The Justifiable Reason Why Russia Detonated The World’s Biggest Bomb

Tsar.

Aficionados of military history are familiar with nuclear bombs that have been known to level entire cities in their wake. As the years on the power of these weapons until they finally escalated into the biggest the world had ever seen, Tsar Bomba. Aside from the size, the Soviet Union had a reason that they constructed such a massive weapon of war.

The Cold War was a back and forth exchange of weaponry innovations between the United States and the Soviet Union. No real war broke out but it was the constant fear over the threat of war that kept everyone on edge. America was the first to implement a nuclear weapon against Imperial Japan in 1945 but the Soviet Union caught up with them in 1949 with their first nuclear test dubbed Joe 1. In 1958 a 3-year moratorium was declared on nuclear weapons testing, but research still continued and the Russians wanted to come back with a bang.

Development of nuclear weapons continued to escalate as the years went by until 1961 when the ultimate nuclear bomb debuted, the Tsar Bomba. It was detonated in the remote arctic land of Novaya Zemlya that send shockwaves around the world three times over and a mushroom cloud over 40 miles into the sky. Amid the chaos of the gigantic 50 megaton bomb, the Soviet Union had a justification for its use.

The main reason cited for a bomb that size is because their weaponry lacked the precision of their American Rivals. They couldn’t target something directly with the effectiveness of Americans so instead just wipe everything off of the map. In the end, it has a little to do with envy of America’s more advanced weaponry but the Russians made their point. Fortunately, they realized that such a weapon is too dangerous for use anywhere and the Tsar Bomba was never given a follow-up.