Soviet Carelessness, Russian Legacy

The massive crater was connected to the nearby river by a channel dug by earthmoving equipment, and come spring when the mountain ice runoff waters began to flood the river: the newly christened “Lake Chagan” was filled with water, and for a short time became a popular swimming hole for Soviet officials who found the idea of swimming in the “Nuclear Lake” to be novel. This was despite the evidence that was provided to them which warned of gamma radiation levels in Lake Chagan far beyond “safe” exposure levels. Lake Chagan exists to this day, but was dammed to be utilized for crop irrigation in the area. Once again, this is despite the continued minute presence of radioactive isotopes in the area.

But by no means did the questionable practices of the Soviet Union end at “playing God” with nuclear weapons; they were equally haphazard with their stockpile of biological weapons that “officially” did not exist. Several times in Soviet history where their events that were so steeped in secrecy that the government cover-ups were actually counter-productive and drew more global attention to the doings of the Soviet Union. One such example was an Anthrax outbreak in one of Russia’s sequestered “protected” military manufacturing cities. When over one hundred and fifty civilians died from Anthrax exposure via inhalation of highly potent and concentrated airborne Anthrax spores under extremely suspicious circumstances, it was difficult for the U.S.S.R. to argue that it wasn’t producing biological weapons specifically banned by treaties they had agreed to adhere to.

Likely enough, there were many more events such as this that the Russians successfully covered up; much of the Soviet Union was isolated far enough away from European eyes to avoid information regarding human rights violations, or government-related disasters being leaked outside of the Soviet Union, or even in the Soviet Union where civilians would be under no circumstances informed of such things.

In 1991, when the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union never recovered and as of 1992, had been completely dissolved. The U.S.S.R. was no more, and most of its satellite “S.S.R.’s” that had been counted as a part of Russia, such as Ukraine, Belarus, Yugoslavia and others became their own countries along with what is now known as the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, the initial Russian Federation had little to no control over the country. Nuclear weapons were lost, biological weapons were lost, and all matters of equipment and delivery platforms were lost. The final insulting blow of the Soviet Union’s WMD policy was to finally pave the way for nuclear terrorism and the “dirty bombs” that have been used across the middle east.