U.S. Paid Russian Scientists to Write Soviet Arms History

Less than a year after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a group of Russia’s top atomic weapons scientists contracted with the United States to produce a massive study of Soviet nuclear weapons testing, providing firsthand information about Cold War events stretching over more than four decades, according to documents and interviews with key Russian participants.

The history project, which was led by Alexander Tchernyshev, a theoretical physicist at Russia’s first nuclear weapons laboratory, remains shrouded in secrecy in both Russia and the United States.

But the scope of the project--a detailed, 2,000-page history of 715 Soviet nuclear tests over 41 years--was unprecedented, and it appears to have given the United States valuable insights into Soviet military and scientific procedures.

It could also help U.S. specialists better monitor future nuclear explosions by rogue states that defy a nuclear test ban recently adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. One presumed nuclear state, India, has said it will not accept the new treaty, while Iran, Libya and possibly other countries reportedly are attempting to develop nuclear weapons.

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Starting in December 1992, Tchernyshev and about 200 other scientists wrote the history under contract to the U.S. Defense Special Weapons Agency for a fee of $288,501. At the time, the scientists were suffering economically, and the United States was trying to prevent them from taking their know-how elsewhere.

The information that the scientists provided was the objective of a long and costly detection and monitoring effort by the United States during the Cold War. By filling in the gaps, experts said, the history will help the Pentagon better understand Russian procedures and adjust its systems to allow better monitoring of tests.

According to a 10-page outline of the report, much of the work of the Russian scientists appears to have been on scientific themes, such as measurements of radioactivity and the impact of nuclear tests on the environment and people. The history did not directly delve into the design or deployment of the Soviet--and now Russian--nuclear arsenal, and would probably not affect nuclear strategy or arms control.

The United States paid the scientists to write detailed chapters on the first Soviet nuclear test in 1949; the testing of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb in 1953; the once ultra-secret Soviet atomic weapons testing complex; the long-hidden 1954 Totsk nuclear test involving ground troops; the environmental and radiation impact of hundreds of tests; and other topics, both scientific and political.

Tchernyshev said the Russian scientists did not divulge state secrets. However, he acknowledged that the information given the United States was “sensitive.” He said all the material was screened by a Russian declassification process.

Tchernyshev said the project was carried out with the approval and participation of Russia’s minister of atomic energy, Viktor N. Mikhailov. There is an agreement by both countries to keep most of the work confidential to deter proliferation.

The Defense Special Weapons Agency, in a written reply to questions from the Washington Post, said the information “was of no value in understanding the design of Soviet nuclear weapons because we did not ask for weapon design information and none was provided.”

Tchernyshev said the United States stipulated that the payments must be made directly to nuclear scientists, not the weapons laboratory. The 200 authors each received about $500, he said, with the rest going for taxes and expenses.