The Hydrogen Bomb Comes to the Soviet Union{5}
Anti-Bomb Campaign Poster
In 1953, the Soviet Union detonated their first hydrogen bomb, a fusion bomb that was many times greater than the fission bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan to end World War Two. The project was being developed as early as 1946, three years before the Soviet Union even detonated their first atomic bomb.
The lead architect of the project was Igor Kurchatov, a Soviet physicist placed in charge by Stalin in order to create an atomic bomb. During World War Two, Soviet espionage had caught wind of the United State’s progress towards their own nuclear project. The Soviets used the lessons learned from the Manhattan project to help fuel the advancement of their own atomic program. The first fusion nuke was tested by the Soviet Union in 1949, four years after the first US test which took place in 1945.
First Soviet Nuclear Test 1949, RDS-1
On the first of November, 1952, the United States detonated their first hydrogen bomb. The bomb was over five hundred times more powerful than the fission bombs dropped to end World War Two. The bomb was dropped on a small island in the pacific, the results left a mile wide crater where the island of Elugelab used to be.
This was big news for the Soviets, and Stalin further impressed upon Kurchatov to create a hydrogen bomb to rival the United States and stay competitive in the arms race. The subsequent testing of the Soviet Union’s hydrogen bomb signaled the true beginning of the arms race between the two greatest super powers on earth. The cold war was finally in full swing. Protests and peace movements grew from both sides of the populace, as the destruction from the testing showed that a thermonuclear war outbreak could spell the end for civilization. The nuclear arms race build up would continue until the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990’s, and would mean the creation of thousands of nuclear bombs that are still present throughout much of the former Soviet states.
Works Cited
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&show=essay&SubjectID=1954bomb&Year=1954&navi=byYear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project
http://soviethistory.macalester.edu/index.php?page=subject&show=&SubjectID=1954bomb&ArticleID=&Year=1954
http://www.pbs.org/opb/citizenk/superbomb/stalinsend.html
http://www.pbs.org/opb/citizenk/superbomb/index.html
October 27, 2014 @ 3:10 pm
This was a great post, and I love the pictures. You did a good job of discussing how the arms race really started near the end of World War II and then magnified during the 1950s with the hydrogen bomb. The competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in developing extremely powerful bombs is quite frightening and one can understand why peace movements and protests broke out. I like how you ended on a dramatic, but accurate note that thousands of nuclear bombs still exist in former Soviet states today, left over from the fall of the Soviet Union. This reveals the magnitude of the arms race.
October 28, 2014 @ 12:24 am
Great post about the arms race. I agree with Kelly, the pictures are great. I like that you compared the new bombs to the bombs used at the end of the cold war. You also did a good job of emphasizing the importance of the arms race during the Cold War. I agree that the Cold War really took off during the 50’s thanks to the arms race.
October 28, 2014 @ 1:55 am
I enjoy researching and reading about the rivalry between Russia and the United States. This post gives good insight into the beginnings of the arms race during the Cold War. The Soviet Union was steps behind the United States in creating the hydrogen bomb. Now, the United States has almost 4 times the amount of nuclear weapons that Russia has and much more nuclear power capabilities (though Russia is starting to expand their nuclear power programs).
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-O-S/Russia–Nuclear-Power/
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Country-Profiles/Countries-T-Z/USA–Nuclear-Power/
http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
October 28, 2014 @ 3:02 am
Great post with good pictures and information! It’s interesting to see how the Soviet Union and the United States played off of one another throughout history and always tried to one-up the other, and you point that out in this discussion, primarily with the Soviet Union using “the lessons learned from the Manhattan project to help fuel the advancement of their own atomic program.” Overall really good information about the arms race leading up to and fueling the Cold War.
October 28, 2014 @ 3:16 pm
The rivalry between Russia and the US pretty much started with the arms race. Both wanted to have the biggest and the most bombs. The cold war might of ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but this rivalry will continue on. Nice post and pictures.