In the summer of 1949, the first successful test of a nuclear charge took place in the Soviet Union. At that time, the United States had already used the new weapon twice.
Six months after the United States used its nuclear weapons in Japan, namely in March 1946, Winston Churchill announced the beginning of the Cold War in his speech in Fulton. Washington then believed that the Soviet Union would need at least ten years to create its own nuclear bomb, and in 1949 it was planned to start open hostilities.
However, three years later, the USSR conducted tests in Semipalatinsk, which ended the US monopoly.
Preparations for the test went on for almost forty years. For the first time, V. Vernadsky spoke about radioactive sources of atomic energy, more powerful than all those that a person could have imagined, at the beginning of the 20th century (1910) at a meeting of the Academy of Sciences. It was Vladimir Vernadsky who was the founder of the Radium Institute (RIAN) in 1922.
6 years later, Georgy Gamov presented the theory of nuclear alpha decay, and since the 1930s. nuclear physics has become one of the main directions of domestic physics. A nuclear group was soon formed under the leadership of Ioffe and Kurchatov, and the Soviet Union became the second country to introduce cyclotrons.
Already in 1940, Kurchatov made a statement that Soviet physicists had almost succeeded in conquering the chain reaction.
The first project of nuclear weapons developed by F. Lange's group was submitted for official consideration in 1940, but was not accepted. Nevertheless, the method proposed by Lange, namely the addition of 2 subcritical masses of uranium by detonating explosives, formed the basis for the creation of nuclear weapons.
In the mid-1930s, a campaign against everything foreign was launched in the Soviet Union, and nuclear physicists were very limited in acquaintance with all the advanced achievements in the development of atomic physics. Restrictions on research funding also began within the country.
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In 1942, on the basis of Kazan University, a secret laboratory number 2 was created, led by Kurchatov. In the winter of 1943, the State Defense Committee issued a decree on the start of applied nuclear research. At the same time, intelligence was active, supplying Soviet science with information on the advancement of American scientists. How the American atomic bomb is arranged, Soviet physicists learned half a month after its assembly.
In the summer of 1948, an enterprise under the code number 817 was organized in Chelyabinsk-40 specifically for the creation of nuclear weapons, and a reactor for the production of plutonium was built. In one year, enough radioactive material was produced for the bomb.
The first charge in the Soviet Union was designed according to the American scheme, which made it possible to shorten the time and eliminate the possibility of errors. However, later Soviet scientists revised it and proposed more effective solutions.
Technical requirements for a new type of weapon were being prepared for two of its types, more precisely, plutonium and uranium bombs. The first aerial bomb weighing more than four and a half tons, with a diameter of one and a half meters and a length of more than three meters, called RDS-1, was created for the Tu-4.
The tests of the RDS-1 took place near Semipalatinsk on a specially prepared parade ground about 10 km., On which equipment was placed to track and record data on the explosion, created sections of the subway, aircraft lanes with aircraft, samples of heavy armored vehicles, rocket launchers and even ships. The bomb was installed at a height of 37 and a half meters. The tests were supervised by I. Kurchatov himself. The explosion took place at 7 am on August 29. In terms of power, the charge was equal to 22 kilotons of TNT. After 20 minutes, two lead-armored tanks were sent for inspection, which reported that all structures had been destroyed.
From that moment on, the USSR became a nuclear power, and the United States, represented by President Harry Truman, had to admit this.
Anna Ponomareva
