--- title: "Semipalatinsk: The USSR's Eerie Nuclear Test Site" description: "In 1949, the Soviet Union accomplished a keen ambition: the detonation of its first atomic bomb.\n\nKnown as RDS-1, the bomb produced a mushroom cloud which obliterated the surrounding landscape. With an explosive yield of 22 kilotonnes, it released a cloud of radioactive particles into the air, contaminating the surrounding area, and registering radioactive particles which triggered the attention of a nearby US spy plane.\n\nLuckily, the bomb was tested in the arid steppes of Kazakhstan, therefore there were no human beings around to be affected by the Soviet nuclear plans.\n\nBut of course there were.\n\nToday, we will be unravelling the details of this particular project, and exploring just what the ramifications of it were for the people living around the test site of Semipalatinsk in the northeastern Kazakh SSR — both then, and even today.\n\n## Background\n\nGiven the destructive power of the US' Fat Man bomb, which levelled the stubborn Japanese resistance in the latter stages of World War II, the world quickly took notice of the weapon. Perhaps most interested were Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, who decided to throw everything they had into developing a nuclear bomb of their own.\n\nAnd so Lavrentiy Beria, the monstrous head of the NKVD, set up a number of sites in isolated (but not that isolated) parts of the vast USSR, in order to rapidly unearth the secrets of the supercharged new invention.\n\nThis led to the establishment of Chelyabinsk-40 in rural Siberia, a city which later became infamous due to nuclear waste fed into the nearby waters of Lake Karachay from a nuclear facility known as 'Mayak'. Karachay became the deadliest lake in the world, and the cost to surrounding flora, fauna, and humans was likely immeasurable: not least because to spend anything more than a few moments near the lake today would result in an irreversible dose of death.\n\nAside from this, the Soviet nuclear project came with a significant number of accidents and disasters. Most famous was Chernobyl in 1986, which could have — and in some places did — have irreversible consequences for millions of people. Kyshtym was another, earlier example. Covered up by the Soviet authorities for years, the September 1957 accident, which took place at Mayak, saw toxic waste spew straight into Lake Karachay and the surrounding area, resulting in an untold number of cancer cases in the following years. Chernobyl and Kyshtym were not the only such examples in the USSR. In fact, astonishingly, two more deadly accidents occurred at Mayak alone around the same time — one just a few months before Kyshtym, in May 1957, and another about six months after, in February 1958. Both accidents resulted immediately in worker deaths, but it can be presumed that toxic releases were generated which came at the expense of more lives elsewhere. And in 1968, yet another accident took place at Mayak, when improperly handled plutonium resulted in one worker dying and another having three limbs amputated.\n\nKeep in mind, these are only the accidents we know about. The Soviet nuclear project — much like the state in general — carried out its aims in strict secrecy. Many of its experiments took place in mysterious and far-flung test sites, or in closed cities whose existence was sometimes unknown even to people living a few miles down the road. On occasions where a disaster took place, they were generally hushed up, and many of the documents pertaining to Soviet-era nuclear activities were bundled away or destroyed as the period ended. We may never know the full extent of what the Soviets got up to, the extent of the accidents they caused by misadventure or negligence, or what the human toll — not to mention environmental — was to all of this.\n\nAnyway, back to Semipalatinsk. The rural town in east Kazakhstan was chosen by Beria in 1947 in the search for a nuclear-grade weapon. Beria had claimed the surrounding steppe was uninhabited (which, of course, it wasn't), and nuclear test facilities were established there using Gulag labour. Scientists were hauled in, and nuclear development and testing quickly got underway.\n\nAnd so rose the infamous Semipalatinsk Test Site, a sprawling 18,000 square kilometre facility also known also by its codename Semipalatinsk-21 — or more commonly still its nickname, 'The Polygon'.\n\n## The Polygon\n\nThe Polygon got off the ground with vigour. Over the next four decades, the bombs detonated at Semipalatinsk released energy around 2,500 times greater than the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.\n\nAlready by 1949, the nuclear project had borne fruit. RDS-1, known in the West as Joe-1 and the USSR's first atomic bomb, was successfully tested on the 29th of August that year. The test was the culmination of an initiative known as First Lightning, which united all existing arms of the Soviet nuclear structure. RDS-1 was designed by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, one of whose later deputy directors was Valery Legasov, the man tasked with the response to the Chernobyl Disaster and who was portrayed by Jared Harris in the 2019 HBO series *Chernobyl*. Plutonium for RDS-1 was produced in Chelyabinsk-40, home to the Mayak power plant, which would later spew the same element into the bodies of its workers and into the serene waters of Lake Karachay.\n\nThe West quickly realised that the Soviet Union had acquired the bomb, a fact announced by US President Harry S. Truman in September 1949. The following month, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued significant awards to groups of leading researchers, designers, and engineers involved with the project. Several were issued the State Stalin Prize, and the leaders of the project were issued the title of Heroes of Socialist Labour. This included its lead developer, physicist Yulii Khariton, who went on to become one of only sixteen people to be issued the prestigious award three separate times.\n\nFollowing the success, the Polygon pressed forward with more nuclear projects. It remained in operation for the next forty years, during which time as many as 456 test detonations were carried out at the site.\n\n116 of these were atmospheric nuclear explosions that took place between 1949 and 1962, and which were no doubt responsible for the vast bulk of radioactive bleed to which nearby residents were exposed. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of an all-out nuclear war in 1962, an agreement on nuclear test reduction was signed by the Soviet Union, the US, and more than a hundred other countries. However, the so-called Limited Test Ban Treaty didn't end nuclear testing outright — and explosions at the Polygon continued with pace, just now underground in boreholes and caves. A further 340 nuclear explosions were carried out at Semipalatinsk by 1989.\n\nThe full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities. Some came to light after the Polygon ceased operations and the site was inherited by Kazakhstan in 1991. However, much of the site's data sits in sealed archives in Moscow, which includes details about the nature of the testing and the consequences for those exposed to it.\n\nHowever, the effects were clear as day to those who looked close enough.\n\n## Nuclear Fallout\n\nAmong all the problems related to the tests at the Polygon, perhaps the greatest can be traced back to Beria's claim, at the outset of the project, that the steppe was uninhabited.\n\nHe was lying. At least 500,000 people lived in areas close to the site during the Soviet era, according to Radio Free Europe. Most of these had no idea about the nature of the work happening at the Polygon, save for their suspicions.\n\nOf course, it didn't really take a detective to have an inkling of what the authorities were up to. This was probably fairly clear given the oddly-coloured explosions which would cause the ground to uncontrollably shake, and the Soviet authorities' coincidental announcement of having unlocked the secret to the most destructive weapon known to man.\n\nSo while the Soviet public may not have been aware of the extreme risks of nuclear radiation, the people of the area probably knew that some murky business was happening on their doorstep.\n\nNot that being more aware would have done them much good. The Soviets were certainly not about to let the population of Kazakhstan pack up and move away, not unless they were forced to do so. Generally, moving people out of Kazakhstan was not within the USSR's playbook, and more common was to instead dump undesirable populations there, to fend for themselves in the open expanses of the steppe. This included large populations of Germans, Chechens, Ingush, and Ukrainians — populations which remain significant in Kazakhstan until this day.\n\nExile to Kazakhstan was even a punitive tactic used against highly-ranked Soviet officials who'd fallen out of favour. Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union in 1953, was a notable recipient of this treatment. After losing a power struggle to Nikita Khrushchev in the mid-1950s, he led a failed coup d'état in 1957, after which he was labelled an Anti-Party agent by Khrushchev and expelled from the Politburo. He was then, humiliatingly, sent to assume a managerial role at a hydroelectric plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, about 180 kilometres east of Semipalatinsk. Malenkov remained there for thirty years, suffered severe depression, and ultimately died in obscurity three years before the fall of the Soviet Union.\n\nOf course, some locals were a little more aware of what was going on at the Polygon because they were there to support its volatile and poorly-contained work. This included cleaners, maintenance workers and other fringe staff — who lived and worked in the area for decades without being closely informed of the nature of the work conducted there. Many of these concluded their employment with little other than a small pension and early retirement, going on to suffer poor health in the following years and only becoming aware of the nature of the site as the project was unravelled post-1989.\n\nAnd even those who weren't at the epicentre of the Polygon's radioactive perimeter could be affected by the fallout. The strong winds of the steppe blew the nuclear debris and radioactive dust far and wide, negatively affecting hundreds of thousands of people.\n\nAccording to estimates from Kazakh experts, 1.5 million people were exposed to fallout over the years.\n\n## End of Operations and Legacy\n\nAs the fall of the Soviet Union approached, the activities at Semipalatinsk were wound down and ultimately ended in November 1989.\n\nThe military soon pulled out and returned to Russia, taking with them scientific data about the Polygon's activities and also most of the modern medical equipment from Semipalatinsk's hospital. In December 1991, Kazakhstan seceded from the Soviet Union. It was the last former Soviet Republic to gain independence, four days after even the Russian Federation did so — meaning that for a very brief moment, Kazakhstan was the USSR.\n\nBy that time, Soviet activities had transformed the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic into a rather peculiar place, something left to the nascent Republic of Kazakhstan to figure out. The country was now a patchwork of a wide variety of ethnicities: Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Ukrainians, Koreans, Poles, Tatars, Turks, and about four million Russians. It was also now home to some of the most toxic places on the planet — not least the Polygon, which Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev permanently closed down as the Soviet Union folded in August 1991. Today, the site falls under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan, or NNCRK.\n\nUnfortunately, the effects of the site lingered on — and remain pronounced to this day.\n\nThe number of miscarriages and stillbirths in the area surrounding Semipalatinsk (since renamed Semey) is much higher than in the rest of the country. Many children in the area have been described as being born with physical or neurological defects. In short, Kazakhstan inherited not only the decaying site, but also the task of dealing with its inglorious fallout.\n\nAccording to Aleksei Konovalov, head of the Semey Independent Social Center, more than 40 percent of the Semey region's population suffers from various radiation-related illnesses. Many suffer from suspected Chronic Radiation Syndrome (CRS), a collection of various medical complaints such as anaemia, chronic fatigue, joint pain, and brittle bones disease. A large number of these were identified in a 2016 study at a regional town close to the site — a town which ironically retains the name 'Kurchatov' until this day.\n\nRates of cancer in the area are also very high, with *The Independent* noting that the cancer ward at Semey's regional hospital treats up to 40,000 people every year.\n\nAnd the risk of exposure to the smouldering nuclear site remains very present. As pointed out by *Foreign Policy*, while most of the underground tunnels in which testing took place are sealed-off, the general area remains generally accessible. There is no perimeter fence around the site, possibly due to — at 18,000 square kilometres — its rather hefty size. Economic hardship in the area following the fall of the USSR resulted in the radioactive site being overrun by metal scavengers even before nuclear threat reduction work was carried out. Kazakhstan later revealed evidence of illegal scavenging operations in the underground tunnels of the Polygon, the same tunnels within which more than 300 nuclear tests had been carried out, but which contained easily recoverable plutonium for illegal trading. This illicit trade became an uncomfortable trend for Central Asian countries to have to contend with. By 2009, Kazakhstan and four neighbouring states signed and ratified the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (CANWFZ) to contain the issue — although the wording of the treaty was seen as opaque, and illicit trading remains an issue until today.\n\nMeanwhile, locals regularly swim and fish in the test site's lakes, which includes Lake Chagan, located on the Polygon's perimeter. Chagan was the site of one of the Soviet Union's largest underground tests in 1965, and much of the generated waste was absorbed directly by the water of the lake. It has since been referred to as 'Atomic Lake', and its water has been found to have 100 times more radionuclides than standard drinking water until today.\n\nIn addition, local livestock are also allowed to roam and graze on the ruined terrain of plains in and around the test site. There are no checkpoints or signs warning that the surrounding territory remains radioactive. And while the test site was ultimately closed to visitors, this was only in 2019, and it is suspected that this was only because Russia wrestled back some control over the area from Kazakhstan.\n\n## Future\n\nThe legacy of the test site at Semipalatinsk remains a lingering headache for Kazakhstan to try and contain, something which it has, to some degree, done — but only with significant outside help.\n\nIn 2012, a joint initiative between the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia helped secure the site. The United States provided funds and project management, and Russia — begrudgingly, and probably after some incentive was provided by the US — provided scientific and historical information. The project — which lasted 17 years and cost 150 million dollars — offered a measure of sanitary security perimeters to the most exposed parts of the site. However, many analysts have stated that the Polygon will continue to require close oversight over years to come, due to its volatile nature.\n\nSeparately, Kazakhstan has had to try to deal with the health defects suffered by its population. The government has officially recognized more than 1 million people as being negatively affected by the tests, entitling them to social benefits such as financial aid, higher pensions, and free or subsidised health care.\n\nBut local residents say those benefits are provided to people who have obtained a certificate proving their status as a radiation victim, something attained only through meticulous paperwork supporting an applicant's residency in the affected provinces between 1949 and 1990.\n\nIt is thought that as many as half of the affected population have no such paperwork, and therefore no entitlement to such benefits — which are relatively meagre in any case.\n\nThe financial support package is thought to equal about 40 US dollars per year per person. According to Konovalov, about 63 percent of aid beneficiaries don't receive paid leave, more than 90 percent don't have access to subsidised health care, and practically nobody receives discounted medicines for their health conditions.\n\nThe trouble is, Russia has continued to wield the destructive capacities of nuclear weapons as a threat in its warfaring.\n\nWith the war in Ukraine not going terribly well, Russian authorities have regularly made ominous statements with regard to nuclear testing. As recently as September, military representatives declared that they would be willing to resume testing on Russia's new testing site in the Arctic in the event that the West provided Ukraine long-range arms which could strike Russian targets — which they did, in November.\n\nRear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn, the head of the facility on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, declared in an interview with Russian government newspaper *Rossiyskaya Gazeta*, that:\n\n> \"The test site is ready for resumption of full-scale testing activities. (...) Laboratory and testing facilities are ready. The personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start testing at any moment.\"\n\nWith the Russians faltering in Kursk, and with the order to equip Ukraine with long-range missiles having been now confirmed by President Biden, who knows if this order will now be followed through upon.\n\nBut on November 19th, a few days after the US permitted Ukraine to use its long-range missiles and landmines, Putin approved changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine. The new doctrine ominously states that an attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will be treated as a joint assault on Russia.\n\nAccording to the BBC, the changes mean that a large attack on Russia could now meet the criteria for a nuclear response.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- The Soviet Union's first atomic bomb test in 1949 contaminated the Kazakh steppes, affecting local residents.\n- Despite claims of an uninhabited test site, at least 500,000 people lived near Semipalatinsk during Soviet nuclear tests.\n- The Semipalatinsk Test Site conducted 456 nuclear detonations over four decades, exposing 1.5 million people to fallout.\n- Kazakhstan faces ongoing health issues and environmental contamination from the Semipalatinsk nuclear tests.\n- Russia's recent nuclear threats and Kazakhstan's struggles highlight the enduring legacy of Soviet nuclear testing.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### When did the Soviet Union successfully test its first atomic bomb?\n\nThe Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb, known as RDS-1, on August 29, 1949.\n\n### What was the yield of the RDS-1 bomb?\n\nThe RDS-1 bomb had an explosive yield of 22 kilotonnes.\n\n### Where was the Semipalatinsk Test Site located?\n\nThe Semipalatinsk Test Site was located in the arid steppes of Kazakhstan.\n\n### How many nuclear test detonations were carried out at the Semipalatinsk Test Site?\n\nAs many as 456 test detonations were carried out at the Semipalatinsk Test Site over four decades.\n\n### What was the impact of the nuclear tests on the local population?\n\nAn estimated 1.5 million people were exposed to fallout over the years, leading to high rates of miscarriages, stillbirths, physical and neurological defects, and radiation-related illnesses.\n\n### When did the operations at the Semipalatinsk Test Site end?\n\nThe activities at Semipalatinsk were wound down and ultimately ended in November 1989.\n\n### What is the current status of the Semipalatinsk Test Site?\n\nThe site falls under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was permanently closed in August 1991.\n\n### What is the legacy of the Semipalatinsk Test Site for Kazakhstan?\n\nKazakhstan inherited the task of dealing with the fallout from the nuclear tests, including high rates of radiation-related illnesses and environmental contamination.\n\n### What measures have been taken to secure the Semipalatinsk Test Site?\n\nIn 2012, a joint initiative between the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia helped secure the site by providing sanitary security perimeters to the most exposed parts.\n\n### What benefits are provided to those affected by the nuclear tests in Kazakhstan?\n\nThe Kazakh government has recognized over 1 million people as negatively affected by the tests, entitling them to social benefits such as financial aid, higher pensions, and free or subsidised health care.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Places video: Semipalatinsk: The USSR's Eerie Nuclear Test Site](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tgkrz95tIQ)\n- [https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-nuclear-test-chief-says-moscow-is-ready-resume-testing-at-any-moment-2024-09-17/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-nuclear-test-chief-says-moscow-is-ready-resume-testing-at-any-moment-2024-09-17/)\n- [https://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2008/11-80076_Report_2008_Annex_C.pdf](https://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2008/11-80076_Report_2008_Annex_C.pdf)\n- [https://www.distance.to/Semey,Aba%C4%B1-oblysy,KAZ/Ust-Kamenogorsk,East-Kazakhstan-Region,KAZ](https://www.distance.to/Semey,Aba%C4%B1-oblysy,KAZ/Ust-Kamenogorsk,East-Kazakhstan-Region,KAZ)\n- [https://www.rferl.org/a/victims-of-kazakhstan-s-soviet-era-nuclear-tests-feel-abandoned-by-government/30288299.html](https://www.rferl.org/a/victims-of-kazakhstan-s-soviet-era-nuclear-tests-feel-abandoned-by-government/30288299.html)\n- [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-worlds-worst-radiation-hotspot-1784502.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-worlds-worst-radiation-hotspot-1784502.html)\n- [https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/199116.htm](https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/199116.htm)\n- [https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/28/nuclear-bombs-weapons-soviet-union-russia-kazakhstan-polygon-semipalatinsk/](https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/28/nuclear-bombs-weapons-soviet-union-russia-kazakhstan-polygon-semipalatinsk/)\n- [https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/03/lake-chagan-atomic-lake-filled-with.html](https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/03/lake-chagan-atomic-lake-filled-with.html)\n- [https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/central-asia-nuclear-terrorism-nexus](https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/central-asia-nuclear-terrorism-nexus)\n- [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/nuclear-ghosts-kazakhstan](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/nuclear-ghosts-kazakhstan)\n- [https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/kazakhstans-nuclear-nightmare](https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/kazakhstans-nuclear-nightmare)\n- [https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619493](https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619493)\n- [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4v0rey0jzo](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4v0rey0jzo)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Aerial_landscape_view_%282017%29.jpg) by Saga1111 / openverse, by-sa.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://places.site/article/semipalatinsk-ussr-nuclear-test-site.md canonical: https://places.site/article/semipalatinsk-ussr-nuclear-test-site datePublished: 2026-07-01 dateModified: 2026-07-01 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://places.site/author/simon-whistler publisher: Places image: "https://media.places.site/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/9Tgkrz95tIQ/hero.jpg" type: NewsArticle contentHash: 34d40a0e08f0203f708b1275e264ccf2159def4b5ed84134e7a4c26092e4845d tokens: 5895 summaryUrl: https://places.site/article/semipalatinsk-ussr-nuclear-test-site.md.summary.md --- In 1949, the Soviet Union accomplished a keen ambition: the detonation of its first atomic bomb. Known as RDS-1, the bomb produced a mushroom cloud which obliterated the surrounding landscape. With an explosive yield of 22 kilotonnes, it released a cloud of radioactive particles into the air, contaminating the surrounding area, and registering radioactive particles which triggered the attention of a nearby US spy plane. Luckily, the bomb was tested in the arid steppes of Kazakhstan, therefore there were no human beings around to be affected by the Soviet nuclear plans. But of course there were. Today, we will be unravelling the details of this particular project, and exploring just what the ramifications of it were for the people living around the test site of Semipalatinsk in the northeastern Kazakh SSR — both then, and even today. ## Background Given the destructive power of the US' Fat Man bomb, which levelled the stubborn Japanese resistance in the latter stages of World War II, the world quickly took notice of the weapon. Perhaps most interested were Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union, who decided to throw everything they had into developing a nuclear bomb of their own. And so Lavrentiy Beria, the monstrous head of the NKVD, set up a number of sites in isolated (but not that isolated) parts of the vast USSR, in order to rapidly unearth the secrets of the supercharged new invention. This led to the establishment of Chelyabinsk-40 in rural Siberia, a city which later became infamous due to nuclear waste fed into the nearby waters of Lake Karachay from a nuclear facility known as 'Mayak'. Karachay became the deadliest lake in the world, and the cost to surrounding flora, fauna, and humans was likely immeasurable: not least because to spend anything more than a few moments near the lake today would result in an irreversible dose of death. Aside from this, the Soviet nuclear project came with a significant number of accidents and disasters. Most famous was Chernobyl in 1986, which could have — and in some places did — have irreversible consequences for millions of people. Kyshtym was another, earlier example. Covered up by the Soviet authorities for years, the September 1957 accident, which took place at Mayak, saw toxic waste spew straight into Lake Karachay and the surrounding area, resulting in an untold number of cancer cases in the following years. Chernobyl and Kyshtym were not the only such examples in the USSR. In fact, astonishingly, two more deadly accidents occurred at Mayak alone around the same time — one just a few months before Kyshtym, in May 1957, and another about six months after, in February 1958. Both accidents resulted immediately in worker deaths, but it can be presumed that toxic releases were generated which came at the expense of more lives elsewhere. And in 1968, yet another accident took place at Mayak, when improperly handled plutonium resulted in one worker dying and another having three limbs amputated. Keep in mind, these are only the accidents we know about. The Soviet nuclear project — much like the state in general — carried out its aims in strict secrecy. Many of its experiments took place in mysterious and far-flung test sites, or in closed cities whose existence was sometimes unknown even to people living a few miles down the road. On occasions where a disaster took place, they were generally hushed up, and many of the documents pertaining to Soviet-era nuclear activities were bundled away or destroyed as the period ended. We may never know the full extent of what the Soviets got up to, the extent of the accidents they caused by misadventure or negligence, or what the human toll — not to mention environmental — was to all of this. Anyway, back to Semipalatinsk. The rural town in east Kazakhstan was chosen by Beria in 1947 in the search for a nuclear-grade weapon. Beria had claimed the surrounding steppe was uninhabited (which, of course, it wasn't), and nuclear test facilities were established there using Gulag labour. Scientists were hauled in, and nuclear development and testing quickly got underway. And so rose the infamous Semipalatinsk Test Site, a sprawling 18,000 square kilometre facility also known also by its codename Semipalatinsk-21 — or more commonly still its nickname, 'The Polygon'. ## The Polygon The Polygon got off the ground with vigour. Over the next four decades, the bombs detonated at Semipalatinsk released energy around 2,500 times greater than the one dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Already by 1949, the nuclear project had borne fruit. RDS-1, known in the West as Joe-1 and the USSR's first atomic bomb, was successfully tested on the 29th of August that year. The test was the culmination of an initiative known as First Lightning, which united all existing arms of the Soviet nuclear structure. RDS-1 was designed by the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy, one of whose later deputy directors was Valery Legasov, the man tasked with the response to the Chernobyl Disaster and who was portrayed by Jared Harris in the 2019 HBO series *Chernobyl*. Plutonium for RDS-1 was produced in Chelyabinsk-40, home to the Mayak power plant, which would later spew the same element into the bodies of its workers and into the serene waters of Lake Karachay. The West quickly realised that the Soviet Union had acquired the bomb, a fact announced by US President Harry S. Truman in September 1949. The following month, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued significant awards to groups of leading researchers, designers, and engineers involved with the project. Several were issued the State Stalin Prize, and the leaders of the project were issued the title of Heroes of Socialist Labour. This included its lead developer, physicist Yulii Khariton, who went on to become one of only sixteen people to be issued the prestigious award three separate times. Following the success, the Polygon pressed forward with more nuclear projects. It remained in operation for the next forty years, during which time as many as 456 test detonations were carried out at the site. 116 of these were atmospheric nuclear explosions that took place between 1949 and 1962, and which were no doubt responsible for the vast bulk of radioactive bleed to which nearby residents were exposed. Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of an all-out nuclear war in 1962, an agreement on nuclear test reduction was signed by the Soviet Union, the US, and more than a hundred other countries. However, the so-called Limited Test Ban Treaty didn't end nuclear testing outright — and explosions at the Polygon continued with pace, just now underground in boreholes and caves. A further 340 nuclear explosions were carried out at Semipalatinsk by 1989. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities. Some came to light after the Polygon ceased operations and the site was inherited by Kazakhstan in 1991. However, much of the site's data sits in sealed archives in Moscow, which includes details about the nature of the testing and the consequences for those exposed to it. However, the effects were clear as day to those who looked close enough. ## Nuclear Fallout Among all the problems related to the tests at the Polygon, perhaps the greatest can be traced back to Beria's claim, at the outset of the project, that the steppe was uninhabited. He was lying. At least 500,000 people lived in areas close to the site during the Soviet era, according to Radio Free Europe. Most of these had no idea about the nature of the work happening at the Polygon, save for their suspicions. Of course, it didn't really take a detective to have an inkling of what the authorities were up to. This was probably fairly clear given the oddly-coloured explosions which would cause the ground to uncontrollably shake, and the Soviet authorities' coincidental announcement of having unlocked the secret to the most destructive weapon known to man. So while the Soviet public may not have been aware of the extreme risks of nuclear radiation, the people of the area probably knew that some murky business was happening on their doorstep. Not that being more aware would have done them much good. The Soviets were certainly not about to let the population of Kazakhstan pack up and move away, not unless they were forced to do so. Generally, moving people out of Kazakhstan was not within the USSR's playbook, and more common was to instead dump undesirable populations there, to fend for themselves in the open expanses of the steppe. This included large populations of Germans, Chechens, Ingush, and Ukrainians — populations which remain significant in Kazakhstan until this day. Exile to Kazakhstan was even a punitive tactic used against highly-ranked Soviet officials who'd fallen out of favour. Georgy Malenkov, who succeeded Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union in 1953, was a notable recipient of this treatment. After losing a power struggle to Nikita Khrushchev in the mid-1950s, he led a failed coup d'état in 1957, after which he was labelled an Anti-Party agent by Khrushchev and expelled from the Politburo. He was then, humiliatingly, sent to assume a managerial role at a hydroelectric plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, about 180 kilometres east of Semipalatinsk. Malenkov remained there for thirty years, suffered severe depression, and ultimately died in obscurity three years before the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course, some locals were a little more aware of what was going on at the Polygon because they were there to support its volatile and poorly-contained work. This included cleaners, maintenance workers and other fringe staff — who lived and worked in the area for decades without being closely informed of the nature of the work conducted there. Many of these concluded their employment with little other than a small pension and early retirement, going on to suffer poor health in the following years and only becoming aware of the nature of the site as the project was unravelled post-1989. And even those who weren't at the epicentre of the Polygon's radioactive perimeter could be affected by the fallout. The strong winds of the steppe blew the nuclear debris and radioactive dust far and wide, negatively affecting hundreds of thousands of people. According to estimates from Kazakh experts, 1.5 million people were exposed to fallout over the years. ## End of Operations and Legacy As the fall of the Soviet Union approached, the activities at Semipalatinsk were wound down and ultimately ended in November 1989. The military soon pulled out and returned to Russia, taking with them scientific data about the Polygon's activities and also most of the modern medical equipment from Semipalatinsk's hospital. In December 1991, Kazakhstan seceded from the Soviet Union. It was the last former Soviet Republic to gain independence, four days after even the Russian Federation did so — meaning that for a very brief moment, Kazakhstan was the USSR. By that time, Soviet activities had transformed the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic into a rather peculiar place, something left to the nascent Republic of Kazakhstan to figure out. The country was now a patchwork of a wide variety of ethnicities: Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Uyghurs, Ukrainians, Koreans, Poles, Tatars, Turks, and about four million Russians. It was also now home to some of the most toxic places on the planet — not least the Polygon, which Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev permanently closed down as the Soviet Union folded in August 1991. Today, the site falls under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan, or NNCRK. Unfortunately, the effects of the site lingered on — and remain pronounced to this day. The number of miscarriages and stillbirths in the area surrounding Semipalatinsk (since renamed Semey) is much higher than in the rest of the country. Many children in the area have been described as being born with physical or neurological defects. In short, Kazakhstan inherited not only the decaying site, but also the task of dealing with its inglorious fallout. According to Aleksei Konovalov, head of the Semey Independent Social Center, more than 40 percent of the Semey region's population suffers from various radiation-related illnesses. Many suffer from suspected Chronic Radiation Syndrome (CRS), a collection of various medical complaints such as anaemia, chronic fatigue, joint pain, and brittle bones disease. A large number of these were identified in a 2016 study at a regional town close to the site — a town which ironically retains the name 'Kurchatov' until this day. Rates of cancer in the area are also very high, with *The Independent* noting that the cancer ward at Semey's regional hospital treats up to 40,000 people every year. And the risk of exposure to the smouldering nuclear site remains very present. As pointed out by *Foreign Policy*, while most of the underground tunnels in which testing took place are sealed-off, the general area remains generally accessible. There is no perimeter fence around the site, possibly due to — at 18,000 square kilometres — its rather hefty size. Economic hardship in the area following the fall of the USSR resulted in the radioactive site being overrun by metal scavengers even before nuclear threat reduction work was carried out. Kazakhstan later revealed evidence of illegal scavenging operations in the underground tunnels of the Polygon, the same tunnels within which more than 300 nuclear tests had been carried out, but which contained easily recoverable plutonium for illegal trading. This illicit trade became an uncomfortable trend for Central Asian countries to have to contend with. By 2009, Kazakhstan and four neighbouring states signed and ratified the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty (CANWFZ) to contain the issue — although the wording of the treaty was seen as opaque, and illicit trading remains an issue until today. Meanwhile, locals regularly swim and fish in the test site's lakes, which includes Lake Chagan, located on the Polygon's perimeter. Chagan was the site of one of the Soviet Union's largest underground tests in 1965, and much of the generated waste was absorbed directly by the water of the lake. It has since been referred to as 'Atomic Lake', and its water has been found to have 100 times more radionuclides than standard drinking water until today. In addition, local livestock are also allowed to roam and graze on the ruined terrain of plains in and around the test site. There are no checkpoints or signs warning that the surrounding territory remains radioactive. And while the test site was ultimately closed to visitors, this was only in 2019, and it is suspected that this was only because Russia wrestled back some control over the area from Kazakhstan. ## Future The legacy of the test site at Semipalatinsk remains a lingering headache for Kazakhstan to try and contain, something which it has, to some degree, done — but only with significant outside help. In 2012, a joint initiative between the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia helped secure the site. The United States provided funds and project management, and Russia — begrudgingly, and probably after some incentive was provided by the US — provided scientific and historical information. The project — which lasted 17 years and cost 150 million dollars — offered a measure of sanitary security perimeters to the most exposed parts of the site. However, many analysts have stated that the Polygon will continue to require close oversight over years to come, due to its volatile nature. Separately, Kazakhstan has had to try to deal with the health defects suffered by its population. The government has officially recognized more than 1 million people as being negatively affected by the tests, entitling them to social benefits such as financial aid, higher pensions, and free or subsidised health care. But local residents say those benefits are provided to people who have obtained a certificate proving their status as a radiation victim, something attained only through meticulous paperwork supporting an applicant's residency in the affected provinces between 1949 and 1990. It is thought that as many as half of the affected population have no such paperwork, and therefore no entitlement to such benefits — which are relatively meagre in any case. The financial support package is thought to equal about 40 US dollars per year per person. According to Konovalov, about 63 percent of aid beneficiaries don't receive paid leave, more than 90 percent don't have access to subsidised health care, and practically nobody receives discounted medicines for their health conditions. The trouble is, Russia has continued to wield the destructive capacities of nuclear weapons as a threat in its warfaring. With the war in Ukraine not going terribly well, Russian authorities have regularly made ominous statements with regard to nuclear testing. As recently as September, military representatives declared that they would be willing to resume testing on Russia's new testing site in the Arctic in the event that the West provided Ukraine long-range arms which could strike Russian targets — which they did, in November. Rear Admiral Andrei Sinitsyn, the head of the facility on the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya, declared in an interview with Russian government newspaper *Rossiyskaya Gazeta*, that: > "The test site is ready for resumption of full-scale testing activities. (...) Laboratory and testing facilities are ready. The personnel are ready. If the order comes, we can start testing at any moment." With the Russians faltering in Kursk, and with the order to equip Ukraine with long-range missiles having been now confirmed by President Biden, who knows if this order will now be followed through upon. But on November 19th, a few days after the US permitted Ukraine to use its long-range missiles and landmines, Putin approved changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine. The new doctrine ominously states that an attack from a non-nuclear state, if backed by a nuclear power, will be treated as a joint assault on Russia. According to the BBC, the changes mean that a large attack on Russia could now meet the criteria for a nuclear response. ## Key Takeaways - The Soviet Union's first atomic bomb test in 1949 contaminated the Kazakh steppes, affecting local residents. - Despite claims of an uninhabited test site, at least 500,000 people lived near Semipalatinsk during Soviet nuclear tests. - The Semipalatinsk Test Site conducted 456 nuclear detonations over four decades, exposing 1.5 million people to fallout. - Kazakhstan faces ongoing health issues and environmental contamination from the Semipalatinsk nuclear tests. - Russia's recent nuclear threats and Kazakhstan's struggles highlight the enduring legacy of Soviet nuclear testing. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### When did the Soviet Union successfully test its first atomic bomb? The Soviet Union successfully tested its first atomic bomb, known as RDS-1, on August 29, 1949. ### What was the yield of the RDS-1 bomb? The RDS-1 bomb had an explosive yield of 22 kilotonnes. ### Where was the Semipalatinsk Test Site located? The Semipalatinsk Test Site was located in the arid steppes of Kazakhstan. ### How many nuclear test detonations were carried out at the Semipalatinsk Test Site? As many as 456 test detonations were carried out at the Semipalatinsk Test Site over four decades. ### What was the impact of the nuclear tests on the local population? An estimated 1.5 million people were exposed to fallout over the years, leading to high rates of miscarriages, stillbirths, physical and neurological defects, and radiation-related illnesses. ### When did the operations at the Semipalatinsk Test Site end? The activities at Semipalatinsk were wound down and ultimately ended in November 1989. ### What is the current status of the Semipalatinsk Test Site? The site falls under the jurisdiction of the National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was permanently closed in August 1991. ### What is the legacy of the Semipalatinsk Test Site for Kazakhstan? Kazakhstan inherited the task of dealing with the fallout from the nuclear tests, including high rates of radiation-related illnesses and environmental contamination. ### What measures have been taken to secure the Semipalatinsk Test Site? In 2012, a joint initiative between the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia helped secure the site by providing sanitary security perimeters to the most exposed parts. ### What benefits are provided to those affected by the nuclear tests in Kazakhstan? The Kazakh government has recognized over 1 million people as negatively affected by the tests, entitling them to social benefits such as financial aid, higher pensions, and free or subsidised health care. ## Sources - [Original Places video: Semipalatinsk: The USSR's Eerie Nuclear Test Site](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tgkrz95tIQ) - [https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-nuclear-test-chief-says-moscow-is-ready-resume-testing-at-any-moment-2024-09-17/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-nuclear-test-chief-says-moscow-is-ready-resume-testing-at-any-moment-2024-09-17/) - [https://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2008/11-80076_Report_2008_Annex_C.pdf](https://www.unscear.org/docs/reports/2008/11-80076_Report_2008_Annex_C.pdf) - [https://www.distance.to/Semey,Aba%C4%B1-oblysy,KAZ/Ust-Kamenogorsk,East-Kazakhstan-Region,KAZ](https://www.distance.to/Semey,Aba%C4%B1-oblysy,KAZ/Ust-Kamenogorsk,East-Kazakhstan-Region,KAZ) - [https://www.rferl.org/a/victims-of-kazakhstan-s-soviet-era-nuclear-tests-feel-abandoned-by-government/30288299.html](https://www.rferl.org/a/victims-of-kazakhstan-s-soviet-era-nuclear-tests-feel-abandoned-by-government/30288299.html) - [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-worlds-worst-radiation-hotspot-1784502.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-worlds-worst-radiation-hotspot-1784502.html) - [https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/199116.htm](https://2009-2017.state.gov/t/avc/trty/199116.htm) - [https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/28/nuclear-bombs-weapons-soviet-union-russia-kazakhstan-polygon-semipalatinsk/](https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/28/nuclear-bombs-weapons-soviet-union-russia-kazakhstan-polygon-semipalatinsk/) - [https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/03/lake-chagan-atomic-lake-filled-with.html](https://www.amusingplanet.com/2014/03/lake-chagan-atomic-lake-filled-with.html) - [https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/central-asia-nuclear-terrorism-nexus](https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/central-asia-nuclear-terrorism-nexus) - [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/nuclear-ghosts-kazakhstan](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/article/nuclear-ghosts-kazakhstan) - [https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/kazakhstans-nuclear-nightmare](https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/kazakhstans-nuclear-nightmare) - [https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619493](https://www.prlib.ru/en/history/619493) - [https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4v0rey0jzo](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4v0rey0jzo) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Aerial_landscape_view_%282017%29.jpg) by Saga1111 / openverse, by-sa. ## Related Coverage