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- 6/23/2025
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TVTranscript
00:00These pictures were shot by the East German secret police.
00:15They show a spy called Alexander Feiklisov
00:19visiting the grave of a person he regards
00:22as one of the Soviet Union's greatest heroes.
00:24He was a real hero, you know, because he risked his life
00:32in order lives of tens of thousands of people,
00:38Americans, Soviet, British, and others, were saved.
00:44Colonel Feiklisov was one of the most important agents
00:47in the KGB's history,
00:48at one time in charge of the North American spy network.
00:51His hero is Klaus Fuchs, the German scientist
00:57who passed the secrets of America's atom bomb to Moscow.
01:01He was killed by the night
01:15at the same time in charge of the Nueva Janeiro.
01:18I don't know.
01:48The first Soviet bomb had gone down well in the Kremlin.
01:59The top men, Stalin and Beria, were reportedly ecstatic.
02:06The scientists who built it certainly were.
02:08Yuli Hariton, a key man in the team which built the bomb, became part of the privileged minority.
02:24Limousines, parties and all the perks the bureaucracy could provide.
02:27He and his boss, Igor Kurchatov, had delivered at least a year ahead of schedule, and their political paymasters were duly grateful.
02:39But the leadership knew the biggest debt they owed was to their spies.
02:48While the Americans spent the equivalent of some 20 to 30 billion rubles to develop the bomb,
02:54we spent far less.
02:57And that was certainly thanks to the Soviet intelligence services.
03:00One of the many spies to whom they owed such thanks was Alexander Feklisov.
03:13After a gap of over 40 years, he agreed to retrace his steps to the center of one of his most important assignments.
03:20His destination was London, just as it had been in 1947, when a message had reached the KGB that Klaus Fuchs wanted to reopen contact.
03:34Feklisov had been sent off with a special briefing from the KGB's chief of intelligence.
03:39He instructed me, he said, first of all, you should remember that Klaus Fuchs, he is one of the best of our agents.
03:52And he showed that he can observe secrecy very well.
03:57The man the KGB admired so much was now working at Harwell, Britain's new top-secret nuclear research center.
04:12All day long, lorries come and go.
04:15They're stopped at the gates, too.
04:17Surely they don't think there's a spy in there?
04:19He was once again at the cutting edge of the nuclear industry, theoretically for peaceful purposes,
04:23but really, as he later told East German intelligence, still working on the bomb.
04:31Harwell itself was concerned mainly with developing nuclear reactors.
04:40Naturally, most of the staff emphasized the future peaceful applications.
04:44But the senior staff knew that the first reactor to be developed
04:55would be used to produce plutonium for military purposes.
04:59Veklisov's job was to make contact in London and pick up a package of information
05:15which Fuchs thought would be useful to the Soviet Union.
05:19Their first rendezvous was arranged outside a pub in North London called the Nag's Head.
05:24When you have a meeting with an important person,
05:29a person which will pass you materials of the utmost secrecy,
05:38you certainly could be holded up, could be arrested, could be beaten up.
05:45But certainly it was a very tense moment.
05:53Veklisov didn't have to wait long.
05:56Once he and Fuchs had identified each other, they slipped out into the street.
05:59He told me that he brought with him very important information
06:05about reactors and chemical plants to produce plutonium.
06:12And I told him that at the end of the meeting,
06:15while we will turn around the corner,
06:18he will quickly pass it to me and then we will depart.
06:23Veklisov got to know the pubs and parks of London well,
06:27as a succession of meetings followed.
06:29But both men were nervous.
06:31They knew that British and American counterespionage were stepping up the pressure.
06:37In April 1949, Fuchs failed to turn up for his meeting.
06:40The FBI had picked up his trail and tipped off British security.
06:49Concrete suspicions had been directed at me.
06:53From the questions that were asked,
06:55I had to assume that the material I had passed on from New York,
06:58that some kind of information about it had reached the American authorities.
07:02And then came the day when the deputy director, Dr. Skinner,
07:13a very close personal friend,
07:20he said to me,
07:20Klaus,
07:23Klaus,
07:23accusations have been made against you.
07:28If you can assure us there's nothing in them,
07:30we'll stand by you to a man
07:32and fight it through with you to the end.
07:38I simply wasn't equal to that.
07:41As someone involved with intelligence,
07:43I should have been delighted.
07:44But as a human being,
07:46I was suddenly struck by the human relations aspect.
07:50The fact that one can feel such a close bond with one's friends,
07:53that they can place such trust in one.
07:56And that was the moment I betrayed myself.
08:02Fuchs was arrested.
08:03His old friend and mentor, Rudolf Piles,
08:06like Fuchs, a refugee from Nazi Germany,
08:09went to visit him in jail.
08:10When I said that I found it hard to believe
08:17that he accepted all the orthodoxy of Marxism and so on
08:22and of the Soviet regime,
08:25he said,
08:25well,
08:26you must remember what I went through as a young man in Germany.
08:31But also it was always my intention
08:33when I had helped the Russians to take over everything,
08:37then I would get up and tell them what was wrong with their system.
08:40It seems to me a fantastic arrogance and naivety.
08:50He was prepared to meet death.
08:56And when he was later arrested,
08:59he expected that he would be executed.
09:02But Fuchs was sentenced to just 14 years.
09:09Technically,
09:10the Soviet Union had not been an enemy
09:12for much of the time he was spying.
09:15When the fuss died down,
09:17Alexander Fiklisov slipped back to Moscow,
09:19dismayed at the loss of a top spy.
09:21In a series of dawn raids,
09:26FBI agents swooped down on communists,
09:28indicted on charges of advocating
09:30the violent overthrow of the government.
09:32But in America,
09:33the arrest-fuelled anti-communist feeling.
09:36There is no doubt
09:37as to where a real communist loyalty rests.
09:41Their allegiance is to Russia,
09:43not the United States.
09:45FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
09:46asked for funds to hire 300 more special agents.
09:50But already,
09:51the Soviets were getting far less dependent on their spies.
09:54In October 1951,
09:59Oleg Kiryushkin was given special instructions.
10:04Now a be-meddled veteran,
10:05he was then a navigator on a Tupole F4
10:08that had been detailed to test drop an atom bomb.
10:14It was October the 19th, 1951.
10:18The test center chief called us together and said,
10:20Comrades,
10:21today you're making an important test flight.
10:23It was fine.
10:25We lined up to get the final briefing
10:26from the Deputy Minister of the Interior.
10:40He warned us
10:43that if we told anybody,
10:45it would be the death of us.
10:46It would be the death of us
10:47because we were pioneers.
10:50We and our families would all die.
10:52But as he tried to intimidate us,
10:54we smiled,
10:55but our hearts sank.
10:57Who knew how it would go?
10:58It was the first airdrop.
11:05In the atmosphere of those days,
11:08the Soviet Union was working flat out
11:10to build an atomic arsenal
11:11that could threaten credible retaliation.
11:13They knew that the U.S. had targeted
11:18all their major cities.
11:23The plane headed out
11:24towards the same test site in Kazakhstan
11:26where the first Soviet bomb had been tested.
11:29How would the plane behave after the explosion?
11:34What would we feel like ourselves?
11:45We dropped the bomb.
11:47You can picture it.
11:48The plane lost six tons
11:50and bucked upwards,
11:53climbing because it had lost that weight.
11:59Then for 56 seconds,
12:01we waited for the flash to come.
12:02It was worse
12:18when the shockwave hit.
12:20The plane began to creak and grow.
12:22Just imagine.
12:23It's a heavy plane.
12:26There were three almighty shocks,
12:27very powerful shocks.
12:29We've got an instrument
12:30called a variometer
12:31that shows the rate of climb and descent.
12:34Now, that variometer needle
12:35went round the clock three times.
12:38It didn't register just 10 or 15 meters.
12:41It went round three times.
12:43The shock was so violent.
12:45The plane was just hurled upwards.
12:55The plane could have broken up
12:56or caught fire from the flash.
12:58We were relieved and happy
13:00to make it safely back to base.
13:08Before we took off
13:09to make the bombing run,
13:10we were shown
13:11what we would be bombing.
13:16A factory had been built there
13:18and a railway station,
13:19an airport.
13:21There were tanks on the ground,
13:22artillery pieces,
13:23residential housing blocks,
13:25and all the structures
13:26were real, solid.
13:33And after we dropped the bomb,
13:36we were shown what we had done.
13:38Everything was destroyed,
13:40smashed, demolished.
13:42So they were right to claim
13:44that the bomb
13:44is the most horrible weapon.
13:49We were all against it
13:50and we wanted it banned.
13:57But there was no chance of that.
14:01The production of a nuclear arsenal
14:03to match the Americans
14:04was now involving more and more
14:06of the Soviet Union's scarce resources.
14:08At various places
14:18in the vast expanse of the country,
14:20special troops were patrolling
14:22a network of secret nuclear work centres.
14:26To this day,
14:27they remain a forbidding places
14:28to any visitor.
14:32Ours was the first Western team
14:34they'd ever allowed
14:35through these gates,
14:36and that took months
14:37of delicate negotiation.
14:42By 1950,
14:44these work centres
14:44were rapidly expanding
14:46into cities
14:47as thousands of people
14:48were drafted in
14:49to work on nuclear weapons.
14:59Gone were the days
15:00when atomic scientists
15:01worked in freezing tents
15:02with minimal help from above.
15:04Now they were top of the pile,
15:06all the resources
15:07of the state
15:07at their command.
15:12Inside these atomic cities,
15:14life was portrayed
15:15by the internal propaganda
15:16as an idealised collective.
15:19Work together,
15:20live together,
15:21stay together,
15:22and enjoy the rewards.
15:23But it was a privilege
15:34in a world of mirrors.
15:36These cities had no postal address,
15:38no place on a map,
15:39no contact with the outside world.
15:45Then they gave us
15:48free airline passes.
15:49We call them magic carpets,
15:52allowing free and unlimited travel
15:54on all forms of transport,
15:56planes, boats, and trains.
15:58But of course,
15:59since we weren't allowed
16:00out of the city,
16:02there wasn't much
16:02we could do with them.
16:06Altshula knew
16:07that beyond the barbed wire
16:09and the guards,
16:10there was another side
16:11to this story.
16:12He'd only been saved
16:13from the gulag
16:14because his boss
16:14told Beria
16:15he was too good
16:16the scientists to lose.
16:21But other victims
16:23of the programme
16:23were now legion.
16:31Some of them lived
16:32by the Irtish River
16:33in Kazakhstan.
16:39The ferry there
16:40is meant to run
16:41every second day.
16:42But the local population
16:45is dwindling now
16:46and more often than not
16:47the service is cancelled.
16:54The people around here
16:56are among the many
16:57Soviet citizens
16:58who suffered
16:59because their government
17:00wanted nuclear parity
17:01at virtually any price.
17:04The villagers of Darlon
17:06live within the fallout zone
17:08of the Soviet Union's
17:09main test site.
17:10Their first brush
17:12with radiation
17:12had come back
17:13in 1949
17:14when the first
17:15red bomb was tested.
17:17The authorities today
17:18admit that not enough
17:19precautions were taken
17:20to protect them.
17:30Naturally,
17:31when it exploded,
17:32it sucked up
17:33a large quantity
17:34of dust
17:35from the ground.
17:36and all this dust
17:40was dispersed
17:41by the wind
17:42and it settled
17:43on the area roundabout
17:45causing radioactive
17:46contamination.
17:52We ought to have
17:53evacuated people
17:54from the populated areas
17:56downwind,
17:57but that just
17:59didn't happen.
18:00over the next few years
18:05they would see
18:06many such explosions,
18:07many such dust clouds.
18:09The local doctor
18:10tracked the consequences.
18:16We have a very high rate
18:18of infant mortality here.
18:19Apparently,
18:20this is linked to genes
18:21which were damaged
18:22during these radiation tests,
18:23and this infant mortality
18:25is specifically connected
18:26with the effects
18:27of radiation on the genes.
18:28We also get children
18:29born with birth defects,
18:31a great many,
18:32but in my opinion
18:33it is reflected
18:33not in the first generation
18:35which suffered the radiation,
18:37nor to such an extent
18:38in the second generation,
18:39but in the third
18:40and fourth.
18:44Others suffered
18:45more directly
18:46from Stalin
18:47and Beria's ruthlessness.
18:48in the Czech mining town
19:04in the Czech mining town
19:04of Yakimov.
19:05Back in 1950,
19:27these men
19:27were political prisoners
19:28of the new communist regime
19:30in Prague.
19:30they became unwilling components
19:38of the Soviet bomb.
19:44Beneath the surface
19:45of the bleak countryside,
19:46the rock carried seams
19:47of uranium.
19:48When the Russians
20:00wanted supplies stepped up,
20:02political prisoners
20:02were drafted in
20:03to do the work.
20:06The conditions
20:07in the mines
20:09are very difficult
20:11because there is cold,
20:13there is water,
20:14there is danger
20:17of falling down
20:20of boulders,
20:22of fragments
20:23of the rock.
20:25And then also,
20:27especially in the
20:28uranium mines,
20:30there was radioactivity
20:31because it was
20:34the radiation
20:35either from the ore veins,
20:38from the uranium ores,
20:40or also,
20:41and it was far more dangerous,
20:43the breathing of radon,
20:47of the guest radon.
20:54This is mill number one,
20:57the tower of the death.
20:59The material
21:00was milled down
21:03and brought
21:05through the elevator
21:06to the top
21:08of the tower.
21:10This very strong
21:12radioactive material
21:13was very dangerous
21:16for the healthy
21:17of the people
21:18who have been working here.
21:21This tower of the death
21:24was full of dust
21:26and radioactive
21:28danger.
21:32The most dangerous place
21:34in all this plant.
21:38When the snow melted,
21:40the survivors reassembled.
21:41one of them told us
21:42how disobedience
21:43was punished.
21:46Yes.
21:48There was one priest,
21:49the parson.
21:51He was put into
21:52what they call
21:52correction
21:53and they force fed him
21:58using a hose
21:58and a funnel.
22:02The hose was put
22:03down his throat
22:04and they poured
22:05food into the funnel.
22:06That was how they fed people
22:12who went on hunger strike
22:13and who didn't want
22:14to work here.
22:16Afterwards,
22:17they were driven away
22:18and they disappeared.
22:25Some of the men
22:26then decided
22:27to show us
22:27the way they'd had
22:28to march
22:28three miles
22:29to work each day.
22:30The difference
22:3150 years ago
22:33was that they were
22:34badly fed,
22:35badly clothed
22:35and tightly bound together
22:37by sharp wire
22:38which cut into their flesh.
22:40It's the official statistic
22:48from the Ministry of Interior.
22:50They have been together
22:52300 died.
22:55The reason
22:56illness
22:5784.
23:01Suicide
23:0226.
23:04Mortal injury
23:06134
23:08shut down
23:10when attempting
23:12to escape.
23:1324
23:14one
23:15murder
23:16and
23:17unknown
23:19reason
23:1931.
23:27They were the victims
23:28of the ever
23:29colder war.
23:36I am holding
23:41in my hand
23:42a microfilm
23:43of very highly
23:44confidential
23:45secret
23:45State Department
23:46documents.
23:48These documents
23:49were fed out
23:50of the State Department
23:50over 10 years ago
23:52by communists
23:54who were employees
23:55of that department
23:57and who were interested
23:58in seeing
23:59if these documents
23:59were sent
24:00to the Soviet Union.
24:01The war of propaganda
24:03between East and West
24:04was now reaching
24:05a crescendo.
24:05I was determined
24:06as far as
24:08it was humanly possible
24:09to see that
24:11no disloyal person
24:12should be employed
24:13by our government.
24:15President Truman's
24:16post-war philosophy
24:17had taken root.
24:18Communism should be resisted
24:20wherever it showed
24:21its face.
24:21Are you now
24:22or have you ever been
24:22a member of the
24:23Communist Party?
24:24It is perfectly clear
24:25to me, gentlemen,
24:26that if you continue
24:27in this particular
24:28fashion,
24:28you have only
24:30one idea.
24:31And that was
24:33the end of the
24:33in Moscow
24:38the propaganda
24:39machine
24:39was pushing
24:40the same message.
24:50One crucial difference,
24:51of course,
24:52the aggressor
24:53was America,
24:54the intended victim,
24:55the Soviet Union.
24:56citizens,
24:58air
24:59air
25:16if you are at home and hear a signal of air
25:19take the prepared material and individual
25:24This film shows how the authorities were preparing the population for nuclear attack from America.
25:37Just as Londoners had sheltered from German bombing in the city's underground system,
25:41so Muscovites were now taught how to survive bombardment in their own underground shelters.
25:54The country had lost over 20 million people during the war against Hitler.
26:18With the new war now raging in Korea, it was not hard to convince them that the threat from America was serious.
26:48The Pacific is the chosen proving ground for the United States H-bomb experiment here amid vast ocean spaces far from human habitation.
26:58Both sides were fast approaching the moment when they could threaten each other with a weapon 20 times more powerful than any they'd tested so far.
27:06In November 1952, the Americans prepared to explode a massive device on an atoll in the Pacific.
27:12In less than a minute, you will see the most powerful explosion ever witnessed by human eyes.
27:19The blast will come out of the horizon just about there.
27:23And this is the significance of the moment.
27:26This is the first full-scale test of a hydrogen device.
27:30If the reaction goes, we're in the thermonuclear era.
27:37Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one...
27:48The explosion showed the terrifying power of thermonuclear fusion.
27:53The shock waves of the world's first H-bomb rushed towards the onlookers, and spellbound, they watched something never seen before.
28:03But the device was so cumbersome that it could never have been dropped from a plane, or in that sense regarded as a usable weapon.
28:11So the race was on to turn that technology into a bomb, and two new figures were dominating the picture.
28:17In Los Alamos, Edward Teller was leading the American research team.
28:24Like so many other nuclear scientists, a refugee from the Nazis,
28:28but untroubled by doubts that communism now needed to be fought at every turn.
28:35In the secret city of Arzamas-16, Andrei Sakharov, later to be the great dissident against communism,
28:42but now the wonder boy of Soviet science.
28:45A close colleague of his at that time was Yuri Trutnev, now scientific director at Arzamas,
28:52then one of the team working on the hydrogen bomb.
28:59The atmosphere was very creative.
29:02Fresh ideas were valued, and somehow the way it went was that the young specialists who had arrived here
29:09worked with enthusiasm, and the fresh ideas came tumbling out.
29:18We actually had this concept of a fresh idea.
29:23A few months later, the Soviets were back at the Kazakhstan test site,
29:27preparing to explode Sakharov's latest fresh idea,
29:30a bomb using a layer of a light hydrogen isotope called lithium.
29:35They felt certain this was an advantage over the Americans,
29:38because they'd seen early American plans, courtesy of Beria's spies.
29:42Zildović was the one who examined the materials, which, it subsequently turned out, were tellers' work.
29:56But after analysis by Zildović and his colleagues, they turned out to be flawed.
30:08Then, not for the first time in this saga, the unexpected intervened.
30:14Stalin died.
30:20In the power struggle which followed, his apparent successor and head of the atomic program,
30:24Lavarenti Beria, lost out.
30:28Nikita Khrushchev emerged as the new leader, and Beria was executed.
30:37Many of his associates in the Lubyanka lost their jobs, or were dispatched to prison,
30:42including some in the spy network which had accumulated the secrets of America's bomb.
30:48Only the importance of the nuclear program stopped his protégés at Azamas going the same way.
31:03It was September before preparations resumed in Kazakhstan.
31:07The American test the previous year had demonstrated the awesome potential of such a device.
31:13But theirs was more of an exploding laboratory than a weapon.
31:21Although Sakharov's would be exploded from a tower, it was small enough to be dropped from a plane.
31:27So if it worked, Sakharov and the Russians could claim that they had overtaken the Americans in the race to build a usable hydrogen bomb.
31:34One sec.
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32:00One sec.
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32:0540 years ago Ilya Radugin was a young lieutenant in the Red Army his task had been to build this
32:19house specially to test the destructive power of the explosion he was watching from only a
32:24few miles away when the bomb went off and the house disintegrated it's difficult to put it
32:34into words you have to see it this crackling sound you get the impression that the material explodes
32:40in one or two seconds it's a drawn-out period the crackling goes on for several tens of seconds
32:48and that has a powerful effect on the nerves the ears on everything and then afterwards comes
32:55the shockwave and then the secondary shockwave it's all very unpleasant very unpleasant at the
33:00short distance and this was a bomb which had not relied on American secrets the Russians effort
33:11had paid off they had overtaken the Americans all the evidence there is shows that this was an
33:20independent Soviet design it was not a copy of anything that had been received from the United
33:25States and in fact all the early intelligence or all the intelligence we know about on the hydrogen
33:31bomb from the United States would have been quite misleading because it was all leading down to dead
33:38and it ends in thinking about how you would design such a weapon
33:53you can judge the power of the explosion at least from the wrecked basement where we are standing
33:58this was supposed to be a bomb shelter with a reinforced concrete capping there are some steel rods sticking out
34:05it's as if they've been cut off with a knife there's concrete under our feet and that's
34:10not to mention the fact that there were three brick stories above they were swept away they've gone
34:14the shockwave of the explosion on those remote planes was also felt in Washington
34:23you guys really had underestimated Soviet progress the bomb was tested three years before the
34:34CIA estimated was the earliest it could be tested so there was a very unstable and dangerous situation
34:43in which you had some people arguing for a preventive war against the Soviet Union before the Soviet Union
34:50really developed the capacity to strike with nuclear weapons at the United States both sides knew that the cost of
34:59fighting a war with such weapons would be fearsomely high but it wasn't beyond imagining and it was for that both sides now planned
35:06the bridge over the river Yuro near the town of Orenburg in central Russia is technically the dividing line between Europe and Asia in September 1954
35:27in September 1954 Vasily Kovalev and Ivan Skvortsov were privates in unit of the Red Army stationed nearby
35:34they were told to report for special maneuvers near the town of Totsk some 50 miles away
35:50as a young communist leader I was given the job of organizing preparations I had to see to it that squad personnel kept strict disciplines and to check their morale because we had to carry out a very important government mission
36:15The area had been chosen because it had some similarities with the Fulda gap in West Germany where Soviet forces planned to drive through NATO lines in the event of war
36:32everything that happened was kept secret for years records of who took part was suppressed and this film was locked in the military archive until the Soviet Union collapsed
36:42but we have found witnesses to what was an extraordinary rehearsal for nuclear war
36:49some of the preparations were unsurprising
36:53trenches have been dug across the plain as though for an infantry battle
36:59tanks were left camouflaged and aircraft positioned for takeoff
37:05less expected were the livestock tethered round the battlefield in the autumn sun
37:12and this was the reason
37:18an atomic bomb was going to be exploded over the site as part of the exercise
37:23and the Soviet leaders wanted to find out how close a living creature could go and still survive
37:28military chiefs from the communist countries turned up to watch what happened from the bunker
37:38the code word to start the exercise was molnia or lightning
37:43across the leaves
37:45filled out
37:46Voila
37:47voila
37:49voila
37:52voila
37:56voila
37:59voila
38:01voila
38:02voila
38:06The command came at 9 o'clock in the morning, September 14th.
38:15Enemy air attack, and then, atom, atomic alert, that is, an atomic attack.
38:23We took to the trenches and we took cover, and for some 25 to 30 minutes we remained
38:29in the trenches, waiting for the next signal.
38:34The bomb is gone.
38:47The bomb is gone.
38:49The bomb continued for 40 seconds.
38:51The bomb is gone.
39:01At that point, there was a flash
39:11that blinded the men in the trench.
39:21Then the explosion took place.
39:24It was unusual.
39:27Now I'd fought in the war
39:29and I'd seen explosions
39:31of conventional ammunition
39:33during the Second World War.
39:36But that explosion
39:37was very sharp,
39:39very abrupt.
39:41And when the explosion
39:43went off, there was a blinding
39:45lightning, so to speak,
39:47a powerful beam,
39:48a very powerful beam.
39:52We had black pieces
39:53of glass installed in our gas
39:55masks. You could hardly
39:57even see the sun through those glasses.
40:00But that light was
40:01stronger than an electric arc welder.
40:07It was a few seconds
40:08before the blast hit them.
40:11Of course,
40:11we covered our eyes
40:13with our hands,
40:14as we had been told to do.
40:16We crouched
40:17in the bottom of the trench.
40:19And this was followed
40:19by a sensation
40:20like an earthquake.
40:21It was as if we were
40:23on board
40:24a large seagoing ship
40:25with a ground rock.
40:27Some animals died instantly.
40:56others survived the attack
41:02and in that bleak sense
41:04the experiment yielded
41:05useful data.
41:12The cloud was still rising
41:14when 40,000 troops
41:16were ordered to start
41:17their mock battle
41:18under its deadly shadow.
41:19We received the order
41:39to break cover,
41:42board the trucks
41:43and move forward
41:44to the firing position,
41:46the site of stage 2
41:47of the exercise,
41:49followed up by an attack
41:51on the enemy
41:52defensive positions.
41:56The moment we got
41:57out of the trenches,
41:58we saw a gigantic
42:00mushroom cloud
42:01rising in the distance.
42:03Then, as now,
42:17people lived and farmed
42:18in the countryside
42:19around where
42:19the exercise was held.
42:22A few days before,
42:24they'd been evacuated
42:25from their land.
42:28But they were allowed back
42:29almost before
42:30the dust had settled.
42:38When we returned,
42:39the village was still burning.
42:42There was military equipment
42:43ablaze.
42:45The fire engines
42:46were putting the fires out.
42:48Bulldozers were working away.
42:51But they actually allowed us
42:53to eat everything right away.
42:55We'd got cucumbers,
42:56tomatoes, melons
42:57in our vegetable gardens.
43:00And when we got back,
43:01all this vegetable crop
43:02was ripened,
43:04the tomatoes and such.
43:05They were all red.
43:10And they said,
43:11go ahead,
43:11you can eat everything.
43:13It's not dangerous.
43:14Of course,
43:15we and the children
43:15began eating.
43:16Forty years later,
43:21in the long grass nearby,
43:23a moth emerged
43:24from its chrysalis
43:25into the summer sun.
43:26But it will never fly.
43:28Its right wing
43:29has inherited
43:29a genetic fault
43:30from the poisoned earth
43:32around Totsk.
43:36On the surface,
43:37most of the scars
43:38have healed.
43:42Kovalev and Skvortsov
43:44have never been back
43:44to the epicentre before.
43:49There is no official record
43:51to prove that they
43:52or any of the other
43:5340,000 soldiers
43:54actually took part
43:56in the exercise.
44:05But at the local hospital
44:06in Totsk,
44:07the truth has been
44:08harder to obliterate.
44:10Despite opposition
44:10from his superiors,
44:12Dr. Nikolai Sidorov
44:13kept a record
44:14of how the local
44:15population fared.
44:24In the 1960s,
44:25there was a definite
44:26explosion of tumorous illnesses
44:28in both the region
44:30and in the whole province.
44:33I should mention here
44:34that at the end of 1991,
44:36we had 28,000 people
44:38suffering from tumorous
44:39illnesses in the province
44:41and this trend
44:42is growing stronger
44:43every year.
44:46If we compare
44:47the statistics
44:48relating to 1950
44:49with those
44:50for the current years,
44:51we will see
44:52that the number
44:53of cases
44:53has gone up
44:54500%
44:55and the mortality rate
44:57has gone up
44:58accordingly
44:59as a consequence.
45:00Despite the damage
45:10to humans
45:11and to the environment,
45:12the testing
45:13went on.
45:16And Sakharov
45:17in those days
45:18was a loyal servant
45:19of the Soviet arms race.
45:20After his explosion
45:31of August 12th,
45:33Sakharov racked his brains
45:34to see if it was feasible
45:36to make a bomb
45:37that was more powerful
45:39and more efficient.
45:40towards the end
45:48of 1954,
45:50there was an idea
45:51for a new type
45:52of hydrogen bomb
45:54on a far more economic
45:55and efficient principle.
46:00The device
46:01carried in this plane
46:02in 1955
46:03was,
46:04to that date,
46:05the most powerful bomb
46:06ever tested
46:07in the atmosphere.
46:10It was called
46:13Sakharov's
46:14third idea.
46:33It should have been
46:35a moment of triumph
46:36for Soviet science,
46:38but it wasn't entirely.
46:40At least not
46:40for the very scientists
46:41who had created it.
46:53Just as their counterparts
46:54in Los Alamos
46:55had been shocked
46:56when the first atom bomb
46:57was actually tested,
46:59so too were
46:59the Soviet scientists
47:00when they saw
47:01what they had done.
47:02turned to Moscow
47:10two days after the explosion.
47:13Friend said
47:13he was appalled
47:14by the implications
47:15of the test.
47:16Kurchatov was terribly depressed
47:22by everything
47:23that had occurred.
47:25I asked him,
47:26how did it all go?
47:27Was it difficult?
47:28Very difficult,
47:29he replied.
47:30And from that point on,
47:31he devoted himself
47:32completely
47:33to peaceful applications.
47:37By the time
47:38of his public funeral
47:39in 1960,
47:41the military men
47:41had taken complete control
47:43of the project.
47:45They and their counterparts
47:46in the West
47:46had devised a policy
47:48for peace of a sort.
47:49It was called MAD,
47:51Mutually Assured Destruction,
47:53a far cry
47:54from the vision
47:54Kurchatov had inherited
47:56from pioneers of physics
47:57like Rutherford,
47:58Bohr, and Einstein.
48:00Kurchatov had died
48:01in the arms
48:02of his old friend
48:03and colleague,
48:04Yuli Hariton.
48:09Hariton was the man
48:10who had actually built
48:11the first red bomb.
48:13He's 90 now.
48:15More out of habit
48:16than need,
48:17he still lives
48:18in isolation and secrecy.
48:22Only his closest friends
48:24know the toll
48:25it has taken
48:25on his personality
48:27and life.
48:28When he was young,
48:30he liked to dance,
48:32to sing,
48:33to go to theatre,
48:35to have many friends.
48:38He was interested
48:41in beautiful women,
48:44but his science
48:45was too serious
48:46and he,
48:47the science
48:48made him
48:49also so serious
48:51because it was
48:52a secret,
48:54secret, secret.
48:59Andrei Sakharov,
49:00the genius
49:01who built
49:01the hydrogen bomb,
49:03turned against the system
49:04which required it
49:05to survive.
49:06He became communism's
49:11most famous dissident,
49:12believing that
49:13building bombs
49:14to protect a nation
49:15was pointless
49:16unless the nation
49:17first protected
49:17human rights.
49:19It was a fight
49:20he continued
49:20until his dying day.
49:25Klaus Fuchs
49:26was released
49:26from prison
49:27after serving
49:28just eight years
49:29for what he'd done.
49:31He returned
49:32to his communist
49:32homeland,
49:33East Germany,
49:34where he remained
49:35till he died.
49:37To the end,
49:39he believed
49:39he'd acted
49:40in the interests
49:41of peace on Earth.
49:42to the end of the world.
49:45To the end of the world,
49:46to the end of the world,
49:47to the end of the world,
49:47to the end of the world,
49:48to the end of the world,
49:48to the end of the world,
49:49to the end of the world,
49:49to the end of the world,
49:49to the end of the world,
49:50to the end of the world,
49:50to the end of the world,
49:50to the end of the world,
49:51to the end of the world,
49:51to the end of the world,
49:51to the end of the world,
49:52to the end of the world,
49:52to the end of the world,
49:53to the end of the world,
49:53to the end of the world,
49:54to the end of the world,
49:54to the end of the world,
49:55to the end of the world,
49:55to the end of the world,
49:56Transcription by CastingWords
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