Cover Osteuropa 12/2007

In Osteuropa 12/2007

Stalin, the bluff and the bomb
The confusion surrounding the first Soviet atomic test

Rainer Karlsch


Deutsche Fassung

Abstract

On 11th July 1949, Stalin presented a Chinese delegation led by Liu Shaochi with an “atomic film” in Moscow. However, at that time, the Soviet Union had not yet conducted an atomic test. There are reasons to assume that Stalin deceived the Chinese by showing them a film taken from Germany in order to demonstrate Soviet military strength, and to underline the supremacy of the Soviet Union in the communist world.

(Osteuropa 12/2007, pp. 117–175)