Essay On Soviet Nuclear Testing

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Almost immediately following World War II the US and the Soviets were plunged into the Cold War. It wasn’t the usual kind of war as it didn’t involve infantry vs. infantry combat but just politics and a series of nuclear tests to sort of flex their muscles. The Soviets were quick to divert most of the countries funding into their nuclear projects which allowed them to created hundreds of nuclear capable weapons. Russia for the most part remained on the backfoot always trying to play catch up yet they had many innovations that kept them ahead of the US at times. The history of Soviet nuclear tests is long but fairly interesting to hear the innovation that occurred over the years.
Soviet nuclear projects first originated during the mid 40’s as an effort to claim military superiority. A majority of all Soviet projects were to be headed by Igor Kurchatov. The first nuclear test done by the USSR was device RDS-1, codenamed FIrst Lightning, during late August in 1949. The test took place at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR. The test of the nuclear device was classified as a success …show more content…
It wasn’t until 1953 that their next nuclear device was created. the RDS-4. The weapon originated from a small weapons research branch in the USSR. The device was composed of a boosted fission design with a levitated core. The bomb went on to be the first one to be detonated in a war simulation. On August 23, 1953 the bomb was airdropped from a Tu-4 Bomber over the simulation. The device is titled as the first mid range ballistic missile in the world. Which went on to be tested with a live warhead for the first and only time on February 2, 1956. Later in the year RDS-5 was tested with a mirror design except for composite plutonium core. After creating the first nuclear capable ballistic style missile in the world the USSR gained a massive lead over the US in terms of

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