International Atomic Policy During a Decade: An Historical-Political Investigation Into the Problems of Atomic Weapons During the Period, 1945-55 by Elis Biorklund

Author:Elis Biorklund [Biorklund, Elis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nuclear Warfare, Weapons, Military, Political Science, History, General
ISBN: 9780313206337
Google: aXMCEAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 2892903
Publisher: Praeger
Published: 1979-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

The Soviet Union 1954–55

In connection with what was said in Chapter 3 about the general situation it need only be mentioned here (95) that an announcement on April 1 to the effect that Russia had no objections to becoming a member of the Atlantic Treaty was not really taken seriously in the Western world. The Russian press hailed the Geneva Conference on Korea and Indo-China as a great Russian success, for then, for the first time, the People’s Republic of China was represented at a conference of the Great Powers, and in addition the communist advance in Indo-China could be continued with suitable means. When the edc proposal was rejected there was jubilation in Russia, and the new London-Paris agreement was opposed diligently.

Round the close of the year 1954 Russian propaganda was mainly occupied with the theme that those who are against negotiations with the Soviet Union in European affairs prevent the reunion of Western and Eastern Germany. But the Western Powers held the opinion that only after a consolidation of the West could the question of the reunion of Germany be taken up with any hope of success. The Russian press opposed this view bitterly. It was one of the aims of Russian policy to ensure that the situation in Germany did not change to their disadvantage.

The American hydrogen bomb tests had powerful repercussions in the Soviet Union, and much publicity was given to Dulle’s statement that the USA must meet aggression with atomic weapons. The threat of atomic bombs is used in Russia to bind the satellite states with still tighter bands, which is justified by a common air defence. But at the same time fatalism is held in check among the people by emphasizing the greater significance of conventional weapons. However, a propaganda campaign was begun during the autumn to spread information of the effect of the hydrogen bomb, at the same time as the Soviet Union (as mentioned in Chapter 3) accepted the British-French compromise as a basis for negotiations.

The Bulganin-Kruschev-Zhukov regime has spoken in favour of a conference of the Great Powers, and in an interview Kruschev has stated that the principle of the balance of power is a good one, but threats were made to cancel the Non-aggression Treaty with Great Britain and France, and speed up the production of atomic weapons. Those treaties have been cancelled by the Soviet during 1955.

Some words about the atomic industry and legislation in the Soviet Union are necessary. Two Russians succeeded in splitting uranium atoms in 1940, with the help of information they had received from German institutes, but then the demands of war made further progress very difficult. There are many signs that the Soviet Union had succeeded in making a kind of atomic bomb by 1947–48, that is, more than a year before the Soviet Government and President Truman announced that Russia was in possession of the bomb. The first explosion of a large atomic bomb perhaps took place prematurely on account of faulty safety devices and caused casualties among the personnel.

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