---
title: "Russia just released classified footage of the largest nuclear bomb detonation in history"
date: "2020-08-24"
modified: "2020-08-24"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/tsar-bomba-video/"
categories:
  - "Around the World"
  - "History"
  - "News"
  - "Nuclear"
  - "Russia"
  - "Tech & Tactics"
  - "Weapons"
tags:
  - "European Command"
---

# Russia just released classified footage of the largest nuclear bomb detonation in history

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/screen-shot-2020-08-24-at-112355-am-3.png>)

A Russian state corporation has released previously-classified footage documenting the development and detonation of the legendary 'Tsar Bomba' hydrogen bomb in celebration of 75 years of Russia's nuclear industry.

The footage, which comes during a 40-minute Soviet-style propaganda film, was released on the YouTube channel of the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, the state-run Russian nuclear energy concern, on Aug. 20.

The film details the long march of the Tsar Bomba — the informal name given to the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb by Western observers of the Soviet Union — from its transport by steam train to Olenya Air Base in northwest Russia to its final detonation above Novaya Zemlya on Oct. 30, 1961.

More importantly, it provides never-before-seen shots of the actual Tsar Bomba explosion, which had an estimated yield of around 50 megatons, or 50 million tons of TNT, in exquisite detail compared to previously-released footage of the detonation.

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/aug-24-2020-11-20-38-2.gif>)
*A column of dust rises following the detonation*

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/aug-24-2020-11-13-57-2.gif>)
*The mushroom cloud as seen from the Soviet military aircraft involved in the test*

Unfortunately, the documentary is narrated in Russia, but The War Zone has a [remarkably-detailed description](<https://www.twz.com/35953/russia-releases-tsar-bomba-test-footage-of-the-most-powerful-nuclear-bomb-blast-ever>) of the events portrayed within, including this delightful description of the immediate aftermath of the explosion:

According to the video, the Tu-95V was 28 miles away from the release point, and the detonation produced a fireball visible 621 miles away, despite cloudy conditions. “The explosion was accompanied by a bright flash of unusual strength,” the narrator explains. Within seconds, a column of dust had risen to a height of around 6 miles.

The footage then returns to the aircraft, at a distance of 155 miles from the detonation and we see the huge fireball, rising slowly and expanding to reach a maximum of 12 miles across. Forty seconds after the detonation, the fireball has reached a height of approximately 19 miles, after which a mushroom cloud begins to form, reaching a maximum height of 37-40 miles and a diameter of 56 miles.

You can watch the full documentary below, and read more at The War Zone [here](<https://www.twz.com/35953/russia-releases-tsar-bomba-test-footage-of-the-most-powerful-nuclear-bomb-blast-ever>).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbC7BxXtOlo

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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