[knowaveragejoe]

As with their space program, we actually have no real idea to what lengths the Soviets went to in terms of human cost. It's entirely likely that they were far more blase about the safety of everyone involved. In most areas of research and development, the Soviets were known for flying by the seat of their pants(the same could be said for the US shortly after the war, but that changed significantly in the coming decades).

> "The Americans, he told Moscow, were not in any way interested in disarmament. Rather, they were training their armed forces to integrate nuclear weapons into their military doctrine."

As others have pointed out, this is only a surface-level interpretation of what was going on.