WEBVTT - What is Russia's "Dead Hand?" 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.200 Deep in the back of your mind. You've always had 0:00:02.200 --> 0:00:05.480 the feeling that there's something strange about reality. There is 0:00:05.800 --> 0:00:10.320 sugar like death, must nanopartic mechanical messiahis punch evolution. On 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.760 our award winning science podcast Stuff About Your Mind, we 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:17.000 examine neurological quandaries, cosmic mysteries, evolutionary marvels, and our trans 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.440 human future. New episodes come out Tuesdays and Thursdays on iTunes, 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:27.440 Google Play, Spotify, and anywhere you get your podcast. Welcome 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:35.080 to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, they're brain Stuff. 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:37.760 I'm Christian Seger. Have you ever had one of those 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.520 days where you think to yourself, that is it. I'm 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.920 gonna go and build a doomsday machine to destroy the world, 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.520 just like all those supervillains in the movies. If so, 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:50.760 it turns out you're not alone. See sometime during the 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:54.960 Cold War, the USSR had the same idea. They've built 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.920 a real life doomsday device, something that could destroy most 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.200 of civilization, and the creepiest thing of all is that 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.880 it might still be around today. Let's move on, since 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.800 we don't know how long we have until the world ends. 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.520 This all started back during the Cold War, which took 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:17.319 place roughly from the late nineteen forties to nine. Tensions 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.280 between the US and the Soviet Union, the world's greatest 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.520 superpowers were high, and each country continually provoked the other. 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:28.440 In the nineteen eighties, the US elected Ronald Reagan as president, 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.560 believing that a show of strength would increase Western leverage 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.959 with the Soviet Union. The Reagan administration expanded the US 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:41.800 nuclear arsenal and built a space based missile shield called 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:46.240 the Strategic Defense Initiative, or as its critics like to 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.840 call it, star Wars. This was meant to show that 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.600 the US was not afraid of entering a catastrophic nuclear 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.360 war with Russia, but it worked a little too well. 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:01.400 Because the USSR assumed the US was actually planning to 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.640 begin a nuclear war with mobile nukes and submarines in 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.960 an orbiting system to deflect Soviet missiles. These these are 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.600 i C B m s or intercontinental ballistic missiles, the 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.680 US would be less likely to take the full brunt 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:19.280 of a Soviet retaliation. This meant that in a matter 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.520 of as little as ten to fifteen minutes, the Soviet 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:27.880 Union could be reduced to ashes, radiation, and corpses. Moscow's 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.840 brightest minds flew into overtime. The details are sketchy, but 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.640 historians currently believe they brought their answer online around nine. 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:43.440 It's called Mertva Ruka, or the dead Hand, at least informally. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.200 Dead Hand is the pet name for a monstrous thing 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:50.960 known as perimeter. Perimeter when it was first built, was 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.800 a network linking all of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.280 to one machine, and it ensured that the country could 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.680 always respond to any new clear strike, even if the 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.680 Soviet government had just been bombed out of existence. This 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.560 is scary stuff, right. What we know about it today 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:13.480 is largely based on interviews with former Soviet officials, investigations 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:18.160 by nuclear experts such as the Brookings Institutions, Bruce G. Blair, 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:24.040 and cryptic open secret esque statements by Russian officials. Now 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.480 the good news. First, it's not one big red button 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.760 in some bunker somewhere. The local security guard can't have 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.400 a bad day playing angry birds and then just destroy 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.760 the world. Here's here's how we think it works. Perimeter 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.160 spends most of its time in a dormant phase, and 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.200 it's only switched on by officials in a state of emergency. 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.080 Once activated, It stays active for fifteen minutes before automatically 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.240 shutting down. During this time, the system monitors the country 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:58.320 through various arrays of radiation, seismic, and air pressure sensors. 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.080 According to David Hoffman, author of The Dead Hand, the 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.760 untold story of the Cold War arms race in its 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:09.400 Dangerous Legacy, three officers sit in the remote heart of Perimeter, 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:15.080 a sphere shaped fortified bunker deep underground. The system had 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.760 several stages. Perimeter would monitor the sensors for signs of 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.839 a nuclear attack on Russian soil, and also attempt to 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.720 confirm communication with the national command authority. If there's no 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.120 communication with military command and the sensors indicate there has 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.919 been an attack, then the system grants the ability to 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.920 launch to anyone who happens to be in the room. 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.920 If the people or person in the room do decide 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.240 to proceed, the Perimeter launches four small command missiles that 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:48.120 fly across the country, activating all available nuclear weapons, including 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:51.880 those on submarines. There are no public indications that the 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.599 Dead Hand has ever been activated, though it has been 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.919 used extensively in war games. However, there's one bag question left. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:05.159 Is it still around today? People argue back and forth 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:09.320 on this one. Many signs seem to indicate yes, or 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:12.320 at least part of it exists, and if so, it 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.480 may be more dangerous than before due to Russia's loss 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.359 of key early warning satellites. When Blair brought this to 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:23.719 the attention of the U S public in many government 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.479 officials were highly skeptical. Sure, they said, it's possible, but 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:32.040 who would do it. Russian officials never confirmed the existence 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.440 of the perimeter system. What we know comes from interviews 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:40.320 with former officials and advisers, and in the then commander 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.719 of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces confirmed at least part 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:48.680 of its existence, that being the communication system to a 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:56.680 Russian newspaper. Check out the brain Stuff channel on YouTube, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:58.920 and for more on this and thousands of other topics, 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:14.400 visit how stuff work dot com.