What happened on September 14, 1954 in the Orenburg Region was surrounded by a dense veil of secrecy for many years. This was one of the stages of human testing of atomic weapons, which took place at that time in several countries of the world.
At 9 hours 33 minutes one of the most powerful nuclear bombs at that time exploded over the steppe. Following on the offensive - past the forests burning in the atomic fire, the villages razed to the ground - the "eastern" troops rushed into the attack.
As they now write in the media, “the planes, striking ground targets, crossed the leg of the nuclear mushroom. 10 km from the epicenter of the explosion, in the radioactive dust, among the molten sand, the “Westerners” held the defense. More shells and bombs were fired that day than during the storming of Berlin"
All participants in the exercises were taken to a non-disclosure agreement of state and military secrets for a period of 25 years.
Let's remember how it was …
On September 14, 1954, the USSR used nuclear weapons for the first time in combined-arms exercises. The main initiators of such an experiment are considered to be Boris Vannikov, who led the program for the creation and production of nuclear weapons, and Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky, First Deputy Minister of Defense of the USSR. However, not only they, but also the entire top military leadership of the Soviet Union was eager to learn in practice whether Soviet soldiers would be able to launch an attack after a nuclear strike: from 1949 to 1953, the military sent over 20 submissions to the “higher authority” about conducting military exercises with real use of nuclear weapons.
Promotional video:
Preparing for Operation Snowball
“Throughout the end of the summer, military echelons from all over the Union went to the small station Totskoye. None of the arrivals - not even the command of the military units - had any idea why they were here. Our train was met by women and children at each station. Handing us sour cream and eggs, the women lamented: "Darling, I suppose you are going to fight in China," says Vladimir Bentsianov, chairman of the Committee of Veterans of Special Risk Units.
In the early 50s, they were seriously preparing for the third world war. After tests carried out in the United States, the USSR also decided to test a nuclear bomb in an open area. The place of the exercises - in the Orenburg steppe - was chosen because of the similarity with the Western European landscape.
“At first, it was planned to conduct combined-arms exercises with a real nuclear explosion at the Kapustin Yar missile range, but in the spring of 1954, the Totsk test range was assessed, and it was recognized as the best in terms of security,” Lieutenant General Osin recalled at one time.
“The strongest guys were selected from our departments for training. We were given a personal service weapon - modernized Kalashnikov assault rifles, rapid-firing ten-shot automatic rifles and R-9 radio stations, Nikolai Pilshchikov recalls.
The tent camp stretches for 42 kilometers. Representatives of 212 units - 45 thousand servicemen - arrived at the exercises: 39 thousand soldiers, sergeants and foremen, 6 thousand officers, generals and marshals.
Preparations for the exercise, code-named Snowball, lasted three months. By the end of the summer, the huge battlefield was literally dotted with tens of thousands of kilometers of trenches, trenches and anti-tank ditches. We built hundreds of bunkers, bunkers, dugouts.
On the eve of the exercise, the officers were shown a secret film about the operation of nuclear weapons. “For this, a special cinema pavilion was built, into which they were allowed to enter only on the basis of a list and an identity card in the presence of the regiment commander and a KGB representative. At the same time we heard: "You have had a great honor - for the first time in the world to act in real conditions of using a nuclear bomb." It became clear why we covered the trenches and dugouts with logs in several rolls, carefully coating the protruding wooden parts with yellow clay. "They shouldn't have caught fire from the light radiation," recalled Ivan Putivlsky.
“Residents of the villages of Bogdanovka and Fedorovka, which were 5-6 km from the epicenter of the explosion, were asked to temporarily evacuate 50 km from the place of the exercise. They were taken out in an organized manner by the troops, everything was allowed to take with them. During the entire period of the training, the evacuees were paid per diem,”says Nikolai Pilshchikov.
“Preparations for the exercises were carried out under artillery fire. Hundreds of aircraft bombed target areas. A month before the start of the day, the Tu-4 plane dropped into the epicenter a "blank" - a dummy bomb weighing 250 kg, "recalled Putivlsky, a participant in the exercises.
According to the recollections of Lieutenant Colonel Danilenko, in an old oak grove surrounded by a mixed forest, a white lime cross 100x100 m in size was applied. It was the training pilots who marked it at it. The deviation from the target should not have exceeded 500 meters. The troops were stationed all around.
Two crews trained: Major Kutyrchev and Captain Lyasnikov. Until the very last moment, the pilots did not know who would be the main and who would be the backup. The advantage was with the crew of Kutyrchev, who already had experience in flight tests of an atomic bomb at the Semipalatinsk test site.
To prevent defeat by the shock wave, troops located at a distance of 5-7.5 km from the epicenter of the explosion were ordered to be in shelters, and then 7.5 km in trenches in a sitting or lying position.
“On one of the hills, 15 km from the planned epicenter of the explosion, a government platform was built to observe the exercises,” says Ivan Putivlsky. - The day before, it was painted with oil paints in green and white. Observation devices were installed on the platform. An asphalt road was laid on the side of the railway station along the deep sands. The military traffic inspectorate did not allow any foreign vehicles on this road."
“Three days before the start of the exercise, senior military leaders began to arrive at the field airfield in the Totsk region: Marshals of the Soviet Union Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky, Konev, Malinovsky,” recalls Pilshchikov. - Even the Defense Ministers of the People's Democracies, Generals Marian Spychalsky, Ludwig Svoboda, Marshal Zhu-Te and Peng-Te-Huai, have arrived. All of them were housed in a government town built in advance in the camp area. Khrushchev, Bulganin and the creator of nuclear weapons Kurchatov appeared in Totsk a day before the exercises.
Marshal Zhukov was appointed head of the exercise. Around the epicenter of the explosion, marked with a white cross, military equipment was placed: tanks, airplanes, armored personnel carriers, to which in trenches and on the ground were tied "troops": sheep, dogs, horses and calves.
The Totsky area was chosen as sparsely populated, corresponding to the relief, vegetation and soil of the European theater of operations. Tests in such an environment in the USSR have not yet been carried out, the purpose of the tests was to study the effect of an atomic explosion on engineering structures, military equipment, animals, to reveal the influence of the terrain and vegetation on the propagation of a shock wave, light radiation and penetrating radiation. Find out how passable forest heaps will be in a typical European area, the level of dustiness and smoke, etc.
To exclude the defeat of the troops by light radiation, the personnel were forbidden to look in the direction of the explosion until the passage of the shock or sound wave, and the units closest to the epicenter of the atomic explosion were given special darkened films for gas masks to protect their eyes. 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 trenches in a sitting or lying position.
To carry out measures to ensure the safety of the population, the exercise area within a radius of 50 km from the explosion site was divided into five zones: zone No. 1 (restricted zone) - up to 8 km from the center of the explosion, zone No. 2 - from 8 to 12 km, zone No. 3 - from 12 to 15 km, zone number 4 - from 15 to 50 km in the sector 300-110 degrees and zone number 5 - is located to the north of the target along the combat course of the carrier aircraft in a strip 10 km wide and 20 km deep, above which the flight of the carrier was carried out with an open bomb bay. Zone No. 1 was completely freed from the local population. Residents of settlements, livestock, fodder and all movable property were taken to other settlements located at least 15 km from the epicenter. In zone No. 2, 3 hours before the atomic explosion, the population was taken to natural shelters (ravines, gullies) located near settlements;10 minutes before the explosion, according to an established signal, all residents were to lie on the ground face down. Public and private livestock were driven to safe areas in advance. In zone No. 3, 1 hour before the explosion, the population was taken out of their houses to their personal plots to a distance of 15-30 m from the buildings, 10 minutes before the explosion, upon a signal, everyone lay down on the ground. In zone 4, it was envisaged to protect the population only from possible radioactive contamination of the terrain along the path of the cloud, mainly in the event of a ground explosion. 2 hours before the explosion, the population of this zone took refuge in houses in readiness for evacuation. The population of zone no. 5 was taken out of it to safe areas 3 hours before the explosion. In zone No. 3, 1 hour before the explosion, the population was taken out of their houses to their personal plots to a distance of 15-30 m from the buildings, 10 minutes before the explosion, upon a signal, everyone lay down on the ground. In zone 4, it was envisaged to protect the population only from possible radioactive contamination of the terrain along the path of the cloud, mainly in the event of a ground explosion. 2 hours before the explosion, the population of this zone took refuge in houses in readiness for evacuation. The population of zone no. 5 was taken out of it to safe areas 3 hours before the explosion. In zone No. 3, 1 hour before the explosion, the population was taken out of their houses to their personal plots to a distance of 15-30 m from buildings, 10 minutes before the explosion, upon a signal, everyone lay down on the ground. In zone 4, it was envisaged to protect the population only from possible radioactive contamination of the terrain along the path of the cloud, mainly in the event of a ground explosion. 2 hours before the explosion, the population of this zone took refuge in houses in readiness for evacuation. The population of zone no. 5 was taken out of it to safe areas 3 hours before the explosion.2 hours before the explosion, the population of this zone took refuge in houses in readiness for evacuation. The population of zone no. 5 was taken out of it to safe areas 3 hours before the explosion.2 hours before the explosion, the population of this zone took refuge in houses in readiness for evacuation. The population of zone no. 5 was taken out of it to safe areas 3 hours before the explosion.
In total, about 45 thousand personnel, 600 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 500 guns and mortars, 600 armored personnel carriers, 320 aircraft, 6 thousand tractors and cars were involved in the exercise.
10 minutes before the atomic strike was delivered, the “atomic alarm” signal was given, according to which the personnel of the troops participating in the exercise went to shelters and shelters. The crews of tanks and self-propelled artillery units took their places in the vehicles and battered down the hatches. At 0933 hours, the carrier plane dropped an atomic bomb from a height of 8 thousand meters, after 45 seconds an explosion followed at an altitude of 350 meters from the earth's surface. Artillery preparation began 5 minutes after the atomic explosion, then a bombardment strike was struck.
Teachings in the USA.
From 8000 meters Tu-4 bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on the test site
On the day of departure for the exercises, both Tu-4 crews prepared in full: nuclear bombs were suspended on each of the aircraft, the pilots simultaneously started the engines, reported their readiness to complete the mission. The command to take off was received by the crew of Kutyrchev, where the scorer was Captain Kokorin, the second pilot was Romensky, the navigator was Babets. The Tu-4 was accompanied by two MiG-17 fighters and an Il-28 bomber, which were supposed to conduct weather reconnaissance and filming, as well as guard the carrier in flight.
“On September 14 we were alerted at four in the morning. It was a clear and quiet morning, says Ivan Putivlsky. - Not a cloud in the sky. They were taken by car to the foot of the government tribune. We sat down more closely in the ravine and took pictures. The first signal through the loudspeakers of the government rostrum sounded 15 minutes before the nuclear explosion: "The ice has broken!" 10 minutes before the explosion, we heard the second signal: "Ice is coming!" We, as instructed, ran out of the cars and rushed to the previously prepared shelters in the ravine on the side of the stand. They lay down on their stomach, with their heads in the direction of the explosion, as taught, with their eyes closed, putting their palms under their heads and opening their mouths. The last, third, signal sounded: "Lightning!" There was a hellish rumble in the distance. The watch stopped at around 9 hours 33 minutes."
The carrier plane dropped an atomic bomb from a height of 8 thousand meters from the second approach to the target. The power of the plutonium bomb under the code word "Tatyanka" was 40 kilotons of TNT, several times more than that which was detonated over Hiroshima. According to the memoirs of Lieutenant General Osin, a similar bomb was previously tested at the Semipalatinsk test site in 1951. Totskaya "Tatyanka" exploded at an altitude of 350 m from the ground. The deviation from the planned epicenter was 280 m in the northwest direction.
At the last moment, the wind changed: it carried the radioactive cloud not to the deserted steppe, as expected, but directly to Orenburg and further, towards Krasnoyarsk.
Artillery preparation began 5 minutes after the nuclear explosion, then a bombardment strike was struck. Guns and mortars of various calibers, Katyushas, self-propelled artillery mounts, tanks buried in the ground started talking. The battalion commander told us later that the density of fire per kilometer of area was greater than when Berlin was taken, Kazanov recalls.
“During the explosion, despite the closed trenches and dugouts where we were, a bright light penetrated there, after a few seconds we heard a sound in the form of a sharp thunderstorm,” says Nikolai Pilshchikov. - After 3 hours, an attack signal was received. Aircraft, striking ground targets 21-22 minutes after a nuclear explosion, crossed the stem of a nuclear mushroom - the trunk of a radioactive cloud. I with my battalion in an armored personnel carrier proceeded 600 m from the epicenter of the explosion at a speed of 16-18 km / h. I saw a forest burned from root to top, twisted columns of equipment, burnt animals. " In the very epicenter - within a radius of 300 m - not a single hundred-year-old oak tree remained, everything burned down … Equipment a kilometer from the explosion was pushed into the ground …"
Military builder: Marshal of the Engineering Troops Alexey Proshlyakov supervised the fortification work during the exercises at the Totsk training ground / TsGKFFA Ukraine named after G. S. Pshenichny
“We were crossing the valley, one and a half kilometers away from which the epicenter of the explosion was, in gas masks,” Kazanov recalls. - Out of the corner of our eye, we noticed how piston planes, cars and staff vehicles were burning, the remains of cows and sheep were scattered everywhere. The earth resembled slag and a kind of monstrously whipped consistency. The area after the explosion was difficult to recognize: the grass was smoking, the scorched quails were running around, the bushes and copses disappeared. Bare, smoking hills surrounded me. There was a solid black wall of smoke and dust, stench and burning. My throat was dry and sore, my ears were ringing and noisy … Major General ordered me to measure the radiation level with a dosimetric device near a burning fire nearby. I ran up, opened the flap on the bottom of the device, and … the arrow went off scale. "In the car!" - commanded the general, and we drove away from this place,caught up next to the immediate epicenter of the explosion …"
Two days later, on September 17, 1954, a TASS report was published in the Pravda newspaper: “In accordance with the plan of research and experimental work, a test of one of the types of atomic weapons was carried out in the Soviet Union in recent days. The purpose of the test was to study the effects of an atomic explosion. During the tests, valuable results were obtained that will help Soviet scientists and engineers successfully solve the problems of protecting against an atomic attack. The troops completed their task: the country's nuclear shield was created.
Residents of the neighboring villages, two-thirds of the burned down villages, dragged the new houses built for them to the old - habitable and already infected - places, collected radioactive grain, potatoes baked in the ground … And for a long time the old-timers of Bogdanovka, Fedorovka and the village of Sorochinsky remembered the strange glow firewood. Woodpiles, made of charred trees in the area of the explosion, glowed in the darkness with a greenish fire.
Mice, rats, rabbits, sheep, cows, horses and even insects that have been in the “zone” were subjected to close examination … “After the exercises, we passed only dosimetric control,” recalls Nikolai Pilshchikov. “The experts paid much more attention to the dry rations given to us on the day of the exercises, wrapped in an almost two-centimeter layer of rubber … He was immediately taken for research. The next day, all soldiers and officers were transferred to a regular diet. Delicacies have disappeared."
They returned from the Totsk training ground, according to the recollections of Stanislav Ivanovich Kazanov, they were not in the freight train in which they arrived, but in a normal passenger carriage. Moreover, their composition was passed without the slightest delay. The stations flew past: an empty platform on which the lone chief of the station stood and saluted. The reason was simple. On the same train, in a special car, Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny was returning from the exercises.
“In Moscow, at the Kazansky railway station, the marshal was expected to receive a magnificent meeting,” Kazanov recalls. “Our cadets of the sergeant school did not receive any distinctions, no special certificates, no awards … The gratitude that Defense Minister Bulganin announced to us, we also did not receive anywhere later.”
The pilots who dropped the nuclear bomb were awarded a Pobeda car for the successful completion of this mission. During the analysis of the exercises, the crew commander Vasily Kutyrchev received the Order of Lenin from the hands of Bulganin and, ahead of schedule, the rank of colonel.
The results of combined-arms exercises with the use of nuclear weapons were classified as "top secret."
Funnel from the explosion of an atomic bomb at the Totsk test site.
There is such an assessment of these events
For reasons of secrecy, no checks and examinations of the participants in this inhuman experiment were carried out. Everything was hidden and silent. Civilian casualties are still unknown. Archives of the Totsk regional hospital from 1954 to 1980 destroyed.
“In the Sorochinsky registry office, we made a selection based on diagnoses of people who have died over the past 50 years. Since 1952, 3209 people have died from oncology in nearby villages. Immediately after the explosion - only two deaths. And then there were two peaks: one 5-7 years after the explosion, the second from the beginning of the 90s.
We also studied immunology in children: we took the grandchildren of people who survived the explosion. The results stunned us: in the immunograms of Sorochin children, there are practically no natural killers, which are involved in anti-cancer protection. In children, the interferon system does not actually work - the body's defense against cancer. It turns out that the third generation of people who survived the atomic explosion live with a predisposition to cancer,”says Mikhail Skachkov, professor at the Orenburg Medical Academy.
The participants of the Totsk exercises were not given any documents; they appeared only in 1990, when they were equated in rights with Chernobyl victims.
Of the 45 thousand soldiers who took part in the Totsk exercises, just over 2 thousand are now alive. Half of them were officially recognized as invalids of the first and second groups, 74.5% had diseases of the cardiovascular system, including hypertension and cerebral atherosclerosis, another 20.5% had diseases of the digestive system, 4.5% had malignant neoplasms. and blood diseases.
Ten years ago in Totsk - at the epicenter of the explosion - a memorial sign was erected: a stele with bells. On September 14, they will call in memory of all the victims of radiation at the Totsk, Semipalatinsk, Novozemelsk, Kapustin-Yarsk and Ladoga test sites.
And here is another assessment of the events at the Totsk test site
In total, three bombs were dropped during the exercise, of which one was a medium-caliber bomb (an atomic bomb with a capacity of about 40 kt) and two small-caliber imitation bombs.
At the end of the artillery preparation, in the direction of the epicenter of the atomic bomb explosion, on the tank (whose armor reduced radiation by 8-9 times), radiation reconnaissance patrols were sent, arriving at the epicenter area 40 minutes after the explosion. They found that the radiation level in this area 1 hour after the explosion was 50 R / h, in a zone with a radius of up to 300 m - 25 R / h, in a zone with a radius of 500 m - 0.5 R / h and in a zone with a radius of 850 m - 0.1 R / h. The team marked the zones “more than 25 R / h”, “0.5-25 R / h”, “0.1-0.5 R / h” with special flags. The delineation of the boundaries of the contamination zones was completely completed 1.5 hours after the explosion, i.e. before the advance of the advancing troops to the areas of infection. Surveillance data was also checked with a remote gamma-ray meter installed at a distance of 750 m from the epicenter. Only this team was in the contamination zone of more than 25 R / hour, and only this team could theoretically receive any noticeable dose of radiation. However, it was in the epicenter for less than half an hour, did not leave because of the armor of the tank (the flags were set automatically, by shooting) and even purely theoretically could not receive a dose of more than 2-3 X-rays. I would like to remind you that radiation sickness of the 1st degree occurs with a one-time dose of radiation of 100-200 roentgens. 6)that radiation sickness of the 1st degree occurs when a single dose of radiation of 100-200 roentgens is received. 6)that radiation sickness of the 1st degree occurs when a single dose of radiation of 100-200 roentgens is received. 6)
At about 12 o'clock, the forward detachment of the mechanized division of the "eastern", moving in front of the battle formations of the first echelon and overcoming the centers of fires and rubble, went into the area of the atomic explosion. After 10-15 minutes, units of a rifle regiment advanced to the same area north of the epicenter of the explosion, and units of a mechanized regiment moved to the south of the advance detachment in the same area. The troops moved along the roads in columns. Ahead of the columns was military radiation reconnaissance, which established that the radiation level on the ground at a distance of 400 m from the epicenter of the explosion by this time did not exceed 0.1 R / h. The troops overcame the area of the atomic strike at a speed of 5 km / h, and the advance detachment of the mechanized division in the epicenter area even faster - 8-12 km / h. At the time of the explosion, fighter planes were in the air at a distance of 30-35 km,and the bombers - 100 km from the epicenter of the explosion. By the time they reached the target, the radioactive cloud had moved 30 km from the epicenter of the explosion.
In total, about 3 thousand people were involved in the area of a real nuclear explosion, that is, no more than 10% of the total personnel involved in the exercise, while about 500 people passed directly through the epicentral zone.
Some aircraft, striking ground targets 21-22 minutes after the atomic explosion, crossed the leg of the "atomic mushroom" - the trunk of the radioactive cloud. Dosimetric control of pilots and equipment after landing showed an extremely low level of infection. So, on the fuselage it was 0.2-0.3 R / h, inside the cabin - 0.02-0.03 R / h.
To carry out sanitary treatment of personnel, as well as decontamination of military equipment, weapons, uniforms and equipment in the troops, it was envisaged to deploy washing and decontamination points in pre-designated areas. 6 hours after entering the contaminated area, a complete decontamination of equipment, washing of personnel and a total change of outerwear began. Prior to that, partial decontamination and sanitization were carried out directly in the troops.
You can also remember the Semipalatinsk teachings on September 10, 1956
The theme of the exercise was "The use of tactical airborne assault following an atomic strike in order to maintain the affected area of an atomic explosion until the approach of the advancing troops from the front." The main objective of the exercise was to determine the time after the explosion when it would be possible to land an airborne assault, as well as the minimum distance of the landing site from the epicenter of an air explosion of a nuclear bomb. In addition, this exercise contributed to the acquisition of skills to ensure the safe landing of troops within the zone of destruction of a nuclear explosion.
In total, fifteen hundred servicemen were involved in the exercise. 272 people landed directly in the area of the epicenter of the explosion: the second paratrooper battalion of the 345th regiment (without one company), reinforced by a platoon of 57-mm guns of the regimental artillery, six B-10 recoilless guns, a platoon of 82-mm mortars and a chemical compartment of the regiment with the means of conducting radiation and chemical reconnaissance. A regiment of Mi-4 helicopters consisting of 27 combat vehicles was used to deliver the troops to the landing area.
For dosimetric tracking and monitoring of the radiation situation, four dosimetric officers were assigned and acted together as a landing party, at the rate of one for each landing company, as well as a senior dosimetrist who accompanied the lead vehicle of the regiment commander. The main task of the officers-dosimetrists was to exclude the possibility of helicopter landing and landing of troops on terrain with radiation levels above 5 roentgens per hour and, in addition, to monitor the fulfillment of the radiation safety requirements by the landing personnel.
All landing personnel and helicopter crews were provided with personal protective equipment. decontamination and the required number of dosimetric instruments. In order to prevent the ingress of radioactive substances into the body of the soldiers, it was decided to drop the personnel without food, supplies of drinking water and smoking accessories.
The explosion of a nuclear aerial bomb dropped from a Tu-16 aircraft, which rose to a height of eight kilometers, occurred 270 meters from the ground. The TNT equivalent of the explosion was 38 kt.
25 minutes after the explosion, when the front of the shock wave passed and the explosion cloud reached its maximum height, patrols of neutral radiation reconnaissance drove out from the initial line in cars and reconnoitred the area of the explosion. marked the landing line and reported on the radio about the possibility of landing in the area of the explosion. The landing line was marked at a distance of 650-1000 meters from the epicenter. Its length was 1,300 meters. The radiation level on the ground at the time of the landing ranged from 0.3 to 5 roentgens per hour.
The landing of helicopters in the designated area was made 43 minutes after the nuclear explosion.
7 minutes after landing, the helicopters took off to proceed to the special treatment point. 17 minutes after the landing, the landing units reached the line, where they entrenched themselves and repulsed the enemy's counterattack. 2 hours after the explosion, the exercise was canceled, after which the entire personnel of the landing party with weapons and military equipment were delivered for sanitization and decontamination
What happened in the USA at that time?
For the first time, military exercises with the use of nuclear weapons took place not at all in the USSR, but in the United States, during the Buster Dog test, 1951-01-11. A total of 8 Desert Rock exercises were conducted in the United States, of which 5 were before the Totsk exercise.
When watching the video about Desert Rock I, pay attention to the mention of soldiers who are ready to sit out the explosion in open trenches at a distance of half a mile from the epicenter: during the Desert Rock exercise, indeed, many American soldiers were in the open trenches quite close to the epicenter. There are footage of the chronicle, shot by automatic cameras, as they, having received a concussion by a shock wave, slightly shell-shocked, run out of the trenches and run into the attack, without any means of protection. Also, notice how American soldiers are marching, without protective equipment, half a mile from the epicenter.
In total, more than 50,000 US Army personnel participated in these exercises. As for the civilian population, there are no less numerous films showing how American ordinary people come to watch nuclear tests and have picnics.
In the USSR, for all the time, only two such exercises were conducted.
Unlike the same Desert Rock exercises, the Totsk and Semipalatinsk exercises were conducted with much stricter security measures. Strict dosimetric control, long waiting times after the explosion, shelters for personnel, protective equipment - safety was monitored at a higher level.
Of course, during the exercise, various emergencies associated with the human factor were possible. They say that during the Totsk exercise, a group of soldiers, dismantling the rubble, refused to put on protective equipment. Another group of soldiers allegedly kept their uniforms. They say that some of the local residents, evicted from the villages that fell under the explosion, into new houses specially built for them, subsequently moved these houses to their old places. Perhaps - we will not discuss whether this is true. In any case, this is no longer the fault of the state, and even less its malicious intent, but the result of ordinary human sloppiness. On the part of the state, everything was done reasonably and with the strictest observance of security measures, with the observance of security measures stricter than in the most democratic country in the world. So to talk about "human trials" is pure lie,absolutely anti-historical.
People who are sure that there is molten sand 10 km from the epicenter of an explosion with a capacity of 40 kilotons can only be advised to try to remember what they were taught at school in the lessons of the CWP and GO.
As for "43,000 soldiers died," here again we are dealing with an outright lie. Naturally, no one died during the exercise, and the authors of this fried sensation, knowing full well of this, simply formulate their thought so bitingly, implying that 43,000 soldiers allegedly died later, as a result of the effects of radiation. However, in reality we are talking about a perverted interpretation of the fact that by 2004 there were about 2,000 participants in these exercises alive. People in the 20-40 age group participated in the exercises, 50 years have passed and the age of the former participants ranges from 70 to 90 years. Even the youngest of those who participated in the exercises became very old people. In modern Russia, alas, few men live to be 70 years old - and this is not at all about the Totsk teachings.
“The results of 1994-1995. Russian and American specialists studying the radioecological situation on the territory of the Totsk test site and in the adjacent areas fully confirmed the data on radiation parameters obtained earlier by specialists of the Leningrad Research Institute of Radiation Hygiene and other scientific institutions. The results of the last radioecological survey of the Totsk test site indicate that the radiation situation on its territory is characterized by the parameters of the natural radiation background”.
As for those living near the exercise area, their health does not differ from the national average. “The average increase in mortality in the region from malignant neoplasms (in 1970 - 103.6, in 1991 - 173 per 100,000 inhabitants), equal to about 35 % per year, corresponds to the average indicators in the Russian Federation and in other European countries."
Here is a video from these exercises:
And further:
