List of nuclear weapons tests of the Soviet Union

The nuclear weapons tests of the Soviet Union were performed between 1949 and 1990 as part of the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union conducted 715 nuclear tests using 969 total devices by official count, including 219 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests and 124 peaceful use tests.^[1] Most of the tests took place at the Southern Test Site in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan and the Northern Test Site at Novaya Zemlya. Other tests took place at various locations within the Soviet Union, including now-independent Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.

List

Soviet Union's nuclear testing series summary - Link to world summary of nuclear weapons tests
Series or years	Years covered	Tests^{[Summ 1]}	Devices fired	Devices with unknown yield	Peaceful use tests	Non-PTBT tests^{[Summ 2]}	Yield range (kilotons) ^{[Summ 3]}	Total yield (kilotons) ^{[Summ 4]}	Notes
1949–1951	1949–1951	3	3			3	22 to 42	102	There were no Soviet tests in 1950.
1953	1953	5	5			5	2 to 400	440
1954	1954	10	10			10	small to 62	122
1955	1955	7	7			7	0 to 1,600	1,868
1956	1956	9	9			9	small to 900	1,976
1957	1957	16	16			16	small to 2,900	6,239
1958	1958	36	36			36	0 to 2,900	16,252	1959 and 1960 have no testing, a bilateral moratorium between the USSR and the US, officially beginning 31 Oct 1958.
1961	1961	57	57			56	small to 50,000	87,702	The USSR ended its participation in the voluntary testing moratorium on 1 September 1961.
K project	1961–1962	5	5			5	1 to 300	902
1962	1962	78	78			77	small to 24,200	140,662	The Soviets executed no tests in 1963.
1964	1964	9	9		2		small to 47	167
1965	1965	14	15		6	2	small to 140	343
1966	1966	18	19	3	9		1 to 700	1,954
1967	1967	17	23	6	5		small to 260	657
1968	1968	17	23	2	7	2	small to 165	585
1969	1969	19	24	9	9		6 to 540	906
1970	1970	16	21	7	7		small to 2,200	2,625
1971	1971	23	29	6	8	1	small to 2,450	2,926
1972	1972	24	31	8	9		small to 1,120	1,646
1973	1973	17	22	5	6		small to 4,000	8,409
1974	1974	21	27	6	7		small to 2,300	3,750
1975	1975	19	35	17	4		small to 1,300	4,481
1976	1976	21	27	6	3		small to 130	629
1977	1977	24	36	13	7		small to 120	552
1978	1978	31	55	21	9		small to 180	1,290
1979	1979	31	52	17	9		small to 150	1,474
1980	1980	24	43	21	5		small to 200	847
1981	1981	21	37	16	5		small to 150	828
1982	1982	20	35	13	8		2 to 145	1,539
1983	1983	27	39	14	10		0 to 150	778
1984	1984	29	45	15	11		1 to 150	1,330
1985	1985	10	19	10	2		1 to 114	426	There was no Soviet testing in 1986.
1987	1987	24	40	16	6		0 to 150	1,145
1988	1988	16	29	9	2		small to 150	905
1989	1989	7	11	4			4 to 118	308
1990	1990	2	9	4			0 to 70	70	The USSR announced Soviet ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and ended testing on 24 October 1990.
Totals	1949-Aug-29 to 1991-May-01	727	981	248	156	229	0 to 50,000	296,837	Total country yield is 54.9% of all nuclear testing.

^ Includes all tests with potential for nuclear fission or fusion explosion, including combat use, singleton tests, salvo tests, zero yield fails, safety experiments, and bombs incapacitated by accidents but still intended to be fired. It does not include hydronuclear and subcritical tests, and misfires of a device which was subsequently fired successfully.
^ Number of tests which would have been in violation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, such as atmospheric, space or underwater tests. Some "peaceful use" cratering tests which should have been violations were protested, and later quietly dropped.
^ "Small" refers to a value greater than zero but less than 0.5 kt.
^ Some yields are described like "< 20 kt"; such are scored at one half of the numeric amount, i.e., yield of 10k in this example. "Unknown yield" adds nothing to the total.

References

^ Mikhailov, V. N., ed. (1996). "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions: 1949 through 1990" (PDF). Sarov, Russia: The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, and Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-06-22. Official numbers and those in the table differ due to eleven tests, all fizzles, cited in other references and the one bomb left in its shaft when the Russians abandoned the Semipalatinsk site to Kazakhstan.

Sources

Yang, Xiaoping; North, Robert; Romney, Carl (August 2000). "CMR Nuclear Explosion Database (Revision 3)" (Document). SMDC Monitoring Research.
Andryushi, LA; Voloshin, N.P.; Ilkaev, R.I.; Matushchenko, A.M.; Ryabev, L.D.; Strukov, V.G.; Chernyshev, A.K.; Yudin, Yu.A. Mikhailov, V.N. (ed.). "Catalog of Worldwide Nuclear Testing". Archived from the original on 2013-12-19. Retrieved 2013-03-04.
Wm Robert Johnston, PhD. "Johnston Archive of Nuclear Weapons". Retrieved 2013-12-31.

[2] Includes all tests with potential for nuclear fission or fusion explosion, including combat use, singleton tests, salvo tests, zero yield fails, safety experiments, and bombs incapacitated by accidents but still intended to be fired. It does not include hydronuclear and subcritical tests, and misfires of a device which was subsequently fired successfully.

[3] Number of tests which would have been in violation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, such as atmospheric, space or underwater tests. Some "peaceful use" cratering tests which should have been violations were protested, and later quietly dropped.

[4] "Small" refers to a value greater than zero but less than 0.5 kt.

[5] Some yields are described like "< 20 kt"; such are scored at one half of the numeric amount, i.e., yield of 10k in this example. "Unknown yield" adds nothing to the total.

[1] Mikhailov, V. N., ed. (1996). "USSR Nuclear Weapons Tests and Peaceful Nuclear Explosions: 1949 through 1990" (PDF). Sarov, Russia: The Ministry of the Russian Federation for Atomic Energy, and Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-06-22. Official numbers and those in the table differ due to eleven tests, all fizzles, cited in other references and the one bomb left in its shaft when the Russians abandoned the Semipalatinsk site to Kazakhstan.

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