On 27th January 1948, a week before voting began in Greece, the Politburo and high-ranking members of the Soviet military gathered 150km west of the Kazakh town of Semipalatinsk to witness a momentous event. Before them were dozens of buildings, bridges and even an underground metro station. Tanks, trucks, aeroplanes and over 1500 animals of various species were also gathered around a 60 metre high tower. At exactly 09.00, RDS-1, codenamed ‘First Lightning’, a 22 kiloton atomic bomb, detonated, sending a mushroom cloud a kilometre into the air.
