Soviet Union-Lost but not forgotten-Part 7

Allied and Soviet Tanks stand facing each other during the Checkpoint Charlie Crisis.

Cold War in 1960’s

1960’s were a tensed period in Cold War history. Competition between USSR and USA was seen in space research, missile development, arms production, sports. It was a war between Socialism and Capitalism. The amount of nuclear arsenals increased. In case of a nuclear war, there was a possibility of an all-out war due to mutual assured destruction. During this period, USSR almost overtook USA in terms of weapons and armory. There was an atmosphere of suspicion everywhere as no one knew who could be a possible defector or a spy. Due to the strict military nature of USSR, even trespassing airspace was dealt severely. The Soviet Union often shot down even non-Soviet passenger plane trespassing into its airspace illegally. Protecting its airspace was a huge challenge to the Soviet Government. US frequently conducted reconnaissance missions by flying spy planes over the USSR and US pilots successfully escaped the missile fire of Soviet SAM’s(Surface-Air Missiles) and were able to return to their bases in Pakistan comfortably. India had good relations with the USSR. Taking advantage of the India-Pakistan rivalry in the Indian subcontinent, US developed good relations with Pakistan and also built many air bases to frequently fly spy planes over the Southern Central republics of USSR namely Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Krgyzhtan and Uzbekistan.


McNamara and Kennedy during the EXCOMM meeting.

Checkpoint Charlie Crisis

After the end of World War II in Europe, Nazi Germany was divided into four occupation zones per the Potsdam Agreement, each one controlled by the then Allied powers, Americans, British, French and the Soviets. Berlin was the seat of the Allied Control Council. It was also subdivided into four sectors despite the city lying deep inside the Soviet zone of occupation. Although the occupying powers originally intended to jointly govern Germany within its postwar borders, the advent of Cold War tensions caused the French, British and American zones to be formed into the Federal Republic of Germany (and West Berlin) in 1949, excluding the Soviet zone, which then formed the German Democratic Republic (East Berlin).

On 13th August 1961, East German Government started the construction of Berlin Wall. Anyone trying to defect or cross the border was shot. The construction of the Wall had caused considerable hardship to families divided by it. West Germany was ruled by a capitalist government while East Germany was a socialist state with a planned economy.

Tensions between USSR and USA grew again during Checkpoint Charlie Crisis. Checkpoint Charlie was a check post between the CCCP and USA since the partition of Germany. Shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall, a standoff occurred between U.S. and Soviet tanks on either side of Checkpoint Charlie. It began on 22nd October due to a dispute over whether East German guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a U.S. diplomat passing through to East Berlin. By October 27th, 10 Soviet and an equal number of American tanks stood 100 meters apart on either side of the checkpoint. The number of Allied tanks increased soon.


The Kennedy Administration gathers to discuss the next move as Soviet threat looms overhead.

Soviet Generals made an immediate response by sending more tanks to the checkpoint. Seeing the Soviet deployment, the Allied tanks backed up. For approximately 22 hours, the world was tensed as these two giants stood against each other waiting for a chance to start a war. The entire USSR was in red-alert for a possible nuclear war in case of an escalated crisis. The next day evening, an American tank backed a few meters. Immediately, a Soviet tank backed for a few meters. Likewise, all tanks backed up thus saving the day again.

Meanwhile a year later, US secretly installed Missile launchers in Turkey targeting Moscow. This alarmed the USSR considerably and the Soviet Union counteracted by installing nuclear-tipped missiles in Cuba. The then Cuban leader Fidel Castro assisted the Soviet Government to counteract the US threat. The tensed moment was yet to come! The photographs taken by US spy planes over Cuba indicated Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles. The Cuban Missile crisis was taking shape. The remaining 14 days were a tensed period as USSR threatened to hit back strongly for US deployment of missiles in Turkey. Do you think anyone would be hatching eggs if someone tries to act smart?


President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Soviet ships carrying nuclear missiles were seen moving towards Cuba. The then President John F. Kennedy ordered for a blockade of Russian (Soviet) ships. Though Russia was a part of the USSR, Soviet Union was often considered as the synecdoche of Russia. Blockade is an act of war. Kennedy felt that the USSR might not retaliate if the ships were blocked. The news was given to the press about possible Soviet first strike on US. But the sad news is that US deployment of nuclear missiles in Turkey to hit USSR was kept low. When USSR claimed the fact, no one believed.


U-2 plan shot down by Cuban forces.

Meanwhile, different things were happening inside a Soviet submarine. On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph trapped a nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. Allegedly, the captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war between USSR and USA might already have started, prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear-tipped torpedo.

Three officers on board the submarine — Savitsky, Political Officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov and Second Captain Arkhipov — were authorized to launch the torpedo if they agreed unanimously in favour of doing so. An argument broke out among the three, in which only Arkhipov was against the launch, eventually persuading Savitsky to surface the submarine and await orders from Moscow. The nuclear warfare which presumably would have ensued was thus averted.

At the conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis held in Havana on 13 October 2002, Robert McNamara admitted that nuclear war had come much closer than people had thought. Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, said that "a guy called Vasili Arkhipov saved the world."

US forces landed in Cuba to overthrow the Fidel Castro government. US Airforce constantly bombarded Cuba, but failed to overthrow the Castro Government. US forces were defeated in the Bay of Pigs episode. After 14 tensed days, US agreed to withdraw the missiles in Turkey. But this was never exposed to the outside world. When USSR withdrew the missiles from Cuba, it again caused an embarrassment to the upper echelons of the Soviet Union as it was viewed as if the Russians were backing up after starting a crisis on their own. Nikita Khrushchev was blamed heavily of poor handling of the crisis and was later ousted. He was replaced by Leonid Breznev as the General Secretary.

NGO's donation and links

Dear fellow blog readers,

With the help of friends, the free medicine scheme was implemented. All working professionals can directly or indirectly help poor students and the unfortunate people. If you earn around Rs.1000/- you can give around Rs. 50 for the orphanages. Considering the fact that we all are humans and we are committed to social justice, we need to work on sustainable development and human rights. Let's work hard for the progress of our Republic. It's not about spreading communism or socialism, it is just to learn from the past and create a better efficient system.

Kaakkum Karangal
Contact: 044-24617754
044-25232324
044-24405303


http://www.ngosindia.com/




As a republic we need to focus on a certain key issues. Human Rights, Forest Lands and Tribal rights, Child Rights, Women Empowerment, Food, Health, Labour rights, Peace and Animal welfare.



Generally, India is regarded as a third world country. We need not bother. Our way of life, traditions are different. We have 18 different local languages with more than 100 other languages and variety of cultures. Our way of life is receiving to share and not to compete on unimportant things. Our land belongs to us and we need to always remember that we share it with the tribes. We shouldn't forget the fact that they belong to our land and they have a right for living space. Simply by building IT parks, pubs, food courts, weekend parties we don't achieve progress. That type of progress isn't needed for our Republic. Let's retain our culture. Dhotis, Kurtas, Pants(Formals), Salwars, Sarees etc. Women and the present day younger girl generations should give a thought regarding their dressing style. They should take care of their own personal safety to avoid unnecessary problems.



We should take care of each other. Never mind whether we are a rich nation or not, but let's be a content nation. Let's be kind to animals. Afterall, animals are best friends to mankind. At one point of time, we all face family problems, breakup, at that time we would hate humans. During those times, animals are our best friends! They are also de-facto citizens of India. Let's share our food with fellow citizens. Let's share our clothes with them. Let's share our love with fellow Indians. Most of all Our Government would give us living space. Our Republic would protect us!

Petro Dollar Scam

Petro Dollar Scam.


Petro dollar is a term used to refer currency used to purchase petrol. But have you ever heard of Petro Dollar scam? Are you aware of the things which happenned just before you but you aren’t aware of it?

United States of America is a union of states and considered as a superpower. The only competitor was the USSR, which resulted in a period of mistrust, tensed period known as Cold War since 1945 till the end of USSR in 1991. Due to poor economy and also due to the ramifications of the Afghan war the USSR dissoluted into 15 countries. With the USSR gone, the USA emerged as the sole-superpower in a unipolar world dominating many foreign policies. The policies were aggressive, selfish, dominating and it resulted in many wars in Gulf and Afghanistan. The reason for all Iraq, Afghan wars is not because of terrorism or a nuke threat from Islamic states but just to protect the US dollar and propping up of Oil and Petrol prices. Read below to read more about the shocking story.


An Iraqi women pleads for freedom as an US soldier arrests her. US soldiers committed a lot of human violations against women in Iraq.


The story winds back to 1971 during the tensed Cold War period between the USSR and the USA, when US printed a lot of dollars in paper. When the French Government demanded Gold in return, the US government didn’t have enough gold for the money it has already printed. A deal was done with the OPEC or the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and globally oil and natural gas were dealt in dollars. The US Government got oil just for printing dollars in paper. From that point on, every nation that needed to buy oil had to first hold US dollars, which meant that they exchanged their goods and services for dollars, for which the treasury of US just printed.


Huga Chavez was the Venezuelan President who criticized American policies and sold Oil and Petroleum in Euro instead of US dollar. As usual CIA played a crucial role in many attempts to overthrow his regime and wasn't successful.


Now how are the wars related to this scam? Saddam Hussein started selling Oil and Petroleum in Euros instead of dollars. This would affect the American economy. The US claimed that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction and entered into Iraq. The government was replaced by a puppet government within months which was nothing but US’s pet. In 2003, the leadership in the White House created a pretext to wage war and invade Iraq and the first thing they did in 2003 was revert sales of oil back to dollars. For a short time, a major financial crisis was averted.


What was the real purpose of Iraq War?

In 2006, Hugo Chavez the President of Venezuela started selling his country’s oil for currencies other than dollars and a number of attempts on his life and regime change were attempted which were traceable to our dearest CIA.

Next, the Iranian President Ahmadinejad decided to start selling oil for every currency except US dollars. The petrodollar scam is coming to an end. As the nations of the world find that they can buy oil with their own currencies instead of holding US dollars, more OPEC nations will abandon the dollar.

-Krishna Kumar.S

Soviet-Afghan war-The real war against terror!

Twin towers destroyed in 2001.

Introduction


We are all aware of the sad events that took place in Mumbai several weeks back. Lots of innocent people died for absolutely no reason. Nowadays, no country is safe from terrorism. Mumbai train blasts, 9/11 attacks in United States, Ahmedabad blasts, Bangalore blasts are all examples of how powerful terrorism has grown. We clearly understand how Religion is used as a weapon to create clashes between the people. But where did all these people come from? Who exactly encouraged them? From where did they get all courage to fight against nations, which have powerful Navy, Air Force and Army? Is the world really moving towards destruction? What actually motivated the terrorists? The result could be traced back to 1979 during the heights of Cold War. All these problems took shape when United States assisted Mujahideen to fight against their bitter enemy USSR. It was during the September 11th attacks that United States realized that it had reaped what it had sown.


Soviets fight against Afghan Mujahideens. How the Hammer and the Sickle broke?

Background

Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) shortly known as the Soviet Union was a socialist state that existed from 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. USSR was the biggest country ever to exist on earth covering 11 time zones out of 12 world time zones, occupying almost one-sixth of the world area and one third of Asia. It was 7 times bigger than India and two and a half times bigger than the United States. Now how did such a great superpower collapse? Is Socialism bad?


United States assists Al-Qaeda in the Soviet-Afghan War. Pic shows CIA agents touring Taliban camps. CIA created terror training camps where Talibans were trained.

Life in the Soviet Union

Life in the Soviet Union was safe, secure and healthy provided you don’t go against the state. Most of all women were treated as humans. Soviet Union preferred an atheist attitude though it was officially secular. USSR was the only country to recover quickly after a devastating war to become an industrial superpower within a few years. Soviet Union was the first country to design the world’s first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile R-7-Semyorka and it was the first nation to launch the first artificial satellite. However, regular life was monitored in the Soviet Union.


Bin Laden assisted by the United States. Pic shows Bin Laden fighting against Soviets with American equipments.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan was under communist rule during the controversial Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989). Afghanistan had problems within itself when the Mujahideens wanted to capture power. The Afghan government requested the USSR to assist them. The USSR refused to intervene initially as it was a tensed period of relations during the Cold War. However, decisions to invade Afghanistan was taken hastily in a few months.


Mujahideen leaders in White House. President Ronald Reagan promises assistance to Taliban to fight against the USSR, not knowing that his own country would be facing another bloody war.


The War begins…

In the midnight of December 24th, 1979, Soviet tanks and armoured divisions entered into Afghanistan to fight a war to remove the Taliban threat. The whole world was stunned, as it didn’t expect the Soviet Union to enter into a war given the already tensed situation of Cold War with United States. Soviet warplanes MiG’s, Sukhoi’s entered into Afghan Airspace in the early hours of Christmas. The whole world was brought to standstill as it knew it would be witnessing one of the key wars in human history. A superpower was in action against guerilla forces. No one knew that the Soviet Union was actually entering the last phase of its existence. The sad thing was that it disintegrated fighting for socialism. USSR had many reasons to fear. The southern republics of the USSR like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Krgyzistan were Islamic states. If terrorists captured Afghanistan, then there is a problem of “Jihad” or Holy war in all-Soviet republics. Soviet Union may not survice a Jihad.

The Soviet Union collapse was evident in the mid 1970's itself. Instead of restructuring its economy, the Soviet Union shouldn't have gone for war. Even if terrorists have captured Afghanistan, there is a chance of jihad in Islamic republics of USSR. This would again break the USSR into pieces. In the Soviet Union, Russia was considered as a major contributor and other republics were treated as unreliable sometimes. This led to discontent in the minds of other republics. Russian was made a compulsory language. For many people in Uzbek, Tajik, Kazakh it was much more like Russianization.


Soviet Union withdraws officially after a devastating war in Afghanistan.

Soviet soldiers started rebuilding Afghanistan once they entered Afghanistan. They reconstructed houses, schools to promote education. Women were allowed to be without veil and were made to interact with men. Meanwhile, the United States continued to project the USSR as the evil empire and as an aggressor. The CIA offered to assist the guerilla forces to fight against Soviet troops. Stinger Anti-air missiles were secretly distributed to the Taliban to shoot down Soviet-Aircrafts. Ammunitions, walkie-talkies, guns were supplied by the United States to defeat the Soviet Union.


Soviet artillery guns captured by Taliban.


The Soviet Defeat

Soviet Union was considered as an aggressor. The morale of the Soviet troops went down as they were considered as an invader. The war stagnated the economy of the Soviet Union. It was a great loss and embarrassment to the USSR. The mighty Red Army was getting screwed by guerilla warriors. The citizens lost their faith in the Soviet system. There could be only one answer now. Withdrawal! Soviet Union made an embarrassing withdrawal. Few years later, it ceases to exist. On the evening of December 31st, 1991 the Soviet Red Hammer and the Sickle flag was lowered for one last time! The next day tri-color Russian flag was hoisted.

Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the Soviet President ending the most powerful empire in the history of mankind after 70 years of its existence. This was a huge victory for the United States at that time. It was not even 10 years. The same Taliban attacked the United States with the same weapons the United States gave to fight against the Soviets.

Soviet-Afghan War Timeline

Early 1979: The USSR is requested by Afghan Government to enter into war to fight against Taliban.

Mid-1979: Aleksei Kosygin, the then Soviet Premier rules out a possibility of Soviet intervention.

24th December 1979: Soviet Union enters war. The then General Secretary Leonid Breznev orders Soviet tanks to take on Afghanistan. India, longtime ally of the Soviet Union openly supports the Soviet-Afghan war in the International scenario. India was the only democratic country to support the USSR in this war.

25th December 1979: US President Jimmy Carter says, "Soviet invasion is a threat to world peace since the end of World War 2.

1981: Soviet soldiers organize coordinated attacks on terrorist camps. By now, CIA is giving a lot of assistance to terrorists. Signs of Soviet loss are slowly coming out.

1982: Soviet Aircrafts/Bombers bombard mountains and hills to kill terrorists.

1983: United States gives tremendous assistance to Taliban to fight against the USSR.


The President of United States Jimmy Carter and Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq promises Taliban a lot of assistance.

1984: Soviet Union faces huge casualities.

1985: Soviet Union fights alone. The President Gorbachev feels the war is a waste. It’s no using in being with people who are brain washed by stupid ideals. Fighting increases brutally. 1985 was the bloodiest year in Soviet history as it lost more than 1000 soldiers.

1986: Soviet Union is unable to achieve the result it aspired for.

1988: Unrest inside the USSR as citizens themselves feels uncomfortable. Majority of the troops have withdrawn.

1989: Boris Gromov, the Commander General and his regiment was the last regiment to withdraw. Boris Gromov got down from his jeep and walked the Soviet-Afghan border on foot. He was the last ‘Soviet soldier’ to walk out of Afghanistan.


A Soviet soldier looks back at Afghanistan for one last time. He has lost his comrades. Job unfinished! He knew that he was lucky to be fortunate.

1991: On the last day of the year December 31st, 1991, Soviet Union ceases to exist. The Red Flag is lowered and is replaced by the tri-color flag of the Imperial Russia. Russia is declared as the successor of the Soviet Union and all of Soviet nuclear arsenals comes under Russia.

1992-1993: Kabul falls. The Taliban comes to power.

11th September 2001: The same Taliban hits back at United States in the 9/11 attacks destroying the World Trade Center and a part of the Pentagon.


A Mujahideen with Hand Mounted Stinger Anti-Air Missile to shoot Soviet Aircraft.

Soviet Losses:


1. 15,000 Soviet soldiers
2. 333 Helicopters.
3. 147 tanks.
4. 1314 Passenger carriers.
5. 433 artillery guns.
6. 1,138 Communication vehicles.
7. 510 Engineering vehicles
8. 11,369 petrol tanks.


Soviet Spetsnaz soldiers prepare for a mission to eliminate terrorists.

The Spetsnaz Soldiers were quite successful in many missions. But that wasn't enough to win this bloody conflict. How did such a great superpower collapse? It could have easily won the war by sending half of police forces of Moscow. The USSR initiated its own dissolution by entering into Afghan war.


Taliban operating sophisticated radio equipments supplied by the United States(CIA).



Taliban fights Americans with the same Stinger Missile given to them during the Soviet-Afghan war.

-Krishna Kumar.S

Soviet Union-Lost but not forgotten-Part 6

The site after the explosion.


The Nedelin disaster occurred on 24th October 1960 at the Baikonour Cosmodrome during the development of R-16 Soviet ICBM. The prototype of the missile was being prepared for a test when the second stage ignited improperly and led to a blast killing around 100 people. Chief of Artillery Forces Marshall Mitrofan Nedelin was killed in the explosion. The official death toll was 90, but estimates are as high as 200, with 120 being the generally accepted figure. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, news of it was covered up for many years by the Soviet government and did not emerge until the 1990s. After the explosion, news was sent to all relatives of the deceased that they have died in a aircrash. The then General Secretary Nikita Khruschev ordered that the information shouldn’t be spread to the world and this news was made available only after the disintegration of the USSR in 1991.



Rocket exploding at site.

Unlike NASA, the Space Research in the Soviet Union had a lot of competition. There were three designers who competed amongst themselves to design ambitious Soviet space programs. Mikhail Yangel, Sergei Korylev were the popular ones, however Sergei Korylev was considered to be the most successful designer. This particular program was headed by Yangel.


Chief of Artillery Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin.

On 23 October, the R-16 rocket prototype was on the launching pad awaiting final tests before its firing. The rocket was filled with UDMH-Nitric acid which is used in rocketry despite the fact that it was an extremely corrosive and toxic binary fuel that produces poisonous gas when burned. These risks were accounted for in the safety procedures in preparing the rocket for launching, but, late that day, technicians accidentally ruptured the pyrotechnic membranes of the first-stage fuel lines and allowed the fuel in to the combustion chamber. The nitric acid component was so corrosive that it damaged the R-16 rocket. Thus, the rocket team had only a two options. It was to launch the rocket next day or drain the fuel from the rocket and then rebuild the engine and so delay the program several weeks. Morever, Yangel was much eager to complete the program before the 43rd Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. He wanted to present the successful result to Nikita Khruschev.


R-16 ICBM before the explosion. Photo taken in the Soviet Union.

When the second stage blasted, Nedelin and 125 other rocket personnel were killed, but Yangel survived. He had left the area to smoke a cigarette, where he and the chief technicians discussed possibly abandoning the rocket launching. After inspecting the site, Nikita Khruschev asked Yangel, “But why have you survived?”. In a trembling voice, Yangel replied, “I went away for a smoke. It’s all my fault”. A memorial to the dead was erected near Baikonur and it is still visited by RKA(Russian Space Agency) officials before any manned launch.

-Krishna Kumar.S

Soviet Union-Lost but not forgotten-Part 5

U-2 spy plance wreckage kept at Moscow.

In July 1957, the U.S. established a secret U.S. intelligence facility in Pakistan. It was in Badaber, 16 km from Peshawar. Badaber was an excellent choice because of its proximity to Soviet Union’s Central Asia republics. This enabled monitoring of missile test sites, launch pads and other communications during the tensed cold war periods.


On 9 April 1960, the U-2 spy plane of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) crossed the South national boundary of Soviet Union in the area of Pamir Mountains and flew over four Soviet top secret military locations: the Semipalatinsk Test Site, the Tu-95 air base, the Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) test site of the Soviet Air Defense Forces near Saryshagan, and the Tyuratam missile range. The Soviet Air Defense Forces detected the plane at 04:47hrs when it flew away by more than 250 km from the Soviet national boundary and avoided several attempts of interception using MiG-19 and Su-9 during the flight. After U-2 left the Soviet air space, it was clear that U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had successfully performed an extraordinary intelligence operation. Soviets knew that their anti-aircraft systems weren’t effective. However, next time the Soviets hit back! Perhaps, in the best way possible.


Gary Powers undergoes trial in the Soviet Union.


The 1960 U-2 incident occurred during the Cold War on May 1, 1960 when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. At first, the United States government denied the plane's purpose and mission, but later it was forced to admit its role when the Soviet government produced the plane remains, photographs and the surviving pilot Gary Powers. The incident happened before two weeks of the scheduled opening of an East-West summit. The incident was a great embarrassment to the United States and prompted a marked deterioration in its relations with the Soviet Union. Eisenhower refused to apologize and Nikita Khrushchev, the then General Secretary of the USSR, boycotted the East-West summit.

What really happened?

On May 1, 1960, thirteen days before the scheduled opening of an East–West summit conference in Paris, a U.S. Lockheed U-2 spy plane left US base in Badaber on a mission to over fly the Soviet Union to photograph ICBM sites.
The Soviet missile system was not yet up to the mark! Fighter planes like MiG-19’s and Su-9’s were sent to intercept the aircraft. According to the reports, it is believed that the missile fired from a SAM (Surface to Air Missile) hit the spy plane first and it also destroyed a Soviet interceptor plane in the missile salvo. Due to secret policy of the Soviet Union, many such incidents and details still remain a mystery and still unanswered. The pilot Gary Powers was captured by the Soviets.

Four days after Powers disappeared, NASA issued a very detailed press release stating that an aircraft had "gone missing" north of Turkey. The press release speculated that the pilot might have fallen unconscious while the autopilot was still engaged, even falsely claiming that "the pilot reported over the emergency frequency that he was experiencing oxygen difficulties."


Nikita Khruschev inspects the wreckage.

Then the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that a "spy plane" had been shot down but intentionally made no reference to the pilot. As a result, the Eisenhower Administration, thinking the pilot had died in the crash, authorized the release of a cover story claiming that the plane was a "weather research aircraft" which had strayed into Soviet airspace. The White House gracefully acknowledged that this might be the same plane, but still proclaimed that "there was absolutely no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace and never has been" and attempted to continue the facade by grounding all U-2 aircraft to check for "oxygen problems."



Newspapers in the 1960's describing the U-2 incident.

On May 7, Khrushchev sprang his trap and announced, ” I must tell you a secret. When I made my first report I deliberately did not say that the pilot was alive and well and now just look how many silly things [the Americans] are said.
Powers was actually still alive; unfortunately his plane was also essentially intact. The Soviets managed to recover the surveillance camera and even developed some of the photographs. Those photographs were taken over the USSR during the espionage mission. Powers’ survival pack, including 7500 rubles, jewels were recovered.


The SA-2 type missile used by the Soviet Union to shoot the aircraft.

The Paris Summit between president Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev collapsed in large part and the Cold War continued. Khrushchev left the talks on May 16. Powers pleaded guilty and was convicted of espionage. The incident severely compromised Pakistan security and worsened relations between the Soviet Union and Pakistan. Pakistani General Khalid Mahmood Arif while commenting on the incident stated that, "Pakistan felt deceived because the US had kept her in the dark about such clandestine spy operations launched from Pakistan’s territory." As Soviet Union launched satellites and designed missiles, cold war tensions also grew proportionately.

Soviet Union-Lost but not forgotten-Part 4

Nikita Khruschev was the Soviet leader as USSR achieved great milestones.

Soviet Union designed world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. It was known as R7 ‘Semyorka’ or as SS-7 Sapwood (as known in NATO). Using this Sputnik 1 was put on orbit. Sputnik 2 was launched on November 3rd, 1957, which carried a living being, a dog-named ‘Laika’. Laika was actually a street dog found in Moscow. It was selected because Moscow dogs would fare well in adverse conditions, as Moscow itself is very cold. It was a one-way trip. The mission provided scientists with the first data on the behavior of a living organism in the space environment.


Laika was the first dog in space.

Sputnik 3 was an automatic scientific laboratory spacecraft. It was conically shaped and was 3.57 m long and 1.73 m wide at its base. It weighed 1,327 kg. The scientific instrumentation (twelve instruments) provided data on pressure and composition of the upper atmosphere, concentration of charged particles, photons in cosmic rays, heavy nuclei in cosmic rays, magnetic and electrostatic fields, and meteoric particles. The outer radiation belts of the Earth were detected during the flight. Its tape recorder failed, so it could not map the Van Allen radiation belt.


Sputnik 2 which carried Laika.

Sputnik 4 was launched as a test-flight of the Vostok spacecraft that would be used for the first human space flight. This spacecraft, the first of a series of spacecraft used to investigate the means for manned space flight, contained scientific instruments, a television system, and a self-sustaining biological cabin with a dummy of a man. The spacecraft was designed to study the operation of the life support system and the stresses of flight.

Meanwhile, Khruschev continued with other reforms. During Nikita Khrushchev’s rule Soviet Union developed rapidly. Khrushchev was primarily responsible for introducing liberal reforms in agriculture and industry. He established Warsaw pact in response to NATO. Initiated talks and promoted peaceful co-existences. Soviet Union overtook US virtually as a superpower, only during Khrushchev’s era as it created progress in both space research and missile development. After Stalin’s death, there were a lot of differences with the Chinese republic’s, which even lead to Sino-Soviet split, which shocked the world as two communist countries became foes. Differences with People’s Republic of China grew more as Khrushchev refused to help Chinese Nuclear program. More action was yet to come as World moved closer to world war.


Sputnik 3.

The Virgin Lands Campaign was an initiative by Nikita Khrushchev to open up vast tracts of unseeded (virgin) steppe in the northern Kazakh SSR and the Altay region of the Russian SFSR(Soviet Federal Socialist Republics, a part of the Soviet Union), started in 1954. In the first year of the programme, 190,000 km² were ploughed; in 1955, an extra 140,000 km² were ploughed. With all this new land, a vast number of people were brought from all over the Soviet Union. The first harvest on the Virgin Lands, in 1956, was a stunning success. Of the 125 million tonnes of grain produced in the Soviet Union that year, more than half of it came from one eighth of the country. The Soviet Union was producing twice as the West. The scheme was therefore considered to be a huge success, as it enabled the USSR to feed its people. However, in the long run it didn’t help USSR much as the nutrients in the soil were used up and due to lack of proper storage system lots of grain were wasted.

-To be continued