TASS, Announcement of Successful Soviet ICBM Test. August 27, 1957
Original Source: Pravda, 27 August 1957, p. 2
In accordance with the plan of scientific research work in the Soviet Union, successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic rocket as well as detonations of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons have been carried out.
I. Recently, the launch of a long-distance, intercontinental, multi-stage ballistic rocket was accomplished.
Tests of the rocket were successful and completely bore out the correctness of calculations and the chosen design. The flight of the rocket occurred at a very great, as yet unachieved, altitude. Traversing a huge distance in a short time, the rocket landed in a specified region.
The obtained results show that there is the possibility of rocket launches to any region of the globe. The solution of the problem of creating intercontinental ballistic rockets allows the attainment of distant regions while not resorting to strategic aviation, which at the present time is vulnerable to contemporary means of antiaircraft defense.
Bearing in mind the huge contribution to the development of science and the great significance of this scientific-technical achievement for the strengthening of the defensive capabilities of the Soviet state, the Soviet government expressed its thanks to the large collective of workers who took part in the development and manufacture of the intercontinental rocket and the complex of facilities assuring its launch.
II. In recent days in the Soviet Union there has been conducted a series of nuclear and thermonuclear (hydrogen) weapons detonations. In the interest of assuring the safety of the population, the detonations were carried out at a high altitude. The tests were successful.
In connection with the aforementioned tests TASS is authorized to announce:
For many years in the United Nations Organization the problem of disarmament has been discussed without results, including the question of the banning of atomic and hydrogen weapons and the question of stopping their testing.
The Soviet government, steadfastly conducting a policy of peace, more than once has introduced concrete proposals concerning the vital need of reduction of armed forces and armed states, of the cessation of tests of this type of weapon and of other measures connected with the question of disarmament. However, from the side of the Western powers up to this time no real steps have been made in the area of disarmament. On the contrary, from their side all sorts of obstacles are found as excuses on the road to the achievement of agreements regarding this most important problem of our age.
As is well known, the United States and its partners not only reject the banning of atomic and nuclear weapons, but also in fact do not wish to enter into an agreement on the unconditional and urgent cessation of the testing of nuclear weapons, conducting at the same time a large series of tests of these weapons.
Running into such a clearly negative attitude on the part of the Western powers, and first of all the USA, to the positive resolution of the question of disarmament, the Soviet government finds it necessary to take all essential measures in the interests of insuring the security of the Soviet state.
At the same time, the Soviet government will continue persistently to seek agreements on the cessation of tests and the banning of atomic weapons, and the entire question of disarmament, in positive solutions in which all the peoples of the world are interested.
Source: Vladimir Wozniuk, ed., Understanding Soviet Foreign Policy: readings and documents (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990), p. 143.