Developer of the atomic bomb. Creation of the atomic bomb in the USSR

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 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 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 a large amount of uranium ore was urgently purchased from the Belgian Congo.

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.

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 Institute of Physics of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Institute of Physics of the Higher Technical School in Berlin, the Institute of Physics and Chemistry 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 calmly - 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 provide the fastest return in the creation of new types of weapons. Government funding for the uranium project was curtailed. Nevertheless, the scientists’ work continued.

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

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 was conducting active research, as a result of which it might soon acquire an atomic bomb.

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 Jürgen Kuchinsky, who informed the Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attache 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. Pictured is Operation Crossroads, 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.

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 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.

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.

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 Oktyabrskoye Pole. 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 on an 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).

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.

Having received recognition in the USSR as a researcher and talented organizer, able to find effective solutions to 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.

When Yakov Zeldovich was allowed to publish his scientific articles in foreign academic journals, many Western scientists did not believe that one person could cover such diverse areas of science. The West sincerely believed that Yakov Zeldovich was the collective pseudonym of a large group of Soviet scientists. When it turned out that Zeldovich was not a pseudonym, but a real person, the entire scientific world recognized him as a brilliant scientist. At the same time, Yakov Borisovich did not have a single diploma of higher education - from his youth he simply delved into those areas of science that were interesting to him. He worked from morning to night, but did not sacrifice himself at all - he did what he loved more than anything in the world and what he could not live without. And the scope of his interests is truly amazing: chemical physics, physical chemistry, combustion theory, astrophysics, cosmology, physics of shock waves and detonation, and of course - physics of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles. Research in this latter area of ​​science secured Yakov Zeldovich the title of chief theorist of thermonuclear weapons.

Yakov was born on March 8, 1914 in Minsk, in connection with which he constantly joked that he was born as a gift for women. His father was a lawyer, a member of the bar, his mother was a translator of French novels. In the summer of 1914, the Zeldovich family moved to Petrograd. In 1924, Yasha went to study in the third grade of high school and six years later he successfully graduated. From the autumn of 1930 to May 1931, he attended courses and worked as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Mechanical Processing of Mineral Resources. In May 1931, Zeldovich began working at the Institute of Chemical Physics, with which he connected his entire life.

According to the memoirs of Professor Lev Aronovich Sena, Zeldovich’s appearance at the Institute of Chemical Physics - then the institute was in Leningrad - happened like this: “On that memorable March day, an excursion from Mekhanoobra arrived. Among the excursionists there was a young man, almost a boy - as it later turned out, he had recently turned 17 years old. Like every guide, I started with my topic. The sightseers listened politely, and the young man began asking questions, which showed that he mastered thermodynamics, molecular physics and chemistry at a level not lower than the third year of university. Taking a moment, I go up to the head of the laboratory, Simon Zalmanovich Roginsky, and say:

Simon! I really like this boy. It would be nice if he came to us.
Simon Zalmanovich answered me:
- Me too, I heard your conversation out of the corner of my ear. I’ll continue the tour myself, and you talk to him, does he want to join us? Then you can take him with you.
I took the young man aside and asked:
- Do you like it here?
- Very.
- Would you like to work with us?
- Partly because of this, I came on the excursion.
Soon Yasha Zeldovich - that was the name of the young man - came to us and began working with me, since I discovered him.”

Communication with theoreticians of the Leningrad Physics and Technology Institute, along with self-education, became the main source of knowledge for Zeldovich. At one time he studied in absentia at Leningrad University, later attended some lectures at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, but never received a diploma of higher education. Despite this, the “non-graduate” but talented young man was accepted into graduate school at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1934, and later was even allowed to take candidate exams.

In 1936, Zeldovich defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, and in 1939 he defended his doctoral dissertation. By that time he was barely 25 years old, and everyone around him understood that this was just the beginning! All these years, Zeldovich was searching for effective substances for gas masks and delved into the problem of adsorption - the process of absorption of gases or substances by an adsorbent, for example, activated carbon. After his doctoral dissertation, which became a generalization of his work on the problem of nitrogen oxidation in a hot flame, the name of Zeldovich became widely known in the scientific world.

Even before defending his PhD, Yakov Borisovich became the head of one of the laboratories of the Institute of Chemical Physics. At this time he was studying the theory of combustion. He formed a new approach that organically combined chemical kinetics with the analysis of the thermal and then hydrodynamic picture, taking into account the movement of gas. When the war began, the institute was evacuated to Kazan, where Zeldovich was studying the combustion of propellant rockets for Katyusha rockets, since the combustion of gunpowder in winter was unstable. This problem was solved by him in the shortest possible time. In 1943, for a series of works on the theory of combustion, Yakov Borisovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Even before the war, Zeldovich began to study nuclear physics. After the appearance in 1938 of an article by O. Hahn and F. Strassmann on the fission of uranium, Zeldovich and Khariton immediately realized that not only ordinary chain reactions were possible in the process, but also those that could lead to nuclear explosions with the release of enormous energy. At the same time, each of them had their own, completely different working research, so Zeldovich and Khariton began to study the “nuclear” problem in the evenings and on weekends. Together, scientists published a number of works - for example, for the first time they calculated the chain reaction of uranium fission, which made it possible to determine the critical size of the reactor. That is why, after the appointment of Igor Kurchatov as scientific director of the Soviet atomic project, Khariton and Zeldovich were first on the list of scientists involved in work on the atomic bomb.

From the beginning of 1944, while remaining a full-time employee of the Institute of Chemical Physics and holding the position of head of the laboratory, Zeldovich began working on the creation of atomic weapons in Laboratory No. 2 under the leadership of Kurchatov. In Kurchatov’s draft notes on the laboratory’s work plan, there was, for example, the following paragraph: “Theoretical development of issues related to the implementation of the bomb and boiler (01.01.44-01.01.45) - Zeldovich, Pomeranchuk, Gurevich.” Zeldovich eventually became the main theorist of the atomic bomb - for this in 1949 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, awarded the Order of Lenin and awarded the title of laureate of the Stalin Prize.

In 1958, Zeldovich was elected academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1965 to 1983, he worked as the head of a department at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while at the same time being a professor at the Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University. In addition, from 1984 to 1987, having become interested in astrophysics and cosmology, he headed the department of relativistic astrophysics at the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg.

The breadth of Yakov Borisovich's interests amazed everyone. For example, Andrei Sakharov called him “a man of universal interests,” Landau believed that not a single physicist, except, perhaps, Enrico Fermi, had such a wealth of new ideas, and Kurchatov invariably repeated one phrase: “Still, Yashka is a genius ! Over the 73 years of his life - the outstanding physicist died in 1987 - Zeldovich wrote about 500 scientific papers and dozens of monographs, medals named after him are awarded in various fields of science around the world.

The emergence of atomic (nuclear) weapons was due to a mass of objective and subjective factors. Objectively, the creation of atomic weapons came thanks to the rapid development of science, which began with fundamental discoveries in the field of physics in the first half of the twentieth century. The main subjective factor was the military-political situation, when the states of the anti-Hitler coalition began a secret race to develop such powerful weapons. Today we will find out who invented the atomic bomb, how it developed in the world and the Soviet Union, and also get acquainted with its structure and the consequences of its use.

Creation of the atomic bomb

From a scientific point of view, the year of creation of the atomic bomb was the distant 1896. It was then that the French physicist A. Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium. Subsequently, the chain reaction of uranium began to be seen as a source of enormous energy, and became the basis for the development of the most dangerous weapons in the world. However, Becquerel is rarely remembered when talking about who invented the atomic bomb.

Over the next few decades, alpha, beta and gamma rays were discovered by scientists from different parts of the Earth. At the same time, a large number of radioactive isotopes were discovered, the law of radioactive decay was formulated, and the beginnings of the study of nuclear isomerism were laid.

In the 1940s, scientists discovered the neuron and the positron and for the first time carried out the fission of the nucleus of a uranium atom, accompanied by the absorption of neurons. It was this discovery that became a turning point in history. In 1939, French physicist Frédéric Joliot-Curie patented the world's first nuclear bomb, which he developed with his wife out of purely scientific interest. It was Joliot-Curie who is considered the creator of the atomic bomb, despite the fact that he was a staunch defender of world peace. In 1955, he, along with Einstein, Born and a number of other famous scientists, organized the Pugwash movement, whose members advocated peace and disarmament.

Rapidly developing, atomic weapons have become an unprecedented military-political phenomenon, which makes it possible to ensure the safety of its owner and reduce to a minimum the capabilities of other weapons systems.

How does a nuclear bomb work?

Structurally, an atomic bomb consists of a large number of components, the main ones being the body and automation. The housing is designed to protect automation and nuclear charge from mechanical, thermal, and other influences. Automation controls the timing of the explosion.

It includes:

1. Emergency explosion.
2. Cocking and safety devices.
3. Power supply.
4. Various sensors.

Transportation of atomic bombs to the site of attack is carried out using missiles (anti-aircraft, ballistic or cruise). Nuclear ammunition can be part of a landmine, torpedo, aircraft bomb and other elements. Various detonation systems are used for atomic bombs. The simplest is a device in which the impact of a projectile on a target, causing the formation of a supercritical mass, stimulates an explosion.

Nuclear weapons can be of large, medium and small caliber. The power of the explosion is usually expressed in TNT equivalent. Small-caliber atomic shells have a yield of several thousand tons of TNT. Medium-caliber ones already correspond to tens of thousands of tons, and the capacity of large-caliber ones reaches millions of tons.

Operating principle

The principle of operation of a nuclear bomb is based on the use of energy released during a nuclear chain reaction. During this process, heavy particles are divided and light particles are synthesized. When an atomic bomb explodes, a huge amount of energy is released in the shortest period of time in a small area. That is why such bombs are classified as weapons of mass destruction.

There are two key areas in the area of ​​a nuclear explosion: the center and the epicenter. At the center of the explosion, the process of energy release directly occurs. The epicenter is the projection of this process onto the earth or water surface. The energy of a nuclear explosion, projected onto the ground, can lead to seismic tremors that spread over a considerable distance. These tremors cause harm to the environment only within a radius of several hundred meters from the point of explosion.

Damaging factors

Atomic weapons have the following destruction factors:

1. Radioactive contamination.
2. Light radiation.
3. Shock wave.
4. Electromagnetic pulse.
5. Penetrating radiation.

The consequences of an atomic bomb explosion are disastrous for all living things. Due to the release of a huge amount of light and heat energy, the explosion of a nuclear projectile is accompanied by a bright flash. The power of this flash is several times stronger than the sun's rays, so there is a danger of damage from light and thermal radiation within a radius of several kilometers from the point of the explosion.

Another dangerous damaging factor of atomic weapons is the radiation generated during the explosion. It lasts only a minute after the explosion, but has maximum penetrating power.

The shock wave has a very strong destructive effect. She literally wipes out everything that stands in her way. Penetrating radiation poses a danger to all living beings. In humans, it causes the development of radiation sickness. Well, an electromagnetic pulse only harms technology. Taken together, the damaging factors of an atomic explosion pose a huge danger.

First tests

Throughout the history of the atomic bomb, America showed the greatest interest in its creation. At the end of 1941, the country's leadership allocated a huge amount of money and resources to this area. Robert Oppenheimer, who is considered by many to be the creator of the atomic bomb, was appointed project manager. In fact, he was the first who was able to bring the scientists' idea to life. As a result, on July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb test took place in the desert of New Mexico. Then America decided that in order to completely end the war it needed to defeat Japan, an ally of Nazi Germany. The Pentagon quickly selected targets for the first nuclear attacks, which were supposed to become a vivid illustration of the power of American weapons.

On August 6, 1945, the US atomic bomb, cynically called "Little Boy", was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The shot turned out to be simply perfect - the bomb exploded at an altitude of 200 meters from the ground, due to which its blast wave caused horrific damage to the city. In areas far from the center, coal stoves were overturned, leading to severe fires.

The bright flash was followed by a heat wave, which in 4 seconds managed to melt the tiles on the roofs of houses and incinerate telegraph poles. The heat wave was followed by a shock wave. The wind, which swept through the city at a speed of about 800 km/h, demolished everything in its path. Of the 76,000 buildings located in the city before the explosion, about 70,000 were completely destroyed. A few minutes after the explosion, rain began to fall from the sky, large drops of which were black. The rain fell due to the formation of a huge amount of condensation, consisting of steam and ash, in the cold layers of the atmosphere.

People who were affected by the fireball within a radius of 800 meters from the point of the explosion turned to dust. Those who were a little further from the explosion had burned skin, the remains of which were torn off by the shock wave. Black radioactive rain left incurable burns on the skin of survivors. Those who miraculously managed to escape soon began to show signs of radiation sickness: nausea, fever and attacks of weakness.

Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, America attacked another Japanese city - Nagasaki. The second explosion had the same disastrous consequences as the first.

In a matter of seconds, two atomic bombs destroyed hundreds of thousands of people. The shock wave practically wiped Hiroshima off the face of the earth. More than half of the local residents (about 240 thousand people) died immediately from their injuries. In the city of Nagasaki, about 73 thousand people died from the explosion. Many of those who survived were subjected to severe radiation, which caused infertility, radiation sickness and cancer. As a result, some of the survivors died in terrible agony. The use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki illustrated the terrible power of these weapons.

You and I already know who invented the atomic bomb, how it works and what consequences it can lead to. Now we will find out how things were with nuclear weapons in the USSR.

After the bombing of Japanese cities, J.V. Stalin realized that the creation of a Soviet atomic bomb was a matter of national security. On August 20, 1945, a committee on nuclear energy was created in the USSR, and L. Beria was appointed head of it.

It is worth noting that work in this direction has been carried out in the Soviet Union since 1918, and in 1938, a special commission on the atomic nucleus was created at the Academy of Sciences. With the outbreak of World War II, all work in this direction was frozen.

In 1943, USSR intelligence officers transferred from England materials from closed scientific works in the field of nuclear energy. These materials illustrated that the work of foreign scientists on the creation of an atomic bomb had made serious progress. At the same time, American residents contributed to the introduction of reliable Soviet agents into the main US nuclear research centers. The agents passed on information about new developments to Soviet scientists and engineers.

Terms of reference

When in 1945 the issue of creating a Soviet nuclear bomb became almost a priority, one of the project leaders, Yu. Khariton, drew up a plan for the development of two versions of the projectile. On June 1, 1946, the plan was signed by senior management.

According to the assignment, the designers needed to build an RDS (special jet engine) of two models:

1. RDS-1. A bomb with a plutonium charge that is detonated by spherical compression. The device was borrowed from the Americans.
2. RDS-2. A cannon bomb with two uranium charges converging in the gun barrel before reaching a critical mass.

In the history of the notorious RDS, the most common, albeit humorous, formulation was the phrase “Russia does it itself.” It was invented by Yu. Khariton’s deputy, K. Shchelkin. This phrase very accurately conveys the essence of the work, at least for RDS-2.

When America learned that the Soviet Union possessed the secrets of creating nuclear weapons, it began to desire a rapid escalation of preventive war. In the summer of 1949, the “Troyan” plan appeared, according to which on January 1, 1950 it was planned to begin military operations against the USSR. Then the date of the attack was moved to the beginning of 1957, but with the condition that all NATO countries join it.

Tests

When information about America's plans arrived through intelligence channels in the USSR, the work of Soviet scientists accelerated significantly. Western experts believed that atomic weapons would be created in the USSR no earlier than 1954-1955. In fact, the tests of the first atomic bomb in the USSR took place already in August 1949. On August 29, an RDS-1 device was blown up at a test site in Semipalatinsk. A large team of scientists took part in its creation, headed by Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov. The design of the charge belonged to the Americans, and the electronic equipment was created from scratch. The first atomic bomb in the USSR exploded with a power of 22 kt.

Due to the likelihood of a retaliatory strike, the Trojan plan, which involved a nuclear attack on 70 Soviet cities, was thwarted. The tests at Semipalatinsk marked the end of the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons. The invention of Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov completely destroyed the military plans of America and NATO and prevented the development of another world war. Thus began an era of peace on Earth, which exists under the threat of absolute destruction.

"Nuclear Club" of the world

Today, not only America and Russia have nuclear weapons, but also a number of other states. The collection of countries that own such weapons is conventionally called the “nuclear club.”

It includes:

1. America (since 1945).
2. USSR, and now Russia (since 1949).
3. England (since 1952).
4. France (since 1960).
5. China (since 1964).
6. India (since 1974).
7. Pakistan (since 1998).
8. Korea (since 2006).

Israel also has nuclear weapons, although the country's leadership refuses to comment on their presence. In addition, there are American nuclear weapons on the territory of NATO countries (Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada) and allies (Japan, South Korea, despite the official refusal).

Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which owned part of the USSR's nuclear weapons, transferred their bombs to Russia after the collapse of the Union. She became the sole heir to the USSR's nuclear arsenal.

Conclusion

Today we learned who invented the atomic bomb and what it is. Summarizing the above, we can conclude that nuclear weapons today are the most powerful instrument of global politics, firmly entrenched in relations between countries. On the one hand, it is an effective means of deterrence, and on the other, a convincing argument for preventing military confrontation and strengthening peaceful relations between states. Atomic weapons are a symbol of an entire era that require especially careful handling.

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 Vasilievich 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.

In August 1942, a secret “Metallurgical Laboratory” opened in a former school building in the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, not far from Santa Fe. Robert Oppenheimer was appointed head of the laboratory.

It took the Americans three years to solve the problem. In July 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated at the test site, and in August two more bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It took seven years for the birth of the Soviet atomic bomb - the first explosion was carried out at the test site in 1949.

The American team of physicists was initially stronger. Only 12 Nobel laureates, present and future, took part in the creation of the atomic bomb. And the only future Soviet Nobel laureate, who was in Kazan in 1942 and who was invited to take part in the work, refused. In addition, the Americans were helped by a group of British scientists sent to Los Alamos in 1943.

Nevertheless, 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 figures then - - spoke about the significant role of intelligence in accelerating the lagging Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by those who arrived in the English group.

So Robert Oppenheimer can be called the “father” of bombs created on both sides of the ocean - his ideas fertilized both projects. It is wrong to consider Oppenheimer (like Kurchatov) only as an outstanding organizer. His main achievements are scientific. And it was thanks to them that he became the scientific director of the atomic bomb project.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904. In 1925 he received a diploma from Harvard University. For a year he interned with Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1926 he moved to the University of Göttingen, where in 1927 he defended his doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Max Born. In 1928 he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at two leading American universities - the University of California and the California Institute of Technology.

Oppenheimer studied quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, and carried out a number of works on theoretical astrophysics. In 1927, he created the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he developed the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1930 he predicted the existence of the positron.

In 1931, together with Ehrenfest, he formulated the Ehrenfest-Oppenheimer theorem, according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of particles with spin ½ should obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, and those consisting of an even number should obey Bose-Einstein statistics. Investigated the internal conversion of gamma rays.

In 1937, he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he first calculated a model of a neutron star, and in 1939, in his work “On irreversible gravitational compression,” he predicted the existence of “black holes.”

Oppenheimer wrote several popular science books: Science and Common Knowledge (1954), The Open Mind (1955), and Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960).