Although, as has been often noted, the previous courses tended to soft-pedal the effects of thermonuclear weapons and of fallout, this is no longer so. The present course is quite realistic in its description of thermonuclear weapon yields and effects as well as of the probable extent and character of the fallout.

Although the new 18-hour course, like the earlier ones, has not involved the entire population and has lagged behind in some areas, the present indications are that an increasing number of persons have been exposed to it and that many of the previous shortages of training equipment and instructors have been generally overcome. Training is also being given to schoolchildren 12 to 16 and there are lectures for people over 60.

Training, as before, takes place in small study circles organized at places of work or residence, thus involving little use of mass propaganda media. It seems reasonable to assume that between 50 and 100 million persons, (out of a total of about 135 million eligible), have been exposed to some or all of the training courses.

A tentative but conservative estimate of the cost of the latest course would indicate that the Soviet Union is spending about $100 to $200 million annually on its implementation, not counting the time of students and instructors which is free.

INDIVIDUAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT

Individual Means of Protection: The Soviet civil defense authorities and the training system put great stress on the need for protecting each person against chemical and bacteriological agents and against the intaking or direct body contact with radioactive matter. This is to be accomplished by means of gas masks, protective clothing and individual decontamination packets. The population has been given instruction in the characteristics of most known chemical and biological agents and has been trained in the use of this equipment. This includes the test chambers for gas masks, and so on.

Gas masks, which are of good quality and probably more expensive than the U.S. civilian masks, are to be distributed to the population when the Government believes that there is a real danger of war. There is considerable evidence that they have been issued to the civil defense personnel and for training purposes (probably some 30 million masks issued).

Protective clothing, which is either of rubberized material or of plastic material is distributed, They are expensive, particularly these shown on this chart.

Protective clothing such as shown on this chart has been issued only to civil defense personnel while the population is told to make their own or to use whatever covering is handy in an emergency. (See fig. G-4.)

FIGURE G-4.-ILLUSTRATION FROM SOVIET TRAINING MANUAL

TYPES OF PROTECTIVE CLOTHING

The two types of individual decontamination packets available are primarily designed for the purpose of removing liquid vesicants from skin and clothing and are extensively used in the training courses. (See fig. G-5, p. 272.)

The more advanced types, of which this is one, contains inhalants. In the last year or so the population has also been receiving training in the proper use of atropine syrettes against nerve gases and of other antidotes against other chemical agents. It would appear that there may be plans to include these antidotes in the individual decontamination packets, and they are widely used for training purposes. (See fig. G-6, p. 273.)

PROGRAMS TO REDUCE URBAN VULNERABILITY

Present Soviet urban planning places great emphasis on reducing the population density in the cities, limiting the danger from spreading fires, relocating some industry and improving the transportation system.

Limitations have been placed on the size of major cities and on the construction of new factories in them. Instead, a substantial number of satellite towns are being built 30 to 50 miles outside the major cities (14 for Moscow, 6 for Leningrad).

The new housing districts being built in the Soviet Union are designed to reduce the density of the population as well as the danger from fire.

For example, the major streets are 300 feet wide, creating firebreaks, and there is also emphasis on creating belts of greenery, preventing the spread of fire.

I do not know if the Soviet authorities have made any significant advances in the relocation and dispersal of industry. The implementation of all such measures requires, of course, considerable time to become effective and their value may be, at least in part, reduced by the increased area of destructiveness of new weapons.

SOVIET SHELTER PROGRAMS

The Soviet civil defense authorities have stressed the need for shelters and their construction program, which has been in effect for a considerable number of years, emphasizes public shelters rather than private or family shelters. The program comprises the construction in peacetime of permanent shelters in the cities which are to be supplemented in an emergency by simple fallout shelters to be built in the rural areas. All permanent shelters provide varying degrees of protection against blast and complete protection against collapsing buildings, radiation, fire, as well as against chemical and bacteriological agents.

They are all designed for relatively long-term occupancy and are consequently provided with water, toilets, filter-ventillation units, heremetically sealing steel doors edged with rubber, light, heating, bunks, storage batteries, and some possibly with bottled oxygen. Food is stored in some but not all types of shelters.

TYPES OF SHELTERS IN U.S.S.R.

A variety of types of shelters are known to have been built: For special purposes there are very deep or heavy shelters designed to survive fairly near to the point of a nuclear explosion. They may be deep underground tunnels, tunnels in hillsides or bunker type shelters. They are designed to withstand at least 300 pounds per square inch and are equipped for long-term occupancy. The other ones are the bunker types with extremely thick walls and very expensive to build. They will probably be used to shelter select civil defense, military, governmental, and party personnel. (See figs. G-7 and G-8, pp. 275 and 276.)