The United States published a list of targets for a nuclear strike in the USSR

Deactivated nuclear missile Titan II in the museum (Brendan Smialowski / Agence France-Presse)

In the list of targets for nuclear missile strikes in the USSR, item No. 275 looks most impressive. It is called very simply - "population". The list itself was first published by the National Archives and Records Administration . The document itself was developed for the 50s of the last century, when the threat of a nuclear exchange between the USA and the USSR was a very likely event.

Among other objects in the USSR, goals are indicated in large cities that would achieve the goal - the systemic destruction of the country's infrastructure. In addition to the USSR, targets for strike in Eastern Europe, for satellite countries of the USSR, are also indicated. Despite the fact that each point had its own goals, one was unchanged and was present in the list of goals for any of the settlements. This population, as mentioned above.

“It discourages, of course, to see the population among the targets of the strike,” says William Burr, an analyst at the National Security Archive. This research team from George Washington University received the list back in 2006. Burr, who specializes in the history of the nuclear industry, claims the list is the most detailed ever made public.

Goals are identified thanks to code numbers, each of which is responsible for a specific location. All objects have not yet been identified; the data so far remains secret.

By the way, the list itself does not include 1 or 2 sheets of paper. This is an 800-page document marked as secret. His Strategic Air Command developed in 1956 for a war that could very well have happened about three years after the creation of the list.

At that time, there were no intercontinental missiles and installations that helped launch missiles from submarines. If the exchange of nuclear strikes took place, it would look like raids of bombers with nuclear charges, on both sides - both the USSR and the USA. According to some experts, for example, Matthew J. McKinsey, at that time the United States had 10 times more nuclear charges than the USSR. The total amount of US missile charges at that time was estimated at 20,000 megatons of TNT. President Eisenhower decided to reduce his arsenal, and he was halved in the next couple of years.

As for the population, it was planned to destroy it - this, according to the military of that time, was supposed to demoralize the enemy, both soldiers and civilians.

“We know that a nuclear conflict scenario has been planned for several decades,” says Stephen Schwartz, an independent nuclear weapons consultant. “It's great that the details have cleared up. This is an extraordinary weapon that can inflict incredible destruction. This document may be history, although, unfortunately, nuclear weapons have not yet become history, ”the specialist continues.