Soviet nuclear "winter war" scenario, and did they almost nuke the Chinese?

Factual Questions
1

I came accross an old but interestng essay on the so-called nuclear winter that might arise from world war III. Towards the end of the essay, there is a “how it might happen” write up in which the author seems to indicate that the soviets had a so-called “winter war” plan whereby they nuked themselves deliberately (in the vast Siberian wilderness) to trigger a nuclear winter. They would have sockpiled food beforehand, so while the rest of the world starved from mass crop failures, the would then begin to blackmail everyone into accepting domination by them in return for aid. Furthermore, they could add an additional level of blackmail by threatening to repeatedly create nuclear winters, unless the world converted to communisim.

My question is, does anyone know if there is any evidence that the Soviets really considered such a dastardly plan, or is this all just pure speculation on the part of the author?

The author also suggests that the Soviet union came real close to nuking China in 1971, but the U.S. (unexpectedly) informed the USSR that we would not stand idley by if they launched a first strike on China. When the chinese found out about this, this is what lead to the thawing in US-Chinese relations and allowed Nixon to pay them a visit. I have never heard of this before either. Is this more hot air??

A copy of the article, titled “Nuclear Winter and Other Scenarios” by Jon Roland, written in 1984, can be found at http://www.pynthan.org/vri/nwaos.htm

2

Interesting but probably just nuclear what ifs and propaganda from 1984.

If the Russians where to launch missiles and bombers to create 200mt of airbursts over Siberia, would the US not have detected the missile/bomber launches and possibly attacked Russia?
Also the idea of co-ordinating the detonation of 5000mt of buried bombs a few minutes later seems a bit far fetched.

Surely US satellites would have detected all the drilling in Siberia months before (Unless the dastardly Reds used neat laser tunneling machines like in that 60’s B movie “Battle beneath the Earth”!)

Not only cold from a nuclear winter but also Ozone depletion and of course fallout, not a good idea.

I like the authors comment that “The Chinese found out how the US saved them from nuclear attack and on April 6,1971, invited the US ping-pong team to Peking”

Nothing like such a show of gratitude when you’ve just been saved from Armageddon!

3

Just a note to add: by the latter half of the 1970s, the idea that the Soviet Union could produce enough agricultural surplus to store away several years worth of food was laughable. The Soviets were importing grain by then.