The one who invented the atomic bomb could not even imagine what tragic consequences this miracle invention of the 20th century could lead to. It was a very long journey before the residents of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki experienced this superweapon.

A start has been made

In April 1903, Paul Langevin's friends gathered in the Parisian garden of France. The reason was the defense of the dissertation of the young and talented scientist Marie Curie. Among the distinguished guests was the famous English physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford. In the midst of the fun, the lights were turned off. announced to everyone that there would be a surprise. With a solemn look, Pierre Curie brought in a small tube with radium salts, which shone with a green light, causing extraordinary delight among those present. Subsequently, the guests heatedly discussed the future of this phenomenon. Everyone agreed that radium would solve the acute problem of energy shortages. This inspired everyone for new research and further prospects. If they had been told then that laboratory work with radioactive elements will lay the foundation for the terrible weapons of the 20th century, it is unknown what their reaction would have been. That's when the story began atomic bomb, which killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians.

Playing ahead

On December 17, 1938, the German scientist Otto Gann obtained irrefutable evidence of the decay of uranium into smaller elementary particles. Essentially, he managed to split the atom. In the scientific world, this was regarded as a new milestone in the history of mankind. Otto Gann did not share the political views of the Third Reich. Therefore, in the same year, 1938, the scientist was forced to move to Stockholm, where, together with Friedrich Strassmann, he continued his scientific research. Fearing that Nazi Germany will be the first to receive terrible weapons, he writes a letter warning about this. The news of a possible advance greatly alarmed the US government. The Americans began to act quickly and decisively.

Who created the atomic bomb? American project

Even before the group, many of whom were refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe, was tasked with the development of nuclear weapons. Initial research, it is worth noting, was carried out in Nazi Germany. In 1940, the government of the United States of America began funding its own program to develop atomic weapons. An incredible sum of two and a half billion dollars was allocated to implement the project. Outstanding physicists of the 20th century were invited to implement this secret project, among whom were more than ten Nobel laureates. In total, about 130 thousand employees were involved, among whom were not only military personnel, but also civilians. The development team was headed by Colonel Leslie Richard Groves, and Robert Oppenheimer became the scientific director. He is the man who invented the atomic bomb. A special secret engineering building was built in the Manhattan area, which we know under the code name “Manhattan Project”. Over the next few years, scientists from the secret project worked on the problem of nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium.

The non-peaceful atom of Igor Kurchatov

Today, every schoolchild will be able to answer the question of who invented the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And then, in the early 30s of the last century, no one knew this.

In 1932, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was one of the first in the world to begin studying the atomic nucleus. Gathering like-minded people around him, Igor Vasilyevich created the first cyclotron in Europe in 1937. In the same year, he and his like-minded people created the first artificial nuclei.

In 1939, I.V. Kurchatov began studying a new direction - nuclear physics. After several laboratory successes in studying this phenomenon, the scientist receives at his disposal a secret research center, which was named “Laboratory No. 2”. Nowadays this classified object is called "Arzamas-16".

The target direction of this center was the serious research and creation of nuclear weapons. Now it becomes obvious who created the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. His team then consisted of only ten people.

There will be an atomic bomb

By the end of 1945, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov managed to assemble a serious team of scientists numbering more than a hundred people. The best minds of various scientific specializations came to the laboratory from all over the country to create atomic weapons. After the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Soviet scientists realized that this could be done with the Soviet Union. "Laboratory No. 2" receives from the country's leadership a sharp increase in funding and a large influx of qualified personnel. Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria is appointed responsible for such an important project. The enormous efforts of Soviet scientists have borne fruit.

Semipalatinsk test site

The atomic bomb in the USSR was first tested at the test site in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). On August 29, 1949, a nuclear device with a yield of 22 kilotons shook the Kazakh soil. Nobel laureate physicist Otto Hanz said: “This is good news. If Russia has atomic weapons, then there will be no war.” It was this atomic bomb in the USSR, coded as product No. 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.

Atomic bomb. Year 1945

In the early morning of July 16, the Manhattan Project conducted its first successful test of an atomic device - a plutonium bomb - at the Alamogordo test site in New Mexico, USA.

The money invested in the project was well spent. The first in the history of mankind was carried out at 5:30 am.

“We have done the devil’s work,” the one who invented the atomic bomb in the USA, later called “the father of the atomic bomb,” will say later.

Japan will not capitulate

By the time of the final and successful testing of the atomic bomb Soviet troops and the Allies finally defeated Nazi Germany. However, there was one state that promised to fight to the end for dominance in the Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes against allied forces, thereby inflicting heavy losses on the US army. At the end of July 1945, the militaristic Japanese government rejected the Allied demand for surrender under the Potsdam Declaration. It stated, in particular, that in case of disobedience, the Japanese army would face rapid and complete destruction.

The President agrees

The American government kept its word and began a targeted bombing of Japanese military positions. Air strikes did not bring any results desired result, and US President Harry Truman decides to invade Japan by American troops. However, the military command dissuades its president from such a decision, citing the fact that an American invasion would entail a large number of casualties.

At the suggestion of Henry Lewis Stimson and Dwight David Eisenhower, it was decided to use more effective way end of the war. A big supporter of the atomic bomb, US Presidential Secretary James Francis Byrnes, believed that the bombing of Japanese territories would finally end the war and put the United States in a dominant position, which would have a positive impact on the further course of events in the post-war world. Thus, US President Harry Truman was convinced that this was the only correct option.

Atomic bomb. Hiroshima

The small Japanese city of Hiroshima with a population of just over 350 thousand people, located five hundred miles from the capital of Japan, Tokyo, was chosen as the first target. After the modified B-29 Enola Gay bomber arrived at the US naval base on Tinian Island, an atomic bomb was installed on board the aircraft. Hiroshima was to experience the effects of 9 thousand pounds of uranium-235.

This never-before-seen weapon was intended for civilians in a small Japanese town. The bomber's commander was Colonel Paul Warfield Tibbetts Jr. The US atomic bomb bore the cynical name “Baby”. On the morning of August 6, 1945, at approximately 8:15 a.m., the American “Little” was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. About 15 thousand tons of TNT destroyed all life within a radius of five square miles. One hundred and forty thousand city residents died in a matter of seconds. The surviving Japanese died a painful death from radiation sickness.

They were destroyed by the American atomic “Baby”. However, the devastation of Hiroshima did not cause the immediate surrender of Japan, as everyone expected. Then it was decided to carry out another bombing of Japanese territory.

Nagasaki. The sky is on fire

The American atomic bomb “Fat Man” was installed on board a B-29 aircraft on August 9, 1945, still there, at the US naval base in Tinian. This time the aircraft commander was Major Charles Sweeney. Initially, the strategic target was the city of Kokura.

However, weather conditions did not allow the plan to be carried out; heavy clouds interfered. Charles Sweeney went into the second round. At 11:02 a.m., the American nuclear “Fat Man” engulfed Nagasaki. It was a more powerful destructive air strike, which was several times stronger than the bombing in Hiroshima. Nagasaki tested an atomic weapon weighing about 10 thousand pounds and 22 kilotons of TNT.

The geographic location of the Japanese city reduced the expected effect. The thing is that the city is located in a narrow valley between the mountains. Therefore, the destruction of 2.6 square miles did not reveal the full potential of American weapons. The Nagasaki atomic bomb test is considered the failed Manhattan Project.

Japan surrendered

At noon on August 15, 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his country's surrender in a radio address to the people of Japan. This news quickly spread around the world. Celebrations began in the United States of America to mark the victory over Japan. The people rejoiced.

On September 2, 1945, a formal agreement to end the war was signed aboard the American battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. Thus ended the most brutal and bloody war in human history.

For six long years, the world community has been moving towards this significant date - since September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany were fired in Poland.

Peaceful atom

In total, 124 nuclear explosions were carried out in the Soviet Union. What is characteristic is that all of them were carried out for the benefit of the national economy. Only three of them were accidents that resulted in the leakage of radioactive elements. Programs for the use of peaceful atoms were implemented in only two countries - the USA and the Soviet Union. Nuclear peaceful energy also knows an example of a global catastrophe, when a reactor exploded at the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

In the second half of the 40s, the leadership of the country of the Soviets was quite concerned that America already had weapons unprecedented in their destructive power, but the Soviet Union did not yet have them. Immediately after the end of World War II, the country was extremely wary of US superiority, whose plans were not only to weaken the position of the USSR in a constant arms race, but perhaps even to destroy it through a nuclear strike. In our country, the fate of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was well remembered.

In order to prevent the threat from constantly looming over the country, it was urgently necessary to create our own, powerful and terrifying weapons. Your own atomic bomb. It was very helpful that in their research, Soviet scientists could use data obtained during the occupation on German V-missiles, as well as apply other research obtained from Soviet intelligence in the West. For example, very important data was secretly transmitted, risking their lives, by American scientists themselves, who understood the need for nuclear balance.

After the terms of reference were approved, large-scale activities began to create an atomic bomb.

The leadership of the project was entrusted to the outstanding nuclear scientist Igor Kurchatov, and a specially created committee, which was supposed to control the process, was headed by.

During the research process, the need arose for a special research organization at whose sites this “product” would be designed and developed. The research, which was carried out by Laboratory N2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences, required a remote and preferably deserted place. In other words, it was necessary to create a special center for the development of nuclear weapons. Moreover, what is interesting is that the development was carried out simultaneously in two versions: using plutonium and uranium-235, heavy and light fuel, respectively. Another feature: the bomb had to be of a certain size:

• no more than 5 meters long;
• with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters;
• weighing no more than 5 tons.

Such strict parameters of a deadly weapon were explained simply: the bomb was developed for a specific model of aircraft: the TU-4, the hatch of which did not allow larger objects to pass through.

The first Soviet nuclear weapon had the abbreviation RDS-1. Unofficial transcripts were different, from: “The Motherland gives Stalin”, to: “Russia does it itself,” but in official documents it was interpreted as: “Jet engine “C””. In the summer of 1949, the most important event for the USSR and the whole world took place: in Kazakhstan, at the Semipalatinsk test site, a deadly weapon was tested. This happened at 7.00 local time and at 4.00 Moscow time.

This happened on a tower 37 and a half meters high, which was installed in the middle of a twenty-kilometer field. The power of the explosion was 20 kilotons of TNT.

This event once and for all ended the nuclear dominance of the United States, and the USSR began to proudly be called the second, after the United States, nuclear power in the world.

A month later, TASS told the world about the successful testing of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union, and a month later the scientists who worked on the invention of the atomic bomb were awarded. All of them received high awards and substantial state prizes.

Today, a model of that same bomb, namely: the body, the RDS-1 charge and the remote control with which it was detonated, is located in the country’s first nuclear weapons museum. The museum, which stores authentic samples of legendary products, is located in the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region.

The emergence of such a powerful weapon as a nuclear bomb was the result of the interaction of global factors of an objective and subjective nature. Objectively, its creation was caused by the rapid development of science, which began with the fundamental discoveries of physics in the first half of the twentieth century. The strongest subjective factor was the military-political situation of the 40s, when countries anti-Hitler coalition- USA, Great Britain, USSR - tried to get ahead of each other in the development of nuclear weapons.

Prerequisites for the creation of a nuclear bomb

The starting point of the scientific path to the creation of atomic weapons was 1896, when the French chemist A. Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium. It was the chain reaction of this element that formed the basis for the development of terrible weapons.

At the end of the 19th and in the first decades of the 20th century, scientists discovered alpha, beta, and gamma rays, discovered many radioactive isotopes of chemical elements, the law of radioactive decay, and laid the foundation for the study of nuclear isometry. In the 1930s, the neutron and positron became known, and the nucleus of a uranium atom was split for the first time with the absorption of neutrons. This was the impetus for the beginning of the creation of nuclear weapons. The first to invent and patent the design of a nuclear bomb in 1939 was the French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie.

As a result of further development, nuclear weapons have become a historically unprecedented military-political and strategic phenomenon capable of ensuring the national security of the possessor state and minimizing the capabilities of all other weapons systems.

The design of an atomic bomb consists of a number of different components, of which two main ones are distinguished:

• frame,
• automation system.

The automation, together with the nuclear charge, is located in a housing that protects them from various influences (mechanical, thermal, etc.). The automation system controls that the explosion occurs at a strictly specified time. It consists of the following elements:

• emergency explosion;
• safety and cocking device;
• power supply;
• charge explosion sensors.

Delivery of atomic charges is carried out using aviation, ballistic and cruise missiles. In this case, nuclear weapons can be an element of a landmine, torpedo, aerial bomb, etc.

Nuclear bomb detonation systems vary. The simplest is the injection device, in which the impetus for the explosion is hitting the target and the subsequent formation of a supercritical mass.

Another characteristic of atomic weapons is the caliber size: small, medium, large. Most often, the power of an explosion is characterized in TNT equivalent. A small caliber nuclear weapon implies a charge power of several thousand tons of TNT. The average caliber is already equal to tens of thousands of tons of TNT, the large one is measured in millions.

Operating principle

The atomic bomb design is based on the principle of using nuclear energy released during a nuclear chain reaction. This is the process of fission of heavy or fusion of light nuclei. Due to the release of a huge amount of intranuclear energy in the shortest period of time, a nuclear bomb is classified as a weapon of mass destruction.

During this process, there are two key places:

• the center of a nuclear explosion in which the process directly takes place;
• the epicenter, which is the projection of this process onto the surface (of land or water).

At nuclear explosion such an amount of energy is released that, when projected onto the earth, causes seismic tremors. The range of their spread is very large, but significant damage environment is applied at a distance of only a few hundred meters.

Atomic weapons have several types of destruction:

• light radiation,
• radioactive contamination,
• shock wave,
• penetrating radiation,
• electromagnetic pulse.

A nuclear explosion is accompanied by a bright flash, which is formed due to the release of a large amount of light and thermal energy. The power of this flash is many times higher than the power of the sun's rays, so the danger of light and heat damage extends over several kilometers.

Another very dangerous factor in the impact of a nuclear bomb is the radiation generated during the explosion. It only acts for the first 60 seconds, but has maximum penetrating power.

The shock wave has great power and a significant destructive effect, so in a matter of seconds it causes enormous harm to people, equipment, and buildings.

Penetrating radiation is dangerous for living organisms and causes the development of radiation sickness in humans. The electromagnetic pulse affects only equipment.

All these types of damage together make the atomic bomb a very dangerous weapon.

First nuclear bomb tests

The United States was the first to show the greatest interest in atomic weapons. At the end of 1941, the country allocated enormous funds and resources for the creation of nuclear weapons. The result of the work was the first tests of an atomic bomb with the Gadget explosive device, which took place on July 16, 1945 in the US state of New Mexico.

The time has come for the United States to act. To bring the Second World War to a victorious end, it was decided to defeat Hitler's Germany's ally, Japan. The Pentagon selected targets for the first nuclear strikes, at which the United States wanted to demonstrate how powerful weapons it possessed.

On August 6 of the same year, the first atomic bomb, named "Baby," was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and on August 9, a bomb named "Fat Man" fell on Nagasaki.

The hit in Hiroshima was considered perfect: the nuclear device exploded at an altitude of 200 meters. The blast wave overturned stoves in Japanese houses, heated by coal. This led to numerous fires even in urban areas far from the epicenter.

The initial flash was followed by a heat wave that lasted seconds, but its power, covering a radius of 4 km, melted tiles and quartz in granite slabs, and incinerated telegraph poles. Following the heat wave came a shock wave. The wind speed was 800 km/h, and its gust destroyed almost everything in the city. Of the 76 thousand buildings, 70 thousand were completely destroyed.

A few minutes later a strange rain of large black drops began to fall. It was caused by condensation formed in the colder layers of the atmosphere from steam and ash.

People caught in the fireball at a distance of 800 meters were burned and turned to dust. Some had their burnt skin torn off by the shock wave. Drops of black radioactive rain left incurable burns.

The survivors fell ill with a previously unknown disease. They began to experience nausea, vomiting, fever, and attacks of weakness. The level of white cells in the blood dropped sharply. These were the first signs of radiation sickness.

3 days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. It had the same power and caused similar consequences.

Two atomic bombs destroyed hundreds of thousands of people in seconds. The first city was practically wiped off the face of the earth by the shock wave. More than half of the civilians (about 240 thousand people) died immediately from their wounds. Many people were exposed to radiation, which led to radiation sickness, cancer, and infertility. In Nagasaki, 73 thousand people were killed in the first days, and after some time another 35 thousand inhabitants died in great agony.

Video: nuclear bomb tests

Tests of RDS-37

Creation of the atomic bomb in Russia

The consequences of the bombings and the history of the inhabitants of Japanese cities shocked I. Stalin. It became clear that creating our own nuclear weapons is a matter of national security. On August 20, 1945, the Atomic Energy Committee began its work in Russia, headed by L. Beria.

Research on nuclear physics has been carried out in the USSR since 1918. In 1938, a commission on the atomic nucleus was created at the Academy of Sciences. But with the outbreak of the war, almost all work in this direction was suspended.

In 1943, Soviet intelligence officers transferred from England classified scientific works on atomic energy, from which it followed that the creation of the atomic bomb in the West had advanced far ahead. At the same time, reliable agents were introduced into several American nuclear research centers in the United States. They passed on information about the atomic bomb to Soviet scientists.

The terms of reference for the development of two versions of the atomic bomb were drawn up by their creator and one of the scientific supervisors, Yu. Khariton. In accordance with it, it was planned to create an RDS (“ jet engine special") with index 1 and 2:

1. RDS-1 is a bomb with a plutonium charge, which was supposed to be detonated by spherical compression. His device was handed over to Russian intelligence.
2. RDS-2 is a cannon bomb with two parts of a uranium charge, which must converge in the gun barrel until a critical mass is created.

In the history of the famous RDS, the most common decoding - “Russia does it itself” - was invented by Yu. Khariton’s deputy for scientific work K. Shchelkin. These words very accurately conveyed the essence of the work.

The information that the USSR had mastered the secrets of nuclear weapons caused a rush in the United States to quickly start a preemptive war. In July 1949, the Trojan plan appeared, according to which fighting planned to begin on January 1, 1950. The date of the attack was then moved to January 1, 1957, with the condition that all NATO countries would enter the war.

Information received through intelligence channels accelerated the work of Soviet scientists. According to Western experts, Soviet nuclear weapons could not have been created earlier than 1954-1955. However, the test of the first atomic bomb took place in the USSR at the end of August 1949.

At the test site in Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949, the RDS-1 nuclear device was blown up - the first Soviet atomic bomb, which was invented by a team of scientists led by I. Kurchatov and Yu. Khariton. The explosion had a power of 22 kt. The design of the charge imitated the American "Fat Man", and electronic filling was created by Soviet scientists.

The Trojan plan, according to which the Americans were going to drop atomic bombs on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the likelihood of a retaliatory strike. The event at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world that the Soviet atomic bomb ended the American monopoly on the possession of new weapons. This invention completely destroyed the militaristic plan of the USA and NATO and prevented the development of the Third World War. Started new story- an era of world peace, existing under the threat of total destruction.

"Nuclear Club" of the world

The nuclear club is a symbol for several states that possess nuclear weapons. Today we have such weapons:

• in the USA (since 1945)
• in Russia (originally USSR, since 1949)
• in Great Britain (since 1952)
• in France (since 1960)
• in China (since 1964)
• in India (since 1974)
• in Pakistan (since 1998)
• in North Korea (since 2006)

Israel is also considered to have nuclear weapons, although the country's leadership does not comment on its presence. In addition, on the territory of NATO member states (Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada) and allies (Japan, South Korea, despite the official refusal) US nuclear weapons are located.

Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, which owned part of the nuclear weapons after the collapse of the USSR, transferred them to Russia in the 90s, which became the sole heir to the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

Atomic (nuclear) weapons are the most powerful instrument of global politics, which has firmly entered the arsenal of relations between states. On the one hand, it is effective means deterrence, on the other hand, a powerful argument for preventing military conflict and strengthening peace between the powers that own these weapons. This is a symbol of an entire era in the history of mankind and international relations, which must be handled very wisely.

Video: Nuclear Weapons Museum

Video about the Russian Tsar Bomba

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When did the Second end? world war, the Soviet Union was faced with two serious problems: destroyed cities, towns, and national economic facilities, the restoration of which required enormous effort and expense, as well as the presence of unprecedented weapons of destructive power in the United States, which had already dropped nuclear weapons on civilian cities in Japan. The first test of an atomic bomb in the USSR changed the balance of power, possibly preventing a new war.

Background

The initial lag of the Soviet Union in the atomic race had objective reasons:

• Although the development of nuclear physics in the country, starting in the 20s of the last century, was successful, and in 1940 scientists proposed to begin developing weapons based on atomic energy, even the initial design of a bomb, developed by F.F., was ready. Lange, but the outbreak of war dashed these plans.
• Intelligence about the start of large-scale work in this area in Germany and the United States spurred the country's leadership to respond. In 1942, a secret decree of the State Defense Committee was signed, which gave rise to practical steps to create Soviet atomic weapons.
• The USSR, waging a full-scale war, unlike the USA, which earned more from it in financially what Nazi Germany lost, he could not invest in his nuclear project huge funds so necessary for victory.

The turning point was the militarily senseless bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After this, at the end of August 1945, L.P. became the curator of the atomic project. Beria, who did a lot to make the tests of the first atomic bomb in the USSR a reality.

Possessing brilliant organizational skills and enormous powers, he not only created conditions for the fruitful work of Soviet scientists, but also attracted those German specialists, captured at the end of the war and not given to the Americans who participated in the creation of the atomic “wunderwaffe”. Technical data about the American “Manhattan Project”, successfully “borrowed” by Soviet intelligence officers, served as a good help.

The first atomic munition RDS-1 was mounted in an aircraft bomb body (length 3.3 m, diameter 1.5 m) weighing 4.7 tons. Such characteristics were due to the size of the bomb bay of the TU-4 heavy bomber of long-range aviation, capable of delivering “gifts” to the military bases of the former ally in Europe.

Product No. 1 used plutonium produced at an industrial reactor, enriched at a chemical plant in secret Chelyabinsk - 40. All work was carried out in the shortest possible time - to obtain required quantity It took only a year to charge the atomic bomb with plutonium from the summer of 1948, when the reactor was launched. Time was a critical factor, because against the backdrop of the US threatening the USSR, waving, by their own definition, an atomic “club”, it was impossible to hesitate.

A testing ground for new weapons was created in a deserted area 170 km from Semipalatinsk. The choice was due to the presence of a plain with a diameter of about 20 km, surrounded on three sides by low mountains. Construction of the nuclear test site was completed in the summer of 1949.

A tower made of metal structures about 40 m high, intended for RDS - 1. Underground shelters were built for personnel, scientists, and to study the impact of the explosion, a military equipment, buildings and industrial structures of various designs were erected, and recording equipment was installed.

Tests with a power corresponding to the detonation of 22 thousand tons of TNT took place on August 29, 1949 and were successful. A deep crater at the location of the above-ground charge, destroyed by a shock wave, exposure high temperature equipment explosions, demolished or heavily damaged buildings, structures confirmed new weapons.

The consequences of the first trial were significant:

• The Soviet Union received an effective weapon to deter any aggressor and deprived the United States of its nuclear monopoly.
• During the creation of weapons, reactors were built, the scientific base of a new industry was created, and previously unknown technologies were developed.
• Although the military part of the atomic project was the main one at that time, it was not the only one. The peaceful use of nuclear energy, the foundations of which were laid by a team of scientists led by I.V. Kurchatov, served the future creation of nuclear power plants and the synthesis of new elements of the periodic table.

The tests of the atomic bomb in the USSR again showed the whole world that our country is capable of solving problems of any complexity. It should be remembered that thermonuclear charges installed in the warheads of modern missile delivery vehicles and other nuclear weapons, which are a reliable shield for Russia, are the “great-grandchildren” of that first bomb.

A democratic form of governance must be established in the USSR.

Vernadsky V.I.

The atomic bomb in the USSR was created on August 29, 1949 (the first successful launch). The project was led by academician Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov. The period of development of atomic weapons in the USSR lasted from 1942, and ended with testing on the territory of Kazakhstan. This broke the US monopoly on such weapons, because since 1945 they were the only nuclear power. The article is devoted to describing the history of the emergence of the Soviet nuclear bomb, as well as characterizing the consequences of these events for the USSR.

History of creation

In 1941, representatives of the USSR in New York conveyed information to Stalin that a meeting of physicists was being held in the United States, which was devoted to the development of nuclear weapons. Soviet scientists in the 1930s also worked on atomic research, the most famous being the splitting of the atom by scientists from Kharkov led by L. Landau. However, it never came to the point of actual use in weapons. In addition to the United States, Nazi Germany worked on this. At the end of 1941, the United States began its atomic project. Stalin learned about this at the beginning of 1942 and signed a decree on the creation of a laboratory in the USSR to create an atomic project; Academician I. Kurchatov became its leader.

There is an opinion that the work of US scientists was accelerated by the secret developments of German colleagues who came to America. In any case, in the summer of 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, the new US President G. Truman informed Stalin about the completion of work on a new weapon - the atomic bomb. Moreover, to demonstrate the work of American scientists, the US government decided to test the new weapon in combat: on August 6 and 9, bombs were dropped on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the first time that humanity learned about a new weapon. It was this event that forced Stalin to speed up the work of his scientists. I. Kurchatov was summoned by Stalin and promised to fulfill any demands of the scientist, as long as the process proceeded as quickly as possible. Moreover, it was created state committee under the Council of People's Commissars, which oversaw the Soviet nuclear project. It was headed by L. Beria.

Development has moved to three centers:

1. The design bureau of the Kirov plant, working on the creation of special equipment.
2. A diffuse plant in the Urals, which was supposed to work on the creation of enriched uranium.
3. Chemical and metallurgical centers where plutonium was studied. It was this element that was used in the first Soviet-style nuclear bomb.

In 1946, the first Soviet unified nuclear center was created. It was a secret facility Arzamas-16, located in the city of Sarov ( Nizhny Novgorod region). In 1947, the first nuclear reactor was created at an enterprise near Chelyabinsk. In 1948, a secret training ground was created on the territory of Kazakhstan, near the city of Semipalatinsk-21. It was here that on August 29, 1949, the first explosion of the Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was organized. This event was kept completely secret, but American Pacific aviation was able to record sharp increase radiation levels, which was evidence of testing a new weapon. Already in September 1949, G. Truman announced the presence of an atomic bomb in the USSR. Officially, the USSR admitted to the presence of these weapons only in 1950.

Several main consequences of the successful development of atomic weapons by Soviet scientists can be identified:

1. Loss of the US status as a single state with atomic weapons. This not only equalized the USSR with the USA in terms of military power, but also forced the latter to think through each of their military steps, since now they had to fear for the response of the USSR leadership.
2. The presence of atomic weapons in the USSR secured its status as a superpower.
3. After the USA and the USSR were equalized in the availability of atomic weapons, the race for their quantity began. States spent huge amounts of money to outdo their competitors. Moreover, attempts began to create even more powerful weapons.
4. These events marked the start of the nuclear race. Many countries have begun to invest resources to add to the list of nuclear weapons states and ensure their security.