Reviving a Cold War Fear: A Nuclear Apocalypse Nightmare
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| The photo shows an air-to-sea Kh-22 missile. Although little known outside its specialists, it was one of the most dangerous weapons of the last century, due to its ease of use and the power of its nuclear warhead. Source: Wikipedia |
Each generation has its own memory. The most important component of memory is experiences. Among these experiences, childhood and early youth have an important place. According to a well-known expression, childhood is the most beautiful years of our lives. In childhood, memory is fresh, there is no responsibility, there is unconditional love and protection. There are games, fairy tales, the pleasure of learning. That's why my childhood holds an important place in my memory. I am sure you do too...
A fear that has been alien to today's world for some time, or rather put in the deep freeze, has recently begun to stir again. This is the fear of nuclear war. Our generation, which today can be considered to be in a kind of purgatory between two worlds, knows what this fear is. This is because in our childhood, nuclear war was something very close and very real. The danger was so real that we all grew up taking it for granted that the world could end at any moment.
It is very difficult for an adult, let alone a child, to get used to such a thing...
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| The photo shows nuclear physicist Igor Sergeyevich Kurchatov, also known as the father of the Soviet atomic bomb, with institutes and schools named after him, and other scientists. Photo: Web |
For example, television used to show 15-minute informative movies. These were usually aired in the afternoon or evening when children like me were waiting in front of the TV to watch cartoons. I'll never forget one of them. A hand pressed a red button, a missile was fired and someone started running. It was really like that. Everyone had shelters in their neighborhoods. At the entrance of the apartment buildings, in large font and with arrows, it was written "to the shelter". Even carrying the keys to the shelters was a serious job, not everyone could take on this task. These shelters were regularly maintained. We had to be careful when we entered the shelter, we had to put the sheets we had soaked in water under the door like a mat and we had to have a Snickers bar with us. In our school and hospital, there were big boards explaining what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Every now and then there were drills. We had all memorized what the whistle sound of which length meant. I even knew by heart which alarm would sound when I pressed which key on my Casio organ. We all had Casio organs back then. We named the alarm sound "monster whistle" among ourselves. When the monster whistle blew, we would run and hide.
But in fact we were not going to be able to do anything...
We couldn't, and everybody knew it. How much time could we have had? How many of us can hide when there is an earthquake? We just freeze in place....
One day Zbigniew Brzezinski said: 6 minutes! In 6 minutes we had to wake up, wake up the president, notify him, press the button for retaliation and we could do it in 6 minutes!
But 6 minutes was not enough for anything, it was only enough to die...
Nuclear weapons are terrible devices. They are not of this world. Ballistic missiles can run on solid or liquid fuel. Solid-fueled missiles travel faster. Once they reach the Stratosphere layer of the atmosphere, they go into free fall. This, coupled with gravitational acceleration, increases their speed tremendously. Then the warhead opens and the nuclear fragments that are reacted inside the warhead explode at a certain height, depending on the type of weapon.
It is very difficult to stop this because you are taking derivatives. It is difficult to hit an object approaching at that speed.
Do you want your children to live in such a world? War movies, war stories, war music, drills, sirens, bunkers? Looking at it today, even as I write these lines, I find it hard to believe how strange it is.
When Chernobyl exploded, radiation rained down on us. We couldn't drink tea for years out of fear. Our children got cancer. People didn't even understand what happened. All this happened in this world and while we were alive.
Sounds like a dystopia, doesn't it?
But it was all real and we lived through it.
Unfortunately...
I'm really sorry, I wish our childhood had been different...
Some people today have photos of nuclear explosions on their walls. The man framed them and hung them on the wall.
What to say...sometimes words run out.
I wish everyone a future full of peace and tranquility. May the love of human beings be in your hearts.
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