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An 602 thermonuclear aerial bomb. The most powerful explosion of a thermonuclear bomb. There was Paris - and there is no Paris

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet AN606 thermonuclear bomb with a yield of 57 megatons was successfully tested at the Novaya Zemlya test site. This power was 10 times greater than the total power of all ammunition that was used during World War II. AN606 is the most destructive weapon in the entire history of mankind.

Place

Nuclear testing in the Soviet Union began in 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site, located in Kazakhstan. Its area was 18,500 square meters. km. It was removed from places of permanent residence of people. But not so much that the most powerful weapons could be tested on it. Therefore, nuclear charges of low and medium power were detonated in the Kazakh steppe. They were necessary for debugging nuclear technologies and studying the influence of damaging factors on equipment and structures. That is, these were, first of all, scientific and technical tests.

But in conditions of military competition, tests were also necessary in which the emphasis was placed on their political component, on demonstrating the crushing power of the Soviet bomb.

There was also the Totsky training ground in the Orenburg region. But it was smaller than Semipalatinsk. And besides, it was located in even more dangerous proximity to cities and villages.

In 1954, they found a place where it was possible to test ultra-high-power nuclear weapons.

This place became the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It fully met the requirements for the test site where the super-bomb was to be tested. It was located as far as possible from large settlements and communications, and after its closure it should have had minimal impact on the subsequent economic activity of the region. It was also required to conduct a study of the effect of a nuclear explosion on ships and submarines.

The islands of Novaya Zemlya best met these and other requirements. Their area was more than four times larger than the Semipalatinsk test site and amounted to 85 thousand square meters. km., which is approximately equal to the area of the Netherlands.

The problem of the population that could suffer from explosions was solved radically: 298 indigenous Nenets were evicted from the archipelago, providing them with housing in Arkhangelsk, as well as in the village of Amderma and on the island of Kolguev. At the same time, the migrants were employed, and the elderly were given a pension, despite the fact that they had no work experience.

They were replaced by builders.

The nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya is by no means an empty field onto which bombers drop their deadly cargo, but a whole complex of complex engineering structures and administrative and economic services. These include experimental scientific and engineering services, energy and water supply services, a fighter aviation regiment, a transport aviation detachment, a division of ships and special purpose vessels, an emergency rescue service detachment, a communications center, logistics support units, and living quarters.

Three test sites were created at the test site: Black Lip, Matochkin Shar and Sukhoi Nos.

In the summer of 1954, 10 construction battalions were delivered to the archipelago and began building the first site, Black Lip. Builders spent the Arctic winter in canvas tents, preparing Guba for an underwater explosion scheduled for September 1955 - the first in the USSR.

Product

The development of the Tsar Bomba, designated AN602, began simultaneously with the construction of the test site on Novaya Zemlya - in 1955. And it ended with the creation of a bomb ready for testing in September 1961, that is, a month before the explosion.

Development began at NII-1011 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (now the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics, VNIITF), which was located in Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region. Actually, the institute was founded on May 5, 1955, primarily to implement a grandiose thermonuclear project. And only then his activities spread to the creation of 70 percent of all Soviet nuclear bombs, missiles and torpedoes.

NII-1011 was headed by the scientific director of the institute, Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Shchelkin, together with a group of leading nuclear scientists, took part in the creation and testing of the first atomic bomb RDS-1. It was he who, in 1949, was the last to leave the tower with a charge installed in it, sealed the entrance and pressed the “Start” button.

Work on the creation of the AN602 bomb, to which the country's leading physicists, including Kurchatov and Sakharov, were involved, proceeded without any particular complications. But the unique power of the bomb required enormous amounts of calculations and design work. And also conducting experiments with smaller charges at the test site - first in Semipalatinsk, and then on Novaya Zemlya.

The initial project involved the creation of a bomb that would certainly break out windows, if not in Moscow, but certainly in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, and even in northern Finland. Since a capacity exceeding 100 megatons was planned.

Initially, the bomb's operation scheme was three-link. First, a plutonium charge with a power of 1.5 Mt was triggered. He ignited a thermonuclear fusion reaction, the power of which was 50 Mt. The fast neutrons released as a result of the thermonuclear reaction triggered the nuclear fission reaction in the uranium-238 blocks. The contribution of this reaction to the “common cause” was 50 Mt.

This scheme led to an extremely high level of radioactive contamination over a vast area. And there was no need to talk about “the minimal impact of the landfill on the subsequent economic activity of the region after its closure.” Therefore, it was decided to abandon the final phase - uranium fission. But at the same time, the real power of the resulting bomb turned out to be slightly greater than it was based on calculations. Instead of 51.5 Mt, on October 30, 1961, 57 Mt exploded on Novaya Zemlya.

The creation of the AN602 bomb was completed not in Snezhinsk, but in the famous KB-11, located in Arzamas-16. The final revision took 112 days.

The result was a monster weighing 26,500 kg, 800 cm long and a maximum diameter of 210 cm.

The dimensions and weight of the bomb were determined already in 1955. In order to get it into the air, it was necessary to significantly modernize the largest bomber at that time, the Tu-95. And this, too, was not an easy job, since the standard Tu-95 could not lift the Tsar Bomba into the air; with the aircraft weighing 84 tons, it could only carry 11 tons of combat load. The fuel share was 90 tons. In addition, the bomb did not fit in the bomb bay. Therefore, the fuselage fuel tanks had to be removed. And also replace the beam bomb holders with more powerful ones.

Work on modernizing the bomber, called the Tu-95 V and manufactured in a single copy, took place from 1956 to 1958. Flight tests continued for another year, during which the technique of dropping a mock-up bomb of the same weight and dimensions was tested. In 1959, the aircraft was recognized as fully satisfying the requirements for it.

Result

The main result, as planned, was political and exceeded all expectations. The explosion of previously unknown force made a very strong impression on the leaders of Western countries. He forced us to take a more serious look at the capabilities of the Soviet military-industrial complex and somewhat reduce our militaristic ambitions.

The events of October 30, 1961 developed as follows. Early in the morning, two bombers took off from a distant airfield - a Tu-95 B with the AN602 product on board and a Tu-16 with research equipment and film and photographic equipment.

At 11:32 a.m., the commander of the Tu-95, Major Andrei Egorovich Durnovtsev, dropped a bomb from an altitude of 10,500 meters. The major returned to the airfield as a lieutenant colonel and Hero of the Soviet Union.

The bomb, having descended by parachute to a level of 3700 meters, exploded. By this time, the planes had managed to move 39 kilometers away from the epicenter.

The leaders of the tests - Minister of Medium Engineering E.P. Slavsky and Commander-in-Chief of the Missile Forces Marshal K.S. Moskalenko - were on board the Il-14 at a distance of more than 500 kilometers at the time of the explosion. Despite the cloudy weather, they saw a bright flash. At the same time, the plane was clearly shaken by the shock wave. The minister and marshal immediately sent a telegram to Khrushchev.

One of the groups of researchers, from a distance of 270 kilometers from the point of the explosion, saw not only a bright flash through protective dark glasses, but even felt the impact of the light pulse. In an abandoned village - 400 kilometers from the epicenter - wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors.

The mushroom from the explosion reached a height of 68 kilometers. At the same time, the shock wave, reflected from the ground, prevented the ball of plasma from descending to the ground, which would have incinerated everything in a vast space.

The various effects were monstrous. The seismic wave circled the globe three times. The light radiation was capable of causing third degree burns at a distance of 100 km. The roar from the explosion was heard within a radius of 800 km. Due to ionizing effects, radio interference was observed in Europe for more than an hour. For the same reason, communication with two bombers was lost for 30 minutes.

The test turned out to be surprisingly clean. Radioactive radiation within a radius of three kilometers from the epicenter two hours after the explosion was only 1 milliroentgen per hour.

The Tu-95B, despite the fact that it was 39 kilometers from the epicenter, was thrown into a dive by the shock wave. And the pilot was able to regain control of the plane only after losing 800 meters of altitude. The entire bomber, including the propellers, was painted with white reflective paint. But upon inspection, it was discovered that the paint had faded in fragments. And some structural elements even melted and became deformed.

In conclusion, it should be noted that the AN602 case could also accommodate a 100-megaton filling.

, Yu. N. Babaev, Yu. N. Smirnov, Yu. A. Trutnev and others.

Project goals

In addition to natural political and propaganda considerations of an internal and (more important) external nature (to respond to US nuclear blackmail with counter nuclear blackmail), the creation of the “Tsar Bomba” fit into the concept of the development of the strategic nuclear forces of the USSR, adopted during the leadership of the country by G. M. Malenkov and N. S. Khrushchev. In short, it boiled down to - without pursuing quantitative parity with the United States in nuclear weapons and their means of delivery - to achieve enough for “guaranteed retaliation with an unacceptable level of damage to the enemy” in the event of a nuclear attack on the USSR quality superiority of Soviet strategic nuclear forces. Thus, although the “Malenkov-Khrushchev nuclear doctrine” meant accepting the geopolitical and military challenge of the United States with the energetic participation of the Soviet Union in the nuclear race, it assumed that this race would be conducted by the USSR “in a distinctly asymmetrical style.”

The technical embodiment of the above-described policy (not documented - in any case, the corresponding documents - if they existed at all - have not yet been published - but clearly tracked throughout the military-technical policy of the USSR in the field of nuclear deterrence in 1953-1964) was the creation and development of such nuclear weapons and means of their delivery to targets that single blow(one rocket, one plane) could completely or almost completely destroy even the largest cities and, moreover, entire urbanized regions (for example, on June 23, 1960, the USSR Council of Ministers issued a Decree on the creation of the N-1 orbital combat rocket (GRAU index - 11A52) launch weight of 2200 tons with a thermonuclear warhead weighing 75 tons; its estimated power is unknown, but - for comparative assessment - the 40-ton warhead of the global UR-500 missile should have had a TNT equivalent of 150 megatons). However, the development of such ammunition required mandatory practical aerial bombing of at least similar samples - since for a nuclear/thermonuclear explosion of high and ultra-high power there is an optimal detonation height (measured in kilometers), when the explosive device is triggered, at which the shock wave reaches the greatest strength and propagation range . In addition, the USSR Long-Range Aviation was also directly interested in ultra-high-power thermonuclear aerial bombs, since their use fit well into the general concept - to cause the greatest damage to a potential enemy (primarily the United States) with a minimum number of carriers (in this case, bomber aircraft). Finally, it was necessary to check the very practical feasibility of creating thermonuclear charges of such power with (an important caveat!) reliably predictable characteristics.

As an interesting fact, it should be noted that before the appearance in the USSR of aviation and missile systems - carriers of thermonuclear weapons - with acceptable tactical and technical characteristics, Soviet military-technical and military specialists considered a giant torpedo launched from a specially designed nuclear submarine. The detonation of its warhead was supposed to initiate a devastating tsunami on the US coast. But, based on the results of a more detailed review, this project was rejected as extremely dubious from the point of view of its real combat effectiveness (For more details, see “Tsar Torpedo”).

Name

It is worth noting that the above information about the start date of work is in partial contradiction with the official history of the institute (now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - /RFNC-VNIITF). According to it, the order to create the corresponding research institute in the system of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR was signed only on April 5, 1955, and work at NII-1011 began a few months later. But in any case, the myth that was widespread at one time that the “Tsar Bomba” was designed on the instructions of N.S. Khrushchev in record time - supposedly the entire development and production took 112 days - is completely untrue. Although the final stage of development of AN602 (already in KB-11 in the summer and autumn of 1961) actually took 112 days.

However, AN602 was not simply a renamed RN202. A number of design changes were made to the design of the bomb - as a result of which, for example, its alignment noticeably changed. AN602 had a three-stage design: the nuclear charge of the first stage (calculated contribution to the explosion power - 1.5 megatons) launched a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll reaction” Haida" (nuclear fission in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stage (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total calculated power of AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

The original version of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination it would cause. As a result, it was decided not to use the "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" in the third stage of the bomb and to replace the uranium components of this stage with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total power of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).

The first work on “topic 242” began immediately after negotiations between I.V. Kurchatov and A.N. Tupolev (took place in the fall of 1954), who appointed his deputy for weapons systems, A.V. Nadashkevich, as the head of the topic. The strength analysis carried out showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the bomb bay and in the suspension and release devices. In the first half of 1955, the dimensional and weight drawings of the AN602, as well as the layout drawing of its placement, were agreed upon. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's take-off mass, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. Developed for the AN602 suspension, the new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) was similar in design to the BD-206, but significantly more load-bearing. It had three bomber castles Der5-6 with a payload of 9 each. The BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the bomb bay. The problem of bomb release control was also successfully solved - the electric automation ensured exclusively synchronous opening of all three locks (the need for this was dictated by security conditions).

Adopt a draft resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers on the preparation and testing of product 202.

Include in the draft resolution clauses obliging:

a) the Ministry of Medium Engineering (Comrade Zavenyagina) and the Ministry of Defense of the USSR (Comrade Zhukov), upon completion of preparatory work for testing product 202, report to the CPSU Central Committee on the state of affairs;

b) The Ministry of Medium Engineering (Comrade Zavenyagin) will work on the issue of introducing a special safety stage into the design of product 202, ensuring that the product does not operate if the parachute system fails, and report its proposals to the CPSU Central Committee.

Instruct tt. Vannikov and Kurchatov for the final edition of the text of this resolution.

Tests

The carrier of the “superbomb” was created, but its actual tests were postponed for political reasons: Khrushchev was going to the USA, and there was a pause in the Cold War. The Tu-95B was transported to the airfield in Uzin, where it was used as a training aircraft and was no longer listed as a combat vehicle. However, in 1961, with the beginning of a new round of the Cold War, testing of the “superbomb” again became relevant. On the Tu-95V, all connectors in the automatic release system were urgently replaced and the bomb bay doors were removed - a real bomb in weight (26.5 tons, including the weight of the parachute system - 0.8 tons) and dimensions turned out to be slightly larger than the mock-up (in particular, now its vertical dimension exceeded the dimensions of the bomb bay in height). The plane was also covered with special reflective white paint.

Khrushchev personally announced the upcoming tests of a 50-megaton bomb in his report on October 17, 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU.

The bomb was tested on October 30, 1961. A prepared Tu-95B with a real bomb on board, piloted by a crew consisting of: ship commander A. E. Durnovtsev, navigator I. N. Kleshch, flight engineer V. Ya. Brui, took off from the Olenya airfield and headed for Novaya Zemlya. The Tu-16A laboratory aircraft also took part in the tests.

2 hours after takeoff, the bomb was dropped from a height of 10,500 meters using a parachute system at a simulated target within the Sukhoi Nos nuclear test site ( 73°51′ N. w. 54°30′ E. d. / 73.850° N. w. 54.500° E. d. / 73.850; 54.500 (G) (I)). The bomb was lowered on the main parachute with an area of 1600 square meters. m, the total mass of the parachute system (which included five more pilot parachutes, triggered by three “cascades”) was 800 kg. The bomb was detonated barometrically at 11 hours 33 minutes, 188 seconds after being dropped at an altitude of 4200 m above sea level (4000 m above the target) (however, there is other data on the height of the explosion - in particular, numbers were given as 3700 m above the target (3900 m above sea level) and 4500 m). The carrier aircraft managed to fly a distance of 39 km, and the laboratory even further - approximately 53.5 km. The carrier was thrown into a dive by the shock wave and lost 800 m of altitude before control was restored. The power of the explosion significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent. There is also information that according to initial data, the explosion power of AN602 was significantly overestimated and was estimated at up to 75 megatons. In the laboratory aircraft, the effect of the shock wave from the explosion was felt in the form of vibration and did not affect the flight mode of the aircraft.

Test results

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

The test results of AN602 became the subject of a number of other rumors and hoaxes. Thus, it was sometimes claimed that the power of the bomb explosion reached 120 megatons. This was probably due to the “overlay” of information about the excess of the actual power of the explosion over the calculated one by about 20% (in fact, by 14-17%) on the initial design power of the bomb (100 megatons, more precisely, 101.5 megatons). The newspaper “Pravda” added fuel to the fire of such rumors, on the pages of which it was officially stated that “She<АН602>- yesterday was the day of atomic weapons. Now even more powerful charges have been created." In fact, more powerful thermonuclear ammunition (such as, for example, the warhead for the already mentioned UR-500 global missile with a capacity of 150 megatons), although they were actually being developed, remained on the drawing boards.

At various times, rumors also circulated that the power of the bomb was reduced by 2 times compared to the planned one, as scientists feared the occurrence of self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. It is interesting that similar concerns (only about the possibility of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction occurring in the atmosphere) had already been expressed earlier - in preparation for testing the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. Then it got to the point that one of the scientists was not only removed from the tests, but also sent to the care of doctors.

Science fiction writers and physicists also expressed concerns (generated mainly by science fiction of those years - in particular, this topic repeatedly appeared in the books of A.P. Kazantsev; for example, in his novel “Phaetians" it was argued that in this way the hypothetical planet Phaeton died - from which , supposedly, the modern inner asteroid belt of our planetary system remained - where thermonuclear explosions could initiate a thermonuclear reaction in sea water, which actually contained some deuterium) and thus caused the thermonuclear detonation of the oceans, which split the planet into pieces.

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Notes

For example, even at the end of December 1964, the USSR Strategic Missile Forces had only 176 launchers of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) - See. Drogovoz I. G. Air shield of the Country of Soviets. - Minsk: Harvest, 2004. - P. 240. - ISBN 985-13-2141-9, with clarifications according to: Mikhail Pervov. Missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces // Equipment and weapons. - 2001. - No. 5-6. - P. 21.34. For comparison: the B-52 Stratofortress heavy strategic bombers alone were produced in the USA, 744 units ( Shelekhov M.V. et al. Aviation of capitalist states. - M.: Military Publishing House, 1975. - P. 11.). But at the same time, both the first thermonuclear ammunition and the first ICBM were created in the USSR.
Mikhail Pervov. Missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces // Equipment and weapons. - 2001. - No. 5-6. - pp. 44-45.
Report of NII-1011 on design justification and calculations of the RDS-202 product.
Veselov A.V.
Such a start date for work is indicated in particular in
(Russian) . Nuclear and thermonuclear weapons(inaccessible link - story) . Retrieved September 28, 2012. .
Sakharov Andrei. Memoirs. - New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. - P. 215–225. - ISBN 0-679-73595-X..
Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. 1954–1964. Rough minutes of meetings. Transcripts. Resolutions. / Ch. ed. A. A. Fursenko. - M.: Russian Political Encyclopedia (ROSSPEN), 2006. - T. 2.: Resolutions. 1954–1958. - 1120 s.
Various sources indicate the weight of AN602 from 24 tons to 27 tons. Here are the data from: Veselov A.V. Tsar Bomba // Atompress. - 2006. - No. 43 (726). - P. 7.
Shirokorad A. B. Armament of Soviet aviation 1941-1991 / Under the general direction. ed. A.E. Taras. - Minsk: Harvest, 2004. - P. 420. - ISBN 985-13-2049-8.
XXII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. October 17-31, 1961. Verbatim report. - M.: Politizdat, 1962. - T. 1. - P. 55.
(Russian) (the material also provides details of the AN602 tests).
, With. 420.
// www.nationalsecurity.ru
, With. 423.
Chernyshev A.K.(Deputy scientific director of the RFNC-VNIIEF for testing technologies).
For comparison: the average diameter of Moscow within the ring road is less than 35 km.
E. Farkas, “Transit of Pressure Waves through New Zealand from the Soviet 50 Megaton Bomb Explosion” Nature 4817 (24 February 1962): 765-766. (English)
Or rather, it is limited by a certain (very large) power threshold, after exceeding which irreversible tectonic consequences occur - local destruction of the Earth's lithosphere.
Dyson, Freeman. Weapons and hope (translated from English). - M.: Progress, 1990 (original - 1984). - P. 41-42. - ISBN 5-01-001882-9.
The instantaneous fission of 1000 kg of uranium provides an explosion with a power of approximately 18 megatons (See // Online encyclopedia Around the World). Consequently, to increase the explosion power by 50 megatons (the calculated “contribution” of the third stage of the bomb), about 2800 kg of uranium was needed.
, With. 419.
Mikhail Pervov. Missile systems of the Strategic Missile Forces // Equipment and weapons. - 2001 - No. 5-6. - P. 44.
Lawrence W. L. People and Atoms. - M.: Atomizdat. - 1967. - P. 137.

Sources

. A Review of Nuclear Testing by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, 1955-1990 // Science and Global Security, 13: 1-42, 2005.
(English) . .

Excerpt characterizing Tsar Bomba

Before evening, a guard non-commissioned officer with two soldiers entered the church and announced to Pierre that he had been forgiven and was now entering the barracks of prisoners of war. Not understanding what they told him, Pierre got up and went with the soldiers. He was led to booths built at the top of a field of charred boards, logs and planks and led into one of them. In the darkness, about twenty different people surrounded Pierre. Pierre looked at them, not understanding who these people were, why they were and what they wanted from him. He heard the words that were spoken to him, but did not draw any conclusion or application from them: he did not understand their meaning. He himself answered what was asked of him, but did not realize who was listening to him and how his answers would be understood. He looked at the faces and figures, and they all seemed equally meaningless to him.
From the moment Pierre saw this terrible murder committed by people who did not want to do it, it was as if the spring on which everything was held and seemed alive was suddenly pulled out in his soul, and everything fell into a heap of meaningless rubbish. In him, although he was not aware of it, faith in the good order of the world, in humanity, in his soul, and in God was destroyed. Pierre had experienced this state before, but never with such force as now. Previously, when such doubts were found on Pierre, these doubts had their source in his own guilt. And in the very depths of his soul Pierre then felt that from that despair and those doubts there was salvation in himself. But now he felt that it was not his fault that the world had collapsed in his eyes and that only meaningless ruins remained. He felt that returning to faith in life was not in his power.
People stood around him in the darkness: it was true that something really interested them in him. They told him something, asked him about something, then took him somewhere, and he finally found himself in the corner of the booth next to some people, talking from different sides, laughing.
“And here, my brothers... is the same prince who (with special emphasis on the word which)...” said someone’s voice in the opposite corner of the booth.
Sitting silently and motionless against the wall on the straw, Pierre first opened and then closed his eyes. But as soon as he closed his eyes, he saw before him the same terrible, especially terrible in its simplicity, face of the factory worker and even more terrible in its anxiety faces of unwitting killers. And he again opened his eyes and looked senselessly in the darkness around him.
Next to him sat, bent over, some small man, whose presence Pierre noticed at first by the strong smell of sweat that separated from him with every movement. This man was doing something in the dark with his legs, and, despite the fact that Pierre could not see his face, he felt that this man was constantly looking at him. Looking closely in the darkness, Pierre realized that this man had taken off his shoes. And the way he did it interested Pierre.
Unwinding the twine with which one leg was tied, he carefully rolled up the twine and immediately began working on the other leg, looking at Pierre. While one hand was hanging the twine, the other was already beginning to unwind the other leg. Thus, carefully, with round, spore-like movements, without slowing down one after another, taking off his shoes, the man hung his shoes on pegs driven over his heads, took out a knife, cut something, folded the knife, put it under the head of the head and, sitting down better, hugged raised his knees with both hands and stared straight at Pierre. Pierre felt something pleasant, soothing and round in these controversial movements, in this comfortable household in his corner, in the smell even of this man, and he looked at him without taking his eyes off.
“Did you see a lot of need, master?” A? - the little man suddenly said. And there was such an expression of affection and simplicity in the man’s melodious voice that Pierre wanted to answer, but his jaw trembled and he felt tears. The little man at that very second, not giving Pierre time to show his embarrassment, spoke in the same pleasant voice.
“Eh, falcon, don’t bother,” he said with that tenderly melodious caress with which old Russian women speak. - Don’t worry, my friend: endure for an hour, but live for a century! That's it, my dear. And we live here, thank God, there is no resentment. There are also good and bad people,” he said, and while still speaking, with a flexible movement he bent over to his knees, stood up and, clearing his throat, went somewhere.
- Look, you rascal, she’s come! - Pierre heard the same gentle voice at the end of the booth. - The rogue has come, she remembers! Well, well, you will. - And the soldier, pushing away the little dog that was jumping towards him, returned to his place and sat down. In his hands he had something wrapped in a rag.
“Here, eat, master,” he said, again returning to his former respectful tone and unwrapping and handing Pierre several baked potatoes. - There was stew at lunch. And the potatoes are important!
Pierre had not eaten all day, and the smell of potatoes seemed unusually pleasant to him. He thanked the soldier and began to eat.
- Well, is that so? – the soldier said smiling and took one of the potatoes. - And that’s how you are. - He took out a folding knife again, cut the potatoes into equal two halves in his palm, sprinkled salt from a rag and brought it to Pierre.
“The potatoes are important,” he repeated. - You eat it like this.
It seemed to Pierre that he had never eaten a dish tastier than this.
“No, I don’t care,” said Pierre, “but why did they shoot these unfortunates!.. The last twenty years.”
“Tch, tsk...” said the little man. “This is a sin, this is a sin...” he quickly added, and, as if his words were always ready in his mouth and accidentally flew out of him, he continued: “What is it, master, that you stayed in Moscow like that?”
“I didn’t think they would come so soon.” “I accidentally stayed,” said Pierre.
- How did they take you, falcon, from your house?
- No, I went to the fire, and then they grabbed me and tried me for an arsonist.
“Where there is court, there is no truth,” the little man interjected.
- How long have you been here? – asked Pierre, chewing the last potato.
- Is that me? That Sunday they took me from the hospital in Moscow.
-Who are you, soldier?
- Soldiers of the Absheron Regiment. He was dying of fever. They didn't tell us anything. About twenty of us were lying there. And they didn’t think, they didn’t guess.
- Well, are you bored here? asked Pierre.
- It’s not boring, falcon. Call me Plato; “Karataev’s nickname,” he added, apparently in order to make it easier for Pierre to address him. - They called him Falcon in the service. How not to be bored, falcon! Moscow, she is the mother of cities. How not to get bored looking at this. Yes, the worm gnaws at the cabbage, but before that you disappear: that’s what the old men used to say,” he added quickly.
- How, how did you say that? asked Pierre.
- Is that me? – asked Karataev. “I say: not by our mind, but by God’s judgment,” he said, thinking that he was repeating what had been said. And he immediately continued: “How come you, master, have estates?” And there is a house? Therefore, the cup is full! And is there a hostess? Are your old parents still alive? - he asked, and although Pierre could not see in the darkness, he felt that the soldier’s lips were wrinkled with a restrained smile of affection while he was asking this. He was apparently upset that Pierre did not have parents, especially a mother.
“A wife is for advice, a mother-in-law is for greetings, and nothing is dearer than your own mother!” - he said. - Well, are there any children? – he continued to ask. Pierre's negative answer again apparently upset him, and he hastened to add: “Well, there will be young people, God willing.” If only I could live in the council...
“It doesn’t matter now,” Pierre said involuntarily.
“Eh, you’re a dear man,” Plato objected. - Never give up money or prison. “He sat down better and cleared his throat, apparently preparing for a long story. “So, my dear friend, I was still living at home,” he began. “Our patrimony is rich, there is a lot of land, the men live well, and our home, thank God.” The priest himself went out to mow. We lived well. They were real Christians. It happened... - And Platon Karataev told a long story about how he went to someone else’s grove behind the forest and was caught by a guard, how he was whipped, tried and handed over to the soldiers. “Well, the falcon,” he said, his voice changing with a smile, “they thought grief, but joy!” My brother should go, if it were not for my sin. And the younger brother has five boys himself - and look, I have only one soldier left. There was a girl, and God took care of her even before she became a soldier. I came on leave, I’ll tell you. I see they live better than before. The yard is full of bellies, women are at home, two brothers are at work. Only Mikhailo, the youngest, is at home. Father says: “All children are equal to me: no matter what finger you bite, everything hurts. If only Plato hadn’t been shaved then, Mikhail would have gone.” He called us all - believe me - he put us in front of the image. Mikhailo, he says, come here, bow at his feet, and you, woman, bow, and your grandchildren bow. Got it? speaks. So, my dear friend. Rock is looking for his head. And we judge everything: sometimes it’s not good, sometimes it’s not okay. Our happiness, my friend, is like water in delirium: if you pull it, it swells, but if you pull it out, there’s nothing. So that. - And Plato sat down on his straw.
After being silent for some time, Plato stood up.
- Well, I have tea, do you want to sleep? - he said and quickly began to cross himself, saying:
- Lord Jesus Christ, Nikola the saint, Frola and Lavra, Lord Jesus Christ, Nikola the saint! Frol and Lavra, Lord Jesus Christ - have mercy and save us! - he concluded, bowed to the ground, stood up and, sighing, sat down on his straw. - That's it. “Put it down, God, like a pebble, lift it up like a ball,” he said and lay down, pulling on his greatcoat.
-What prayer were you reading? asked Pierre.
- Ass? - said Plato (he was already falling asleep). - Read what? I prayed to God. Don't you ever pray?
“No, and I pray,” said Pierre. - But what did you say: Frol and Lavra?
“But what about,” Plato quickly answered, “a horse festival.” And we must feel sorry for the livestock,” Karataev said. - Look, the rogue has curled up. She got warm, the son of a bitch,” he said, feeling the dog at his feet, and, turning around again, immediately fell asleep.
Outside, crying and screams could be heard somewhere in the distance, and fire could be seen through the cracks of the booth; but in the booth it was quiet and dark. Pierre did not sleep for a long time and, with open eyes, lay in his place in the darkness, listening to the measured snoring of Plato, who lay next to him, and felt that the previously destroyed world was now being erected in his soul with new beauty, on some new and unshakable foundations.

In the booth into which Pierre entered and in which he stayed for four weeks, there were twenty-three captured soldiers, three officers and two officials.
All of them then appeared to Pierre as if in a fog, but Platon Karataev remained forever in Pierre’s soul as the strongest and dearest memory and personification of everything Russian, kind and round. When the next day, at dawn, Pierre saw his neighbor, the first impression of something round was completely confirmed: the whole figure of Plato in his French overcoat belted with a rope, in a cap and bast shoes, was round, his head was completely round, his back, chest, shoulders, even the hands that he carried, as if always about to hug something, were round; a pleasant smile and large brown gentle eyes were round.
Platon Karataev must have been over fifty years old, judging by his stories about the campaigns in which he participated as a long-time soldier. He himself did not know and could not determine in any way how old he was; but his teeth, bright white and strong, which kept rolling out in their two semicircles when he laughed (which he often did), were all good and intact; There was not a single gray hair in his beard or hair, and his whole body had the appearance of flexibility and, especially, hardness and endurance.
His face, despite the small round wrinkles, had an expression of innocence and youth; his voice was pleasant and melodious. But the main feature of his speech was its spontaneity and argument. He apparently never thought about what he said and what he would say; and because of this, the speed and fidelity of his intonations had a special irresistible persuasiveness.
His physical strength and agility were such during the first time of captivity that it seemed that he did not understand what fatigue and illness were. Every day, in the morning and in the evening, when he lay down, he said: “Lord, lay it down like a pebble, lift it up into a ball”; in the morning, getting up, always shrugging his shoulders in the same way, he said: “I lay down and curled up, got up and shook myself.” And indeed, as soon as he lay down, he immediately fell asleep like a stone, and as soon as he shook himself, in order to immediately, without a second of delay, take up some task, like children, getting up, taking up their toys. He knew how to do everything, not very well, but not badly either. He baked, steamed, sewed, planed, and made boots. He was always busy and only at night allowed himself conversations, which he loved, and songs. He sang songs, not as songwriters sing, who know that they are being listened to, but he sang like birds sing, obviously because he needed to make these sounds just as it is necessary to stretch or disperse; and these sounds were always subtle, gentle, almost feminine, mournful, and at the same time his face was very serious.
Having been captured and grown a beard, he apparently threw away everything alien and soldierly that had been imposed on him and involuntarily returned to his former, peasant, folk mindset.
“A soldier on leave is a shirt made from trousers,” he used to say. He was reluctant to talk about his time as a soldier, although he did not complain, and often repeated that throughout his service he was never beaten. When he spoke, he mainly spoke from his old and, apparently, dear memories of “Christian”, as he pronounced it, peasant life. The sayings that filled his speech were not those, mostly indecent and glib sayings that soldiers say, but they were those folk sayings that seem so insignificant, taken in isolation, and which suddenly take on the meaning of deep wisdom when they are spoken opportunely.
Often he said the exact opposite of what he had said before, but both were true. He loved to talk and spoke well, decorating his speech with endearments and proverbs, which, it seemed to Pierre, he was inventing himself; but the main charm of his stories was that in his speech the simplest events, sometimes the very ones that Pierre saw without noticing them, took on the character of solemn beauty. He loved to listen to fairy tales that one soldier told in the evenings (all the same ones), but most of all he loved to listen to stories about real life. He smiled joyfully as he listened to such stories, inserting words and making questions that tended to clarify for himself the beauty of what was being told to him. Karataev had no attachments, friendship, love, as Pierre understood them; but he loved and lived lovingly with everything that life brought him to, and especially with a person - not with some famous person, but with those people who were before his eyes. He loved his mongrel, he loved his comrades, the French, he loved Pierre, who was his neighbor; but Pierre felt that Karataev, despite all his affectionate tenderness towards him (with which he involuntarily paid tribute to Pierre’s spiritual life), would not for a minute be upset by separation from him. And Pierre began to feel the same feeling towards Karataev.
Platon Karataev was for all the other prisoners the most ordinary soldier; his name was Falcon or Platosha, they mocked him good-naturedly and sent him for parcels. But for Pierre, as he presented himself on the first night, an incomprehensible, round and eternal personification of the spirit of simplicity and truth, that is how he remained forever.
Platon Karataev knew nothing by heart except his prayer. When he gave his speeches, he, starting them, seemed not to know how he would end them.
When Pierre, sometimes amazed at the meaning of his speech, asked him to repeat what he had said, Plato could not remember what he had said a minute ago - just as he could not tell Pierre his favorite song in words. It said: “darling, little birch and I feel sick,” but the words didn’t make any sense. He did not understand and could not understand the meaning of words taken separately from speech. His every word and every action was a manifestation of an activity unknown to him, which was his life. But his life, as he himself looked at it, had no meaning as a separate life. She made sense only as a part of the whole, which he constantly felt. His words and actions poured out of him as uniformly, necessarily, and directly as a scent is released from a flower. He could not understand either the price or the meaning of a single action or word.

Having received news from Nicholas that her brother was with the Rostovs in Yaroslavl, Princess Marya, despite her aunt’s dissuasions, immediately got ready to go, and not only alone, but with her nephew. Whether it was difficult, not difficult, possible or impossible, she did not ask and did not want to know: her duty was not only to be near her perhaps dying brother, but also to do everything possible to bring him her son, and she stood up drive. If Prince Andrei himself did not notify her, then Princess Marya explained it either by the fact that he was too weak to write, or by the fact that he considered this long journey too difficult and dangerous for her and for his son.
Within a few days, Princess Marya got ready to travel. Her crews consisted of a huge princely carriage, in which she arrived in Voronezh, a britzka and a cart. Traveling with her were M lle Bourienne, Nikolushka and her tutor, an old nanny, three girls, Tikhon, a young footman and a haiduk, whom her aunt had sent with her.
It was impossible to even think about going the usual route to Moscow, and therefore the roundabout route that Princess Marya had to take: to Lipetsk, Ryazan, Vladimir, Shuya, was very long, due to the lack of post horses everywhere, very difficult and near Ryazan, where, as they said the French were showing up, even dangerous.
During this difficult journey, M lle Bourienne, Desalles and Princess Mary's servants were surprised by her fortitude and activity. She went to bed later than everyone else, got up earlier than everyone else, and no difficulties could stop her. Thanks to her activity and energy, which excited her companions, by the end of the second week they were approaching Yaroslavl.
During her recent stay in Voronezh, Princess Marya experienced the best happiness of her life. Her love for Rostov no longer tormented or worried her. This love filled her entire soul, became an inseparable part of herself, and she no longer fought against it. Lately, Princess Marya became convinced—although she never clearly told herself this in words—she became convinced that she was loved and loved. She was convinced of this during her last meeting with Nikolai, when he came to announce to her that her brother was with the Rostovs. Nicholas did not hint in a single word that now (if Prince Andrei recovered) the previous relationship between him and Natasha could be resumed, but Princess Marya saw from his face that he knew and thought this. And, despite the fact that his attitude towards her - cautious, tender and loving - not only did not change, but he seemed to rejoice in the fact that now the kinship between him and Princess Marya allowed him to more freely express his friendship and love to her, as he sometimes thought Princess Marya. Princess Marya knew that she loved for the first and last time in her life, and felt that she was loved, and was happy and calm in this regard.
But this happiness on one side of her soul not only did not prevent her from feeling grief for her brother with all her might, but, on the contrary, this peace of mind in one respect gave her a greater opportunity to fully surrender to her feelings for her brother. This feeling was so strong in the first minute of leaving Voronezh that those accompanying her were sure, looking at her exhausted, desperate face, that she would certainly get sick on the way; but it was precisely the difficulties and worries of the journey, which Princess Marya took on with such activity, that saved her for a while from her grief and gave her strength.
As always happens during a trip, Princess Marya thought only about one journey, forgetting what was its goal. But, approaching Yaroslavl, when what could lie ahead of her was revealed again, and not many days later, but this evening, Princess Marya’s excitement reached its extreme limits.
When the guide sent ahead to find out in Yaroslavl where the Rostovs were standing and in what position Prince Andrei was, met a large carriage entering at the gate, he was horrified when he saw the terribly pale face of the princess, which leaned out of the window.
“I found out everything, your Excellency: the Rostov men are standing on the square, in the house of the merchant Bronnikov.” “Not far away, just above the Volga,” said the hayduk.
Princess Marya looked fearfully and questioningly at his face, not understanding what he was telling her, not understanding why he did not answer the main question: what about brother? M lle Bourienne asked this question for Princess Marya.
- What about the prince? – she asked.
“Their Lordships are standing with them in the same house.”
“So he is alive,” thought the princess and quietly asked: what is he?
“People said they were all in the same situation.”
What did “everything in the same position” mean, the princess did not ask and only briefly, glancing imperceptibly at the seven-year-old Nikolushka, who was sitting in front of her and rejoicing at the city, lowered her head and did not raise it until the heavy carriage, rattling, shaking and swaying, did not stop somewhere. The folding steps rattled.
The doors opened. On the left there was water - a large river, on the right there was a porch; on the porch there were people, servants and some kind of ruddy girl with a large black braid who was smiling unpleasantly, as it seemed to Princess Marya (it was Sonya). The princess ran up the stairs, the girl feigning a smile said: “Here, here!” - and the princess found herself in the hallway in front of an old woman with an oriental face, who quickly walked towards her with a touched expression. It was the Countess. She hugged Princess Marya and began to kiss her.
- Mon enfant! - she said, “je vous aime et vous connais depuis longtemps.” [My child! I love you and have known you for a long time.]
Despite all her excitement, Princess Marya realized that it was the countess and that she had to say something. She, without knowing how, uttered some polite French words, in the same tone as those spoken to her, and asked: what is he?
“The doctor says there is no danger,” said the countess, but while she was saying this, she raised her eyes upward with a sigh, and in this gesture there was an expression that contradicted her words.
- Where is he? Can I see him, can I? - asked the princess.
- Now, princess, now, my friend. Is this his son? - she said, turning to Nikolushka, who was entering with Desalles. “We can all fit in, the house is big.” Oh, what a lovely boy!
The Countess led the Princess into the living room. Sonya was talking to m lle Bourienne. The Countess caressed the boy. The old count entered the room, greeting the princess. The old count has changed enormously since the princess last saw him. Then he was a lively, cheerful, self-confident old man, now he seemed like a pitiful, lost man. While talking to the princess, he constantly looked around, as if asking everyone whether he was doing what was necessary. After the ruin of Moscow and his estate, knocked out of his usual rut, he apparently lost consciousness of his significance and felt that he no longer had a place in life.
Despite the excitement in which she was, despite the desire to see her brother as quickly as possible and the annoyance that at this moment, when she only wanted to see him, she was being occupied and feignedly praising her nephew, the princess noticed everything that was happening around her, and felt the need to temporarily submit to this new order into which she was entering. She knew that all this was necessary, and it was difficult for her, but she was not annoyed with them.
“This is my niece,” said the count, introducing Sonya. “You don’t know her, princess?”
The princess turned to her and, trying to extinguish the hostile feeling towards this girl that had risen in her soul, kissed her. But it became difficult for her because the mood of everyone around her was so far from what was in her soul.
- Where is he? – she asked again, addressing everyone.
“He’s downstairs, Natasha is with him,” Sonya answered, blushing. - Let's go find out. I think you are tired, princess?
Tears of annoyance came to the princess's eyes. She turned away and was about to ask the countess again where to go to him, when light, swift, seemingly cheerful steps were heard at the door. The princess looked around and saw Natasha almost running in, the same Natasha who she had not liked so much on that long-ago meeting in Moscow.
But before the princess had time to look at this Natasha’s face, she realized that this was her sincere companion in grief, and therefore her friend. She rushed to meet her and, hugging her, cried on her shoulder.
As soon as Natasha, who was sitting at Prince Andrey’s bedside, found out about Princess Marya’s arrival, she quietly left his room with those quick, as it seemed to Princess Marya, seemingly cheerful steps and ran towards her.
On her excited face, when she ran into the room, there was only one expression - an expression of love, boundless love for him, for her, for everything that was close to her loved one, an expression of pity, suffering for others and a passionate desire to give herself all for in order to help them. It was clear that at that moment there was not a single thought about herself, about her relationship to him, in Natasha’s soul.
The sensitive Princess Marya understood all this from the first glance at Natasha’s face and cried with sorrowful pleasure on her shoulder.
“Come on, let’s go to him, Marie,” Natasha said, taking her to another room.
Princess Marya raised her face, wiped her eyes and turned to Natasha. She felt that she would understand and learn everything from her.
“What...” she began to ask, but suddenly stopped. She felt that words could neither ask nor answer. Natasha's face and eyes should have spoken more and more clearly.
Natasha looked at her, but seemed to be in fear and doubt - to say or not to say everything that she knew; She seemed to feel that before those radiant eyes, penetrating into the very depths of her heart, it was impossible not to tell the whole, the whole truth as she saw it. Natasha's lip suddenly trembled, ugly wrinkles formed around her mouth, and she sobbed and covered her face with her hands.
Princess Marya understood everything.
But she still hoped and asked in words she didn’t believe in:
- But how is his wound? In general, what is his position?
“You, you... will see,” Natasha could only say.
They sat downstairs near his room for some time in order to stop crying and come to him with calm faces.
– How did the whole illness go? How long ago has he gotten worse? When did it happen? - asked Princess Marya.
Natasha said that at first there was a danger from a fever and from suffering, but at Trinity this passed, and the doctor was afraid of one thing - Antonov’s fire. But this danger also passed. When we arrived in Yaroslavl, the wound began to fester (Natasha knew everything about suppuration, etc.), and the doctor said that suppuration could proceed correctly. There was a fever. The doctor said that this fever is not so dangerous.
“But two days ago,” Natasha began, “suddenly it happened...” She held back her sobs. “I don’t know why, but you will see what he has become.”
- Are you weak? Have you lost weight?.. - asked the princess.
- No, not the same, but worse. You will see. Oh, Marie, Marie, he's too good, he can't, can't live... because...

When Natasha opened his door with her usual movement, letting the princess pass first, Princess Marya already felt ready sobs in her throat. No matter how much she prepared or tried to calm down, she knew that she would not be able to see him without tears.
Princess Marya understood what Natasha meant with the words: this happened two days ago. She understood that this meant that he had suddenly softened, and that this softening and tenderness were signs of death. As she approached the door, she already saw in her imagination that face of Andryusha, which she had known since childhood, tender, meek, touching, which he so rarely saw and therefore always had such a strong effect on her. She knew that he would say quiet, tender words to her, like those her father had told her before his death, and that she would not bear it and would burst into tears over him. But, sooner or later, it had to be, and she entered the room. The sobs came closer and closer to her throat, while with her myopic eyes she discerned his form more and more clearly and looked for his features, and then she saw his face and met his gaze.
He was lying on the sofa, covered with pillows, wearing a squirrel fur robe. He was thin and pale. One thin, transparent white hand held a handkerchief; with the other, with quiet movements of his fingers, he touched his thin, overgrown mustache. His eyes looked at those entering.

On October 30, 1961, the Soviet Union exploded the most powerful bomb in the world - the Tsar Bomba. This 58-megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated at a test site located on Novaya Zemlya. After the explosion, Nikita Khrushchev liked to joke that the original plan was to detonate a 100-megaton bomb, but the charge was reduced “so as not to break all the glass in Moscow.”

"Tsar Bomba" AN602

Name

The name “Kuzka’s Mother” appeared under the impression of the famous statement of N. S. Khrushchev “We will still show America Kuzka’s mother!” Officially, the AN602 bomb did not have a name. In correspondence, the designation “product B” was also used for RN202, and AN602 was subsequently called that way (GAU index - “product 602”). Currently, all this is sometimes a cause of confusion, since AN602 is mistakenly identified with RDS-37 or (more often) with RN202 (however, the latter identification is partly justified, since AN602 was a modification of RN202). Moreover, as a result, the AN602 retroactively acquired the “hybrid” designation RDS-202 (which neither it nor the RN202 ever carried). The product received the name “Tsar Bomba” as the most powerful and destructive weapon in history.

Development

There is a widespread myth that the Tsar Bomba was designed on the instructions of N.S. Khrushchev and in record time - supposedly the entire development and production took 112 days. In fact, work on RN202/AN602 was carried out for more than seven years - from the autumn of 1954 to the autumn of 1961 (with a two-year break in 1959-1960). Moreover, in 1954-1958. work on the 100-megaton bomb was carried out by NII-1011.

It is worth noting that the above information about the start date of work is in partial contradiction with the official history of the institute (now it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF). According to it, the order to create the corresponding research institute in the system of the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR was signed only on April 5, 1955, and work at NII-1011 began a few months later. But in any case, only the final stage of development of AN602 (already in KB-11 - now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics / RFNC-VNIIEF) in the summer-autumn of 1961 (and by no means the entire project as a whole !) really took 112 days. However, AN602 was not simply a renamed RN202. A number of design changes were made to the design of the bomb - as a result of which, for example, its alignment noticeably changed. AN602 had a three-stage design: the nuclear charge of the first stage (calculated contribution to the explosion power - 1.5 megatons) launched a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the nuclear “Jekyll reaction” Haida" (nuclear fission in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stage (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total calculated power of AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

Test location on the map.

The original version of the bomb was rejected due to the extremely high level of radioactive contamination it would cause - it was decided not to use the "Jekyll-Hyde reaction" in the bomb's third stage and to replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total yield of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).
The first work on “topic 242” began immediately after negotiations between I.V. Kurchatov and A.N. Tupolev (took place in the fall of 1954), who appointed his deputy for weapons systems, A.V. Nadashkevich, as the head of the topic. The strength analysis carried out showed that the suspension of such a large concentrated load would require serious changes in the power circuit of the original aircraft, in the design of the bomb bay and in the suspension and release devices. In the first half of 1955, the dimensional and weight drawings of the AN602, as well as the layout drawing of its placement, were agreed upon. As expected, the mass of the bomb was 15% of the carrier's take-off mass, but its overall dimensions required the removal of the fuselage fuel tanks. Developed for the AN602 suspension, the new beam holder BD7-95-242 (BD-242) was similar in design to the BD-206, but significantly more load-bearing. It had three bomber castles Der5-6 with a carrying capacity of 9 tons each. The BD-242 was attached directly to the power longitudinal beams that edged the bomb bay. The problem of controlling the release of a bomb was also successfully solved - electrical automation ensured exclusively synchronous opening of all three locks (the need for this was dictated by security conditions).

On March 17, 1956, a joint resolution of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers No. 357-228ss was issued, according to which OKB-156 was to begin converting the Tu-95 into a carrier of high-power nuclear bombs. This work was carried out at the LII MAP (Zhukovsky) from May to September 1956. Then the Tu-95V was accepted by the customer and handed over for flight tests, which were carried out (including dropping a mock-up of the “superbomb”) under the leadership of Colonel S.M. Kulikov until 1959 and passed without any special comments. In October 1959, “Kuzka’s Mother” was delivered to the training ground by a Dnepropetrovsk crew.

Tests

Flash of the Tsar Bomba explosion

Khrushchev announced the upcoming tests of a 50-megaton bomb in his report on October 17, 1961 at the XXII Congress of the CPSU.
The bomb tests took place on October 30, 1961. The prepared Tu-95B with a real bomb on board, piloted by a crew consisting of: ship commander A. E. Durnovtsev, navigator I. N. Kleshch, flight engineer V. Ya. Brui, took off from Olenya airfield and headed for Novaya Zemlya. The Tu-16A laboratory aircraft also took part in the tests.

Mushroom after explosion

2 hours after takeoff, the bomb was dropped from a height of 10,500 meters by parachute system on a conditional target within the Sukhoi Nos nuclear test site (73.85, 54.573°51′N 54°30′E / 73.85° N 54.5°E (G) (O)). The bomb was detonated barometrically 188 seconds after being dropped at an altitude of 4200 m above sea level (4000 m above the target) (however, there are other data on the height of the explosion - in particular, the numbers 3700 m above the target (3900 m above sea level) and 4500 m). The carrier plane managed to fly a distance of 39 kilometers, and the laboratory plane - 53.5 kilometers. The power of the explosion significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent. There is also information that according to initial data, the explosion power of AN602 was significantly overestimated and was estimated at up to 75 megatons.

There is video footage of the aircraft carrying this bomb landing after the test; the plane was on fire; upon inspection after landing, it was clear that some of the protruding aluminum parts had melted and become deformed.

Test results

The explosion of AN602 was classified as a low air explosion of extremely high power. The results were impressive:

The fireball of the explosion reached a radius of approximately 4.6 kilometers. Theoretically, it could have grown to the surface of the earth, but this was prevented by the reflected shock wave, which crushed and threw the ball off the ground.

The radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns up to 100 kilometers away.

Ionization of the atmosphere caused radio interference even hundreds of kilometers from the test site for about 40 minutes

The tangible seismic wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times.

Witnesses felt the impact and were able to describe the explosion thousands of kilometers away from its center.

The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers; the diameter of its two-tier “hat” reached (at the top tier) 95 kilometers

The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers. However, sources do not report any destruction or damage to structures even in the urban-type village of Amderma and the village of Belushya Guba located much closer (280 km) to the test site.

Consequences of the test

The main goal that was set and achieved by this test was to demonstrate the Soviet Union's possession of unlimited weapons of mass destruction - the TNT equivalent of the most powerful thermonuclear bomb tested by that time in the United States was almost four times less than that of AN602.

diameter of total destruction, plotted on a map of Paris for clarity

An extremely important scientific result was the experimental verification of the principles of calculation and design of multistage thermonuclear charges. It was experimentally proven that the maximum power of a thermonuclear charge, in principle, is not limited by anything. So, in the tested bomb, to increase the explosion power by another 50 megatons, it was enough to make the third stage of the bomb (which was the shell of the second stage) not from lead, but from uranium-238, as was standard. Replacing the shell material and reducing the explosion power were due only to the desire to reduce the amount of radioactive fallout to an acceptable level, and not to the desire to reduce the weight of the bomb, as is sometimes believed. However, the weight of AN602 did decrease from this, but only slightly - the uranium shell should have weighed about 2800 kg, the lead shell of the same volume - based on the lower density of lead - about 1700 kg. The achieved lightening of just over one ton is barely noticeable given the total weight of the AN602 of at least 24 tons (even if we take the most conservative estimate) and did not affect the state of affairs with its transportation.

It cannot be argued that “the explosion was one of the cleanest in the history of atmospheric nuclear testing” - the first stage of the bomb was a uranium charge with a capacity of 1.5 megatons, which in itself provided a large amount of radioactive fallout. Nevertheless, it can be considered that for a nuclear explosive device of such power, AN602 was indeed quite clean - more than 97% of the explosion power was provided by the thermonuclear fusion reaction, which practically did not create radioactive contamination.
Also, the discussion about the ways of political application of the technology for creating super-powerful nuclear warheads served as the beginning of ideological differences between N.S. Khrushchev and A.D. Sakharov, since Nikita Sergeevich did not accept Andrei Dmitrievich’s project to deploy several dozen super-powerful nuclear warheads, with a capacity of 200 or even 500 megatons, along the American maritime borders, which made it possible to sober up neoconservative circles without being drawn into a ruinous arms race

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

The test results of AN602 became the subject of a number of other rumors and hoaxes. Thus, it was sometimes claimed that the power of the bomb explosion reached 120 megatons. This was probably due to the “overlay” of information about the excess of the actual power of the explosion over the calculated one by about 20% (in fact, by 14-17%) on the initial design power of the bomb (100 megatons, more precisely, 101.5 megatons). The newspaper Pravda added fuel to the fire of such rumors, on the pages of which it was officially stated that “She<АН602>- yesterday was the day of atomic weapons. Now even more powerful charges have been created.” In fact, more powerful thermonuclear ammunition - for example, the warhead for the UR-500 ICBM (GRAU index 8K82; the well-known Proton launch vehicle is its modification) with a capacity of 150 megatons, although actually developed, remained on the drawing boards.

At various times, rumors also circulated that the power of the bomb was reduced by 2 times compared to the planned one, as scientists feared the occurrence of a self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction in the atmosphere. It is interesting that similar concerns (only about the possibility of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction occurring in the atmosphere) had already been expressed earlier - in preparation for testing the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. Then these fears reached the point that one of the over-excited scientists was not only removed from the tests, but also sent to the care of doctors.
Science fiction writers and physicists also expressed fears (generated mainly by the science fiction of those years - this topic often appeared in the books of Alexander Kazantsev, for example, in his book “Phaetians” it was stated that in this way the hypothetical planet Phaethon perished, from which an asteroid belt remained), that the explosion could initiate a thermonuclear reaction in seawater containing some deuterium, and thus cause an explosion of the oceans that will split the planet into pieces.

Similar concerns, albeit in a humorous form, were expressed by the hero of science fiction writer Yuri Tupitsyn’s books, star pilot Klim Zhdan:
“Coming back to Earth, I always worry. Is she there? Didn’t scientists, carried away by yet another promising experiment, turn it into a cloud of cosmic dust or a plasma nebula?”

More than 55 years ago, on October 30, 1961, one of the most significant events of the Cold War happened. At the test site located on Novaya Zemlya, the Soviet Union tested the most powerful thermonuclear device in human history - a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 58 megatons of TNT. Officially, this ammunition was called AN602 (“product 602”), but it entered the historical annals under its unofficial name - “Tsar Bomba”.

This bomb has another name - “Kuzka’s Mother”. It was born after the famous speech of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Khrushchev, during which he promised to show the United States “Kuzka’s mother” and tapped his shoe on the podium.

The best Soviet physicists worked on the creation of “product 602”: Sakharov, Trutnev, Adamsky, Babaev, Smirnov. Academician Kurchatov led this project; work on creating a bomb began in 1954.

The Soviet Tsar Bomba was dropped from a Tu-95 strategic bomber, which was specially converted for this mission. The explosion occurred at an altitude of 3.7 thousand meters. Seismographs around the world recorded strong vibrations, and the blast wave circled the globe three times. The explosion of the Tsar Bomba seriously frightened the West and showed that it was better not to mess with the Soviet Union. A powerful propaganda effect was achieved, and the capabilities of Soviet nuclear weapons were clearly demonstrated to a potential enemy.

But the most important thing was something else: the tests of the Tsar Bomba made it possible to test the theoretical calculations of scientists, and it was proven that the power of thermonuclear ammunition is practically unlimited.

And this, by the way, was true. After the successful tests, Khrushchev joked that they wanted to explode 100 megatons, but were afraid to break the windows in Moscow. Indeed, they initially planned to detonate a hundred-megaton charge, but then they did not want to cause too much damage to the test site.

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bomba

Since the mid-50s, work began in the USA and USSR on the creation of a second generation nuclear weapon - a thermonuclear bomb. In November 1952, the United States detonated the first such device, and eight months later the Soviet Union conducted similar tests. At the same time, the Soviet thermonuclear bomb was much more advanced than its American counterpart; it could easily fit into the bomb bay of an aircraft and be used in practice. Thermonuclear weapons were ideally suited for the implementation of the Soviet concept of single but deadly strikes on the enemy, because theoretically the power of thermonuclear charges is unlimited.

In the early 60s, the USSR began developing huge (if not monstrous) nuclear charges. In particular, it was planned to create missiles with thermonuclear warheads weighing 40 and 75 tons. The explosion power of a forty-ton warhead was supposed to be 150 megatons. At the same time, work was underway on the creation of heavy-duty aircraft ammunition. However, the development of such “monsters” required practical tests, during which bombing techniques would be tested, damage from explosions would be assessed, and, most importantly, the theoretical calculations of physicists would be tested.

In general, it should be noted that before the advent of reliable intercontinental ballistic missiles, the problem of delivering nuclear warheads was very acute in the USSR. There was a project for a huge self-propelled torpedo with a powerful thermonuclear charge (about a hundred megatons), which was planned to be blown up off the US coast. A special submarine was designed to launch this torpedo. According to the developers, the explosion was supposed to cause a powerful tsunami and flood the most important US cities located on the coast. The project was led by Academician Sakharov, but for technical reasons it was never implemented.

Initially, the development of a super-powerful nuclear bomb was carried out by NII-1011 (Chelyabinsk-70, currently RFNC-VNIITF). At this stage, the ammunition was called RN-202, but in 1958 the project was closed by a decision of the country's top leadership. There is a legend that “Kuzka’s Mother” was developed by Soviet scientists in record time - only 112 days. This doesn't quite match really. Although, indeed, the final stage of creating the ammunition, which took place in KB-11, took only 112 days. But it is not entirely correct to say that the Tsar Bomba is simply a renamed and modified RN-202; in fact, significant improvements have been made to the design of the ammunition.

Initially, the power of AN602 was supposed to be more than 100 megatons, and its design had three stages. But due to significant radioactive contamination of the explosion site, they decided to abandon the third stage, which reduced the power of the ammunition by almost half (to 50 megatons).

Another serious problem that the developers of the Tsar Bomba project had to solve was the preparation of a carrier aircraft for this unique and non-standard nuclear charge, since the serial Tu-95 was not suitable for this mission. This question was raised back in 1954 in a conversation that took place between two academicians - Kurchatov and Tupolev.

After drawings of the thermonuclear bomb were made, it turned out that the placement of the ammunition required serious modifications to the aircraft's bomb bay. The fuselage tanks were removed from the vehicle, and for the suspension of the AN602, a new beam holder was installed on the aircraft with a much greater carrying capacity and three bomber locks instead of one. The new bomber received the index "B".

To ensure the safety of the aircraft crew, the Tsar Bomba was equipped with three parachutes at once: exhaust, braking and main. They slowed down the fall of the bomb, allowing the plane to fly to a safe distance after being dropped.

Conversions of the aircraft to drop a superbomb began back in 1956. In the same year, the aircraft was accepted by the customer and tested. An exact mock-up of the future bomb was even dropped from the Tu-95V.

On October 17, 1961, Nikita Khrushchev, at the opening of the 20th Congress of the CPSU, announced that the USSR was successfully testing new super-powerful nuclear weapons, and that ammunition with a yield of 50 megatons would soon be ready. Khrushchev also said that the Soviet Union also has a 100 megaton bomb, but is not going to detonate it yet. A few days later, the UN General Assembly appealed to the Soviet government with a request not to test a new megabomb, but this call was not heeded.

Description of the AN602 design

The AN602 aircraft bomb is a cylindrical body with a characteristic streamlined shape with tail fins. Its length is 8 meters, its maximum diameter is 2.1 meters, and it weighs 26.5 tons. The dimensions of this bomb completely replicate the dimensions of the RN-202 ammunition.

The initial estimated power of the aerial bomb was 100 megatons, but then it was reduced by almost half. The “Tsar Bomba” was conceived as a three-stage one: the first stage was a nuclear charge (power of about 1.5 megatons), it launched the thermonuclear reaction of the second stage (50 megatons), which, in turn, initiated the Jekyll-Hyde nuclear reaction of the third stage (also 50 megatons). However, the detonation of ammunition of this design was almost guaranteed to lead to significant radioactive contamination of the test site, so they decided to abandon the third stage. The uranium contained in it was replaced by lead.

Conducting tests of the Tsar Bomba and their results

Despite the previous modernization, the aircraft still had to be redesigned immediately before the tests themselves. Together with the parachute system, the actual ammunition turned out to be larger and heavier than planned. Therefore, the bomb bay flaps had to be removed from the plane. In addition, it was pre-painted with white reflective paint.

On October 30, 1961, a Tu-95B with a bomb on board took off from the Olenya airfield and headed towards the test site on Novaya Zemlya. The bomber's crew consisted of nine people. The Tu-95A laboratory aircraft also took part in the tests.

The bomb was dropped two hours after takeoff at an altitude of 10.5 thousand meters above the conditional target located on the territory of the Dry Nose training ground. The detonation was carried out barothermally at an altitude of 4.2 thousand meters (according to other sources, at an altitude of 3.9 thousand meters or 4.5 thousand meters). The parachute system slowed down the fall of the ammunition, so the A602 dropped to the calculated altitude in 188 seconds. During this time, the carrier aircraft managed to move 39 km away from the epicenter. The shock wave caught up with the plane at a distance of 115 km, but it managed to continue its flight and returned safely to base. According to some sources, the explosion of the Tsar Bomba was much more powerful than planned (58.6 or even 75 megatons).

The test results exceeded all expectations. After the explosion, a fireball with a diameter of more than nine kilometers was formed, the nuclear mushroom reached a height of 67 km, and the diameter of its “cap” was 97 km. The light radiation could cause burns at a distance of 100 km, and the sound wave reached Dikson Island, located 800 km east of Novaya Zemlya. The seismic wave generated by the explosion circled the globe three times. However, the tests did not lead to significant environmental pollution. Scientists landed at the epicenter two hours after the explosion.

After the tests, the commander and navigator of the Tu-95V aircraft were awarded the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union, eight KB-11 employees received the titles of Heroes of Socialist Labor, and several dozen more scientists from the design bureau received Lenin Prizes.

During the tests, all previously planned goals were achieved. The theoretical calculations of scientists were tested, the military gained practical experience in using unprecedented weapons, and the country's leadership received a powerful foreign policy and propaganda trump card. It was clearly shown that the Soviet Union could achieve parity with the United States in the lethality of nuclear weapons.

The A602 bomb was not originally intended for practical military use. In essence, it was a demonstrator of the capabilities of the Soviet military industry. The Tu-95B simply could not fly with such a combat load to US territory - it would simply not have enough fuel. But, nevertheless, the tests of the “Tsar Bomba” produced the desired result in the West - just two years later, in August 1963, an agreement was signed in Moscow between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA banning nuclear tests in space, on earth or under water. Since then, only underground nuclear explosions have been carried out. In 1990, the USSR announced a unilateral moratorium on any nuclear testing. Until now, Russia adheres to it.

By the way, after the successful test of the Tsar Bomba, Soviet scientists put forward several proposals to create even more powerful thermonuclear weapons, from 200 to 500 megatons, but they were never implemented. The main opponents of such plans were the military. The reason was simple: such weapons did not have the slightest practical meaning. The explosion of A602 created a zone of complete destruction, equal in area to the territory of Paris, so why create even more powerful ammunition. In addition, there was simply no necessary delivery vehicle for them; neither strategic aviation nor ballistic missiles of that time could simply lift such a weight.

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Tsar Bomba is the name of the AN602 hydrogen bomb, which was tested in the Soviet Union in 1961. This bomb was the most powerful ever detonated. Its power was such that the flash from the explosion was visible 1000 km away, and the nuclear mushroom rose almost 70 km.

The Tsar Bomba was a hydrogen bomb. It was created in Kurchatov's laboratory. The power of the bomb was such that it would have been enough to destroy 3800 Hiroshimas.

Let's remember the history of its creation.

At the beginning of the “atomic age,” the United States and the Soviet Union entered into a race not only in the number of atomic bombs, but also in their power.

The USSR, which acquired atomic weapons later than its competitor, sought to level the situation by creating more advanced and more powerful devices.

The development of a thermonuclear device codenamed “Ivan” was started in the mid-1950s by a group of physicists led by Academician Kurchatov. The group involved in this project included Andrei Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.

During research, scientists also tried to find the limits of the maximum power of a thermonuclear explosive device.

The theoretical possibility of obtaining energy by thermonuclear fusion was known even before World War II, but it was the war and the subsequent arms race that raised the question of creating a technical device for the practical creation of this reaction. It is known that in Germany in 1944, work was carried out to initiate thermonuclear fusion by compressing nuclear fuel using charges of conventional explosives - but they were not successful, since it was not possible to obtain the required temperatures and pressures. The USA and the USSR have been developing thermonuclear weapons since the 40s, almost simultaneously testing the first thermonuclear devices in the early 50s. In 1952, the United States exploded a charge with a yield of 10.4 megatons on the Eniwetak Atoll (which is 450 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki), and in 1953, the USSR tested a device with a yield of 400 kilotons.

The designs of the first thermonuclear devices were poorly suited for actual combat use. For example, the device tested by the United States in 1952 was a ground-based structure the height of a 2-story building and weighing over 80 tons. Liquid thermonuclear fuel was stored in it using a huge refrigeration unit. Therefore, in the future, serial production of thermonuclear weapons was carried out using solid fuel - lithium-6 deuteride. In 1954, the United States tested a device based on it at Bikini Atoll, and in 1955, a new Soviet thermonuclear bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. In 1957, tests of a hydrogen bomb were carried out in Great Britain.

Design research lasted for several years, and the final stage of development of “product 602” occurred in 1961 and took 112 days.

The AN602 bomb had a three-stage design: the nuclear charge of the first stage (calculated contribution to the explosion power is 1.5 megatons) triggered a thermonuclear reaction in the second stage (contribution to the explosion power - 50 megatons), and it, in turn, initiated the so-called nuclear “ Jekyll-Hyde reaction" (nuclear fission in uranium-238 blocks under the influence of fast neutrons generated as a result of the thermonuclear fusion reaction) in the third stage (another 50 megatons of power), so that the total calculated power of AN602 was 101.5 megatons.

However, the original option was rejected, since in this form it would have caused extremely powerful radiation contamination (which, however, according to calculations, would still have been seriously inferior to that caused by much less powerful American devices).
As a result, it was decided not to use the “Jekyll-Hyde reaction” in the third stage of the bomb and to replace the uranium components with their lead equivalent. This reduced the estimated total power of the explosion by almost half (to 51.5 megatons).

Another limitation for the developers was the capabilities of aircraft. The first version of a bomb weighing 40 tons was rejected by aircraft designers from the Tupolev Design Bureau - the carrier aircraft would not be able to deliver such a cargo to the target.

As a result, the parties reached a compromise - nuclear scientists reduced the weight of the bomb by half, and aviation designers were preparing a special modification of the Tu-95 bomber for it - the Tu-95B.

It turned out that it would not be possible to place a charge in the bomb bay under any circumstances, so the Tu-95V had to carry the AN602 to the target on a special external sling.

In fact, the carrier aircraft was ready in 1959, but nuclear physicists were instructed not to speed up work on the bomb - just at that moment there were signs of a decrease in tension in international relations in the world.

At the beginning of 1961, however, the situation worsened again, and the project was revived.

The final weight of the bomb including the parachute system was 26.5 tons. The product had several names at once - “Big Ivan”, “Tsar Bomba” and “Kuzka’s Mother”. The latter stuck to the bomb after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s speech to the Americans, in which he promised to show them “Kuzka’s mother.”

In 1961, Khrushchev quite openly spoke to foreign diplomats about the fact that the Soviet Union was planning to test a super-powerful thermonuclear charge in the near future. On October 17, 1961, the Soviet leader announced the upcoming tests in a report at the XXII Party Congress.

The test site was determined to be the Sukhoi Nos test site on Novaya Zemlya. Preparations for the explosion were completed in late October 1961.

The Tu-95B carrier aircraft was based at the airfield in Vaenga. Here, in a special room, final preparations for testing were carried out.

On the morning of October 30, 1961, the crew of pilot Andrei Durnovtsev received an order to fly to the test site area and drop a bomb.

Taking off from the airfield in Vaenga, the Tu-95B reached its design point two hours later. The bomb was dropped from a parachute system from a height of 10,500 meters, after which the pilots immediately began to move the car away from the dangerous area.

At 11:33 Moscow time, an explosion was carried out at an altitude of 4 km above the target.

The power of the explosion significantly exceeded the calculated one (51.5 megatons) and ranged from 57 to 58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent.

Operating principle:

The action of a hydrogen bomb is based on the use of energy released during the thermonuclear fusion reaction of light nuclei. It is this reaction that takes place in the depths of stars, where, under the influence of ultra-high temperatures and enormous pressure, hydrogen nuclei collide and merge into heavier helium nuclei. During the reaction, part of the mass of hydrogen nuclei is converted into a large amount of energy - thanks to this, stars constantly release huge amounts of energy. Scientists copied this reaction using isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium, which gave it the name "hydrogen bomb". Initially, liquid isotopes of hydrogen were used to produce charges, and later lithium-6 deuteride, a solid compound of deuterium and an isotope of lithium, was used.

Lithium-6 deuteride is the main component of the hydrogen bomb, thermonuclear fuel. It already stores deuterium, and the lithium isotope serves as the raw material for the formation of tritium. To start a thermonuclear fusion reaction, it is necessary to create high temperatures and pressures, as well as to separate tritium from lithium-6. These conditions are provided as follows.

The shell of the container for thermonuclear fuel is made of uranium-238 and plastic, and a conventional nuclear charge with a power of several kilotons is placed next to the container - it is called a trigger, or initiator charge of a hydrogen bomb. During the explosion of the plutonium initiator charge under the influence of powerful X-ray radiation, the shell of the container turns into plasma, compressing thousands of times, which creates the necessary high pressure and enormous temperature. At the same time, neutrons emitted by plutonium interact with lithium-6, forming tritium. Deuterium and tritium nuclei interact under the influence of ultra-high temperature and pressure, which leads to a thermonuclear explosion.

If you make several layers of uranium-238 and lithium-6 deuteride, then each of them will add its own power to the explosion of a bomb - that is, such a “puff” allows you to increase the power of the explosion almost unlimitedly. Thanks to this, a hydrogen bomb can be made of almost any power, and it will be much cheaper than a conventional nuclear bomb of the same power.

Witnesses of the test say that they have never seen anything like this in their lives. The nuclear mushroom of the explosion rose to a height of 67 kilometers, the light radiation could potentially cause third-degree burns at a distance of up to 100 kilometers.

Observers reported that at the epicenter of the explosion, the rocks took a surprisingly flat shape, and the ground turned into some kind of military parade ground. Complete destruction was achieved over an area equal to the territory of Paris.

Ionization of the atmosphere caused radio interference even hundreds of kilometers from the test site for about 40 minutes. The lack of radio communication convinced the scientists that the tests went as well as possible. The shock wave resulting from the explosion of the Tsar Bomba circled the globe three times. The sound wave generated by the explosion reached Dikson Island at a distance of about 800 kilometers.

Despite the heavy clouds, witnesses saw the explosion even at a distance of thousands of kilometers and could describe it.

Radioactive contamination from the explosion turned out to be minimal, as the developers had planned - more than 97% of the power of the explosion was provided by the thermonuclear fusion reaction, which practically did not create radioactive contamination.

This allowed scientists to begin studying the test results on the experimental field within two hours after the explosion.

The explosion of the Tsar Bomba really made an impression on the whole world. It turned out to be four times more powerful than the most powerful American bomb.

There was a theoretical possibility of creating even more powerful charges, but it was decided to abandon the implementation of such projects.

Oddly enough, the main skeptics turned out to be the military. From their point of view, such weapons had no practical meaning. How do you order him to be delivered to the “den of the enemy”? The USSR already had missiles, but they were unable to fly to America with such a load.

Strategic bombers were also unable to fly to the United States with such “luggage.” In addition, they became easy targets for air defense systems.

Atomic scientists turned out to be much more enthusiastic. Plans were put forward to place several super-bombs with a capacity of 200–500 megatons off the coast of the United States, the explosion of which would cause a giant tsunami that would literally wash away America.

Academician Andrei Sakharov, future human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, put forward a different plan. “The carrier could be a large torpedo launched from a submarine. I fantasized that it was possible to develop a ramjet water-steam nuclear jet engine for such a torpedo. The target of an attack from a distance of several hundred kilometers should be enemy ports. A war at sea is lost if the ports are destroyed, the sailors assure us of this. The body of such a torpedo can be very durable; it will not be afraid of mines and barrage nets. Of course, the destruction of ports - both by a surface explosion of a torpedo with a 100-megaton charge that “jumped out” of the water, and by an underwater explosion - is inevitably associated with very large casualties,” the scientist wrote in his memoirs.

Sakharov told Vice Admiral Pyotr Fomin about his idea. An experienced sailor, who headed the “atomic department” under the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, was horrified by the scientist’s plan, calling the project “cannibalistic.” According to Sakharov, he was ashamed and never returned to this idea.

Scientists and military personnel received generous awards for the successful testing of the Tsar Bomba, but the very idea of super-powerful thermonuclear charges began to become a thing of the past.

Nuclear weapons designers focused on things less spectacular, but much more effective.

And the explosion of the “Tsar Bomba” to this day remains the most powerful of those ever produced by humanity.

Tsar Bomba in numbers:

Weight: 27 tons
Length: 8 meters
Diameter: 2 meters
Yield: 55 megatons of TNT
Mushroom height: 67 km
Mushroom base diameter: 40 km
Fireball diameter: 4.6 km
Distance at which the explosion caused skin burns: 100 km
Explosion visibility distance: 1000 km
The amount of TNT required to equal the power of the Tsar Bomb: a giant TNT cube with a side of 312 meters (the height of the Eiffel Tower).

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An 602 thermonuclear aerial bomb. The most powerful explosion of a thermonuclear bomb. There was Paris - and there is no Paris

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Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

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Excerpt characterizing Tsar Bomba

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bomba

Description of the AN602 design

Conducting tests of the Tsar Bomba and their results

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An 602 thermonuclear aerial bomb. The most powerful explosion of a thermonuclear bomb. There was Paris - and there is no Paris

Project goals

Name

Tests

Test results

Rumors and hoaxes related to AN602

see also

Write a review about the article "Tsar Bomba"

Notes

Sources

Links

Excerpt characterizing Tsar Bomba

The history of the creation of the Tsar Bomba

Description of the AN602 design

Conducting tests of the Tsar Bomba and their results

What else to read

THE LAST NOTES

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