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 warfare in a nuclear war. However, a significant part of the top military leadership of the USSR has long been interested in this issue, in connection with which this cruel experiment was organized on September 14, 1954.
Why did you need a Totsky training ground?
It is believed that the main initiators of this experiment were Boris Vannikov, who at that time was in charge of the creation and production of atomic weapons programs, as well as Alexander Vasilevsky, First Deputy Minister of Defense.
The military of the USSR wanted to find out whether Soviet soldiers would be able to continue the offensive in the territory on which a nuclear strike would be delivered in advance in order to break through the tactical defense of the alleged enemy. This "alleged" enemy was supposed to be exclusively in Europe, into the depths of which Soviet tank armies could advance. The main nuclear test sites of Russia were not suitable for modeling such a situation and conducting the necessary exercises, so it was decided to use the Totsky training ground.
Purpose of military exercises
Even today, representatives of the military department argue that the vicinity of the Totsky training ground from the point of view of ensuring the security of troops and the population was ideally suited for such experiments. However, they can be objected - it is no secret that in those days the Stalinist marshals were least concerned about the safety of people.
Do not forget about the arms race launched by world hegemons and the likelihood of a third world war, so the zeal of the military leadership of the USSR can be understood. The tests at the Totsky training ground were primarily intended to help the military study the effect of a nuclear explosion on military equipment, people and engineering structures, find out the degree of influence of the terrain on the propagation of the blast wave, radiation and light radiation. Only in this way was it possible to know in advance whether tanks and infantry could overcome rugged terrain after a nuclear strike.
Planning Operation Snowball
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov was appointed to lead the secret maneuvers at the Totsky training ground, which was given the code name Operation Snowball. According to official figures, 45 thousand people, several thousand units of military and auxiliary equipment, including 320 units of aviation, were attracted to these exercises. In addition, several hundred kilometers of trenches and trenches were dug, at least five hundred dugouts and other shelters were built. A few days before the start of the maneuvers, the top ranks of the military department, military delegations of the countries of the socialist camp began to arrive in the “government town”, and the day before the start of the operation, Totsky arrived at the training ground and Nikita Khrushchev.
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 the distant September morning of 1954, exercises began at the Totsky training ground. The RDS-2 plutonium bomb, the trotyl equivalent of which ranged from 40 to 60 kilotons, was on board the Tu-4 bomber and, after all the necessary preparations, at 9 hours 34 minutes, it was dropped at the right point from a height of 8 thousand m. It exploded in the air about 350 meters from the ground, deviating from the target by 280 meters. A few minutes after the explosion, maneuvers began - artillery bombardment, air strikes, while several aircraft went directly through the radioactive cloud. Then, radioactive reconnaissance patrols moved to the epicenter of the explosion, one of which, according to unofficial data, consisted of prisoners.
Then Zhukov gave the order to the military columns sent to the Totsky training ground to advance through the area of the atomic explosion. Of the special protection equipment, 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 soldiers were poorly aware of the dangers of radiation.
Effects
During these exercises, the country's top military leadership openly neglected people's health. The data on the operation "Snowball" have been strictly classified for a long time, and today it is hardly possible to fully evaluate the consequences of this experiment. Various sources claim that irreparable damage was inflicted on the health of soldiers participating in the exercises at the Totsky training ground. And although the Totsky training ground was to some extent an isolated object, the ecology of the surrounding region was also exposed to radiation contamination. Even today, many residents of the Sorochinsky district of the Orenburg region have health problems.
One can only hope that these sacrifices of Soviet soldiers were not made in vain, and we will never be able to see a war with the use of nuclear weapons.