The widely used term "Atomic Project of the USSR" is commonly understood as an extensive complex of fundamental scientific research, the purpose of which was the creation of weapons of mass destruction based on nuclear energy. This also included the development of relevant technologies and their practical implementation within the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union.
How was nuclear porridge brewed?
The origin of the atomic project of the USSR began back in the 20s, and the work related to it was carried out mainly by employees of the scientific centers established in Leningrad - the Radievsky and Physico-Technical Institutes. Moscow and Kharkov specialists worked alongside them. In the 1930s and until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the main emphasis was on research in the field of radiochemistry, a science that studies the processes associated with the decay of radioactive isotopes. The successes achieved in this particular field of knowledge have opened the way for the subsequent implementation of plans to create the deadliest weapon in the history of mankind. During the period of perestroika, documents related tothe first nuclear project in the USSR. A photo of one of these publications is placed in our article.
During the Great Patriotic War, the work started before did not stop, but their volumes were significantly reduced, since most of the material, technical and human resources were used to achieve victory over fascism. The conducted research was carried out in a regime of increased secrecy and was controlled by the NKVD (MVD) of the USSR. The atomic project and all related developments were given special importance, as a result of which they were constantly in the field of view of the country's top party leadership and personally I. V. Stalin.
Soviet agents in Western countries
It should be noted that other states, such as the United States and Great Britain, who developed nuclear programs and took part in the Second World War, vigorously continued their research during this period. In September 1941, through foreign intelligence channels, information was received that the employees of their research centers had achieved results that made it possible to create and use an atomic bomb even before the end of the war, and thereby influence its outcome in a direction beneficial to them. This was confirmed by the report of the British diplomat Donald McLane, who was recruited by the NKVD in the mid-1930s and became their secret agent, received in Moscow.
At the beginning of 1942, on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technical department of the NKVD, Colonel L. R. Kvasnikov, activemeasures aimed at obtaining data on the results of research conducted in scientific centers in America, with a view to using them in the atomic project of the USSR. Solving the tasks assigned to it, Soviet intelligence largely relied on the assistance of a number of prominent American physicists who understood the danger to mankind that a monopoly on the possession of nuclear weapons could pose, no matter in whose hands it turned out to be. Among them were such prominent researchers as Theodor Hall, Georges Koval, Klaus Fuchs and David Gringlas.
Fearless Vardo and her husband
However, the main merit in obtaining the most valuable information belongs to a pair of Soviet intelligence officers who acted in the United States under the guise of employees of a trade mission - Vasily Mikhailovich Zarubin and his wife Elizaveta Yulyevna, whose real name for many years remained hidden under the pseudonym Vardo. A Romanian Jew by origin, she was fluent in five European languages. Gifted by nature with a rare charm, and having mastered the recruiting technique to perfection, Elizabeth managed to turn many employees of the American nuclear center into free or involuntary employees of the NKVD.
According to colleagues, Vardo was the most qualified agent among them, and it was she who was entrusted with the most responsible operations. Based on information obtained by her and her husband, a message was sent to Moscow that the leading American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, in collaboration with a number of his colleagues, had begun to create some kind of superweapon, which meant the atomic bomb.
Sovietagent network in America
The key figures in the creation of a network of agents used to receive and transfer valuable information to Moscow were two people: NKVD resident Grigory Kheifits, who was in San Francisco, who appeared in the reports under the pseudonym Kharon, and his closest assistant, an intelligence colonel S. Ya. Semenov (pseudonym Twain). They were able to pinpoint the exact location of a secret laboratory where nuclear weapons were being developed.
As it turned out, she was located in the city of Los Alamos (New Mexico), on the territory that once belonged to a colony for juvenile delinquents. In addition, the code for the atomic project and the exact composition of its developers were established, among which were several people who participated at the invitation of the Soviet government in Stalin's construction projects and openly expressed leftist views. Contact was established with them, and after a carefully conducted recruitment, documents and materials that were extremely necessary for the implementation of the USSR atomic project began to arrive in Moscow through them.
The recruitment among the employees of the American nuclear center, and the introduction of their agents into their composition, brought the expected result: as evidenced by a number of archival materials, after only twelve days after the completion of the assembly of the world's first nuclear bomb, its detailed technical description was delivered to Moscow and submitted for consideration by the competent authorities. This made it possible to largely reduce the costs of the "Atomic Project of the USSR" and significantly reducethe timing of its implementation.
Post-war achievements of Soviet intelligence
The work of Soviet agents in America continued after the end of World War II. Thus, in July 1945, secret documents containing a report on a test explosion of a nuclear bomb carried out at the Alamogordo test site (New Mexico) were transferred to Moscow. Thanks to this information, it became known that a potential adversary was developing a new, at that time, method for the electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes, which was then used in the USSR atomic project.
It is curious to note that all the information obtained by Soviet agents was transmitted by radio in the form of encrypted reports and became the property of American radio interception services. However, neither the location of the spy radios nor the content of the messages sent by them could be established for many years thanks to a special encryption method developed on the instructions of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the USSR. American specialists managed to solve this problem only in the early 50s, after the creation of a new generation of computers, but by that time hundreds of documents mined and intended for the implementation of the USSR atomic project had already been included in domestic developments.
Important government initiative
However, one should not think that thermonuclear weapons appeared in the arsenals of the Soviet Union only thanks to the efforts of foreign intelligence. This is far from true. It is known that on September 28, 1942, a government decree was issued on measures toacceleration of the development of the atomic project in the USSR. The start date of this next stage of scientific research is not accidental. At the end of April of this year, the battle for Moscow ended victoriously, which, according to historians, determined the outcome of the entire Second World War, and the Kremlin leadership in its entirety faced the question of the further alignment of forces on the world stage. In this regard, the possession of nuclear weapons could play a key role.
Among the documents and materials of the USSR atomic project stored in the archives of the Armed Forces, there is a government circular dating from the beginning of October 1942 and addressed directly to the head of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician A. F. Ioffe. It ordered to resume as soon as possible the work carried out earlier, but suspended due to the outbreak of war, on the splitting of the uranium nucleus and the creation of the latest atomic weapons based on this technology. The progress of the research was to be reported to the top leadership of the country. The same document indicated the NKVD (MVD) and the State Defense Committee as curators of the USSR nuclear project.
Take emergency action
Work began immediately, and already in April of the same year, a secret "Laboratory No. 2" was created on the basis of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where, under the leadership of its head, Academician I. V. Kurchatov (the future "father of the Soviet atomic bomb") – previously interrupted studies resumed.
At the same time, the People's Commissariat of the Chemical Industry and its leader M. G. Pervukhin were giventask: within the framework of the implementation of the USSR Atomic Project, to build a number of enterprises for the production of raw materials for installations serving for the separation of uranium isotopes. It is noted that by the end of 1944, the bulk of the work had been completed, and 500 kg of metallic uranium had been obtained at the first, then experimental plant, and all the graphite blocks needed at that time had been received by Laboratory No. 2.
In pursuit of atomic trophies
As you know, the atomic scientists of the Third Reich also worked on the creation of an atomic bomb, and only the capitulation of Germany, signed in May 1945, prevented their completion. The results of their research were a rich military trophy and attracted the attention of the governments of the victorious countries.
Because by the time World War II ended, America already had its own atomic bomb, it was important for America not so much to obtain German technical documentation as to prevent Soviet intelligence services from doing so. In addition, for both sides, the reserves of uranium raw materials located in the occupied territory were of significant interest. The head of the main center of American nuclear development, Robert Oppenheimer, persistently demanded that the army command detect them and export them to the United States. The same goals were pursued by the authors of the atomic project in the USSR, the implementation of which was approaching its final stage.
In the spring of 1945, a real hunt for the German nuclear legacy began, success in which, sadly, turned out to be on the side of ourideological opponents. They seized and exported to America not only technical documents, but also the German specialists themselves, although they were not of interest to them, but capable of benefiting the opposing side. In addition, large reserves of radioactive uranium and the equipment of the mines where it was mined became their property.
In this case, the State Defense Committee, which directly oversaw the USSR Atomic Project, and the NKVD (MVD) were powerless. This was briefly reported back during the Khrushchev thaw, and more detailed information became available to the general public only during the years of perestroika. In particular, this issue is covered in detail in the published memoirs of the Soviet intelligence officer and saboteur Pavel Sudoplatov, who said that the NKVD officers still managed to capture several tons of enriched uranium from the storage facilities of the German research center Kaiser Wilhelm.
Disturbance of the balance of power on the world stage
After August 6, 1945, the American Air Force launched a nuclear attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, and three days later the same fate befell Nagasaki, the political situation in the world underwent dramatic changes and demanded that the implementation of the nuclear project in the USSR. The goals of the authors of this document, formulated back in the late 1930s and then adjusted to take into account the wartime situation, received new outlines due to the imbalance of power on the world stage.
Now that the destructive power of nuclear weapons has been demonstrateddemonstrated, the possession of it has become not only a factor determining the status of the state, but also the most important condition for its existence in the mode of confrontation between two political systems. In this regard, the further costs of creating an atomic bomb began to exceed by many times all other costs of the military-industrial complex of the Soviet Union.
Nuclear Shield Made Real
Thanks to the efforts made, the creation of the "Nuclear Shield of the Motherland" - as the atomic weapons were called in those years - was in full swing. Experimental design bureaus, which were tasked with creating equipment capable of producing uranium enriched on the basis of the 235 isotope, were created in Leningrad, Novosibirsk, and also in the Middle Urals, near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky. In addition, several laboratories appeared in which heavy water reactors designed for plutonium 239 were being developed. An increasing number of highly qualified specialists were involved in the implementation of the Atomic Program every year.
The first successful test of the Soviet atomic bomb took place on August 29, 1949 at the test site in Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). Despite the fact that the experiment was carried out in an atmosphere of heightened secrecy, after three days the Americans, having taken air samples in the Kamchatka region, found radioactive isotopes in them, indicating that they had now lost their monopoly on the most deadly weapon in the history of mankind. Since that time, between the states that were on opposite sides"Iron Curtain", a deadly race began, the leader of which was determined by the level of nuclear potential at his disposal. This served as an incentive for further, even more intensive work within the framework of the USSR nuclear project, briefly described in our article.
