Erre varrjatok gombot, érdemes elolvasni, ha már a fegyvereknél tartunk:
Moscow's Biggest Bomb: The 50-Megaton Test of October 1961
By Viktor Adamsky and Yuri Smirnov
On 30 October 1961, Soviet Minister of Medium Machine Building Efim Slavsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko sent a telegram to the Kremlin:
To: N.S. Khrushchev, The Kremlin, Moscow: The test at Novaya Zemlya was a success. The security of the test personnel and of nearby inhabitants has been assured. Those participating in the tests have fulfilled the task of our Motherland. We are returning for the Congress.1
In Moscow, the 22nd Congress of the CPSU had already been in session for two weeks. It began its work in the newly-built Kremlin Palace of Congresses, which had just opened its doors for the first time. On October 30, the Congress delegates unanimously reached the sensational decision that "Maintaining the sarcophagus with J.V.
Stalin's coffin is no longer desirable."2 On the same day, Slavsky and Moskalenko reported on the test of a Soviet thermonuclear bomb of unprecedented power.
That morning, at 11:32 AM (Moscow time), there was a 50- megaton (MT) explosion over Novaya Zemlya island in northern Russia above the Arctic Circle at an altitude of 4,000 meters. The atmospheric disturbance generated by the explosion orbited the earth three times. The flash of light was so bright that it was visible at a distance of 1,000 kilometers, despite cloudy skies. A gigantic, swirling mushroom cloud rose as high as 64 kilometers.
The bomb exploded after having fallen slowly from a height of 10,500 meters, suspended by a large parachute. By that time the crew of the TU-95 "Bear" bomber, commanded by Major Andrei Durnovtsev, were already in the safe zone some 45 km from the target. The commander was returning to earth as a lieutenant colonel and Hero of the Soviet Union.
Efim Slavsky and Kirill Moskalenko, as deputies to the Congress, had arrived by plane on the day of the test to observe the explosion. They were aboard an Il-14 "crate" at a distance of several hundred kilometers from ground zero, when a fantastic scene appeared before them; one participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 km. In districts hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, wooden houses were destroyed, and stone ones lost their roofs, windows and doors; and radio communications were interrupted for almost one hour. At the time of the blast, the bomb's designers and test supervisors, headed by Major General Nikolai Pavlov, the Chairman of the State Commission, were at the airfield near Olenya station on the Kola Peninsula. For 40 minutes they had no firm information on the test, or the fate of the bomber and the Tu-16 "Badger" airborne laboratory accompanying it. Only when radio contact with Novaya Zemlya was reestablished were they able to request information on the altitude of the cloud. It was clear that the bomb design had worked.
Meanwhile, both aircraft and documentary crews observing the test were subjected to a most graphic experience. As one cameraman recalled: "The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. Slowly and silently it crept upwards.... Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural."3 Another cameraman saw "a powerful white flash over the horizon and after a long period of time he heard a remote, indistinct and heavy blow, as if the earth has been killed!"4
Some time after the explosion, photographs were taken of ground zero. "The ground surface of the island has been levelled, swept and licked so that it looks like a skating rink," a witness reported. "The same goes for rocks. The snow has melted and their sides and edges are shiny. There is not a trace of unevenness in the ground.... Everything in this area has been swept clean, scoured, melted and blown away."5
A twenty-minute film about the development and test of the 50- MT bomb was later shown to the Soviet leadership. The film concluded with the following remark: "Based on preliminary data alone, it is evident that the explosion has set a record in terms of power." In fact, its power was 10 times the total power of all explosives used during World War II, including the atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities by the United States. It's hard to believe that a more powerful explosion will ever take place.