Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vog Obam here with a classic episode from our
Speaker 1: previous host, Christian Sagar. This one concerns an artifact of
Speaker 1: the Cold War and the nuclear arms race that turns
Speaker 1: out to probably not be an artifact at all, Russia's
Speaker 1: so called dead hand. Hey, they're brain Stuff. I'm Christian Sagar.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had one of those days where you
Speaker 1: think to yourself, that is it. I'm gonna go and
Speaker 1: build a doomsday machine to destroy the world, just like
Speaker 1: all those supervillains in the movies. If so, it turns
Speaker 1: out you're not alone. See sometime during the Cold War,
Speaker 1: the USSR had the same idea. They've built a real
Speaker 1: life doomsday device, something that could destroy most of civilization,
Speaker 1: and the creepiest thing of all is that it might
Speaker 1: still be around today. This all started during the Cold War,
Speaker 1: which took place roughly from the late nineteen forties to
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union,
Speaker 1: the world's greatest superpowers, were high, and each country continually
Speaker 1: provoked the other. In the nineteen eighties, the US elected
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan as president, believing that a show of strength
Speaker 1: would increase Western leverage with the Soviet Union. The Reagan
Speaker 1: administration expanded the US nuclear arsenal and built a space
Speaker 1: based missile shield called the Strategic Defense Initiative, or as
Speaker 1: its critics like to call it, star Wars. This was
Speaker 1: meant to show that the US was not afraid of
Speaker 1: entering a catastrophic nuclear war with Russia, but it worked
Speaker 1: a little too well, because the USSR assumed the US
Speaker 1: was actually planning to begin a nuclear war. With mobile
Speaker 1: nukes in submarines and an orbiting system to deflect Soviet missiles.
Speaker 1: These these are i C b ms or intercontinental ballistic missiles,
Speaker 1: the US would be less likely to take the full
Speaker 1: brunt of a Soviet retaliation. This meant that in a
Speaker 1: matter of as little as ten to fifteen minutes, the
Speaker 1: Soviet Union could be reduced to ashes, radiation, and corpses.
Speaker 1: Moscow's brightest minds flew into overtime. The details are sketchy,
Speaker 1: but historians currently believe they brought their answer online. Around
Speaker 1: n It's called mertva Ruka, or the dead hand, at
Speaker 1: least informally. Dead hand is the pet name for a
Speaker 1: monstrous thing known as Perimeter. Perimeter when it was first built,
Speaker 1: was a network linking all of the Soviet Union's nuclear
Speaker 1: weapons to one machine, and it ensured that the country
Speaker 1: could always respond to any nuclear strike even if the
Speaker 1: Soviet government had just been bombed out of existence. This
Speaker 1: is scary stuff, right. What we know about it today
Speaker 1: is largely based on interviews with former Soviet officials, investigations
Speaker 1: by nuclear experts such as the Brookings Institutions, Bruce G. Blair,
Speaker 1: and cryptic open secret esque statements by Russian officials. Now
Speaker 1: the good news. First, it's not one big red button
Speaker 1: in some bunker somewhere. The local security guard can't have
Speaker 1: a bad day playing angry birds and then just destroy
Speaker 1: the world. Here's here's how we think it works. Perimeter
Speaker 1: spends most of its time in a dormant phase, and
Speaker 1: it's only switched on by officials in a state of emergency.
Speaker 1: Once activated, it stays active for fifteen minutes before automatically
Speaker 1: shutting down. During this time, the system monitors the country
Speaker 1: through various arrays of radiation, seismic, and air pressure sensors.
Speaker 1: According to David Hoffman, author of The Dead Hand, the
Speaker 1: Untold Story of the Cold War Arms race in its
Speaker 1: dangerous legacy. Three officers sit in the remote heart of Perimeter,
Speaker 1: a sphere shape fortified bunker deep underground. The system had
Speaker 1: several stages. Perimeter would monitor the sensors for signs of
Speaker 1: a nuclear attack on Russian soil, and also attempt to
Speaker 1: confirm communication with the national command authority. If there's no
Speaker 1: communication with military command and the sensors indicate there has
Speaker 1: been an attack, then the system grants the ability to
Speaker 1: launch to anyone who happens to be in the room.
Speaker 1: If the people or person in the room do decide
Speaker 1: to proceed, the Perimeter launches four small command missiles that
Speaker 1: fly across the country, activating all available nuclear weapons, including
Speaker 1: those on submarines. There are no public indications that the
Speaker 1: Dead Hand has ever been activated, though it has been
Speaker 1: used extensively in war games. However, there's one big question left.
Speaker 1: Is it still around today? People argue back and forth
Speaker 1: on this one. Many signs seem to indicate yes, or
Speaker 1: at least part of it exists, and if so, it
Speaker 1: may be more dangerous than before due to Russia's loss
Speaker 1: of key early warning satellites. When Blair brought this to
Speaker 1: the attention of the US public in many government officials
Speaker 1: were highly skeptical. Sure, they said it's possible, but who
Speaker 1: would do it? Russian officials never confirmed the existence of
Speaker 1: the perimeter system. What we know comes from interviews with
Speaker 1: former officials and advisers, and Inven, the then commander of
Speaker 1: the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, confirmed at least part of
Speaker 1: its existence, that being the communication system to a Russian newspaper.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Ben Bolan and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Klang. To hear more from Ben about fringe theories
Speaker 1: and very real conspiracies of history and today, check out
Speaker 1: his podcast Stuff They Don't Want You To Know, And
Speaker 1: of course, for more on this and lots of other topics,
Speaker 1: visit how Stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
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