Why the atomic attack on Japan was justified. Which Russian cities are American missiles targeting? The most little-known facts regarding the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In August, two consecutive 65th anniversaries of the American use of atomic weapons against civilians are celebrated - on the 6th in Hiroshima and on August 9 in Nagasaki. These terrible explosions, which the whole world would call war crimes if they were committed by a country that lost the war, lead to different thoughts.

For example, about the cynicism of Western propaganda. Textbooks published in Japan under the control of the American authorities during the years of post-war occupation describe the atomic bombings in such a way that it is difficult to understand from them who and how used weapons of mass destruction on peaceful cities. As a result, recent opinion polls in Japan show that a significant part of Japanese youth believes that the nuclear bombings were some kind of natural disaster, such as a tsunami, and not the result of a conscious desire by the Americans to inflict the greatest damage on Japan. And even that the country was bombed not by the United States, but by the Red Army, no more and no less.

And in general, today’s claims by Japan, which lost the war, are not addressed at all to the Americans, who, in violation of the rules of warfare, used weapons of mass destruction and indiscriminately killed more than 400 thousand civilians, but to Russia, which did not violate either the Hague or Geneva Conventions. And for some reason, the Japanese today demand repentance and the return of territories lost during the war, not from the United States, but from Russia.

Moreover, Japan itself never made a formal apology to the peoples of Asia for the use of hundreds of thousands of their women, whom the Japanese army carried behind its regiments to serve the soldiers. And references to the crimes of the Japanese military in China, Singapore and the Philippines were removed from history textbooks. And the ashes of Japanese war criminals executed by decision of the Tokyo Trial are buried in the sacred Yasukuni Shrine, where the current prime ministers of the country go to worship.

However, the PRC still remembers the “Nanjing Massacre” of 1937, when Japanese troops captured the city, which was then the capital of China, and considers it a grave war crime. Then, for six weeks, Japanese soldiers burned and looted the peaceful city, killing everyone in the most brutal ways and raping women and teenage girls. Chinese historians claim that the Japanese then killed 300 thousand civilians and raped more than 20,000 women, from seven-year-old girls to old women. A significant part of them were sent to soldiers' brothels, where they subsequently died.

In February 1942, the Japanese captured the British colony of Singapore, after which they began to identify and eliminate “anti-Japanese elements” of the Chinese community there. This definition then included the Chinese - participants in the defense of the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, former employees of the British administration and ordinary citizens who had just made donations to the China relief fund. The list of suspects included almost all Chinese men living in Singapore between the ages of eighteen and fifty. Those who, in the opinion of the Japanese, could pose a threat to the occupation authorities were taken by truck outside the cities and shot with machine guns. More than 50,000 people were killed in this way.

During the 1949 Khabarovsk trial of Japanese war criminals, it became clear that the Japanese were preparing to widely use bacteriological weapons against the population of the USSR and other countries on the eve of and during the Second World War. It became known that the Japanese in the Kwantung Army that occupied Manchuria created a special “Togo detachment” to prepare bacteriological warfare, as well as detachments No. 731 and No. 100. In their laboratories, bacteria of plague, anthrax, glanders, typhoid fever and other diseases were grown for use against THE USSR. The detachments conducted experiments on Soviet and Chinese prisoners, as a result of which over 4,000 people died from the end of 1937 to the summer of 1945. The Japanese used bacteriological weapons against Soviet and Mongolian troops in the battles on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939 and against China in 1940-1942, spreading plague and smallpox bacteria. The Japanese sent groups of saboteurs to the Soviet borders, contaminating water bodies in border areas.

Japanese society today has chosen to forget all this. But he selectively remembers that as a result of the war, Japan lost the Kuril Islands, and demands that Russia return them. At the same time, he is not even going to discuss the return of other disputed territories to China - the Senkaku Islands. These islands were captured by Japan along with Taiwan in the late 19th century. After World War II, when Japan returned Taiwan to China, the Senkaku Archipelago came under the jurisdiction of the United States, which then annexed it to Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, where its military base is located.

Today, the Japanese simply do not hear the demands of the PRC to return the Senkakus and do not discuss them with China, and not because there are oil reserves in the archipelago area. Tokyo proceeds from the fact that only weak countries led by narrow-minded leaders give away their territories, and Japan does not consider itself one of those.

But it includes modern Russia among them, although it was its soldiers in World War II who, in two weeks, crushed the main force of Japan - the Kwantung Army, which numbered more than a million soldiers and officers. Today Japan demands the return of the Kuril Islands, otherwise refusing to sign a peace treaty with Russia. And he organizes provocations such as the mass dispatch of Japanese fishing schooners to the shores of the Kuril Islands, which begin to catch crabs there under the pretext that they can do whatever they want in their “northern territories.”

But when seven Chinese, advocating the return of the Senkaku Islands to the PRC, tried to carry out a similar action in 2004, Japan showed that it protects its territory well. No sooner had the Chinese activists landed on one of the islands of the archipelago than they were arrested by the Japanese police and taken to Okinawa, where they spent several months in prison. That's all the discussion of the problem of returning the islands “in Japanese style.”

From Russia, Japan brazenly demands the return of the islands in exchange for the possible conclusion of some kind of peace treaty with it. Although even international experts strongly doubt the need for Moscow to conclude a peace treaty at all with a country that it defeated and which admitted itself defeated, on September 2, 1945, signing an act of unconditional surrender on board the battleship Missouri. In it, Japan agreed to recognize the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, in paragraph 8 of which it is written that its sovereignty is now limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and “those smaller islands” that the victorious countries will indicate to it. Then Japan, defeated by force of arms, did not dispute the right of the victors to resolve issues of its territory. The same thing happened in the case of Germany, which capitulated to the Allies in May 1945 and in the process lost Prussia, which became Polish Silesia, as well as Alsace and Lorraine, which went to France. But Russia has been developing excellent trade, economic and political relations with Germany for more than 60 years without concluding any peace treaty. But the Japanese, just a few years after their defeat in the war, dragged Moscow into an endless dispute about the Kuril Islands, according to international law, without any reason. After all, it is quite obvious that the Japanese games with the idea of a peace treaty have one goal - to take advantage of the weakness of Moscow leaders, revise the results of World War II in their favor and regain lost lands.

But in the world they don’t give away territories just like that, for a thank you. Even the two islands of the Kuril ridge Moscow first agreed to transfer to Japan in 1956 during the reign of the dim-witted Nikita Khrushchev only in the hope of exchanging them for Japan’s neutral status. But Japan did not acquire any neutral status; on the contrary, American military bases were firmly established on its territory, making it an “unsinkable US aircraft carrier.” Naturally, there can be no talk of transferring any Russian territories to it.

However, Russian leaders, instead of simply ignoring Tokyo’s attempts to start a discussion of the “problem of the northern territories,” continue to unwittingly indulge them. Although the Kuril Islands belong to Russia according to international law, we obviously should not be interested in what the Japanese think about this. It is clear as daylight that attempts to “fool” the islands by either washing or rolling are calculated on the inability of Moscow bosses to “take the blow” for a long time, and the persistence of talkative Japanese diplomats. And also to the “fifth column” existing in Russia, which from time to time, using Japanese money, publishes articles in our newspapers about the “original rights” of the Japanese to the Kuril Islands.

It seems that the problem of the Kuril Islands in relations with Japan can be resolved once and for all by simply not responding to Tokyo’s attempts to involve Russia in its discussion, that is, by acting as the Japanese do regarding Chinese claims to the Senkaku Islands. For Russia’s polite readiness to solve a problem that does not exist for it peacefully only inflames the Japanese, enticing them with the illusory proximity of the “return of territories”, and provokes them to invent new scandals.

And Moscow should finally forget about concluding a peace treaty with Japan. Russia does not need it, and Japan already signed a text in 1951 in San Francisco in front of 48 countries, which states that it renounces rights and claims to the Kuril Islands, the southern part of Sakhalin and the adjacent islands. By the way, the PRC, together with the Soviet Union, also did not sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan, but this does not prevent it from living and developing

Reference
The so-called “northern territories problem” is a dispute initiated by Japan with Russia regarding the ownership of a number of islands in the Kuril chain. After World War II, all the Kuril Islands came under the administrative control of the USSR, but subsequently a number of the southern islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands began to be disputed by Japan. The problem of ownership of the southern Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to signing a peace treaty with Japan.
The Japanese received the first information about the islands during an expedition to the island of Hokkaido in 1635, but the Japanese did not reach the Kuril Islands themselves. In 1643, the Lesser Kuril Ridge was explored by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries in search of the “Golden Lands” and a detailed map of it was compiled, a copy of which he sold to the Japanese Empire, without finding anything valuable there.
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The Second World War changed the world. The leaders of the powers played power games among themselves, where millions of innocent lives were at stake. One of the most terrible pages in human history, which largely determined the outcome of the entire war, was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese cities where ordinary civilians lived.

Why did these explosions occur, what consequences did the President of the United States of America expect when giving the order to bomb Japan with nuclear bombs, did he know about the global consequences of his decision? Historical researchers continue to seek answers to these and many other questions. There are many versions about what goals Truman pursued, but be that as it may, it was the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that became the decisive factor in ending the Second World War. To understand what served as the basis for such a global event, and why dropping a bomb on Hiroshima became possible, let’s look at its background.

Emperor Hirohito

Emperor Hirohito of Japan had grandiose ambitions. Following the example of Hitler, for whom things were going as well as possible at that time, in 1935 the head of the Japanese islands, on the advice of his generals, decided to seize backward China, not even suspecting that all his plans would be ruined by the atomic bombing of Japan. He hopes, with the help of the large population of China, to gain all of Asia into his possessions.

From 1937 to 1945, Japanese troops used chemical weapons prohibited by the Geneva Convention against the Chinese army. The Chinese were killed indiscriminately. As a result, Japan accounted for more than 25 million Chinese lives, almost half of which were women and children. The date of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was inexorably approaching thanks to the cruelty and fanaticism of the emperor.

In 1940, Hirohito concluded a pact with Hitler, and the following year he attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, thereby drawing the United States into World War II. But soon Japan began to lose ground. Then the emperor (who is also the embodiment of God for the people of Japan) ordered his subjects to die, but not to surrender. As a result, families of people died in the name of the emperor. Many more will die when American planes carry out the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

Emperor Hirohito, having already lost the war, was not going to give up. He had to be forced to capitulate, otherwise the consequences of a bloody invasion of Japan would be horrific, worse than the bombing of Hiroshima. Many experts believe that saving more lives was one of the main reasons why the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred.

Potsdam Conference

1945 was a turning point for everything in the world. From July 17 to August 2 of that year, the Potsdam Conference took place, the last in a series of meetings of the Big Three. As a result, many decisions were made that would help end the Second World War. Among other things, the USSR assumed obligations to conduct military operations with Japan.

The three world powers, led by Truman, Churchill and Stalin, came to a temporary agreement to redistribute post-war influence, although the conflicts were not resolved and the war was not over. The Potsdam Conference was marked by the signing of the Declaration. Within its framework, a demand was spelled out for Japan for unconditional and immediate surrender.

The Japanese government leadership indignantly rejected the “brazen proposal.” They intended to fight the war to the end. Failure to comply with the requirements of the Declaration, in fact, gave the countries that signed it a free hand. The American ruler considered that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had become possible.

The anti-Hitler coalition was living its last days. It was during the Potsdam Conference that sharp contradictions in the views of the participating countries emerged. The reluctance to reach a consensus, conceding on some issues to the “allies” to the detriment of oneself, will lead the world to a future cold war.

Harry Truman

On the eve of the Big Three meeting in Potsdam, American scientists are conducting pilot tests of a new type of weapon of mass destruction. And four days after the end of the conference, American President Harry Truman received a classified telegram saying that the testing of the atomic bomb had been completed.

The President decides to show Stalin that he has a winning card in his fist. He hints to the Generalissimo about this, but he is not at all surprised. Only a weak smile that appeared on his lips and another puff on his eternal pipe was the answer to Truman. Returning to his apartment, he will call Kurchatov and order him to speed up work on the atomic project. The arms race was in full swing.

American intelligence reports to Truman that Red Army troops are heading to the Turkish border. The President makes a historic decision. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will soon become a reality.

Selecting a target or how the attack on Nagasaki and Hiroshima was prepared

Back in the spring of 1945, participants in the Manhattan Project were tasked with identifying potential sites for testing atomic weapons. Scientists from Oppenheimer's group compiled a list of requirements that the object must meet. It included the following points:

Four cities were chosen as possible targets: Hiroshima, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kokura. Only two of them were to become real targets. The weather had the last word. When this list caught the eye of professor and expert on Japan Edwin Reishauer, he tearfully asked the command to exclude Kyoto from it, as a unique cultural value on a global scale.

Henry Stimson, who was the Secretary of Defense at that time, supported the professor’s opinion despite pressure from General Groves, because he himself knew and loved this cultural center well. The city of Nagasaki took the vacant place on the list of potential targets. The developers of the plan believed that only large cities with civilian populations should be targeted, so that the moral effect would be as dramatic as possible, capable of breaking the opinion of the emperor and changing the views of the Japanese people on participating in the war.

History researchers turned over a single volume of materials and got acquainted with the secret data of the operation. They believe that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the date of which was predetermined long ago, was the only possible one, since there were only two atomic bombs and they were going to be used specifically on Japanese cities. At the same time, the fact that a nuclear attack on Hiroshima would kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people was of little concern to both the military and politicians.

Why exactly did Hiroshima and Nagasaki, whose history will forever be overshadowed by the thousands of inhabitants who died on one day, accept the role of victims on the altar of War? Why should the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs force the entire population of Japan, and most importantly its emperor, to surrender? Hiroshima was a military target with dense buildings and many wooden structures. The city of Nagasaki was home to several important industries supplying guns, military equipment and elements of military shipbuilding. The choice of other goals was pragmatic - convenient location and built-up areas.

Bombing of Hiroshima

The operation took place according to a clearly developed plan. All of his points were carried out exactly:

On July 26, 1945, the Little Boy atomic bomb arrived on the island of Tinian. By the end of July all preparations were completed. The final date for the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima has been set. The weather did not disappoint.
On August 6, a bomber proudly named Enola Gay, carrying death on board, entered Japanese airspace.
Three warning planes flew ahead of him to determine the weather conditions under which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima would be accurate.
Behind the bomber was one plane with recording equipment on board, which was supposed to record all the data on how the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would take place.
The final part of the group was a bomber to photograph the results of the explosion that would be caused by the bombing of Hiroshima.

The small group of aircraft that carried out such a surprise attack, as a result of which the atomic bombing of Hiroshima became possible, did not cause concern either among representatives of the air defense or among the ordinary population.

The Japanese air defense system detected planes over the city, but the alarm was canceled because no more than three approaching objects were visible on the radar. Residents were warned about the possibility of a raid, but people were in no hurry to hide in shelters and continued to work. Neither artillery nor fighters were alerted to counter the appearing enemy aircraft. The bombing of Hiroshima was unlike any bombing that Japanese cities had experienced.

At 8.15 the carrier aircraft reached the city center and released a parachute. After this unusual attack on Hiroshima, the entire group immediately flew away. The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima above 9,000 meters. It exploded at an altitude of 576 meters above the roofs of city houses. The deafening explosion that rang out tore apart the sky and earth with a powerful blast wave. A shower of fire burned everything in its path. At the epicenter of the explosion, people simply disappeared in a split second, and a little further they burned alive or were charred, still remaining alive.

August 6, 1945 (the date of the bombing of Hiroshima with nuclear weapons) became a dark day in the history of the whole world, the day of the murder of more than 80 thousand Japanese, a day that will lay a heavy burden of pain on the hearts of many generations.

The first hours after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima

For some time in the city itself and its environs, no one really knew what had happened. People did not understand that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had already claimed thousands of lives in an instant, and would continue to claim many thousands more for decades to come. As stated in the first official report, the city was attacked by an unknown type of bomb from several aircraft. What atomic weapons are and what consequences their use entails, no one, not even their developers, would have suspected.

For sixteen hours there was no definite information that Hiroshima had been bombed. The first person to notice the absence of any signals on air from the city was the operator of the Broadcasting Corporation. Multiple attempts to contact anyone were unsuccessful. After some time, vague, fragmentary information came from a small railway station 16 km from the city.

From these messages it became clear at what time the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima took place. A staff officer and a young pilot were sent to the Hiroshima military base. They were tasked with finding out why the Center was not responding to inquiries about the situation. After all, the General Headquarters were confident that no massive attacks on Hiroshima took place.

The military, located at quite a decent distance from the city (160 km), saw a cloud of dust that had not yet settled. As they approached and circled the ruins, just hours after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, they observed a horrifying sight. The city, destroyed to the ground, was blazing with fires, clouds of dust and smoke obscured the view, making it impossible to see details from above.

The plane landed at some distance from the buildings destroyed by the blast wave. The officer conveyed a message about the state of affairs to the General Headquarters and began to provide all possible assistance to the victims. The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima claimed many lives and maimed many more. People helped each other as much as they could.

Only 16 hours after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was carried out, Washington made a public statement about what happened.

Atomic attack on Nagasaki

The picturesque and developed Japanese city of Nagasaki had not been subjected to massive bombing before, as it was kept as an object for a decisive blow. Only a few high-explosive bombs were dropped on shipyards, Mitsubishi weapons factories, and medical facilities in the week before the decisive day when American planes used an identical maneuver to deliver deadly weapons and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was carried out. After those minor strikes, the population of Nagasaki was partially evacuated.

Few people know that Nagasaki, only by chance, became the second city whose name will forever be inscribed in history as a victim of an atomic bomb explosion. Until the last minutes, the second approved site was the city of Kokura on the island of Yokushima.

Three planes on a bombing mission were supposed to meet on approach to the island. Radio silence prohibited operators from going on the air, so before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima occurred, visual contact between all participants in the operation had to take place. The plane carrying the nuclear bomb and the partner accompanying it to record the parameters of the explosion met and continued to circle in anticipation of the third plane. He was supposed to take photographs. But the third member of the group did not appear.

After forty-five minutes of waiting, with only fuel left to complete the return flight, operation commander Sweeney makes a fateful decision. The group will not wait for the third plane. The weather, which had been favorable for bombing half an hour earlier, had deteriorated. The group is forced to fly to a secondary target to defeat it.

On August 9, at 7.50 am, an air raid alarm sounded over the city of Nagasaki, but after 40 minutes it was canceled. People began to come out of hiding. At 10.53, considering two enemy aircraft that appeared over the city as reconnaissance aircraft, they did not raise the alarm at all. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made as carbon copies.

A group of American aircraft performed an absolutely identical maneuver. And this time, for unknown reasons, Japan’s air defense system did not respond properly. A small group of enemy aircraft, even after the attack on Hiroshima took place, did not arouse suspicion among the military. The Fat Man atomic bomb exploded over the city at 11:02 a.m., burning and destroying it to the ground in a few seconds, instantly destroying more than 40 thousand human lives. Another 70 thousand were on the verge of life and death.

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Consequences

What did the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki entail? In addition to the radiation poisoning that would continue to kill survivors for many years, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had global political significance. It influenced the opinions of the Japanese government and the Japanese army's determination to continue the war. According to the official version, this is exactly the result that Washington sought.

The bombing of Japan with atomic bombs stopped Emperor Hirohito and forced Japan to formally accept the demands of the Potsdam Conference. US President Harry Truman announced this five days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The date August 14, 1945 became a day of joy for many people on the planet. As a result, the Red Army troops stationed near the borders of Turkey did not continue their movement to Istanbul and were sent to Japan after the declaration of war by the Soviet Union.

Within two weeks, the Japanese army was crushingly defeated. As a result, on September 2, Japan signed an act of surrender. This day is a significant date for the entire population of the Earth. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did its job.

Today there is no consensus, even within Japan itself, about whether the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified and necessary. Many scientists, after 10 years of painstaking study of the secret archives of World War II, come to different opinions. The officially accepted version is that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the price the world paid for ending World War II. History professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa takes a slightly different view of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki problem. What is this, an attempt by the United States to become a world leader or a way to prevent the USSR from taking over all of Asia as a result of an alliance with Japan? He believes that both options are correct. And the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is something absolutely unimportant for global history from a political point of view.

There is an opinion that the plan developed by the Americans, according to which the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima was to take place, was the United States' way of showing the Union its advantage in the arms race. But if the USSR had managed to declare that it had powerful nuclear weapons of mass destruction, the United States might not have decided to take extreme measures, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would not have taken place. This development of events was also considered by specialists.

But the fact remains that it was at this stage that the largest military confrontation in human history formally ended, albeit at the cost of more than 100 thousand lives of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The yield of the bombs detonated in Japan was 18 and 21 kilotons of TNT. The whole world recognizes that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an end to the Second World War.

So, let's say a low-yield nuclear bomb explodes in your city. How long will you have to hide and where to do it to avoid consequences in the form of radioactive fallout?

Michael Dillon, a scientist at Livermore National Laboratory, spoke about radioactive fallout and survival techniques. After much research, analysis of many factors and possible developments, he developed a plan of action in the event of a disaster.

At the same time, Dillon's plan is aimed at ordinary citizens who have no way to determine which way the wind will blow and what the magnitude of the explosion was.

Little bombs

Dillon's method of protection against has so far been developed only in theory. The fact is that it is designed for small nuclear bombs from 1 to 10 kilotons.

Dillon argues that nuclear bombs are now associated with the incredible power and destruction that would have occurred during the Cold War. However, such a threat seems less likely than terrorist attacks using small nuclear bombs, several times less than those that fell on Hiroshima, and simply incomparably less than those that could destroy everything if there was a global war between countries.

Dillon's plan is based on the assumption that after a small nuclear bomb the city survived and now its residents need to escape from the radioactive fallout.

The diagram below shows the difference between the radius of a bomb in the situation Dillon examines and the radius of a bomb from a Cold War arsenal. The most dangerous area is indicated in dark blue (psi is the pound/in² standard used to measure the force of an explosion; 1 psi = 720 kg/m²).

People located a kilometer from this zone risk receiving a dose of radiation and burns. The range of radiation hazards from a small nuclear bomb is much smaller than from Cold War thermonuclear weapons.

For example, a 10 kiloton warhead would create a radiation threat 1 kilometer from the epicenter, and radioactive fallout could travel another 10 to 20 miles. So it turns out that a nuclear attack today is not instant death for all living things. Maybe your city will even recover from it.

What to do if a bomb exploded

If you see a bright flash, do not go near the window: you could get hurt while looking back. As with thunder and lightning, the blast wave travels much slower than the explosion.

Now you will have to take care of protection from radioactive fallout, but in the event of a small explosion, you do not need to look for a special isolated shelter. For protection, you can take refuge in an ordinary building, you just need to know which one.

30 minutes after the explosion you should find a suitable shelter. In half an hour, all the initial radiation from the explosion will disappear and the main danger will be radioactive particles the size of a grain of sand that will settle around you.

Dillon explains:

If, during a disaster, you are in a precarious shelter that cannot provide reasonable protection, and you know that there is no such building nearby, within 15 minutes, you will have to wait half an hour and then go look for it. Before you enter the shelter, make sure that there are no radioactive substances the size of sand particles on you.

But what buildings can become a normal shelter? Dillon says the following:

There should be as many obstacles and distance as possible between you and the consequences of the explosion. Buildings with thick concrete walls and roofs, a large amount of earth - for example, when you are sitting in a basement surrounded on all sides by earth. You can also go deep into large buildings to be as far away from the open air as possible with the consequences of a disaster.

Think about where you can find such a building in your city and how far from you it is.

Maybe it's the basement of your home, or a building with a lot of interior spaces and walls, with bookshelves and concrete walls, or something else. Just choose buildings that you can reach within half an hour and don't rely on transport: many will flee the city and the roads will be completely clogged.

Let's say you got to your shelter, and now the question arises: how long to sit in it until the threat passes? The films show different paths of events, ranging from a few minutes in a shelter to several generations in a bunker. Dillon claims that they are all very far from the truth.

It is best to stay in the shelter until help arrives.

Given that we are talking about a small bomb with a blast radius of less than a mile, rescuers must react quickly and begin evacuation. In the event that no one comes to help, you need to spend at least a day in the shelter, but it’s still better to wait until the rescuers arrive - they will indicate the necessary evacuation route so that you do not jump out into places with high levels of radiation.

The principle of operation of radioactive fallout

It may seem strange to be allowed to leave the shelter after 24 hours, but Dillon explains that the biggest danger after an explosion comes from the early radioactive fallout, which is heavy enough to settle within a few hours after the explosion. Typically, they cover the area in the immediate vicinity of the explosion, depending on the wind direction.

These large particles are the most dangerous due to the high level of radiation, which will ensure the immediate onset of radiation sickness. This differs from the lower doses of radiation that can be caused many years after the event.

Taking refuge in a shelter will not save you from the prospect of cancer in the future, but it will prevent you from dying quickly from radiation sickness.

It is also worth remembering that radioactive contamination is not a magical substance that flies everywhere and penetrates into every place. There will be a limited region with high levels of radiation, and after you leave the shelter, you will need to get out of it as soon as possible.

This is where you need rescuers who will tell you where the border of the danger zone is and how far you need to go. Of course, in addition to the most dangerous large particles, there will be many lighter particles in the air, but they are not capable of causing immediate radiation sickness - what you are trying to avoid after an explosion.

Dillon also noted that radioactive particles decay very quickly, so being outside the shelter 24 hours after the explosion is much safer than immediately after it.

Our pop culture continues to savor the theme of a nuclear attack, which will leave only a few survivors on the planet, hidden in underground bunkers, but a nuclear attack may not be so destructive and large-scale.

So you should think about your city and figure out where to run if something happens. Maybe some ugly concrete building that you always thought was an architectural miscarriage will one day save your life.

In Russia, there is a ritual in the month of August, which is observed almost every year on the Russian information space in one form or another - discussion and condemnation of the “brutal and criminal” American bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

This tradition began and flourished during Soviet times. Its main propaganda task is to convince Russians once again that the American military (and American imperialism in general) is insidious, cynical, bloody, immoral and criminal.

According to this tradition, in various Russian programs and articles on the anniversary of the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a “demand” that the United States apologize for this atrocity. In August 2017, various Russian experts, political scientists and propagandists happily continued this glorious tradition.

Amid this loud outcry, it is interesting to see how the Japanese themselves relate to the question of the need for Americans to apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In a 2016 poll conducted by the British news agency Populus, 61 percent of Japanese surveyed believed that the US government should formally apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But it seems that this issue worries the Russians more than the Japanese.

One reason why 39 percent of Japanese Not believe that the United States should apologize is that it would open a huge and very unpleasant Pandora's box for the Japanese themselves. They are well aware that Imperial Japan was the aggressor, starting World War II in Asia and against the United States. Likewise, the Germans are well aware that Nazi Germany was the aggressor who unleashed World War II in Europe, and few people in Germany today demand an apology from the United States and its allies for the bombing of Dresden.

The Japanese understand perfectly well that if they demand an apology from the United States, then the state of Japan, logically, should officially apologize not only for the attack on the American Pearl Harbor in December 1941, but Japan also needs to apologize to other countries and peoples for the huge number of its crimes committed during the Second World War, including for:
- 10 million Chinese civilians killed by Japanese soldiers from 1937 to 1945, which is 50 times worse (in terms of the number of victims) of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima;
- 1 million killed Korean civilians, which is 5 times worse (in terms of the number of victims) of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima;
- murder of 100,000 Filipino civilians in 1945;
- massacre in Singapore in 1942;
- brutal medical experiments on living people and other types of torture of civilians in Japanese-occupied territories;
- use of chemical weapons against civilians;
- forced slave labor of civilians in Japanese-occupied territories and forcing local girls to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers.

And the Russians are also opening their own big Pandora's box when they increasingly demand an apology from Washington for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The same principle of logic applies here: if, say, the United States needs to apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then, in fairness, the Russian state should officially apologize:
- before the Finns for the groundless invasion of Finland in 1939;
- to the Chechens, Ingush and Crimean Tatars for their deportation by the Soviet authorities during the Second World War, which resulted in the death of approximately 200,000 civilians from these three nationalities. This in itself is equivalent (in terms of the number of victims) to the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki;
- before the citizens of the Baltic states for the Soviet annexation of their countries in 1940 and for the deportation of more than 200,000 citizens of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania;
- to all citizens of Eastern Europe for the occupation and the imposition of “communism” on them from 1945 to 1989.

In general, it must be said that the practice of “apology” is not widely used by the leading states of the world, except for those cases, of course, when they are defendants in international tribunals.

But at the same time, American exceptions to the rule are:
- President Ronald Reagan's apology to Japanese Americans for the US detention of approximately 100,000 of them in American camps during World War II. (The US also paid compensation in the amount of $20,000 to each victim);
- a resolution of the US Congress in 1993 to apologize to the indigenous population of the Hawaiian Islands for the annexation of this territory by Washington in 1898;
- President Bill Clinton's 1997 apology for medical experiments conducted on 400 African-American men in the 1930s. They were deliberately infected with syphilis without their knowledge in order to study the effects and new treatments. We allocated $10 million for compensation to victims;
- A 2008 apology from the US House of Representatives for slavery of African Americans, which was abolished in 1865, and for the system of segregation in the southern states of the country.

President Harry Truman addresses the nation in August 1945 announcing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

Meanwhile, last week (August 15th) marked 72 years since Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced to the Japanese people by radio that he had accepted the terms - effectively an ultimatum - of the US and allies set out in the Potsdam Declaration, ending Japanese participation in World War II. In other words, 72 years ago Hirohito officially announced Japan's unconditional surrender.

To justify his decision to capitulate, the Japanese Emperor uttered two key phrases in his radio address six days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

“Our enemy has begun to use a new and terrible bomb that can cause untold damage to innocent people. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the collapse and complete destruction of the Japanese nation, but also to the end of human civilization."

These phrases underscored the dominant role played by the American atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Hirohito's final decision to accept unconditional US and Allied surrender terms. It is noteworthy that in this address there was not a single word about the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, which began on August 9, 1945, or, following it, about a new upcoming large-scale war with the USSR as an additional factor in its decision to capitulate.

The Japanese Foreign Minister signs Japan's surrender aboard the battleship Missouri, September 2, 1945. American General Richard Sutherland stands on the left.

On the 72nd anniversary of Japan's announcement of surrender, the following two issues are being discussed again:
1) Were the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki necessary and justified 72 years ago?
2) Was it possible to achieve Japan’s surrender in other, less terrible ways?

It must be said that in America itself these two issues remain controversial to this day. According to a survey conducted in 2015 by the American agency Pew Research, 56% of respondents considered the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki justified, 34% unjustified, and 10% found it difficult to answer.

For me, this is also a difficult, complex and controversial issue, but if I had to choose, I would still join the 56% of Americans who believe the use of atomic bombs is justified. And my main point is this:

1. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were certainly a terrible tragedy, killing approximately 200,000 civilians, and evil;

2. But American President Truman chose the lesser of two evils.

By the way, four days before the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the USA, USSR and Britain together, during the Potsdam Conference, announced an ultimatum to Japan about its surrender. If Japan had accepted this ultimatum, it could have avoided the tragedy in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But, as you know, at that moment she refused to capitulate. Japan accepted that joint American, British and Soviet ultimatum only six days later after American atomic bombings.

One cannot discuss—let alone condemn—Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a vacuum. This tragedy must be analyzed in the context of everything that happened in Japan and in the territories it occupied from 1937 to 1945. Imperial Japan, a militaristic, extremist, and essentially fascist regime, was the clear aggressor in World War II, not only in Asia but also in the United States, and committed countless war crimes, genocides, and atrocities during that war.

The surrender of Nazi Germany was achieved on May 8, 1945, ending World War II in the European theater. Three months later, the main question before the United States and its allies, exhausted after four years of the most difficult world war in Europe and Asia, was the following: how and how hurry up end World War II and in the Pacific theater with minimal losses?

By August 1945, between 60 and 80 million people had already died in the deadliest war in human history. To prevent World War II in Asia from lasting several more years and to prevent millions more from dying, President Truman made the difficult decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If the Americans - along with the USSR - had tried to achieve Japan's surrender in another way - that is, by a long ground war on the main Japanese islands - this would most likely have led to the death of several million people on the Japanese, American and even Soviet sides (both military and and civilians).

It is likely that hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers who began fighting on August 9, 1945 against the Japanese army in Manchuria would also have died. It is noteworthy that during only 11 days of this operation (from August 9 to 20), about 90,000 people died on the Japanese and Soviet sides. Just imagine how much more soldiers and civilians on both sides would have died if this war had continued for a few more years.

Where does the thesis come from that “several million people on three sides” would die if the US and USSR were forced to conduct a full-scale ground operation on the main Japanese islands?

Take, for example, the bloody battle on the island of Okinawa alone, which lasted three months (from April to June 1945) and in which approximately 21,000 American and 77,000 Japanese soldiers died. Considering the short duration of this campaign, these are huge losses - and even more so since the ground military campaign on Okinawa, the southernmost of the Japanese islands, was waged on the outskirts of Japan.

That is, on one, quite small, remote island of Okinawa, almost 100,000 people died in this battle in just three months. And American military advisers multiplied by 10 the number of people who would likely die in a ground operation on the main Japanese islands, where the lion's share of the Japanese military machine was concentrated. We must not forget that by the beginning of August 1945, the Japanese war machine was still very powerful with 2 million soldiers and 10,000 warplanes.

Battle of Okinawa

Just a week after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan unconditionally surrendered. Of course, one cannot downplay the significance of the opening of the Soviet “northern front” in Manchuria on August 9, 1945. This fact also contributed to Japan’s decision to surrender, but it was not the main factor.

At the same time, of course, Washington also wanted to send Moscow a signal of “indirect intimidation” with these atomic bombings. But this was not the main motive of the United States, but most likely it was done “at the same time.”

Mushroom cloud after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

It is necessary to analyze the tragic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the broader context of the Japanese imperial spirit of militarism, extremism, ultranationalism, fanaticism and their theory of racial superiority accompanied by genocide.

For many centuries before the Second World War, Japan developed its own specific military code, “Bushido,” according to which the Japanese military was obliged to fight until the very end. And to give up under any circumstances meant completely covering yourself with shame. According to this code, it was better to commit suicide than to give up.

At that time, dying in battle for the Japanese Emperor and the Japanese Empire was the highest honor. For the vast majority of Japanese, such a death meant instant entry into the “Japanese imperial paradise.” This fanatical spirit was observed in all battles - including in Manchuria, where mass suicides were recorded among Japanese civilians to rid themselves of shame - often with the help of Japanese soldiers themselves - when Soviet soldiers began to advance into territory that had until then controlled by the Japanese army.

Atomic bombings were, perhaps, the only method of intimidation that made it possible to break this deep-rooted and seemingly unshakable imperial and militaristic fanaticism and achieve the surrender of the Japanese regime. Only when the Japanese authorities clearly understood in practice that, following Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there could have been several more atomic strikes on other cities, including Tokyo, if Japan had not immediately capitulated. It was this fear of the complete, instant destruction of the entire nation that the emperor expressed in his radio address to the Japanese people about surrender.

In other words, the American atomic bombing was most likely the only way to so quickly force the Japanese authorities to peace.

It is often stated that Hirohito was ready to capitulate without American atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Nothing like this. Before the dropping of atomic bombs, Hirohito and his generals fanatically adhered to the principle of “ketsu go” - that is, to fight at any cost to a victorious end - and even more so since the Japanese military, for the most part, was disdainful of the military spirit of the Americans. Japanese generals believed that the Americans would certainly tire of this war much earlier than the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese military believed that they were much tougher and braver than American soldiers and could win any war of attrition.

But the atomic strikes also broke this Japanese faith.

The atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945

With the surrender of Japan, Imperial Japan ended its bloody, militaristic and fanatical past, after which it - with the help of the United States - began to create a democratic, free and prosperous society. Now Japan, with a population of 128 million, ranks third in the world in terms of GDP. Moreover, Japan's per capita gross domestic product is $37,000 (about twice the Russian figure). From a cursed, criminal pariah of the whole world, Japan in a short time turned into a leading member of the Western economic and political community.

A direct analogy with Germany suggests itself here. After the surrender of Germany, the United States helped rebuild Germany (though only half of Germany, since East Germany was occupied by the USSR). Now Germany, like Japan, is a democratic, free and prosperous country, and also a leading member of the Western community. Germany ranks 4th in the world in terms of GDP (directly behind Japan, which ranks 3rd), and the GDP per capita in Germany is $46,000.

It is interesting to compare the difference between how the US treated the losers Japan and (West) Germany in the years following World War II, and how the Soviet Union treated the Eastern European countries - with all the ensuing consequences.

Although Germany and Japan were bitter enemies of the United States during World War II and were subjected to brutal US aerial bombing - and not just in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo and Dresden - they are now the United States' largest political allies and business partners. Meanwhile, most countries in Eastern Europe still have a negative and very wary attitude towards Russia.

Hiroshima today

If we simulate a similar situation and assume, for example, that it was not the Americans who created the first two atomic bombs in 1945, but Soviet scientists - in the spring of 1942. Imagine that the top of the Soviet leadership would have turned to Stalin with the following advice in the spring of 1942:

“We have been fighting against the Nazi invaders on the territory of our Motherland for 9 months now. We already have colossal losses: human, military and civil-infrastructural. According to all leading military expert estimates, in order to achieve the surrender of the Nazis, we will have to fight against Germany for another 3 years (even if the United States ever opens a western front). And these three years of war will entail much more losses (from 15 to 20 million dead) and the complete destruction of our infrastructure in the European part of the USSR.

“But, Joseph Vissarionovich, we can find a more rational way to win and quickly end this terrible war if we launch nuclear strikes on two German cities. Thus, we will immediately receive the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.

“Although approximately 200,000 German civilians will die, we estimate that this will save the USSR from colossal losses that will take decades to rebuild the country. By nuclear bombing two German cities, we will achieve in a few days what would take several years of a bloody and terrible war.”

Would Stalin have made the same decision in 1942 that President Truman made in 1945? The answer is obvious.

And if Stalin had had the opportunity to drop atomic bombs on Germany in 1942, approximately 20 million Soviet citizens would have survived. I think that their descendants - if they were alive today - would also join the 56% of Americans who today believe the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified.

And this hypothetical illustration emphasizes how politically rigged, false and hypocritical the proposal of Sergei Naryshkin, the former chairman of the State Duma, was when two years ago he made a loud proposal to create a tribunal over the United States for its “war crimes” committed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki 72 years ago. back.

Map of military operations in the Asian theater

But another question arises. If we are to hold a tribunal over the United States for Hiroshima and Nagasaki - no matter what the verdict is - then, in fairness, it is also necessary to hold tribunals over Moscow for a huge number of criminal cases during the Second World War and after it - including under the secret protocol in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939 and the partition (together with Hitler) of this country, on the Katyn execution, on the mass rape of women by Soviet soldiers during the capture of Berlin in the spring of 1945, and so on.

How many civilians died due to the military actions of the Red Army during World War II? What would Mr. Naryshkin say if it turned out at the tribunal over Moscow (after the tribunal over the USA was held) that Soviet troops killed more civilians than American troops - including all US airstrikes on Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Dresden, Tokyo and all other cities combined?

And if we are talking about a tribunal over the United States for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then it is necessary, logically, to hold a tribunal over the CPSU as well, including for:
- for the Gulag and for all Stalinist repressions;
- for the Holodomor, which killed at least 4 million civilians, which is 20 times worse (in terms of the number of victims) of the tragedy in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (By the way, 15 countries of the world, including the Vatican, officially classify the Holodomor as genocide);
- for the fact that in 1954 in the Orenburg region they drove 45,000 Soviet soldiers through the epicenter of a just-conducted nuclear explosion in order to determine how long after the atomic explosion they could send their troops on the offensive;
- for the massacre in Novocherkassk;
- for the downing of a South Korean passenger plane in 1983... and so on.

As they say, “what we fought for, we ran into.” Does the Kremlin really want to open this huge Pandora's box? If this box is opened, Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, will definitely be in a losing position.

A joint Nazi-Soviet parade in the Polish city of Brest, September 22, 1939, marking the partition of Poland provided for in the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

It is obvious that the deliberate hype around the need for a tribunal over the United States in the case of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a cheap political trick aimed at once again inciting anti-Americanism among Russians.

It is noteworthy that it is Russia that shouts loudest and most pathetically about this tribunal over the United States - although this idea does not find support in Japan itself. On the contrary, Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma, for example, two years ago stated the fact that the dropping of atomic bombs helped end the war.

It's true: two atomic bombs really helped end this terrible war. Can't argue with that. The only controversial point is whether atomic bombs were decisive factor in Japan's surrender? But according to many military experts and historians around the world, the answer to this question is a resounding yes.

And not only the world's leading experts think so. Not a small percentage the Japanese themselves They also think so. According to Pew Research polls in 1991, 29% of Japanese surveyed believed that the American atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified because it ended World War II. (However, in 2015, this percentage dropped to 14% in a similar survey).

These 29% of Japanese answered this way because they realized that they remained alive precisely because World War II in Japan ended in August 1945, and not several years later. After all, their grandparents could well have become victims of this war if the United States had refused to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and instead decided to send its troops (along with Soviet troops) to the main islands of Japan for a long and bloody ground operation. This creates a paradox: since they survived World War II, these 29% of respondents could, in principle, participate in this survey about the justification of the atomic bombing of their cities - in many ways precisely thanks to the same bombings.

These 29% of Japanese, of course, like all Japanese, mourn the deaths of 200,000 peaceful compatriots in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But at the same time, they also understand that in August 1945 it was necessary to destroy as quickly and decisively as possible this extremist and criminal state machine, which unleashed the Second World War throughout Asia and against the United States.

In this case, another question arises - what is the true motive for such pretentious and feigned “deep indignation” Russian politicians and Kremlin propagandists in relation to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

If we are talking about creating a tribunal over the United States, this perfectly distracts attention, for example, from the very inconvenient proposal for the Kremlin to create a tribunal in the case of a civilian Boeing shot down over Donbass last year. This is another shift of the needle to the United States. And at the same time, Naryshkin’s proposal can once again show what kind of criminal killers the American military is. In principle, there can be no overkill here, according to Kremlin propagandists.

Soviet poster

The issue of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was also manipulated and exaggerated during the Soviet era during the decades of the Cold War. Moreover, Soviet propaganda hid the fact that it was Japan, by attacking the United States in December 1941, that dragged the United States into World War II.

Soviet propaganda also suppressed the important fact that American troops fought a full-scale war against the Japanese army from 1941-45 in the wide and difficult Asian theater of operations, when the Americans simultaneously fought against Nazi Germany not only on the seas and in the air. The United States also fought against Nazi Germany and its allies on the ground: in North Africa (1942-43), Italy (1943-45) and Western Europe (1944-45).

Moreover, the United States, having the status of non-belligerent (not in a state of war) in 1940, helped Britain in every possible way with military equipment to defend itself against the Nazis, starting in 1940, when Stalin and Hitler were still allies.

At the same time, Soviet propaganda liked to repeat that the American atomic bombing of Japan cannot be viewed as anything other than a war crime and “genocide,” and there can be no other opinion on this issue. Now Russian politicians and pro-Kremlin political scientists are continuing the same propaganda campaign against the United States in the worst tradition of the USSR.

Soviet poster

Moreover, many of them say, there remains a real danger that the United States may well repeat Hiroshima and Nagasaki - and launch the first, pre-emptive nuclear strike on Russian territory (!!). And they even supposedly have specific American plans for this, they warn menacingly.

It follows from this that Russia needs to go out of its way and spend about $80 billion every year on defense in order to put the Russian Federation in third place (after the United States and China) in military spending. Leading pro-Kremlin military experts say that such spending is needed to counter its “main enemy,” who really threatens Russia with a nuclear apocalypse.

They say that the homeland still needs to be defended, if “the nuclear enemy is at the gates.” The fact that the principle of mutually assured destruction still excludes any nuclear strike on Russia apparently does not bother these political scientists and politicians.

Confronting not only nuclear, but also all other imaginary threats to the United States is almost the most important external and internal political platform of the Kremlin.

Soviet poster

The 72nd anniversary of the surrender of Japan provides us with an excellent opportunity to analyze and appreciate the high political and economic development of this country after its complete destruction in World War II. Similar success has also been achieved in Germany over the past 72 years.

Interestingly, however, many in Russia give a completely different assessment of Japan and Germany - namely, that they are in fact "colonies" and "vassals" of the United States.

Many Russian jingoists believe that what is better for Russia is not the “rotten, bourgeois” modern Japanese or German path of development, but its own “special path” - which, first of all, automatically means a policy that is actively opposed to the United States.

But where will such a dominant state ideology, which is based on inciting anti-Americanism and creating an imaginary image of an enemy, lead Russia?

Where will Russia's fixation on resistance to the United States, which is based on building up its military-industrial complex to the detriment of the development of its own economy, lead?

Such a “special path” will only lead to confrontation with the West, isolation, stagnation and backwardness.

At best, this is a special path to nowhere. And at worst - into degradation.

To justify his decision to capitulate, the Japanese Emperor uttered two key phrases in his radio address six days after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

1. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were certainly a terrible tragedy, killing approximately 200,000 civilians, and evil;

2. But American President Truman chose the lesser of two evils.

Where does the thesis come from that “several million people on three sides” would die if the US and USSR were forced to conduct a full-scale ground operation on the main Japanese islands?

In other words, the American atomic bombing was most likely the only way to so quickly force the Japanese authorities to peace.

But the atomic strikes also broke this Japanese faith.

Would Stalin have made the same decision in 1942 that President Truman made in 1945? The answer is obvious.

Confronting not only nuclear, but also all other imaginary threats to the United States is almost the most important external and internal political platform of the Kremlin.

Interestingly, however, many in Russia give a completely different assessment of Japan and Germany - namely, that they are in fact "colonies" and "vassals" of the United States.

But where will such a dominant state ideology, which is based on inciting anti-Americanism and creating an imaginary image of an enemy, lead Russia?

Where will Russia's fixation on resistance to the United States, which is based on building up its military-industrial complex to the detriment of the development of its own economy, lead?

Such a “special path” will only lead to confrontation with the West, isolation, stagnation and backwardness.

At best, this is a special path to nowhere. And at worst - into degradation.