Work on projects began simultaneously in the USA and USSR atomic bomb. In August 1942, the secret Laboratory No. 2 began to operate in one of the buildings located in the courtyard of Kazan University. The head of this facility was Igor Kurchatov, the Russian “father” of the atomic bomb. At the same time, in August, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the building of a former local school, a “Metallurgical Laboratory”, also secret, began operating. It was led by Robert Oppenheimer, the “father” of the atomic bomb from America.
It took a total of three years to complete the task. The first US bomb was blown up at the test site in July 1945. Two more were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. It took seven years for the birth of the atomic bomb in the USSR. The first explosion took place in 1949.
Igor Kurchatov: short biography
The "father" of the atomic bomb in the USSR, was born in 1903, on January 12. This event took place in the Ufa province, in today's city of Sima. Kurchatov is considered one of the founders of peaceful purposes.
He graduated with honors from the Simferopol men's gymnasium, as well as a vocational school. In 1920, Kurchatov entered the Tauride University, the physics and mathematics department. Just 3 years later, he successfully graduated from this university ahead of schedule. The “father” of the atomic bomb began working at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology in 1930, where he headed the physics department.
The era before Kurchatov
Back in the 1930s, work related to atomic energy began in the USSR. Chemists and physicists from various scientific centers, as well as specialists from other countries, took part in all-Union conferences organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences.
Radium samples were obtained in 1932. And in 1939 the chain reaction of fission of heavy atoms was calculated. The year 1940 became a landmark year in the nuclear field: the design of an atomic bomb was created, and methods for producing uranium-235 were proposed. Conventional explosives were first proposed to be used as a fuse to initiate a chain reaction. Also in 1940, Kurchatov presented his report on the fission of heavy nuclei.
Research during the Great Patriotic War
After the Germans attacked the USSR in 1941, nuclear research was suspended. The main Leningrad and Moscow institutes that dealt with problems nuclear physics, were urgently evacuated.
The head of strategic intelligence, Beria, knew that Western physicists considered atomic weapons an achievable reality. According to historical data, back in September 1939, Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the work on creating an atomic bomb in America, came to the USSR incognito. The Soviet leadership could have learned about the possibility of obtaining these weapons from the information provided by this “father” of the atomic bomb.
In 1941, intelligence data from Great Britain and the USA began to arrive in the USSR. According to this information, intensive work has been launched in the West, the goal of which is the creation of nuclear weapons.
In the spring of 1943, Laboratory No. 2 was created to produce the first atomic bomb in the USSR. The question arose about who should be entrusted with its leadership. The list of candidates initially included about 50 names. Beria, however, chose Kurchatov. He was summoned in October 1943 to a viewing in Moscow. Today the scientific center that grew out of this laboratory bears his name - the Kurchatov Institute.
In 1946, on April 9, a decree was issued on the creation of a design bureau at Laboratory No. 2. Only at the beginning of 1947 were the first production buildings, which were located in the Mordovian Nature Reserve, ready. Some of the laboratories were located in monastery buildings.
RDS-1, the first Russian atomic bomb
They called the Soviet prototype RDS-1, which, according to one version, meant special." After some time, this abbreviation began to be deciphered somewhat differently - " Jet engine Stalin." In documents to ensure secrecy, the Soviet bomb was called a "rocket engine."
It was a device with a power of 22 kilotons. Our own developments atomic weapons were conducted in the USSR, but the need to catch up with the United States, which had gone ahead during the war, forced domestic science to use intelligence data. The basis for the first Russian atomic bomb was the Fat Man, developed by the Americans (pictured below).
It was this that the United States dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. "Fat Man" worked on the decay of plutonium-239. The detonation scheme was implosive: the charges exploded along the perimeter of the fissile substance and created a blast wave that “compressed” the substance located in the center and caused a chain reaction. This scheme was later found to be ineffective.
The Soviet RDS-1 was made in the form of a large diameter and mass free-falling bomb. The charge of an explosive atomic device was made from plutonium. The electrical equipment, as well as the ballistic body of the RDS-1, were domestically developed. The bomb consisted of a ballistic body, a nuclear charge, an explosive device, as well as equipment for automatic charge detonation systems.
Uranium shortage
Soviet physics, taking the American plutonium bomb as a basis, was faced with a problem that had to be solved in an extremely short time: plutonium production had not yet begun in the USSR at the time of development. Therefore, captured uranium was initially used. However, the reactor required at least 150 tons of this substance. In 1945, the mines resumed their work in East Germany and Czechoslovakia. Uranium deposits in the Chita region, Kolyma, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the North Caucasus and Ukraine were discovered in 1946.
In the Urals, near the city of Kyshtym (not far from Chelyabinsk), they began to build Mayak, a radiochemical plant, and the first industrial reactor in the USSR. Kurchatov personally supervised the laying of uranium. Construction began in 1947 in three more places: two in the Middle Urals and one in the Gorky region.
We walked at a fast pace construction works, however, there was still not enough uranium. The first industrial reactor could not be launched even by 1948. It was only on June 7 of this year that uranium was loaded.
Nuclear reactor startup experiment
The “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb personally took over the duties of the chief operator at the control panel of the nuclear reactor. On June 7, between 11 and 12 o'clock at night, Kurchatov began an experiment to launch it. The reactor reached a power of 100 kilowatts on June 8. After this, the “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb silenced the chain reaction that had begun. The next stage of preparing the nuclear reactor lasted for two days. After cooling water was supplied, it became clear that the available uranium was not enough to carry out the experiment. The reactor reached a critical state only after loading the fifth portion of the substance. The chain reaction became possible again. This happened at 8 o'clock in the morning on June 10.
On the 17th of the same month, Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, made an entry in the shift supervisors' journal in which he warned that the water supply should under no circumstances be stopped, otherwise an explosion would occur. On June 19, 1938 at 12:45, the commercial launch of a nuclear reactor, the first in Eurasia, took place.
Successful bomb tests
In June 1949, the USSR accumulated 10 kg of plutonium - the amount that was put into the bomb by the Americans. Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, following Beria's decree, ordered the RDS-1 test to be scheduled for August 29.
A section of the Irtysh arid steppe, located in Kazakhstan, not far from Semipalatinsk, was set aside for a test site. In the center of this experimental field, whose diameter was about 20 km, a metal tower 37.5 meters high was constructed. RDS-1 was installed on it.
The charge used in the bomb was a multi-layer design. In it, the transfer of the active substance to a critical state was carried out by compressing it using a spherical converging detonation wave, which was formed in the explosive.
Consequences of the explosion
The tower was completely destroyed after the explosion. A funnel appeared in its place. However, the main damage was caused by the shock wave. According to the description of eyewitnesses, when a trip to the explosion site took place on August 30, the experimental field presented a terrible picture. The highway and railway bridges were thrown to a distance of 20-30 m and twisted. Cars and carriages were scattered at a distance of 50-80 m from the place where they were located; residential buildings were completely destroyed. The tanks used to test the force of the impact lay with their turrets knocked down on their sides, and the guns became a pile of twisted metal. Also, 10 Pobeda vehicles, specially brought here for testing, burned down.
A total of 5 RDS-1 bombs were manufactured. They were not transferred to the Air Force, but were stored in Arzamas-16. Today in Sarov, which was formerly Arzamas-16 (the laboratory is shown in the photo below), a mock-up of the bomb is on display. It is located in the local nuclear weapons museum.
"Fathers" of the atomic bomb
Only 12 Nobel laureates, future and present, participated in the creation of the American atomic bomb. In addition, they were helped by a group of scientists from Great Britain, which was sent to Los Alamos in 1943.
In Soviet times, it was believed that the USSR had completely independently solved the atomic problem. Everywhere it was said that Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, was its “father.” Although rumors of secrets stolen from Americans occasionally leaked out. And only in 1990, 50 years later, Julius Khariton - one of the main participants in the events of that time - spoke about the large role of intelligence in the creation of the Soviet project. The technical and scientific results of the Americans were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.
Therefore, Oppenheimer can be considered the “father” of bombs that were created on both sides of the ocean. We can say that he was the creator of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. Both projects, American and Russian, were based on his ideas. It is wrong to consider Kurchatov and Oppenheimer only as outstanding organizers. We have already talked about the Soviet scientist, as well as about the contribution made by the creator of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. Oppenheimer's main achievements were scientific. It was thanks to them that he turned out to be the head of the atomic project, just like the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR.
Brief biography of Robert Oppenheimer
This scientist was born in 1904, April 22, in New York. graduated from Harvard University in 1925. The future creator of the first atomic bomb interned for a year at the Cavendish Laboratory with Rutherford. A year later, the scientist moved to the University of Göttingen. Here, under the guidance of M. Born, he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1928 the scientist returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, the “father” of the American atomic bomb taught at two universities in this country - the California Institute of Technology and the University of California.
On July 16, 1945, the first bomb was successfully tested in the United States, and soon after, Oppenheimer, along with other members of the Provisional Committee created under President Truman, was forced to select sites for the future atomic bombing. Many of his colleagues by that time actively opposed the use of dangerous nuclear weapons, which were not necessary, since Japan's surrender was a foregone conclusion. Oppenheimer did not join them.
Explaining his behavior further, he said that he relied on politicians and military men who were better familiar with the real situation. In October 1945, Oppenheimer ceased to be director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. He began work in Priston, heading a local research institute. His fame in the United States, as well as outside this country, reached its culmination. New York newspapers wrote about him more and more often. President Truman presented Oppenheimer with the Medal of Merit, the highest award in America.
They were written, except scientific works, several “Open Mind”, “Science and Everyday Knowledge” and others.
This scientist died in 1967, on February 18. Oppenheimer was a heavy smoker from his youth. In 1965, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. At the end of 1966, after an operation that did not bring results, he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the treatment had no effect, and the scientist died on February 18.
So, Kurchatov is the “father” of the atomic bomb in the USSR, Oppenheimer is in the USA. Now you know the names of those who were the first to work on the development of nuclear weapons. Having answered the question: “Who is called the father of the atomic bomb?”, we only talked about initial stages history of this dangerous weapon. It continues to this day. Moreover, today new developments are actively underway in this area. The “father” of the atomic bomb, the American Robert Oppenheimer, as well as the Russian scientist Igor Kurchatov, were only pioneers in this matter.
The American Robert Oppenheimer and the Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov are usually called the fathers of the atomic bomb. 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., took part 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 efficient explosive. Scientists wrote: “The country that is the first to practically master the achievements of 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 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 of Germany's first reactor plant began at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed banning the export of uranium outside Germany, and a large amount of uranium ore was urgently purchased from the Belgian Congo.
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 “Hurray.” new project" The scientists involved in the project were initially very optimistic: they believed possible creation 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, such as the Physics Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Physics Institute of the Higher Technical School in Berlin, the Physicochemical 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, namely uranium-235, contained in very small concentrations in ordinary uranium ore, can serve as an explosive. The first problem was how to isolate it from there. The starting point of the bomb program was a nuclear reactor, which required graphite or heavy water as a reaction moderator. German physicists chose water, thereby creating a serious problem for themselves. 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 obtaining super-powerful weapons before 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 (with only a slight lag), the development of atomic weapons began 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 is conducting active research, as a result of which it may 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 atomic 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 manufacturing 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. There, in Dresden, in Technical University, Rudolf Pose also worked.
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 unique type of 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.
“I am not the simplest person,” American physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi once remarked. “But compared to Oppenheimer, I am very, very simple.” Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures of the twentieth century, whose very “complexity” absorbed the political and ethical contradictions of the country.
During World War II, the brilliant man led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history. The scientist led a solitary and secluded lifestyle, and this gave rise to suspicions of treason.
Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments of science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its emergence were made at the end of the 19th century. The research of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others played a huge role in revealing the secrets of the atom.
At the beginning of 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of nuclear weapons.
Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such a powerful weapon pushed militaristic circles to quickly create it, but the problem of having a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research was a brake. Physicists from Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons, realizing that without a sufficient amount of uranium ore it was impossible to carry out work, the USA in September 1940 purchased a large amount of the required ore using false documents from Belgium, which allowed them to work on the creation nuclear weapons are in full swing.
From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium purification plant was built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gas diffusion followed by magnetic separation of the two isotopes. A gas centrifuge separated the light Uranium-235 from the heavier Uranium-238.
On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the desert expanses of New Mexico, an American nuclear center was created in 1942. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership, the best minds of that time were gathered not only in the USA and England, but practically throughout Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 laureates Nobel Prize. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War, and Germany carried out massive bombings of English cities, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the United States, which allowed the United States to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (the creation of nuclear weapons).
“”, he was at the same time an ardent opponent of American nuclear policy. Bearing the title of one of the most outstanding physicists of his time, he enjoyed studying the mysticism of ancient Indian books. Communist, traveler and staunch American patriot, very spiritual person, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to protect himself from attacks by anti-communists. The scientist who developed the plan to cause the greatest damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki cursed himself for the “innocent blood on his hands.”
Writing about this controversial man is not an easy task, but it is an interesting one, and the twentieth century is marked by a number of books about him. However, the scientist’s rich life continues to attract biographers.
Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1903 into a family of wealthy and educated Jews. Oppenheimer was brought up in a love of painting, music, and in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. In 1922, he entered Harvard University and graduated with honors in just three years, his main subject being chemistry. Over the next few years, the precocious young man traveled to several European countries, where he worked with physicists who were studying the problems of studying atomic phenomena in the light of new theories. Just a year after graduating from university, Oppenheimer published a scientific paper that showed how deeply he understood the new methods. Soon he, together with the famous Max Born, developed the most important part quantum theory, known as the Born-Oppenheimer method. In 1927, his outstanding doctoral dissertation brought him worldwide fame.
In 1928 he worked at the Universities of Zurich and Leiden. The same year he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945, he actively participated in the work on creating an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the Los Alamos laboratory specially created for this purpose.
In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising scientific star, accepted offers from two of several universities vying for the right to invite him. He taught the spring semester at the vibrant, young California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and the fall and winter semesters at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the first professor of quantum mechanics. In fact, the polymath had to adjust for some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936, he fell in love with Jean Tatlock, a restless and moody young woman whose passionate idealism found outlet in communist activism. Like many thoughtful people of the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left as a possible alternative, although he did not join the Communist Party, as his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. His interest in politics, like his ability to read Sanskrit, was a natural result of his constant pursuit of knowledge. By his own account, he was also deeply alarmed by the explosion of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and Spain and invested $1,000 a year from his $15,000 annual salary in projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer broke up with Jean Tatlock and moved away from her circle of left-wing friends.
In 1939, the United States learned that in preparation for global war Hitler's Germany discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately realized that the German physicists would try to create a controlled chain reaction that could be the key to creating a weapon far more destructive than any that existed at that time. Enlisting the help of the great scientific genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger in a famous letter. In authorizing funding for projects aimed at creating untested weapons, the president acted in strict secrecy. Ironically, many of the world's leading scientists, forced to flee their homeland, worked together with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country. One part of the university groups explored the possibility of creating a nuclear reactor, others took up the problem of separating uranium isotopes necessary to release energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who had previously been busy with theoretical problems, was offered to organize a wide range of work only at the beginning of 1942.
The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by 46-year-old Colonel Leslie R. Groves, a career military officer. Groves, who characterized the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "an expensive bunch of nuts," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the atmosphere became tense. The physicist proposed that all the scientists be brought together in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in an area he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding school for boys had been turned into a strictly guarded secret center, with Oppenheimer becoming its scientific director. By insisting on the free exchange of information between scientists, who were strictly forbidden to leave the center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which contributed to the amazing success of his work. Without sparing himself, he remained the head of all areas of this complex project, although his personal life suffered greatly from this. But for a mixed group of scientists - among whom there were more than a dozen then or future Nobel laureates and from which rare person did not have a pronounced individuality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and a subtle diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's ultimate success belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who had by then become a general, could say with confidence that the two billion dollars spent would produce a bomb ready for action by August 1 of the following year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about using new weapons. After all, Japan would probably have soon capitulated even without the atomic bombing. Should the United States become the first country in the world to use such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt's death, appointed a committee to study possible consequences use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend dropping an atomic bomb without warning on a large Japanese military installation. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.
All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The world's first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, approximately 80 kilometers from the air force base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device being tested, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower installed in a desert area. Exactly at 5.30 am the detonator with remote control detonated the bomb. With an echoing roar, a giant purple-green-orange fireball shot into the sky across an area 1.6 kilometers in diameter. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke quickly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on the terrifying shape of a mushroom at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion shocked scientific and military observers near the test site and turned their heads. But Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem "Bhagavad Gita": "I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Until the end of his life, satisfaction from scientific success was always mixed with a sense of responsibility for the consequences.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach of two American planes from the east (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (since they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima every day). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object slowly descended by parachute and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the Baby bomb.
Three days after "Little Boy" was detonated in Hiroshima, a replica of the first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve was finally broken by these new weapons, signed an unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics had already begun to be heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that “mankind will curse the names Los Alamos and Hiroshima.”
The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tellingly, Oppenheimer managed to combine his worries about testing a bomb on civilians and the joy that the weapon had finally been tested.
However, on next year He accepted the appointment as Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thereby becoming the most influential adviser to the government and military on nuclear issues. While the West and headed by Stalin Soviet Union were seriously preparing for cold war, each side focused its attention on the arms race. Although many of the Manhattan Project scientists did not support the idea of creating a new weapon, former Oppenheimer collaborators Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence believed that US national security required speedy development hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, the two nuclear powers were already confronting each other, like “two scorpions in a jar, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” With the proliferation of new weapons, wars would no longer have winners and losers - only victims. And the “father of the atomic bomb” made a public statement that he was against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Always uncomfortable with Oppenheimer and clearly jealous of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to head the new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was using his authority to keep scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered from bouts of severe depression in his youth. When President Truman agreed to fund the hydrogen bomb in 1950, Teller could celebrate victory.
In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded after a month-long search for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a show case was organized in which many influential political and scientific figures spoke out against Oppenheimer. As Albert Einstein later put it: “Oppenheimer’s problem was that he loved a woman who didn’t love him: the US government.”
By allowing Oppenheimer's talent to flourish, America doomed him to destruction.
Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He owns many works on quantum mechanics, theory of relativity, physics elementary particles, theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P. Ehrenfest formulated a theorem, the application of which to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen. Investigated the internal conversion of g-rays. In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he made the first calculation of a neutron star model, and in 1939 he predicted the existence of “black holes”.
Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including Science and the Common Understanding (1954), The Open Mind (1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960) . Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.
Work on nuclear projects in the USSR and the USA began simultaneously. In August 1942, the secret “Laboratory No. 2” began working in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.
In Soviet times, it was argued that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the “father” of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main characters then, Yuli Khariton, spoke about the significant role of intelligence in accelerating the lagging Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.
Information from abroad helped the country's leadership to accept difficult decision— to begin work on nuclear weapons during a very difficult war. The reconnaissance allowed our physicists to save time and helped to avoid a “misfire” during the first atomic test, which had enormous political significance.
In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Soon after, articles on nuclear physics began to disappear from the pages of scientific journals. This could indicate the real prospect of creating an atomic explosive and weapons based on it.
After the discovery by Soviet physicists of the spontaneous fission of uranium-235 nuclei and the determination of the critical mass, a corresponding directive was sent to the residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution L. Kvasnikov.
In the Russian FSB (formerly the KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival file No. 13676, which document who and how recruited US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence, are buried under the heading “keep forever.” Only a few of the top leadership of the USSR KGB had access to the materials of this case, the secrecy of which was only recently lifted. Soviet intelligence received the first information about the work on creating an American atomic bomb in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the research ongoing in the USA and England fell on I.V. Stalin’s desk. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was safer to use the bomb design already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. “Taking into account state interests, any other solution was then unacceptable. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is undoubted. However, we implemented the American scheme during the first test not so much for technical, but for political reasons.
The message that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons caused the US ruling circles to want to start a preventive war as quickly as possible. The Troian plan was developed, which envisaged starting fighting January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1,350 in reserve, and over 300 atomic bombs.
A test site was built in the area of Semipalatinsk. At exactly 7:00 a.m. on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device, codenamed RDS-1, was detonated at this test site.
The Troyan plan, according to which atomic bombs were to be dropped on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the threat of a retaliatory strike. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.
Foreign intelligence not only attracted the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons in the West and thereby initiated similar work in our country. Thanks to foreign intelligence information, as recognized by academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in the creation of atomic weapons and create more short time an atomic bomb in the USSR in just three years, while the United States spent four years on it, spending five billion dollars on its creation.
As academician Yu. Khariton noted in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was manufactured according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when government awards were presented to participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: “If we had been one to a year and a half late, we would probably have tried this charge on ourselves.” ".
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What was the chief scientific director of the atomic problem in the USSR and the “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb - Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov.
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was born on January 12, 1903 in the family of an assistant forester in Bashkiria. In 1909, his family moved to Simbirsk. 
In 1912, the Kurchatovs moved to Simferopol, where little Igor entered the first grade of the gymnasium. In 1920 he graduated from high school with a gold medal. 
Igor Kurchatov (left) with his schoolmate
In September of the same year, Kurchatov entered the first year of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Crimean University. In 1923, he completed a four-year course in three years and brilliantly defended his thesis. 
Igor Kurchatov - employee of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov (sitting on the right) among the staff of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology
The young graduate was sent as a physics teacher at the Baku Polytechnic Institute. Six months later, Kurchatov left for Petrograd and entered the third year of the shipbuilding faculty of the Polytechnic Institute. 
Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov in Baku. 1924
In the spring of 1925, when classes at the Polytechnic Institute ended, Kurchatov left for Leningrad to the Institute of Physics and Technology in the laboratory of the famous physicist Ioffe. 
Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov
Accepted as an assistant in 1925, he received the title of first-class researcher, then senior physics engineer. Kurchatov taught a course in dielectric physics at the Faculty of Physics and Mechanics of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute and at the Pedagogical Institute. 
I.V. Kurchatov is an employee of the Radium Institute. Mid 1930s
In 1930, Kurchatov was appointed head of the physics department of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. And at this time he began to study atomic physics. 
Igor Kurchatov and Marina Sinelnikova, who later became his wife
Having begun to study artificial radioactivity, Igor Vasilyevich already in April 1935 reported on a new phenomenon he had discovered together with his brother Boris and L.I. Rusinov - isomerism of artificial atomic nuclei. 
Lev Ilyich Rusinov
At the beginning of 1940, the program of scientific work planned by Kurchatov was interrupted, and instead of nuclear physics, he began to develop demagnetization systems for warships. The installation created by his employees made it possible to protect warships from German magnetic mines. 
Igor Kurchatov
Kurchatov, together with his brother Boris, built a uranium-graphite boiler in their Laboratory No. 2, where they obtained the first weight portions of plutonium. On August 29, 1949, the physicists who created the bomb, seeing a blinding light and a mushroom cloud extending into the stratosphere, breathed a sigh of relief. They fulfilled their obligations.
Almost four years later, on the morning of August 12, 1953, before sunrise, an explosion was heard over the test site. The world's first hydrogen bomb was successfully tested.
Igor Vasilyevich is one of the founders of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. At an international conference in England, he spoke about this Soviet program. His performance was sensational. 
N.S. Khrushchev, N. A. Bulganin and I. V. Kurchatov on the cruiser "Ordzhonikidze"
The most atomic guys of the USSR: Igor Kurchatov (left) and Yuli Khariton
1958. Garden of Igor Kurchatov. Sakharov convinces the director of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the need for a moratorium on thermonuclear weapons testing
Citing the idea of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, Kurchatov and his team began working on a nuclear power plant project back in 1949. The result of the team’s work was the development, construction and launch of the Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant on June 26, 1954. It became the world's first nuclear power plant 
Nuclear physicist Kurchatov I.V.
In February 1960, Kurchatov came to the Barvikha sanatorium to visit his friend Academician Yu. B. Khariton. Sitting down on a bench, they started talking, suddenly there was a pause, and when Khariton looked at Kurchatov, he was already dead. Death was due to cardiac embolism with a thrombus. 
Monument to Kurchatov in Chelyabinsk on Science Square
Monument to Igor Kurchatov on the square named after him in Moscow
Monument to Kurchatov in the city of Ozyorsk
After his death on February 7, 1960, the scientist’s body was cremated, and the ashes were placed in an urn in the Kremlin wall on Red Square in Moscow.
115 years ago, on January 12, 1903 (December 30, 1902), in the city of Sim in the Urals, in the family of a land surveyor and a teacher, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was born - the future world-famous physicist, scientific director of the atomic project in the USSR, the “father” of the Soviet atomic and thermonuclear bombs, founder of nuclear energy, founder and first director of the Institute of Atomic Energy (now the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, laureate of 4 Stalin and Lenin Prizes, three times Hero of Socialist Labor.
Under his leadership, the first Soviet cyclotron was built (1939), spontaneous nuclear fission was discovered (1940), mine protection for ships was developed (1942), and the first nuclear reactor in Europe was built (1946).
Since 1925, Igor Vasilyevich, having a diploma from the Taurida University (Simferopol), began working at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. What issues he dealt with is interesting only to specialists. Let's just say that he made a huge contribution to the physics of dielectrics and laid significant stones in the foundation of semiconductor physics. Already at the age of 31 he became a doctor, professor, and his name was well known throughout the scientific world.
Then it scientific interests made a sharp turn towards nuclear physics - an area that Phystech did not deal with. And here he managed to do a lot, and even before the war he became a world-famous star. Then there was the evacuation of the institute to Kazan, then work on protecting ships from magnetic mines, and then by Government Decree of February 11, 1943, he was appointed scientific director of the “uranium problem.”
Why him? After all, there were many other nuclear scientists in the country. Because there was no personality equal to him in science. When it became known about the work in the USA and Nazi Germany on nuclear weapons and academicians Vernadsky, Kapitsa, Ioffe and Khlopin were called to the Kremlin to discuss this information, it was no coincidence that they named Kurchatov.
He combined the powerful talent of an experimenter, the breadth of scientific thinking, the ability to instantly determine the essence of any scientific problem and unerringly find the right way to solve it, discarding trifles. In addition - a unique memory, fortitude, integrity, leadership talent and, at the same time, an amazing ability to get along with people, even with the most irreconcilable opponents.
Here's what his closest employees wrote about him: “Having taken up the matter, Kurchatov lights himself up, lights up those around him and gives no rest to anyone until the research is brought to complete clarity. But it is impossible to be angry with Kurchatov. He himself works harder than anyone. But as soon as the main thing is decided, he moves on to new topic, with little interest in fine-tuning minor details". It's about the 1930s.
And this is about the 1940s: “During this period, Kurchatov became a statesman. Possessing rare charm, he quickly makes friends among leaders of industry and the army. He organizes new large research institutes, new design bureaus, new industries. Possessing an excellent memory and oratorical talent, Kurchatov speaks with unsurpassed clarity at numerous meetings. His convincing speeches, impeccable in style and brevity, are a constant success. Scientific teams are happy to welcome him in their laboratories. Every conversation with him brings scientific clarity and directs me to the main thing. Kurchatov, like a commander, sets masses of people in motion and invariably wins brilliant victories, moving towards the goal faster than the most optimistic calculations predicted.”. At the same time, he directly supervised the work at his institute.
For almost 15 years, Igor Vasilyevich bore the heavy, enormous responsibility of scientific and government work. His heart could not stand it, but he did the most important thing - he protected the country from the nuclear aggression already planned by the Americans. The urn with his ashes is buried in the Kremlin wall.
IN last years There is an objective reassessment of the activities of L.P. Beria. There are no words, this man’s contribution to the creation of Russia’s nuclear shield is enormous. But he had a completely different function - a government function and, in fact, he solved those tasks that only the Government could solve and which Kurchatov set for the Government.
The Russian people are always rich in geniuses. But the 20th century is special. In that century, a galaxy of people was born who combined the genius of a scientist with the wisdom of a statesman - S.P. Korolev, M.V. Keldysh, M.A. Lavrentyev... And the first in this galaxy is Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov.
The kingdom of heaven be upon him!
Valery Gabrusenko, publicist, candidate of technical sciences, associate professor, corresponding member. Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts
