[cartan]

It used to be an essential part of Soviet propaganda in the West to exaggerate greatly the dangers of nuclear attacks. Make everybody believe that a couple nukes would render the entire planet uninhabitable for ten thousand years. Hey, so let’s just disarm unilaterally! Only the Soviets should have nukes! Who cares? Better red than dead, right?

Traces of that thinking can still be found in many places today.

[ransomnote]

The Soviets were generally ignorant of nuclear isotopes. When Chernobyl melted down, they allowed the population to hold a parade under the smoldering shadow of the plant. Photos of the parade mysteriously disappeared. Then officials calculated how teh radiation would effect the city’s population, whom were assured they were 100% safe, and were horrified to discover that, mathmatically - the entire population would be dead of radiation poisoning in a week. So, they told the population they would be temporarily bused to a clean-air area and not to bring anything from home. Once they arrived to a distant location, they were told they could never return to their homes - too toxic. The soviets documented this, hid the data, and when overthrown, it all came out. Key officials are on video admitting to all of this in the youtube videos titled “The Battle of Chernobyl”