Portrait of a male author with glasses standing against a concrete wall, wearing a green shirt and jacket.

Edward C.

Baikonur Cosmodrome: The Secret Spaceport That Hid Rocketry's Worst Disaster

Baikonur gave humanity the stars. It also buried rocketry's worst disaster for 29 years — and lied about its own name.

Kazakhstan

The world's largest landlocked country inherited 1,500 nuclear warheads and the most bombed test site on Earth. Kazakhstan gave up the arsenal and kept the scars.

Semipalatinsk: The Soviet Nuclear Polygon That Poisoned a Million People in Secret

Tragedies & Disasters

Semipalatinsk: The Soviet Nuclear Polygon That Poisoned a Million People in Secret

The Soviet Union detonated 456 nuclear bombs on the Kazakh steppe while 1.5 million people lived downwind. A secret clinic studied them instead of warning them.

Portrait of a female author standing against a brick wall, wearing a green jacket and grey shirt.

Sophia R.

Baikonur Cosmodrome: The Secret Spaceport That Hid Rocketry's Worst Disaster

Kazakhstan

Semipalatinsk: The Soviet Nuclear Polygon That Poisoned a Million People in Secret

Beyond This Region

Antarctica

Africa

Asia

Australia & Oceania

Europe

North America