USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning August 29,1949

 

At a remote test site at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, the USSR successfully detonates its first atomic bomb, code name “First Lightning.” In order to measure the effects of the blast, the Soviet scientists constructed buildings, bridges, and other civilian structures in the vicinity of the bomb.

 They also placed animals in cages nearby so that they could test the effects of nuclear radiation on human-like mammals. 

The atomic explosion, which at 20 kilotons was roughly equal to “Trinity,” the first U.S. atomic explosion, destroyed those structures and incinerated the animals.