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Totskoye Nuclear Exercise
The Totskoye nuclear exercise was a military exercise undertaken by the Soviet Army to explore defensive and offensive warfare during nuclear war. The exercise, under the code name "Snowball" (), involved an aerial detonation of a 40 kt RDS-4 nuclear bomb. The stated goal of the operation was military training for breaking through heavily fortified defensive lines of a military opponent using nuclear weapons. An army of 45,000 soldiers marched through the area around the hypocenter soon after the nuclear blast. The exercise was conducted on September 14, 1954, at 9.33 a.m., under the command of Marshal Georgy Zhukov to the north of Totskoye village in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, in the South Ural Military District. The epicenter of the detonation is marked with a memorial. History In mid-September 1954, nuclear bombing tests were performed at the Totskoye proving ground during the training exercise ''Snezhok'' (, ''Snowball'' or ''Light Snow'') with some 45,000 people, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atomic Bombings Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only uses of Nuclear warfare, nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. Surrender of Japan, Japan announced its surrender to the Allies on 15 August, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet–Japanese War, Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan and Soviet invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria. The Japanese government signed an Japanese Instrument of Surrender, instrument of surrender on 2 September, End of World War II in Asia, ending the war. In the final year of World War II, the Allies of World War II, Allies prepared for a costly Operation Downfall, invasion of the Japanese mainland. This undertaking was preceded by a Air raids on Japan, conventional bombing and firebombing campaign that de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Russian Encyclopedia
The ''Great Russian Encyclopedia'' (''GRE''; , БРЭ, transliterated as ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya'' or academically as ''Bol'šaja rossijskaja ènciklopedija'') is a universal Russian encyclopedia, completed in 36 volumes, published between 2004 and 2017 by Great Russian Encyclopedia, JSC (, transliterated as ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya entsiklopediya PAO''). A successor to the ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'', it was released under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) after President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree №1156 in 2002. The complete edition was released by 2017. The chief editor of the encyclopedia was Yury Osipov, the president of the RAS. The editorial board had more than 80 RAS members. The first, introductory volume, released in 2004, was dedicated to Russia. Thirty-five volumes were released between 2005 and 2017, covering the range from "A" to " Яя" (''Yaya''). The RAS plans to publish an updated version every five years, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armoured Personnel Carriers
An armoured personnel carrier (APC) is a broad type of armoured military vehicle designed to transport personnel and equipment in combat zones. Since World War I, APCs have become a very common piece of military equipment around the world. According to the definition in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, an APC is "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped to transport a combat infantry squad and which, as a rule, is armed with an integral or organic weapon of less than 20 millimetres calibre." Compared to infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), which are also used to carry infantry into battle, APCs have less weapon, armament and are not designed to provide direct fire support in battle. Infantry units that travel in APCs are known as mechanized infantry. Some militaries also make a distinction between infantry units that use APCs and infantry units that use IFVs, with the latter being known as armoured infantry. History One of the first armored ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-propelled Gun
Self-propelled artillery (also called locomotive artillery) is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move toward its firing position. Within the terminology are the self-propelled gun, self-propelled howitzer, self-propelled mortar, and self-propelled rocket artillery. They are high-mobility vehicles, usually based on continuous tracks carrying either a large field gun, howitzer, mortar (weapon), mortar, or some form of rocket (weapon), rocket/missile launcher. They are usually used for long-range indirect-fire, indirect bombardment support on the battlefield. In the past, self-propelled artillery has included direct-fire vehicles, such as assault guns and tank destroyers, which were typically well-armoured vehicles often based upon the chassis of a tank. In lieu of the standard tank's general-purpose tank gun, main gun that fired both high-explosive and anti-tank ammunition, direct-fire vehicles had specialized roles, with assault guns providing close fire-supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; their main armament is often mounted within a turret. They are a mainstay of modern 20th and 21st century ground forces and a key part of combined arms combat. Modern tanks are versatile mobile land weapons platforms whose main armament is a large- calibre tank gun mounted in a rotating gun turret, supplemented by machine guns or other ranged weapons such as anti-tank guided missiles or rocket launchers. They have heavy vehicle armour which provides protection for the crew, the vehicle's munition storage, fuel tank and propulsion systems. The use of tracks rather than wheels provides improved operational mobility which allows the tank to overcome rugged terrain and adverse conditions such as mud and ice/snow better than wheele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
270th Rifle Division
The 270th Rifle Division () was a Red Army infantry division formed twice during World War II, in 1941 and 1942. The division was first formed in July 1941 and was destroyed in the Second Battle of Kharkov. Reformed in the summer of 1942, the division fought on the Eastern Front for the rest of the war. Postwar, it was relocated to the south Urals and downsized into a brigade. The brigade was briefly expanded back to a division in 1953, but was renumbered in 1955. History First Formation The 270th began forming on 10 July 1941 at Melitopol, part of the Odessa Military District, under the command of Colonel Zaki Kutlin. Its key fighting units included the 973rd, 975th, and the 977th Rifle Regiments, as well as the 810th Artillery Regiment. Formed from militia and reservists east of the Dnieper bend in about a month, the division was assigned to the Southern Front's 12th Army by late August. In September, it was transferred to the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. In Jan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Semipalatinsk Test Site or Semipalatinsk-21 (; ), also known as "The Polygon", was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located in Zhanasemey District, Abai Region, Kazakhstan, south of the valley of the Irtysh River. The test site was part of the former Kazakh SSR. The scientific buildings for the test site were located around west of the town of Semipalatinsk, later renamed Semey, near the border of East Kazakhstan Region and Pavlodar Region. Most of the nuclear tests taking place at various sites further to the west and the south, some as far as into Karagandy Region. The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests at Semipalatinsk from 1949 until 1989 with little regard for their effect on the local people or environment. The full impact of radiation exposure was hidden for many years by Soviet authorities and has only come to light since the test site closed in 1991. According to estimates from Kazakh experts, 1.5 million people were ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tupolev Tu-4
The Tupolev Tu-4 (; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet Union, Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. The aircraft was a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, having been Reverse engineering, reverse-engineered from seized aircraft that had made emergency landings in the USSR. Design and development Toward the end of World War II, the Soviet Union saw the need for a strategic bombing capability similar to that of the Western Allies. The Soviet VVS air arm had the locally designed Petlyakov Pe-8 four-engined "heavy" in service at the start of the war, but only 93 had been built by the end of the war and the type had become obsolete. The U.S. regularly conducted Air raids on Japan, bombing raids on Japan from distant Pacific forward bases using B-29 Superfortresses. Joseph Stalin ordered the development of a comparable bomber. The U.S. twice refused to supply the Soviet Union with B-29s under Lend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky (; ; – 31 March 1967) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. He served as Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union from 1957 to 1967, during which he oversaw the strengthening of the Soviet Army. Born to an impoverished Ukrainian household in Odessa, Malinovsky volunteered for the Imperial Russian Army during the World War I, First World War and served with distinction in both the Eastern Front (World War I), German Front and the Western Front (World War I), Western Front. He was serving in the Russian Legion in France on the outbreak of the October Revolution, after which he returned to Russia and joined the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. After graduating from the Frunze Military Academy, Malinovsky volunteered to fight on the Second Spanish Republic, Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, where he again served with great distinction and was later awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner in r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Konev
Ivan Stepanovich Konev ( rus, Ива́н Степа́нович Ко́нев, p=ɪˈvan sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ ˈkonʲɪf, links=no; 28 December 1897 – 21 May 1973) was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union who led Red Army forces on the Eastern Front during World War II, responsible for taking much of Axis-occupied Eastern Europe. Born to a peasant family, Konev was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army in 1916 and fought in World War I. In 1919, he joined the Bolsheviks and served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. After graduating from Frunze Military Academy in 1926, Konev gradually rose through the ranks of the Soviet military. By 1939, he had become a candidate to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Konev took part in a series of major campaigns, including the battles of Moscow and Rzhev. Konev further commanded forces in major Soviet offensives at Kursk, in the Dni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky ( 1896 – 3 August 1968) was a Soviet and Polish general who served as a top commander in the Red Army during World War II and achieved the ranks of Marshal of the Soviet Union and Marshal of Poland. He also served as Defence Minister of Poland from 1949 to 1956. Rokossovsky was born to a Polish noble family in Warsaw in present-day Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, or according to other sources in Velikiye Luki in present-day Russia. He served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I, and in 1918, joined the Red Army and fought with distinction during the Russian Civil War. Rokossovsky rose to hold senior Red Army commands by 1937, when he fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and was branded a traitor, imprisoned and tortured. After Soviet failures in the Winter War, Rokossovsky was released from prison in 1940 and returned to command of an army corps. Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
