The creation of the Soviet atomic bomb(military part of the atomic project of the USSR) - fundamental research, development of technologies and their practical implementation in the USSR, aimed at creating weapons of mass destruction using nuclear energy. The activities were to a large extent stimulated by the activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of other countries, primarily Nazi Germany and the United States [ ]. In 1945, on August 9, American aircraft dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Almost half of the civilians died immediately in the explosions, others were seriously ill and continue to die to this day.

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  In 1930-1941, work was actively carried out in the nuclear field.

  During this decade, fundamental radiochemical research was carried out, without which a complete understanding of these problems, their development, and, even more so, implementation, is inconceivable.

  Work in 1941-1943

  Foreign intelligence information

  Already in September 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about the conduct of secret intensive research work in Great Britain and the United States, aimed at developing methods of using atomic energy for military purposes and creating atomic bombs of enormous destructive power. One of the most important documents obtained back in 1941 by Soviet intelligence is the report of the British MAUD Committee. From the materials of this report, received through the foreign intelligence channels of the NKVD of the USSR from Donald McLean, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb is real, that it could probably be created even before the end of the war and, therefore, could affect its course.

  Intelligence information about work on the problem of atomic energy abroad, which was available in the USSR at the time of the decision to resume work on uranium, was received both through the intelligence channels of the NKVD and through the channels of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Red Army.

  In May 1942, the GRU leadership informed the USSR Academy of Sciences about the presence of reports of work abroad on the problem of the use of atomic energy for military purposes and asked to be informed if this problem currently has a real practical basis. V.G. Khlopin answered this request in June 1942, who noted that over the last year in the scientific literature almost no papers have been published related to the solution of the problem of using atomic energy.

  An official letter from the head of the NKVD L.P. Beria addressed to I.V. Stalin with information about the work on the use of atomic energy for military purposes abroad, proposals for organizing this work in the USSR and secret familiarization with the materials of the NKVD by prominent Soviet specialists, versions of which were prepared by the NKVD at the end of 1941 - early 1942, was sent to I.V. Stalin only in October 1942, after the adoption of the order of the State Defense Committee on the resumption of work on uranium in the USSR.

  Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the work on the creation of the atomic bomb in the United States, coming from specialists who understood the danger of a nuclear monopoly or sympathized with the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodor Hall, Georges Koval and David Greenglas. However, as some believe, the letter from the Soviet physicist G. Flerov, addressed to Stalin in early 1943, was of decisive importance, and he was able to explain the essence of the problem in a popular way. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that G. N. Flerov's work on the letter to Stalin was not completed and it was not sent.

  The hunt for data from America's uranium project began on the initiative of Leonid Kvasnikov, head of the scientific and technical intelligence department of the NKVD, back in 1942, but fully developed only after the arrival of the famous pair of Soviet intelligence officers in Washington: Vasily Zarubin and his wife Elizabeth. It was with them that the resident of the NKVD in San Francisco, Grigory Kheifits, interacted, reporting that America's most prominent physicist Robert Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues had left California for an unknown place where they would be engaged in the creation of some kind of superweapon.

  Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Semyonov (pseudonym "Twain"), who had worked in the United States since 1938 and had assembled a large and active group of agents, was entrusted with rechecking the data of "Charon" (that was the code name of Kheifits). It was "Twain" who confirmed the reality of work on the creation of the atomic bomb, named the code of the Manhattan project and the location of its main research center - the former colony for juvenile delinquents Los Alamos in the state of New Mexico. Semyonov also revealed the names of some scientists who worked there, who at one time were invited to the USSR to participate in large Stalinist construction projects and who, having returned to the United States, did not lose ties with extreme leftist organizations.

  Thus, Soviet agents were introduced into the scientific and design centers of America, where nuclear weapons were created. However, in the midst of the establishment of undercover actions, Liza and Vasily Zarubins were urgently recalled to Moscow. They were lost in conjectures, because not a single failure happened. It turned out that the Center received a denunciation from the station officer Mironov, who accused the Zarubins of treason. And for almost six months, Moscow counterintelligence checked these charges. They were not confirmed, however, the Zarubins were not allowed abroad anymore.

  In the meantime, the work of the implemented agents had already brought the first results - reports began to arrive, and they had to be immediately sent to Moscow. This work was entrusted to a group of special couriers. The most efficient and unafraid were the Coen spouses, Maurice and Lona. After Maurice was drafted into the American army, Lona began to independently deliver information materials from New Mexico to New York. To do this, she went to the small town of Albuquerque, where, for the sake of visibility, she attended a tuberculosis dispensary. There she met with agents under the nickname "Mlad" and "Ernst".

  However, the NKVD still managed to extract several tons of low-enriched uranium c.

  The primary tasks were the organization of industrial production of plutonium-239 and uranium-235. To solve the first problem, it was necessary to create an experimental and then industrial nuclear reactors, the construction of radiochemical and special metallurgical workshops. To solve the second problem, the construction of a plant for the separation of uranium isotopes by the diffusion method was launched.

  The solution of these problems turned out to be possible as a result of the creation of industrial technologies, the organization of production and the development of the necessary large quantities of pure metallic uranium, uranium oxide, uranium hexafluoride, other uranium compounds, high-purity graphite and a number of other special materials, the creation of a complex of new industrial units and devices. Insufficient volume of uranium ore mining and production of uranium concentrates in the USSR (the first plant for the production of uranium concentrate - "Combine No. 6 of the NKVD of the USSR" in Tajikistan was founded in 1945) during this period was compensated by trophy raw materials and products of uranium enterprises in Eastern Europe, with whom the USSR has entered into appropriate agreements.

  In 1945, the Government of the USSR made the following important decisions:

  • on the creation of two special experimental design bureaus on the basis of the Kirovsky plant (Leningrad), intended for the development of equipment for the production of 235-enriched uranium by the gas diffusion method;
  • on the beginning of construction in the Middle Urals (near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky) of a diffusion plant to obtain enriched uranium-235;
  • on the organization of a laboratory for work on the creation of heavy water reactors on natural uranium;
  • on the selection of the site and the beginning of construction in the South Urals of the country's first enterprise for the production of plutonium-239.

  The enterprise in the South Urals should have included:

  • uranium-graphite reactor on natural (natural) uranium (plant "A");
  • radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural (natural) uranium irradiated in a reactor (plant B);
  • chemical and metallurgical production for the production of highly pure metallic plutonium (plant "B").

  Participation of German specialists in a nuclear project

  In 1945, hundreds of German scientists related to the nuclear problem were brought from Germany to the USSR. Most of them (about 300 people) were brought to Sukhumi and secretly accommodated in the former estates of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and millionaire Smetsky (sanatoriums "Sinop" and "Agudzera"). In the USSR, equipment was exported from the German Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Physics Institute, Siemens electrical laboratories, and the Physics Institute of the German Ministry of Posts. Three of the four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high-voltage transformers, and ultra-precise instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, as part of the NKVD of the USSR, the Office of Special Institutes (9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) was created to manage the work on the use of German specialists.

  The Sinop sanatorium was named “Object A” - it was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne. "Agudzers" became "Object" G "" - it was headed by Gustav Hertz. Prominent scientists worked at objects "A" and "D" - Nikolaus Riehl, Max Volmer, who built the first installation in the USSR for the production of heavy water, Peter Thyssen, designer of nickel filters for gaseous diffusion separation of uranium isotopes, Max Steenbeck and Gernot Zippe, who worked on centrifugal separation and subsequently obtained patents for gas centrifuges in the west. On the basis of objects "A" and "G" (SIPT) was later created.

  Some leading German specialists were awarded USSR government awards, including the Stalin Prize, for this work.

  In the period 1954-1959 German specialists at various times moved to the GDR (Gernot Zippe - to Austria).

  Construction of a gas diffusion plant in Novouralsk

  In 1946, at the production base of plant No. 261 of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry in Novouralsk, construction began on a gaseous diffusion plant called Combine No. 813 (plant D-1)) and intended for the production of highly enriched uranium. The plant produced its first products in 1949.

  Construction of a uranium hexafluoride production facility in Kirovo-Chepetsk

  In the place of the chosen construction site, over time, a whole complex of industrial enterprises, buildings and structures was erected, interconnected by a network of roads and railways, a heat power supply system, industrial water supply and sewerage. At different times the secret city was called differently, but the most famous name is Chelyabinsk-40 or "Sorokovka". At present, the industrial complex, which was originally called Combine No. 817, is called the Mayak Production Association, and the city on the shore of Lake Irtyash, where the Mayak workers and their families live, is called Ozersk.

  In November 1945, geological surveys began at the selected site, and from the beginning of December the first builders began to arrive.

  The first head of construction (1946-1947) was Ya.D. Rappoport, later he was replaced by Major General M.M. Tsarevsky. The chief construction engineer was V.A. Saprykin, the first director of the future enterprise was P.T. Bystrov (from April 17, 1946), who was replaced by E.P. Muzrukov (from December 1, 1947). IV Kurchatov was appointed the scientific director of the plant.

  Construction of Arzamas-16

  Products

  Development of the design of atomic bombs

  Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1286-525ss "On the plan for the deployment of KB-11 at Laboratory No. 2 of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR" the first tasks of KB-11 were determined: the creation under the scientific leadership of Laboratory No. 2 (Academician I. V. Kurchatov) of atomic bombs, conventionally named in the decree "jet engines C", in two versions: RDS-1 - implosive type with plutonium and atomic bomb RDS-2 cannon type with uranium-235.

  Tactical and technical tasks for the RDS-1 and RDS-2 designs were to be developed by July 1, 1946, and the designs of their main units - by July 1, 1947. The fully manufactured RDS-1 bomb was to be submitted for state tests. for an explosion when installed on the ground by January 1, 1948, in an aircraft version - by March 1, 1948, and an RDS-2 bomb by June 1, 1948 and by January 1, 1949, respectively. carried out in parallel with the organization of special laboratories in KB-11 and the expansion of the work of these laboratories. Such a tight deadline and the organization of parallel work became possible also thanks to the receipt of some intelligence data on American atomic bombs in the USSR.

  Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to develop their activities directly in

  Why did the USSR postpone its project and create an analogue of US nuclear weapons

  In the early 90s, all the perestroika publications at once began to shout: they say, the USSR stole the atomic bomb project from the United States. Say, the "scoop" himself was feeble-minded, he could only steal and copy. And without America, I would not have made any bombs or missiles. This thesis was indirectly confirmed by the scouts-memoirists, and the still classified Soviet atomic lobbyists simply could not refute. In light of the recent test by the Americans of the B61-12 atomic bomb, it is worth pondering over the ominous events of August 1945 and 1949.

  70 years ago, just days before the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, the newly minted American President Truman decided to cut Stalin down. And to make it more accommodating at the Potsdam Conference, where the heads of the three victorious powers from July 17 to August 2, 1945 had to agree on the borders of Europe.

  The explosive atmosphere of Potsdam

  The fight was serious. The United States and Great Britain have already developed a plan for dividing Germany into several states, mainly agricultural. But unexpectedly, the Soviet leader on Victory Day declared that the USSR "was not going to either dismember or destroy Germany." And in Potsdam smashed all the arguments of the British prime minister Churchill, made territorial claims to Turkey, which infuriated the Western allies. But, most importantly, the United States and Great Britain needed to prevent the USSR from entering the war with Japan before August 9.

  Let me remind you that the leaders of the Big Three agreed in Yalta back in winter that the redistribution of borders would be considered valid only if Stalin observed this deadline. The winner in the war with the Japanese received the laurels of the winner throughout the Second World War, since at the time of Hitler's defeat about 60 countries had already declared war on Japan. But the samurai continued to live in China, attacking the Asian possessions of the British, French, Dutch, Americans and were not going to capitulate.
  Truman dreamed of becoming famous as the founder of the era of US dominance on the planet and was confident that he had authority over everyone. On July 16, the day before the Potsdam Conference, the world's first atomic bomb Trinity was tested in a desert region of New Mexico. On July 24, the US President, as if by the way, told Stalin that the US had "created a new weapon of extraordinary destructive power." But Stalin did not blink an eye. Truman and Churchill decided that the Soviet leader did not even understand what he was talking about. However, in the evening, according to the testimony of the marshal Zhukova, Stalin laughed and told the foreign minister Molotov: “I will have to talk with Kurchatov on accelerating our work. "
  And Truman ordered to drop the bomb over Japan as soon as possible, but only after he left Potsdam.

  Monument to Igor KURCHATOV

  For your information
  Igor Kurchatov was the coordinator of all work on nuclear issues and an intermediary between scientists and the country's leadership. He was the only one who had access to intelligence materials. The creation of the atomic bomb was led by Julius Khariton. In 1992, in an interview, he said the phrase "... our first atomic bomb is a copy of the American one." Taken out of context, it became the only argument for the Democratic hysteria, as if "the Russians stole the secret of the atomic bomb from the Americans." And the words of the academician that “the calculations of our scientists on one of the constructions gave results similar to those in America,” have sunk into oblivion.

  Burning August in the East

  * On August 6, 1945, in the United States, the Enolu Gay, a Boeing B-29 strategic bomber with the Malysh atomic bomb, was seen off with a prayer service on a combat mission. Pressing a button - and tens of thousands of Japanese people instantly turned into ash, flying up together with a cloud over Hiroshima. Tens of thousands more died from the shock wave. Hundreds of thousands of wounded, burned, radiation-affected.

  * On August 9, the Yankees have already incinerated Nagasaki. As a result of the bombing of two cities, almost half a million people died. And only one American went mad from remorse - the commander of a weather reconnaissance plane Claude Ezerly who visited Hiroshima after the bombing.
  * Recently, new evidence was found of Japan's attempt to create its own atomic bomb: in archival documents from 1944, equipment for uranium enrichment is described. In parallel, the Japanese were developing two atomic projects.
  * The bloodless USSR declared war on Japan on time. Having managed to build roads, ferries and transfer over 400 thousand people and a colossal amount of equipment to the Far East. On the night of August 8-9, 1945, the troops, together with the Pacific Fleet, began hostilities against Japanese troops on a front with a length of more than 5000 km. The Japan Surrender Act was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the battleship Missouri. The Second World War ended with the victory of the Soviet Union and the Allies.

  "Two bombs fell and the war was over."
  Vannivar BUSH, US Atomic Program Member

  Do you remember how it all started?

  On August 29, 1939, Einstein, in his famous letter to Roosevelt, reported that Nazi Germany had been actively researching the fission of uranium for a year, which could result in an atomic bomb. In November, Roosevelt thanked Einstein for the information and announced the start of the American project, named September 17, 1943, the "Manhattan Project."

  This photo has revealed many spy secrets. Robert OPPENHEIMER, wife of physicist Elsa and Albert Einstein, Margarita KONENKOVA, adopted daughter of Einstein Margot

  In the USSR, work in the field of atomic energy started in 1932. In documents declassified six years ago, dated March 5, 1938, scientists asked Molotov to provide the Leningrad Physics and Technology Institute with two grams of radium and "to propose to the USSR People's Commissariat for Engineering, which we have now taken over, to create all the conditions for completing the construction of the cyclotron at the Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute by January 1, 1939". And the request was granted. Only talented scientists not involved in the Soviet atomic project in the 1940s sounded the alarm that the West was closely engaged in atomic research, and we, they say, were not doing anything. But in connection with the Second World War, going on at our borders, only peaceful atomic research was suspended. Only Stalin and Beria.

  He came himself

  The pacifist Einstein became nervous, realizing what a universal horror he provoked. If the United States creates a hellish bomb, it will certainly use it. The 29-year-old professor also understood this. Klaus Fuchs, who emigrated from Nazi Germany and at the end of 1940 began to work in England on the project of the British atomic bomb "Tube Elois" ("Pipe Alloy"). The communist guy was worried that the United States and Britain, united against Hitler, were jointly developing such a formidable weapon, but they were keeping it secret from the Soviet Union. The only one, he believed, the guarantor that the atom should serve a peaceful life on the planet.

  When the Nazis approached Moscow, Fuchs himself came to our embassy in Great Britain and said that a plant was being built in Wales to test theoretical methods for separating uranium isotopes, and he was ready to transfer information free of charge. But how?

  Scout feat

  A 27-year-old machine tool engineer came to meet Fuchs at the bar Vladimir Barkovsky, recently graduated from SHON - The Special Purpose School trained liaison officers for foreign intelligence officers. Things went swimmingly. Barkovsky was holding a glass of beer and a magazine with photos of famous athletes.
  - Joe Louis is the best boxer in the world! - as if in ecstasy he cried out and began to show everyone his photo.
  “No, Jackie Brown is the best ever,” Klaus replied with his password. Arguing loudly, the young people went out into the street. Barkovsky - the operational pseudonym Dan - was his first meeting with an agent in his life. We agreed to call the atomic bomb "trick". Fuchs gave out information with an avalanche, until he realized that the contactee did not understand anything from his scientific speech.
  - What are you going to transmit ?! Fuchs asked. - I will only work with an equal. And you read at least an American textbook on atomic physics.

  The scout slept for two or three hours a day for two months, mastered the topic, studied the latest publications, but could not freely operate with terms in conversation - there were no transcriptions in the textbooks. And Klaus sent him away again. And Moscow was in a hurry. Dan compiled a “spoken” profile encyclopedia and began talking 16 hours a day with a translator for a week of training. There was little to do - to convince Fuchs to meet with him again. Both took mortal risks. Beria suspected that misinformation was being driven from London to the USSR through Dan, so that during the "war of motors", which we no longer had enough, to distract the country to create a counterbalance to the new weapon, but if it exists, it is impossible to hesitate. And Fuchs went through a tough test at the Manhattan Project Robert Oppenheimer... And in 1943 he suddenly disappeared for a long time.

  CIA against the USSR

  * By the summer of 1948, the Chariotir plan appeared in the United States. In 30 days, the Yankees wanted to drop 133 atomic bombs on 70 Soviet cities. Of these, eight - to Moscow and seven to Leningrad. And then in two years another 200 atomic and 250 thousand conventional bombs.
  * On December 19, 1949, the Chiefs of Staff Committee approved the Dropshot plan followed by the Troyan plan for a preventive war against the USSR and our allies. On January 1, 1950, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in service and 1350 in reserve, over 320 atomic bombs. Of these, 300 were planned to be dropped on 100 Soviet cities. They calculated that 6-7 million Soviet citizens would be killed in 6,000 sorties.

  Why weren't we bombed

  * On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site.
  * On September 25, 1949, TASS reported: “The Soviet Union took possession of the secret of atomic weapons back in 1947. ... The Soviet government, despite the fact that it possesses atomic weapons, stands and intends to remain in the future on its old position of unconditionally prohibiting the use of atomic weapons. " For the United States, it was like a bolt from the blue. Their intelligence missed everything.
  The committee of chiefs of staff finished off the authorities. The check in the headquarters game gave an unexpected result: taking into account the defenses of the USSR, the maximum probability of achieving goals is only 70 percent, and the smallest loss of bombers is 53 percent. The group that bombed Nuremberg in March 1944 mutinied, losing only 11.82 percent of its aircraft. She was supported by the entire flight crew at the bases of England. What happens if more than half of the pilots die?

  Bear in mind
  Recently it became known that the elegant and incredibly attractive scout Margarita Konenkova, the wife of a Soviet sculptor, who became the last love of the genius physicist, "attached" Fuchs to the American project through her lover Einstein.
  Klaus and Vladimir met in March 1944 overseas. This time Dan passed the Fuchs exam, presented and submitted to the Center almost 10 thousand pages of their conversations and made duplicate keys for the scientist to open safes with his own hand, since Moscow demanded copies of a number of original documents.

  Whose is it, RDS-1?

  Only 12 people in the country knew about the secret decree "On the organization of work on uranium" that came out in September 1942. It ordered to explore different options for creating an atomic bomb. Scientists have debated whether plutonium is a fissile element. The information received from Fuchs helped to weed out dead-end options and concentrate on original projects.

  The uranium plant in the mountains of Tajikistan was already operating in 1945. In August 1946, in the Ural Kyshtym, they began to dig a pit for a nuclear reactor. And on June 8, 1948, a nuclear reactor was launched for the first time to obtain weapons-grade plutonium - the "stuffing" for a bomb. He produced 100 g per day. And then the country's leadership decided to create a charge according to the American scheme. Say, there is no time for the risk of testing an absolutely new design, the country's security is at stake.
  - We cannot say that our first atomic charge was a copy of the American one. And in general, what does it mean to "steal a bomb"? - says the famous designer of nuclear weapons Arkady Brish... - Thanks to intelligence, we only knew its scheme, and not design drawings and calculations. The monument at the Alamogordo test site is the very scheme. So what? Non-nuclear states grabbed the tape measure, measured the sculpture and rushed to make bombs? Technologies for creating a charge according to this scheme are completely domestic. They also dictated a number of design differences. For the Americans, the charge was fired in the barrel, and due to its compression, a chain reaction began. Our scientists used ball compression instead of the barrel. This is a more complex design, but it gave the best efficiency.

  The monument to the first American bomb in Alamogordo was erected in full size according to the scheme already known to our intelligence

  And already on the second test in 1951 of the "home-grown" RDS-2 bomb, Soviet scientists proved that they had wiped their noses on the Americans. The charge was twice as powerful and at the same time twice as light as the one created according to the American scheme.

  Estimate!
  In 1945, the book Atomic Energy for Military Purposes was published in the United States. The Americans were convinced that it would not be able to help us create an atomic bomb even in 15 years, since the entire cycle of its creation - from theory to industrial implementation - is too complicated.

  At the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan), the first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb was successfully tested.

  This event was preceded by a long and difficult work of physicists. The 1920s can be considered the beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main directions of domestic physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists came forward with a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Invention Department of the Red Army on the use of uranium as explosive and poisonous substance ".

  The war that began in June 1941 and the evacuation of scientific institutes dealing with the problems of nuclear physics interrupted work on the creation of atomic weapons in the country. But already in the fall of 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about the conduct of secret intensive research work in Great Britain and the United States, aimed at developing methods of using atomic energy for military purposes and creating explosives of enormous destructive power.

  This information forced, despite the war, to resume work on uranium in the USSR. On September 28, 1942, a secret resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 2352ss "On the organization of work on uranium" was signed, according to which research on the use of atomic energy was resumed.

  In February 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific supervisor of work on the atomic problem. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute") was created, which began to study atomic energy.

  Initially, the general leadership of the atomic problem was carried out by the deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov. But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the US atomic bombing of Japanese cities), the State Defense Committee decided to create a Special Committee, headed by Lavrenty Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.

  At the same time, the First Main Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (later the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR, now the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom) was created to directly manage research, design, design organizations and industrial enterprises involved in the Soviet atomic project. Boris Vannikov, the former People's Commissar of Ammunition, became the head of the PGU.

  In April 1946, at Laboratory No. 2, the KB-11 design bureau (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) was created - one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, the chief designer of which was Yuli Khariton. Plant 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced artillery shells, was chosen as the base for the deployment of KB-11.

  The top-secret object was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now the Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov monastery.

  KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, the working substance must be plutonium, in the second - uranium-235. In mid-1948, work on the uranium option was discontinued due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.

  The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: "Russia makes itself", "Motherland gives to Stalin", etc. But in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was coded as "Special jet engine (" C ").

  The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the scheme of the US plutonium bomb tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist who participated in the nuclear programs of the United States and Great Britain.

  Intelligence materials on the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb made it possible to shorten the time for creating the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions for both the charge as a whole and its individual units. Therefore, the first charge for an atomic bomb tested by the USSR was more primitive and less effective than the original version of the charge proposed by Soviet scientists at the beginning of 1949. But in order to guarantee and quickly show that the USSR also possesses atomic weapons, it was decided to use a charge created according to the American scheme at the first test.

  The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer structure, in which the transfer of the active substance, plutonium, to the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive.

  RDS-1 was an aviation atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, 1.5 meters in diameter and 3.3 meters long. It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which allowed the placement of a "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as the fissile material in the bomb.

  For the production of an atomic charge of a bomb in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the South Urals, a plant was built under the conditional number 817 (now FSUE "Production Association" Mayak "). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for the production of plutonium, a radiochemical plant for the separation of plutonium from irradiated a uranium reactor, and a plant for the production of plutonium metal products.

  The plant's reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the plant received the necessary amount of plutonium for the manufacture of the first charge for the atomic bomb.

  The site for the test site, where it was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers was set aside for the landfill, surrounded by low mountains from the south, west and north. There were small hills to the east of this area.

  The construction of the training ground, which received the name training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR (later the Ministry of Defense of the USSR), began in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed.

  For testing at the test site, an experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers was prepared, divided into sectors. It was equipped with special facilities for testing, observation and registration of physical research. In the center of the experimental field, a 37.5 meter high metal lattice tower was mounted, designed to install the RDS-1 charge. At a distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building was erected for equipment recording the light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion on the experimental field, sections of metro tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, and ship superstructures of various types were placed. To support the work of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the landfill and a cable network was laid with a length of 560 kilometers.

  In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household equipment were sent to the test site, and on July 24, a group of specialists arrived there, which was to take a direct part in preparing the atomic bomb for testing.

  On August 5, 1949, the government commission for testing the RDS-1 gave a conclusion on the complete readiness of the test site.

  On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered by a special train to the test site, one of which was to be used to detonate a military product.

  On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the test site. By August 26, all preparatory work at the test site was completed. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, ordered the testing of the RDS-1 on August 29 at eight o'clock in the morning local time and to carry out preparatory operations starting at eight o'clock in the morning on August 27.

  On the morning of August 27, near the central tower, the assembly of a combat product began. In the afternoon of August 28, the demolition team carried out the last full inspection of the tower, prepared the automatic equipment for detonation and checked the demolition cable line.

  At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses for it were delivered to the workshop near the tower. The final assembly of the charge was completed by three o'clock in the morning on August 29. At four o'clock in the morning, assemblers rolled the product out of the assembly shop along the track and installed it in the tower's cargo lift cage, and then lifted the charge to the top of the tower. By six o'clock, the charge was completed with fuses and connected to the subversive scheme. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.

  Due to the deteriorating weather, Kurchatov decided to postpone the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.

  At 6.35 am, the operators turned on the power to the automation system. The field machine was turned on 12 minutes before the explosion. 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product with the control automation system. From that moment on, all operations were performed by an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the machine turned on the power supply of the product and part of the field devices, and in one second it turned on all the other devices and issued a detonation signal.

  Exactly at seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a dazzling light, which marked that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first atomic bomb charge.

  The charge capacity was 22 kilotons in TNT equivalent.

  Twenty minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and survey the center of the field. Reconnaissance established that all structures in the center of the field were demolished. A funnel gaped in the place of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted, and a solid crust of slag formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.

  The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurements of the heat flux, shock wave parameters, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive contamination of the area in the explosion area and along the trail of the explosion cloud, and study the effect of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on biological objects.

  For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb, several closed decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 29, 1949 awarded orders and medals of the USSR to a large group of leading researchers, designers, and technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

  As a result of the successful test of the RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.

  - the original name of an aviation nuclear bomb, the action of which is based on an explosive chain nuclear fission reaction. With the advent of the so-called hydrogen bomb, based on a thermonuclear fusion reaction, a common term for them was established - a nuclear bomb.

  The development of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 ("product 501", atomic charge "1-200") began at KB-11 of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building (now the All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics, Russian Federal Nuclear Center (RFNC-VNIIEF), city ​​of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region) July 1, 1946 under the leadership of academician Yuliy Khariton. The USSR Academy of Sciences, many research institutes, design bureaus, and defense plants took part in the development.

  To implement the Soviet atomic project, it was decided to go by approaching American prototypes, the performance of which had already been proven in practice. In addition, it was possible to obtain scientific and technical information about American atomic bombs through reconnaissance.

  At the same time, it was clear from the very beginning that many technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions for both the charge as a whole and its individual units. But the demand of the country's leadership was to guarantee and with the least risk of getting a working bomb by its first test.

  Presumably, the design of the RDS-1 was largely based on the American "Fat Man". Although some systems, such as the ballistic body and electronic filling, were of Soviet design. Intelligence materials on the US plutonium bomb made it possible to avoid a number of mistakes in the creation of a bomb by Soviet scientists and designers, significantly reduce the time for its development, and reduce costs.

  The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: "Russia makes itself", "Motherland gives to Stalin", etc. But to ensure secrecy in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was referred to as "Special jet engine" ("C" ).

  Initially, the atomic bomb was developed in two versions: using "heavy fuel" (plutonium, RDS-1) and using "light fuel" (uranium-235, RDS-2). In 1948, work on the RDS-2 was curtailed due to its relatively low efficiency.

  Structurally, the RDS-1 consisted of the following principal components: a nuclear charge; explosive device and automatic charge detonation systems with safety systems; ballistic body of the bomb, which housed a nuclear charge and automatic detonation.

  A nuclear charge (made of high-purity plutonium) with a capacity of 20 kilotons and automation system blocks were located inside the hull. The charge of the RDS-1 bomb was a multilayer structure, in which the transfer of the active substance (plutonium to the supercritical state) was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive. Plutonium was located in the center of a nuclear charge and structurally consisted of two spherical semi-parts. A neutron initiator (detonator) was installed in the cavity of the plutonium core. On top of the plutonium were two layers of explosive (an alloy of TNT with hexagen). The inner layer was formed from two hemispherical bases, the outer one was assembled from separate elements. The outer layer (focusing system) was designed to create a spherical detonation wave. The bomb's automation system ensured the implementation of a nuclear explosion at the desired point of the bomb's trajectory. To increase the reliability of the operation of the product, the main elements of the automatic detonation were made according to a redundant scheme. In case of failure of the high-altitude fuse, an impact type fuse is installed to carry out a nuclear explosion when a bomb hits the ground.

  During the tests, the operability of the systems and mechanisms of the bomb was first checked when dropped from an aircraft without a plutonium charge. The bomb ballistics testing was completed by 1949.

  For testing a nuclear charge in 1949, a test site was built near the city of Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR, in the waterless steppe. On the experimental field there were numerous structures with measuring equipment, military, civil and industrial facilities to study the impact of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. In the center of the experimental field there was a 37.5-meter-high metal tower for the RDS-1 installation.

  On August 29, 1949, at the Semipalatinsk test site, an atomic charge with automatic equipment was placed on a tower, without a bomb body. The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons of TNT.

  The technology for creating domestic nuclear weapons was created, and the country had to develop its serial production.

  Even before the test of the atomic charge in March 1949, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution on the construction of the USSR's first plant for the industrial production of atomic bombs in the closed area of ​​facility No. 550, as part of KB-11, with a production capacity of 20 RDS units per year.

  The development of a serial technological process for the assembly of an atomic charge required no less effort than the creation of the first prototype. This required the development and commissioning of technological equipment, additional operations, the latest technologies at that time.

  On December 1, 1951, in the closed city of Arzamas-16 (since 1995, Sarov), serial production of the first model of the Soviet atomic bomb, called the RDS-1 product, began, and by the end of the year the first three serial atomic bombs of the RDS-1 type were released. from the factory.

  The first serial enterprise for the production of atomic weapons had a number of conventional names. Until 1957, the plant was part of KB-11, and after, when it became independent, until December 1966, it was called "Union Plant No. 551". It was a closed name used exclusively in secret correspondence. For internal use, in parallel with this closed name, another one was used - plant No.

  3. Beginning in December 1966, the enterprise received an open name - Electromechanical plant "Avangard". Since July 2003 it has been a structural subdivision of RFNC-VNIIEF.

  The first atomic bomb RDS-1, tested in 1949, automatically deprived the Americans of their monopoly on nuclear weapons. But only when in 1951 the production of the first serial atomic bombs was adjusted, it was possible to say with confidence about the guaranteed provision of the peaceful life of the people and the creation of a reliable "nuclear shield" of the country.

  At present, the model of the RDS-1 charge, the remote control from which this charge was detonated, and the body of the aerial bomb made for it, are on display in the Museum of Nuclear Weapons in the city of Sarov.

  On alert duty, the first atomic bomb RDS-1 was replaced by many times improved "descendants".

  The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

  At the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan), the first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb was successfully tested.

  This event was preceded by a long and difficult work of physicists. The 1920s can be considered the beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main directions of domestic physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists came forward with a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Invention Department of the Red Army on the use of uranium as explosive and poisonous substance ".

  The war that began in June 1941 and the evacuation of scientific institutes dealing with the problems of nuclear physics interrupted work on the creation of atomic weapons in the country. But already in the fall of 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about the conduct of secret intensive research work in Great Britain and the United States, aimed at developing methods of using atomic energy for military purposes and creating explosives of enormous destructive power.

  This information forced, despite the war, to resume work on uranium in the USSR. On September 28, 1942, a secret resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 2352ss "On the organization of work on uranium" was signed, according to which research on the use of atomic energy was resumed.

  In February 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific supervisor of work on the atomic problem. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute") was created, which began to study atomic energy.

  Initially, the general leadership of the atomic problem was carried out by the deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov. But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the US atomic bombing of Japanese cities), the State Defense Committee decided to create a Special Committee, headed by Lavrenty Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.

  At the same time, the First Main Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (later the Ministry of Medium Machine Building of the USSR, now the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom) was created to directly manage research, design, design organizations and industrial enterprises involved in the Soviet atomic project. Boris Vannikov, the former People's Commissar of Ammunition, became the head of the PGU.

  In April 1946, at Laboratory No. 2, the KB-11 design bureau (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) was created - one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, the chief designer of which was Yuli Khariton. Plant 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced artillery shells, was chosen as the base for the deployment of KB-11.

  The top-secret object was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now the Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov monastery.

  KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, the working substance must be plutonium, in the second - uranium-235. In mid-1948, work on the uranium option was discontinued due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.

  The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: "Russia makes itself", "Motherland gives to Stalin", etc. But in the official decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of June 21, 1946, it was coded as "Special jet engine (" C ").

  The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the scheme of the US plutonium bomb tested in 1945. These materials were provided by Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist who participated in the nuclear programs of the United States and Great Britain.

  Intelligence materials on the American plutonium charge for the atomic bomb made it possible to shorten the time for creating the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions for both the charge as a whole and its individual units. Therefore, the first charge for an atomic bomb tested by the USSR was more primitive and less effective than the original version of the charge proposed by Soviet scientists at the beginning of 1949. But in order to guarantee and quickly show that the USSR also possesses atomic weapons, it was decided to use a charge created according to the American scheme at the first test.

  The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer structure, in which the transfer of the active substance, plutonium, to the supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive.

  RDS-1 was an aviation atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, 1.5 meters in diameter and 3.3 meters long. It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which allowed the placement of a "product" with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as the fissile material in the bomb.

  For the production of an atomic charge of a bomb in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 in the South Urals, a plant was built under the conditional number 817 (now FSUE "Production Association" Mayak "). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for the production of plutonium, a radiochemical plant for the separation of plutonium from irradiated a uranium reactor, and a plant for the production of plutonium metal products.

  The plant's reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the plant received the necessary amount of plutonium for the manufacture of the first charge for the atomic bomb.

  The site for the test site, where it was planned to test the charge, was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, about 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of about 20 kilometers was set aside for the landfill, surrounded by low mountains from the south, west and north. There were small hills to the east of this area.

  The construction of the training ground, which received the name training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR (later the Ministry of Defense of the USSR), began in 1947, and by July 1949 it was basically completed.

  For testing at the test site, an experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers was prepared, divided into sectors. It was equipped with special facilities for testing, observation and registration of physical research. In the center of the experimental field, a 37.5 meter high metal lattice tower was mounted, designed to install the RDS-1 charge. At a distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building was erected for equipment recording the light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion on the experimental field, sections of metro tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, and ship superstructures of various types were placed. To support the work of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the landfill and a cable network was laid with a length of 560 kilometers.

  In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household equipment were sent to the test site, and on July 24, a group of specialists arrived there, which was to take a direct part in preparing the atomic bomb for testing.

  On August 5, 1949, the government commission for testing the RDS-1 gave a conclusion on the complete readiness of the test site.

  On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered by a special train to the test site, one of which was to be used to detonate a military product.

  On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the test site. By August 26, all preparatory work at the test site was completed. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, ordered the testing of the RDS-1 on August 29 at eight o'clock in the morning local time and to carry out preparatory operations starting at eight o'clock in the morning on August 27.

  On the morning of August 27, near the central tower, the assembly of a combat product began. In the afternoon of August 28, the demolition team carried out the last full inspection of the tower, prepared the automatic equipment for detonation and checked the demolition cable line.

  At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses for it were delivered to the workshop near the tower. The final assembly of the charge was completed by three o'clock in the morning on August 29. At four o'clock in the morning, assemblers rolled the product out of the assembly shop along the track and installed it in the tower's cargo lift cage, and then lifted the charge to the top of the tower. By six o'clock, the charge was completed with fuses and connected to the subversive scheme. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.

  Due to the deteriorating weather, Kurchatov decided to postpone the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.

  At 6.35 am, the operators turned on the power to the automation system. The field machine was turned on 12 minutes before the explosion. 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product with the control automation system. From that moment on, all operations were performed by an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the machine turned on the power supply of the product and part of the field devices, and in one second it turned on all the other devices and issued a detonation signal.

  Exactly at seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the whole area was lit up with a dazzling light, which marked that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first atomic bomb charge.

  The charge capacity was 22 kilotons in TNT equivalent.

  Twenty minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead shielding were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and survey the center of the field. Reconnaissance established that all structures in the center of the field were demolished. A funnel gaped in the place of the tower, the soil in the center of the field melted, and a solid crust of slag formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.

  The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurements of the heat flux, shock wave parameters, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, determine the level of radioactive contamination of the area in the explosion area and along the trail of the explosion cloud, and study the effect of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion on biological objects.

  For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb, several closed decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 29, 1949 awarded orders and medals of the USSR to a large group of leading researchers, designers, and technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates of the Stalin Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

  As a result of the successful test of the RDS-1, the USSR eliminated the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.