ABSTRACT
According to Ministry of Atomic Energy Minister Viktor Mikhailov, the Soviet nuclear weapons stockpile grew rather steadily until it peaked in 1986 at 45,000 warheads and then declined more than 20 percent to 32,000 warheads by May 1993. The Russian Ministry of Atomic Energy, whose counterpart in the United States is the Department of Energy, is responsible for the research, development, testing, and production of nuclear warheads. Since the nuclear warhead production complex and most of the arsenal were concentrated in Russia, upon the break up of the Soviet Union in late-1991 the nuclear weapons production program was taken over by Russia, and the arsenal is in the process of being consolidated there. The Soviet Union followed a pattern of nuclear weapons materials production similar to that of the United States.
