Stay updated with breaking news from Atomic Steppe. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
While the risks of nuclear escalation and proliferation have re-emerged, Kazakhstan’s decision to dismantle its nuclear arsenal thirty years ago offers a valuable case study in denuclearization.
Togzhan Kassenova's book, Atomic Steppe, was 15 years in the making and published at a time when the risks of a nuclear confrontation are at their highest in some 60 years.
During its time as a Soviet republic within the USSR, Kazakhstan was the site of massive nuclear tests, both above and below ground. The cost to the environment and health of the Kazakh people and livestock was likewise massive, though the full scale of the effects was understudied and suppressed for decades. Through massive public protests in the 1980s, nuclear-weapons testing in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan was brought to a halt.
The secret military exercises would alter the country’s fate—and lands.
The secret military exercises would alter the country’s fate—and lands.