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==History==
==History==
In mid-September 1954, [[nuclear bomb]]ing tests were performed in [[Totskoye range]] during the training exercise ''Snezhok'' ({{lang-ru|Снежок}}, ''Snowball'' or ''Light Snow'') with some 45,000 people, all Soviet soldiers and officers,<ref name="news.ru">{{cite web | url=http://newsru.com/russia/14sep2004/ussr.html | title= Fifty years ago USSR accomplished the operation "Snowball": forty three thousand Soviet soldiers died. (Russian)| language=Russian | publisher=newsru.com | date=2004-09-14 | accessdate=2011-03-05}}</ref> who explored the explosion site of a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on [[Hiroshima]] nine years earlier. A delegation of high-ranking government officials and senior military officers arrived to the region on the eve of the exercise, which included First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]], [[Nikolai Bulganin]], generals [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]], [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]], [[Ivan Konev]] and [[Rodion Malinovsky]].<ref name=Danilenko/> The operation was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov. At 9:33&nbsp;a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet [[Tupolev Tu-4|Tu-4 bomber]] dropped a {{convert|40|kt(TNT)|lk=in|adj=on}} atomic weapon - [[RDS-4|RDS-4 bomb]] - from {{convert|8,000|m|ft}}. The bomb exploded {{convert|350|m|ft}} above Totskoye range, {{convert|13|km|0}} from [[Totskoye]].<ref name="news.ru"/><ref name="neu-samara.de">{{cite web | url=http://www.neu-samara.de/index.php?artikel=9&sprache=en | author=Dietrich Tissen | title=Nuclear Test in Totskoye in 1954 | accessdate=2007-01-10}}</ref>
In mid-September 1954, [[nuclear bomb]]ing tests were performed in [[Totskoye range]] during the training exercise ''Snezhok'' ({{lang-ru|Снежок}}, ''Snowball'' or ''Light Snow'') with some 45,000 people, all Soviet soldiers and officers,<ref name="news.ru">{{cite web | url=http://newsru.com/russia/14sep2004/ussr.html | title= Fifty years ago USSR accomplished the operation "Snowball": forty three thousand Soviet soldiers died. (Russian)| language=Russian | publisher=newsru.com | date=2004-09-14 | accessdate=2011-03-05}}</ref> who explored the explosion site of a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on [[Hiroshima]] nine years earlier. A delegation of high-ranking government officials and senior military officers arrived to the region on the eve of the exercise, which included First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]], [[Nikolai Bulganin]], Generals [[Aleksandr Vasilevsky]], [[Konstantin Rokossovsky]], [[Ivan Konev]] and [[Rodion Malinovsky]].<ref name=Danilenko/> The operation was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov. At 9:33&nbsp;a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet [[Tupolev Tu-4|Tu-4 bomber]] dropped a {{convert|40|kt(TNT)|lk=in|adj=on}} atomic weapon - [[RDS-4|RDS-4 bomb]] - from {{convert|8,000|m|ft}}. The bomb exploded {{convert|350|m|ft}} above Totskoye range, {{convert|13|km|0}} from [[Totskoye]].<ref name="news.ru"/><ref name="neu-samara.de">{{cite web | url=http://www.neu-samara.de/index.php?artikel=9&sprache=en | author=Dietrich Tissen | title=Nuclear Test in Totskoye in 1954 | accessdate=2007-01-10}}</ref>


The exercise involved the [[270th Rifle Division]],<ref>V.I. Feskov et al., "The Soviet Army in the Cold War 1945–90", Tomsk, 2004, p. 94</ref> 320 planes, 600 [[tank]]s and 600 [[armoured personnel carriers]]. As the participants recalled, all the soldiers wore [[gas mask]]s and moved around the territory in armoured personnel carriers, holding the distance of 800 metres from the [[hypocentre]] and avoiding the most dangerous areas of the explosion site.<ref name=Danilenko>{{cite web | url=http://himza.ru/tree/tree.php?id=244 | title= Memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel N. V. Danilenko | language=Russian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://oreninform.ru/list/detail.php?SECTION_ID=4&ID=62222 | title= Memoirs of Lieutenant-General S. A. Zelentsov | language=Russian}}</ref>
The exercise involved the [[270th Rifle Division]],<ref>V.I. Feskov et al., "The Soviet Army in the Cold War 1945–90", Tomsk, 2004, p. 94</ref> 320 planes, 600 [[tank]]s and 600 [[armoured personnel carriers]]. As the participants recalled, all the soldiers wore [[gas mask]]s and moved around the territory in armoured personnel carriers, holding the distance of 800 metres from the [[hypocentre]] and avoiding the most dangerous areas of the explosion site.<ref name=Danilenko>{{cite web | url=http://himza.ru/tree/tree.php?id=244 | title= Memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel N. V. Danilenko | language=Russian}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://oreninform.ru/list/detail.php?SECTION_ID=4&ID=62222 | title= Memoirs of Lieutenant-General S. A. Zelentsov | language=Russian}}</ref>

Revision as of 02:46, 21 November 2016

52°38.54′N 52°48.55′E / 52.64233°N 52.80917°E / 52.64233; 52.80917

The Totskoye nuclear exercise was a military exercise undertaken by the Soviet Army to explore defensive and offensive warfare during nuclear war. The exercise, under the code name "Snowball", involved an aerial detonation of a 28 kt RDS-4 nuclear bomb. [citation needed] The stated goal of the operation was military training for breaking through heavily fortified defensive lines of a military opponent using nuclear weapons.[1] An army of 45,000 soldiers marched through the area around the epicenter soon after the nuclear blast.[2] The exercise was conducted on September 14, 1954, under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov to the north of Totskoye village in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, in the South Ural Military District.

History

In mid-September 1954, nuclear bombing tests were performed in Totskoye range during the training exercise Snezhok (Russian: Снежок, Snowball or Light Snow) with some 45,000 people, all Soviet soldiers and officers,[3] who explored the explosion site of a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima nine years earlier. A delegation of high-ranking government officials and senior military officers arrived to the region on the eve of the exercise, which included First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Nikolai Bulganin, Generals Aleksandr Vasilevsky, Konstantin Rokossovsky, Ivan Konev and Rodion Malinovsky.[4] The operation was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov. At 9:33 a.m. on 14 September 1954, a Soviet Tu-4 bomber dropped a 40-kilotonne (170 TJ) atomic weapon - RDS-4 bomb - from 8,000 metres (26,000 ft). The bomb exploded 350 metres (1,150 ft) above Totskoye range, 13 kilometres (8 mi) from Totskoye.[3][5]

The exercise involved the 270th Rifle Division,[6] 320 planes, 600 tanks and 600 armoured personnel carriers. As the participants recalled, all the soldiers wore gas masks and moved around the territory in armoured personnel carriers, holding the distance of 800 metres from the hypocentre and avoiding the most dangerous areas of the explosion site.[4][7]

Deputy Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov witnessed the blast from an underground nuclear bunker. The planes were ordered to bomb the explosion site five minutes after the blast, and three hours later (after the demarcation of the radioactive zone) the armored vehicles were ordered to practice the taking of a hostile area after a nuclear attack.[5]

The residents of selected villages (Bogdanovka and Fyodorovka) that were situated around 6 km (4 mi) from the epicenter of the future explosion were offered temporary evacuation outside the 50 km (31 mi) radius.[3] Most of the local population was never warned, however.[8] All the nearest villages were not damaged by the blast, except for one house located on a hill five kilometres from the explosion site that caught fire and burned down.[4]

On 17 September 1954, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published a report on the exercise: "In accordance with the plan of scientific and experimental works, a test of one of the types of nuclear weapons has been conducted in the Soviet Union in the last few days. The purpose of the test was to examine the effects of nuclear explosion. Valuable results have been obtained that will help Soviet scientists and engineers to successfully solve the task of protecting the country from nuclear attack".[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Totskyoe exercise. Measures of safety (Russian) by Sergei Markov
  2. ^ Viktor Suvorov, Shadow of Victory (Тень победы), Donetsk, 2003, ISBN 966-696-022-2, pages 353-375. The chapter about Totskoye nuclear exercise is mostly based on open publications in Russian press, such as Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star), an official newspaper of Russian Ministry of Defense, and Literaturnaya Gazeta
  3. ^ a b c "Fifty years ago USSR accomplished the operation "Snowball": forty three thousand Soviet soldiers died. (Russian)" (in Russian). newsru.com. 2004-09-14. Retrieved 2011-03-05.
  4. ^ a b c "Memoirs of Lieutenant-Colonel N. V. Danilenko" (in Russian).
  5. ^ a b Dietrich Tissen. "Nuclear Test in Totskoye in 1954". Retrieved 2007-01-10.
  6. ^ V.I. Feskov et al., "The Soviet Army in the Cold War 1945–90", Tomsk, 2004, p. 94
  7. ^ "Memoirs of Lieutenant-General S. A. Zelentsov" (in Russian).
  8. ^ Paul Goble (2014-09-15). "60 Years Ago, Moscow Tested a Nuclear Weapon on Its Own Citizens". The Interpreter Magazine. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  9. ^ Pravda, 17 September 1954
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