This place, located literally on the edge of the earth, in the Kolyma region, has been called Butugychag by local reindeer herders for a long time, which means “Valley of Death”. When geologists first came here in the 40s of the last century, they were unpleasantly struck by the sight of some mountain valleys, dotted with human and deer skeletons.
It is in these valleys that scientists have discovered a strange blue ore with a high concentration of uranium. And then many deer of the geological party developed a mysterious disease, the first sign of which was the loss of fur on their legs. Then the deer refused to walk, after which they lay down on the ground and quickly died.
New appointment
It was at the Butugychag mine that those same tons of uranium ore were mined, which then became the basis for the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb. But even earlier, in August 1945, the United States of America had already used this terrible new weapon against the civilian population of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. American "hawks" rubbed their hands in anticipation of an imminent nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. But they did not know that Soviet physicists had also been working on their own atomic project since 1943, the preparation of which was being carried out by the almighty NKVD.
Although Lavrenty Beria personally headed this work, the main burden of implementing the project fell on the shoulders of his deputy, Lieutenant-General Avraamy Pavlovich Zavenyagin (1901-1956). In the 1930s, he built the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine, and then was transferred to the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry. It was on him in the midst of the Great Patriotic War that the choice of the members of the Politburo fell, when in the USSR practical work on the atomic bomb began in deep secrecy.
Here is how the new appointment of Zavenyagin is described in the biographical book of Yuri Elfimov "Marshal of Industry".
“At the very beginning of 1943, Zavenyagin was summoned to Stalin … Stalin asked without introduction:
Promotional video:
- Comrade Zavenyagin … Here you are a metallurgist and a miner. Do you know anything about uranium and graphite reserves?
Zavenyagin pondered:
- As far as I know, there is graphite in Siberia, in the Lower Tunguska, in the Kureika region. With regard to uranium ores … I can't say anything.
“But it’s necessary to find,” Stalin continued. - Definitely. Both graphite and uranium. And start mining immediately. This is very important now … You will obviously have to work on fulfilling an important state assignment together with Comrade Kurchatov … Don't you know each other? Meet …
A tall man with a big black beard came up to Zavenyagin, smiled and gave his hand.
The result of the meeting with Stalin was a top secret GKO order of February 11, 1943 on the creation of laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Igor Kurchatov. Even earlier, the GKO order of September 28, 1942 "On the organization of work on uranium" was adopted, but it hung for six months without practical implementation, since all the country's forces at that time were aimed at repelling the fascist offensive against Stalingrad and the North Caucasus.
Strategic raw materials
One of the very first tasks in the implementation of the Soviet atomic project was the search for uranium ore occurrences on the territory of the USSR. In 1943, geologists knew five deposits of this metal in Siberia and the Far East, with total explored reserves of about 500 tons. For comparison, it must be said that at that time the world reserves of uranium were estimated at 12-15 thousand tons. In addition to Western Europe, its deposits were also located in Central and South Africa, the United States and Canada.
The most promising areas for prospecting for uranium ores were the Kolyma Territory and the east of Yakutia. Many repressed geologists, who were serving their sentences in the GULAG, were involved in these works. Among them were Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Vladimir Vereshchagin, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Alexander Vologdin, Professor of the Tomsk Technological Institute Felix Shakhov, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Yuri Sheinmann, as well as many other geologists of lower rank. In total, during the period 1943-1945, at least 50 exploration groups headed by qualified geologists worked at Dalstroy, each of which, depending on the volume of excavation and mining, consisted of 20 to 250 prisoners.
By the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany, more than 20 deposits of uranium ore suitable for industrial development had been explored in Kolyma alone. The Butugychag mine, located on the plateau of the same name, was recognized as the most promising of them. And by the end of the 1940s, over 50 uranium deposits with total reserves of 84 thousand tons were registered with the USSR Ministry of Geology. This is how a raw material base was created in our country for the implementation of a nuclear project.
While near Moscow, in the new city of Elektrostal, the construction of a uranium enrichment plant was proceeding at a record pace, prisoners of the Dalstroy camps in the Kolyma camps were expanding open pits in the places where blue uranium ore was discovered, which, as they were initially explained, would be used for the production of mineral paints. Only many years later, the former prisoners, who were lucky enough to stay alive, learned that at that time they made an invaluable contribution to the creation of the nuclear shield of our country.
At the end of 1945, by order from Moscow, about 60 thousand prisoners were collected for excavation and mining at the Butugychag (later Ten'kinsky District of the Magadan Region), Sugun (Yakutia) and Severnoye (Chukotka) deposits. The first of the named mines soon concentrated more than 70% of this labor force, since the local uranium raw materials were recognized by scientists as promising for processing.
The uranium-containing ore mined in Butugychag was transported to Magadan under heavy guard in bags. At the port, it was loaded onto a submarine, which went through the Tatar Strait to Vladivostok, where strategic raw materials were transferred to an aircraft and delivered to Moscow, and then to plant No. 12 in the city of Elektrostal. By 1950, the number of "atomic" prisoners in "Dalstroy" in total exceeded 70 thousand people. According to archival data, in total, during 1945-1956, about 150 tons of strategic raw materials were mined here.
The poet Anatoly Zhigulin, who was serving his term in Butugychag under Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, wrote the following lines about this camp in 1964:
I remember
Mine Butugychag
And sorrow
In the eyes of comrades.
Covetous joy
Generous trouble
And blue
Ringing ore.
I remember those
Who withers forever
In the valley
Where is the Butugychag mine …
I remember your
Dense, uneven hum.
You are my life then
Flipped over.
Hello to you, The lever of my fate
Uranium mine
Butugychag!
According to archival data, the Magadan historian Vitaly Zelyak managed to establish that only in 1947, 9175 people died in uranium camps in Kolyma and Chukotka for various reasons. In total, according to incomplete data, at least 40 thousand prisoners remained forever in Butugychag and Severny in the period from 1945 to 1956. The most common causes of their death were pellagra (vitamin deficiency) and heart failure. But even physicians knew nothing about radiation sickness in those years. But even if they knew, they would never have entered it into official documents.
Our answer to America
If the American atomic bomb "Kid", dropped on Hiroshima, was made on the basis of uranium-235, then the city of Nagasaki was wiped out by the plutonium bomb "Fat Man". Plutonium was the name of a new chemical element discovered shortly before the Second World War, which did not exist in nature. The explosion of such a charge with the same volume of matter turns out to be more powerful than on the basis of uranium. Therefore, Soviet scientists also decided to make their first bomb stuffed with plutonium.
To test it, it was necessary to urgently create a special test site. The choice fell on a desert area located in Kazakhstan, at the junction of Semipalatinsk, Pavlodar and Karaganda regions. In accordance with the secret decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated April 21, 1947, construction of a complex of objects began here, which was named "Training ground No. 2 of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR (military unit 52605)".
It was here on August 29, 1949, at four o'clock in the morning Moscow time, that the explosion of the first Soviet atomic bomb with a capacity of 22 thousand tons in TNT equivalent was successfully carried out. Thus, our scientists liquidated the US atomic monopoly, which took them not 10-15 years, as predicted by American politicians, but only four years.
But at the same time, we must not forget that the creation of the nuclear shield required truly heroic efforts from our people and the mobilization of all resources. Among the victims were tens of thousands of lives of "atomic" prisoners, most of whom did not even suspect how important they played in strengthening the defense capability of their country.
Valery Erofeev