The investigation took place in April-May 1954 in Washington and was called, in the American manner, “hearings.”
Physicists (with capital letters!), but for the scientific world of America the conflict was unprecedented: not a dispute about priority, not the behind-the-scenes struggle of scientific schools, and not even the traditional confrontation between a forward-looking genius and a crowd of mediocre envious people. The key word in the proceedings was “loyalty.” The accusation of “disloyalty,” which acquired a negative, menacing meaning, entailed punishment: deprivation of access to top-secret work. The action took place in the Commission on atomic energy(KAE). Main characters:
Robert Oppenheimer, New York native, pioneer of quantum physics in the United States, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "father atomic bomb", successful scientific manager and refined intellectual, after 1945 national hero America...
“I’m not the simplest person,” he once remarked American physicist Isidore Isaac Rabi. “But compared to Oppenheimer, I am very, very simple.” Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures twentieth century, the very “complexity” of which absorbed the political and ethical contradictions of the country.
During World War II, the brilliant physicist Azulius Robert Oppenheimer led the development of American nuclear scientists to create the first atomic bomb in human history. The scientist led a solitary and secluded lifestyle, and this gave rise to suspicions of treason.
Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments of science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its occurrence were made in late XIX V. The research of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others played a huge role in revealing the secrets of the atom.
At the beginning of 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of nuclear weapons.
Europe was on the eve of World War II, and the potential possession of such powerful weapon pushed militaristic circles to quickly create it, but the problem of the availability of a large amount of uranium ore for large-scale research was a brake. Physicists from Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons, realizing that without a sufficient amount of uranium ore it was impossible to carry out work, the USA purchased a large number of the required ore according to false documents from Belgium, which allowed them to carry out 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 purification plant was built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gas diffusion followed by magnetic separation of the two isotopes. A gas centrifuge separated the light Uranium-235 from the heavier Uranium-238.
On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the desert expanses of New Mexico, an American nuclear center was created in 1942. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership, the best minds of that time were gathered not only in the USA and England, but practically throughout Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 Nobel Prize laureates. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War was going on, and Germany carried out massive bombings of English cities, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading project scientists, which allowed the US to take leading position in the development of nuclear physics (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 enjoyed studying the mysticism of ancient Indian books. Communist, traveler and staunch American patriot, very spiritual person, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to protect himself from attacks by anti-communists. The scientist who developed the plan to cause the greatest damage Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he cursed himself for the “innocent blood on his hands.”
Writing about this controversial man is not an easy task, but it is an interesting one, and the twentieth century is marked by a number of books about him. However rich life The scientist continues to attract biographers.
Oppenheimer was born in New York in 1903 into a family of wealthy and educated Jews. Oppenheimer was brought up in a love of painting, music, and in an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity. In 1922, he entered Harvard University and graduated with honors in just three years, his main subject being chemistry. Over the next few years, the precocious young man traveled to several European countries, where he worked with physicists involved in research problems atomic phenomena in the light of new theories. Just a year after graduating from university, Oppenheimer published a scientific paper that showed how deeply he understood the new methods. Soon he, together with the famous Max Born, developed the most important part quantum theory, known as the Born-Oppenheimer method. In 1927, his outstanding doctoral dissertation brought him worldwide fame.
In 1928 he worked at the Universities of Zurich and Leiden. The same year he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945, he actively participated in the work on creating an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the Los Alamos laboratory specially created for this purpose.
In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising scientific star, accepted offers from two of several universities vying for the right to invite him. He taught the spring semester at the vibrant, young California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and the fall and winter semesters at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the first faculty member quantum mechanics. In fact, the polymath had to adjust for some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936, he fell in love with Jean Tatlock, a restless and moody young woman whose passionate idealism found outlet in communist activism. Like many thoughtful people of the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left as a possible alternative, although he did not join the Communist Party, as his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. His interest in politics, as well as his ability to read Sanskrit, was a natural result constant striving to knowledge. According to him in my own words, he was also deeply alarmed by the explosion of anti-Semitism in fascist Germany and Spain and invested $1,000 a year out of his $15,000 annual salary in projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer broke up with Jean Tatlock and moved away from her circle of left-wing friends.
In 1939, the United States learned that Hitler's Germany had discovered nuclear fission in preparation for global war. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately realized that German physicists will try to create a controlled chain reaction, which could be the key to creating a weapon much more destructive than any that existed at that time. Enlisting the help of the great scientific genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger in a famous letter. In authorizing funding for projects aimed at creating untested weapons, the president acted in strict secrecy. Ironically, many leading scientists worked together with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country. world scientists forced to flee their homeland. One part of the university groups explored the possibility of creating a nuclear reactor, others took up the problem of separating uranium isotopes necessary to release energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who had previously been busy with theoretical problems, was offered to organize a wide range of work only at the beginning of 1942.
The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by 46-year-old Colonel Leslie R. Groves, a career military officer. Groves, who characterized the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "an expensive bunch of nuts," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the atmosphere became tense. The physicist proposed that all the scientists be brought together in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in an area he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding school for boys had been turned into a strictly guarded secret center, with Oppenheimer becoming its scientific director. By insisting on the free exchange of information between scientists, who were strictly forbidden to leave the center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which contributed to the amazing success of his work. Without sparing himself, he remained the head of all areas of this complex project, although his personal life. But for a mixed group of scientists - among whom there were more than a dozen then or future Nobel laureates and of whom it was a rare person who did not have a bright expressed individuality-Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and a subtle diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's ultimate success belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who had by then become a general, could say with confidence that the two billion dollars spent would produce a bomb ready for action by August 1 of the following year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about using new weapons. After all, Japan would probably have soon capitulated even without atomic bombing. Should the United States become the first country in the world to use such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt's death, appointed a committee to study the possible consequences of the use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend dropping an atomic bomb without warning on a large Japanese military installation. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.
All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The world's first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, approximately 80 kilometers from the air force base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device being tested, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower installed in a desert area. Exactly at 5.30 am the detonator with remote control detonated the bomb. With an echoing roar, a giant purple-green-orange fireball shot into the sky over an area 1.6 kilometers in diameter. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke quickly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on the terrifying shape of a mushroom at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion shocked scientific and military observers near the test site and turned their heads. But Oppenheimer remembered the lines from the Indian epic poem "Bhagavad Gita": "I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Until the end of his life, satisfaction from scientific success was always mixed with a sense of responsibility for the consequences.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach of two American planes from the east (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (since they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima every day). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object slowly descended by parachute and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the Baby bomb.
Three days after "Little Boy" was detonated in Hiroshima, a replica of the first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve was finally broken by these new weapons, signed unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics had already begun to be heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that “mankind will curse the names Los Alamos and Hiroshima.”
The whole world was shocked by the explosions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tellingly, Oppenheimer managed to combine his worries about testing a bomb on civilians and the joy that the weapon had finally been tested.
However, on next year He accepted the appointment as Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thereby becoming the most influential adviser to the government and military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Stalin-led Soviet Union prepared in earnest for the Cold War, each side focused its attention on the arms race. Although many of the Manhattan Project scientists did not support the idea of creating a new weapon, Oppenheimer's former collaborators Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence believed that National security The United States demands the speedy development of a hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, two nuclear powers and so they were already confronting each other, like “two scorpions in a jar, each able to kill the other, but only at the risk of own life" With the proliferation of new weapons, wars would no longer have winners and losers - only victims. And the “father of the atomic bomb” made a public statement that he was against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Always uncomfortable with Oppenheimer and clearly jealous of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to head the new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was keeping scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb with his authority, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered from seizures in his youth. severe depression. When President Truman agreed to fund the hydrogen bomb in 1950, Teller could celebrate victory.
In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded after a month-long search for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a show case was organized in which many influential political and scientific figures spoke out against Oppenheimer. As Albert Einstein later put it: “Oppenheimer’s problem was that he loved a woman who didn’t love him: the US government.”
By allowing Oppenheimer's talent to flourish, America doomed him to destruction.
Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He is the author of many works on quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, and theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P. Ehrenfest formulated a theorem, the application of which to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with known properties 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 model neutron star, predicted the existence of “black holes” in 1939.
Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including Science and Ordinary Knowledge (Science and the Common Understanding, 1954), The Open Mind (1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture, 1960. Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.
Work on nuclear projects in the USSR and the USA began simultaneously. In August 1942, the secret “Laboratory No. 2” began working in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.
In Soviet times, it was argued that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the “father” of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main characters then, Yuli Khariton, spoke about the significant role of intelligence in accelerating the lagging behind. Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.
Information from abroad helped the country's leadership to accept difficult decision- to begin work on nuclear weapons during a difficult war. The reconnaissance allowed our physicists to save time and helped avoid a misfire at the first atomic test which had enormous political significance.
In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Soon after this, articles on scientific issues began to disappear from the pages of scientific journals. nuclear physics. This could indicate real perspective creation of atomic explosives and weapons based on them.
After the discovery by Soviet physicists of the spontaneous fission of uranium-235 nuclei and the determination of the critical mass, a corresponding directive was sent to the residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution L. Kvasnikov.
In the FSB of Russia (formerly the KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival file No. 13676 are buried under the heading “keep forever”, which document who and how attracted US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence. Only a few of the top leadership of the USSR KGB had access to the materials of this case, the secrecy of which was only recently lifted. Soviet intelligence received the first information about the work on creating an American atomic bomb in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the research ongoing in the USA and England fell on I.V. Stalin’s desk. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was safer to use the bomb design already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. "Considering state interests, any other solution was then unacceptable. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is undoubted. However, we implemented the American scheme during the first test not so much for technical reasons as for political reasons.
The message that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons caused the US ruling circles to want to start a preventive war as quickly as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which envisaged the start of hostilities on January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1,350 in reserve, and over 300 atomic bombs.
A test site was built in the area of Semipalatinsk. At exactly 7:00 a.m. on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device was detonated at this test site. code name"RDS-1".
The Troyan plan, according to which atomic bombs were to be dropped on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the threat of a retaliatory strike. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.
Foreign intelligence not only attracted the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons in the West and thereby initiated similar work in our country. Thanks to the information foreign intelligence, according to academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in the creation of atomic weapons and create more short time an atomic bomb in the USSR in just three years, while the United States spent four years on it, spending five billion dollars on its creation.
As he noted in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was made according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when government awards were presented to participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: “If we had been one to a year and a half late, we would probably have tried this charge on ourselves.” ".
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 higher education– simply from his youth he 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 shock waves and detonation, and of course – the physics of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles. Research in this latter area of science secured Yakov Zeldovich the title of chief theorist 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 to women. His father was a lawyer, a member of the bar, his mother was a translator 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. Since May 1931, Zeldovich began working at the Institute chemical physics, with whom I connected my whole 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 Mekhanoob came. 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 tourists listened politely, and the young man began asking questions, which showed that he knew 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 theorists 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 the candidate exams.
In 1936, Zeldovich defended his dissertation for the scientific degree candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, and in 1939 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 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 studying 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 the scientists published whole line 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 head of department at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while also being a professor Faculty of Physics 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 ! For 73 years of life - died outstanding physicist in 1987 – Zeldovich wrote about 500 scientific works and dozens of monographs, medals named after him are awarded in the most different areas science around the world.
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- University of California and 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 odd number particles with spin ½ must obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, and from even - 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, in 1939 in his work “On the Irreversible gravitational compression"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).
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 self-propagating (that is, chain) nuclear reaction" Among the participants is Professor E. Schumann, head of the research department of the Armament Directorate of the Third Reich. Without delay, we moved from words to deeds. Already in June 1939, construction of Germany's first reactor plant began at the Kummersdorf test site near Berlin. A law was passed banning the export of uranium outside Germany, and a large amount of uranium ore was urgently purchased from the Belgian Congo.
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 possible creation nuclear weapons within a year. They were wrong, as life has shown.
22 organizations were involved in the project, including such well-known scientific centers, as the Physics Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Hamburg, the Physics Institute of the Higher technical school in Berlin, the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the University of Leipzig and many others. The project was personally supervised imperial minister weapons 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 for themselves serious problem. After the occupation of Norway, the world's only heavy water production plant at that time passed into the hands of the Nazis. But there, at the beginning of the war, the supply of the product needed by physicists was only tens of kilograms, and even they did not go to the Germans - the French stole valuable products literally from under the noses of the Nazis. And in February 1943, British commandos sent to Norway, with the help of local resistance fighters, put the plant out of commission. The implementation of Germany's nuclear program was under threat. The misfortunes of the Germans did not end there: an experimental nuclear reactor exploded in Leipzig. The uranium project was supported by Hitler only as long as there was hope of obtaining super-powerful weapons before the end of the war he started. Heisenberg was invited by Speer and asked directly: “When can we expect the creation of a bomb capable of being suspended from a bomber?” The scientist was honest: “I believe it will take several years of hard work, in any case, the bomb will not be able to influence the outcome of the current war.” The German leadership rationally considered that there was no point in forcing events. Let the scientists work quietly - to next war Look, they'll make it in time. As a result, Hitler decided to concentrate scientific, production and financial resources only on projects that would give the fastest return in the creation of new types of weapons. Government funding for the uranium project was curtailed. Nevertheless, the work of scientists continued.
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 is conducting active research, as a result of which it may 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 announced his participation in atomic research Soviet intelligence agent Jurgen Kuczynski, who informed Soviet ambassador Ivan Maisky. He instructed the military attaché to urgently establish contact with Fuchs, who was going to be transported to the United States as part of a group of scientists. Fuchs agreed to work for Soviet intelligence. Many Soviet illegal intelligence officers were involved in working with him: the Zarubins, Eitingon, Vasilevsky, Semenov and others. As a result of their active work already in January 1945, the USSR had a description of the design of the first atomic bomb. At the same time, the Soviet station in the United States reported that the Americans would need at least one year, but no more than five years, to create a significant arsenal of atomic weapons. The report also said that the first two bombs could be detonated within a few months. 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 was sent to Germany Soviet physicists, among whom were future academicians Artsimovich, Kikoin, Khariton, Shchelkin. Everyone was camouflaged in the uniform of Red Army colonels. The operation was led by First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov, which opened any doors. In addition to the necessary German scientists, the “colonels” found tons of uranium metal, which, according to Kurchatov, shortened the work on the Soviet bomb by at least a year. The Americans also removed a lot of uranium from Germany, taking along the specialists who worked on the project. And in the USSR, in addition to physicists and chemists, they sent mechanics, electrical engineers, and glassblowers. Some were found in prisoner of war camps. For example, Max Steinbeck, the future Soviet academician and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, was taken away when, at the whim of the camp commander, he was manufacturing sundial. In total, at least 1,000 German specialists worked on the nuclear project in the USSR. The von Ardenne laboratory with a uranium centrifuge, equipment from the Kaiser Institute of Physics, documentation, and reagents were completely removed from Berlin. As part of the atomic project, laboratories “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” were created, the scientific directors of which were scientists who arrived from Germany.
K.A. Petrzhak and G. N. Flerov In 1940, in the laboratory of Igor Kurchatov, two young physicists discovered a new, very peculiar type of radioactive decay atomic nuclei- spontaneous division.
Laboratory “A” was led by Baron Manfred von Ardenne, a talented physicist who developed a method of gas diffusion purification and separation of uranium isotopes in a centrifuge. At first, his laboratory was located on Oktyabrsky Pole in Moscow. Each German specialist was assigned five or six Soviet engineers. Later the laboratory moved to Sukhumi, and over time the famous Kurchatov Institute grew up on Oktyabrsky Field. In Sukhumi, on the basis of the von Ardenne laboratory, the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology was formed. In 1947, Ardenne was awarded the Stalin Prize for creating a centrifuge for purifying uranium isotopes 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 who knows how to find effective solutions the most complex problems, Dr. Riehl became one of key figures Soviet nuclear project. After successful test Soviet bomb he became a Hero of Socialist Labor and a laureate of the Stalin Prize.
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. Its results are very successful activities in Sukhumi were later used on 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 Physical Institute in Dresden, created under the auspices of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Applications of Atomic Energy, headed by Gustav Hertz. Hertz also received a national prize as the author of a three-volume textbook on nuclear physics. There, in Dresden, in Technical University, Rudolf Pose also worked.
The participation of German scientists in the atomic project, as well as the successes of intelligence officers, in no way detract from the merits of Soviet scientists, whose selfless work ensured the creation of domestic atomic weapons. However, it must be admitted that without the contribution of both of them, the creation of the nuclear industry and atomic weapons in the USSR would have lasted for long years.
Armenian top secret nuclear brain Russia – Godfather atomic bomb Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich – Metaksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich. A thrice Hero who remained secret, an Armenian whom the people did not know, remained unknown. Legendary person. Secret leader and organizer defense industry, creator of secret atomic weapons great power. Practically only person, who was entrusted with testing the first, second, third and all other atomic bombs. It is noteworthy that when Shchelkin reported to Kurchatov on August 29, 1949 that the atomic bomb was loaded and ready for testing, Kurchatov said: “Well, the bomb already has a name, so let there be a godfather - Shchelkin.” But let’s return to the Armenian origin of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin. I've read several dozen more or less detailed biographies nuclear scientist, but not one of them even casually mentions his Armenian origin. Perhaps many of his biographers simply did not know about it. But it is equally likely that some of them were aware of this and deliberately avoided the topic. Of course, the fact that Shchelkin was an Armenian was known in the highest echelons of power. Suffice it to say that the work on creating an atomic bomb was carried out under the general patronage of Lavrentiy Beria, and he knew everything about everyone. And I dare to express my conviction that if Shchelkin had not been so needed in the nuclear team, his fate would have turned out completely differently. -------++++++++++++-------– Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Chemical Physics named after. N. N. Semenova Dear Grigory Khachaturovich! The Institute staff expresses its deep gratitude and gratitude to you for publishing a popular science, biographical book about the life and scientific activity three times Hero of Socialist Labor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich (Metaksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich), who achieved outstanding results in the field of combustion and explosion and, in particular, the creation of nuclear weapons in our country. A significant part of K. I. Shchelkin’s scientific activity is associated with the Institute of Chemical Physics named after. N. N. Semenova. That is why we are especially grateful to you for your work to perpetuate the memory of our colleague and the person who glorified our Institute, Soviet science and our country. We hope that in the future your book will find its reader in the Russian Federation. Director of the Institute, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Berlin A. A. 01/14/2008 ...Even to this day they do not write that the brilliant physicist, first scientific director and chief designer of the Chelyabinsk-70 nuclear center, three times Hero of Socialist Labor K. I. Shchelkin (K. I. Metaksyan) is an Armenian by nationality. Even after this authoritative letter from the Institute. N. N. Semenova...
In Soviet times, there was a theory about the origin of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin... It was a legend based on the fact that Kirill Ivanovich in early childhood lived with his parents in Transcaucasia and that is why he spoke Armenian fluently. It was alleged that Kirill Ivanovich’s father was Ivan Efimovich Shchelkin, his mother was Vera Alekseevna Shchelkina, a teacher... Thus, for many years he was denied Armenian origin... The Armenian trace in nuclear construction Kirill Shchelkin is a man who knew everything about the anatomy of an explosion. After testing the first hydrogen bomb on August 12, 1953, the idea arose to create a research institute, a second weapons center. It is clear that this was a classified object; ordinary Soviet citizens were not supposed to know about it. At the suggestion of I. Kurchatov, Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin was appointed scientific director and chief designer of the new institute. Now this name is already well known to many, but then, with all its regalia and high government awards, only narrow specialists, nuclear weapons specialists, knew about it. A characteristic feature of the Soviet formation: Kirill Shchelkin was in the same group with Yuri Khariton, Igor Kurchatov, Yakov Zeldovich, Andrei Sakharov, and together with them received Stalin Prizes and gold stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor and at the same time remained unknown. Legendary person. The secret leader and organizer of the defense industry, the creator of the secret atomic weapons of a great power. This is how NII-1011 was created, an object without a name, a “mailbox”. Today it is declassified and known as the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNII technical physics. The ascent to the atomic Olympus has taken place. By that time, Kirill Shchelkin held the position of first deputy chief designer and head of creation atomic weapons Yuri Khariton and was practically the only person in the Soviet Union who knew absolutely everything about the internal mechanisms of an explosion, about the anatomy of an explosion. Was a doctor of sciences, author large number the most important studies of enormous applied and theoretical significance. In his doctoral dissertation, brilliantly defended in 1946, he substantiated and put forward a theory of the occurrence of detonation. The work was called: “Rapid combustion and gas detonation.”
Shchelkin's father Hovhannes Metaksyan...
Mother - Vera Alekseevna... This research of his opened the way for the creation of powerful jet and rocket engines. Without the results of his work, according to the scientist’s colleagues, the development of nuclear weapons would simply be impossible. Looking ahead, I will say that throughout for long years Shchelkin remained an outstanding scientist whose works could not be referenced. The theory existed, this theory had an author, the author had a name, and it was quite famous in the world of nuclear scientists, but it was impossible to refer to this name... In 1947-1948. K. Shchelkin led a wide research area. IN Soviet country Europe's first nuclear reactor was put into operation. The team headed by Shchelkin began to design and create an atomic bomb. Prominent people were involved in the work scientists of that time - Mstislav Keldysh, Artem Alikhanyan, Yakov Zeldovich, Samvel Kocharyants, other specialists. General management of the work was entrusted to Igor Kurchatov. He was even forbidden to visit nuclear centers, the very ones in which he worked almost his entire adult life. Without good reason, this is not done to specialists of such a high rank. The worst thing was that such strange things continued. The last of them can be considered that after the death of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, some people came and, without going into explanations, took away from the family all his government awards, laureate insignia, even the stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor. Let us note in this regard that only those who, without knowing it, stepped on the “sore spot” of the System, received such close attention from the supreme partyocracy. Why? What's happened? Why did the outstanding scientist not please the Soviet partyocracy? With a very high degree of probability, it can be argued that Shchelkin made powerful enemies for himself because, together with Academician Andrei Sakharov and other creators of super-powerful weapons, he opposed nuclear madness. Let me remind you that these were the years when “ cold war“Any careless spark could have spilled into the third world war. The Soviet Union was intensively working on a 100-megaton bomb, several thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The appearance of this charge brought the planet to the brink of nuclear disaster during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Only the voice of one of the creators of Soviet nuclear weapons, Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin, sounded dissonant, who dared to assert that for defense purposes it was enough to have small nuclear charges. The creator of the atomic monster rebelled against his own creation, against the testing of powerful and super-powerful nuclear charges. For the sake of objectivity, I note that this is the most likely and convincing version, but it does not find documentary evidence. Thus, even such an informed specialist as Academician L. Feoktistov, who stood very close to “ Atomic project”, believes that the question of the reasons for the repressions that befell Kirill Shchelkin is still not completely clear.
PHOTO: Kirill Ivanovich with his sister Irina, 1929 And only in the post-Soviet era, in the brochure “Pages of the History of the Nuclear Center”, published in 1998, the real name and surname of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin was named - Kirakos Ovanesovich Metaksyan. This is followed by publications in the Armenian republican press, in Armenian newspapers in Lebanon and the USA. But even today very few people know about it. Grigor Martirosyan, in his attempt to intrigue the reader, entitled his book in an emphatically catchy manner: “Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich. Metaksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich. Three times Hero, an Armenian who remained secret and is not known to the people.” IN National Archives The RA stores documentary materials about the parents of Kirakos Metaksyan, about himself and about his sister Irina, which clearly confirm the Armenian origin of the outstanding Soviet nuclear scientist. From them we learn that Kirakos Metaksyan was born on May 17, 1911. in Tiflis, in the family of land surveyor Hovhannes Epremovich Metaksyan. In 1915, the Shchelkin family moved to Erivan. In 1918, Hovhannes Metaksyan (renamed Ivan Efimovich Shchelkin) moved with his family to the city of Krasny Smolensk region. There, the life of the Armenian family changed radically and began with a blank page. Over the years, they began to write a new, “Russian” biography of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin. Of course, Kirill Shchelkin belongs Soviet history. Just like Russian history belong to other great Armenians - Alexander Suvorov, Ivan Aivazovsky, Admiral Lazar Serebryakov (Kazar Artsatagortsyan), Admiral Ivan Isakov, Air Marshal Sergei Khudyakov (Khanferyants), many, many others.