Lost History – the day the world’s most powerful nuclear bomb exploded

November 5th is a curious day for a British festival. Families gather around bonfires and set-off fireworks to commemorate a failed conspiracy that sought to murder hundreds of members of parliament and their controversial king, James I. 

It began with a decree that Londoners should light fires to celebrate the king’s deliverance from murder without endangering themselves or being disorderly. The catholic assassin Guy Fawkes features awkwardly as the figurehead of the event. Still, the real reason for this annual flame-fixated frenzy is for people to worship the beauty of fire during a time of year when the days grow darker, and the weather gets colder.

Few are interested in the 17th-century tensions between catholic and protestant communities or the poorly executed coup attempt that lifted a talentless Yorkshiremen from obscurity to infamous status. There aren’t many morals to take from the tale other than – murder attempts are bad. 

Another egregious flame-based event transpired sixty years ago on October 30, a date that should be imprinted on every memory. Its remembrance, however, will not warrant celebration.

On October 30 1961, the Soviet Union detonated the biggest man-made explosion in history. The Tsar Bomba dwarfed every American nuclear device hitherto tested and revealed the terrifying international ramifications of the cold war weapons race. It was developed by a team of ingenious Russian scientists, led by the so-called “father of the Soviet atomic bomb”, Igor Kurchatov. 

The testing crew, captained by Andrei Durnovtsev, was given an intimidating 50 per cent chance of survival and had to ply their planes with reflective paint to reduce the risks of structural harm from the device’s expected super-swelter. 

The bomb was dropped on the northern cape of Severny Island two hours after take-off and detonated over the arctic archipelago at 11:32 am Moscow Time. It was attached to an enormous parachute, which provided the plane enough time to escape the blast.

Unfortunately, the shock wave struck the turboprop-powered bomber when it was approximately 70 miles away and sent it hurtling towards the ground. 

Nevertheless, a cool-headed Durnovtsev managed to regain control of the craft and happily, the crew landed safely. 

The Tsar Bomba yielded a far larger explosion than anticipated by the Soviet Union’s impressive array of atomic scientists, and its records remain unmatched. 

The largest US device ever detonated, the MK-17, is estimated to have reached 25 megatonnes of TNT. The Tsar Bomba exceeded 50 megatonnes of TNT, and had its original plan been realised, its force yield would have hit over 100 megatonnes. The initial flare was visible 1000km away. Its blast wave circled the globe three times. 

People reported seeing its colossal fireball more than 600 miles off, and glass shattered in small villages 800 km from Severny. A soviet cameraman who filmed the event said: “The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. 

At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. 

Slowly and silently, it crept upwards…Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole Earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural.”

Only sixteen years after the horrors of Hiroshima, our species’ lethal capabilities achieved a lamentable crescendo, but surprisingly few people know the story of the biggest bomb ever and its frightening relevance today. Since the end of the Cold War, the public is not as unsettled by the evolution and proliferation of nuclear weapons. 

Even though the threat of their use (or misuse) increases every day, we have psychologically acclimatised to the prospect and are deterred from ruminating on the subject by its extraordinary complexity and unclear possibilities. 

As our eyes cheerfully enlarge under glorious effulgences this Friday, and we enjoy the warmth and wonder of sharing a lovely spectacle with good company, do not forget the Tsar Bomba and what its existence means for our world.