"Right to the Button"
The "nuclear suitcase" draws in for 100,000 rubles a month.
"From here, lads, our homeland dictates its unyielding will to the rest of the world's community." Thus Sergey Artsibashev's hero spoke about our army to recruits in a well-known film comedy, while pointing to a ballistic missile launcher. MK'scorrespondent visited the site, about which one can say the same words with a clean conscience -- the Central Command Post of the Russian RVSN [Strategic Missile Troops], which is located in a "secret" place in suburban Moscow. Last Sunday the TsKP [Central Command Post] celebrated its 50th anniversary.
The first thing that surprises an outside observer is how close together a daily, routine life and a place where a nuclear war can be led are. The train station in suburban-Moscow Odintsovo is on an ordinary route. The passengers pay the usual 25 rubles for the trip. Mama explains to her son that he needs to go to kindergarten and that all of the children are already there. Grandmother complains about the high price of cherries. A young man sitting in a rear seat tells a friend that he is in ecstasy. Suddenly, the route stops at the KPP [checkpoint], a soldier opens the door, and all of the ordinary passengers show him their passes for the specially-guarded territory.
The city in which the TsKP is located is walled off from the rest of the world not only with fences and a checkpoint, but by a dense forest. There are many green areas and a lake within the city itself, and every day the soldiers maintain model cleanliness on the streets. Compared with gas-polluted Moscow, this is definitely a corner of paradise.
But those who built this place were not thinking at all about paradise. A two-...
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...s schedules. Basically from Friday through Tuesday, and from Tuesday through Friday. Time for eating, rest, and exercise are foreseen for each duty shift. TsKP officers receive increased pay in accordance with Order No 400.
"With bonuses I receive a little more than 100,000 rubles a month," Palchevskiy shared. "This is the average level. My wife and I did not even know what to do with such money at first. We decided to save it for schooling for our son."
Despite the fact that the TsKP was built half a century ago and serious modernization has not been undertaken since then, one is left with the distinct impression from the visit that everything that should work, works well, and the officers know their business at the "excellent" level and are proud of their work. As the commander of the watch shift said: "Don't worry; the weapons are in reliable hands.”
Most of us would like to think that history is based on civil negotiations between representatives from around the world. The fact is, war has always been a disease that spreads not only in the battle field, and infects all those who come in contact with it. In the case of nuclear weapons, the United States, like many countries, raced to produce some of the most deadly weapons. Kristen Iversen shares her experiences surrounding a nuclear production facility in Boulder Colorado called Rocky Flats. The events at Rocky Flats are fuelled by secrecy and widespread hazards, it is the integration of these concepts to various aspects of her life that are at the center of Full Body Burden.
Trahair, R. C., & Miller, R. L. (2009). Encyclopedia of Cold War espionage, spies, and secret operations (1. pbk. ed.). New York: Enigma Books.
...ded over to the GRU (military intelligence) Museum the Gold Star medal and Hero of Russia certificate and document bestowed on Soviet intelligence officer George Koval". Kremlin.ru. President of Russia. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
...he destitution and demoralization of the citizens of Petrograd. Andrei, the character with the most honor and virtue, still finds ruin because of his affiliation with the immoral politic. All morality is beaten out of the characters with the most potential for it by the dire circumstances of their lives. An excellent, emotionally moving story, this novel leaves no doubt as to the author's feelings about the path of destruction down which socialism leads.
The battle fought between the Soviet Red Army and the Nazi Wehrmacht over the “city of Stalin” for four long months in the fall and winter of 1942-3 stands as not only the most important battle of the Eastern front during World War II, but as the greatest battle ever fought. Germany’s defeat at Stalingrad ended three years of almost uninterrupted victory and signaled the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. In this way, Stalingrad’s significance was projected beyond the two main combatants, extending to all corners of the world.
The Day After was an effective way of instilling a sense of both fear and respect for nuclear war into the minds of the American people. By portraying realistic doomsday scenarios that are played out in the lives of relatable families in a small city not unlike any other we would find in America, this film contextualizes the events prior to, during, and immediately after nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia was unleashed onto our own soil.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s two short stories, ‘All the Kings Horses’ and ‘Manned Missiles’, he tried to reflect on the actual international backdrops of the time the stories were based on, in two different ways. While both stories reflected on the events that took place during the Cold War, the author managed to portray the actors involved the United States and Russia, in different ways in order to show the historical implications the stories had, and how it could be related back to that time period. Even though the stories had certain similarities like the actors involved and the time period it was based on, it also differed in the way the actors were portrayed and how they impacted the Cold war.
While spending time in Kazakhstan, his desire to go out and fight grows stronger and stronger. Through much hard work and planning he eventually manages to enlist in a Polish Army division called Battalion 92, which helps maintain the railways which deliver supplies to the fronts. After nearly starving to death on an assignment in the Ural Mountains, he deserts the Battalion, escaping to Chelyabinsk, where he joins a military school. Upon completion, he is sent to fight at the front in a Polish Army Reserve, achieving his goal o...
Lafeber, W. (2002), America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2000. 9th edn. New-York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Yerzhan's uncle is able to work at the nearby nuclear facility creating nuclear bombs for the war. Between the years of 1949 and 1989, the huge Soviet nuclear test site deep inside Kazakhstan, where Yerzhan lives was known to emit radioactive fall-out measuring up to 2,500 times more powerful than the single bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Their goal was to produce more than the Americans. This is a very powerful description that helps put the danger of this site into the eyes of the reader. This is very ...
Back a few miles from the front line, the officers make plans to attack the enemy. 250 miles away, comes the air support knowing that their men are okay and that the enemy are still there, like sitting ducks. The officers’ room is badly lit and the bulb is constantly flickering on and off from the shaking walls. There are maps and dossiers scattered all over the table in the centre of the room. The dossiers contain vital information in them, n...
Wilk, Andrzej. "The Military Consequences of the Annexation of Crimea | OSW." Www.OSW.waw.pl. N.p., 19 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. .
“Snow” is a short story in first person narration, told by the main character. Set during a time when people lived in fear of nuclear fallout. Instructions were often reiterated in school and on the radio about how to react when seeing the flash. This nuclear fallout setting lends itself to intrigue and suspense; it is intensified by the use of the narrator. The narrator, a young girl, gives the reader a perspective of child like understanding and, a limited understanding. The main character’s mind is full of nuclear fallout lessons, one after another in class. The main character, which has never seen snow before, sees it begin to snow outside the school window. The girl cries out, “Bomb Bomb”, terrifying the teacher and other students (85). As other girls in the class begin to cry the teacher reassures and explains to the main character what snow is and, that there is no bomb. If the author of Snow had told the story from an adult’s point of view, maybe the teacher’s, the story would lack believabi...