Soviet Nuclear Activities

The nuclear arms race was perhaps the most alarming feature of the Cold War competition between the United States and Soviet Union. Over the decades, the two sides signed various arms control agreements as a means to manage their rivalry and limit the risk of nuclear war, avoiding mutually assured ...

In 1989, the Kazakh populace, led by Olzhas Suleimenov, head of the Kazakhstan Writers’ Union and one of the country’s most prominent poets, undertook a formidable challenge against the Soviet Union. Their principal demand was the immediate cessation of the Soviet Union's nuclear testing operations at the Semipalatinsk test site ...

In 1961, with the launch of the first Soviet underground nuclear test, the trajectory of nuclear testing took a significant turn. The transition to underground testing came about following the implementation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which restricted atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. Over 300 (and up ...

Six decades ago, the Soviet Union conducted its inaugural nuclear test, code-named "First Lightning," at a test facility situated on the vast steppe of northeast Kazakhstan, formerly known as the Kazakh SSR. This site, the Semipalatinsk Polygon, would serve as the stage for a staggering 450(+) atomic explosions over the ...

In May 1955, the United Nations Disarmament Commission brought together major nuclear powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and the Soviet Union, to engage in negotiations aimed at halting nuclear weapons testing. The negotiations faced early challenges as conflict arose over the verification of underground testing ...

With the potential to forever alter the course of global security, the inaugural test of the world's first thermonuclear weapon poised itself to redefine the trajectory of human history. Codenamed "Mike," this groundbreaking test was conducted by the United States on November 1, 1952, at the Enewetak atoll in the ...

The Birth of the Semipalatinsk Test Site The world was jolted by the sheer power of nuclear weapons when the United States unleashed an uranium bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, followed by a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki just three days later. These catastrophic events left an indelible mark, ...

The Cold War is often referred to as a bloodless conflict. Although it was characterized by an intensive arms race, neither superpower used its massive nuclear arsenal to attack the other. Despite this fortunate outcome, recent scholarship has emphasized that there were, in fact, victims.Masco, Joseph, and Joseph Masco. The ...