Follow and Wishlist our game on Steam The Tsar Bomba was a weapon so massive it threatened its makers as much as its enemies. Designed to shock, it became the most powerful explosive device ever created. The Tsar Bomba (AN602) — a 50-megaton thermonuclear monster — lit the Arctic sky on October 30, 1961, proving that human ambition can outgrow reason. Conceived at the height of the Cold War, it was less a weapon than a message: an engineering triumph and a political spectacle in one. Dropped from a modified Tu-95 over Novaya Zemlya, it produced a fireball kilometers wide and a shockwave that circled the globe. How was the Tsar Bomba engineered, and why was the original design scaled down? What modifications allowed the Tu-95 to survive the blast — and bring its crew home? What happened after the detonation, and how did this single test reshape nuclear policy and global strategy? The ultimate story of power, fear, and the limits of control. Main sources: 1. Anatoly Veselovsky “Nuclear shield”. (in Russian) 2. Andrei Sakharov “Recollections” (in Russian) 3. Krzysztof Dabrowski "Tsar Bomba: Live Testing of Soviet Nuclear Bombs, 1949-1962". 4. Yefim Gordon, Vladimir Rigmant “Tupolev Tu-95/142 ‘Bear’. Russia’s Intercontinental-Range Heavy Bomber”. 5. Yulii Khariton "Episodes from the Past". (in Russian) 6. "Test of a pure hydrogen bomb with a yield of 50 million tons". (Film for internal use declassified by Rosatom) (In Russian) Support us on Patreon for exclusive perks and help us create more content Check out our exclusive merch 00:00 Introduction 00:44 Design Overview of AN602 01:48 Tu-95V Modifications 03:17 Transportation and Release 05:41 Detonation Sequence 09:25 Explosion of the Tsar Bomba 11:33 Legacy and Impact Blue Paw Print uses the Unreal® Engine. Unreal® is a trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Unreal® Engine, Copyright 1998 – 2025, Epic Games, Inc. All rights reserved.