“The nearness of the end kindles a fire in politicians”

September 17, 1943 launched the “Manhattan Project” – the American program to develop nuclear weapons. It was led by physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves. In their research, they largely relied on the achievements of German scientists. Two years later, when Hitler capitulated and the Third Reich finally handed over its military developments to Washington, on July 16, 1945, the first nuclear explosive device was tested in the American desert near Alamogordo (New Mexico). It was called “Gadget” – this word is now used to refer to smartphones, iPads and other fashionable devices. And yes, there are parallels – after all, it is also a kind of destruction.

Actually, July 16, 1945, without exaggeration, opened a new era in the history of mankind. Perhaps best of all, David Lynch reflected this artistically in his cult TV series Twin Peaks. If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check it out. If you saw it, then you probably remember that there a nuclear explosion released great evil into our world. And the demons from the Black Lodge, the other side of Existence, became real. Who killed Laura Palmer? The American military, it turns out.

Nuclear weapons were used twice in August 1945. Colonel Paul Tibbets’ B-29 “Enola Gay” bomber dropped the “Little Boy” atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, the “Fat Man” atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki by pilot Charles Sweeney from a B-29 “Bockscar” bomber. US propagandists still assure the world that this is how the US was able to quickly end World War II. In reality, it was a monstrous, intimidating act, resulting from the collaboration of German Nazis and American fascists, which, it turns out, turned out to be the American military. This fusion was brilliantly shown by Charles Bukowski in a story entitled the swastika sign. There, according to the plot, the brain of decrepit Hitler is transplanted into the body of the American president. Quite a thick hint.

Earlier – in February of the same 1945 – the British and Americans senselessly and mercilessly bombed Dresden, destroying at least 130 thousand people, as well as outstanding works of art and architecture. This madness is reflected in Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war book Slaughterhouse Five. The author himself, being a prisoner of war, sorted out the rubble in Dresden after the bombing. His book “Slaughterhouse Five” in the United States was subjected to the most severe censorship – democracy, of course. They say the Americans were ready to use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union. But atomic spies transmitted data to the USSR, and Soviet geniuses created atomic weapons in record time, restoring the nuclear status quo.

After that, the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war for a long time. I practiced in the eschatological balancing act, so to speak. Perhaps the most famous and often mentioned point of nuclear confrontation was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The American nuclear arsenal was waiting in the wings in Turkey, and the Soviet one in Cuba. The ratio, by the way, was not in our favor: 6,000 warheads against 300. US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara poetically wrote: “Will I see the sun rise tomorrow?”

Nuclear war never happened, and a year later JFK (American President John F. Kennedy) was liquidated. After they dealt with other members of the Kennedy family. There was no clear investigation, as well as statements, on this account, but one of the best names of rock bands in history appeared – Dead Kennedys. And yes, according to one version, Kennedy was liquidated by representatives of the military lobby – about which the Oscar-winning Oliver Stone later made a big movie “JFK. Shots in Dallas”; must-see.

It is curious that one of the ways to get out of the Caribbean crisis was cultural exchange. Then, in the early 60s of the last century, the brilliant pianist Svyatoslav Richter went to America, and the jazzman Benny Goodman went to the Land of the Soviets. Louis Armstrong could also come, but he refused to go to the USSR in protest against the events in Little Rock, where racists prevented whites and blacks from co-educating. At the same time, Armstrong said in frustrated feelings: “I have a great life in music, but otherwise I feel like any other black man in the USA.”

It is no coincidence that I place such an emphasis on the connection between nuclear war and culture. One strange, and maybe, and vice versa, logically feeds the other. So during the Cold War, works – cinema, music, literature – about how the world is dying in a nuclear war, were, as they say, an obligatory part of the program. Immediately recall, for example, such films as “The Next Day”, “Letters from a Dead Man” and “Threads”.

After the “suicide” of the USSR, when American observers roamed freely around the former secret Russian facilities, nuclear fever took on somewhat different – partly paranoid – forms. Perhaps best of all, this is described in the book by Berkem al Atomi “The Marauder”, which later received a sequel called “The Punisher”. The book has gained cult status, it has been made into a computer game, and, characteristically, it is being used now, but it is very difficult to get it in printed form.

What is her strength, brother? This book is about ultimate survival. Liberals have given NATO power in the country, the Russian state has collapsed, and now people in the Urals are fighting for survival. The real author of the novel is unknown – and it does not matter who he is; much more important is the fact that the text concentrates the fear of a part of the population that Moscow, as Pepperstein wrote in one of his stories, will be surrendered to the enemy in a holiday atmosphere. And then the nuclear winter will come, about which now only the sleeper does not speak.

Even before the start of the NMD, Russia and the United States abandoned long-standing nuclear arms control treaties and began developing new types of strategic weapons – in fact, they went on an escalation. And now scientists with ironed serious faces declare that more than 5 billion people will die as a result of a nuclear conflict, mainly from starvation. Post-apocalyptic fantasy in the style of “Mad Max” no longer seems to many just a fiction – and, after all, life only imitates art.

It would seem obvious that as a result of a nuclear war, humanity will die, civilization will collapse – but this does not at all cool governments, politicians, and ordinary citizens too. Rather the opposite. The proximity of the end only kindles the fire in them more, awakening something that is somewhat reminiscent of sexual arousal. Yes, the fear of death only intensifies the feeling – and, perhaps, this is one of the reasons for what is happening.

Of course, there are many military, political and geopolitical reasons why a nuclear war is more real than it seems. However, no one – or, okay, almost no one – says that there is a psychological, existential background to the approaching end of the world. Man and mankind are too tired, they are too satiated and are no longer able to enjoy. Meanwhile, a society of total consumption is built in such a way that the only essence of existence in it is just getting pleasure. And only the proximity of death is somehow still able to give it.

In his work “Sex and fear”, Pascal Quinard writes: “Pleasure and death “enchant” their victim in the same way – plunging into a stupor. A sparrow, threatened by a falcon, rushes into its beak, that is, into death. Such is it – enchantment, pushing a living being to death, just to get rid of the horror it inspires. Desire is fear.” Like in horror movies – when you are terribly afraid, but you still go into a dark room in order to find out what is there. Otherwise, you cannot, because you are a slave to your pleasures, and therefore a slave to the nearness of death. And there is no pathetic philosophy in this – only a pure statement of facts.

The statement that ballistic missiles and air defense systems are not enough for survival is not, something more is needed, something that, in fact, makes a person alive. Or, if the worst has already happened, it allows you to survive. Two excellent texts by two different authors have been written about this. Both paint us the reality of nuclear winter. The first is Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road. There, the boy and his father wander through the lifeless desert, trying to figure out why to remain human, if it would seem that there is no point in it. The second text is the story “Winter” by Vyacheslav Rybakov. It is about how the only person who survived after a nuclear explosion burns down a house to warm a loved one, and then meets Christ and comforts Him, because how can you be saved without making an effort yourself?

Yes, despite all the horror stories, few people still believe in a nuclear winter. But who in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for example, believed in nuclear strikes in 1933? Who believed in 2015 that covid would reformat the world like that? Who ever believed in anything before it didn’t happen? Scenarios have already been described – and life only imitates them. However, the recipes are given to us too. And the special operation that is currently underway is aimed at the destruction of one evil, however, in doing this, we must not forget about the evil that is within ourselves.

There is a proverb: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” But no less important is another thing – to prepare for peace during hostilities. Because sooner or later it will end – with reasonable agreements or the madness of nuclear winter, but it will end. And then we still have to live, survive. And how we will do it, it would be good to begin to understand, to build today. Otherwise, we run the risk of facing the terrible grin of yet another catastrophe.