World: A HISTORY OF RUSSIAN TESTING

They Have Concentrated on Heavy

Bombs Lifted by Big Boosters

When did the Russians start testing? The Russians exploded their first nuclear device in September 1949, only four years and two months after the first U.S. test at Alamogordo, N. Mex.. in July 1945. The Russian test involved a primitive fission bomb similar to the two U.S. bombs used in World War II, but the Russians must have started work immediately on the more advanced hydrogen bomb. On Aug. 12. 1953. they exploded their first test H-bomb, only nine months after the first U.S. H-bomb test at Eniwetok Island in the Pacific.

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