The atomic program of the USSR started with a delay. This was caused by the mistake of the scientific leadership and the war: despite the fact that in the 1930s two excellent schools of physicists appeared in the USSR - Moscow and Leningrad - young scientists died at the front, and experienced academics believed that it was not time for such developments …
In 1938, the Germans Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus of uranium, and since 1939 the Uranium Society has been operating in Germany - 22 research institutes have been developing the bomb. In 1939, Kurt Diebner carried out the construction of the first reactor assembly at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. One can only guess why the case was not carried through by the Nazis to the end.
You can't hesitate
In April 1-942, at a meeting of the State Defense Committee (GKO) with the participation of academicians Abram Ioffe, Nikolai Semenov and Vitaly Khlopin, the possibility of producing nuclear weapons was discussed. A term of 10-15 years was announced, which categorically did not suit Stalin. He knew that in the United States, the recruitment of scientists to secret laboratories began in 1941, and on December 2, under the podium of the Chicago stadium, the world's first nuclear reactor started working. The production of the American nuclear bomb was a matter of time.
In March 1942, a radiogram was received from the London resident, Anatoly Gorsky, stating that the Nazis were literally on the verge of making atomic weapons. We had to hurry.
At the April meeting of the State Defense Committee, Stalin realized that there was no point in academics: theoretical physicists did not believe in the reality of nuclear weapons production. It was necessary to find a young scientist capable of leading the "number one program." Igor Kurchatov became such a person, he was chosen from a list of 50 names. In 1942, 39-year-old physicist Kurchatov was engaged in demagnetizing the hulls of warships for protection from mines, in the process of which he almost died in Sevastopol. He was a nugget, a talent that succeeded in everything, and this greatly annoyed the "bison" of science. He was charming, smart, principled, but most importantly, he believed in himself and in science, and his employees followed him to the end.
On February 15, 1943, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created, and Kurchatov became its head. First of all, he was given the intelligence, and after studying 3000 documents, Kurchatov made a verdict that the United States was on the verge of producing weapons, but there was nothing new in the materials, and the scientist considered some of the conclusions to be a fake.
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Searches and finds
Scientists were faced with difficult tasks: finding the required amount of uranium; search for a substance that can extinguish a nuclear reaction; studying the properties of plutonium and methods of separating it from uranium. This required funds, specialists and material resources.
The first uranium deposit was discovered … in Moscow! Its location was established by testing geological samples stored in the warehouse, brought from expeditions, for radiation. Uranium ore lay in the mountains of Central Asia, near Leninabad, where there were no roads. The first tons of ore were taken out on donkeys.
But uranium was scarce. Neither the ore deposits in Ukraine, nor the delivery of uranium from Czechoslovakia and Germany after the Victory have solved the problem. Nevertheless, the first grams of plutonium were soon obtained at the Leningrad cyclotron, built before the war. At the beginning of 1944, Laboratory No. 1 of the Institute of Rare Metals managed to obtain uranium carbide, and metal uranium was obtained at plant No. 12 in Elektrostal - there they set up the production of rods, which were sawed into blocks and sealed with aluminum. At the Moscow Electrode Plant in the fall of 1945, the production of the purest graphite for extinguishing a nuclear reaction was established.
More stick, less gingerbread
Stalin learned that the United States had successfully tested the atomic bomb from Harry Truman in the summer of 1945, at the Potsdam Conference. The US President did not understand that Stalin knew a lot about atomic weapons.
In the USSR, it was decided to create a special committee for the development of nuclear weapons under the control of the Central Committee and under the leadership of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenty Beria. “If it were not for Beria, the bomb wouldn’t have been,” Kurchatov said about the work of the people's commissar.
After Beria reorganized the program, Laboratory # 2 produced 24 tons of uranium and 300 tons of pure graphite. For the sake of the program, a gas diffusion plant was built in Novouralsk, the production of uranium hexafluoride was launched in Kirovo-Chepetsk, Chelyabinsk-40 and Arzamas-16 were built from scratch. The test reactor was launched in Moscow in Laboratory No. 2 personally by Kurchatov on December 25, 1946 at 18:00 - it was set up in a deep pit. A month later, theses on the organization of the nuclear industry were laid down on Stalin's table.
For the first bomb, it was decided to use the American design obtained by the scouts. Although our scientists have developed a more effective option, Beria personally ordered to stop on the American project. The development center was moved to the Urals, where the construction of the A-1 reactor, affectionately nicknamed "Annushka", began near Chelyabinsk.
In parallel with it, the entire technological chain was being built: objects of radiochemistry and metallurgy. There were many problems at the construction site: there were not enough pipes, graphite masonry crumbled, the shell of uranium blocks melted, people were irradiated … After the deadline at the end of 1947, Beria came to the Urals, who removed the entire construction management. After his visit, Kurchatov's hands were shaking for a long time.
When General Boris Vannikov took over the construction, things went faster. A favorite technique of this boss was to kindly ask a subordinate: does he want to see his children again? After that, the plan was carried out and overfulfilled. At the meetings with Vannikov, two colonels of the State Security Committee sat, who, after the meeting, took the guilty leaders away, and they never returned home.
The reactor was launched on June 19, 1948, by the summer of 1949, the required amount of plutonium had accumulated in Chelyabinsk-40, and in Arzamas-16, they finished creating the bomb's "shell". It remains to assemble and test it at the test site near Semipalatinsk. There is a story that before the test Kurchatov went to Stalin and showed him the sphere of weapons-grade plutonium, but this is just a story. In fact, the bomb filling made in Chelyabinsk-40 was delivered to Arzamas-16, where the bomb was assembled and then taken to the test site.
But the real truth is the story of physicist Anatoly Aleksandrov, how in Chelyabinsk-40 he covered the hemispheres of plutonium with a film of nickel, when several generals approached him. They didn’t believe there was plutonium in the shell.
The physicist replied:
- Yes, this is plutonium, look, warm, heats himself! You can hold it in your hands!
And the generals did not refuse.
Big boom
The first bomb with a capacity of 20 thousand tons in TNT was detonated on August 29, 1949. Before the detonation of the charge, Beria suggested that Kurchatov give the bomb a name, to which he replied that she had a name - RDS-1: "Russia does it herself!"
After the rumble outside had died down, there was a long silence. Only now did everyone understand what kind of weapon they created …
The consequences of the explosion were assessed the next day. Everything was swept away: bridges were carried away 30 meters from the installation site, residential buildings were destroyed, carriages were scattered across the steppe, and armored vehicles and artillery were melted and charred. All the cars and all the cattle that were used as "manpower" were burned down.
Stalin was pleased - the end of the US atomic monopoly had come, and the specter of a new war had receded. The saga of creating the first atomic bomb in the USSR is over.
Maya Novik