Days when the Earth could stop: how the world found itself on the brink of nuclear war several times

The third world war may well be the last in the history of mankind, since there is a possibility that it will lead to serious climate change on the entire planet. From the huge amount of dust and ash raised by atomic explosions into the atmosphere, the flow of sunlight will be significantly reduced and a cooling will occur. As well as a change in the amount of precipitation, the formation of significant gaps in the ozone layer, incredible fires (fire tornado), contamination of water and air with radioactive elements - the so-called nuclear winterRobock A. Time to Bury a Dangerous Legacy - Part II. YaleGlobal Online.

This development of events was considered most likely during the Cold War, when the United States and the USSR unleashed an insane arms race, seeking to secure superiority in destructive power. No other country will subsequently achieve such a scale of accumulation of deadly "toys".

In real hostilities, atomic bombs were used only at the end World War II war. On August 6 and 9, 1945, American planes droppedThe Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II, A Collection of Primary Sources. National Security Archive two nuclear charges on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Four years later, such a weapon was tested for the first time Andryushin I. A., Chernyshev A. K., Yudin Yu. BUT. Taming the core. Pages of the history of nuclear weapons and nuclear infrastructure of the USSR. Sarov, Saransk. 2003 Soviet Union, which marked the beginning of a nuclear confrontation between the two powers.

When the world was on the brink

There were several misunderstandings. And each of them almost turned into irreparable consequences.

The incident with the Soviet nuclear submarine "B-59" in 1962

1962 was one of the hottest in the Cold War era. American and Soviet nuclear missiles were deployed in close proximity to the borders of two warring powers: Turkey and Cuba, respectively. This meant that it would be impossible to detect and intercept them in a timely manner. The events that followed will be called the Cuban Missile Crisis Lavrenov S. Ya., Popov I. M. Caribbean crisis: the world is on the brink of disaster. The Soviet Union in local wars and conflicts. M. 2003 .

Tension grew in relations between the two countries; it reached its peak at the end of October. The Island of Liberty has undergone a naval blockade by the US Navy. On the morning of October 27, during a reconnaissance flight over Cuba, Soviet air defenses shot down an American U-2 aircraft. It was possible to prevent retaliatory bombing only thanks to the composure of the then President of the United States. John F. Kennedy.

On the same day, American ships discovered the Soviet nuclear-armed B-59 submarine, which was moving towards Cuba under the command of Second Rank Captain Valentin Savitsky.

During the sailing, Savitsky did not receive clear instructions from the command, why there were atomic charges on board, whether they should be used and if they should be used, then how. But the captain had the right to use them if the boat was attacked.

The Americans surrounded the Soviet ship and used special depth charges to force the Soviet submariners to surface. The crew lost contact with the command, many officers decided that the boat was about to be sunk, and Savitsky preparedSavranskaya S.V. New Sources on the Role of Soviet Submarines in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Journal of Strategic Studies to use an atomic torpedo - he considered that the war had already begun.

However, after consulting with his backup captain of the second rank Vasily Arkhipov, Savitsky abandoned this venture. The submarine managed to send radio signals to the American ships and the aircraft pursuing it, demanding to stop the provocations. The bombardment has stopped. Thanks to this, Arkhipov is often called the man who prevented nuclear disaster.

Arkhipov in 1961 managed to serve on the long-suffering submarine "K-19". The ship with a nuclear engine and weapons has repeatedly suffered accidents in which several dozen Soviet sailors died. The victims of the largest incident - the fire of 1972 - were 30 servicemen of the Soviet fleet.

The very next day, the order to shoot down American planes over Cuba was Lavrenov S. Ya., Popov I. M. Caribbean crisis: the world is on the brink of disaster. The Soviet Union in local wars and conflicts. M. 2003 paused. The parties entered into negotiations. In November, Soviet missiles were dismantled from Cuban territory, the US fleet ended the blockade of the island, and a few months later American weapons of mass destruction left Turkey.

Errors of the US air defense system of the 1970s-1980s

A number of potentially dangerous situations have been caused by false alarms of missile strike warning systems. At the turn of the 70s and 80s, automatic systems began to be introduced at American tracking stations, and since thenPerrow C. Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. Princeton University Press. 2011 up to 10 such incidents per day.

They were caused by equipment malfunctions, program failures, light and thermal effects: solar or lunar activity, glare on the water.

All this happened against the background of deteriorationRelations with the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan. Britannica relations between the United States and the USSR, which began in 1979.

So, space exploration USA On November 9, 1979, she received information about the shelling of the United States with nuclear warheads from the Soviet side. Satellite observation indicated the high accuracy of the information received.

About a thousand ballistic missile systems were put on alert, and interceptor aircraft took off. 6 minutes later the attack signal was acknowledgedPerrow C. Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. Princeton University Press. 2011 false. It turned out that a technician had accidentally run a training program on a computer to simulate a Soviet nuclear attack.

Similar episodes happenedRecent False Alerts from the Nation's Missile Attack Warning System: Report of Gary Hart and Barry Goldwater to the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1980 June 3 and 6 next year. They were caused by a failure in the data processing system, on the fact of which the US Senate subsequently conducted a check.

Another notable incident occurred in March 1980. Then the Soviet submarine launchedClose Calls with Nuclear Weapons. Union of Concerned Scientists four missiles in the Kuril Islands region. Early detection systems for US air defense reported that one of them was aimed at American territory. Despite the fact that the information was not confirmed, the following year, senior United States officials gathered for a conference to assess external threats.

False operation of the Soviet warning system in 1983

In March 1983, American President Ronald Reagan announcedRelations with the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan. Britannica on the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative. The unofficially named project By analogy with the recently released parts of the saga of George Lucas Star Wars implied the development of a large-scale air defense system - a laser-missile shield on the ground, in the air and even in space. Later, this not particularly realistic plan was supplemented: it included provisions on new offensive weapons.

Thus began a new, decisive stage in the arms race and cold war between the USSR and the USA. The process of "detente", which began in the 1970s - the signing of joint declarations on the limitation of nuclear weapons, the "warming" of diplomatic relations - was finally curtailed.

A catastrophe in the air near the eastern borders of the USSR added fuel to the fire. On September 1, 1983, Soviet aviation shot downMuromov I. BUT. One Hundred Great Plane Crashes. M. 2003 a Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 with 269 passengers on board, including Americans, deviated from course due to navigation error. Air defense systems mistook it for an American reconnaissance aircraft. This tragic event was preceded by several provocations on the Pacific border of the USSR.

In this situation, on September 23, the command post of the space detection system in the closed military town of Serpukhov-15 entered Votintsev Yu. IN. Unknown troops of the vanished superpower. Military History Journal signal to launch intercontinental missiles from an American base.

The operational duty lieutenant colonel Stanislav Petrov checked the incoming threat and confirmed the high probability of a real attack. Further, according to the protocol, it was necessary to raise the alarm, which would most likely lead to a retaliatory strike from the USSR.

However, the officer was alarmed by the small number of missiles launched, and he decided to turn to specialists in visual observation. They reported that there were no signs of a nuclear strike from the United States. After making sure that there was a false triggering of the system, Petrov reported this to his superiors.

For the first time, the general public learnedLikhmanov D. 40 minutes before the Third World War. Homeland about this only eight years later, when the case was declassified.

In 2006, at the UN headquarters, Stanislav Petrov even received a commemorative statuette from the Association of World Citizens with the inscription: "To the man who prevented a nuclear war." Later he was awarded several more European awards.

Why the nuclear threat has not disappeared anywhere

In fact, the number of such incidents is measuredRecent False Alerts from the Nation's Missile Attack Warning System: Report of Gary Hart and Barry Goldwater to the Committee on Armed Services, United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1980 thousands. Moreover, they happened not only through fault the USSR and the United States: China, India and Israel could have unleashed a nuclear war several times.

Such incidents have occurred since the end of the Cold War. So, the so-called Norwegian missile incident Pry P.V. War Scare: Russia and America on the Nuclear Brink. Greenwood Publishing Group. 1999 1995 year. Then Russian air defense systems mistook a Canadian research missile for an American ballistic missile, and a nuclear briefcase was even delivered to President Boris Yeltsin.

In October 2010, there wasClose Calls with Nuclear Weapons. Union of Concerned Scientists In an even creepier incident, the Warren Air Force Base Launch Control Center in Wyoming lost contact with 50 high-alert missile systems for nearly an hour.

The arms race has shown the futility and danger of a nuclear build-up. Today, atomic weapons are used not as a means of aggression, but as a method of maintaining the balance of power in the world. When supposed rivals can destroy each other and in general all life on Earth, wars become useless.

However, despite the fact that the number of nuclear weapons in the world has been declining since the end of the Cold War, the risk of their use remains.

In 1947, the creators of the first atomic bomb from the University of Chicago made a Doomsday clock. Their arrows show not the time, but the proximity of mankind to a nuclear disaster, which is metaphorically associated with midnight.

And it was in 2020 that the watch turned out to beSpinazze G. It Is Now 100 Seconds to Midnight. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists closest to her. In particular, one of the reasons is the deterioration of the situation in the field of nuclear weapons.

Technology has taken a big step forward, and almost any state and even small organizations can create a primitive atomic bomb, if desired. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of the study.Nuclear Proliferation and Safeguards. Washington: Office of Technology Assessment, 1977, ordered by the US Congress back in 1977. According to some reports, such work is already underway in Iran and Myanmar.

Moreover, according toSpinazze G. It Is Now 100 Seconds to Midnight. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists watchmakers, the current nuclear powers and the UN are not taking sufficient measures to prevent the further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This increases the risks of local nuclear wars. They are also worried about the growing threat cyberattacks and spreading disinformation.

However, the weapons that have already been created are quite enough to destroy all life on Earth. According toWorld nuclear forces. SIPRI Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the total stock of nuclear charges in 2019 amounted to 13,865 units. At the same time, the United States and Russia have 90% of these warheads.

To do serious harm to the Earth, according to some calculationsRobock A. Time to Bury a Dangerous Legacy - Part II. YaleGlobal Online, only about 100 explosions with a yield of 13–18 kilotons each are enough.

Today, nine countries have their own nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and the DPRK. The last four were included in this list bypassing the TreatyNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. UN. Conventions and agreements on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in 1968, developed by the UN.

Nevertheless, he played a positive role: without a treaty, countries possessing atomic weapons of mass destruction couldA Safer World: Our Shared Responsibility. UN. Conference, meetings and events would be 15 to 25.

So far, only South Africa remains a country that independently developed nuclear weapons and then voluntarily refused.Viotti P.R. Arms Control and Global Security: A Document Guide. V.1. ABC ‑ CLIO. 2010 From him.

It remains to be hoped that technical failures, human factors and evil or insane intentions will not prevail over prudence. Hardly anyone wants to die in a nuclear fire or live in the ashes of the old world.