everyone took these teachings for granted: they conquered the world in the Great Patriotic War - now it is necessary to defend it.“We were patriots, if it is necessary, then it is necessary. They said it would be hard, but we must go through the teachings for the sake of the country's future. Everything was done correctly from a political, state position. The Cold War ended shortly thereafter. But from a human, everyday point of view, we were experimental, like the same horses and rabbits, ”reflects Leonid Pogrebnoy.
Today, those few who survived and their descendants are offended by the authorities: they say, they made us hostages, "atomic" people, but the truth about those events has not yet been discovered. Benefits were deprived in the 90s (although, according to some reports, the consequences of the Totsk explosion are more catastrophic than the Chernobyl accident), they never did a mass medical examination of residents.
Even in youth slang, schoolchildren talk about the consequences of an atomic explosion. Photo: AiF / Polina Sedova
“All the data on the radiation background, and on the examination of animals caught in the epicenter of the explosion, and many other indicators are in the military. They will probably never tell us. Yes, we ourselves will not ask, in ignorance to live more calmly. Now more dangerous is "mental radiation" - the lies that pour from the TV screens, concludes Tatiana Filimonova. - It's a shame that veterans of special risk units are undeservedly forgotten. They then voluntarily sacrificed themselves so that people would understand the danger of nuclear weapons and not use them. "
Nuclear (or atomic) weapons are explosive weapons based on the uncontrolled fission chain reactions of heavy nuclei and thermonuclear fusion reactions. To carry out a chain fission reaction, either uranium-235, or plutonium-239, or, in some cases, uranium-233 are used. Refers to weapons of mass destruction along with biological and chemical. The power of a nuclear charge is measured in TNT equivalent, usually expressed in kilotons and megatons.
Nuclear weapons were first tested on July 16, 1945 in the United States at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo (New Mexico). In the same year, the United States used it in Japan in the bombing of the cities of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9.
In the USSR, the first test of an atomic bomb - RDS-1 products - was carried out on August 29, 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site in Kazakhstan. The RDS-1 was a "drop-shaped" aviation atomic bomb weighing 4.6 tons, 1.5 m in diameter and 3.7 m long. Plutonium was used as the fissile material. The bomb was detonated at 7.00 local time (4.00 Moscow time) on an assembled metal lattice tower 37.5 m high, located in the center of the experimental field with a diameter of about 20 km. The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons of TNT.
The RDS-1 product (the documents indicated the decoding "jet engine" C ") was created at Design Bureau No. 11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, RFNC-VNIIEF, the city of Sarov), which was organized for creation of the atomic bomb in April 1946. Work on the creation of the bomb was supervised by Igor Kurchatov (scientific supervisor of work on the atomic problem since 1943; organizer of the bomb test) and Julius Khariton (chief designer of KB-11 in 1946-1959).
Research on atomic energy was carried out in Russia (later the USSR) back in the 1920s-1930s. In 1932, a nuclear group was formed at the Leningrad Physico-Technical Institute, headed by the director of the institute, Abram Ioffe, with the participation of Igor Kurchatov (deputy head of the group). In 1940, the Uranium Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created, which in September of the same year approved the work program for the first Soviet uranium project. However, with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, most research on the use of atomic energy in the USSR was curtailed or discontinued.
Research on the use of atomic energy resumed in 1942 after receiving intelligence information about the deployment by the Americans to create an atomic bomb ("Manhattan Project"): on September 28, the State Defense Committee (GKO) issued an order "On the organization of work on uranium."
On November 8, 1944, the State Defense Committee decided to create a large uranium mining enterprise in Central Asia based on the deposits of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In May 1945, the first enterprise in the USSR for the extraction and processing of uranium ores, Combine No. 6 (later Leninabad Mining and Metallurgical Combine), began operating in Tajikistan.
After the explosions of American atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the GKO decree of August 20, 1945 created a Special Committee under the GKO headed by Lavrentiy Beria to "guide all work on the use of the atomic energy of uranium", including the production of the atomic bomb.
In accordance with the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, Khariton prepared a "tactical and technical assignment for an atomic bomb", which marked the beginning of full-scale work on the first domestic atomic charge.
In 1947, 170 km west of Semipalatinsk, Object-905 was created for testing nuclear charges (in 1948 it was transformed into a training ground number 2 of the USSR Ministry of Defense, later it became known as Semipalatinsk; in August 1991 it was closed). The construction of the test site was completed by August 1949 for the bomb test.
The first test of the Soviet atomic bomb destroyed the US nuclear monopoly. The Soviet Union became the second nuclear power in the world.
The message about the test of nuclear weapons in the USSR was published by TASS on September 25, 1949. And on October 29, a closed resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "On rewarding and bonuses for outstanding scientific discoveries and technical achievements in the use of atomic energy" was issued. For the development and testing of the first Soviet atomic bomb, six KB-11 workers were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor: Pavel Zernov (KB director), Julius Khariton, Kirill Shchelkin, Yakov Zeldovich, Vladimir Alferov, Georgy Flerov. Deputy Chief Designer Nikolai Dukhov received the second Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor. 29 employees of the bureau were awarded the Order of Lenin, 15 - the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, 28 became laureates of the Stalin Prize.
Today, the model of the bomb (its body, the RDS-1 charge and the remote control used to detonate the charge) is kept in the RFNC-VNIIEF Museum of Nuclear Weapons.
In 2009, the UN General Assembly declared August 29 as the International Day against Nuclear Tests.
In total, 2062 nuclear weapons tests have been carried out in the world, which eight states have. The USA accounts for 1,032 explosions (1945-1992). The United States of America is the only country to have used this weapon. The USSR conducted 715 tests (1949-1990). The last explosion took place on October 24, 1990 at the Novaya Zemlya test site. In addition to the USA and the USSR, nuclear weapons were created and tested in Great Britain - 45 (1952-1991), France - 210 (1960-1996), China - 45 (1964-1996), India - 6 (1974, 1998), Pakistan - 6 (1998) and DPRK - 3 (2006, 2009, 2013).
In 1970, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) entered into force. At present 188 countries of the world are its participants. The document has not been signed by India (in 1998, it introduced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests and agreed to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA control) and Pakistan (in 1998, it introduced a unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests). The DPRK, having signed the agreement in 1985, withdrew from it in 2003.
In 1996, the general cessation of nuclear tests was enshrined in the framework of the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Since then, only three countries have carried out nuclear explosions - India, Pakistan and North Korea.
On July 29, 1985, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev announced the decision of the USSR unilaterally to stop any nuclear explosions before January 1, 1986. We decided to talk about the five famous nuclear test sites that existed in the USSR.
Semipalatinsk test site
The Semipalatinsk test site is one of the largest nuclear test sites in the USSR. It also became known as SNTS. The landfill is located in Kazakhstan, 130 km north-west of Semipalatinsk, on the left bank of the Irtysh River. The area of \u200b\u200bthe landfill is 18,500 square kilometers. The formerly closed city of Kurchatov is located on its territory. The Semipalatinsk test site is famous for the fact that the first test of a nuclear weapon in the Soviet Union was carried out here. The test was carried out on August 29, 1949. The power of the bomb was 22 kilotons.
On August 12, 1953, a 400 kiloton RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was tested at the test site. The charge was placed on the tower 30 m above the ground. As a result of this test, a part of the landfill was very heavily contaminated with radioactive explosion products, and there is still a small background in some places. On November 22, 1955, an RDS-37 thermonuclear bomb was tested over the test site. It was dropped by an airplane at an altitude of about 2 km. On October 11, 1961, the first underground nuclear explosion in the USSR was carried out at the test site. From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 nuclear tests were carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, including 125 atmospheric, 343 underground nuclear test explosions.
Nuclear tests at the test site have not been conducted since 1989.
Polygon on Novaya Zemlya
The polygon on Novaya Zemlya was opened in 1954. Unlike the Semipalatinsk test site, it was removed from settlements. The nearest large settlement, the village of Amderma, was located 300 km from the landfill, Arkhangelsk was more than 1000 km away, and Murmansk was more than 900 km away.
From 1955 to 1990, 135 nuclear explosions were carried out at the site: 87 in the atmosphere, 3 underwater and 42 underground. In 1961, the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind was detonated on Novaya Zemlya - the 58-megaton Tsar Bomba, also known as the Kuzkina Mother.
In August 1963, the USSR and the USA signed an agreement banning nuclear tests in three environments: in the atmosphere, in space and under water. Limitations on the power of charges were also adopted. Underground explosions continued until 1990.
Totsk polygon
The Totsk test site is located in the Volga-Ural military district, 40 km east of the city of Buzuluk. In 1954, tactical exercises of troops under the code name "Snowball" were held here. Marshal Georgy Zhukov supervised the exercises. The purpose of the exercise was to test the capabilities of breaking through enemy defenses using nuclear weapons. The materials related to these exercises have not yet been declassified.
During the exercise on September 14, 1954, a Tu-4 bomber dropped an RDS-2 nuclear bomb with a capacity of 38 kilotons of TNT from a height of 8 km. The explosion was made at an altitude of 350 meters. 600 tanks, 600 armored personnel carriers and 320 aircraft were sent into the attack on the contaminated territory. The total number of servicemen who took part in the exercises was about 45 thousand people. As a result of the exercise, thousands of its participants received various doses of radioactive exposure. A nondisclosure agreement was taken from the participants in the exercise, which led to the fact that the victims could not tell doctors about the causes of their diseases and receive adequate treatment.
Kapustin Yar
The Kapustin Yar landfill is located in the northwestern part of the Astrakhan region. The proving ground was created on May 13, 1946 to test the first Soviet ballistic missiles.
Since the 1950s, at least 11 nuclear explosions have been carried out at the Kapustin Yar test site at an altitude of 300 m to 5.5 km. The total power of these explosions is approximately 65 atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima. On January 19, 1957, an anti-aircraft guided missile of type 215 was tested at the test site. It had a 10 kt nuclear warhead designed to combat the main US nuclear strike force - strategic aviation. The rocket exploded at an altitude of about 10 km, hitting target aircraft: 2 Il-28 bombers, controlled by radio control. This was the first high-air nuclear explosion in the USSR.
Koh Kambaran. Pakistan decided to conduct its first tests of nuclear charges in the province of Baluchistan. The charges were placed in a tunnel dug in Mount Koh Kambaran and detonated in May 1998. The locals hardly ever look into this area, with the exception of a few nomads and herbalists.
Maralinga. The area in southern Australia, where atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons took place, were once considered sacred by the locals. As a result, twenty years after the end of the tests, a second operation was organized to clean up Maralinga. The first was carried out after the final test in 1963. 
Pohran. In the Indian empty Tar of the state of Rajasthan, on May 18, 1974, a bomb of 8 kilotons was tested. In May 1998, five charges were detonated at the Pohran test site, among them a thermonuclear charge of 43 kilotons. 
Bikini Atoll. The Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean is home to Bikini Atoll, where the United States actively conducted nuclear tests. Other explosions rarely hit the film, but these were filmed quite often. Still - 67 tests in the interval from 1946 to 1958. 
Christmas Island. Christmas Island, also known as Kiritimati, stands out for the fact that both Britain and the United States tested atomic weapons on it. In 1957, the first British hydrogen bomb was detonated there, and in 1962, as part of the Dominic project, the United States is testing 22 charges there. 
Lop Nor. At the site of a dried-up salt lake in western China, about 45 warheads were detonated, both in the atmosphere and underground. The tests were discontinued in 1996. 
Mururoa. The atoll in the South Pacific experienced a lot - more precisely, 181 French nuclear weapons tests from 1966 to 1986. The last charge got stuck in an underground mine and, when it exploded, formed a crack several kilometers long. After this, the tests were terminated. 
New Earth. The archipelago in the Arctic Ocean was selected for nuclear tests on September 17, 1954. Since then, 132 nuclear explosions have been conducted there, including the test of the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the world - the 58-megaton Tsar Bomb. 
Semipalatinsk. From 1949 to 1989, at least 468 nuclear tests were carried out at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. So much plutonium has accumulated there that from 1996 to 2012 Kazakhstan, Russia and the United States carried out a secret operation to search for and collect and dispose of radioactive materials. They managed to collect about 200 kg of plutonium. 
Nevada. The Nevada test site, which has existed since 1951, breaks all records - 928 nuclear explosions, 800 of which are underground. Given that the test site is located only 100 kilometers from Las Vegas, mushrooms were considered a completely normal part of entertainment for tourists half a century ago. 