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Who created the Soviet atomic bomb. Who invented the atomic bomb. Video: nuclear bomb tests

Ancient Indian and Greek scientists assumed that matter consists of the smallest indivisible particles; they wrote about this in their treatises long before the beginning of our era. In the 5th century BC e. the Greek scientist Leucippus from Miletus and his student Democritus formulated the concept of an atom (Greek atomos "indivisible"). For many centuries this theory remained rather philosophical, and only in 1803 the English chemist John Dalton proposed a scientific theory of the atom, confirmed by experiments.

At the end of XIX beginning of XX century. this theory was developed in the writings of Joseph Thomson, and then Ernest Rutherford, called the father of nuclear physics. It was found that the atom, contrary to its name, is not an indivisible finite particle, as previously stated. In 1911, physicists adopted Rutherford Bohr's "planetary" system, according to which an atom consists of a positively charged nucleus and negatively charged electrons revolving around it. Later it was found that the nucleus is also not indivisible; it consists of positively charged protons and chargeless neutrons, which, in turn, consist of elementary particles.

As soon as scientists became more or less aware of the structure atomic nucleus, they tried to realize the old dream of alchemists, the transformation of one substance into another. In 1934, French scientists Frederic and Irene Joliot-Curie, when bombarding aluminum with alpha particles (helium atom nuclei), obtained radioactive phosphorus atoms, which, in turn, turned into a stable silicon isotope of a heavier element than aluminum. The idea arose to conduct a similar experiment with the heaviest natural element, uranium, discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth. After Henri Becquerel discovered the radioactivity of uranium salts in 1896, scientists were seriously interested in this element.

E. Rutherford.

Mushroom nuclear explosion.

In 1938, the German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann conducted an experiment similar to the Joliot-Curie experiment, however, taking uranium instead of aluminum, they hoped to obtain a new superheavy element. However, the result was unexpected: instead of superheavy, light elements from the middle part of the periodic table were obtained. Some time later, the physicist Lisa Meitner suggested that the bombardment of uranium with neutrons leads to the splitting (fission) of its nucleus, resulting in the nuclei of light elements and a certain number of free neutrons.

Further studies have shown that natural uranium consists of a mixture of three isotopes, the least stable of which is uranium-235. From time to time, the nuclei of its atoms spontaneously divide into parts, this process is accompanied by the release of two or three free neutrons, which rush at a speed of about 10 thousand kms. The nuclei of the most common isotope-238 in most cases simply capture these neutrons, less often uranium is converted into neptunium and then into plutonium-239. When a neutron hits the nucleus of uranium-2 3 5, its new fission immediately occurs.

It was obvious: if you take enough big piece pure (enriched) uranium-235, the nuclear fission reaction in it will go like an avalanche, this reaction was called a chain reaction. Each nuclear fission releases a huge amount of energy. It was calculated that with the complete fission of 1 kg of uranium-235, the same amount of heat is released as when burning 3 thousand tons of coal. This colossal release of energy, released in a matter of moments, was supposed to manifest itself as an explosion of monstrous force, which, of course, immediately interested the military departments.

The Joliot-Curies. 1940s

L. Meitner and O. Hahn. 1925

Before the outbreak of World War II, highly classified work was carried out in Germany and some other countries to create nuclear weapons. In the United States, research designated as the "Manhattan Project" started in 1941; a year later, the world's largest research laboratory was founded in Los Alamos. The project was administratively subordinated to General Groves, scientific leadership was carried out by University of California professor Robert Oppenheimer. The project was attended by the largest authorities in the field of physics and chemistry, including 13 Nobel Prize winners: Enrico Fermi, James Frank, Niels Bohr, Ernest Lawrence and others.

The main task was to obtain a sufficient amount of uranium-235. It was found that plutonium-2 39 could also serve as a charge for the bomb, so work was carried out in two directions at once. The accumulation of uranium-235 was to be carried out by separating it from the bulk of natural uranium, and plutonium could only be obtained as a result of a controlled nuclear reaction by irradiating uranium-238 with neutrons. Enrichment of natural uranium was carried out at the plants of the Westinghouse company, and for the production of plutonium it was necessary to build a nuclear reactor.

It was in the reactor that the process of irradiating uranium rods with neutrons took place, as a result of which part of the uranium-238 was supposed to turn into plutonium. The sources of neutrons were fissile atoms of uranium-235, but the capture of neutrons by uranium-238 prevented the chain reaction from starting. The discovery of Enrico Fermi, who discovered that neutrons slowed down to a speed of 22 ms, caused a chain reaction of uranium-235, but were not captured by uranium-238, helped solve the problem. As a moderator, Fermi proposed a 40-cm layer of graphite or heavy water, which includes the hydrogen isotope deuterium.

R. Oppenheimer and Lieutenant General L. Groves. 1945

Calutron at Oak Ridge.

An experimental reactor was built in 1942 under the stands of the Chicago Stadium. On December 2, its successful experimental launch took place. A year later, a new enrichment plant was built in the city of Oak Ridge and a reactor for the industrial production of plutonium was launched, as well as a calutron device for the electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes. The total cost of the project was about $2 billion. Meanwhile, at Los Alamos, work was going on directly on the device of the bomb and methods for detonating the charge.

On June 16, 1945, near the city of Alamogordo in the state of New Mexico, during tests codenamed Trinity (“Trinity”), the world's first nuclear device with a plutonium charge and an implosive (using chemical explosives for detonation) detonation scheme was detonated. The power of the explosion was equivalent to an explosion of 20 kilotons of TNT.

The next step was the combat use of nuclear weapons against Japan, which, after the surrender of Germany, alone continued the war against the United States and its allies. On August 6, an Enola Gay B-29 bomber, under the control of Colonel Tibbets, dropped a Little Boy (“baby”) bomb on Hiroshima with a uranium charge and a cannon (using the connection of two blocks to create a critical mass) detonation scheme. The bomb was parachuted down and exploded at an altitude of 600 m from the ground. On August 9, Major Sweeney's Box Car aircraft dropped the Fat Man plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. The consequences of the explosions were terrible. Both cities were almost completely destroyed, more than 200 thousand people died in Hiroshima, about 80 thousand in Nagasaki. Later, one of the pilots admitted that they saw at that moment the most terrible thing that a person can see. Unable to resist the new weapons, the Japanese government capitulated.

Hiroshima after atomic bombing.

Explosion atomic bomb put an end to World War II, but actually began new war"cold", accompanied by an unrestrained race nuclear weapons. Soviet scientists had to catch up with the Americans. In 1943, a secret "laboratory No. 2" was created, headed by the famous physicist Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov. Later, the laboratory was transformed into the Institute of Atomic Energy. In December 1946, the first chain reaction was carried out at the experimental nuclear uranium-graphite reactor F1. Two years later, the first plutonium plant with several industrial reactors was built in the Soviet Union, and in August 1949, a test explosion of the first Soviet atomic bomb with a plutonium charge RDS-1 with a capacity of 22 kilotons was carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site.

In November 1952, on the Enewetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the United States detonated the first thermonuclear charge, the destructive power of which arose due to the energy released during the nuclear fusion of light elements into heavier ones. Nine months later, at the Semipalatinsk test site, Soviet scientists tested the RDS-6 thermonuclear, or hydrogen, 400-kiloton bomb developed by a group of scientists led by Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov and Yuli Borisovich Khariton. In October 1961 at the training ground of the archipelago New Earth The 50-megaton Tsar Bomba, the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever tested, was detonated.

I. V. Kurchatov.

At the end of the 2000s, the United States had approximately 5,000 and Russia 2,800 nuclear weapons on deployed strategic launchers, as well as a significant number of tactical nuclear weapons. This reserve is enough to destroy the entire planet several times. Just one thermonuclear bomb average power (about 25 megatons) is equal to 1500 Hiroshima.

In the late 1970s, research was underway to create a neutron weapon, a type of low-yield nuclear bomb. neutron bomb differs from conventional nuclear in that it artificially increases the fraction of the explosion energy that is released in the form of neutron radiation. This radiation affects the enemy's manpower, affects his weapons and creates radioactive contamination of the area, while the impact of the shock wave and light radiation is limited. However, not a single army in the world has taken neutron charges into service.

Although the use of atomic energy has brought the world to the brink of destruction, it also has a peaceful side, although it is extremely dangerous when it gets out of control, this was clearly shown by the accidents at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear power plants. The world's first nuclear power plant with a capacity of only 5 MW was launched on June 27, 1954 in the village of Obninskoye Kaluga region(now the city of Obninsk). To date, more than 400 nuclear power plants are in operation in the world, 10 of them in Russia. They generate about 17% of the world's electricity, and this figure is likely to only increase. At present, the world cannot do without the use of nuclear energy, but I want to believe that in the future humanity will find a safer source of energy.

Control panel of the nuclear power plant in Obninsk.

Chernobyl after the disaster.

“I am not the simplest person,” the 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 20th century, whose very "complexity" absorbed the country's political and ethical contradictions.

During World War II, the brilliant physicist Ajulius Robert Oppenheimer led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history. The scientist led a secluded and secluded life, and this gave rise to suspicions of treason.

Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments in science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its occurrence were made at the end of the 19th century. a huge role the studies of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others played in revealing the secrets of the atom.

In early 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive power and that uranium could become an energy source, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion was the impetus for the development of nuclear weapons.

Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such powerful weapon pushed militaristic circles to create it as soon as possible, but the problem of the availability of a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research was a brake. over creation atomic weapons the physicists of Germany, England, the USA, Japan worked, realizing that it was impossible to work without a sufficient amount of uranium ore, the USA in September 1940 purchased a large amount of the required ore under false documents from Belgium, which allowed them to work on the creation of nuclear weapons in full swing .

From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium refinery was built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gaseous diffusion followed by magnetic separation of 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 the state of New Mexico, in 1942, an American nuclear center was established. 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 United States and England, but almost all Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 Nobel Prize winners. 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 mass bombing of the cities of England, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the USA, which allowed the USA to take a leading position in the development of nuclear physics (the creation of nuclear weapons).

"The father of the atomic bomb", 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 studied with pleasure the mysticism of ancient Indian books. A communist, traveler and staunch American patriot, a very spiritual person, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to defend himself against the attacks of anti-communists. The scientist who developed the plan of infliction most damage Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cursed himself for the "innocent blood on his hands."

Writing about this controversial man is not an easy task, but an interesting one, and the 20th century was marked by a number of books about him. However, the rich life of the scientist continues to attract biographers.

Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1903 to wealthy and educated Jewish parents. Oppenheimer was brought up in love for painting, music, in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. In 1922 he entered Harvard University and in just three years he graduated with honors, his main subject was chemistry. In the next few years, the precocious young man traveled to several countries in Europe, where he worked with physicists who dealt with the problems of investigating atomic phenomena in the light of new theories. Just a year after graduating from university, Oppenheimer published scientific work, which showed how deeply he understands new methods. Soon he, together with the famous Max Born, developed the most important part of quantum theory, known as the Born-Oppenheimer method. In 1927, his outstanding doctoral dissertation brought him worldwide fame.

In 1928 he worked at the Zurich and Leiden universities. In 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 the creation of an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the specially created Los Alamos laboratory.

In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising star in science, accepted offers from two of several universities that were vying for the right to invite him. He taught during the spring semester at the vibrant, fledgling Caltech in Pasadena, and during the fall and winter semesters at the University of California at Berkeley, where he became the first lecturer in quantum mechanics. In fact, the erudite scholar 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 expression in communist activities. Like many thoughtful people of the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left movement as one of the possible alternatives, although he did not join the Communist Party, which his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. His interest in politics, as well as his ability to read Sanskrit, was the natural result of a constant pursuit of knowledge. In his own words, he was also deeply disturbed 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 communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer parted ways with Jean Tetlock and moved away from her circle of leftist friends.

In 1939, the United States learned that in preparation for a global war, Nazi Germany had discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately guessed 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 support 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 solution of the problem of separating the isotopes of uranium necessary for the release of energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who had previously been occupied with theoretical problems, was offered to organize a wide front of work only at the beginning of 1942.

The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by Colonel Leslie R. Groves, 46, a professional military man. Groves, who described the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "a costly bunch of lunatics," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the heat was on. The physicist proposed that all scientists be united in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in an area that he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding house for boys had been turned into a tightly guarded secret center, of which Oppenheimer became 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 in his work. Not 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 of which rare person did not have a pronounced personality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and subtle diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's eventual success belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who by that time had become a general, could confidently say that the two billion dollars spent would be ready for action by August 1 of the next year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about the use of new weapons. After all, probably, Japan would have capitulated soon without the atomic bombing. Should the United States be 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 major Japanese military facility. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.

All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The test of the world's first atomic bomb was carried out on July 16, 1945, about 80 kilometers from the air base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The test device, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower set up in a desert area. Exactly at 5.30 am the detonator with remote control triggered the bomb. With an echoing roar across a 1.6-kilometer diameter area, a giant purple-green-orange rose into the sky. fire ball. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke rapidly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on an awesome mushroom shape at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion startled 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 from the east of two American aircraft (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (because every day they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object on a parachute slowly descended and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the "Baby" bomb.

Three days after The Kid was blown up in Hiroshima, exact copy The first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve had finally been broken by this new weapon, signed an unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics were already being heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that "mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and Hiroshima."

The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tellingly, Oppenheimer managed to combine the excitement of testing a bomb on civilians and the joy that the weapon had finally been tested.

Nevertheless, the following year he accepted an appointment as chairman of the scientific council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thus becoming the most influential adviser to the government and the military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Stalin-led Soviet Union were seriously preparing for the Cold War, each side focused its attention on the arms race. Although many of the scientists who were part of the Manhattan Project did not support the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating a new weapon, former employees Oppenheimer Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence considered that US national security required the rapid development of a hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, two nuclear powers and so already confronted each other, like "two scorpions in a jar, each able to kill the other, but only at the risk of own life". With the spread of new weapons in wars, there would no longer be 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 out of place under Oppenheimer and clearly envious of his achievements, Teller began to make an effort to head the new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was keeping scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb with his authority, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered bouts of severe depression in his youth. When President Truman gave his approval in 1950 to finance the development of the hydrogen bomb, 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 Oppenheimer was opposed by many influential political and scientific figures. As Albert Einstein later put it: "Oppenheimer's problem was that he loved a woman who didn't love him: the U.S. government."

By allowing Oppenheimer's talent to flourish, America doomed him to death.


Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He owns many works on quantum mechanics, relativity theory, elementary particle physics, theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of the 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 the neutron star model, in 1939 he predicted the existence of "black holes".

Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including Science and the Common Understanding (Science and the Common Understanding, 1954), Open Mind (The Open Mind, 1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (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, a secret "Laboratory No. 2" began to work in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.

In Soviet times, it was claimed 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 laggard Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by a visitor to English group Klaus Fuchs.

Information from abroad helped the country's leadership to make a difficult decision - to start work on nuclear weapons during the most difficult war. Intelligence allowed our physicists to save time, helped to avoid a "misfire" during the first atomic test, which was of great political importance.

In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Shortly thereafter from the pages scientific journals articles on nuclear physics began to disappear. This could indicate a 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 for residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution

L. Kvasnikov, a corresponding directive was sent out.

In the FSB of Russia ( former KGB USSR) under the heading "keep forever" lie 17 volumes of archival file N 13676, which documented who and how attracted US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence. Only a few of the top leadership of the KGB of the USSR had access to the materials of this case, the classification of which was removed only recently. Soviet intelligence received the first information about the work on the creation of the American atomic bomb in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the ongoing research in the United States and England fell on the table of I.V. Stalin. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was more reliable to use the bomb scheme already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. "Considering state interests, any other solution was then invalid. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is beyond doubt. However, we implemented the American scheme in the first test not so much for technical as for political reasons.

The announcement that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons aroused in the US ruling circles a desire to unleash a preventive war as soon as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which provided for the start of hostilities on January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1350 in reserve and over 300 atomic bombs.

A test site was built near the city of Semipalatinsk. Exactly at 7:00 am on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device under the code name "RDS-1" was blown up 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 drew 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 information from foreign intelligence, according to academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead ends in the creation of atomic weapons and create 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 Izvestiya newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was manufactured according to American style 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 were late for one to a year and a half, then we would probably try this charge on ourselves.” ".

Third Reich Bulavina Victoria Viktorovna

Who invented the nuclear bomb?

Who invented the nuclear bomb?

The Nazi Party has always recognized the importance of technology and has invested heavily in the development of rockets, aircraft and tanks. But the most outstanding and dangerous discovery was made in the field of nuclear physics. Germany was in the 1930s perhaps the leader in nuclear physics. However, with the rise of the Nazis, many German physicists who were Jews left the Third Reich. Some of them emigrated to the US, bringing with them disturbing news: Germany may be working on an atomic bomb. These news prompted the Pentagon to take action to develop its own nuclear program, which they called the "Manhattan Project" ...

An interesting, but more than dubious version of " secret weapon Third Reich," suggested Hans Ulrich von Krantz. In his book The Secret Weapon of the Third Reich, a version is put forward that the atomic bomb was created in Germany and that the United States only imitated the results of the Manhattan Project. But let's talk about this in more detail.

Otto Hahn, the famous German physicist and radiochemist, together with another prominent scientist Fritz Straussmann, discovered the fission of the uranium nucleus in 1938, in fact, giving this start to work on the creation of nuclear weapons. In 1938, nuclear developments were not classified, but in almost no country, except Germany, they were not given due attention. They didn't see much point. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said: "This abstract matter has nothing to do with public needs." Professor Gan assessed the state of nuclear research in the United States of America as follows: “If we talk about a country in which the processes of nuclear fission are given the least attention, then we should undoubtedly name the United States. Of course, now I am not considering Brazil or the Vatican. However, among the developed countries, even Italy and communist Russia are far ahead of the United States.” He also noted that little attention is paid to the problems of theoretical physics on the other side of the ocean, priority is given to applied developments that can give immediate profit. Hahn's verdict was unequivocal: "I can confidently say that over the next decade, North Americans will not be able to do anything significant for the development of atomic physics." This statement served as the basis for the construction of the von Krantz hypothesis. Let's take a look at his version.

At the same time, the Alsos group was created, whose activities were limited to "bounty hunting" and the search for the secrets of German atomic research. Here a natural question arises: why should Americans look for other people's secrets if their own project is in full swing? Why did they rely so much on other people's research?

In the spring of 1945, thanks to the activities of Alsos, many scientists who took part in German nuclear research fell into the hands of the Americans. By May, they had Heisenberg, and Hahn, and Osenberg, and Diebner, and many other outstanding German physicists. But the Alsos group continued active searches in the already defeated Germany - until the very end of May. And only when all the major scientists were sent to America, "Alsos" ceased its activities. And at the end of June, the Americans are testing the atomic bomb, allegedly for the first time in the world. And in early August, two bombs are dropped on Japanese cities. Hans Ulrich von Krantz drew attention to these coincidences.

The researcher also doubts that only a month has passed between testing and combat use of the new superweapon, because the manufacture of a nuclear bomb is impossible in such a short time! After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the next US bombs did not enter service until 1947, preceded by additional tests at El Paso in 1946. This suggests that we are dealing with a carefully concealed truth, since it turns out that in 1945 the Americans drop three bombs - and all are successful. The next tests - the same bombs - take place a year and a half later, and not too successfully (three out of four bombs did not explode). Serial production began another six months later, and it is not known to what extent the atomic bombs that appeared in the American army warehouses corresponded to their terrible purpose. This led the researcher to the idea that “the first three atomic bombs - the very ones of the forty-fifth year - were not built by the Americans on their own, but received from someone. To put it bluntly - from the Germans. Indirectly, this hypothesis is confirmed by the reaction of German scientists to the bombing of Japanese cities, which we know about thanks to the book by David Irving. According to the researcher, the atomic project of the Third Reich was controlled by the Ahnenerbe, which was personally subordinate to the SS leader Heinrich Himmler. According to Hans Ulrich von Krantz, "a nuclear charge - best tool post-war genocide, believed both Hitler and Himmler. According to the researcher, on March 3, 1944, the atomic bomb (Loki object) was delivered to the test site - in the marshy forests of Belarus. The tests were successful and aroused unprecedented enthusiasm in the leadership of the Third Reich. German propaganda had previously mentioned a “wonder weapon” of gigantic destructive power that the Wehrmacht would soon receive, now these motives sounded even louder. Usually they are considered a bluff, but can we unequivocally draw such a conclusion? As a rule, Nazi propaganda did not bluff, it only embellished reality. So far, it has not been possible to convict her of a major lie on the issues of the “wonder weapon”. Recall that propaganda promised jet fighters - the fastest in the world. And already at the end of 1944, hundreds of Messerschmitt-262s patrolled the airspace of the Reich. Propaganda promised the enemies rocket rain, and since the autumn of that year, dozens cruise missiles The Fau rained down on English cities daily. So why should the promised super-destructive weapon be considered a bluff?

In the spring of 1944, feverish preparations began for the mass production of nuclear weapons. But why were these bombs not used? Von Krantz gives the following answer - there was no carrier, and when the Junkers-390 transport aircraft appeared, the Reich was waiting for betrayal, besides, these bombs could no longer decide the outcome of the war ...

How plausible is this version? Were the Germans really the first to develop the atomic bomb? It is difficult to say, but one should not exclude such a possibility, because, as we know, it is precisely German specialists were still leaders in atomic research in the early 1940s.

Despite the fact that many historians are investigating the secrets of the Third Reich, because many secret documents have become available, it seems that even today the archives with materials about German military developments reliably store many mysteries.

author

From book latest book facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 3 [Physics, chemistry and technology. History and archeology. Miscellaneous] author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

From the book 100 great mysteries of the XX century author

SO WHO INVENTED THE MORTAR? (Material by M. Chekurov) Large Soviet Encyclopedia 2nd edition (1954) states that “the idea of ​​​​creating a mortar was successfully implemented by midshipman S.N. Vlasyev, an active participant in the defense of Port Arthur. However, in an article on the mortar, the same source

From the book Great Contribution. What did the USSR get after the war author Shirokorad Alexander Borisovich

CHAPTER 21 HOW LAVRENTY BERIA GOT THE GERMANS TO MAKE A BOMB FOR STALIN For almost sixty years after the war, it was believed that the Germans were extremely far from creating atomic weapons. But in March 2005, the Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt publishing house published a book by a German historian

From the book Gods of money. Wall Street and the Death of the American Century author Engdahl William Frederick

From the book North Korea. The era of Kim Jong Il at sunset author Panin A

9. Bet on a nuclear bomb Kim Il Sung understood that the rejection process is endless South Korea from the USSR, China, other socialist countries cannot continue. At some stage, North Korea's allies will formalize ties with the ROK, which is becoming increasingly

From the book Scenario for World War III: How Israel Almost Caused It [L] author Grinevsky Oleg Alekseevich

Chapter Five Who gave Saddam Hussein the atomic bomb? The Soviet Union was the first to cooperate with Iraq in the field of nuclear energy. But he did not put an atomic bomb into Saddam's iron hands. On August 17, 1959, the governments of the USSR and Iraq signed an agreement that

From the book Beyond the Threshold of Victory author Martirosyan Arsen Benikovich

Myth No. 15. If not for Soviet intelligence, the USSR would not have been able to create an atomic bomb. Speculations on this topic periodically “emerge” in anti-Stalinist mythology, as a rule, in order to insult either intelligence or Soviet science, and often both at the same time. Well

From the book The Greatest Mysteries of the 20th Century author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

SO WHO INVENTED THE MORTAR? The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1954) claims that "the idea of ​​creating a mortar was successfully implemented by midshipman S. N. Vlasyev, an active participant in the defense of Port Arthur." However, in an article on the mortar, the same source stated that "Vlasyev

From the book Russian Gusli. History and mythology author Bazlov Grigory Nikolaevich

From the book Two Faces of the East [Impressions and reflections from eleven years of work in China and seven years in Japan] author Ovchinnikov Vsevolod Vladimirovich

Moscow urged to prevent a nuclear race In a word, the archives of the first post-war years are quite eloquent. Moreover, events of a diametrically opposite direction also appear in the world chronicle. On June 19, 1946, the Soviet Union introduced the draft "International

From the book In Search of the Lost World (Atlantis) author Andreeva Ekaterina Vladimirovna

Who dropped the bomb? The last words of the speaker were drowned in a storm of outrageous cries, applause, laughter and whistles. An excited man ran up to the pulpit and, waving his arms, shouted furiously: - No culture can be the mother of all cultures! It's outrageous

From book The World History in faces author Fortunatov Vladimir Valentinovich

1.6.7. How Ts'ai Lun Invented Paper The Chinese considered all other countries barbaric for thousands of years. China is the birthplace of many great inventions. It was here that paper was invented. Before its appearance, rolled paper was used for records in China

It attracted experts from many countries. Scientists and engineers from the USA, the USSR, England, Germany and Japan worked on these developments. Particularly active work was carried out in this area by the Americans, who had the best technological base and raw materials, and also managed to attract the strongest intellectual resources at that time to research.

The United States government has set a task for physicists - in the shortest possible time to create the new kind weapons that could be delivered to the most remote point on the planet.

Los Alamos, located in the deserted desert of New Mexico, became the center of American nuclear research. Many scientists, designers, engineers and the military worked on the top-secret military project, and the experienced theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who is most often called the "father" of atomic weapons, was in charge of all the work. Under his leadership the best specialists all over the world developed the technology of controlled, without interrupting the search process even for a minute.

By the autumn of 1944, the activities to create the first nuclear plant in history had come to an end in general terms. By this time, a special aviation regiment had already been formed in the United States, which had to carry out the tasks of delivering deadly weapons to the places of their use. The pilots of the regiment underwent special training, making training flights at different altitudes and in conditions close to combat.

First atomic bombings

In mid-1945, US designers managed to assemble two nuclear devices ready for use. The first objects to strike were also chosen. At that time Japan was the strategic adversary of the USA.

The American leadership decided to deliver the first atomic strikes on two Japanese cities in order to frighten not only Japan, but also other countries, including the USSR, by this action.

On August 6th and 9th, 1945, American bombers dropped the first ever atomic bombs on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Japanese cities, which were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, more than one hundred thousand people died from thermal radiation and shock waves. Such were the consequences of the use of unprecedented weapons. The world has entered a new phase of its development.

However, the US monopoly on the military use of the atom was not too long. The Soviet Union also searched hard for ways to put into practice the principles underlying nuclear weapons. Igor Kurchatov headed the work of a team of Soviet scientists and inventors. In August 1949, tests of the Soviet atomic bomb were successfully carried out, which received the working name RDS-1. The fragile military balance in the world was restored.

Creation of the Soviet atomic bomb (military unit nuclear project of the USSR) - fundamental research, development of technologies and their practical implementation in the USSR, aimed at creating weapons of mass destruction using nuclear energy. The events were stimulated to a large extent by the activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of other countries, primarily Nazi Germany and the United States [ ] . In 1945, on August 6 and 9, American planes dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Almost half of the civilians died immediately in the explosions, others were seriously ill and continue to die to this day.

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    In 1930-1941, work was actively carried out in the nuclear field.

    In this decade, fundamental radiochemical research was carried out, without which a complete understanding of these problems, their development, and, even more so, their implementation, is generally unthinkable.

    Work in 1941-1943

    Foreign intelligence information

    As early as September 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about the conduct of secret intensive research work in the UK and the USA aimed at developing methods for using atomic energy for military purposes and creating atomic bombs of enormous destructive power. One of the most important received back in 1941 Soviet intelligence, documents is the report of the British "Committee MAUD". From the materials of this report, received through the channels of the foreign intelligence NKVD USSR from Donald MacLean, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb was real, that it could probably be created even before the end of the war and, therefore, could affect its course.

    Intelligence information about work on the problem of atomic energy abroad, which was available in the USSR at the time of the decision to resume work on uranium, was received both through the channels of the NKVD intelligence and through the channels of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU) of the Red Army.

    In May 1942, the leadership of the GRU informed the Academy of Sciences of the USSR about the presence of reports of work abroad on the problem of using atomic energy for military purposes and asked to be informed whether this problem currently has a real practical basis. The answer to this request in June 1942 was given by V. G. Khlopin, who noted that for Last year the scientific literature almost completely does not publish works related to the solution of the problem of the use of atomic energy.

    An official letter from the head of the NKVD L.P. Beria addressed to I.V. Stalin with information about the work on the use of atomic energy for military purposes abroad, proposals for organizing these works in the USSR and secret acquaintance with the materials of the NKVD of prominent Soviet specialists, the variants of which were prepared by the NKVD officers back in late 1941 - early 1942, it was sent to I.V. Stalin only in October 1942, after the adoption of the GKO order to resume work on uranium in the USSR.

    Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the work on the creation of an atomic bomb in the United States, coming from specialists who understood the danger of a nuclear monopoly or sympathizers of the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodor Hall, Georges Koval and David Greenglass. However, according to some, a letter addressed to Stalin in early 1943 by the Soviet physicist G. Flerov, who managed to explain the essence of the problem in a popular way, was of decisive importance. On the other hand, there is reason to believe that G. N. Flerov's work on the letter to Stalin was not completed and it was not sent.

    The hunt for data from America's uranium project began on the initiative of Leonid Kvasnikov, head of the scientific and technical intelligence department of the NKVD, back in 1942, but only fully unfolded after the arrival of the famous couple in Washington Soviet intelligence officers: Vasily Zarubin and his wife Elizabeth. It was with them that the NKVD resident in San Francisco, Grigory Kheifits, interacted, saying that the most prominent American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues left California for an unknown place where they would be creating some kind of superweapon.

    To double-check the data of "Charon" (this was the code name of Heifitz) was entrusted to Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Semenov (pseudonym "Twain"), who had worked in the United States since 1938 and had assembled a large and active intelligence group there. It was Twain who confirmed the reality of the work on the creation of the atomic bomb, named the code for the Manhattan project and the location of its main scientific center Los Alamos, a former juvenile detention center in New Mexico. Semyonov also gave the names of some scientists who worked there, who at one time were invited to the USSR to participate in large Stalinist construction projects and who, having returned to the USA, did not lose ties with the extreme left organizations.

    Thus, Soviet agents were introduced into the scientific and design centers of America, where a nuclear weapon was created. However, in the midst of establishing intelligence operations, Lisa and Vasily Zarubin were urgently recalled to Moscow. They were lost in conjecture, because not a single failure happened. It turned out that the Center received a denunciation from Mironov, an employee of the residency, who accused the Zarubins of treason. And for almost half a year, Moscow counterintelligence checked these accusations. They were not confirmed, however, the Zarubins were no longer allowed to go abroad.

    In the meantime, the work of the embedded agents had already brought the first results - reports began to arrive, and they had to be immediately sent to Moscow. This work was entrusted to a group of special couriers. The most operative and fearless were the Coens, Maurice and Lona. After Maurice was drafted into the American army, Lona began to deliver information materials from New Mexico to New York. To do this, she traveled to the small town of Albuquerque, where, for appearances, she visited a tuberculosis dispensary. There she met with agents undercover nicknames "Mlad" and "Ernst".

    However, the NKVD still managed to extract several tons of low-enriched uranium in.

    The first priority was to organize industrial production plutonium-239 and uranium-235. To solve the first problem, it was necessary to create an experimental, and then industrial nuclear reactors, construction of radiochemical and special metallurgical shops. To solve the second problem, the construction of a plant for the separation of uranium isotopes by the diffusion method was launched.

    The solution of these problems turned out to be possible as a result of the creation of industrial technologies, the organization of production and the development of the necessary large quantities of pure metallic uranium, uranium oxide, uranium hexafluoride, other uranium compounds, high purity graphite and a number of other special materials, the creation of a complex of new industrial units and devices. The insufficient volume of uranium ore mining and the production of uranium concentrates in the USSR (the first plant for the production of uranium concentrate - "Combine No. 6 NKVD USSR" in Tajikistan was founded in 1945) during this period was compensated by trophy raw materials and products of uranium enterprises of the countries of Eastern Europe with which the USSR entered into relevant agreements.

    In 1945, the Government of the USSR made the following major decisions:

    • on the creation on the basis of the Kirov Plant (Leningrad) of two special experimental design bureaus designed to develop equipment for the production of uranium enriched in the isotope 235 by the gaseous diffusion method;
    • on the start of construction in the Middle Urals (near the village of Verkh-Neyvinsky) of a diffusion plant for the production of enriched uranium-235;
    • on the organization of a laboratory for work on the creation of heavy water reactors on natural uranium;
    • on the choice of a site and the start of construction in the South Urals of the country's first enterprise for the production of plutonium-239.

    The structure of the enterprise in the South Urals was to include:

    • uranium-graphite reactor on natural (natural) uranium (Plant "A");
    • radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural (natural) uranium irradiated in the reactor (plant "B");
    • chemical and metallurgical production for the production of high-purity metallic plutonium (Plant "B").

    Participation of German specialists in the nuclear project

    In 1945, hundreds of German scientists related to the nuclear problem were brought from Germany to the USSR. Most of(about 300 people) were brought to Sukhumi and secretly housed in the former estates of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and the millionaire Smetsky (Sinop and Agudzery sanatoriums). Equipment was taken to the USSR from the German Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics, Siemens electrical laboratories, and the Physical Institute of the German Post Office. Three of the four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high voltage transformers, ultra-precise instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, the Directorate was created as part of the NKVD of the USSR. special institutes(9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) to guide the work on the use of German specialists.

    Sanatorium "Sinop" was called "Object" A "" - it was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne. "Agudzers" became "Object" G "" - it was headed by Gustav  Hertz. Outstanding scientists worked at objects "A" and "G" - Nikolaus Riehl, Max Volmer, who built the first plant in the USSR for the production of heavy water, Peter Thyssen, designer of nickel filters for gas diffusion separation of isotopes uranium, Max Steenbeck and Gernot Zippe, who worked on centrifuge separation method and subsequently received patents for gas centrifuges in the west. On the basis of objects "A" and "G" was later created (SFTI).

    Some leading German specialists were awarded USSR government awards for this work, including the Stalin Prize.

    In the period 1954-1959 German specialists in different time move to the GDR (Gernot Zippe - to Austria).

    Construction of a gas diffusion plant in Novouralsk

    In 1946, at the production base of plant No. 261 of the People's Commissariat of Aviation Industry in Novouralsk, the construction of a gas diffusion plant began, which was called Combine No. 813 (Plant D-1)) and intended for the production of highly enriched uranium. The plant gave the first production in 1949.

    Construction of uranium hexafluoride production in Kirovo-Chepetsk

    Over time, a whole complex was erected on the site of the selected construction site industrial enterprises, buildings and structures interconnected by a network of roads and railways, a system of heat and power supply, industrial water supply and sewerage. At different times, the secret city was called differently, but most famous name- Chelyabinsk-40 or Sorokovka. At present, the industrial complex, which was originally called plant No. 817, is called the Mayak production association, and the city on the shore of Lake Irtyash, in which Mayak workers and their families live, was named Ozyorsk.

    In November 1945, geological surveys began at the selected site, and from the beginning of December, the first builders began to arrive.

    The first head of construction (1946-1947) was Ya. D. Rappoport, later he was replaced by Major General M. M. Tsarevsky. The chief construction engineer was V. A. Saprykin, the first director of the future enterprise was P. T. Bystrov (from April 17, 1946), who was replaced by E. P. Slavsky (from July 10, 1947), and then B. G Muzrukov (since December 1, 1947). I. V. Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of the plant.

    Construction of Arzamas-16

    Products

    Development of the design of atomic bombs

    Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1286-525ss "On the plan for the deployment of KB-11 at Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences" defined the first tasks of KB-11: the creation under the scientific supervision of Laboratory No. 2 (Academician I. V. Kurchatov) of atomic bombs, conventionally named in the resolution "jet engines C", in two versions: RDS-1 - an implosion type with plutonium and a cannon-type atomic bomb RDS-2 with uranium-235.

    Tactical and technical specifications for the design of the RDS-1 and RDS-2 were to be developed by July 1, 1946, and the designs of their main components - by July 1, 1947. The fully manufactured RDS-1 bomb was to be presented for state tests for an explosion when installed on the ground by January 1, 1948, in an aviation version - by March 1, 1948, and the RDS-2 bomb - by June 1, 1948 and January 1, 1949, respectively. be carried out in parallel with the organization in KB-11 of special laboratories and the deployment of these laboratories. Such tight deadlines and the organization of parallel work also became possible due to the receipt in the USSR of some intelligence data on American atomic bombs.

    Research laboratories and design departments of KB-11 began to expand their activities directly in