Is it possible to escape from the atomic bomb?

The cycle " Nuclear threat "

In the textual series “Nuclear threat”, which Samizdat launched together with the Sieramadre telegram channel, we will talk about how the fear of nuclear war was emerging, how it was displayed in the movie and what it led to. In this episode, Yegor Sennikov will tell how humanity learned to defend himself from a nuclear blow and how the US government and the USSR prepared the population to escape from the end of the world.

Once upon a time there was a turtle named Bert,
And Bert was always on his guard;
When he was in danger, he knew what to do ...
He was bending!
And she took refuge!
Bended!
And she took refuge! He did what we all must learn to do.
And you, and you, and you, and you!
Get stuck and cover!

<...>

Now we must be prepared for a new danger - atomic bomb.

To begin with, you should know what is happening when an atomic bomb explodes. You will find out when she explodes. Naturally, we hope that it will never explode, but we must be prepared.

It looks something like this. At first - a bright flash. Brighter than the sun, most brightly that you have ever seen. If you are not ready and will not know what to do, it can harm you. She can discard you, can hit a tree or a wall. This is a very strong explosion that can demolish at home or knock out a glass throughout the city.

From the 1952 educational American film “Duck and Cover”.

In August 1945, humanity stepped into the atomic age. When Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still burning in nuclear heat, a new fear was already born in the world. The apocalyptivity of a possible nuclear war was obvious to everyone who, with their own eyes, saw bombed Japanese cities, people dying of radiation illness, at home, turning into dust.

Realizing and feeling this fear, humanity began to seek protection from him. American, Soviet, British scientists and military experts studied the consequences of the atomic explosion for the health of people and animals located in the zone of the explosion of the atomic bomb. The experience of two Japanese cities survived during the bombing of the bombing of two Japanese cities was especially intently studied-scientists systematized what happened to the city residents and tried to describe the reasons why someone survived a nuclear blow with less losses. In 1948, the Americans allowed the British scientists to be present when testing a nuclear bomb in the Pacific Ocean, despite the fact that the exchange of technical information between the two powers was stopped. The problem of survival in the atomic war was considered so important.

After 1945, the Americans possessed a monopoly on nuclear weapons. The country's leadership understood that for a long time such a situation would not last and it was necessary to strengthen its position. A new goal was already looming on the horizon-a hydrogen bomb, or, as it was briefly called in the press, H-Bomb. At the same time, it was necessary to take care of the defense in the event of a nuclear attack by the enemy - the security system was engaged in the civil defense management under the US Department of Defense, which was created during the Second World War.

The test of the Soviet nuclear bomb not only made the fact that American intelligence was not sufficiently informed in the issue of the Soviet atomic project: the explosion in Semipalatinsk showed that Americans need to accelerate the creation of a civil defense system. The USSR, in turn, understood that American nuclear weapons are a constant threat of Soviet security, which became especially acute after the creation of NATO in 1949. So, the Soviet Union had to create protection.

Two nations went in different ways, and the strategies adopted by them reflect not only the difference in the mentality of the two nations, but also the significant differences in how the leadership of the USA and the USSR were prepared to reflect the deadly threat.

Explore a nuclear attack

The article, and then the book of John Hursey “Hiroshima” was carefully studied by American military experts, and some of the author’s conclusions were transferred to the civil defense strategy developed in the United States. The most obvious of them were like this: those who can hide in some kind of refuge, bend down, hide under the table have the greatest chances of survival. In addition, the windows were represented by a separate danger in a nuclear explosion-they were knocked out, and many people died precisely because of the fragments. Finally, another important conclusion was that it was not worth looking at the outbreak from the nuclear explosion: it was because of this that most people received burns and radiation infection.

In 1950, the US government released the Survival Under Atomic Attack information and educational booklet. The book was focused on an adult audience and, in theory of its authors, was supposed to teach people basic information about actions in a nuclear attack. Most of the conclusions were based precisely on the study of the consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which made the book partly outdated: the power of bombs used in Japan was relatively small for nuclear weapons, the new bombs were much more destructive and dangerous.

A year later, Truman created the US Federal Civil Defense Department, headed by Millard Kaldwell, the former governor of Florida, known for his racist views and a tough approach to solving the problem. The administration decided to focus on informing the population about the threats of nuclear war, at the same time, a system of warning of Conelrad was created, and in the event of a real conflict, they chose the evacuation of the residents of large cities deep into the country as the main conflict strategy.

For informing and media policy took up seriously. The propaganda film “Duck and Cover” represented a specially created character-Berta-Cherepahu. The main advice of the turtle Berta "Suffle and cover!" It may seem too naive and strange, but it was withdrawn from the real experience of the survivors. For example, Kiko Takakura was 300 meters from the epicenter of the explosion in Hiroshima, but she was saved by the fact that she was in the lobby of a well -fortified Bank of Japan. Aiso Nomura was caught by an explosion in the basement 170 meters from the epicenter and successfully survived the bombing, then living up to eighty -four years.

In large American cities, test exercises and checks were constantly carried out. Teachers could at any moment shout to their students: "Fleet!" or "explosion!" - And they should have acted in response according to the instructions. Millions of Boyskouts spread brochures among peers and adults, and they themselves spent time in endless training in case of a nuclear attack.

Despite all this violent activity, the Duck and Cover campaign was mainly ridiculed. The main advice seemed to the naive majority of Americans, despite the fact that he was actually withdrawn from the experience of the survivors. However, the Duck and Cover campaign began to obsolete almost at the time of the release: just in 1952, the United States conducted the first tests of a much more powerful hydrogen bomb, and soon it appeared in the Soviet Union. The chances of escaping from her in the shelter were not zero, but rather low. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the development of civil defense in the United States has never been funded at the level that military experts considered sufficient. This was due not only to the uncertainty of the leadership in the effectiveness of the measures taken, but also with the fact that more trust in the development of anti -missile and air defense.

Some even considered the real goal of the campaign to bite the “red threat”. This argument can be partially agreed: in fact, until the end of the 1950s the USSR simply did not have enough nuclear bombs, and delivery funds-Tu-4 bombers-did not allow the main American cities to attack. But at the same time, the authors of the campaign considered it a strong side of the psychological factor, it gave the same feeling that the security belt was in the car: the illusion of security and control over the situation. Other campaigns were also aimed at achieving the same effect (the largest of them - Alert America!), Conducted as part of the development of the civil defense system.

Another strategy used in the US leadership was military exercises and games, as a rule, secret. Behind closed doors, rehearsals of possible stages of nuclear conflict were carried out in order to determine the optimal behavior at each stage. Some games were attended by a large number of people, others were chamber. On some, the state apparatus reaction to a nuclear attack was worked out, during others they discussed possible actions during radiation pollution or a plan for evacuation from large cities.

A similar civil defense system was worked out in the UK. True, they were not very fond of military games: in the 1950s, when the Cold War constantly threatened to develop into hot, two powers established an exchange of military and intelligence information and developed joint defensive approaches, trying to find out what was happening in the Soviet Union almost closed to others.

Conelrad (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) - a system of emergency warning of the US population in case of the start of the war. The system was supposed to operate throughout the country and randomly change the transmitters to make a message inaccessible to Soviet bombers. Conelrad was launched in 1953 and worked for 10 years until it was replaced by the EBS system.

On the other side

The approach to the organization of civil defense in the USSR differed from the methods of Americans. First of all, the degree of organization: if in the United States, the state body was largely engaged in informing the population and supervision of the measures carried out, and a significant part of the defense was to teach everyone to be alert, then in the USSR a state and centralized approach was professed from the very beginning.

The predecessor of the civil defense system in the USSR appeared back in 1932 - then local air defense was organized. Its tasks are organizing defensive and auxiliary activities in air attack: disguise, analysis of rubble, assistance to the victims. At first, the MPVO was subordinate to the People's Commissariat of Defense; Then, in the early 1940s, it was transferred to the NKVD. The system showed itself well during the war, but after 1945 it was necessary to think about changes.

Stalin considered that he struck the hour, in 1949. At the end of October, a new “Regulation on the USSR MPVO” was adopted, which was written taking into account the changed circumstances: the defense system was primarily prepared for a nuclear war. The Soviet leadership was not supposed to build a large -scale centralized paramilitary defense system, which was supposed to not only minimize losses from a possible conflict, but also save the leadership, large industry and a significant part of the population.

It is interesting to read

The heads of MPVO in the regions were officers with combat experience, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and selected volunteers worked in the headquarters. On the one hand, this was the strength of the entire system: in the event of a threat, it was supposed to act as a real army structure. On the other hand, it was less aimed at protecting the civilian population, and its readiness for technogenic and natural disasters for many years was lower than the readiness for war.

Throughout the 1950s, the value of the MPVO, which gradually turned into a large-scale civil defense system, increased. Increasingly, the question was raised that the entire system must be transferred under the control of the Ministry of Defense.

How the budgets and significance of the department have increased by the fact that the entire second half of the 1950s, the MPVO system built special objects (underground plants, bunkers, bomb shelters), which were supposed to help protect industry and agriculture. Although the objects, of course, were not the cheapest, it did not mean that now the country is safe. Even in the late 1970s, shelters were enough to save about 25 % of the country's population, about 10-15 % of workers engaged in key industries, and almost the entire leadership of the country. However, much depended on the amount of time to prepare for the attack: if the attack would have known in a few hours, then the losses would exceed 100 million people, but in a week of training in the USSR they expected to evacuate the urban population almost completely.

In 1961, the MPVO was already gritting to such a scale that it could not be preserved as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs , and it was finally transferred to the military, and also transformed into civil defense. Its leader was the deputy minister of defense of the USSR; This post was the first to take Marshal Chuikov, who at one time playing a key role in the command of the Soviet defense during the Battle of Stalingrad. The 1960s, and then the 1970s became the heyday of civil defense in the USSR. Now the department of available funds had not only strong veterans and atomizdat brochures about what to do when bombing, but also huge investments in the infrastructure, own educational institutions and teachings. But all this became possible only after the whole system had to endure one cruel, almost existential crisis.

In 1946, the People’s Commissariats (or People's Commissars) were reorganized into the ministries. The NKVD was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs , some of the functions of the department was transferred to the management of the newly created MGB (Ministry of State Security).

Hysteria and hour "D"

Paranoia and the fear of nuclear war seized the world gradually. By the end of the 1950s-the beginning of the 1960s, America was seized with a fever of the construction of bomb shelters. The motives for Soviet and American shelters were similar, the approaches were similar: mass collective objects were built in the USSR, and at first - individual ones in the USA.

This fever became especially hot at the beginning of Kennedy's presidency. The administration of Truman and Eisenhower did not consider it necessary to support the construction of a large number of shelters. This is explainable: in the 1950s, the main possible way of nuclear attack was a bombardment from aircraft. This meant that the authorities and the population had enough time to prepare for the attack.

Everything changed in the late 1950s: in 1957, a successful test of the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile R-7 conducted the Soviet Union, a year later, the SM-65 Atlas missile was tested in the United States. Now it was possible to do without airplanes.

After that, hysteria began to capture society with great speed. Commercial companies began to energetically offer turnkey bomb shelters, which could be both ascetic and cheap and luxurious basements worth $ 5,000. The phone was connected in the bomb shelters, beds, toilets and even a Geiger counter were installed. Life magazine wrote an article about newlyweds who spent their honeymoon in a reinforced concrete room 12 feet underground.

In 1961, President Kennedy addressed the nation with a speech in which he proposed massive construction of bomb shelters: “We must protect our families and our country in this way. Time has come. In the coming months, I hope to inform every citizen what steps he should take without delay in order to protect his family in case of attack. ”

The proposed bomb shelters could not protect the rocket from direct hit, but they could reduce health consequences from radiation pollution. Kennedy demanded that the Congress allocate more than $ 100 million to create a network of public shelters, lawmakers allocated even more - about 169 million.

In a short time, a media campaign began: in January 1962, the cover of Life magazine was dedicated to the article about The Drive For Mass Shelters. The article came in handy - already in October 1962 the Caribbean crisis broke out. An exacerbation of the relationship that began after the American missiles placed in Turkey continued with the secret placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. After the US leadership found out that right under their nose there were Soviet missiles that could fly to Washington in 20 minutes, panic began.

The Caribbean crisis is a period of acute tension in relations between the Soviet Union and the USA in October 1962. The conflict threatened to develop into a full -scale nuclear war, but was stopped thanks to the desire for negotiations by John Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev.

The Americans left large cities in horror, Fidel Castro offered Nikita Khrushchev to hit New York as soon as possible, the “hawks” in Washington and Moscow were sewn at the first persons of the state, pushing those to active actions. October 1962 was a time when the hysteria and fear of the nuclear war accumulated for years first reached the peak and threatened to bring down the already shaky world order.

The Caribbean crisis has become a peak moment of panic. In the USSR, queues for groceries in stores were built, some even left cities. The same thing happened in the USA, and around the world. Everyone expected that a war would begin from minute to minute.

The horror that humanity covered in those two October weeks was so powerful that the impulse was enough for it for a long time. Realizing that the whole path that humanity passed after the Second World War may be easily destroyed in a few hours, politicians on both sides of the ocean stirred. A year later, an agreement was signed on the ban on the testing of nuclear weapons in three areas. In 1968 - on non -proliferation of nuclear weapons; за ними последовали договоры о сокращении ракет средней и малой дальности. 1970-е стали временем «разрядки»: СССР и США сближались, налаживали сотрудничество и всеми силами пытались найти устойчивое равновесие. Довольно долго у них это получалось.

Дата выхода следующего текста ― 19 июля на канале « Сьерамадре ».