Year of creation of nuclear weapons. Who invented the nuclear bomb

The question of the creators of the first Soviet nuclear bomb is quite controversial and requires a more detailed study, but who really father of the Soviet atomic bomb, there are several entrenched opinions. Most physicists and historians believe that the main contribution to the creation of Soviet nuclear weapons was made by Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov. However, some express the opinion that without Yuli Borisovich Khariton, the founder of Arzamas-16 and the creator of the industrial basis for obtaining enriched fissile isotopes, the first test of this type of weapon in the Soviet Union would have dragged on for several more years.

Let us consider the historical sequence of research and development work to create a practical sample of an atomic bomb, leaving aside the theoretical studies of fissile materials and the conditions for the occurrence of a chain reaction, without which a nuclear explosion is impossible.

For the first time, a series of applications for obtaining copyright certificates for the invention (patents) of the atomic bomb was filed in 1940 by employees of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology F. Lange, V. Spinel and V. Maslov. The authors considered issues and proposed solutions for the enrichment of uranium and its use as an explosive. The proposed bomb had a classic detonation scheme (gun type), which was later, with some modifications, used to initiate a nuclear explosion in American uranium-based nuclear bombs.

Great Patriotic War slowed down theoretical and experimental studies in the field of nuclear physics, and major centers(Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology and Radium Institute - Leningrad) ceased their activities and were partially evacuated.

Beginning in September 1941, the intelligence agencies of the NKVD and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army began to receive an increasing amount of information about the special interest shown in the military circles of Great Britain in the development of explosives based on fissile isotopes. In May 1942, the Main Intelligence Directorate, having summarized the materials received, reported to the State Defense Committee (GKO) on the military purpose of the ongoing nuclear research.

Around the same time, Lieutenant Technician Georgy Nikolayevich Flerov, who in 1940 was one of the discoverers of spontaneous fission of uranium nuclei, wrote a letter personally to I.V. Stalin. In his message, the future academician, one of the creators of Soviet nuclear weapons, draws attention to the fact that publications on works related to fission have disappeared from the scientific press of Germany, Great Britain and the United States. atomic nucleus. According to the scientist, this may indicate the reorientation of "pure" science in the practical military field.

In October-November 1942, the foreign intelligence service of the NKVD reported to L.P. Beria, all available information about work in the field of nuclear research, obtained by illegal intelligence officers in England and the USA, on the basis of which the People's Commissar writes a memorandum to the head of state.

At the end of September 1942, I.V. Stalin signs the resolution of the State Defense Committee on the resumption and intensification of "works on uranium", and in February 1943, after studying the materials submitted by L.P. Beria, a decision is made to transfer all research on the creation of nuclear weapons (atomic bombs) into a "practical channel". General management and coordination of all types of work were entrusted to the Deputy Chairman of the GKO V.M. Molotov, the scientific management of the project was entrusted to I.V. Kurchatov. The management of work on the search for deposits and the extraction of uranium ore was entrusted to A.P. Zavenyagin, M.G. was responsible for the creation of enterprises for the enrichment of uranium and the production of heavy water. Pervukhin, and the People's Commissar of Nonferrous Metallurgy P.F. Lomako "trusted" by 1944 to accumulate 0.5 tons of metallic (enriched to the required standards) uranium.

At this, the first stage (the deadlines for which were disrupted), providing for the creation of an atomic bomb in the USSR, was completed.

After the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities, the leadership of the USSR saw with their own eyes the backlog scientific research And practical work to create nuclear weapons from their competitors. To intensify and create an atomic bomb to the maximum short time On August 20, 1945, a special decree of the GKO was issued on the creation of Special Committee No. 1, whose functions included organizing and coordinating all types of work to create a nuclear bomb. L.P. is appointed the head of this emergency body with unlimited powers. Beria, the scientific leadership is entrusted to I.V. Kurchatov. The direct management of all research, design and production enterprises was to be carried out by the People's Commissar for Armaments B.L. Vannikov.

Due to the fact that scientific, theoretical and experimental studies were completed, intelligence data on the organization of industrial production of uranium and plutonium were obtained, the scouts obtained schemes for American atomic bombs, the greatest difficulty was the transfer of all types of work to an industrial basis. To create enterprises for the production of plutonium, the city of Chelyabinsk - 40 was built from scratch (scientific supervisor I.V. Kurchatov). In the village of Sarov (future Arzamas - 16), a plant was built for the assembly and production on an industrial scale of the atomic bombs themselves (supervisor - chief designer Yu.B. Khariton).

Thanks to the optimization of all types of work and strict control over them by L.P. Beria, who, however, did not prevent creative development ideas incorporated into the projects, in July 1946, technical specifications for the creation of the first two Soviet atomic bombs were developed:

"RDS - 1" - a bomb with a plutonium charge, the explosion of which was carried out according to the implosive type;
"RDS - 2" - a bomb with a cannon detonation of a uranium charge.

I.V. Kurchatov.

Paternity rights

Tests of the first atomic bomb created in the USSR "RDS - 1" (the abbreviation in different sources stands for - "jet engine C" or "Russia makes itself") took place in the last days of August 1949 in Semipalatinsk under the direct supervision of Yu.B. Khariton. The power of the nuclear charge was 22 kilotons. However, from the point of view of modern copyright law, it is impossible to attribute paternity to this product to any of the Russian (Soviet) citizens. Earlier, when developing the first practical model suitable for military use, the Government of the USSR and the leadership of Special Project No. 1 decided to copy as much as possible the domestic implosion bomb with a plutonium charge from the American Fat Man prototype dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Thus, the “fatherhood” of the first nuclear bomb of the USSR rather belongs to General Leslie Groves, the military leader of the Manhattan project, and Robert Oppenheimer, known throughout the world as the “father of the atomic bomb” and who provided scientific leadership on the project. "Manhattan". The main difference between the Soviet model and the American one is the use of domestic electronics in the detonation system and a change in the aerodynamic shape of the bomb body.

The first "purely" Soviet atomic bomb can be considered the product "RDS - 2". Despite the fact that it was originally planned to copy the American uranium prototype "Kid", the Soviet uranium atomic bomb "RDS - 2" was created in an implosive version, which had no analogues at that time. L.P. participated in its creation. Beria - general project management, I.V. Kurchatov is the scientific supervisor of all types of work and Yu.B. Khariton is the scientific adviser and chief designer responsible for the manufacture of a practical sample of the bomb and its testing.

Speaking about who is the father of the first Soviet atomic bomb, one should not lose sight of the fact that both RDS - 1 and RDS - 2 were blown up at the test site. The first atomic bomb dropped from the Tu - 4 bomber was the RDS - 3 product. Its design repeated the RDS-2 implosion bomb, but had a combined uranium-plutonium charge, thanks to which it was possible to increase its power, with the same dimensions, up to 40 kilotons. Therefore, in many publications, academician Igor Kurchatov is considered the “scientific” father of the first atomic bomb actually dropped from an aircraft, since his colleague in the scientific workshop, Yuli Khariton, was categorically against making any changes. The fact that in the entire history of the USSR L.P. Beria and I.V. Kurchatov were the only ones who in 1949 were awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the USSR - "... for the implementation of the Soviet atomic project, the creation of an atomic bomb."

Hundreds of thousands of famous and forgotten gunsmiths of antiquity fought in search of the ideal weapon capable of vaporizing the enemy army with one click. Periodically, a trace of these searches can be found in fairy tales, more or less plausibly describing a miracle sword or bow that hits without a miss.

Fortunately, technological progress moved so slowly for a long time that the real embodiment of crushing weapons remained in dreams and oral stories, and later on the pages of books. The scientific and technological leap of the 19th century provided the conditions for the creation of the main phobia of the 20th century. The nuclear bomb, created and tested in real conditions, revolutionized both military affairs and politics.

The history of the creation of weapons

For a long time, it was believed that the most powerful weapons could only be created using explosives. The discoveries of scientists working with the smallest particles gave a scientific justification for the fact that with the help of elementary particles can generate tremendous energy. The first in a series of researchers can be called Becquerel, who in 1896 discovered the radioactivity of uranium salts.

Uranium itself has been known since 1786, but at that time no one suspected its radioactivity. The work of scientists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries revealed not only special physical properties, but also the possibility of obtaining energy from radioactive substances.

The option of making weapons based on uranium was first described in detail, published and patented by French physicists, the Joliot-Curie spouses in 1939.

Despite the value for weapons, the scientists themselves were strongly opposed to the creation of such a devastating weapon.

Having gone through the Second World War in the Resistance, in the 1950s, the spouses (Frederick and Irene), realizing the destructive power of war, are in favor of general disarmament. They are supported by Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein and other prominent physicists of the time.

Meanwhile, while the Joliot-Curies were busy with the problem of the Nazis in Paris, on the other side of the planet, in America, the world's first nuclear charge was being developed. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the work, was given the broadest powers and huge resources. The end of 1941 was marked by the beginning of the Manhattan project, which eventually led to the creation of the first combat nuclear charge.

In the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the first production facilities for the production of weapons-grade uranium were erected. In the future, the same nuclear centers appear throughout the country, for example, in Chicago, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, research was also carried out in California. The best forces of the professors of American universities, as well as physicists who fled from Germany, were thrown into the creation of the bomb.

In the "Third Reich" itself, work on the creation of a new type of weapon was launched in a manner characteristic of the Fuhrer.

Since the Possessed was more interested in tanks and planes, and the more the better, he did not see much need for a new miracle bomb.

Accordingly, projects not supported by Hitler, at best, moved at a snail's pace.

When it began to bake, and it turned out that tanks and planes were swallowed Eastern front, the new wonder weapon received support. But it was too late, in the conditions of bombing and the constant fear of Soviet tank wedges, it was not possible to create a device with a nuclear component.

Soviet Union was more attentive to the possibility of creating a new type of destructive weapon. In the pre-war period, physicists collected and summarized general knowledge about nuclear energy and the possibility of creating nuclear weapons. Intelligence worked hard during the entire period of the creation of the nuclear bomb both in the USSR and in the USA. The war played a significant role in curbing the pace of development, as huge resources went to the front.

True, Academician Kurchatov Igor Vasilyevich, with his characteristic persistence, promoted the work of all subordinate units in this direction as well. Looking ahead a little, it will be he who will be instructed to accelerate the development of weapons in the face of the threat of an American strike on the cities of the USSR. It was to him, who stood in the gravel of a huge machine of hundreds and thousands of scientists and workers, that honorary title father of the Soviet nuclear bomb.

World's first test

But back to the American nuclear program. By the summer of 1945, American scientists managed to create the world's first nuclear bomb. Any boy who has made himself or bought a powerful firecracker in a store experiences extraordinary torment, wanting to blow it up as soon as possible. In 1945, hundreds of US military and scientists experienced the same thing.

On June 16, 1945, in the Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico, the first nuclear weapons tests in history and one of the most powerful explosions at that time were carried out.

Eyewitnesses watching the detonation from the bunker were struck by the force with which the charge exploded at the top of a 30-meter steel tower. At first everything was flooded with light, several times stronger than the sun. Then a fireball rose into the sky, turning into a column of smoke, which took shape in the famous mushroom.

As soon as the dust settled, researchers and bomb makers rushed to the site of the explosion. They watched the consequences from lead-lined Sherman tanks. What they saw startled them, no weapon would do such damage. The sand melted to glass in places.

Tiny remains of the tower were also found, in a funnel of huge diameter, mutilated and fragmented structures clearly illustrated the destructive power.

Affecting factors

This explosion gave the first information about the power of the new weapon, about how it can destroy the enemy. These are several factors:

light radiation, a flash that can blind even protected organs of vision;
shock wave, a dense stream of air moving from the center, destroying most buildings;
an electromagnetic pulse that disables most of the equipment and does not allow the use of communications for the first time after the explosion;
penetrating radiation, the most dangerous factor for those who have taken refuge from other damaging factors, is divided into alpha-beta-gamma radiation;
radioactive contamination that can adversely affect health and life for tens or even hundreds of years.

The further use of nuclear weapons, including in combat, showed all the features of the impact on living organisms and on nature. August 6, 1945 was the last day for tens of thousands of residents of the small city of Hiroshima, then famous for several important military installations.

The outcome of the war pacific ocean was a foregone conclusion, but the Pentagon considered that the operation in the Japanese archipelago would cost more than a million lives of US Marines. It was decided to kill several birds with one stone, withdraw Japan from the war, saving on the landing operation, test new weapons in action and declare it to the whole world, and, above all, to the USSR.

At one o'clock in the morning, the plane, on board of which the nuclear bomb "Kid" was located, took off on a mission.

A bomb dropped over the city exploded at an altitude of about 600 meters at 8.15 am. All buildings located at a distance of 800 meters from the epicenter were destroyed. The walls of only a few buildings survived, designed for a 9-point earthquake.

Of every ten people who were at the time of the explosion within a radius of 600 meters, only one could survive. light emission turned people into coal, leaving traces of a shadow on the stone, a dark imprint of the place where the person was. The ensuing blast wave was so strong that it was able to knock out glass at a distance of 19 kilometers from the explosion site.

A dense stream of air knocked one teenager out of the house through the window, landing, the guy saw how the walls of the house were folding like cards. The blast wave was followed by a fiery whirlwind, which destroyed those few residents who survived the explosion and did not have time to leave the fire zone. Those who were at a distance from the explosion began to experience severe indisposition, the cause of which was initially unclear to the doctors.

Much later, a few weeks later, the term "radiation poisoning" was coined, now known as radiation sickness.

More than 280 thousand people became victims of just one bomb, both directly from the explosion and from subsequent diseases.

The bombing of Japan with nuclear weapons did not end there. According to the plan, only four to six cities were supposed to be hit, but weather conditions made it possible to hit only Nagasaki. In this city, more than 150 thousand people became victims of the Fat Man bomb.

Promises by the American government to carry out such strikes before Japan surrendered led to a truce, and then to the signing of an agreement that ended the World War. But for nuclear weapons, this was only the beginning.

The most powerful bomb in the world

post-war period was marked by the confrontation of the bloc of the USSR and allies with the USA and NATO. In the 1940s, the Americans seriously considered attacking the Soviet Union. To contain the former ally, it was necessary to speed up the work on creating a bomb, and already in 1949, on August 29, the US monopoly in nuclear weapons was over. During the arms race most attention deserve two tests of nuclear charges.

Bikini Atoll, known primarily for frivolous swimsuits, in 1954 literally thundered all over the world in connection with tests of a nuclear charge of special power.

The Americans, having decided to test a new design of atomic weapons, did not calculate the charge. As a result, the explosion turned out to be 2.5 times more powerful than planned. Residents of nearby islands, as well as the ubiquitous Japanese fishermen, were under attack.

But it was not the most powerful American bomb. In 1960, the B41 nuclear bomb was put into service, which did not pass full-fledged tests because of its power. The strength of the charge was calculated theoretically, fearing to blow up such a dangerous weapon at the training ground.

The Soviet Union, which loved to be the first in everything, experienced in 1961, nicknamed differently "Kuzkin's mother."

In response to America's nuclear blackmail, Soviet scientists created the most powerful bomb in the world. Tested on Novaya Zemlya, it has left its mark in almost every corner the globe. According to memoirs, a light earthquake was felt in the most remote corners at the time of the explosion.

The blast wave, of course, having lost all its destructive power, was able to go around the Earth. To date, this is the most powerful nuclear bomb in the world, created and tested by mankind. Of course, if his hands were untied, Kim Jong-un's nuclear bomb would be more powerful, but he does not have New Earth to test it.

Atomic bomb device

Consider a very primitive, purely for understanding, device of the atomic bomb. There are many classes of atomic bombs, but consider the three main ones:

uranium, based on uranium 235 for the first time exploded over Hiroshima;
plutonium, based on plutonium 239, first detonated over Nagasaki;
thermonuclear, sometimes called hydrogen, based on heavy water with deuterium and tritium, fortunately, it was not used against the population.

The first two bombs are based on the fission effect heavy nuclei into smaller ones by an uncontrolled nuclear reaction with the release of a huge amount of energy. The third is based on the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (or rather, its isotopes of deuterium and tritium) with the formation of helium, which is heavier in relation to hydrogen. With the same weight of a bomb, the destructive potential of a hydrogen bomb is 20 times greater.

If for uranium and plutonium it is enough to bring together a mass greater than the critical one (at which a chain reaction begins), then for hydrogen this is not enough.

To reliably connect several pieces of uranium into one, the gun effect is used, in which smaller pieces of uranium are fired at larger ones. Gunpowder can also be used, but low-power explosives are used for reliability.

In a plutonium bomb, explosives are placed around plutonium ingots to create the necessary conditions for a chain reaction. Due to the cumulative effect, as well as the neutron initiator located in the very center (beryllium with a few milligrams of polonium) the necessary conditions are achieved.

It has a main charge, which cannot explode by itself, and a fuse. To create conditions for the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, pressures and temperatures unimaginable for us are needed at least at one point. What happens next is a chain reaction.

To create such parameters, the bomb includes a conventional, but low-power, nuclear charge, which is the fuse. Its undermining creates the conditions for starting thermonuclear reaction.

To assess the power of an atomic bomb, the so-called "TNT equivalent" is used. An explosion is the release of energy, the most famous explosive in the world is TNT (TNT - trinitrotoluene), and all new types of explosives are equated to it. Bomb "Kid" - 13 kilotons of TNT. That is equivalent to 13000 .

Bomb "Fat Man" - 21 kilotons, "Tsar Bomba" - 58 megatons of TNT. It's scary to think of 58 million tons of explosives concentrated in a mass of 26.5 tons, that's how much fun this bomb is.

The danger of nuclear war and catastrophes associated with the atom

Appearing in the midst of terrible war twentieth century, nuclear weapons have become the most great danger for humanity. Immediately after the Second World War, the Cold War began, several times almost escalating into a full-fledged nuclear conflict. The threat of the use of nuclear bombs and missiles by at least one side began to be discussed as early as the 1950s.

Everyone understood and understands that there can be no winners in this war.

For containment, the efforts of many scientists and politicians have been and are being made. The University of Chicago, using the opinion of invited nuclear scientists, including Nobel laureates, sets the doomsday clock a few minutes before midnight. Midnight denotes a nuclear cataclysm, the beginning of a new World War and the destruction of the old world. IN different years the hands of the clock fluctuated from 17 to 2 minutes to midnight.

There are also several major accidents that have occurred at nuclear power plants. These catastrophes have an indirect relation to weapons, nuclear power plants are still different from nuclear bombs, but they perfectly show the results of using the atom for military purposes. The largest of them:

1957, Kyshtym accident, due to a failure in the storage system, an explosion occurred near Kyshtym;
1957, Britain, in the northwest of England, security was not checked;
1979, USA, due to an untimely discovered leak, an explosion and a release from a nuclear power plant occurred;
1986, tragedy in Chernobyl, explosion of the 4th power unit;
2011, accident at the Fukushima station, Japan.

Each of these tragedies left a heavy seal on the fate of hundreds of thousands of people and turned entire regions into non-residential zones with special control.

There were incidents that almost cost the start of a nuclear disaster. Soviet nuclear submarines have repeatedly had reactor-related accidents on board. The Americans dropped the Superfortress bomber with two Mark 39 nuclear bombs on board, with a capacity of 3.8 megatons. But the “security system” that worked did not allow the charges to detonate and the catastrophe was avoided.

Nuclear weapons past and present

Today it is clear to anyone that nuclear war will destroy modern humanity. Meanwhile, the desire to possess nuclear weapons and enter the nuclear club, or rather tumble into it by kicking down the door, still haunts the minds of some state leaders.

India and Pakistan arbitrarily created nuclear weapons, the Israelis hide the presence of the bomb.

For some, the possession of a nuclear bomb is a way to prove their importance in the international arena. For others, it is a guarantee of non-interference by winged democracy or other factors from outside. But the main thing is that these stocks do not go into business, for which they were really created.

Video

The one who invented atomic bomb, did not even imagine what tragic consequences this miracle invention of the 20th century could lead to. Before this superweapon was experienced by the inhabitants of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a very long way had been done.

A start

In April 1903, Paul Langevin's friends gathered in the Parisian Garden of France. The reason was the defense of the dissertation of the young and talented scientist Marie Curie. Among the distinguished guests was the famous English physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford. In the midst of the fun, the lights were put out. announced to everyone that now there will be a surprise. With a solemn air, Pierre Curie brought in a small tube of radium salts, which shone with a green light, causing extraordinary delight among those present. In the future, the guests heatedly discussed the future of this phenomenon. Everyone agreed that thanks to radium, the acute problem of lack of energy would be solved. This inspired everyone to new research and further perspectives. If they were then told that laboratory works with radioactive elements will lay the foundation for a terrible weapon of the 20th century, it is not known what their reaction would be. It was then that the story of the atomic bomb began, which claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.

Game ahead of the curve

On December 17, 1938, the German scientist Otto Gann obtained irrefutable evidence of the decay of uranium into smaller elementary particles. In fact, he managed to split the atom. IN scientific world it was regarded as a new milestone in the history of mankind. Otto Gunn did not share the political views of the Third Reich. Therefore, in the same year, 1938, the scientist was forced to move to Stockholm, where, together with Friedrich Strassmann, he continued his scientific research. Fearing that fascist Germany will be the first to receive a terrible weapon, he writes a letter with a warning about this. The news of a possible lead greatly alarmed the US government. The Americans began to act quickly and decisively.

Who created the atomic bomb? American project

Even before the group, many of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe, was tasked with developing nuclear weapons. The initial research, it is worth noting, was carried out in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the government of the United States of America began funding its own program to develop atomic weapons. An incredible amount of two and a half billion dollars was allocated for the implementation of the project. Outstanding physicists of the 20th century were invited to carry out this secret project, including more than ten Nobel laureates. In total, about 130 thousand employees were involved, among whom were not only the military, but also civilians. The development team was led by Colonel Leslie Richard Groves, with Robert Oppenheimer as supervisor. He is the man who invented the atomic bomb. A special secret engineering building was built in the Manhattan area, which is known to us under the code name "Manhattan Project". Over the next few years, the scientists of the secret project worked on the problem of nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.

Non-peaceful atom by Igor Kurchatov

Today, every schoolchild will be able to answer the question of who invented the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And then, in the early 30s of the last century, no one knew this.

In 1932, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was one of the first in the world to start studying the atomic nucleus. Gathering like-minded people around him, Igor Vasilievich in 1937 created the first cyclotron in Europe. In the same year, he and his like-minded people create the first artificial nuclei.

In 1939, I. V. Kurchatov began to study a new direction - nuclear physics. After several laboratory successes in studying this phenomenon, the scientist gets at his disposal a secret research center, which was named "Laboratory No. 2". Today, this secret object is called "Arzamas-16".

The target direction of this center was a serious research and development of nuclear weapons. Now it becomes obvious who created the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. There were only ten people on his team then.

atomic bomb to be

By the end of 1945, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov managed to assemble a serious team of scientists numbering more than a hundred people. The best minds of various scientific specializations came to the laboratory from all over the country to create atomic weapons. After the Americans dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Soviet scientists realized that this could also be done with the Soviet Union. "Laboratory No. 2" receives a sharp increase in funding from the country's leadership and a large influx of qualified personnel. Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is appointed responsible for such an important project. The enormous labors of Soviet scientists have borne fruit.

Semipalatinsk test site

The atomic bomb in the USSR was first tested at the test site in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). On August 29, 1949, a 22 kiloton nuclear device shook the Kazakh land. Nobel laureate physicist Otto Hanz said: “This is good news. If Russia has atomic weapons, then there will be no war.” It was this atomic bomb in the USSR, encrypted as product number 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.

Atomic bomb. Year 1945

In the early morning of July 16, the Manhattan Project conducted its first successful test of an atomic device - a plutonium bomb - at the Alamogordo test site in New Mexico, USA.

The money invested in the project was well spent. The first in the history of mankind was produced at 5:30 in the morning.

"We have done the work of the devil," the one who invented the atomic bomb in the United States, later called the "father of the atomic bomb," will say later.

Japan does not capitulate

By the time of the final and successful testing of the atomic bomb Soviet troops and the Allies finally defeated Nazi Germany. However, there was one state that promised to fight to the end for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes against allied forces, thereby inflicting heavy losses on the US army. At the end of July 1945, the militarist government of Japan rejected the Allied demand for surrender in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration. In it, in particular, it was said that in case of disobedience, the Japanese army would face rapid and complete destruction.

President agrees

The American government kept its word and began targeted bombing of Japanese military positions. Air strikes did not bring the desired result, and US President Harry Truman decides to invade US troops to the territory of Japan. However, the military command dissuades its president from such a decision, citing the fact that the American invasion would entail a large number of victims.

At the suggestion of Henry Lewis Stimson and Dwight David Eisenhower, it was decided to use a more effective way to end the war. A big supporter of the atomic bomb, US Presidential Secretary James Francis Byrnes, believed that the bombing of Japanese territories would finally end the war and put the United States in a dominant position, which would positively affect the future course of events in the post-war world. Thus, US President Harry Truman was convinced that this was the only correct option.

Atomic bomb. Hiroshima

The small Japanese city of Hiroshima, with a population of just over 350,000, was chosen as the first target, located five hundred miles from the capital of Japan, Tokyo. After the modified Enola Gay B-29 bomber arrived at the US naval base on Tinian Island, an atomic bomb was installed on board the aircraft. Hiroshima was supposed to experience the effects of 9,000 pounds of uranium-235.

This hitherto unseen weapon was intended for civilians in a small Japanese town. The bomber commander was Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbets, Jr. The US atomic bomb bore the cynical name "Baby". On the morning of August 6, 1945, at about 8:15 am, the American "Baby" was dropped on the Japanese Hiroshima. About 15 thousand tons of TNT destroyed all life within a radius of five square miles. One hundred and forty thousand inhabitants of the city died in a matter of seconds. The surviving Japanese died a painful death from radiation sickness.

They were destroyed by the American atomic "Kid". However, the devastation of Hiroshima did not cause the immediate surrender of Japan, as everyone expected. Then it was decided to another bombardment of Japanese territory.

Nagasaki. Sky on fire

The American atomic bomb "Fat Man" was installed on board the B-29 aircraft on August 9, 1945, all in the same place, at the US naval base in Tinian. This time the aircraft commander was Major Charles Sweeney. Initially, the strategic target was the city of Kokura.

However, the weather conditions did not allow to carry out the plan, a lot of clouds interfered. Charles Sweeney went into the second round. At 11:02 am, the American nuclear-powered Fat Man swallowed up Nagasaki. It was a more powerful destructive air strike, which, in its strength, was several times higher than the bombing in Hiroshima. Nagasaki tested an atomic weapon weighing about 10,000 pounds and 22 kilotons of TNT.

The geographical location of the Japanese city reduced the expected effect. The thing is that the city is located in a narrow valley between the mountains. Therefore, the destruction of 2.6 square miles did not reveal the full potential of American weapons. The Nagasaki atomic bomb test is considered the failed "Manhattan Project".

Japan surrendered

On the afternoon of August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender in a radio address to the people of Japan. This news quickly spread around the world. In the United States of America, celebrations began on the occasion of the victory over Japan. The people rejoiced.

On September 2, 1945, a formal agreement to end the war was signed aboard the USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Thus ended the most cruel and bloody war in the history of mankind.

For six long years, the world community has been moving towards this significant date- since September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany were fired on the territory of Poland.

Peaceful atom

A total of 124 nuclear explosions were carried out in the Soviet Union. It is characteristic that all of them were carried out for the benefit National economy. Only three of them were accidents involving the release of radioactive elements. Programs for the use of peaceful atom were implemented only in two countries - the United States and the Soviet Union. Nuclear peaceful energy knows an example of a global catastrophe, when years at the fourth power unit Chernobyl nuclear power plant the reactor exploded.

Creation of the Soviet atomic bomb (military unit nuclear 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 events were stimulated to a large extent by the activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of other countries, primarily Nazi Germany and the United States [ ] . On August 9, 1945, American planes 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.
In this decade, fundamental radiochemical research was carried out, without which a complete understanding of these problems, their development, and, even more so, their implementation, is generally unthinkable.

Work in 1941-1943

Foreign intelligence information

Already in September 1941, intelligence information began to arrive in the USSR about the conduct of secret intensive research work in the UK and the USA aimed at developing methods for using atomic energy for military purposes and the creation of atomic bombs of enormous destructive power. One of the most important documents received back in 1941 by Soviet intelligence is the report of the British “MAUD Committee”. From the materials of this report, received through the channels of foreign intelligence NKVD USSR from Donald MacLean, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb was 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 the decision was made to resume work on uranium, was obtained both through the channels of the NKVD intelligence and through the channels of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Red Army.
In May 1942, the leadership of the GRU informed the Academy of Sciences of the USSR about the presence of reports of work abroad on the problem of using atomic energy for military purposes and asked to be informed whether this problem currently has a real practical basis. The answer to this request in June 1942 was given by V. G. Khlopin, who noted that for Last year the scientific literature almost completely does not publish works related to the solution of the problem of the use of 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 these works in the USSR and secret acquaintance with the materials of the NKVD of prominent Soviet specialists, the variants of which were prepared by the NKVD officers back in late 1941 - early 1942, it was sent to I.V. Stalin only in October 1942, after the adoption of the GKO order to resume work on uranium in the USSR.
Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the work on the creation of an atomic bomb in the United States, coming from specialists who understood the danger of a nuclear monopoly or sympathizers of the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodor Hall, Georges Koval and David Greenglass. However, according to some, a letter addressed to Stalin at the beginning of 1943 by the Soviet physicist G. Flerov, who managed to explain the essence of the problem in a popular way, was of decisive importance. 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 the data of America's uranium project began at the initiative of Leonid Kvasnikov, head of the scientific and technical intelligence department of the NKVD, back in 1942, but fully unfolded only after the arrival of the famous couple in Washington Soviet intelligence officers: Vasily Zarubin and his wife Elizabeth. It was with them that the resident of the NKVD in San Francisco, Grigory Kheifits, interacted, saying that the most prominent American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues left California for an unknown place where they would be creating some kind of superweapon.
To double-check the data of "Charon" (this was the code name of Heifitz) was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Semenov (pseudonym "Twain"), who had worked in the United States since 1938 and had assembled a large and active intelligence group there. It was Twain who confirmed the reality of the work on the creation of the atomic bomb, named the code for the Manhattan project and the location of its main scientific center Los Alamos, a former juvenile detention center in New Mexico. Semyonov also gave 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 USA, did not lose ties with the extreme left organizations.

Thus, Soviet agents were introduced into the scientific and design centers of America, where a nuclear weapon was created. However, in the midst of establishing intelligence operations, Lisa and Vasily Zarubin were urgently recalled to Moscow. They were lost in conjecture, because not a single failure happened. It turned out that the Center received a denunciation from Mironov, an employee of the residency, who accused the Zarubins of treason. And for almost half a year, Moscow counterintelligence checked these accusations. They were not confirmed, however, the Zarubins were no longer allowed to go abroad.
In the meantime, the work of the embedded 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 operative and fearless were the Coens, Maurice and Lona. After Maurice was drafted into the American army, Lona began to deliver information materials from New Mexico to New York. To do this, she traveled to the small town of Albuquerque, where, for appearances, she visited a tuberculosis dispensary. There she met with agents undercover nicknames "Mlad" and "Ernst".
However, the NKVD still managed to extract several tons of low-enriched uranium in.

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 experimental, and then industrial nuclear reactors, the construction of radiochemical and special metallurgical shops. 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 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. The insufficient volume of uranium ore mining and the production of uranium concentrates in the USSR (the first plant for the production of uranium concentrate - "Combine No. 6 NKVD 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 which the USSR entered into relevant agreements.
In 1945, the Government of the USSR made the following major decisions:
- on the creation on the basis of the Kirov Plant (Leningrad) of two special experimental design bureaus designed to develop equipment for the production of uranium enriched in the isotope 235 by the gaseous diffusion method;
- on the start of construction in the Middle Urals (near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky) of a diffusion plant for the production of enriched uranium-235;
- on the organization of a laboratory for work on the creation of heavy water reactors on natural uranium;
- on the choice of a site and the start of construction in the South Urals of the country's first enterprise for the production of plutonium-239.
The structure of the enterprise in the South Urals was to include:
- uranium-graphite reactor on natural (natural) uranium (Plant "A");
- radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural (natural) uranium irradiated in the reactor (plant "B");
- chemical and metallurgical production for the production of high-purity metallic plutonium (Plant "B").
Participation of German specialists in the 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 placed in the former estates of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and the millionaire Smetsky (Sinop and Agudzery sanatoriums). Equipment was taken to the USSR from the German Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics, Siemens electrical laboratories, and the Physical Institute of the German Post Office. Three of the four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high voltage transformers, ultra-precise instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, the Directorate of Special Institutes (9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) was created as part of the NKVD of the USSR to manage the work on the use of German specialists.
Sanatorium "Sinop" was called "Object" A "" - it was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne. "Agudzers" became "Object" G "" - it was headed by Gustav Hertz. Outstanding scientists worked at objects "A" and "G" - Nikolaus Riehl, Max Vollmer, who built the first heavy water production plant in the USSR, Peter Thyssen, designer of nickel filters for gas diffusion separation of uranium isotopes, Max Steenbeck and Gernot Zippe, who worked on centrifuge separation method and subsequently received patents for gas centrifuges in the west. On the basis of objects "A" and "G" was later created (SFTI).
Some leading German specialists were awarded USSR government awards for this work, including the Stalin Prize.
In the period 1954-1959 German specialists in different time move 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 Aviation Industry in Novouralsk, the construction of a gas diffusion plant began, which was called Combine No. 813 (Plant D-1)) and intended for the production of highly enriched uranium. The plant gave the first production in 1949.

Construction of uranium hexafluoride production in Kirovo-Chepetsk

On the site of the selected construction site, over time, a whole complex of industrial enterprises, buildings and structures was erected, interconnected by a network of automobile and railways, heat and 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 plant No. 817, is called the Mayak production association, and the city on the shore of Lake Irtyash, in which Mayak workers and their families live, was named Ozyorsk.
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. Slavsky (from July 10, 1947), and then B. G Muzrukov (since December 1, 1947). I. V. Kurchatov was appointed 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 USSR Academy of Sciences" defined the first tasks of KB-11: the creation under the scientific supervision of Laboratory No. 2 (Academician I. V. Kurchatov) of atomic bombs, conventionally named in the resolution "jet engines C", in two versions: RDS-1 - an implosion type with plutonium and a cannon-type atomic bomb RDS-2 with uranium-235.
Tactical and technical specifications for the design of the RDS-1 and RDS-2 were to be developed by July 1, 1946, and the designs of their main components - by July 1, 1947. The fully manufactured RDS-1 bomb was to be presented for state tests for an explosion when installed on the ground by January 1, 1948, in an aviation version - by March 1, 1948, and the RDS-2 bomb - by June 1, 1948 and January 1, 1949, respectively. be carried out in parallel with the organization in KB-11 of special laboratories and the deployment of these laboratories. Such tight deadlines and the organization of parallel work also became possible due to the receipt in the USSR of some intelligence data on American atomic bombs.
Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to expand their activities directly in

“I am not the simplest person,” the American physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi once remarked. “But compared to Oppenheimer, I am very, very simple.” Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures of the 20th century, whose very "complexity" absorbed the country's political and ethical contradictions.
During World War II, the brilliant physicist Ajulius Robert Oppenheimer led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history. The scientist led a secluded and secluded life, and this gave rise to suspicions of treason.

Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments in science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its occurrence were made in late XIX V. A huge role in revealing the secrets of the atom was played by the studies of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others.
In early 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive power and that uranium could become an energy source, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion was the impetus for the development of nuclear weapons.
Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such a powerful weapon pushed militaristic circles to create it as soon as possible, but the problem of the availability of a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research was a brake. The physicists of Germany, England, the USA, Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons, realizing that it was impossible to work without a sufficient amount of uranium ore, the USA in September 1940 purchased a large amount of the required ore under false documents from Belgium, which allowed them to work on the creation nuclear weapons in full swing.
From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium refinery was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gaseous diffusion followed by magnetic separation of two isotopes. A gas centrifuge separated the light Uranium-235 from the heavier Uranium-238.
On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the desert expanses of the state of New Mexico, in 1942, an American nuclear center was established. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership were collected the best minds of that time, not only the USA and England, but almost the entire Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 laureates Nobel Prize. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War, and Germany carried out mass bombing of the cities of England, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the USA, which allowed the USA to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (the creation of nuclear weapons).

"Father of the atomic bomb", he was at the same time ardent opponent American nuclear policy. Bearing the title of one of the most outstanding physicists of his time, with pleasure studied the mysticism of ancient Indian books. Communist, traveler and staunch American patriot, very spiritual man, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to defend himself against the attacks of the anti-communists. The scientist who devised a plan to cause the most damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki cursed himself for "innocent blood on his hands."
Writing about this controversial man is not an easy task, but an interesting one, and the 20th century was marked by a number of books about him. However rich life scientist continues to attract biographers.
Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1903 to wealthy and educated Jewish parents. Oppenheimer was brought up in love for painting, music, in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. In 1922, he entered Harvard University and in just three years received an honors degree, his main subject was chemistry. In the next few years, the precocious young man traveled to several countries in Europe, where he worked with physicists who dealt with the problems of investigating atomic phenomena in the light of new theories. Just a year after graduating from university, Oppenheimer published scientific work, which showed how deeply he understands new methods. Soon he, together with the famous Max Born, developed the most important part of quantum theory, known as the Born-Oppenheimer method. In 1927, his outstanding doctoral dissertation brought him worldwide fame.
In 1928 he worked at the Zurich and Leiden universities. In the same year he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947 Oppenheimer taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945 he actively participated in the work on the creation of an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the specially created Los Alamos laboratory.
In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising star in science, accepted offers from two of several universities that were vying for the right to invite him. During the spring semester he taught at the vibrant, fledgling Caltech in Pasadena, and during the fall and winter semesters at UC Berkeley, where he became the first lecturer in quantum mechanics. In fact, the erudite scholar had to adjust for some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936 he fell in love with Jean Tatlock, a restless and moody young woman whose passionate idealism found expression in communist activities. Like many thoughtful people of the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left movement as one of the possible alternatives, although he did not join the Communist Party, which his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. His interest in politics, as well as his ability to read Sanskrit, was the natural result of a constant pursuit of knowledge. In his own words, he was also deeply disturbed by the explosion of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and Spain and invested $1,000 a year from his $15,000 annual salary in projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer parted ways with Jean Tetlock and moved away from her circle of leftist friends.
In 1939, the United States learned that in preparation for global war Nazi Germany discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately guessed that the German physicists would try to get a controlled chain reaction that could be the key to creating a weapon far more destructive than any that existed at that time. Enlisting the support of the great scientific genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger in a famous letter. In authorizing funding for projects aimed at creating untested weapons, the president acted in strict secrecy. Ironically, many leading scientists worked with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country. scientists of the world forced to flee their homeland. One part of the university groups explored the possibility of creating nuclear reactor, others tackled the problem of separating the uranium isotopes needed to release energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who had previously been busy theoretical problems, offered to organize a wide front of work only at the beginning of 1942.

The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by Colonel Leslie R. Groves, 46, a professional military man. Groves, who described the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "a costly bunch of lunatics," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the heat was on. The physicist proposed that all scientists be united in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in an area that he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding house for boys had been turned into a tightly guarded secret center, of which Oppenheimer became scientific director. By insisting on the free exchange of information between scientists, who were strictly forbidden to leave the center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which contributed to the amazing success in his work. Not sparing himself, he remained the head of all areas of this complex project, although his personal life suffered greatly from this. But for a mixed group of scientists - among whom there were more than a dozen then or future Nobel laureates and of which a rare person did not possess a pronounced individuality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and subtle diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's eventual success belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who by that time had become a general, could confidently say that the two billion dollars spent would be ready for action by August 1 of the next year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about using new weapons. After all, probably, Japan would have capitulated soon without the atomic bombing. Should the United States be the first country in the world to use such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt's death, appointed a committee to study possible consequences use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend dropping an atomic bomb without warning on a major Japanese military facility. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.

All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The test of the world's first atomic bomb was carried out on July 16, 1945, about 80 kilometers from the air base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device under test, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower set up in a desert area. At precisely 5:30 a.m., a remote-controlled detonator set off the bomb. With an echoing roar across a 1.6 kilometer diameter area, a gigantic purple-green-orange fireball shot up into the sky. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke rapidly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on an awesome mushroom shape at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion startled scientific and military observers near the test site and turned their heads. But Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem Bhagavad Gita: "I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Until the end of his life, satisfaction from scientific success was always mixed with a sense of responsibility for the consequences.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach from the east of two American aircraft (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (because every day they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object on a parachute slowly descended and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the "Baby" bomb.
Three days after the "Kid" was blown up in Hiroshima, an exact copy of the first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve had finally been broken by this new weapon, signed an unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics were already being heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that "mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima."
The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tellingly, Oppenheimer managed to combine the excitement of testing a bomb on civilians and the joy that the weapon had finally been tested.
Nevertheless, the following year he accepted an appointment as chairman of the scientific council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thus becoming the most influential adviser to the government and the military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Stalin-led Soviet Union were seriously preparing for cold war, each side focused on the arms race. Although many of the scientists who were part of the Manhattan Project did not support the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a new weapon, former Oppenheimer employees Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence felt that National security USA needs to be developed as soon as possible hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, the two nuclear powers were already confronting each other like “two scorpions in a jar, each able to kill the other, but only at the risk of own life". With the proliferation of new weapons in wars, there would no longer be winners and losers - only victims. And the "father of the atomic bomb" made a public statement that he was against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Always feeling out of place under Oppenheimer and clearly envious of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to lead new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was keeping scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb with his authority, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered bouts of severe depression in his youth. When President Truman agreed in 1950 to finance the development of the hydrogen bomb, Teller could celebrate victory.
In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded after a month-long search for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a show case was organized in which Oppenheimer was opposed by many influential political and scientific figures. As Albert Einstein later put it: "Oppenheimer's problem was that he loved a woman who didn't love him: the US government."
By allowing Oppenheimer's talent to flourish, America doomed him to death.

Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He owns many works on quantum mechanics, theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of the interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P. Ehrenfest formulated a theorem, the application of which to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen. Investigated the internal conversion of g-rays. In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he made the first calculation of the model neutron star, in 1939 predicted the existence of "black holes".
Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including - Science and everyday knowledge (Science and the Common Understanding, 1954), Open Mind (The Open Mind, 1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960). Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.
Work on nuclear projects in the USSR and the USA began simultaneously. In August 1942, a secret "Laboratory No. 2" began to work in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.
IN Soviet times it was claimed that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the "father" of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main actors of that time, Yuli Khariton, spoke about the essential role of intelligence in accelerating the backward Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.
Information from abroad helped the country's leadership to make a difficult decision - to start work on nuclear weapons during the most difficult war. Intelligence allowed our physicists to save time, helped to avoid a "misfire" during the first atomic test, which was of great political importance.
In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Shortly thereafter, articles on nuclear physics began to disappear from the pages of scientific journals. This could indicate a real prospect of creating an atomic explosive and weapons based on it.
After the discovery by Soviet physicists of the spontaneous fission of uranium-235 nuclei and the determination of the critical mass for residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution
L. Kvasnikov, a corresponding directive was sent out.
In the FSB of Russia (the former KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival file No. 13676, which documented who and how attracted US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence, lie under the heading "keep forever" under the heading "keep forever". Only a few of the top leadership of the KGB of the USSR had access to the materials of this case, the classification of which was removed only recently. Soviet intelligence received the first information about the work on the creation of the American atomic bomb in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the ongoing research in the United States and England fell on the table of I.V. Stalin. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was more reliable to use the bomb scheme already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. "Considering state interests, any other solution was then invalid. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is beyond doubt. However, we implemented the American scheme in the first test not so much for technical as for political reasons.
The announcement that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons aroused in the US ruling circles a desire to unleash a preventive war as soon as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which provided for the start fighting January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1350 in reserve and over 300 atomic bombs.
A test site was built near the city of Semipalatinsk. Exactly at 7:00 am on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device under the code name "RDS-1" was blown up at this test site.
The Troyan plan, according to which atomic bombs were to be dropped on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the threat of a retaliatory strike. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.
Foreign intelligence not only drew the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons in the West and thereby initiated similar work in our country. Thanks to the information foreign intelligence, according to academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead ends in the creation of atomic weapons and create an atomic bomb in the USSR in a shorter time, in just three years, while the United States four years were spent on this, having spent five billion dollars on its creation.
As Academician Yu. Khariton noted in an interview with the Izvestiya newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was made according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when they were awarded government awards to the participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: "If we were late for one to a year and a half, then we would probably try this charge on ourselves."