Totsk military exercises on September 14, 1954 have been the subject of heated historical and political discussions for thirty years. The first in the history of our country exercises with the use of atomic weapons split the Russian society into two opposing and irreconcilable camps. And only a small part of people are able to clearly and carefully assess the events of the past days.
The results obtained as a result of the first Soviet atomic tests turned out to be simply unprecedented - the appearance of such a powerful means of destruction both in the United States and in the USSR seriously changed the geopolitical balance of forces, and meanwhile, the tactics of waging the alleged Third World War. On September 29, 1953, a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, which marked the beginning of the preparation of the Armed Forces and the country for actions in the so-called. "Special conditions". A gradual study of possible options for the development of events began - so far at the level of the heads of the headquarters of military districts and fleets. However, for a complete and comprehensive picture, only one thing was lacking - to actually see the possibilities of the Soviet army conducting military operations in conditions of the use of atomic weapons.
Such exercises were not something new in world practice - as of September 1954, the United States already had five (!) Military exercises from the "Desert Rock" series with the participation of regular units of the American army. There were eight in total, not counting the exercises with the participation of the US Navy and the US Air Force.
So, the search began for a range where it would be possible to conduct a combined-arms exercise using atomic weapons. Among the possible variants of the landfill, Kapustin Yar was also considered. In the spring of 1954, a group of Lieutenant General I.S.Glebov assessed the Totsk test site, located between the cities of Kuibyshev and Chkalov. It was this training ground, as the safest and most convenient, and was chosen for the exercise. The military exercise on the topic "Breakthrough of the prepared tactical defense of the enemy with the use of atomic weapons" was scheduled for the fall of 1954. The exercises were supposed to use the atomic bomb RDS-2 with a capacity of 40 kilotons, tested near Semipalatinsk in 1951. The leadership of the teaching was entrusted to Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.
The objectives of the exercise were:
Investigate the impact of an atomic bomb explosion on a previously prepared defense area, as well as on weapons, military equipment and animals;
To study and practically check in the conditions of using an atomic bomb: the peculiarities of organizing offensive and defensive actions of units of formations; actions of advancing troops in breaking through defensive zones following atomic strikes; actions of the defending troops in the conditions of the use of atomic weapons by the advancing side, conducting a counterattack following an atomic strike on the advancing enemy forces; organization of anti-nuclear defense of troops in defense and offensive; methods of command and control in offensive and defensive operations; material and technical support of troops in combat conditions;
To study one of the possible options for preparing and conducting an offensive from a position of direct contact with the enemy, without withdrawing its troops from the first position for the duration of an atomic strike;
To teach the personnel of the army - privates and commanders - practical actions in the offensive and defense in the front zone when using atomic weapons by their own troops or the enemy.
According to the concept of the exercise, the attacking side ("eastern") was assigned the task of breaking through the prepared defense of a simulated enemy with the use of atomic weapons, for the defending ("western") - organization and conduct of defense in conditions of the use of atomic weapons. The main attention was paid to the attacking side, whose troops actually carried out atomic, artillery and air preparation for breaking through the defense and overcame the area of the atomic explosion. At the same time, all the troops participating in the exercises were briefed in advance on safety precautions, and the units occupying the defense were withdrawn to a safe distance in advance. In total, about 45 thousand people were involved in the exercises. personnel (the basis of the military grouping was the 12th Guards Mechanized Mozyr Division and the 50th Guards Rifle Division, which had up to 600 tanks and self-propelled guns, 500 guns and mortars, 600 armored personnel carriers, 320 aircraft and 6 thousand vehicles and tractors for various purposes). The troops were withdrawn to the exercise in specially designed states and were provided with the latest types of weapons and equipment. The offensive of the rifle corps was planned to be provided with three explosions: one medium-caliber atomic bomb and two stacks of boxes of TNT and barrels of gasoline (simulators of a nuclear explosion). The personnel of the troops at the time of the atomic explosion were withdrawn from potentially dangerous areas and were located in cracks and shelters. In case the explosion was on the ground and not in the air, it would be an emergency, the exercise was canceled, and special measures developed by the leadership headquarters took effect. Within a radius of several tens of kilometers, the local population also took refuge. Among those hiding in the distant 54th year was the wife of my great-great-grandfather. A photograph of her against the background of the "mushroom" of an atomic explosion is still kept in our family archive.
EXERCISE DAY
On the day of the exercise, September 14, 1954, at sunrise there was a clear, sunny weather with a weak wind. At 9:20 am, the leadership of the exercise listens to the latest reports on the meteorological situation and makes a decision to detonate an atomic bomb. The decision is recorded and approved. 10 minutes before the atomic strike was delivered, the "atomic alarm" signal (aka "Lightning" - "Molniya") was given, by which all the troops took shelters and shelters. The crews of tanks and self-propelled guns took their places in the vehicles and closed the hatches.
At 9:34 am, a TU-4 carrier aircraft dropped an RDS-2 atomic bomb with a capacity of 40 kilotons from an altitude of 8000m, the explosion of which followed 48 seconds later at an altitude of 350 meters from the earth's surface. Approximately 1 minute after the explosion, the cloud rose by ~ 4 km, and after 7 minutes - to an altitude of ~ 15 km.
Five minutes after the explosion, artillery preparation and a strike by bomber aircraft began, after which RHR groups (radiation and chemical reconnaissance, "radiatsyonnaya i chimicheskaya razvedka") were sent to the focus of destruction, arriving at the epicenter area 40 minutes after the explosion. They found that the exposure dose level in this area 1 hour after the explosion was 50 R / h, in a zone with a radius of up to 300 m - 25 R / h, in a zone with a radius of 500 m - 0.5 R / h.
At 10:10, the "eastern" ones began to attack the positions of the mock enemy, having previously sent forward radiation reconnaissance patrols. By 12 o'clock, the advance units of the attackers reached the border of the lesion focus and began to overcome it at an increased speed. In total, about 3 thousand people were involved in the area of a real nuclear explosion, that is, no more than 10% of the total personnel involved in the exercise, while about 500 people passed directly through the epicentral zone. At the end of the exercise, it was envisaged to deploy washing and decontamination points in pre-designated areas. 6 hours after entering the area of infection and partial sanitization, a complete decontamination of equipment, washing of personnel and a total change of outerwear began.
Two days later, on September 17, 1954, a TASS report was printed in the Pravda newspaper: “In accordance with the plan of research and experimental work, in the last days in the Soviet Union a test of one of the types of atomic weapons was carried out. The purpose of the test was to study the effects of an atomic explosion. During the test, valuable results were obtained that will help Soviet scientists and engineers successfully solve the problems of protecting against an atomic attack."
