The Semipalatinsk Test Site, known as “The Polygon,” was one of the most significant nuclear test sites in the Soviet Union. From 1949 until the cessation of nuclear tests in 1989, at least 456 detonations (more according to some sources) were carried out at the Polygon. 340 of those were underground detonations, in boreholes and tunnels. More than 100 were above-ground atmospheric tests conducted from towers or planes.

Photographs and text / Agnieszka Rayss

Selection and sequencing of photographs: / Sebastian Cichocki

Translation / Stefan Lorenzutti & Joanna Osiewicz-Lorenzutti

Graphic design / Joanna Jopkiewicz (Grupa Projektor)

Quotations are from Andrei Sakharov, Memoirs, trans. Richard Lourie (New York: Knopf, 1990)

This Is Where the End of Cities Begins

American Dream

The Last Conversation with Academician Sakharov