How much do you really know about Soviet Union? Soviet Union has a history of being the most secretive nation in the world during the Cold war era. Today we have compiled a list of 10 biggest declassified secrets of Soviet Russia.

10. The World’s Worst Nuclear Disaster (At the Time)

Kicking off with number ten, we have the nuclear blast that was kept secret from 1957 until 1989. The Kyshtym disaster of 1957 can be blamed on bad decision making an wrong policies. The cooling system for the nuclear plant was a crude one. The coolant of a tank started leaking and it was switched off and left for a year unattended. The nuclear waste got heated up over time to a high temperature until an explosion took place. The matter was kept secret for quite a long time. The consequences of the disaster were worse than one can imagine and the local area was deserted.

9. A Manned Lunar Program

In 1961, US made it clear that they had a plan to land a man on the moon by the end of decade. At that time, Russia had been leading this race; they had managed to get the first object in space and the first animal. However, the first man on moon was an American. You’d be surprised to know thought that Russia never took part in this so called race to the moon officially. They in fact denied any such programs in existence until the start of 90’s. Their policy was to keep it a secret until it was successful. However, they killed their program in 1976.

8. Secrets of Art

The secretive Russians were not aware of a secret that was being kept from them as well; the secret of the city of Nukus. Igor Savitsky managed to persuade artists and families to entrust their work to him and he then hid them in Nukus. It remained hidden there until the 1990s. The museum contains hundreds of art pieces from the early days of Stalinist regime. All this made possible by one man; Igor Savitsky. You can watch the film on this secret here: http://www.itvs.org/films/desert-of-forbidden-art