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Kazakhstan stands as an important case study of nuclear reversal. Yet most accounts of this case merely highlight the return of the nuclear weapons left on Kazakh territory to Russia. Left out are the human dimensions of this story. In Atomic Steppe,Toghzan Kassenova artfully weaves together first-hand accounts and archival data into a rich accounting of a tumultuous period.
Atomic Steppe tells the untold true story of how the obscure country of Kazakhstan said no to the most powerful weapons in human history. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the marginalized Central Asian republic suddenly found itself with the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal on its territory. Would it give up these fire-ready weapons—or try to become a Central Asian North Korea? This book takes us inside Kazakhstan's extraordinary and little-known nuclear history from the Soviet period to the present. For Soviet officials, Kazakhstan's steppe was not an ecological marvel or beloved ho...
Please join the Harriman Institute for a discussion with author Togzhan Kassenova about her new book, Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb (Stanford University Press, February 2022), moderated by Alexander Cooley, Director of the Harriman Institute.
Atomic Steppe tells the untold true story of how the obscure country of Kazakhstan said no to the most powerful weapons in human history. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the marginalized Central Asian republic suddenly found itself with the world's fourth largest nuclear arsenal on its territory. Would it give up these fire-ready weapons—or try to become a Central Asian North Korea? This book takes us inside Kazakhstan's extraordinary and little-known nuclear history from the Soviet period to the present. For Soviet officials, Kazakhstan's steppe was not an ecological marvel or beloved h...
Alley of abandoned villages - 162 plaques with the names of permanently evacuated settlements during 1986-1991 after the Chernobyl accident. Credit: Margarita Kalinina-Pohl (2018). This year is rich in commemorative anniversaries of natural and man-made disasters stemming from the use of nuclear energy for peaceful and military purposes. In March, we solemnly observed the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. On April 26, we marked 35 years since the largest nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. At end of August, the international nuclear nonproliferation and an...