SOVIET SECRET WEAPON KILLED 300 IN '60 BLAST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600270012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2000
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: October 17, 1965
• Content Type: NSPR

WASHINGTON POST Q( 1 7 1 6
Approved For Release (Q I0,TE9C Tb-001498$ 12-~
Marshal Mitrofan . Ned elln ,
chester Guardian said today..
The secret weapon about'
which Khrushchev boasted
en
was a missile with a nuclear had bq, killed in an air acci-
propellant, Victor Lorza, the dent ;per
Guardian's expert; on Ctim. [The Italian Continentale
munist affairs, reported. hews agency, which specializes
Quoting secret ',reports of in Communist affairs, said on
Oleg Penkovsky, !a Russian December 8, 1960, that Nedelin
colonel sentenced to death in was killed in a "catastrophic
1963 for spying for the" West, explosion" with 100 other top
.Zorza said: l - soldiers and. scientists at an
"The countdown; went ac- unidentified missile site.]
cording to plan, but the new Khrushchev spoke of "a
missile failed to leave the fantastic weapon" on Jan. 14,
ground. The observers waited 1960, when he addressed the
for some 20 minutes, then Supreme Soviet (Parliament).
came out of the helter: At But he did not give any de-
this point the ~YiiS ile explod- tails.
ed, killing 300' people, among ,1 On March 16, 1962, he indi-
them the commander-in chief I sated the weapon had been
of the Soviet mis He forces,perfectcd. Ina Kremlin speech
(Marshal Nedelin." s !h2 called it "a global rocket."
Soviet. Secret Weapon
Killed $00 in 6..0 Blast 11
CPYRGHT
LONDON Oct. `1( P Former Premier Khru-
s c ev s vaur a secretLeap tn-mew up in 1960, l ing
T
I The Guardian account said
the accident occuri`ed in the
fall of 1960 as scientists
rushed to test the weapon. in
time for the October Revo-
lution anniversary that year.
The Russians announced
Penkovsky's secret reports
will be published next month.
Zorza apparently got an ad-
vance look at the reports,
which were made to British in-
telligence and the U.S. Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency.,
Oct. 25, 1960, that Nedelin r,
COL. PI NTKOVSKY ib1ABSliAl. NEDELIN
Miss il a Disaster Told by Spy
('ol. Oleg Penkovsky, who since has been executed as a
spy for the West, reported the death of Soviet Marshal
Mitrofan I. Nedelin and others in the malfunction of a
Russian missile with a nuclear propellant in 1960, the
Guardian of Manchester, England, said. Story on Page Al..
Approved For Release 2000/08/03 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600270012-7