The nuclear weapons test of the Soviet Union were performed between the years
1949 and 1990 as a part of the nuclear arms race and the nuclear arms race was really an arms race
Competition to see who could be the top in terms of nuclear power
between the United States and the Soviet Union the Soviet Union now Russia and the United States own about
90% of the world's supply of nuclear weapons. Let's take a look into the brief history of Russia's nuclear tests
Welcome everybody. My name is Leroy Kenton and you're watching FTD facts
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The Soviet Union had conducted
750 nuclear tests using 969 total devices and this is only by the official count and these tests included
219 atmospheric tests as well as underwater tests and 124 peaceful use tests
These tests were all conducted under the Soviet atomic bomb project
That was a classified research and development program. That was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union
And this was all to develop nuclear weapons during the Second World War
So after Joseph Stalin heard about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan by the United States
well the nuclear program swung into full gear they went more aggressively and this moved with great speed due to the
Intelligence that was gathered about the German nuclear project as well as America's Manhattan Project on August 29th
1949 the Soviet Union secretly conducted its first successful
nuclear weapons test which is called first lightning in
Kazakhstan and Russia's nuclear testings was even said to be more extreme than the United States test because the effects continued to this day
and in 1949
than the Soviet Union dropped atomic bombs in an area that is now known as
Kazakhstan and that area was called Samia politics aka the polygon now the sad thing about this is that one of the nuclear programs
Architects said that this area was completely
uninhabited before the test started
however
That was not the case because there are about 1.5 million people living in the area when the nuclear tests were conducted
For 40 years following that the Soviets they detonated bombs here with tests at one point happening almost
daily, so the effects of these nuclear testings in the polygon became visible almost immediately because cancer rates drastically increased as
Well as the rates of birth defects and mental disabilities and suicide rates increased around
200,000 people were directly affected by these tests now. I want to take a look at the Tsar Bomba
So the Tsar Bomba was the western nickname for the soviet RDS 220 hydrogen bomb. That was codenamed Vanya
and this was detonated by the Soviet Union back on October 30th of
1961 and the Tsar Bomba is the largest nuclear device ever detonated and the most powerful man-made explosion
In history, this has a yield of 50 megatons of TNT the Tsar
Bomba was a result of a number of hydrogen bomb tests that were conducted
Throughout this time by the Soviet Union as well as the United States the Tsar Bomba weighed 27 tons, and that's about 50
9525 pounds and this thing was massive. It was 26 feet in length and
6.9 feet in diameter and when they conducted the tests with the Tsar Bomba it was attached to a parachute weighing nearly
1,800 pounds the Tsar Bomba yield was approximately
1570 times more powerful than the yield of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
combined
as well as it was 10 times more powerful than all of the conventional weapons that were used and
detonated during all of World War two the Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud was
Approximately 40 miles high that's 7 times higher than Mount Everest
The top of the cloud had a width of 15 miles and its base width was 25 miles
of course this struck fear not only to the Russian but also to the rest of the world and after that eventually Russia along with
a number of other nations they signed what is called the
comprehensive nuclear-test-ban
Treaty and they ended the testing now there have been claims that Russia is in violation of this treaty and is still secretly testing nuclear
Weapons Russia however, denies these claims. So that was your brief look into Russia's nuclear testing history
Do you believe that Russia is secretly still testing nuclear weapons despite already having weapons that could destroy
The earth several times over. I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments down below
You can also find my social media links below in this video description as well and I'll see you guys real soon in another episode
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