1949 Soviet atomic bomb test

65 years ago, on August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted the first test of a nuclear weapon at the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan). The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons.

The test was kept secret. On September 3, 1949, a US meteorological intelligence service plane took air samples in the Kamchatka region, and then American specialists found isotopes in them, which indicated that a nuclear explosion had been carried out in the USSR.

US President Harry Truman publicly announced this on September 23rd. Then, on September 25, a TASS statement appeared, which stated: “In the Soviet Union, as you know, large-scale construction work is underway - the construction of hydroelectric stations, mines, canals, roads, which necessitates large-scale blasting using the latest technical means. Since these blasting operations took place and are taking place quite often in different parts of the country, it is possible that this could attract attention outside the Soviet Union. As for the production of atomic energy, TASS considers it necessary to recall that as early as November 6, 1947, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov made a statement regarding the secret of the atomic bomb, saying that "this secret no longer exists."