The people in the comments of the video purporting it’s “lack of propaganda” weird me out. You’re just frighteningly bad at detecting propaganda. The entire video, and the entire government program that spurred the video were propaganda.
The entire Soviet system only released information through a strong propaganda filter. There was simply no room for any action of the government to be reflected poorly. These tests by and large ended up radiating populations and not telling them.
Another test - a nuclear blast in the vicinity of Moscow, which caused small contaminated area (100x150 m) as well as risk of polluting the Volga basin.
I understood the H2S was leaking through much more superficial ground than the one that received the nuclear blast.
Of course, we don't actually know the details about any of it. But there were plenty of underground nuclear explosions, and people are usually quite good at controlling them.
It's an extremely well made film – and extremely effective propaganda. Having seen this as part of the intended audience, you're probably proud of your country and eager to contribute, and at ease with the technology involved.
In fact, the whole existence of the Soviet Union and everything that was done inside it was merely a propaganda stunt stretched into 67 years, that had no other purpose except showing the greatness of the Soviet Union as an actual country (while in reality, of course, it was but a humongous film set, with a propagandistic theatre play being performed on it).
Sputnik was quite real, though.
As were lots of other things. For example the industrialisation of a big country that was in poor rural state before, while being blocked by the west.
Not everyone in the sowjets was forced to be there. Idealism is a strong driving force, otherwise the sowjet empire would not have sustained itself for so long on propaganda alone.
Do you think American nuclear tests and news reels from the era were propaganda free?
This was an active natural gas well and drilling area. No one was living near it--it would have been a nightmare of potential deadly gas exposure to do so, even ignoring the nuclear blast. The blast was 1000+ meters underground so no cloud or fallout was thrown into the air. The really dangerous radioisotopes from most bombs have a half life less than a decade so everything underground is likely pretty benign now. But again, no one is going to be digging a hole 1000 meters down into a former natural gas well to go live there.
I like (well, maybe the wrong word) the one video that was made for the leadership only, and has an image of a couple of guys walking down a street near a nuclear test site. The narrator says something like: “These people think they are safe because they’re far enough from the test site. They will soon learn the error of their ways.” They’re then promptly bowled over when the blast front hits (or ripped to shreds, the video doesn’t say).
I keep wondering if it was deliberate or just a “happy little accident”.
I don't mean to imply that Soviet Union did not have lots of propaganda. But do you have any proof that this particular underground explosion caused radioactive pollution for some populations?
The entire Soviet system only released information through a strong propaganda filter. There was simply no room for any action of the government to be reflected poorly. These tests by and large ended up radiating populations and not telling them.