Foreword of V.N. Mikhailov, Russian Federation Minister of Atomic Energy

V.N. Mikhailov

    "This book presents official factual data on general characteristics of all nuclear tests and all peaceful nuclear explosions conducted by the USSR. The presented data is the result of long-term efforts of experts of the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the analysis of the original data contained in numerous classified documents.

In its type the book is similar to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) open publication "United States Nuclear Tests. July 1945 through September 1992", DOE/NV-209 (Rev.14), December 1994. Availability of these two symmetric publications gives an opportunity to conduct fairly concrete and informative comparison of nuclear testing programs performed in the USSR and the USA.

The materials list chronologically all nuclear tests and peaceful nuclear explosions conducted by the USSR beginning with the first nuclear test of August 29, 1949 and ending with the last, seven hundred fifteenth, nuclear test of October 24, 1990. Test dates, locations, purposes, types, and energy release (energy release range) are presented as general characteristics of the USSR nuclear tests.

In so doing for the atmospheric nuclear testing period (before 1963 Treaty Banning Nuclear-Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water was put in force), for the bulk of the nuclear tests the exact values on nuclear explosion yields are given, while for the underground nuclear weapons testing period the yield values by the energy release ranges are mainly presented. This approach properly reflects the restrictions, which currently depend on the extent of sensitivity for certain information, and is symmetric to the American approach. For the peaceful underground nuclear explosions conducted by the USSR since 1965, exact energy release values are given.

During the period of underground nuclear weapons testing in the USSR the technology of salvo nuclear explosions, which were carried out both for military and peaceful purposes, was verified. This technology is essentially more complex as compared to single nuclear device detonation, however, its employment allowed to considerably reduce costs and intensify nuclear testing.

The total number of the USSR nuclear tests is 715, and the total number of exploded nuclear charges and nuclear explosive devices is 969.

In particular, from the comparison of the USSR and USA nuclear testing programs it follows that:

• the USSR conducted a considerably less number of nuclear tests as compared to the USA (715 tests were conducted by the USSR, 1032 by the USA, 24 by the USA jointly with UK);
  
  
• the number of exploded nuclear charges and nuclear explosive devices is as follows: the USSR - 969, the USA - 1127, the USA jointly with UK - 24;
  
  
• the number of USSR peaceful nuclear explosions (124 explosions) is considerably higher than that of the USA peaceful nuclear explosions (27 explosions).
  
  

    It should be emphasized that when implementing the nuclear testing programs the USSR practically always had to catch up with the USA. Thanks to efficiency of scientific and technical solutions and to heroic efforts of specialists, the USSR managed to appreciably eliminate the lag in implementation of the nuclear weapons development and testing programs irrespective the lower economic capabilities and more severe restrictions determined by the test sites specificity. At the same time announcement of the moratoria and introduction of new agreed restrictions on nuclear testing, as a rule, seriously affected the USSR testing capabilities, and extraordinary efforts had to be undertaken again under the conditions determined by these restrictions.

Nuclear weapons tests were one of main fundamentals in creation of the USSR nuclear shield and one can hardly overestimate their importance in this regard as they often compensated for our restricted capabilities in other components of nuclear weapons development technology. The significance of the conducted nuclear tests for the defensive potential of Russia will persist for many years to come, while the test results are one of the components of the military and technical foundation of our national security."

-- V.N. Mikhailov