Development of the atomic bomb. The non-peaceful atom of Igor Kurchatov

Fathers atomic bomb usually called the American Robert Oppenheimer and the Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov. But considering that work on the deadly was carried out in parallel in four countries and, in addition to scientists from these countries, people from Italy, Hungary, Denmark, etc. participated in it, the resulting bomb can rightly be called the brainchild of different peoples.

The Germans were the first to get down to business. In December 1938, their physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann were the first in the world to artificially split the nucleus of a uranium atom. In April 1939, the German military leadership received a letter from Hamburg University professors P. Harteck and W. Groth, which indicated the fundamental possibility of creating a new type of highly effective explosive. Scientists wrote: “The country that is the first to be able to practically master the achievements nuclear physics, will acquire absolute superiority over others." And now the Imperial Ministry of Science and Education is holding a meeting on the topic “On a self-propagating (that is, chain) nuclear reaction.” Among the participants is Professor E. Schumann, head of the research department of the Armament Directorate of the Third Reich. Without delay, we moved from words to deeds. Already in June 1939, construction began on Germany's first reactor plant at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed banning the export of uranium outside Germany, and the Belgian Congo urgently purchased large number uranium ore.

Germany starts and... loses

On September 26, 1939, when war was already raging in Europe, it was decided to classify all work related to the uranium problem and the implementation of the program, called the “Uranium Project”. The scientists involved in the project were initially very optimistic: they believed it was possible to create nuclear weapons within a year. They were wrong, as life has shown.

22 organizations were involved in the project, including such well-known scientific centers as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society Physics Institute, the Institute physical chemistry University of Hamburg, Physics Institute of the Higher Technical School in Berlin, Physico-Chemical Institute of the University of Leipzig and many others. The project was personally supervised by the Reich Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. The IG Farbenindustry concern was entrusted with the production of uranium hexafluoride, from which it is possible to extract the uranium-235 isotope, capable of maintaining a chain reaction. The same company was also entrusted with the construction of an isotope separation plant. Such venerable scientists as Heisenberg, Weizsäcker, von Ardenne, Riehl, Pose, Nobel laureate Gustav Hertz and others directly participated in the work.

Over the course of two years, Heisenberg's group carried out the research necessary to create a nuclear reactor using uranium and heavy water. It was confirmed that only one of the isotopes can serve as an explosive, namely uranium-235, contained in a very small concentration in ordinary uranium ore. The first problem was how to isolate it from there. The starting point of the bomb program was nuclear reactor, which required graphite or heavy water as a reaction moderator. German physicists chose water, thereby creating for themselves serious problem. After the occupation of Norway, the world's only heavy water production plant at that time passed into the hands of the Nazis. But there, at the beginning of the war, the supply of the product needed by physicists was only tens of kilograms, and even they did not go to the Germans - the French stole valuable products literally from under the noses of the Nazis. And in February 1943, British commandos sent to Norway, with the help of local resistance fighters, put the plant out of commission. The implementation of Germany's nuclear program was under threat. The misfortunes of the Germans did not end there: an experimental nuclear reactor exploded in Leipzig. The uranium project was supported by Hitler only as long as there was hope of getting more powerful weapon until the end of the war he started. Heisenberg was invited by Speer and asked directly: “When can we expect the creation of a bomb capable of being suspended from a bomber?” The scientist was honest: “I believe it will take several years of hard work, in any case, the bomb will not be able to influence the outcome of the current war.” The German leadership rationally considered that there was no point in forcing events. Let the scientists work quietly - you'll see they'll be in time for the next war. As a result, Hitler decided to concentrate scientific, production and financial resources only on projects that would give the fastest return in the creation of new types of weapons. Government funding for the uranium project was curtailed. Nevertheless, the work of scientists continued.

In 1944, Heisenberg received cast uranium plates for a large reactor plant, for which a special bunker was already being built in Berlin. The last experiment to achieve a chain reaction was scheduled for January 1945, but on January 31 all the equipment was hastily dismantled and sent from Berlin to the village of Haigerloch near the Swiss border, where it was deployed only at the end of February. The reactor contained 664 cubes of uranium with a total weight of 1525 kg, surrounded by a graphite moderator-neutron reflector weighing 10 tons. In March 1945, an additional 1.5 tons of heavy water was poured into the core. On March 23, Berlin was reported that the reactor was operational. But the joy was premature - the reactor did not reach the critical point, the chain reaction did not start. After recalculations, it turned out that the amount of uranium must be increased by at least 750 kg, proportionally increasing the mass of heavy water. But there were no more reserves of either one or the other. The end of the Third Reich was inexorably approaching. On April 23, American troops entered Haigerloch. The reactor was dismantled and transported to the USA.

Meanwhile overseas

In parallel with the Germans (only with a slight lag) developments atomic weapons started in England and the USA. They began with a letter sent in September 1939 by Albert Einstein to US President Franklin Roosevelt. The initiators of the letter and the authors of most of the text were physicists-emigrants from Hungary Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller. The letter drew the president's attention to the fact that Nazi Germany was conducting active research, as a result of which it might soon acquire an atomic bomb.

In the USSR, the first information about the work carried out by both the allies and the enemy was reported to Stalin by intelligence back in 1943. A decision was immediately made to launch similar work in the Union. Thus began the Soviet nuclear project. Not only scientists received assignments, but also intelligence officers, for whom the extraction of nuclear secrets became a top priority.

The most valuable information about the work on the atomic bomb in the United States, obtained by intelligence, greatly helped the advancement of the Soviet nuclear project. The scientists participating in it were able to avoid dead-end search paths, thereby significantly accelerating the achievement of the final goal.

Experience of recent enemies and allies

Naturally, the Soviet leadership could not remain indifferent to German atomic developments. At the end of the war, a group of Soviet physicists was sent to Germany, among whom were future academicians Artsimovich, Kikoin, Khariton, Shchelkin. Everyone was camouflaged in the uniform of Red Army colonels. The operation was led by First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov, which opened any doors. In addition to the necessary German scientists, the “colonels” found tons of uranium metal, which, according to Kurchatov, shortened the work on the Soviet bomb by at least a year. The Americans also removed a lot of uranium from Germany, taking along the specialists who worked on the project. And in the USSR, in addition to physicists and chemists, they sent mechanics, electrical engineers, and glassblowers. Some were found in prisoner of war camps. For example, Max Steinbeck, the future Soviet academician and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, was taken away when, at the whim of the camp commander, he was making a sundial. In total, at least 1,000 German specialists worked on the nuclear project in the USSR. The von Ardenne laboratory with a uranium centrifuge, equipment from the Kaiser Institute of Physics, documentation, and reagents were completely removed from Berlin. As part of the atomic project, laboratories “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” were created, the scientific directors of which were scientists who arrived from Germany.

Laboratory “A” was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne, a talented physicist who developed a method of gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge. At first, his laboratory was located on Oktyabrsky Pole in Moscow. Each German specialist was assigned five or six Soviet engineers. Later the laboratory moved to Sukhumi, and over time the famous Kurchatov Institute grew up on Oktyabrsky Field. In Sukhumi, on the basis of the von Ardenne laboratory, the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology was formed. In 1947, Ardenne was awarded the Stalin Prize for creating a centrifuge for purifying uranium isotopes in industrial scale. Six years later, Ardenne became a two-time Stalinist laureate. He lived with his wife in a comfortable mansion, his wife played music on a piano brought from Germany. Other German specialists were not offended either: they came with their families, brought with them furniture, books, paintings, and were provided with good salaries and food. Were they prisoners? Academician A.P. Aleksandrov, himself an active participant in the atomic project, noted: “Of course, the German specialists were prisoners, but we ourselves were prisoners.”

Nikolaus Riehl, a native of St. Petersburg who moved to Germany in the 1920s, became the head of Laboratory B, which conducted research in the field of radiation chemistry and biology in the Urals (now the city of Snezhinsk). Here, Riehl worked with his old friend from Germany, the outstanding Russian biologist-geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky (“Bison” based on the novel by D. Granin).

Having received recognition in the USSR as a researcher and talented organizer who knows how to find effective solutions complex problems, Dr. Riehl became one of the key figures in the Soviet atomic project. After successfully testing a Soviet bomb, he became a Hero of Socialist Labor and a Stalin Prize laureate.

The work of Laboratory B, organized in Obninsk, was headed by Professor Rudolf Pose, one of the pioneers in the field of nuclear research. Under his leadership, fast neutron reactors were created, the first nuclear power plant in the Union, and the design of reactors for submarines began. The facility in Obninsk became the basis for the organization of the Physics and Energy Institute named after A.I. Leypunsky. Pose worked until 1957 in Sukhumi, then at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna.

The head of Laboratory "G", located in the Sukhumi sanatorium "Agudzery", was Gustav Hertz, the nephew of the famous physicist of the 19th century, himself a famous scientist. He was recognized for a series of experiments that confirmed Niels Bohr's theory of the atom and quantum mechanics. The results of his very successful activities in Sukhumi were later used at an industrial installation built in Novouralsk, where in 1949 the filling for the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was developed. For his achievements within the framework of the atomic project, Gustav Hertz was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1951.

German specialists who received permission to return to their homeland (naturally, to the GDR) signed a non-disclosure agreement for 25 years about their participation in the Soviet atomic project. In Germany they continued to work in their specialty. Thus, Manfred von Ardenne, twice awarded the National Prize of the GDR, served as director of the Institute of Physics in Dresden, created under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Applications of Atomic Energy, headed by Gustav Hertz. Hertz also received a national prize as the author of a three-volume textbook on nuclear physics. Rudolf Pose also worked there, in Dresden, at the Technical University.

The participation of German scientists in the atomic project, as well as the successes of intelligence officers, in no way detract from the merits of Soviet scientists, whose selfless work ensured the creation of domestic atomic weapons. However, it must be admitted that without the contribution of both of them, the creation of the nuclear industry and atomic weapons in the USSR would have dragged on for many years.

Little Boy
The American uranium bomb that destroyed Hiroshima had a cannon design. Soviet nuclear scientists, when creating the RDS-1, were guided by the “Nagasaki bomb” - Fat Boy, made of plutonium using an implosion design.

Manfred von Ardenne, who developed a method for gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge.

Operation Crossroads was a series of atomic bomb tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. The goal was to test the effect of atomic weapons on ships.

Help from overseas

In 1933, German communist Klaus Fuchs fled to England. Having received a degree in physics from the University of Bristol, he continued to work. In 1941, Fuchs reported his participation in atomic research to Soviet intelligence agent Jurgen Kuczynski, who informed Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attaché to urgently establish contact with Fuchs, who was going to be transported to the United States as part of a group of scientists. Fuchs agreed to work for Soviet intelligence. Many Soviet illegal intelligence officers were involved in working with him: the Zarubins, Eitingon, Vasilevsky, Semenov and others. As a result of their active work, already in January 1945 the USSR had a description of the design of the first atomic bomb. At the same time, the Soviet station in the United States reported that the Americans would need at least one year, but no more than five years, to create a significant arsenal of atomic weapons. The report also said that the first two bombs could be detonated within a few months.

Pioneers of nuclear fission

K. A. Petrzhak and G. N. Flerov
In 1940, in the laboratory of Igor Kurchatov, two young physicists discovered a new, very peculiar appearance radioactive decay of atomic nuclei - spontaneous fission.

Otto Hahn
In December 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann were the first in the world to artificially split the nucleus of a uranium atom.

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 a dissertation by a young and talented scientist Maria 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. It was then that the story of the atomic bomb began, killing 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 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 would be the first to receive terrible weapon, 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). August 29, 1949 nuclear device with a power of 22 kilotons shook the Kazakh land. 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, encrypted as product No. 501, or RDS-1, that eliminated the US monopoly on nuclear weapons.

Atomic bomb. Year 1945

Early on the morning of July 16, the Manhattan Project conducted its first successful test. atomic device- plutonium bomb - at the Alamogordo test site, 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 remained one state that promised to fight to the end for dominance in Pacific Ocean. From mid-April to mid-July 1945, the Japanese army repeatedly carried out air strikes against allied forces, thereby causing big losses 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 the desired result, and US President Harry Truman decides to invade American troops to the territory of Japan. 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 a more effective way to end 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 They did not allow us to carry out our plans; large 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 its full potential 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.

Six long years world community has been leading up to this significant date - since September 1, 1939, when the first shots of Nazi Germany were fired on the territory of Poland.

Peaceful atom

In total, 124 were carried out in the Soviet Union nuclear explosion. 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 the fourth power unit Chernobyl nuclear power plant the reactor exploded.

American Robert Oppenheimer and Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov are officially recognized as the fathers of the atomic bomb. But in parallel, deadly weapons were also being developed in other countries (Italy, Denmark, Hungary), so the discovery rightfully belongs to everyone.

The first to tackle this issue were German physicists Fritz Strassmann and Otto Hahn, who in December 1938 were the first to artificially split the atomic nucleus of uranium. And six months later, the first reactor was already being built at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin and uranium ore was urgently purchased from the Congo.

“Uranium Project” - the Germans start and lose

In September 1939, the “Uranium Project” was classified. 22 reputable research centers were invited to participate in the program, and the research was supervised by Minister of Armaments Albert Speer. The construction of an installation for separating isotopes and the production of uranium to extract the isotope from it that supports the chain reaction was entrusted to the IG Farbenindustry concern.

For two years, a group of the venerable scientist Heisenberg studied the possibility of creating a reactor with heavy water. A potential explosive (uranium-235 isotope) could be isolated from uranium ore.

But an inhibitor is needed to slow down the reaction - graphite or heavy water. Choosing the latter option created an insurmountable problem.

The only plant for the production of heavy water, which was located in Norway, was disabled by local resistance fighters after the occupation, and small reserves of valuable raw materials were exported to France.

The rapid implementation of the nuclear program was also prevented by the explosion of an experimental nuclear reactor in Leipzig.

Hitler supported the uranium project as long as he hoped to obtain a super-powerful weapon that could influence the outcome of the war he started. After government funding was cut, the work programs continued for some time.

In 1944, Heisenberg managed to create cast uranium plates, and a special bunker was built for the reactor plant in Berlin.

It was planned to complete the experiment to achieve a chain reaction in January 1945, but a month later the equipment was urgently transported to the Swiss border, where it was deployed only a month later. The nuclear reactor contained 664 cubes of uranium weighing 1525 kg. It was surrounded by a graphite neutron reflector weighing 10 tons, and one and a half tons of heavy water were additionally loaded into the core.

On March 23, the reactor finally started working, but the report to Berlin was premature: the reactor did not reach a critical point, and the chain reaction did not occur. Additional calculations showed that the mass of uranium must be increased by at least 750 kg, proportionally adding the amount of heavy water.

But supplies of strategic raw materials were at their limit, as was the fate of the Third Reich. On April 23, the Americans entered the village of Haigerloch, where the tests were carried out. The military dismantled the reactor and transported it to the United States.

The first atomic bombs in the USA

A little later, the Germans began developing the atomic bomb in the USA and Great Britain. It all started with a letter from Albert Einstein and his co-authors, emigrant physicists, sent in September 1939 to US President Franklin Roosevelt.

The appeal emphasized that Nazi Germany was close to creating an atomic bomb.

Stalin first learned about work on nuclear weapons (both allied and adversary) from intelligence officers in 1943. They immediately decided to create a similar project in the USSR. Instructions were issued not only to scientists, but also to intelligence services, for which obtaining any information about nuclear secrets became a major task.

The invaluable information about the developments of American scientists that Soviet intelligence officers managed to obtain significantly advanced the domestic nuclear project. It helped our scientists avoid ineffective search paths and significantly speed up the time frame for achieving the final goal.

Serov Ivan Aleksandrovich - head of the bomb creation operation

Of course, the Soviet government could not ignore the successes of German nuclear physicists. After the war, a group of Soviet physicists, future academicians, were sent to Germany in the uniform of colonels of the Soviet army.

Ivan Serov, the first deputy people's commissar of internal affairs, was appointed head of the operation, this allowed scientists to open any doors.

In addition to their German colleagues, they found reserves of uranium metal. This, according to Kurchatov, shortened the development time of the Soviet bomb by at least a year. More than one ton of uranium and leading nuclear specialists were taken out of Germany by the American military.

Not only chemists and physicists were sent to the USSR, but also qualified labor– mechanics, electricians, glassblowers. Some of the employees were found in prison camps. In total, about 1,000 German specialists worked on the Soviet nuclear project.

German scientists and laboratories on the territory of the USSR in the post-war years

A uranium centrifuge and other equipment, as well as documents and reagents from the von Ardenne laboratory and the Kaiser Institute of Physics were transported from Berlin. As part of the program, laboratories “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” were created, headed by German scientists.

The head of Laboratory “A” was Baron Manfred von Ardenne, who developed a method for gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge.

For the creation of such a centrifuge (only on an industrial scale) in 1947 he received the Stalin Prize. At that time, the laboratory was located in Moscow, on the site of the famous Kurchatov Institute. Each German scientist’s team included 5-6 Soviet specialists.

Later, laboratory “A” was taken to Sukhumi, where a physical and technical institute was created on its basis. In 1953, Baron von Ardenne became a Stalin laureate for the second time.

Laboratory “B”, which conducted experiments in the field of radiation chemistry in the Urals, was headed by Nikolaus Riehl - key figure project. There, in Snezhinsk, the talented Russian geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky, with whom he had been friends back in Germany, worked with him. The successful test of the atomic bomb brought Riehl the star of Hero of Socialist Labor and the Stalin Prize.

Research at Laboratory “B” in Obninsk was led by Professor Rudolf Pose, a pioneer in the field nuclear tests. His team managed to create fast neutron reactors, the first nuclear power plant in the USSR, and projects for reactors for submarines.

On the basis of the laboratory, the Physics and Energy Institute named after A.I. was later created. Leypunsky. Until 1957, the professor worked in Sukhumi, then in Dubna, at the Joint Institute of Nuclear Technologies.

Laboratory “G”, located in the Sukhumi sanatorium “Agudzery”, was headed by Gustav Hertz. The nephew of the famous 19th century scientist gained fame after a series of experiments that confirmed the ideas of quantum mechanics and the theory of Niels Bohr.

The results of his productive work in Sukhumi were used to create an industrial installation in Novouralsk, where in 1949 the first Soviet bomb RDS-1 was filled.

The uranium bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima was a cannon type. When creating the RDS-1, domestic nuclear physicists were guided by the Fat Boy - the “Nagasaki bomb”, made of plutonium according to the implosive principle.

In 1951, Hertz was awarded the Stalin Prize for his fruitful work.

German engineers and scientists lived in comfortable houses; they brought their families, furniture, paintings from Germany, they were provided with decent salaries and special food. Did they have the status of prisoners? According to Academician A.P. Aleksandrov, an active participant in the project, they were all prisoners in such conditions.

Having received permission to return to their homeland, the German specialists signed a non-disclosure agreement about their participation in the Soviet nuclear project for 25 years. In the GDR they continued to work in their specialty. Baron von Ardenne was a two-time winner of the German National Prize.

The professor headed the Physics Institute in Dresden, which was created under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Applications of Atomic Energy. The Scientific Council was headed by Gustav Hertz, who received the National Prize of the GDR for his three-volume textbook on atomic physics. Here, in Dresden, at the Technical University, Professor Rudolf Pose also worked.

The participation of German specialists in the Soviet atomic project, as well as the achievements of Soviet intelligence, do not diminish the merits of Soviet scientists who, with their heroic work, created domestic atomic weapons. And yet, without the contribution of each participant in the project, the creation of the nuclear industry and the nuclear bomb would have taken an indefinite period.

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 violated the US monopoly on such weapons, since since 1945 the only nuclear power it was they. 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 found out 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 secret developments German colleagues who came to America. In any case, in the summer of 1945 Potsdam Conference new president USA 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:

The design bureau of the Kirov plant, working on the creation of special equipment.
A diffuse plant in the Urals, which was supposed to work on the creation of enriched uranium.
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 a sharp increase in radiation levels, which was evidence of the testing of 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:

Loss of US status single state with atomic weapons. This not only equated the USSR with the USA in terms of military power, but also forced the latter to think through their every military step, since now they had to fear for the response of the USSR leadership.
The presence of atomic weapons in the USSR secured its status as a superpower.
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.
These events served as the start nuclear race. Many countries have begun to invest resources to add to the list of nuclear weapons states and ensure their security.

Hundreds of thousands of famous and forgotten gunsmiths of antiquity fought in search of the ideal weapon, capable of evaporating an enemy army with one click. From time to time, traces of these searches can be found in fairy tales that more or less plausibly describe a miracle sword or a bow that hits without missing.

Fortunately, technological progress moved so slowly for a long time that the real embodiment of the devastating weapon remained in dreams and oral stories, and later on the pages of books. The scientific and technological leap of the 19th century provided the conditions for the creation of the main phobia of the 20th century. Nuclear bomb created and tested in real conditions, revolutionized both military affairs and politics.

History of the creation of weapons

For a long time it was believed that the most powerful weapons could only be created using explosives. The discoveries of scientists who worked with the smallest particles provided scientific evidence that with the help elementary particles enormous energy can be generated. The first in a series of researchers can be called Becquerel, who in 1896 discovered the radioactivity of uranium salts.

Uranium itself has been known since 1786, but at that time no one suspected its radioactivity. The work of scientists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries revealed not only special physical properties, but also the possibility of obtaining energy from radioactive substances.

The option of making weapons based on uranium was first described in detail, published and patented by French physicists, the Joliot-Curies in 1939.

Despite its value for weapons, the scientists themselves were strongly opposed to the creation of such a devastating weapon.

Having survived World War II in the Resistance, in the 1950s the couple (Frederick and Irene) realized destructive force wars, advocate general disarmament. They are supported by Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein and other prominent physicists of the time.

Meanwhile, while the Joliot-Curies were busy with the problem of the Nazis in Paris, on the other side of the planet, in America, the world's first nuclear charge was being developed. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the work, was given the broadest powers and enormous resources. The end of 1941 marked the beginning of the Manhattan Project, which ultimately led to the creation of the first combat nuclear warhead.

In the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, the first production facilities for weapons-grade uranium were erected. Subsequently, similar nuclear centers appeared throughout the country, for example in Chicago, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and research was carried out in California. Bombs were created to create best forces professors at American universities, as well as physicists who fled from Germany.

In the “Third Reich” itself, work on creating a new type of weapon was launched in a manner characteristic of the Fuhrer.

Since “Besnovaty” was more interested in tanks and planes, and the more the better, he did not see much need for a new miracle bomb.

Accordingly, projects not supported by Hitler moved at a snail's pace at best.

When things started to get hot, and it turned out that the tanks and planes were swallowed up by the Eastern Front, the new miracle weapon received support. But it was too late, in conditions of bombing and constant fear With Soviet tank wedges, it was not possible to create a device with a nuclear component.

The Soviet Union was more attentive to the possibility of creating a new type of destructive weapon. In the pre-war period, physicists collected and consolidated general knowledge about nuclear energy and the possibility of creating nuclear weapons. Intelligence worked intensively throughout the entire period of the creation of the nuclear bomb both in the USSR and in the USA. The war played a significant role in slowing down the pace of development, as huge resources went to the front.

True, Academician Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov, with his characteristic tenacity, promoted the work of all subordinate departments in this direction. Looking ahead a little, it is he who will be tasked with speeding up the development of weapons in the face of the threat of an American strike on the cities of the USSR. It was he, standing in the gravel of a huge machine of hundreds and thousands of scientists and workers, who would be awarded the honorary title of the father of the Soviet nuclear bomb.

World's first tests

But let's return to the American nuclear program. By the summer of 1945, American scientists managed to create the world's first nuclear bomb. Any boy who has made himself or bought a powerful firecracker in a store experiences extraordinary torment, wanting to blow it up as quickly as possible. In 1945, hundreds of American soldiers and scientists experienced the same thing.

On June 16, 1945, the first ever nuclear weapons test and one of the most powerful explosions to date took place in the Alamogordo Desert, New Mexico.

Eyewitnesses watching the explosion from the bunker were struck by the force with which the charge exploded at the top of the 30-meter steel tower. At first, everything was flooded with light, several times stronger than the sun. Then he rose into the sky fireball, which turned into a column of smoke, shaped into the famous mushroom.

As soon as the dust settled, researchers and bomb creators rushed to the site of the explosion. They watched the aftermath from lead-encrusted Sherman tanks. What they saw amazed them; no weapon could cause such damage. The sand melted to glass in places.

Tiny remains of the tower were also found; in a crater of huge diameter, mutilated and crushed structures clearly illustrated the destructive power.

Damaging factors

This explosion provided the first information about the power of the new weapon, about what it could use to destroy the enemy. These are several factors:

light radiation, flash, capable of blinding even protected organs of vision;
shock wave, a dense stream of air moving from the center, destroying most buildings;
an electromagnetic pulse that disables most equipment and does not allow the use of communications for the first time after the explosion;
penetrating radiation, the most dangerous factor for those who have taken refuge from others damaging factors, divided into alpha-beta-gamma irradiation;
radioactive contamination that can negatively affect health and life for tens or even hundreds of years.

The further use of nuclear weapons, including in combat, showed all the peculiarities of their impact on living organisms and nature. August 6, 1945 was the last day for tens of thousands of residents of the small city of Hiroshima, then known for several important military installations.

The outcome of the war in the Pacific was a foregone conclusion, but the Pentagon believed that the operation on the Japanese archipelago would cost more than a million lives of US Marines. It was decided to kill several birds with one stone, take Japan out of the war, saving on the landing operation, test a new weapon and announce it to the whole world, and, above all, to the USSR.

At one o'clock in the morning, the plane carrying the "Baby" nuclear bomb took off on a mission.

The bomb dropped over the city exploded at an altitude of approximately 600 meters at 8.15 am. All buildings located at a distance of 800 meters from the epicenter were destroyed. The walls of only a few buildings, designed to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake, survived.

Of every ten people who were within a radius of 600 meters at the time of the bomb explosion, only one could survive. The light radiation turned people into coal, leaving shadow marks on the stone, a dark imprint of the place where the person was. The ensuing blast wave was so strong that it could break glass at a distance of 19 kilometers from the explosion site.

One teenager was knocked out of the house through a window by a dense stream of air; upon landing, the guy saw the walls of the house folding like cards. The blast wave was followed by a fire tornado, destroying those few residents who survived the explosion and did not have time to leave the fire zone. Those at a distance from the explosion began to experience severe malaise, the cause of which was initially unclear to doctors.

Much later, a few weeks later, the term “radiation poisoning” was announced, now known as radiation sickness.

More than 280 thousand people became victims of just one bomb, both directly from the explosion and from subsequent illnesses.

The bombing of Japan with nuclear weapons did not end there. According to the plan, only four to six cities were to be hit, but weather conditions only allowed Nagasaki to be hit. In this city, more than 150 thousand people became victims of the Fat Man bomb.

Promises by the American government to carry out such attacks until Japan surrendered led to an armistice, and then to the signing of an agreement that ended World War. But for nuclear weapons this was just the beginning.

The most powerful bomb in the world

The post-war period was marked by the confrontation between the USSR bloc and its allies with the USA and NATO. In the 1940s, the Americans seriously considered the possibility of striking the Soviet Union. To contain the former ally, work on creating a bomb had to be accelerated, and already in 1949, on August 29, the US monopoly in nuclear weapons was ended. During the arms race, two nuclear tests deserve the most attention.

Bikini Atoll, known primarily for frivolous swimsuits, literally made a splash throughout the world in 1954 due to the testing of a specially powerful nuclear charge.

The Americans, having decided to test a new design of atomic weapons, did not calculate the charge. As a result, the explosion was 2.5 times more powerful than planned. Residents of nearby islands, as well as the ubiquitous Japanese fishermen, were under attack.

But it was not the most powerful American bomb. In 1960, the B41 nuclear bomb was put into service, but it never underwent full testing due to its power. The force of the charge was calculated theoretically, for fear of exploding such a dangerous weapon at the test site.

The Soviet Union, which loved to be the first in everything, experienced in 1961, otherwise nicknamed “Kuzka’s mother.”

Responding to America's nuclear blackmail, Soviet scientists created the most powerful bomb in the world. Tested on Novaya Zemlya, it left its mark in almost all corners of the globe. According to recollections, a slight earthquake was felt in the most remote corners at the time of the explosion.

blast wave, of course, having lost all its destructive power, was able to circle the Earth. To date, this is the most powerful nuclear bomb in the world created and tested by mankind. Of course, if his hands were free, Kim Jong-un's nuclear bomb would be more powerful, but he does not have New Earth to test it.

Atomic bomb device

Let's consider a very primitive, purely for understanding, device of an atomic bomb. There are many classes of atomic bombs, but let’s consider three main ones:

uranium, based on uranium 235, first exploded over Hiroshima;
plutonium, based on plutonium 239, first exploded over Nagasaki;
thermonuclear, sometimes called hydrogen, based on heavy water with deuterium and tritium, fortunately not used against the population.

The first two bombs are based on the effect of heavy nuclei fissioning into smaller ones through an uncontrolled nuclear reaction, releasing huge amounts of energy. The third is based on the fusion of hydrogen nuclei (or rather its isotopes of deuterium and tritium) with the formation of helium, which is heavier in relation to hydrogen. For the same bomb weight, the destructive potential of a hydrogen bomb is 20 times greater.

If for uranium and plutonium it is enough to bring together a mass greater than the critical one (at which a chain reaction begins), then for hydrogen this is not enough.

To reliably connect several pieces of uranium into one, a cannon effect is used in which smaller pieces of uranium are shot into larger ones. Gunpowder can also be used, but for reliability, low-power explosives are used.

In a plutonium bomb, to create the necessary conditions for a chain reaction, explosives are placed around ingots containing plutonium. Due to the cumulative effect, as well as the neutron initiator located at the very center (beryllium with several milligrams of polonium), the necessary conditions are achieved.

It has a main charge, which cannot explode on its own, and a fuse. To create conditions for the fusion of deuterium and tritium nuclei, we need unimaginable pressures and temperatures at at least one point. Next, a chain reaction will occur.

To create such parameters, the bomb includes a conventional, but low-power, nuclear charge, which is the fuse. Its detonation creates the conditions for the start of a thermonuclear reaction.

To estimate the power of an atomic bomb, the so-called “TNT equivalent” is used. An explosion is a release of energy, the most famous explosive in the world is TNT (TNT - trinitrotoluene), and all new types of explosives are equated to it. Bomb "Baby" - 13 kilotons of TNT. That is equivalent to 13000.

Bomb "Fat Man" - 21 kilotons, "Tsar Bomba" - 58 megatons of TNT. It’s scary to think of 58 million tons of explosives concentrated in a mass of 26.5 tons, that’s how much weight this bomb has.

The danger of nuclear war and nuclear disasters

Appearing in the midst of terrible war XX century, nuclear weapons became the greatest danger to humanity. Immediately after World War II, the Cold War began, which several times almost escalated into a full-fledged nuclear conflict. The threat of the use of nuclear bombs and missiles by at least one side began to be discussed back in the 1950s.

Everyone understood and understands that there can be no winners in this war.

To contain it, efforts have been and are being made by many scientists and politicians. The University of Chicago, using the input of visiting nuclear scientists, including Nobel laureates, sets the Doomsday Clock a few minutes before midnight. Midnight signifies a nuclear cataclysm, the beginning of a new World War and the destruction of the old world. IN different years The clock hands fluctuated from 17 to 2 minutes to midnight.

There are also several known major accidents that occurred at nuclear power plants. These disasters have an indirect relation to weapons; nuclear power plants are still different from nuclear bombs, but they perfectly demonstrate the results of using the atom for military purposes. The largest of them:

1957, Kyshtym accident, due to a failure in the storage system, an explosion occurred near Kyshtym;
1957, Britain, in the north-west of England, security checks were not carried out;
1979, USA, due to an untimely detected leak, an explosion and release from a nuclear power plant occurred;
1986, tragedy in Chernobyl, explosion of the 4th power unit;
2011, accident at the Fukushima station, Japan.

Each of these tragedies left a heavy mark on the fate of hundreds of thousands of people and turned entire areas into non-residential zones with special control.

There were incidents that almost cost the beginning nuclear disaster. Soviet nuclear submarines repeatedly had reactor-related accidents on board. The Americans dropped a Superfortress bomber with two Mark 39 nuclear bombs on board, with a yield of 3.8 megatons. But the activated “safety system” did not allow the charges to detonate and a disaster was avoided.

Nuclear weapons past and present

Today it is clear to anyone that nuclear war will destroy modern humanity. Meanwhile, the desire to possess nuclear weapons and enter the nuclear club, or rather, burst into it by knocking down the door, still excites the minds of some state leaders.

India and Pakistan created nuclear weapons without permission, and the Israelis are hiding the presence of a bomb.

For some possessions nuclear bomb– a way to prove importance on the international stage. For others, it is a guarantee of non-interference by winged democracy or other external factors. But the main thing is that these reserves do not go into business, for which they were really created.