On July 24, 1945, on the sidelines of the Potsdam Conference, Harry Truman informed Joseph Stalin about the creation in the United States of "a weapon of monstrous destructive power." True, it did not work to surprise the "red leader". First, thanks to intelligence, Stalin was well aware of the American nuclear project. Secondly, on February 11, 1943, he signed the GKO decision to start work on the creation of an atomic bomb, and the work went by leaps and bounds.
Intelligence knows the deal
Intelligence played a huge role in the success of the Soviet nuclear program. The agent network worked smoothly. In the late autumn of 1941, intelligence was able to establish contact with the German physicist Klaus Fuchs, who had previously worked in the nuclear programs of Germany and Britain. Fuchs spoke about the secret work being done in England to create atomic weapons and expressed his readiness to pass this information on to the Soviet Union. Fuchs and Pontecorvo presented the USSR with a 33-page bomb project. Oppenheimer provided the missing parts of Smith's report, scattered data on the creation of the atomic bomb released by the US government, plus photographs of the Los Alamos laboratories. On July 4, 1945, two agents simultaneously reported the impending explosion of a nuclear device. In November 1945, Soviet agents met in Copenhagen with Niels Bohr,he took part in the work on the "Manhattan Project". As a result, even twelve days before the first American atomic bomb was assembled, the USSR had already received a detailed description from its sources. When Truman in Postdam proudly informed Stalin that a weapon of unprecedented power had appeared in the United States, Stalin only smiled mysteriously and said nothing.
The first bomb
The best forces of the country were thrown into the creation of the first bomb. The Semipalatinsk test site was built in just two years by the efforts of 15 thousand builders and cost the country an enormous amount at that time - about 180 million rubles, not counting the costs of the rest of the preparation for the test. According to the project, the command post shelters had embrasures facing the field, through which it was supposed to observe the development of the explosion. It was impossible to calculate the exact consequences of the explosion, so in recent days it was decided to fill the wall of the command post facing the field with earth up to the roof. To observe the explosion, it was forbidden to use even a periscope specially installed for this from a submarine.
Security measures were not superfluous. Despite the great distance from the center of the field, the shock wave that came in a few seconds was accompanied by a powerful roar, the windows in the command post building were shattered, and some of those present were deafened and felt severe pain in their ears. After many years of work with the application of the efforts of thousands of specialists, this was a real victory.
Promotional video:
Devyatayev
In March 1945, Nazi Germany's last hopes for its nuclear development were lost. The Peenemünde base, from which the V-2 missiles were launched, was destroyed by targeted bombing of Soviet and Allied bombers. Important information about the location of the base with the "weapon of retaliation" was delivered by the Soviet pilot Mikhail Devyatayev, who escaped from German captivity on February 8, 1945, on a Henkel plane. German developments were also useful to Soviet physicists.
Tsar torpedo
Making an atomic bomb is half the battle. Another question is how to deliver it to the territory of a potential enemy. Transporting bombs to the United States on the Tu-4 was impossible: the slow-moving, piston-engined bombers for the American F-86 jet fighters were easy prey. In addition, the aircraft needed an intermediate refueling. Then it was decided to focus on the creation of nuclear torpedoes. At that time, the most numerous class of ships in the Soviet navy were submarines. Submarines in a nuclear war had a clear advantage over surface ships. They could get close enough to the enemy's shores and strike. Therefore, the command of the Navy first of all wanted to have nuclear weapons on submarines. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov is considered the author of the idea of creating a super-powerful nuclear torpedo. He proposed using the nuclear submarines of Project 627 as a "delivery vehicle" for a powerful nuclear charge (100 megatons!). These torpedoes were supposed to be used against US naval bases, as well as for striking cities on the coast. As a result of the explosion of such a bomb, a giant wave should have been formed - a tsunami, destroying everything on the coast and even far from the coastline.
Tsar bomb
The main achievement of the Soviet nuclear program is the Tsar Bomba. On October 30, 1961, the "superbomb" was lifted into the air by a Tu-95 aircraft. The tests were carried out over Novaya Zemlya near the Mityushi Bay - over the Sukhoi Nos nuclear test site. At an altitude of ten and a half thousand meters, a bomb was dropped by parachute, and a planned explosion occurred at an altitude of four kilometers.
The results exceeded all expectations: the blast wave ran around the globe three times, a "mushroom" with a height of almost 64 kilometers and a diameter of almost 40 kilometers rose. The carrier aircraft, which managed to fly 39 kilometers, jolted, and some external parts melted. The acoustic wave was so strong that it hit Dixon Island and knocked out windows in houses. Within a radius of hundreds of kilometers from the explosion, radio communications were disrupted for an hour. The outbreak was seen in Norway, Greenland and even Alaska.
In addition, at a distance of one hundred kilometers, the radiation caused third-degree burns - mainly the Nenets reindeer herds suffered from this. By the most conservative estimates, an explosion of such force could completely destroy Paris in one second.
Blow to China
In a series of his articles, the Chinese historian Liu ChenShan proves that the USSR and China were on the brink of nuclear war in 1969, and only US intervention prevented the "Third World War." This could have happened at the height of the conflict between Moscow and Beijing, which began in March 1969 with a series of clashes on the border island of Damansky. Then, according to a Chinese historian, Soviet diplomats informed Washington of Moscow's plans to "neutralize the Chinese threat" and the intention to "get rid of this modern adventurer" (meaning Mao Zedong). On August 20, the USSR Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Dobrynin, warned US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about the plans of the USSR, but on August 28 information about this appeared in The Washington Post. In September and October, tensions reached their climaxand in China the people were ordered to dig shelters. Washington informed Moscow that the United States would not "sit idly" and that in the event of a nuclear strike against China, the United States would launch its missiles at targets in the USSR. These targets were 130 Soviet cities. The threat had its effect: five days later, Moscow canceled all plans for a nuclear strike, and negotiations began in Beijing: the crisis was over.
False threats
On November 9, 1979, the alarm was sounded in the United States, having discovered a massive launch of missiles from enemy territory, the command was given to prepare for an immediate retaliatory strike. Interceptor planes began to take off, even the presidential plane was prepared for the evacuation of the first person of the state. The alarm lasted six minutes - then it turned out that a tape with a training task was mistakenly inserted into the computer of the Cheyenne complex.
Note that this episode was not the only case of a "glitch" in the notification system. A nuclear war was closer than we can imagine.