The first combined arms exercises of the USSR, involving the use of nuclear weapons, were held at the beginning of the Cold War. For these maneuvers, the Totsky training ground was involved. The year 1954 went down in history as a period of studying the possibility of conducting combat operations in a nuclear war. However, a significant part of the top military leadership of the USSR had long been interested in this issue, in connection with which this cruel experiment was organized on September 14, 1954.
Why the Totsky test site was needed
It is believed that the main initiators of this experiment were Boris Vannikov, who at that time was in charge of the programs for the creation and production of atomic weapons, as well as Alexander Vasilevsky, First Deputy Minister of Defense.
The USSR military wanted to find out if Soviet soldiers would be able to continue the offensive on the territory, which would be attacked in advance with a nuclear strike, in order to break through the tactical defense of the alleged enemy. This "presumed" enemy was supposed to be located exclusively in Europe, deep into which Soviet tank armies could advance. Major nuclear test sitesRussia was not suitable for simulating such a situation and conducting the necessary exercises, so it was decided to use the Totsky training ground.
The purpose of military exercises
Even today, representatives of the military department claim that the surroundings of the Totsk training ground, from the point of view of ensuring the security of troops and the population, were ideally suited for conducting such experiments. However, one can object to them - it's no secret that in those days, Stalin's marshals were the last thing worried about people's safety.
Don't forget about the arms race started by world hegemons and the likelihood of a third world war, so the zeal of the military leadership of the USSR can be understood. Tests at the Totsk test site were primarily to help the military study the effect of a nuclear explosion on military equipment, people and engineering structures, to find out the degree of influence of the terrain on the propagation of an explosive wave, radiation and light radiation. Only in this way it was possible to know in advance whether tanks and infantry would be able to overcome rough terrain after a nuclear strike.
Planning Operation Snowball
Georgy Zhukov, Marshal of the Soviet Union, was appointed to lead the secret maneuvers at the Totsk training ground, which was given the code name Operation Snowball. According to official data, 45,000 people, several thousand units of military and auxiliary equipment, including 320 units of aviation, were involved in these exercises. In addition, several hundred kilometers of trenches and trenches were dug, at least five thousanddugouts and other shelters. A few days before the start of the maneuvers, the highest ranks of the military department, military delegations from the countries of the socialist camp began to arrive in the "government town", and Nikita Khrushchev arrived at the Totsky training ground a day before the start of the operation.
Before starting the exercises, the meteorological situation in the region was studied, and only after that the final decision on the explosion of an atomic charge was approved.
Teachings
On a distant September morning in 1954, exercises began at the Totsk training ground. The RDS-2 plutonium bomb, the TNT equivalent of which ranged from 40 to 60 kilotons, was on board the Tu-4 bomber and, after all the necessary preparations, at 09:34, was dropped at the desired point from a height of 8 thousand meters. It exploded in the air about 350 meters from the ground, having deviated from the target by 280 meters. A few minutes after the explosion, maneuvers began - artillery preparation, air strikes, while several aircraft passed directly through the radioactive cloud. Then patrols of radioactive reconnaissance moved to the epicenter of the explosion, one of which, according to unofficial data, consisted of prisoners.
Next, Zhukov ordered the military columns sent to the Totsky test site to advance through the area of the atomic explosion. From the means of special protection, the personnel had only primitive gas masks, however, few people used them, since it was impossible to stay in them for a long time. Ordinary military personnel were poorly aware of the dangers of radiation.
Consequences
During these exercisesthe top military leadership of the country openly neglected the he alth of the people. The data on the operation "Snowball" has long been strictly classified, and today it is hardly possible to fully assess the consequences of this experiment. Various sources claim that the he alth of the soldiers who participated in the exercises at the Totsk training ground suffered irreparable damage. And although the Totsky test site was to some extent an isolated object, the ecology of the adjacent region was also exposed to radiation contamination. Even today, many residents of the Sorochinsky district of the Orenburg region have he alth problems.
One can only hope that these sacrifices of Soviet soldiers were not made in vain, and we will never see a war with nuclear weapons.
