Totskoye is a military range established in September 1941 to the north of Totskoye village, about 40 kilometres (20 mi) from Buzuluk in Orenburg Oblast, Russia (in Southern Urals) under the jurisdiction of the South Urals Military District. Marshal Georgy Zhukov picked the range for the then-upcoming nuclear test, which for some 50 years (until 1993) was considered top secret.[1]
| “ | In accordance with science-researching and experimental exercises of the last days in the Soviet Union was conducted a test of one of the types of nuclear weapon. | ” |
In mid-September 1954, nuclear bombing tests were performed in Totskoye range during the training exercise Snezhok (Snowball or Light Snow) with some 45,000 people, all Soviet soldiers and officers,[1][2] who were exposed to radiation from a bomb twice as powerful as the one dropped on Hiroshima nine years earlier. The exercise was commanded by the 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 from 8,000 metres (26,000 ft). The bomb exploded 350 metres (1,150 ft) above Totskoye range, 13 kilometres (8 mi) from Totskoye.[2][3]
The experiment was conceptually similar to others performed at the time by the United States, the United Kingdom and other atomic countries,[4][5] and was designed to test the performance of military hardware and soldiers in the event of a nuclear war. It involved the 270th Rifle Division,[6] 320 planes, 600 tanks and 600 armored personnel carriers. The soldiers were told that there would be a regular military exercise featuring a mock nuclear explosion and that it would be filmed.[1] The military personnel were not issued any protective gear.[1] 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.[3]
The residents of selected villages (Bogdanovka and Fedorovka) 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.[2] Most of the local population was never warned, however.
Thousands who are believed to have sought help in local hospitals would later be surprised to find that their medical cards, containing their histories of sickness, had disappeared from the regional hospital. That fact was confirmed by a former soldier who participated in the exercise, Alexey Petrovich Vavilov, in his interview[1] with the television news broadcasting program Podrobnosti (Telechannel INTER) more than 50 years later.[1]
Over half a century later, this matter is still under strict control of the federal government. The local law enforcement personnel continue to harass the journalists who try to obtain footage from the range.[1] The exercise became widely known only in 1993.[1] Even the soldiers who participated in the exercise did not know that they had taken part [1]. The government congratulated the local population for their heroism in providing the nuclear shield for their Motherland.
September 14 in Russia is considered to be the day of creation of the State nuclear shield.