The Semipalatinsk test site happens to be one of the largest in the world and the largest in the territory of the former Soviet Union and , generated by hundreds of nuclear tests, it raised questions that require solutions. I will try to address only a few facets of the problem. First of all, I would like to reveal a fundamental contradiction in the very functioning of this test site: its use in the arms race by the Soviet totalitarian regime without taking into account security issues led to a humanitarian catastrophe which cost life and health to hundreds of thousands of people. Secondly, I will try to understand how and why social activity increased in the former Soviet Union, which then led to the closure of the test site – for the first time in the world. history.1. Operation of the test site: military-political and humanitarian aspectsWhen we talk about the creation and operation of the Semipalatinsk test site, we can consider the problem from several angles. From a military-political perspective, the Semipalatinsk test site was part of the Soviet nuclear program. The Semipalatinsk test site was not the only one in the USSR (nuclear tests were also carried out at these test sites as well as at Totskoye, Sary-Shagan and New Land), but it hosted more than 70 % of all nuclear tests, of which were among the largest. I think there could be several reasons for this, based on what can be understood by studying this phenomenon. Firstly, the convenient location of the site: the topography made it possible to carry out underground explosions both in shafts and in shafts. Second, the main scientific base – equipment, laboratories, monitoring centers, etc. – were concentrated on this site and in a specially created "secret" town nearby, named after the example of others...... middle of paper ...... the government had not kept his promise to reduce the number and power of explosions and claimed that the "people's maratory" had begun, meaning that any further tests would provoke an all-out strike in Kazakhstan. The government had no choice but to freeze the tests, and further collapses of the USSR, the bankruptcy of Moscow in August 1991 and the real crash of the country prompted NANazarbayev, who was then president of the Kazakh SSR , to take the next crucial step: signing on August 29, 1991 a decree closing the test Between 1991 and 1992, within the framework of the cooperative threat reduction program proposed by the United States, Kazakhstan received assistance to eliminate the threat of radioactive material leaving the landfill and falling into the hands of terrorists. However, the main humanitarian consequences of four decades of nuclear testing are still felt today..