Nuclear war: how humanity will perish. The threat of nuclear war is a global problem. What will happen if a nuclear war breaks out? Scenario and consequences of the disaster

The bombs that devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki would now be lost in the vast nuclear arsenals of the superpowers as insignificant trifles. Now even weapons for individual use are much more destructive in their effects. The trinitrotoluene equivalent of the Hiroshima bomb was 13 kilotons; The explosive power of the largest nuclear missiles that appeared in the early 1990s, for example the Soviet SS-18 strategic missile (surface-to-surface), reaches 20 Mt (million tons) TNT, i.e. 1540 times more.

To understand what the nature of a nuclear war may turn out to be in modern conditions, it is necessary to use experimental and calculated data. At the same time, one should imagine possible opponents and the controversial issues that could cause them to clash. You need to know what weapons they have and how they can use them. Considering the damaging effects of numerous nuclear explosions and knowing the capabilities and vulnerabilities of society and the Earth itself, it is possible to assess the scale of the harmful consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.

The first nuclear war.

At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, Hiroshima was suddenly covered in a dazzling bluish-whitish light. The first atomic bomb was delivered to the target by a B-29 bomber from the US Air Force base on the island of Tinian (Mariana Islands) and exploded at an altitude of 580 m. At the epicenter of the explosion, the temperature reached millions of degrees, and the pressure was approx. 10 9 Pa. Three days later, another B-29 bomber passed its primary target, Kokura (now Kitakyushu), as it was covered in thick clouds, and headed for the alternate target, Nagasaki. The bomb exploded at 11 a.m. local time at an altitude of 500 m with approximately the same effectiveness as the first one. The tactic of bombing with a single aircraft (accompanied only by a weather observation aircraft) while simultaneously carrying out routine massive raids was designed to avoid attracting the attention of Japanese air defense. When the B-29 appeared over Hiroshima, most of its residents did not rush for cover, despite several half-hearted announcements on local radio. Before this, the air raid warning had been announced, and many people were on the streets and in light buildings. As a result, there were three times more dead than expected. By the end of 1945, 140,000 people had already died from this explosion, and the same number were injured. The area of destruction was 11.4 square meters. km, where 90% of houses were damaged, a third of which were completely destroyed. In Nagasaki there was less destruction (36% of houses were damaged) and loss of life (half as much as in Hiroshima). The reason for this was the elongated territory of the city and the fact that its remote areas were covered by hills.

In the first half of 1945, Japan was subjected to intense air bombing. The number of its victims reached a million (including 100 thousand killed during the raid on Tokyo on March 9, 1945). The difference between the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and conventional bombing was that one plane caused such destruction that would have required a raid by 200 planes with conventional bombs; these destructions were instantaneous; the ratio of dead to wounded was much higher; The atomic explosion was accompanied by powerful radiation, which in many cases led to cancer, leukemia and devastating pathologies in pregnant women. The number of direct casualties reached 90% of the death toll, but the long-term aftereffects of radiation were even more destructive.

Consequences of nuclear war.

Although the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not intended as experiments, studying their consequences has revealed much about the characteristics of nuclear war. By 1963, when the Treaty Banning Atmospheric Tests of Nuclear Weapons was signed, the US and USSR had carried out 500 explosions. Over the next two decades, more than 1,000 underground explosions were carried out.

Physical effects of a nuclear explosion.

The energy of a nuclear explosion spreads in the form of a shock wave, penetrating radiation, thermal and electromagnetic radiation. After the explosion, radioactive fallout falls on the ground. Different types of weapons have different explosion energies and types of radioactive fallout. In addition, the destructive power depends on the height of the explosion, weather conditions, wind speed and the nature of the target (Table 1). Despite their differences, all nuclear explosions share some common properties. The shock wave causes the greatest mechanical damage. It manifests itself in sudden changes in air pressure, which destroys objects (in particular, buildings), and in powerful wind currents that carry away and knock down people and objects. The shock wave requires approx. 50% explosion energy, approx. 35% - for thermal radiation in the form emanating from the flash, which precedes the shock wave by several seconds; it blinds when viewed from a distance of many kilometers, causes severe burns at a distance of up to 11 km, and ignites flammable materials over a wide area. During the explosion, intense ionizing radiation is emitted. It is usually measured in rem - the biological equivalent of x-rays. A dose of 100 rem causes an acute form of radiation sickness, and a dose of 1000 rem is fatal. In the dose range between these values, the probability of death of an exposed person depends on his age and state of health. Doses even significantly below 100 rem can lead to long-term illnesses and a predisposition to cancer.

Table 1. DESTRUCTION PRODUCED BY A 1 MT NUCLEAR EXPLOSION
Distance from the epicenter of the explosion, km	Destruction	Wind speed, km/h	Excess pressure, kPa
1,6–3,2	Severe destruction or destruction of all ground structures.	483	200
3,2–4,8	Severe destruction of reinforced concrete buildings. Moderate destruction of road and railway structures.
4,8–6,4	– `` –	272	35
6,4–8	Severe damage to brick buildings. 3rd degree burns.
8–9,6	Severe damage to buildings with wooden frames. 2nd degree burns.	176	28
9,6–11,2	Fire of paper and fabrics. 30% of trees felled. 1st degree burns.
11,2–12,8	–``–	112	14
17,6–19,2	Fire of dry leaves.	64	8,4

In the explosion of a powerful nuclear charge, the number of deaths from the shock wave and thermal radiation will be incomparably greater than the number of deaths from penetrating radiation. When a small nuclear bomb explodes (such as the one that destroyed Hiroshima), a large proportion of deaths are caused by penetrating radiation. A weapon with increased radiation, or a neutron bomb, can kill almost all living things solely through radiation.

During an explosion, more radioactive fallout falls on the earth's surface, because At the same time, masses of dust are thrown into the air. The damaging effect depends on whether it is raining and where the wind is blowing. When a 1 Mt bomb explodes, radioactive fallout can cover an area of up to 2600 square meters. km. Different radioactive particles decay at different rates; Particles thrown into the stratosphere during atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s are still returning to the earth's surface. Some lightly affected areas can become relatively safe in a matter of weeks, while others take years.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) occurs as a result of secondary reactions - when gamma radiation from a nuclear explosion is absorbed by air or soil. It is similar in nature to radio waves, but its electric field strength is much higher; EMR manifests itself as a single burst lasting a fraction of a second. The most powerful EMPs occur during explosions at high altitudes (above 30 km) and spread over tens of thousands of kilometers. They do not directly threaten human life, but are capable of paralyzing power supply and communication systems.

Consequences of nuclear explosions for people.

While the various physical effects that occur during nuclear explosions can be calculated quite accurately, the consequences of their effects are more difficult to predict. Research has led to the conclusion that the non-foreseeable consequences of a nuclear war are just as significant as those that can be calculated in advance.

The possibilities of protection against the effects of a nuclear explosion are very limited. It is impossible to save those who find themselves at the epicenter of the explosion. It is impossible to hide all people underground; this is only feasible to preserve the government and the leadership of the armed forces. In addition to the methods of escape from heat, light and shock wave mentioned in civil defense manuals, there are practical methods of effective protection only from radioactive fallout. It is possible to evacuate large numbers of people from high-risk areas, but this will create severe complications in transport and supply systems. In the event of a critical development of events, the evacuation will most likely become disorganized and cause panic.

As already mentioned, the distribution of radioactive fallout will be influenced by weather conditions. Failure of dams can lead to floods. Damage to nuclear power plants will cause further increases in radiation levels. In cities, high-rise buildings will collapse and create piles of rubble with people buried underneath. In rural areas, radiation will affect crops, leading to mass starvation. In the event of a nuclear strike in winter, the people who survived the explosion will be left without shelter and will die from the cold.

Society's ability to somehow cope with the consequences of the explosion will very much depend on the extent to which government systems of government, healthcare, communications, law enforcement and fire-fighting services will be affected. Fires and epidemics, looting and food riots will begin. An additional factor of despair will be the expectation of further military action.

Increased doses of radiation lead to an increase in cancer, miscarriages, and pathologies in newborns. It has been experimentally established in animals that radiation affects DNA molecules. As a result of such damage, genetic mutations and chromosomal aberrations occur; True, most of these mutations are not passed on to descendants, since they lead to lethal outcomes.

The first long-term detrimental effect will be the destruction of the ozone layer. The ozone layer of the stratosphere shields the earth's surface from most of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. This radiation is harmful to many forms of life, so it is believed that the formation of the ozone layer is ca. 600 million years ago became the condition due to which multicellular organisms and life in general appeared on Earth. According to a report by the US National Academy of Sciences, in a global nuclear war, up to 10,000 megatons of nuclear charges could be detonated, which would lead to the destruction of the ozone layer by 70% over the Northern Hemisphere and 40% over the Southern Hemisphere. This destruction of the ozone layer will have disastrous consequences for all living things: people will receive extensive burns and even skin cancer; some plants and small organisms will die instantly; many people and animals will become blind and lose their ability to navigate.

A large-scale nuclear war will result in a climate catastrophe. During nuclear explosions, cities and forests will catch fire, clouds of radioactive dust will envelop the Earth in an impenetrable blanket, which will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in temperature at the earth's surface. After nuclear explosions with a total force of 10,000 Mt in the central regions of the continents of the Northern Hemisphere, the temperature will drop to minus 31 ° C. The temperature of the world's oceans will remain above 0 ° C, but due to the large temperature difference, severe storms will arise. Then, a few months later, sunlight will break through to the Earth, but apparently rich in ultraviolet light due to the destruction of the ozone layer. By this time, the death of crops, forests, animals and the starvation of people will have already occurred. It is difficult to expect that any human community will survive anywhere on Earth.

Nuclear arms race.

Inability to achieve superiority at the strategic level, i.e. with the help of intercontinental bombers and missiles, led to the accelerated development of tactical nuclear weapons by nuclear powers. Three types of such weapons were created: short-range - in the form of artillery shells, rockets, heavy and depth charges and even mines - for use along with traditional weapons; medium-range, which is comparable in power to strategic and is also delivered by bombers or missiles, but, unlike strategic, is located closer to targets; intermediate class weapons that can be delivered mainly by missiles and bombers. As a result, Europe, on both sides of the dividing line between the Western and Eastern blocs, found itself stuffed with all kinds of weapons and became a hostage to the confrontation between the USA and the USSR.

In the mid-1960s, the prevailing doctrine in the United States was that international stability would be achieved when both sides secured second strike capabilities. US Secretary of Defense R. McNamara defined this situation as mutual assured destruction. At the same time, it was believed that the United States should have the ability to destroy from 20 to 30% of the population of the Soviet Union and from 50 to 75% of its industrial capacity.

For a successful first strike, it is necessary to hit the enemy's ground control centers and armed forces, as well as to have a defense system capable of intercepting those types of enemy weapons that escaped this strike. For the second strike forces to be invulnerable to the first strike, they must be in fortified launch silos or continuously moving. Submarines have proven to be the most effective means of basing mobile ballistic missiles.

Creating a reliable system of defense against ballistic missiles turned out to be much more problematic. It turned out that it is unimaginably difficult to solve the most complex problems in a matter of minutes - detecting an attacking missile, calculating its trajectory and intercepting it. The advent of individually targetable multiple warheads has greatly complicated defense tasks and led to the conclusion that missile defense is practically useless.

In May 1972, both superpowers, realizing the obvious futility of efforts to create a reliable system of defense against ballistic missiles, as a result of negotiations on the limitation of strategic arms (SALT), signed an ABM treaty. However, in March 1983, US President Ronald Reagan launched a large-scale program for the development of space-based anti-missile systems using directed energy beams.

Meanwhile, offensive systems developed rapidly. In addition to ballistic missiles, cruise missiles have also appeared, capable of flying along a low, non-ballistic trajectory, following, for example, the terrain. They can carry conventional or nuclear warheads and can be launched from the air, from water and from land. The most significant achievement was the high accuracy of the charges hitting the target. It became possible to destroy small armored targets even from very long distances.

Nuclear arsenals of the world.

In 1970, the United States had 1,054 ICBMs, 656 SLBMs, and 512 long-range bombers, i.e., a total of 2,222 strategic weapons delivery vehicles (Table 2). A quarter of a century later, they were left with 1,000 ICBMs, 640 SLBMs and 307 long-range bombers - a total of 1,947 units. This slight reduction in the number of delivery vehicles hides a huge amount of work to modernize them: the old Titan ICBMs and some Minuteman 2s have been replaced by Minuteman 3s and MXs, all Polaris-class SLBMs and many Poseidon-class SLBMs. replaced by Trident missiles, some B-52 bombers replaced by B-1 bombers. The Soviet Union had an asymmetrical, but approximately equal nuclear potential. (Russia inherited most of this potential.)

Table 2. ARSENALS OF STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS AT THE HEIGHT OF THE COLD WAR
Carriers and warheads	USA	USSR
ICBM
1970	1054	1487
1991	1000	1394
SLBM
1970	656	248
1991	640	912
Strategic bombers
1970	512	156
1991	307	177
Warheads on strategic missiles and bombers
1970	4000	1800
1991	9745	11159

Three less powerful nuclear powers - Britain, France and China - continue to improve their nuclear arsenals. In the mid-1990s, the UK began replacing its Polaris SLBM submarines with boats armed with Trident missiles. The French nuclear force consists of M-4 SLBM submarines, medium-range ballistic missiles and squadrons of Mirage 2000 and Mirage IV bombers. China is increasing its nuclear forces.

In addition, South Africa admitted to building six nuclear bombs during the 1970s and 1980s, but - according to its statement - dismantled them after 1989. Analysts estimate that Israel has about 100 warheads, as well as various missiles and aircraft to deliver them . India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices in 1998. By the mid-1990s, several other countries had developed their civilian nuclear facilities to the point where they could switch to producing fissile materials for weapons. These are Argentina, Brazil, North Korea and South Korea.

Nuclear war scenarios.

The option most discussed by NATO strategists involved a rapid, massive offensive by Warsaw Pact forces in Central Europe. Since NATO forces were never strong enough to fight back with conventional weapons, NATO countries would soon be forced to either capitulate or use nuclear weapons. After the decision to use nuclear weapons was made, events could have developed differently. It was accepted in NATO doctrine that the first use of nuclear weapons would be limited-power strikes to demonstrate primarily a willingness to take decisive action to protect NATO interests. NATO's other option was to launch a large-scale nuclear strike to secure an overwhelming military advantage.

However, the logic of the arms race led both sides to the conclusion that there would be no winners in such a war, but that a global catastrophe would break out.

The rival superpowers could not rule out its occurrence even for a random reason. Fears that it would start by accident gripped everyone, with reports of computer failures in command centers, drug abuse on submarines, and false alarms from warning systems that mistook, for example, a flock of flying geese for attacking missiles.

The world powers were undoubtedly too aware of each other's military capabilities to deliberately start a nuclear war; well-established satellite reconnaissance procedures ( cm. MILITARY SPACE ACTIVITIES) reduced the risk of being involved in war to an acceptably low level. However, in unstable countries the risk of unauthorized use of nuclear weapons is high. In addition, it is possible that any of the local conflicts could cause a global nuclear war.

Countering nuclear weapons.

The search for effective forms of international control over nuclear weapons began immediately after the end of World War II. In 1946, the United States proposed to the UN a plan of measures to prevent the use of nuclear energy for military purposes (Baruch Plan), but it was regarded by the Soviet Union as an attempt by the United States to consolidate its monopoly on nuclear weapons. The first significant international treaty did not concern disarmament; it was aimed at slowing down the buildup of nuclear weapons through a gradual ban on their testing. In 1963, the most powerful powers agreed to ban atmospheric testing, which was condemned because of the radioactive fallout it caused. This led to the deployment of underground testing.

Around the same time, the prevailing view was that if a policy of mutual deterrence made war between the great powers unthinkable, and disarmament could not be achieved, then control of such weapons should be ensured. The main purpose of this control would be to ensure international stability through measures that prevent the further development of nuclear first-strike weapons.

However, this approach also turned out to be unproductive. The US Congress developed a different approach - “equivalent replacement”, which was accepted by the government without enthusiasm. The essence of this approach was that weapons were allowed to be updated, but with each new warhead installed, an equivalent number of old ones were eliminated. Through this replacement, the total number of warheads was reduced and the number of individually targetable warheads was limited.

Frustration over the failure of decades of negotiations, concerns over the development of new weapons and a general deterioration in relations between East and West have led to calls for drastic measures. Some Western and Eastern European critics of the nuclear arms race have called for the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones.

Calls for unilateral nuclear disarmament continued in the hope that it would usher in a period of good intentions that would break the vicious circle of the arms race.

Experience in disarmament and arms control negotiations has shown that progress in this area most likely reflects a warming in international relations, but does not lead to improvements in control itself. Therefore, in order to protect ourselves from nuclear war, it is more important to unite a divided world through the development of international trade and cooperation than to follow the development of purely military developments. Apparently, humanity has already passed the moment when military processes - be it rearmament or disarmament - could significantly affect the balance of forces. The danger of a global nuclear war began to recede. This became clear after the collapse of communist totalitarianism, the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the collapse of the USSR. The bipolar world will eventually become multipolar, and democratization processes based on the principles of equality and cooperation may lead to the elimination of nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war as such.

A nuclear war is usually called a hypothetical clash between countries or military-political blocs that have thermonuclear or nuclear weapons and put them into action. Atomic weapons in such a conflict will become the main means of destruction. The history of nuclear war, fortunately, has not yet been written. But after the outbreak of the Cold War in the second half of the last century, nuclear war between the United States and the USSR was considered a likely development.

What will happen if there is a nuclear war?
Doctrines of nuclear war in the past
US nuclear doctrine during the Thaw
Russian nuclear doctrine

What will happen if there is a nuclear war?

Many people fearfully asked the question: what will happen if a nuclear war breaks out? This conceals a large-scale environmental danger:

The explosions would release enormous amounts of energy.
Ash and soot from the fires would obscure the sun for a long time, which would lead to the effect of “nuclear night” or “nuclear winter” with a sharp drop in temperature on the planet.
The apocalyptic picture would be complemented by radioactive contamination, which would have no less catastrophic consequences for life.

It was assumed that most countries of the world would inevitably be drawn into such a war, directly or indirectly.

The danger of a nuclear war is that it would lead to a global environmental disaster and even the death of our civilization.

What will happen in the event of a nuclear war? A powerful explosion is only part of the disaster:

As a result of a nuclear explosion, a giant fireball is formed, the heat from which chars or completely burns all living things at a sufficiently large distance from the epicenter of the explosion.
A third of the energy is released in the form of a powerful light pulse, a thousand times brighter than the radiation of the sun, so it instantly ignites all easily flammable materials (fabrics, paper, wood), and causes third-degree burns to people.
But the primary fires do not have time to flare up, since they are partially extinguished by a powerful blast wave. Flying burning debris, sparks, household gas explosions, short circuits and burning petroleum products cause extensive and long-lasting secondary fires.
Individual fires merge into a terrifying fire tornado that can easily burn down any metropolis. Such firestorms, created by the Allies, destroyed Dresden and Hamburg during the Second World War.
Since massive fires release heat in huge quantities, heated air masses rush upward, forming hurricanes at the surface of the earth, bringing new portions of oxygen to the fire.
Dust and soot rise to the stratosphere, forming a giant cloud there that blocks out the sunlight. And prolonged darkening leads to nuclear winter.

The earth after a nuclear war would hardly remain even a little like its former self; it would be scorched, and almost all living things would die.

An instructive video about what will happen if a nuclear war breaks out:

Doctrines of nuclear war in the past

The first doctrine (theory, concept) of nuclear war arose immediately after the end of World War II, in the United States. Then it was invariably reflected in the strategic concepts of NATO and the United States. However, the military doctrine of the USSR also assigned a decisive role to nuclear missile weapons in the next big war.

Initially, a massive nuclear war scenario was envisaged with the unlimited use of all available nuclear weapons, and their targets would be not only military, but also civilian targets. It was believed that in such a conflict the country that would be the first to launch a massive nuclear strike against the enemy, the purpose of which was the preemptive destruction of its nuclear weapons, would gain an advantage.

But there was the main problem of a nuclear war - a preventive nuclear attack might not be so effective, and the enemy would be able to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike on industrial centers and large cities.

Since the late 50s, a new concept of “limited nuclear war” has emerged in the United States. In the 70s, according to this concept, various weapons systems could be used in a hypothetical armed conflict, including operational-tactical and tactical nuclear weapons, which had restrictions on the scale of use and means of delivery. In such a conflict, atomic weapons would only be used to destroy military and important economic facilities. If history could be distorted, nuclear wars in the recent past could realistically follow a similar scenario.

One way or another, the United States still remains the only state that in practice used nuclear weapons in 1945 not against the military, but dropped 2 bombs on the civilian population of Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9).

Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, under the guise of the Potsdam Declaration, which set an ultimatum regarding the immediate surrender of Japan, the American government sent an American bomber to the Japanese Islands, and at 08:15 Japanese time it dropped the first nuclear bomb, codenamed “Baby,” on the city of Hiroshima.

The power of this charge was relatively small - about 20,000 tons of TNT. The explosion of the charge occurred at an altitude of about 600 meters above the surface of the earth, and its epicenter was above the Sima hospital. It was not by chance that Hiroshima was chosen as the target of a demonstrative nuclear strike - it was there at that time that the general headquarters of the Japanese Navy and the second general staff of the Japanese army were located.

The explosion destroyed a large part of Hiroshima.
Over 70,000 people were killed instantly.
Near 60,000 died later from wounds, burns and radiation sickness.
There was a zone of complete destruction within a radius of about 1.6 kilometers, while the fires spread over an area of 11.4 square meters. km.
90% of the city's buildings were either completely destroyed or severely damaged.
The tram system miraculously survived the bombing.

In the six months following the bombing, they died from its consequences. 140,000 people.

This “insignificant”, according to the military, charge once again proved that the consequences of a nuclear war for humanity are destructive, as for a race.

Sad video about the nuclear attack on Hiroshima:

Nagasaki

On August 9 at 11:02, another American plane dropped another nuclear charge, “Fat Man,” on the city of Nagasaki. It was detonated high above the Nagasaki Valley, where industrial plants were located. The second American nuclear attack on Japan in a row caused further catastrophic destruction and loss of life:

74,000 Japanese died instantly.
14,000 buildings were completely destroyed.

In fact, these terrible moments can be called the days when a nuclear war almost started, since bombs were dropped on civilians, and only a miracle stopped the moment when the world was on the brink of nuclear war.

US nuclear doctrine during the Thaw

At the end of the Cold War, the American doctrine of limited nuclear war was transformed into the concept of counterproliferation. It was first voiced by US Secretary of Defense L. Espin in December 1993. The Americans considered that it was no longer possible to achieve this goal with the help of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, therefore, at critical moments, the United States reserved the right to carry out “disarmament strikes” on the nuclear facilities of undesirable regimes.

In 1997, a directive was adopted according to which the US Army must be prepared to strike foreign facilities for the production and storage of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. And in 2002, the concept of counterproliferation entered the American national security strategy. Within its framework, the United States intended to destroy nuclear facilities in Korea and Iran or take control of Pakistani facilities.

Russian nuclear doctrine

Russia's military doctrine also periodically changes its wording. In the latter option, Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if not only nuclear or other types of weapons of mass destruction, but also conventional weapons were used against it or its allies, if this threatens the very foundations of the existence of the state, which could become one of the reasons for nuclear war. This speaks to the main thing - the likelihood of a nuclear war currently exists quite acutely, but the rulers understand that no one can survive in this conflict.

Russian nuclear weapons

An alternative history with nuclear war was developed in Russia. In 2016, the US State Department estimated, based on the data provided under the START-3 treaty, that the Russian army deployed 508 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles:

intercontinental ballistic missiles;
strategic bombers;
missiles on submarines.

There are 847 nuclear charge carriers in total, on which 1,796 charges are installed. It should be noted that nuclear weapons in Russia are being reduced quite intensively - over six months their number decreases by 6%.

With such weapons and more than 10 countries in the world that have officially confirmed the presence of nuclear weapons, the threat of nuclear war is a global problem, the prevention of which is a guarantee of life on Earth.

Are you afraid of nuclear war? Do you think it will come and how soon? Share your opinion or guesses in the comments.

Part 1 - the beginning.

The listed material finds and historical evidence are not sufficient to conclude that the disaster was nuclear. It was necessary to find traces of radiation. And it turns out there are a lot of such traces on Earth.

Firstly, how show the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, now in animals and people mutations occur, leading to cyclopsism(Cyclopes have one eye above the bridge of their nose). And we know according to the legends of many peoples about the existence of Cyclopes that people had to fight with.

The second direction of radioactive mutagenesis is polyploidy - doubling of the chromosome set, which leads to gigantism And doubling of some organs: two hearts or two rows of teeth.
The remains of giant skeletons with double rows of teeth are periodically found on Earth, as reported by Mikhail Persinger.

Giant People.

Historical chronicles of the 19th century often report the discovery of skeletons of abnormally tall people in different parts of the globe. .

The third direction of radioactive mutagenesis is Mongoloidity.
Currently Mongoloid race is the most widespread on the planet.
It includes the Chinese, Mongols, Eskimos, Ural, South Siberian peoples and the peoples of both Americas.
But earlier the Mongoloids were represented much more widely, since they were found in Europe, Sumeria, and Egypt.

Subsequently they were driven out of these places by Aryan and Semitic peoples.
Even in Central Africa they live Bushmen and Hottentots having black skin, but nevertheless having characteristic Mongoloid features.
It is noteworthy that the spread of the Mongoloid race correlates with the spread of deserts and semi-deserts on Earth where there is no time were the main centers of the lost civilization.

Fourth evidence of radioactive mutagenesis - the birth of deformities in people and the birth of children with atavisms(return to ancestors).
It is explained by the fact that deformities after radiation were widespread at that time and were considered normal, so this recessive trait sometimes appears in newborns.
For example, radiation leads to six-fingered And, found among Japanese survivors of the American nuclear bombing, y Chernobyl newborns, and this mutation has persisted to this day.
If in Europe, during the witch hunt, such people were completely exterminated, That in Russia before the revolution there were entire villages of six-fingered people.

More than 100 craters have been discovered throughout the planet , the average size of which has a diameter 2-3 km, really, there is two huge craters: one with a diameter of 40 km in South America And the second 120 km in South Africa.
If they were formed in the Paleozoic era, i.e. 350 million years ago, as some researchers believe, there would have been nothing left of them long ago, since wind, volcanic dust, animals and plants increase the thickness of the surface layer of the earth by an average of a meter per hundred years.
Therefore, in a million years, a depth of 10 km would be equal to the surface of the earth.
A the funnels are still intact, i.e. They over 25 thousand years they reduced their depth by only 250 meters.
This allows us estimate the force of a nuclear strike, produced 25,000 -35,000 years ago.
Taking an average diameter of 100 craters per 3 km, we obtain that As a result of the war with the asuras, about 5,000 Mt were exploded on Earth « boson» bombs.
We must not forget that The Earth's biosphere at that time was 20,000 times larger than today so she was able to withstand such a huge number of nuclear explosions.
Dust and soot obscured the Sun, it became nuclear winter.
Water, falling as snow in the zone of the poles, where eternal cold set in, was turned off from the biosphere circulation.

Manicouagan Crater in northern Canada is one of the oldest known impact craters.
At the site of the crater formed 200 million years ago, a hydroelectric reservoir with a diameter of 70 km was formed, having the expressive shape of a ring lake.
The crater itself has long been destroyed as a result of the passage of glaciers and other erosion processes.
Nevertheless the hard rocks at the impact site largely preserve the complex impact structure, the study of which can help in the study of large impact formations on Earth and other bodies of the Solar System.
The photo shows the vertical stabilizer of the space shuttle Columbia, from which this photo was taken in 1983.

It was found among the Mayan peoples two so-called Venusian calendars- one consisted of 240 days, another of 290 days.
Both of these calendars associated with disasters on Earth, which did not change the radius of rotation along the orbit, but accelerated the daily rotation of the planet.
We know that when a ballerina, while spinning, presses her arms to her body or raises them above her head, she begins to spin faster.
It's the same on our planet. The redistribution of water from the continents to the poles caused an acceleration of the Earth's rotation and a general cooling, because the the earth did not have time to warm up.
Therefore in first case, when the year was 240 days, the length of the day was 36 hours, and this calendar refers to the period of civilizationasuras, in second calendar ( 290 days) the length of the day was 32 hours and it was period of civilizationAtlanteans .
The fact that such calendars existed on Earth in ancient times is also evidenced by the experiments of our physiologists: if a person is placed in a dungeon without a clock, he begins to live according to an internal, more ancient rhythm as if in days 36 hours .

All these facts prove that there was a nuclear war.
According to ours and A.I. Krylov's calculations given in the collection " Global problems of our time», as a result of nuclear explosions and fires caused by them, 28 times more energy should be released than during nuclear explosions themselves (calculations were carried out for our biosphere; for the Asur biosphere this figure is much higher).
The spreading continuous wall of fire destroyed all living things.
Those who did not burn were suffocating from carbon monoxide.

People and animals ran to the water to find your death there.
The fire raged for "three days and three nights" and eventually caused widespread nuclear rain- where the bombs did not fall, radiation dropped.

This is how they are described in “ Codex Rio» Maya people consequences of radiation:
"Coming the dog had no fur, and she has claws fell off"(a characteristic symptom of radiation sickness).

But besides radiation, a nuclear explosion is characterized by another terrible phenomenon.
Residents of the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, although they did not see the nuclear mushroom (since they were in shelter) and were far from the epicenter of the explosion, nevertheless received light burns of the body.
This fact is explained by the fact that the shock wave propagates not only along the ground, but also upward.
Carrying dust and moisture with it, the shock wave reaches the stratosphere and destroys the ozone shield, protecting the planet from harsh ultraviolet radiation.
And the latter, as is known, causes burns to unprotected areas of the skin.
The release of air into outer space by nuclear explosions and a decrease in the pressure of the Asura atmosphere from eight to one atmosphere caused decompression sickness in people.
Started decay processes changed the gas composition of the atmosphere, the lethal concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and methane released poisoned all those who miraculously survived(the latter is still in huge quantities frozen into the polar ice caps).
Oceans, seas and rivers were poisoned by decaying corpses.
For all the survivors famine began.

People tried escape from poisonous air, radiation and low atmospheric pressure in your underground cities.
But the subsequent showers, and then earthquakes destroyed everything they created and drove them back to the surface of the earth.
Using the device described in the Mahabharata, reminiscent laser, People hastily built huge underground galleries, sometimes more than 100 meters high, thereby trying to create conditions for life there: the necessary pressure, temperature and air composition.
But the war continued, and even here the enemy overtook them.
Researchers suggest that surviving to the present day " pipes», connecting caves to the surface of the earth are of natural origin.
In reality, burned by laser weapons, They were made to smoke people out, trying to escape underground from poisonous gases and low pressure.
Already these pipes are too round to talk about their natural origin (many such “natural” pipes are located in the caves of the Perm region, including the famous Kungurskaya).
Certainly, construction of tunnels began long before the nuclear disaster.
Now they have an unsightly appearance And perceived us as " caves» of natural origin, but How much better would our metro look?, O let us go there in about five hundred years?
We could only admire the “play of natural forces.”

Laser weapons were apparently used not only to smoke people out. When the laser beam reached the underground molten layer, magma rushed to the surface of the earth, erupted and caused a powerful earthquake.
This is how we were born on Earth artificial volcanoes.

Now it becomes clear why Thousands of kilometers of tunnels have been dug throughout the planet. who were discovered in Altai, Ural, Tien Shan, Caucasus, Sahara, Gobi, V Northern And South America.
One of these tunnels connects Morocco with Spain.
According to Colossimo, through this tunnel, apparently, the only species of monkeys existing today in Europe, the “Magotes of Gibraltar”, which lives in the vicinity of the exit from the dungeon, penetrated.

What actually happened?
According to my calculations made in the work: “ State of the climate, biosphere and civilization after the use of nuclear weapons" for that, to provoke a flood in modern conditions of the Earth with subsequent sedimentary-tectonic cycles, it is necessary to detonate 12 Mt nuclear bombs in zones of concentration of life.
Due to fires release additional energy, which becomes a condition for intense evaporation of water and intensification of moisture circulation.
To immediately nuclear winter has arrived, bypassing the flood, you need blow up 40 Mt, and so that The biosphere completely died, necessary blow up 300 Mt, in this case air masses will be released into space and the pressure will drop as on Mars - to 0.1 atmosphere.
For complete radioactive contamination of the planet, When even spiders will die, i.e. 900 roentgen(70 roentgens are already fatal for a person) - necessary blow up 3020 Mt.

Carbon dioxide, formed as a result of fires, creates a greenhouse effect, i.e. absorbs additional solar energy, which is spent on moisture evaporation and increased winds.
It's becoming cause of intense rains and redistribution of water from the oceans to the continents.
Water, accumulating in natural depressions, causes stress in the earth's crust, What leads to earthquakes And volcanic eruptions.
Latest, throwing tons of dust into the stratosphere, lower the temperature of the planet (as dust blocks the sun's rays).
Sedimentary-tectonic cycles, i.e. floods, developing into long winters, have been going on for thousands of years until the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere returned to normal.
Winter lasted 20 years(the time it takes for dust to settle in the upper atmosphere, at our atmospheric density, dust will settle for 3 years).

Those who remained in dungeon, gradually lost their sight.
Let's remember again epic about Svyatogor , whose father lived underground and did not come to the surface, because went blind.
New generations after the asuras rapidly decreased in size to dwarfs , about which there are plenty of legends among various nations.
By the way, they have survived to this day and have not only black skin, like the pygmies of Africa, but also white: Menechets of Guinea who mixed with the local population, nationalitiesDopa And Hama having height is just over a meter and living in Tibet, finally, trolls, gnomes, elves, h go white-eyed etc., who did not consider it possible to come into contact with Humanity.
In parallel with this there was a gradual wildness of people, cut off from society, and turning them into monkeys.

Close to Sterlitamak out of the blue there are two adjacent dunes, consisting from minerals, and under them oil lenses.
It is quite possible that this two graves of asuras(Although There are a lot of similar graves of asuras scattered across the Earth).
However, some of the asuras lived until our era.
IN seventies, to the commission on anomalous phenomena, then headed by F.Yu. Siegel, messages have arrived about observing giants, « propped up by clouds", whose step felled forests.
It’s good that excited local residents were able to correctly identify this phenomenon.
Usually, if the phenomenon does not resemble anything, people just don't see him.
The height of the observed creatures did not exceed a 40-story building and was in fact well below the clouds.
But otherwise matches the descriptions, captured Russian epics: the earth humming, groaning from heavy steps and the legs of a giant falling into the ground.
The asuras, over whom time has no power, have survived to our time, hiding in their huge dungeons, and they may well tell us about the past, how they did it Svyatogor , Gorynya , Dubynya , Adopted son and others titans, who are the heroes of Russian epics, unless, of course, we try to kill them again.

Regarding the possibility of life underground.
It's not that fantastic.
According to geologists, there is more water underground, than in the entire oceans, and not all of it is in a bound state, i.e. only part of the water part of minerals and rocks.
By now underground seas discovered, lakes and rivers.
It has been suggested that The waters of the World Ocean are connected to the underground water system, and accordingly, not only the cycle and exchange of water occurs between them, but also the exchange of biological species.
Unfortunately, this area remains completely unexplored to date.
For the underground biosphere to be self-sufficient, there must be plants that produce oxygen and decompose carbon dioxide.
But plants, turns out, can live, grow and bear fruit without lighting, as Tolkien reports in his book The Secret Life of Plants.
Enough on the ground pass a weak electric current of a certain frequency, and photosynthesis occurs in complete darkness.
However, underground life forms do not necessarily have to be similar to those existing on Earth.
In places where heat came to the surface from the bowels of the earth, there were special forms of thermal life discovered and, which do not need light.
It may well be that they can be not only unicellular, but also multicellular and even reach a very high level of development.
Therefore it is very likely that the underground biosphere is self-sufficient, it contains species similar to plants and species similar to animals, and it lives completely independently of the existing biosphere.
If thermal “plants” are not capable of living on the surface, just as our plants are not capable of living underground, then animals that feed on thermal “plants” are able to feed on ordinary ones.

Periodic appearance " Zmeev Gorynychey", or, in modern language, dinosaurs, every now and then happening all over the planet: let’s remember the Loch Ness monster, the repeated observation by teams of Soviet nuclear-powered ships of floating “dinosaurs”, a 20-meter “plesiosaur” torpedoed by a German submarine, etc. - the cases that I. Akimushkin systematized and described tell us that those who live underground sometimes come to the surface to “graze.”
A person penetrated only 5 km. deep into the earth, he cannot now say what is happening at depths of 10, 100, 1,000 km.
Anyway there air pressure is more than 8 atmospheres.
And perhaps many floating creatures from the times of the Asur biosphere found salvation underground.
Periodic media reports about dinosaurs appearing in the oceans, seas, or lakes are evidence of creatures penetrating from the underground that have found refuge there.
IN fairy tales many peoples have survived descriptions of the three underground kingdoms: gold , silver And copper, where the hero of the folk story consistently ends up.

Monsters of the Underworld .

Where do prehistoric monsters appear from time to time in various bodies of water on the planet? They are observed by credible witnesses, and sometimes by dozens of people, but subsequent attempts by scientists to detect exotic animals are unsuccessful. Maybe this happens because these monsters live in a kind of underground Plutonia and only sometimes appear on the surface ?

The Gorynych Serpents could have two or three heads caused by nuclear mutagenesis, which was hereditarily fixed and passed on by inheritance.
For example, in the USA in San Francisco woman with two heads gives birth to two-headed baby , i.e. a new race of people appeared.
Russian epics report that Zmey Gorynych was kept in chains like a dog, and on it the heroes of epics sometimes plowed the land, like on a horse.
Therefore, most likely, three-headed dinosaurs were the main pets of the asuras.
It is known that reptiles, which in their development are not far from dinosaurs, are not trainable, however increasing the number of goals increased general intelligence and decreased aggressiveness.

What caused the nuclear conflict?
According to the Vedas, asuras, i.e. The inhabitants of the Earth were big and strong, but they were destroyed by gullibility and good nature.
In the Vedas described battle of asuras with gods, latest won through deception asuras, destroyed their flying cities, and themselves driven underground and to the bottom of the oceans.
Presence of pyramids scattered throughout the planet (in Egypt, Mexico, Tibet, India), suggests that the culture was united and the earthlings had no grounds for war among themselves.
Those whom the Vedas call gods are aliens and appeared from the sky (from space). There was a nuclear conflict , more likely, cosmic .
But who and where were those whom the Vedas call gods, and various religions call powers Satan?

Who was the second belligerent?

In 1972, the American Mariner station reached Mars and took more than 3,000 photographs.
Of these, 500 were published in the general press.
On one of them the world saw a dilapidated pyramid , as experts have calculated, 1.5 km high And sphinx with a human face .
But unlike the Egyptian, who looks ahead, Martian sphinx looks into the sky.
The pictures were accompanied by comments - that this was most likely a play of natural forces.
NASA (the American Aeronautics and Space Administration) did not publish the remaining images, citing the fact that they supposedly needed to be “deciphered.”
More than ten years have passed and there have been photographs of another sphinx and pyramid published.
The new photos clearly show it was possible to distinguish the sphinx, pyramid and further third building - remains of the wall of a rectangular structure.
At the Sphinx looking at the sky, A frozen tear rolled out of my eye .
The first thought that came to mind was war occurred between Mars and Earth , and those whom the ancients called gods, were people, colonized Mars.
Judging by remaining dry « channels"(formerly rivers) reaching a width of 50-60 km, the biosphere on Mars was no less in size and power , than the Earth's biosphere.
This suggested that the Martian colony decided to separate from its mother country what the Earth was like, just like how America separated from England in the last century, despite the fact that the culture was common.

"Pyramid" on Mars.

The Sphinx and the pyramid tell us that indeed there was a common culture, and Mars was indeed colonized by earthlings.
But, like the Earth, he too was nuked and lost its biosphere and atmosphere(last today has a pressure of about 0.1 atmosphere of the Earth and consists of 99% nitrogen, which can be formed, as the Gorky scientist A. Volgin proved, as a result of the vital activity of organisms).
Oxygen on Mars is 0.1%, and carbon dioxide is 0.2% (although there are other data).
Oxygen was destroyed by nuclear fire, A carbon dioxide decomposed by remaining primitive Martian vegetation, having a reddish color and annually covering a significant surface during the onset of Martian summer, which is clearly visible through a telescope.
Red color due to the presence of xanthine.
Similar plants are found on Earth.
As a rule, they grow in places where there is a lack of light and could well have been brought by asuras from Mars.
Depending on the season ratios of oxygen and carbon dioxide vary and on the surface in the layer of Martian vegetation, the oxygen concentration can reach several percent.
This makes it possible for the “wild” Martian fauna to exist, which on Mars can have Lilliputian sizes.
People on Mars could not grow larger, than 6 cm, A dogs and cats because of low atmospheric pressure, by size would be comparable to flies.
It is quite possible that survivors of the war on Mars asuras, shrunk to Martian size at least the plot fairy tales O " Little boy ", widespread among many peoples, certainly did not arise out of nowhere.
During times Atlanteans who could move on their vimanas not only in the Earth’s atmosphere, but also in space, they could have brought the remains of the Asur civilization from Mars , Thumb Boys, for your own amusement.
Surviving European fairy tales like kings put little people in toy palaces, are still popular among children.

The enormous height of the Martian pyramids (1500 meters) allows us to approximately determine the individual sizes of asuras.
Average the size of the Egyptian pyramids is 60 meters, i.e. V 30 times more than a person.
Then average Asuras are 50 meters tall.
Practically All nations have preserved legends about giants, giants and even titans, which, with their growth, should have had a corresponding life expectancy.
Among the Greeks, the titans who inhabited the Earth were forced to fight with the gods.
Also The Bible talks about giants who inhabited our planet in the past.

Cydonia - region of Mars. Approximately in the center - " Martian sphinx».

Weeping sphinx , looking into the sky, tells us that he built after a disaster by people And (asuras ), saved from death in the Martian dungeons.
His appearance calls for help to his brothers, remaining on other planets: “We are still alive! Come for us! Help us!"
The remnants of the Martian civilization of earthlings may still exist.
Occurring from time to time mysterious blue flashes on its surface, Very resemble nuclear explosions.
Perhaps the war on Mars is still ongoing.

At the beginning of our century there was a lot of talk and debate about the moons of Mars Phobos and Deimos, it was suggested that they are artificial, and are hollow inside because they rotate much faster than other satellites.
This idea may well be confirmed.
As reported by F.Yu. Siegel in his lectures, 4 satellites also revolve around the Earth, which no country launched, and their orbits are perpendicular to the normally launched orbits of the satellites.
And if all artificial satellites, due to their small orbit, eventually fall to Earth, then these 4 satellites are too far from Earth.
Therefore, most likely they left over from past civilizations.

15,000 years ago history stopped for Mars.
The scarcity of remaining species will not allow the Martian biosphere to flourish for a long time.

The Sphinx was not addressed to those who were on their way to the stars at that time; they could not help in any way.
He was facing the metropolis- a civilization that was on Earth.
Thus, Earth and Mars were on the same side.
Who was with the other one?

At one time, V.I. Vernadsky proved that continents can only form due to the presence of the biosphere.
There is always a negative balance between the ocean and the continent, i.e. rivers always carry less material into the oceans than it comes from the oceans.
The main force involved in this transfer is not the wind, but living things primarily birds and fish.
If this force did not exist, according to Vernadsky’s calculations, in 18 million years there would be no continents on Earth.
Continentality phenomenon discovered on Mars, Moon And Venus, i.e. these planets once had a biosphere.
But the Moon, due to its proximity to the Earth, could not resist the Earth and Mars.
Firstly, because there was no significant atmosphere there; accordingly, the biosphere was weak.
This follows from the fact that The dried river beds found on the Moon cannot be compared with the size of the Earth's rivers(especially Mars).
Life could only be exported.
The Earth could be such an exporter.
Secondly, a thermonuclear strike was also carried out on the moon , because The American Apollo expedition discovered glassy, soil baked from high temperatures.
By the layer of dust you can determine when the disaster occurred there.
3 mm of dust falls on the Earth in 1000 years; on the Moon, where gravity is 6 times less, 0.5 mm should fall in the same time.
Over 30,000 years, 1.5 cm of dust should have accumulated there.
Judging by the footage of American astronauts filmed on the Moon, layer of dust, which they raised when walking, is somewhere around 1-2 cm.
In the 80s there were reports in the press about sightings on it twisted structures, Maybe, representing the remains of ancient units belonging to Asura civilization, who created from the ground, according to American ufologists, lunar atmosphere.
Near Stern Crater, on the visible side, even with an amateur telescope you can see a web of some structures maybe it's leftovers ancient city on the moon?
Thirdly, everything that happened there was very quickly learned on Earth.
The strike was carried out suddenly and from a distant object, so neither the Martians nor the earthlings expected him and did not have time to make a retaliatory strike.
Such an object could be Venus.

Civilization on the Moon .

What the scientist said is similar to science fiction: he said that supposedly 40 years ago there were traces of an ancient and clearly extraterrestrial civilization on the Moon. But NASA ordered the destruction of photographic evidence. Johnston disobeyed and hid some. Briefly, Johnston-Hoagland's accusations boil down to the following: the astronauts of the Apollo missions discovered architectural and technological traces of an ancient civilization on the Moon and photographed them. In addition, they have mastered anti-gravity technology. NASA hid all this data from the public .

Part 2 - ending - in the following entry: 2nd part

It also provided for the decisive role of nuclear missile weapons in the war.

At the first stage, only the possibility was considered general nuclear war, which is characterized by the unlimited, massive and concentrated use of all types of nuclear weapons for both military and civilian purposes, in combination with other means. The advantage in this kind of conflict should have been the side that would be the first to launch a massive nuclear strike on enemy territory with the aim of destroying its nuclear forces.

However, such an attack might not bring the desired effect, which created a high probability of a retaliatory strike on large cities and industrial centers. In addition, the release of huge amounts of energy as a result of explosions, as well as emissions of soot and ash due to fires (the so-called “nuclear winter” or “nuclear night”), and radioactive contamination would have catastrophic consequences for life on all Earth. Directly or indirectly, all or most of the countries of the world would be involved in such a war - the “third world war”. There was a possibility that the outbreak of such a war would lead to the death of human civilization, a global environmental disaster.

Even a limited nuclear conflict, however, carries the danger of radioactive contamination of vast areas and escalation into a general conflict involving several states possessing nuclear weapons. By analogy with the theory of nuclear winter, we can say that a limited nuclear war, if it occurs, will lead to the “nuclear autumn” effect - long-term negative environmental consequences within a certain region.

From Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk

For several years after World War II, the United States created a strategic force based on the use of B-36 Peacemaker bombers, capable of striking any potential enemy from air bases on American soil. The possibility of a nuclear strike on the territory of the United States itself was considered purely hypothetical, since no other country in the world possessed nuclear weapons at that time. The main concern of American strategists was the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of a “crazy general” who could decide to strike the USSR without proper orders (this plot has been used in many films and spy novels). To calm public fears, US nuclear weapons were placed under the control of an independent agency, the US Atomic Energy Commission. It was assumed that in the event of war, the US Strategic Air Command bombers would be transferred to Atomic Energy Commission bases, where they would be loaded with aerial bombs. The whole process was supposed to take several days.

For several years, there was euphoria and confidence in the invincibility of the United States among many representatives of US military circles. There was general agreement that the threat of a nuclear strike by the United States should deter any potential aggressor. At the same time, the possibility of placing the US Atomic Energy Commission's arsenal under international control or limiting its size was discussed.

In subsequent years, the spread of nuclear weapons across the planet continued. Great Britain tested its bomb, and France tested it. Western European nuclear arsenals, however, have always been insignificant compared to the nuclear weapons stockpiles of the superpowers, and it was the nuclear weapons of the United States and the Soviet Union that posed the greatest problem for the world throughout the second half of the 20th century.

At the end of the 1940s and at the very beginning of the 1950s. In the United States, plans to launch atomic strikes on the USSR were discussed. It was planned to drop about 300 atomic bombs on Soviet targets over the course of several months. But at that time the United States did not have the technical means for such an operation. Firstly, atomic bombs with a yield of 18-20 kilotons technically could not destroy the Soviet military potential. Secondly, the American atomic arsenal was too small: according to various estimates, between 1947 and 1950. it ranged from only 12 to 100 warheads. Under such conditions, the armored forces of the USSR could quickly occupy the territory of Western Europe, Asia Minor and the Middle East, which would make further “atomic raids” on Soviet territory impossible. After the creation of Soviet atomic weapons in 1949-1951. Washington feared that in the event of war, the USSR would quickly seize the territory of Alaska and create bases for “atomic raids” on American cities.

Massive retribution

Although the USSR now also had nuclear capabilities, the United States was ahead both in the number of charges and in the number of bombers. In any conflict, the United States could easily bomb the USSR, while the USSR would have difficulty responding to this attack.

The transition to large-scale use of jet fighter-interceptors somewhat changed this situation in favor of the USSR, reducing the potential effectiveness of American bomber aircraft. In 1949, Curtis LeMay, the new commander of the US Strategic Air Command, signed a program for the complete transition of bomber aviation to jet propulsion. In the early 1950s, the B-47 and B-52 bombers began to enter service.

In response to the numerical increase in Soviet bomber aircraft in the 1950s, the United States created a fairly strong layered air defense system around large cities, involving the use of interceptor aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles. But the focus was still on the construction of a huge armada of nuclear bombers, which were destined to crush the defensive lines of the USSR - since it was considered impossible to provide effective and reliable defense of such a vast territory.

This approach was firmly rooted in US strategic plans - it was believed that there was no cause for special concern until strategic US forces are more powerful than the overall potential of the Soviet Armed Forces. Moreover, according to American strategists, the Soviet economy, destroyed during the war, was unlikely to be capable of creating an adequate counterforce potential.

However, the USSR quickly created its own strategic aviation and tested in 1957 the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of reaching US territory. Since 1959, serial production of ICBMs began in the Soviet Union (in 1958, the United States also tested its first Atlas ICBM). Since the mid-1950s, the United States began to realize that in the event of a nuclear war, the USSR would be able to retaliate with an equivalent strike on American cities. Therefore, since the late 1950s, military experts have recognized that a victorious all-out nuclear war with the USSR has become impossible.

Flexible response

Unlike the United States, which did not rule out the use of nuclear weapons first in response to Soviet aggression without the use of nuclear weapons, the USSR stated that it refused to use nuclear weapons first. This was first stated in 1977 by Leonid Brezhnev, and formally this commitment of the USSR was formalized in 1982.

In fact, the USSR constantly improved the counterforce potential of its nuclear forces, including creating mobile railway-based ICBMs and on tractor-trailers.

In the early 1970s. the Soviet general staff proceeded from the assumption that in the event of a war in Europe, the phase of the military conflict between NATO and the Warsaw bloc using conventional weapons would last only 5-6 days and NATO forces would definitely use nuclear weapons in order to prevent Soviet troops from passing to the west of Reina. But by 1979, the Soviet General Staff already assumed that the normal phase of the strategic operation would extend to the Soviet advance into France. And by 1980-81, the Soviet General Staff was already convinced that a war in Europe, if it happened, would be completely non-nuclear

Colonel General, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, A.A. Danilevich said in an interview:

It was initially assumed that the war would be fought with nuclear weapons from the very beginning to the end. From the beginning of the 70s, the possibility of its short-term management by conventional means began to be accepted, followed by an inevitable transition to the use of nuclear ones. At the same time, unlike the Americans, the limited use of nuclear weapons was excluded: it was believed that in response to any use of nuclear weapons with single charges, the entire nuclear potential of the USSR would be used. So the United States was superior to the USSR in tactical weapons. At the beginning of the 80s, the possibility of conducting operations not only of a limited scale, but also strategic ones, and then the entire war, using only conventional weapons was recognized. This conclusion was led by the logic of movement towards disaster, which would await both sides with the unrestricted use of nuclear weapons.

It was believed that in the event of the outbreak of war, the superiority of the Warsaw Pact countries in conventional armed forces would make it possible to launch a forced offensive on the territory of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, during which nuclear weapons would not be used - similar to how it was with chemical weapons during the Second World War. world war. (Theoretically, such an offensive was facilitated by the fact that France withdrew from the NATO military organization). In such a war, a small number of tactical nuclear warheads could be used. Such a conflict is described in artistic form in Tom Clancy’s novel “Red Storm” (1986).

On the other hand, former teacher at the Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Major General V.V. Larionov said in an interview:

Nuclear weapons are the weapons of the poor. And we were forced to switch to conventional, non-nuclear weapons, although we did not want this, their production required additional costs. We were very reluctant to abandon our concepts of a massive nuclear strike. It is because of our poverty. Of course, this was not said openly, but it was taken into account in the calculations.

Realistic intimidation

Main article: Realistic intimidation

Realistic intimidation is a strategic military concept of the United States and NATO, adopted in the early 1970s in the development of the strategy of “flexible response” in the context of the existing parity of forces in nuclear weapons with the USSR. Based on qualitative superiority in forces, partnership (increasing the number of allies) and negotiations. Provides for military deterrence of the enemy through the threat of using nuclear and other highly effective types of weapons, including reconnaissance and strike systems, a gradual increase in the scale and intensity of military operations, and waging various types of wars and conflicts depending on the specific situation.

"Flight time"

In the mid-1970s. first in the USA and then in the USSR, laser, infrared and television missile guidance systems were created, which made it possible to significantly (according to some estimates - up to 30 meters) increase their accuracy. This revived ideas about the possibility of victory in a “limited nuclear war” based on gains in flight time. At the same time, individually targetable multiple warheads were developed for intercontinental ballistic missiles, which increased the risk of a counterforce strike against enemy nuclear forces.

Strategic Defense Initiative

Discussions around SDI in the context of the Euromissile controversy contributed to the growing fear of a nuclear war. The danger of the outbreak of a limited nuclear conflict decreased sharply after perestroika began in the USSR.

Counterproliferation

After the end of the Cold War, the American concept of counterproliferation became a new concept of limited nuclear war. It was first voiced in December by US Secretary of Defense Less Espin. According to this theory, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is in crisis and it is impossible to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction through diplomacy. In critical cases, the United States should launch disarming strikes against the nuclear facilities of “dangerous regimes.” In November, Presidential Directive No. 60 was adopted in America, in which the US armed forces were tasked with being ready to strike at facilities for the production and storage of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In the city, the counterproliferation strategy became part of the US National Security Strategy. Currently, the counterproliferation strategy includes 5 options:

“buying out” a nuclear program from a potentially dangerous state;
establishing control over the nuclear facilities of “problem” (from the US point of view) countries;
partial recognition of the nuclear status of the violator in exchange for its compliance with certain agreements;
forceful threats;
impact on the largest uranium mining companies and countries supplying uranium raw materials.

In any case, the United States reserves the right to use force, which is fraught with the outbreak of a military conflict. As part of the counter-proliferation strategy in America, the possibility of destroying nuclear facilities of countries such as Iran and North Korea is being discussed. In critical cases, the possibility of taking control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is being considered. Plans are being discussed to create new types of nuclear weapons - clean thermonuclear weapons or bunker-busting warheads (small nuclear weapons that release small amounts of radioactive fallout). It is expected that it will be used to destroy facilities for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction.

The first time the United States planned to launch missile and bomb attacks on North Korean nuclear facilities was in 1994 (“the first nuclear alarm” on the Korean Peninsula). At the beginning of the year, reports appeared that the United States and Israel were ready to launch similar strikes on Iran in order to destroy the nuclear power plant under construction in Bushehr. In and years The Americans were negotiating with Pakistan to establish control over its nuclear facilities. In winter and spring, the United States again talked about the possibility of destroying the DPRK's nuclear facilities (a "second nuclear alarm" on the Korean Peninsula). In 2005, North Korea announced the presence of nuclear weapons in the country. In and years In America, the plan for Operation Bite was discussed - attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities. By 2016, North Korea had conducted five nuclear tests, and in 2015, the country's leader Kim Jong-un announced the presence of thermonuclear weapons in the country. Despite this development of the DPRK's nuclear missile program, in April 2017, reports appeared that the United States was again preparing to strike the territory of the DPRK to prevent a new nuclear test, and the deputy representative of the DPRK to the UN said that because of the United States, a nuclear war could start in any moment, and the DPRK intends to carry out a new nuclear test.

From an environmental point of view, the defeat of nuclear facilities will differ little from the effect of a limited nuclear war due to the increased release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere. Most likely, it will lead to a nuclear fall effect.

In works of culture

“On the Shore” (1959, feature film by Stanley Kramer)
Doctor Strangelove (1964 film)
"When the Wind Blows" (1982); based on a comic book

Also has nuclear weapons).

However, such an attack might not bring the desired effect, which created a high probability of a retaliatory strike on large cities and industrial centers. In addition, the release of enormous amounts of energy as a result of explosions, as well as emissions of soot and ash due to fires (the so-called "nuclear winter" or "nuclear night"), and radioactive contamination would have catastrophic consequences for life throughout the Earth. Directly or indirectly, all or most of the countries of the world would be involved in such a war - the “third world war”. There was a possibility that the outbreak of such a war would lead to the death of human civilization, a global environmental disaster.

From Hiroshima to Semipalatinsk

For several years after World War II, the United States built a strategic force based on the use of B-36 Peacemaker bombers, capable of striking any potential enemy from air bases on American soil. The possibility of a nuclear strike on the territory of the United States itself was considered purely hypothetical, since no other country in the world possessed nuclear weapons at that time. The main concern of American strategists was the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of a “crazy general” who could decide to strike the USSR without proper orders (this plot has been used in many films and spy novels). To calm public fears, US nuclear weapons were placed under the control of an independent agency, the US Atomic Energy Commission. It was assumed that in the event of war, the bombers of the US Strategic Air Command would be transferred to the bases of the Atomic Energy Commission, where they would be loaded with bombs. The whole process was supposed to take several days.

Massive retribution

The transition to large-scale use of jet fighter-interceptors somewhat changed this situation in favor of the USSR, reducing the potential effectiveness of American bomber aircraft. In 1949, Curtis LeMay, the new commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Command, signed off on a program to completely convert the bomber force to jet propulsion. In the early 1950s, the B-47 and B-52 bombers began to enter service.

However, the USSR quickly created its own strategic aviation and tested the R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile in 1957, capable of reaching US territory. Since 1959, the Soviet Union began serial production of ICBMs (in 1958, the United States also tested its first Atlas ICBM). Since the mid-1950s, the United States began to realize that in the event of a nuclear war, the USSR would be able to retaliate with an equivalent strike on American cities. Therefore, since the late 1950s, military experts have recognized that a victorious all-out nuclear war with the USSR has become impossible.

Flexible response

In the 1960s, both the United States and the USSR linked doctrines of limited nuclear war with the development of missile defense (ABM) systems. The Soviet Union achieved great success in this area: in 1962-1967, the Moscow A-35 missile defense system was created; in 1971-1989, the A-135 missile defense system was developed, which is still in service. The United States in 1963-1969 developed the Sentinel and Safeguard to protect the Grand Forks missile base (North Dakota), which were never put into operation. Gradually, both sides began to recognize the destabilizing role of missile defense. In 1972, President Richard Nixon and General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev concluded the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and in 1974 an additional agreement. According to these documents, the parties could only have 100-150 stationary ground-based interceptor missiles around one pre-agreed area.

In fact, the USSR constantly improved the counterforce potential of its nuclear forces, including creating mobile railway-based ICBMs and on tractor-trailers.

Colonel General, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, A. A. Danilevich said in an interview:

It was initially assumed that the war would be fought with nuclear weapons from the very beginning to the end. From the beginning of the 70s, the possibility of its short-term management by conventional means began to be accepted, followed by an inevitable transition to the use of nuclear ones. At the same time, unlike the Americans, the limited use of nuclear weapons was excluded: it was believed that in response to any use of nuclear weapons with single charges, the entire nuclear potential of the USSR would be used. So the United States was superior to the USSR in tactical weapons. At the beginning of the 80s, the possibility of conducting operations not only of a limited scale, but also strategic ones, and then the entire war, using only conventional weapons was recognized. This conclusion was led by the logic of movement towards disaster, which would await both sides with the unrestricted use of nuclear weapons.

It was believed that in the event of the outbreak of war, the superiority of the Warsaw Pact countries in conventional armed forces would make it possible to launch a forced offensive on the territory of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, during which nuclear weapons would not be used - similar to how it was with chemical weapons during the Second World War. world war. (Theoretically, such an offensive was facilitated by the fact that France withdrew from the NATO military organization). In such a war, a small number of tactical nuclear warheads could be used. Such a conflict is described in fictional form in Tom Clancy's novel The Red Storm (1986).

On the other hand, a former teacher at the Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Major General V.V. Larionov, said in an interview:

Nuclear weapons are the weapons of the poor. And we were forced to switch to conventional, non-nuclear weapons, although we did not want this, their production required additional costs. We were very reluctant to abandon our concepts of a massive nuclear strike. It is because of our poverty. Of course, this was not said openly, but it was taken into account in the calculations.

Realistic intimidation

Main article: Realistic intimidation

"Flight time"

Strategic Defense Initiative

Counterproliferation

Although the first military strike action to prevent the emergence of nuclear weapons was undertaken by Israel against Iraq's nuclear potential back in 1981, the American concept of counterproliferation, which emerged after the end of the Cold War, became a new concept for preventing nuclear wars and conflicts. It was first voiced in December by US Secretary of Defense Less Espin. According to this theory, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is in crisis and it is impossible to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction through diplomacy. In critical cases, the United States should launch disarming strikes against nuclear facilities of “dangerous regimes,” including without excluding the limited use of nuclear weapons. In November, Presidential Directive No. 60 was adopted in America, in which the US armed forces were tasked with being ready to strike at facilities for the production and storage of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. In the city, the counterproliferation strategy became part of the US National Security Strategy. Currently, the counterproliferation strategy includes 5 options:

“buying out” a nuclear program from a potentially dangerous state;
establishing control over the nuclear facilities of “problem” (from the US point of view) countries;
partial recognition of the nuclear status of the violator in exchange for its compliance with certain agreements;
forceful threats;
impact on the largest uranium mining companies and countries supplying uranium raw materials.