At the height of the Cold War between the USSR (now Russia) and the USA, nuclear weapons were regularly detonated above ground for scientific, military and political purposes. Importantly, a massive explosion served as a propaganda tool, displaying power and innovation.
Cold War tensions were high in 1961. The CIA-backed Bay Of Pigs invasion ended in failure for the USA. The Berlin Wall was built by the Soviets in an attempt to force the British, Americans and French out of Berlin, leading to US and Soviet tanks facing off at Checkpoint Charlie in the centre of the city. Tensions were high and fears of nuclear war were not far-fetched.
Not long after the Checkpoint Charlie episode, the Soviets tested a hydrogen bomb that detonated with a yield of 57 megatons (timing is everything, right?).
The Tsar Bomba weighed 27,000 kilograms (60,000 lb) and was dropped over the Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Arctic Sea froman altitude of 10.5 kilometres (6.5 miles). The fireball was visible 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away. An entire village was wiped out 55 kilometres (34 miles) from ground zero, thermal heat from the explosion was felt 270 kilometres (170 miles) away, and windows were broken in Norway and Finland.
Short answer: The Tsar Bomba explosion was way more powerful than all the weapons ever used in warfare, from the dawn of time to today.
