With all the variety of laudatory and unflattering opinions about the Soviet regime, one cannot but be amazed at its original genius. Purely pragmatic solutions, imbued with the deepest symbolism, are the fad of the builders of communism. The philosophical message of some projects pulls with such an abundance of meanings that just one glance into this bottomless immensity begins to dizzy. Suffice it to recall the Lenin Mausoleum, the famous Stalinist skyscrapers, which still do not allow occultists to sleep peacefully at night, or the largest outdoor pool in the USSR "Moscow". If the ideological message and scale of these enterprises do not really amaze you, how do you like this story?
A holy place is never empty
In 1664, at an old Turkic settlement near the Sarovka river, south of Nizhny Novgorod, the Penza monk of Feodosia set up his hermit cell, and after him Gerasim, a novice of the Krasnoslobodsky monastery, took up asceticism there. Soon the monks left their humble abode, but the holy place did not remain empty - hieromonk Isaac settled in the lost in the wilderness, fenced off from the world by forests on four sides. Over time, the Sarov Monastery became a place of pilgrimage, and in 1706, a modest wooden church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God and the first monastery were laid in the monastery. From 1778 to 1833, the Russian miracle worker Seraphim of Sarov lived in the monastery, for his deeds canonized at the behest of Emperor Nicholas II in 1903. The grandiose festivities on the occasion of the canonization of the Monk Seraphim continued with the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the monastery, where a great many high-ranking guests gathered for this good reason.
And then the Revolution happened. The monastery was ruined and, after standing for some time in desolation, closed. In 1927, the territory and all the remaining property were transferred to the department of the Nizhny Novgorod department of the NKVD. In subsequent years, on the basis of the buildings of the former holy desert, a children's labor colony was organized, and after that - a correctional colony for adolescents and adult prisoners at the plant No. 550. In November 1938, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, it was also closed. It was not up to her.
In the meantime, the 20th century lived with completely different values. The governments of the leading world powers comprehensively supported research in the field of nuclear physics and radiochemistry, the logical result of which was to create an atomic bomb - the crown of advanced weapons technologies. The Soviet Union, seriously concerned about the success of the Americans in creating nuclear weapons of an unprecedented destructive force within the framework of the Manhattan Project, decided with all its might to speed up work on its own “product,” as Comrade Stalin allegorically called the Soviet atomic bomb. In February 1943, the State Defense Committee adopted the first decree to create a bomb. The overall management of the project was entrusted to the Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee Lavrenty Beria and the outstanding Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov. A special commission on the uranium problem was created at the USSR Academy of Sciences,which included the most prominent Russian scientists. But after the events of the summer of 1945, the survey privacy policy was radically revised.
Born by order
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The first ever (and fortunately, the last) military nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki left no illusions about the position of the United States. Power corrupts, and the Americans did not hesitate to use it to demonstrate their own greatness. Following the Second World War, a protracted period of the Cold War began - the confrontation between the giants, the USSR and the United States.
In light of the new look at yesterday's allies, all Soviet nuclear developments were strictly classified. On August 20, 1945, the First Main Directorate of Boris Vannikov for the organization of the nuclear industry was created. The branch of laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since 1943 dealing with the atomic problem under the guise of creating experimental rocket engines) was relocated to NII-6 of the Ministry of Agricultural Engineering and to the Sofrinsky test site in the Moscow region. But leaving a secure facility near the capital, especially considering all the dangers of experimental production, was unacceptable. The search for a place for permanent placement of the top-secret object has been carried out since the end of 1945. It was necessary to take into account a lot of difficult requirements. First, the territory should have been located in a sparsely populated area far from large cities,but still close enough to Moscow. Secondly, the area had to be wooded, so as not to attract too much attention and exclude the factor of accidental detection. And thirdly, at least the basic infrastructure should already be organized there. The task, to put it mildly, is not an easy one. After a long thoughtful search, the responsible group of the GPU, represented by Deputy People's Commissar for Ammunition Pyotr Goremykin, Professor Yuliy Khariton and Deputy People's Commissar for Transport Engineering Pavel Zernov, chose the village of Sarov, located on the border of the Gorky Region and the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The same Sarov wasteland, where since 1938 the monastery and camp barracks with some kind of communications have been dilapidated.thirdly, at least the basic infrastructure should already be organized there. The task, to put it mildly, is not an easy one. After a long thoughtful search, the responsible group of the GPU, represented by Deputy People's Commissar for Ammunition Pyotr Goremykin, Professor Yuliy Khariton and Deputy People's Commissar for Transport Engineering Pavel Zernov, chose the village of Sarov, located on the border of the Gorky Region and the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The same Sarov wasteland, where since 1938 the monastery and camp barracks with some kind of communications have been dilapidated.thirdly, at least the basic infrastructure should already be organized there. The task, to put it mildly, is not an easy one. After a long thoughtful search, the responsible group of the GPU, represented by Deputy People's Commissar for Ammunition Pyotr Goremykin, Professor Yuliy Khariton and Deputy People's Commissar for Transport Engineering Pavel Zernov, chose the village of Sarov, located on the border of the Gorky Region and the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The same Sarov wasteland, where since 1938 the monastery and camp barracks with some kind of communications have been dilapidated.located on the border of the Gorky region and the Mordovian ASSR. The same Sarov wasteland, where since 1938 the monastery and camp barracks with some kind of communications have been dilapidated.located on the border of the Gorky region and the Mordovian ASSR. The same Sarov wasteland, where since 1938 the monastery and camp barracks with some kind of communications have been dilapidated.
On April 1, 1946, on the basis of the NKVD plant No. 550 in Sarov, the construction of its own closed enterprise for the branch of laboratory No. 2 was laid, and on April 9, according to the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 805-327, the laboratory was reorganized into Design Bureau No. 11 - the future alma mater of the first Soviet atomic bomb.
Secret City Institute
The government created special conditions for the construction of the secret facility. There were no preliminary projects or estimates - all this would entail endless bureaucratic red tape and would inevitably leave a suspicious mark in the archives. But KB-11 simply did not exist for the uninitiated! Therefore, construction was paid directly at the actual cost. But, despite all the indulgences, the first production buildings were rebuilt only by the beginning of 1947. Some of the laboratories were completely housed in the renovated buildings of the old monastery. Such is the "monastery cuisine". On February 17, 1947, the facility was officially assigned the status of a closed restricted zone, and in the summer of the same year, the entire territory was taken under military protection. The settlement was removed from the administrative subordination of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and excluded from all records on the administrative division of the RSFSR. He was not even on the cards. “The city of Arzamas-1b simply did not exist then,” recalls a resident of the closed city, Aleksey Zakhryapa. - There were glades, barracks with prisoners who built the first sites of the "object" of the design bureau - KB-11. Residential houses began to be erected later. But the checkpoint was already there, that's where I served. " As the construction of a secure facility became more and more difficult, and specialists and equipment were brought to Sarov itself, more and more attention was paid to the residential settlement. Gradually, a whole town grew up around the nuclear laboratory in the wilderness of Novgorod's forests - with houses, a hospital, a school, a library, a House of Culture, a theater, a stadium and a park. And along the perimeter of this quiet, well-fed and well-equipped science city of excellent scientists and specialists, a fence with barbed wire towered, a control strip passed, there were checkpoints and observation towers …
Titanic efforts were invested in ensuring the viability of the experimental KB-11. And this despite the fact that construction was carried out in the post-war years, no less difficult than the war itself. But all expectations were met. In three short years, the first Soviet atomic bomb was created by the efforts of talented designers and engineers. In the documents, it appeared as RDS-1, which originally meant "Rocket engine C", where "C" was the fuel type marker. After the successful tests of 1949, the creators inspired by the success as soon as they did not decipher this abbreviation - and "Stalin's rocket engine", and "Russia makes itself", and "Motherland gives Stalin." Subsequently, a decree was adopted on the construction of the USSR's first plant for the industrial production of atomic bombs as part of KB-11.
Until the mid-1950s, the employees of the top-secret "forge" of the nuclear shield of the Soviet Union could not leave the territory of their safe, closed town, so that no one inadvertently found out about the "object" that did not officially exist. Only much later, when the population of ZATOs had grown noticeably, they decided to soften the access regime.
On March 17, 1954, by a closed resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR "On the formation of city and village councils in closed cities and towns", the nuclear town was named Kremlin. In 1960, it was again decided to rename it Arzamas-75, but by sheer coincidence the number 75 coincided with the length of the road to Arzamas to within a kilometer, which was considered a gross violation of conspiracy. Only in 1966, the cradle of progress, vegetating in obscurity, finally received a new, albeit impersonal, name - Arzamas-16, which passed with it through the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Today the city, although it has ceased to be a state secret, remains a regime object and bears the historical name of Sarov. In the entire history of the atomic project, not a single spy has been able to penetrate there. Agree, there is some bitter irony in the fact that the nuclear bomb - the ripe fruit of the triumph of science, which managed to split the atom, the very foundation of the universe, and curb the power inherent in it - was born on the earth that was once considered a saint.
From this angle, the atmosphere of the strictest government secrecy turns a scientific feat into a sacred act. Into the new religion of the reborn country of victorious atheism.
Was it a coincidence or a subtle ideological design? Not so important.
Magazine: Historical Truth No. 1. Author: Aglaya Sobakina