Invention of the atomic bomb. A nuclear bomb is a weapon, the possession of which is already a deterrent

On August 6, 1945, at 08:15 local time, the American B-29 Enola Gay bomber, piloted by Paul Tibbetts and bombardier Tom Ferebee, dropped the first atomic bomb, called "Baby," on Hiroshima. . On August 9, the bombing was repeated - a second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

According to official history, the Americans were the first in the world to make an atomic bomb and hastened to use it against Japan, so that the Japanese would capitulate faster and America could avoid colossal losses during the landing of soldiers on the islands, for which the admirals were already closely preparing. At the same time, the bomb was a demonstration of its new capabilities to the USSR, because Comrade Dzhugashvili in May 1945 was already thinking of spreading the construction of communism to the English Channel.

Having seen the example of Hiroshima, what will happen to Moscow? Soviet party leaders reduced their ardor and made the right decision to build socialism no further than East Berlin. At the same time, they threw all their efforts into the Soviet atomic project, dug up somewhere the talented academician Kurchatov, and he quickly made an atomic bomb for Dzhugashvili, which the secretaries general then rattled on the UN podium, and Soviet propagandists rattled it in front of the audience - like, yes, we sew pants bad, but« we made an atomic bomb». This argument is almost the main one for many fans of the Soviet Deputies. However, the time has come to refute these arguments.

Somehow the creation of an atomic bomb did not fit in with the level of Soviet science and technology. It is incredible that the slave system was capable of producing such a complex scientific and technological product on its own. Over time, somehow it wasn’t even denied, that Kurchatov was also helped by people from Lubyanka, bringing ready-made drawings in their beaks, but academicians completely deny this, minimizing the merit of technological intelligence. In America, the Rosenbergs were executed for transferring atomic secrets to the USSR. The dispute between official historians and citizens who want to revise history has been going on for quite some time, almost openly, however, the true state of affairs is far from both the official version and the ideas of its critics. But the situation is such that the atomic bomb was the firstand many things in the world were done by the Germans by 1945. And they even tested it at the end of 1944.The Americans prepared the atomic project themselves, but received the main components as a trophy or under an agreement with the top of the Reich, so they did everything much faster. But when the Americans detonated the bomb, the USSR began to look for German scientists, whichand made their contribution. That’s why the USSR created a bomb so quickly, although according to the Americans’ calculations, it could not have made a bomb before1952- 55 years old.

The Americans knew what they were talking about because if von Braun helped them make rocket technology, then their first atomic bomb was completely German. For a long time, they managed to hide the truth, but in the decades after 1945, either someone resigning loosened their tongue, or they accidentally declassified a couple of sheets from secret archives, or journalists sniffed out something. The earth was full of rumors and rumors that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was actually Germanhave been going since 1945. People whispered in the smoking rooms and scratched their foreheads over theireskyinconsistencies and puzzling questions until one day in the early 2000s, Mr. Joseph Farrell, a renowned theologian and expert on an alternative view of modern "science", brought together all the known facts in one book - Black sun of the Third Reich. The battle for the “weapon of retribution.”

He checked the facts many times and many things about which the author had doubts were not included in the book, nevertheless, these facts are more than enough to balance the debit with the credit. You can argue about each of them (which is what US officials do), try to refute them, but all together the facts are extremely convincing. Some of them, for example the Resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, are completely irrefutable either by the pundits of the USSR, or even more so by the pundits of the USA. Since Dzhugashvili decided to give "enemies of the people"Stalin'sawards(more about below), so there was a reason.

We will not retell Mr. Farrell’s entire book, we simply recommend it as mandatory reading. Here are just a few excerptskifor example a few quotes, govOshouting that the Germans tested an atomic bomb and people saw it:

A certain man named Zinsser, an anti-aircraft missile specialist, spoke about what he witnessed: “At the beginning of October 1944, I took off from Ludwigslust. (south of Lübeck), located 12 to 15 kilometers from the nuclear test site, and suddenly saw a strong bright glow that illuminated the entire atmosphere, which lasted about two seconds.

A clearly visible shock wave erupted from the cloud formed by the explosion. By the time it became visible, it was about one kilometer in diameter, and the color of the cloud changed frequently. After a short period of darkness, it became covered with many bright spots, which, unlike a normal explosion, had a pale blue color.

Approximately ten seconds after the explosion, the distinct outlines of the explosive cloud disappeared, then the cloud itself began to lighten against the background of a dark gray sky covered with continuous clouds. The diameter of the shock wave, still visible to the naked eye, was at least 9,000 meters; it remained visible for at least 15 seconds. My personal feeling from observing the color of the explosive cloud: it took on a blue-violet hue. During this entire phenomenon, reddish-colored rings were visible, very quickly changing color to dirty shades. From my observation plane, I felt a weak impact in the form of slight jolts and jerks.

About an hour later I took off on the Xe-111 from Ludwigslust airfield and headed east. Shortly after takeoff, I flew through an area of ​​continuous clouds (at an altitude of three to four thousand meters). Above the place where the explosion occurred there was a mushroom cloud with turbulent, vortex layers (at an altitude of approximately 7000 meters), without any visible connections. A strong electromagnetic disturbance manifested itself in the inability to continue radio communication. Since American P-38 fighters were operating in the Wittgenberg-Beersburg area, I had to turn north, but at least I could see the lower part of the cloud above the explosion site better. Note: I don't really understand why these tests were carried out in such a densely populated area."

ARI:Thus, a certain German pilot observed the testing of a device that, in all respects, resembled an atomic bomb. There are dozens of such evidence, but Mr. Farrell cites only officialdocumentation. And not only the Germans, but also the Japanese, whom the Germans, according to his version, also helped make a bomb and they tested it at their test site.

Shortly after the end of World War II, American intelligence in the Pacific received a stunning report: the Japanese, just before their surrender, had built and successfully tested an atomic bomb. The work was carried out in the city of Konan or its environs (the Japanese name for the city of Heungnam) in the north of the Korean Peninsula.

The war ended before these weapons saw combat use, and the production facility where they were made is now in Russian hands.

In the summer of 1946, this information was made widely public. David Snell, a member of the Twenty-Fourth Investigative Unit working in Korea... wrote about this in the Atlanta Constitution after his dismissal.

Snell's statement was based on unsubstantiated allegations by a Japanese officer returning to Japan. The officer advised Snell that he was assigned to provide security for the facility. Snell, recounting the testimony of a Japanese officer in his own words in a newspaper article, stated:

In a cave in the mountains near Konan, people were working, racing against time to complete the assembly of the “genzai bakudan” - the Japanese name for the atomic bomb. It was August 10, 1945 (Japan time), just four days after the atomic explosion tore through the sky

ARI: Among the arguments of those who do not believe in the creation of an atomic bomb by the Germans is the following argument: there is no knowledge of significant industrial capacity in Hitler’s government that was allocated to the German atomic project, as was done in the United States. However, this argument is refuted by oneAn extremely interesting fact associated with the concern “I. G. Farben", which, according to official legend, produced syntheticeskyrubber and therefore consumed more electricity than Berlin at that time. But in reality, over the five years of work, EVEN A KILOGRAM of official products was not produced there, and most likely it was the main center for uranium enrichment:

Concern "I. G. Farben took an active part in the atrocities of Nazism, creating a huge plant for the production of synthetic buna rubber in Auschwitz (the German name for the Polish town of Oswiecim) in the Polish part of Silesia during the war.

The concentration camp prisoners, who first worked on the construction of the complex and then served it, were subjected to unheard of cruelties. However, at the hearings of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, it turned out that the buna production complex in Auschwitz was one of the greatest mysteries of the war, because despite the personal blessing of Hitler, Himmler, Goering and Keitel, despite the endless source of both qualified civilian personnel and slave labor from Auschwitz, “the work was constantly hampered by disruptions, delays and sabotage... However, despite everything, the construction of a huge complex for the production of synthetic rubber and gasoline was completed. Over three hundred thousand concentration camp prisoners passed through the construction site; Of these, twenty-five thousand died from exhaustion, unable to withstand the grueling labor.

The complex turned out to be gigantic. So huge that “it consumed more electricity than the whole of Berlin.” However, during the trial of war criminals, investigators of the victorious powers were not puzzled by this long list of terrible details. They were baffled by the fact that, despite such a huge investment of money, materials and human lives, “not a single kilogram of synthetic rubber was ever produced.”

The directors and managers of Farben, who found themselves in the dock, insisted on this, as if possessed. Consume more electricity than all of Berlin - at the time the eighth largest city in the world - to produce absolutely nothing? If this is indeed the case, it means that the unprecedented expenditure of money and labor and the enormous consumption of electricity did not make any significant contribution to the German war effort. Surely something is wrong here.

ARI: Electrical energy in insane quantities is one of the main components of any nuclear project. It is needed for the production of heavy water - it is obtained by evaporating tons of natural water, after which the very water that nuclear scientists need remains at the bottom. Electricity is needed for the electrochemical separation of metals; uranium cannot be extracted any other way. And you also need a lot of it. Based on this, historians argued that since the Germans did not have such energy-intensive plants for enriching uranium and producing heavy water, that means there was no atomic bomb. But as we see, everything was there. Only it was called differently - similar to how in the USSR there was then a secret “sanatorium” for German physicists.

An even more surprising fact is the use by the Germans of an unfinished atomic bomb on... the Kursk Bulge.

The final twist to this chapter, and a breathtaking hint of other mysteries that will be explored later in this book, is a report that was only declassified by the National Security Agency in 1978. This report appears to be a transcript of an intercepted message transmitted from the Japanese embassy in Stockholm to Tokyo. It is entitled "Report on the Splitting Bomb." It is best to cite this amazing document in its entirety, with the omissions that were made when deciphering the original message.

This bomb, revolutionary in its impact, will completely overturn all established concepts of conventional warfare. I am sending you all the reports collected together on what is called the atomic fission bomb:

It is reliably known that in June 1943, the German army tested a completely new type of weapon against the Russians at a point 150 kilometers southeast of Kursk. Although the entire 19th Russian Infantry Regiment was hit, just a few bombs (each with a combat charge of less than 5 kilograms) were enough to destroy it completely, down to the last man. The following material is given according to the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Ue (?) Kenji, adviser to the attaché in Hungary and formerly (working?) in this country, who happened to see the consequences of what happened immediately after it happened: “All the people and horses (? in the area? ) the explosion of the shells were charred black, and even all the ammunition detonated.”

ARI:However, even withhowlofficial documents official US pundits are tryingto refute - they say, all these reports, reports and additional protocols are fakeRosovBut the balance still does not add up because by August 1945 the United States did not have enough uranium to produce bothminimummindtwo, and possibly four atomic bombs. Without uranium there will be no bomb, but it takes years to be mined. By 1944, the United States had no more than a quarter of the required uranium, and it would take at least another five years to extract the rest. And suddenly uranium seemed to fall on their heads from the sky:

In December 1944, a very unpleasant report was prepared, which greatly upset those who read it: “An analysis of the supply (of weapons-grade uranium) over the past three months shows the following ...: at the current rate, we will have approximately 10 kilograms of uranium by February 7, and by May 1 - 15 kilograms.” This was indeed very unpleasant news, because to create a uranium-based bomb, according to initial estimates made in 1942, 10 to 100 kilograms of uranium were required, and by the time of this memorandum, more accurate calculations had given the value of the critical mass required to produce uranium atomic bomb, equal to approximately 50 kilograms.

However, it was not only the Manhattan Project that had problems with missing uranium. Germany also seemed to suffer from "missing uranium syndrome" in the days immediately preceding and immediately after the end of the war. But in this case, the volumes of missing uranium were calculated not in tens of kilograms, but in hundreds of tons. It is worthwhile at this point to quote at length from the brilliant work of Carter Hydrick to explore this issue in depth:

From June 1940 until the end of the war, Germany removed three and a half thousand tons of uranium-containing substances from Belgium - almost three times what Groves had at his disposal... and placed them in salt mines near Strassfurt in Germany.

ARI: Leslie Richard Groves (Eng. Leslie Richard Groves; August 17, 1896 - July 13, 1970) - Lieutenant General of the US Army, in 1942-1947 - military leader of the nuclear weapons program (Manhattan Project).

Groves states that on April 17, 1945, when the war was already drawing to a close, the Allies managed to capture about 1,100 tons of uranium ore in Strassfurt and another 31 tons in the French port of Toulouse... And he claims that Germany never had more uranium ore, especially thereby showing that Germany never had enough material either to process uranium into raw material for a plutonium reactor, or to enrich it by electromagnetic separation.

Obviously, if at one time 3,500 tons were stored in Strassfurt, and only 1,130 were captured, approximately 2,730 tons remain - and this is still double what the Manhattan Project had throughout the war... The fate of this missing ore unknown to this day...

According to historian Margaret Gowing, by the summer of 1941, Germany had enriched 600 tons of uranium into the oxide form necessary to ionize the raw material into a gas in which uranium isotopes could be separated magnetically or thermally. (Italics mine. - D.F.) The oxide can also be converted into a metal for use as a raw material in a nuclear reactor. In fact, Professor Reichl, who was responsible for all the uranium at Germany's disposal throughout the war, claims that the true figure was much higher...

ARI: So it is clear that without obtaining enriched uranium from somewhere outside, and some detonation technology, the Americans would not have been able to test or detonate their bombs over Japan in August 1945. And they received, as it turns out,missing components from the Germans.

In order to create a uranium or plutonium bomb, uranium-containing raw materials must be converted into metal at a certain stage. For a plutonium bomb, metallic U238 is obtained; for a uranium bomb, U235 is needed. However, due to the treacherous characteristics of uranium, this metallurgical process is extremely complex. The United States took up the problem early, but did not learn to successfully convert uranium into metallic form in large quantities until late 1942. German specialists... by the end of 1940 had already converted 280.6 kilograms, more than a quarter of a ton, into metal."

In any case, these figures clearly indicate that in 1940–1942 the Germans were significantly ahead of the Allies in one very important component of the atomic bomb production process - uranium enrichment, and therefore also leads to the conclusion that they have come far ahead in the race to possess a working atomic bomb. However, these figures also raise one troubling question: where did all that uranium go?

The answer to this question is provided by the mysterious incident with the German submarine U-234, captured by the Americans in 1945.

The story of U-234 is well known to all scholars of the Nazi atomic bomb, and, of course, “Allied legend” has it that the materials aboard the captured submarine were in no way used in the Manhattan Project.

All this is absolutely not true. The U-234 was a very large underwater minelayer, capable of carrying large payloads underwater. Consider the supremely strange cargo that was aboard U-234 on that final voyage:

Two Japanese officers.

80 gold-lined cylindrical containers containing 560 kilograms of uranium oxide.

Several wooden barrels filled with “heavy water”.

Infrared proximity fuses.

Dr. Heinz Schlicke, inventor of these fuses.

As U-234 was being loaded in a German port before setting out on its final voyage, the submarine's radio operator, Wolfgang Hirschfeld, noticed that Japanese officers were writing "U235" on the paper in which the containers were wrapped before loading them into the hold of the boat. It hardly needs to be said that this remark caused the whole barrage of revealing criticism with which skeptics usually greet the stories of UFO eyewitnesses: the low position of the sun above the horizon, poor lighting, a large distance that did not allow us to see everything clearly, and the like. And this is not surprising, because if Hirschfeld really saw what he saw, the frightening consequences are obvious.

The use of gold-lined containers is explained by the fact that uranium, a highly corrosive metal, quickly becomes contaminated when it comes into contact with other unstable elements. Gold, which is not inferior to lead in terms of protection from radioactive radiation, unlike lead, is a very pure and extremely stable element; therefore, it is an obvious choice for the storage and long-term transportation of highly enriched and pure uranium. Thus, the uranium oxide carried on board U-234 was highly enriched uranium, most likely U235, the last stage of the raw material before being converted into weapons-grade or metallic uranium suitable for bomb production (if it was not already weapons-grade uranium) . Indeed, if the inscriptions made by Japanese officers on the containers were true, it is very likely that we were talking about the last stage of refining the raw materials before turning them into metal.

The cargo on board U-234 was so sensitive that when representatives of the US Navy compiled an inventory of it on June 16, 1945, uranium oxide disappeared from the list without a trace.....

Yes, this would be the easiest way, if not for the unexpected confirmation from a certain Pyotr Ivanovich Titarenko, a former military translator from the headquarters of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky, who at the end of the war accepted the surrender of Japan from the Soviet Union. As the German magazine Der Spiegel wrote in 1992, Titarenko wrote a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In it, he reported that in reality three atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, one of which, dropped on Nagasaki before the Fat Man exploded over the city, did not explode. This bomb was subsequently transferred by Japan to the Soviet Union.

Mussolini and the Soviet marshal's translator are not the only ones who confirm the version of the strange number of bombs dropped on Japan; There may have been a fourth bomb in play at some point, which was being transported to the Far East aboard the US Navy heavy cruiser Indianapolis (hull number CA 35) when it sank in 1945.

This strange evidence again raises questions about the “Allied legend”, for, as has already been shown, in late 1944 - early 1945 the Manhattan Project faced a critical shortage of weapons-grade uranium, and by that time the problem of fuses for plutonium had not been solved. bombs. So the question is: if these reports were true, where did the additional bomb (or even several bombs) come from? It is hard to believe that three or even four bombs ready for use in Japan were manufactured in such a short time - unless they were war booty exported from Europe.

ARI: Actually the storyU-234begins in 1944, when after the opening of the 2nd front and failures on the Eastern Front, perhaps on Hitler’s instructions, a decision was made to start trading with the allies - an atomic bomb in exchange for guarantees of immunity for the party elite:

Be that as it may, we are primarily interested in the role that Bormann played in the development and implementation of the plan for the secret strategic evacuation of the Nazis after their military defeat. After the Stalingrad disaster in early 1943, it became obvious to Bormann, like other high-ranking Nazis, that the military collapse of the Third Reich was inevitable if their secret weapons projects did not bear fruit in time. Bormann and representatives of various weapons departments, industrial sectors and, of course, the SS gathered for a secret meeting at which plans were developed for the removal of material assets, qualified personnel, scientific materials and technology from Germany......

First, JIOA director Grun, who was appointed to lead the project, compiled a list of the most qualified German and Austrian scientists that the Americans and British had used for decades. Although journalists and historians have repeatedly mentioned this list, none of them said that Werner Osenberg, who served as head of the scientific department of the Gestapo during the war, took part in its compilation. The decision to involve Ozenberg in this work was made by US Navy Captain Ransom Davis after consultation with the Joint Chiefs of Staff......

Finally, the Osenberg list and the American interest in it seem to support another hypothesis, namely that the knowledge that the Americans had about the nature of the Nazi projects, as evidenced by General Patton's unerring efforts to find Kammler's secret research centers, could come only from Nazi Germany itself. Since Carter Heidrick has proven very convincingly that Bormann personally directed the transfer of German atomic bomb secrets to the Americans, it can be safely argued that he ultimately coordinated the flow of other important information regarding the “Kammler Headquarters” to the American intelligence agencies, since no one knew better about him. the nature, content and personnel of German black projects. Thus, Carter Heidrick's thesis that Borman helped organize the transportation to the United States on the U-234 submarine of not only enriched uranium, but also a ready-to-use atomic bomb, looks very plausible.

ARI: In addition to the uranium itself, a lot more is needed for an atomic bomb, in particular fuses based on red mercury. Unlike a conventional detonator, these devices must explode super-synchronously, collecting the uranium mass into a single whole and starting a nuclear reaction. This technology is extremely complex; the United States did not have it and therefore the fuses were included in the kit. And since the question did not end with fuses, the Americans dragged German nuclear scientists to their place for consultations before loading an atomic bomb on board a plane flying to Japan:

There is another fact that does not fit into the post-war legend of the Allies regarding the impossibility of the Germans creating an atomic bomb: the German physicist Rudolf Fleischmann was flown to the United States for interrogation even before the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why was there such an urgent need to consult with the German physicist before the atomic bombing of Japan? After all, according to the Allied legend, we had nothing to learn from the Germans in the field of atomic physics......

ARI:Thus, there is no doubt left - Germany had a bomb in May 1945. WhyHitlerdidn't use it? Because one atomic bomb is not a bomb. For a bomb to become a weapon there must be a sufficient number of themquality, multiplied by the means of delivery. Hitler could destroy New York and London, could choose to wipe out a couple of divisions moving towards Berlin. But this would not have decided the outcome of the war in his favor. But the Allies would have come to Germany in a very bad mood. The Germans already got it in 1945, but if Germany had used nuclear weapons, its population would have gotten much more. Germany could have been wiped off the face of the earth, like Dresden, for example. Therefore, although Mr. Hitler is considered by someWithathe was not a mad politician, but nevertheless he was not a crazy politician, and weigh everything soberlyVquietly leaked the Second World War: we give you a bomb - and you don’t let the USSR reach the English Channel and guarantee a quiet old age for the Nazi elite.

So separate negotiationsOry in April 1945, described in the moviesRAbout 17 moments of spring really took place. But only at such a level that no Pastor Schlag could even dream of over-talkingOThe ry was led by Hitler himself. And physicsRthere was no unge because while Stirlitz was chasing him Manfred von Ardenne

already tested the finished productweapons - at least in 1943onTOthe Ur arc, at most in Norway, no later than 1944.

By byunderstandable???AndTo us, Mr. Farrell’s book is not being promoted either in the West or in Russia; not everyone caught the eye of it. But information is making its way and one day even a stupid person will know how nuclear weapons were made. And there will be a veryicantthe situation will have to be radically reconsideredall officialhistorythe last 70 years.

However, the worst thing will be for official pundits in RussiaIn federation, which for many years repeated the old mAntru: mAour tires may be bad, but we createdwhetheratomic bombbu.But as it turns out, even American engineers were unable to handle nuclear devices, at least in 1945. The USSR is not involved here at all - today the Russian federation would compete with Iran on who can make a bomb faster,if not for one BUT. BUT - these are captured German engineers who made nuclear weapons for Dzhugashvili.

It is reliably known, and academicians of the USSR do not deny it, that 3,000 captured Germans worked on the USSR missile project. That is, they essentially launched Gagarin into space. But as many as 7,000 specialists worked on the Soviet nuclear projectfrom Germany,so it is not surprising that the Soviets made an atomic bomb before they flew into space. If the USA still had its own path in the atomic race, then the USSR simply stupidly reproduced German technology.

In 1945, a group of colonels were searching for specialists in Germany, who in fact were not colonels, but secret physicists - future academicians Artsimovich, Kikoin, Khariton, Shchelkin... The operation was led by the First Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Ivan Serov.

Over two hundred of the most prominent German physicists (about half of them were doctors of science), radio engineers and craftsmen were brought to Moscow. In addition to the equipment of the Ardenne laboratory, later equipment from the Berlin Kaiser Institute and other German scientific organizations, documentation and reagents, supplies of film and paper for recorders, photo recorders, wire tape recorders for telemetry, optics, powerful electromagnets and even German transformers were delivered to Moscow. And then the Germans, under pain of death, began to build an atomic bomb for the USSR. They built it from scratch because by 1945 the United States had some of its own developments, the Germans were simply far ahead of them, but in the USSR, in the kingdom of “science” of academicians like Lysenko there was nothing on the nuclear program. Here's what researchers on this topic managed to dig up:

In 1945, the sanatoriums “Sinop” and “Agudzery”, located in Abkhazia, were placed at the disposal of German physicists. This was the beginning of the Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology, which was then part of the system of top-secret facilities of the USSR. “Sinop” was referred to in documents as Object “A” and was headed by Baron Manfred von Ardenne (1907–1997). This personality is legendary in world science: one of the founders of television, developer of electron microscopes and many other devices. During one meeting, Beria wanted to entrust the leadership of the atomic project to von Ardenne. Ardenne himself recalls: “I had no more than ten seconds to think about it. My answer is verbatim: I consider such an important offer as a great honor for me, because... this is an expression of exceptionally great confidence in my abilities. The solution to this problem has two different directions: 1. Development of the atomic bomb itself and 2. Development of methods for producing the fissile isotope of uranium 235U on an industrial scale. The separation of isotopes is a separate and very difficult problem. Therefore, I propose that the separation of isotopes should be the main problem of our institute and German specialists, and that the leading nuclear scientists of the Soviet Union sitting here would do a great job of creating an atomic bomb for their homeland.”

Beria accepted this offer. Many years later, at one government reception, when Manfred von Ardenne was introduced to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Khrushchev, he reacted like this: “Ah, you are the same Ardenne who so skillfully took his neck out of the noose.”

Von Ardenne later assessed his contribution to the development of the atomic problem as “the most important undertaking to which post-war circumstances led me.” In 1955, the scientist was allowed to travel to the GDR, where he headed a research institute in Dresden.

Sanatorium "Agudzery" received the code name Object "G". It was led by Gustav Hertz (1887–1975), nephew of the famous Heinrich Hertz, known to us from school. Gustav Hertz received the Nobel Prize in 1925 for the discovery of the laws of collision of an electron with an atom - the famous experiment of Frank and Hertz. In 1945, Gustav Hertz became one of the first German physicists brought to the USSR. He was the only foreign Nobel laureate who worked in the USSR. Like other German scientists, he lived without being denied anything in his house on the seashore. In 1955, Hertz went to the GDR. There he worked as a professor at the University of Leipzig, and then as director of the Physics Institute at the university.

The main task of von Ardenne and Gustav Hertz was to find different methods for separating uranium isotopes. Thanks to von Ardenne, one of the first mass spectrometers appeared in the USSR. Hertz successfully improved his method of isotope separation, which made it possible to establish this process on an industrial scale.

Other prominent German scientists were also brought to the site in Sukhumi, including physicist and radiochemist Nikolaus Riehl (1901–1991). They called him Nikolai Vasilyevich. He was born in St. Petersburg, in the family of a German - the chief engineer of Siemens and Halske. Nikolaus’s mother was Russian, so he spoke German and Russian from childhood. He received an excellent technical education: first in St. Petersburg, and after the family moved to Germany - at the Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin (later Humboldt University). In 1927 he defended his doctoral dissertation on radiochemistry. His scientific supervisors were future scientific luminaries - nuclear physicist Lisa Meitner and radiochemist Otto Hahn. Before the outbreak of World War II, Riehl was in charge of the central radiological laboratory of the Auergesellschaft company, where he proved himself to be an energetic and very capable experimenter. At the beginning of the war, Riehl was summoned to the War Ministry, where he was offered to engage in the production of uranium. In May 1945, Riehl voluntarily came to the Soviet emissaries sent to Berlin. The scientist, considered the main expert in the Reich on the production of enriched uranium for reactors, indicated where the equipment needed for this was located. Its fragments (the plant near Berlin was destroyed by bombing) were dismantled and sent to the USSR. The 300 tons of uranium compounds found there were also taken there. It is believed that this saved the Soviet Union a year and a half to create an atomic bomb - until 1945, Igor Kurchatov had only 7 tons of uranium oxide at his disposal. Under Riehl's leadership, the Elektrostal plant in Noginsk near Moscow was converted to produce cast uranium metal.

Trains with equipment went from Germany to Sukhumi. Three out of four German cyclotrons were brought to the USSR, as well as powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high-voltage transformers, ultra-precise instruments, etc. Equipment was delivered to the USSR from the Institute of Chemistry and Metallurgy, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics, Siemens electrical laboratories, Institute of Physics of the German Post Office.

Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of the project, who was undoubtedly an outstanding scientist, but he always surprised his employees with his extraordinary “scientific insight” - as it later turned out, he knew most of the secrets from intelligence, but had no right to talk about it. The following episode, told by academician Isaac Kikoin, speaks about leadership methods. At one meeting, Beria asked Soviet physicists how long it would take to solve one problem. They answered him: six months. The answer was: “Either you solve it in one month, or you will deal with this problem in places much more remote.” Of course, the task was completed in one month. But the authorities spared no expense and rewards. Many people, including German scientists, received Stalin Prizes, dachas, cars and other rewards. Nikolaus Riehl, however, the only foreign scientist, even received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. German scientists played a big role in raising the qualifications of Georgian physicists who worked with them.

ARI: So the Germans didn’t just help the USSR a lot with the creation of the atomic bomb - they did everything. Moreover, this story was like with the “Kalashnikov assault rifle” because even German gunsmiths could not have made such a perfect weapon in a couple of years - while working in captivity in the USSR, they simply completed what was almost ready. It’s the same with the atomic bomb, work on which the Germans began back in 1933, and perhaps much earlier. Official history holds that Hitler annexed the Sudetenland because many Germans lived there. This may be true, but the Sudetenland is the richest uranium deposit in Europe. There is a suspicion that Hitler knew where to start in the first place, because German successors from the time of Peter were in Russia, and in Australia, and even in Africa. But Hitler started with the Sudetenland. Apparently some people knowledgeable in alchemy immediately explained to him what to do and which way to go, so it is not surprising that the Germans were far ahead of everyone and the American intelligence services in Europe in the forties of the last century were already just picking up scraps from the Germans, hunting for medieval alchemical manuscripts.

But the USSR didn’t even have scraps. There was only “academician” Lysenko, according to whose theories weeds growing on a collective farm field, and not on a private farm, had every reason to be imbued with the spirit of socialism and turn into wheat. In medicine, there was a similar “scientific school” that tried to speed up pregnancy from 9 months to nine weeks - so that the wives of the proletarians would not be distracted from work. There were similar theories in nuclear physics, so for the USSR the creation of an atomic bomb was as impossible as the creation of its own computer, since cybernetics in the USSR was officially considered a prostitute of the bourgeoisie. By the way, important scientific decisions in physics (for example, which direction to go and which theories to consider as working) in the USSR were made, at best, by “academicians” from agriculture. Although more often this was done by a party functionary with an education in the “evening workers’ faculty.” What kind of atomic bomb could there be at this base? Only someone else's. In the USSR they could not even assemble it from ready-made components with ready-made drawings. The Germans did everything, and in this regard there is even official recognition of their merits - Stalin Prizes and orders, which were awarded to the engineers:

German specialists are laureates of the Stalin Prize for their work in the field of atomic energy use. Excerpts from the resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR "on awards and bonuses...".

[From the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 5070-1944ss/op “On awards and bonuses for outstanding scientific discoveries and technical achievements in the use of atomic energy,” October 29, 1949]

[From the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 4964-2148ss/op “On awards and bonuses for outstanding scientific work in the field of the use of atomic energy, for the creation of new types of RDS products, achievements in the field of production of plutonium and uranium-235 and the development of the raw material base for the nuclear industry" , December 6, 1951 ]

[From the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 3044-1304ss “On awarding Stalin Prizes to scientific, engineering and technical workers of the Ministry of Medium Engineering and other departments for the creation of a hydrogen bomb and new designs of atomic bombs,” December 31, 1953]

Manfred von Ardenne

1947 - Stalin Prize (electron microscope - "In January 1947, the Chief of the Site presented von Ardenne with the State Prize (a purse full of money) for his microscope work.") "German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project", p . 18)

1953 - Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (electromagnetic separation of isotopes, lithium-6).

Heinz Barvich

Gunther Wirtz

Gustav Hertz

1951 - Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (theory of stability of gas diffusion in cascades).

Gerard Jaeger

1953 - Stalin Prize 3rd degree (electromagnetic separation of isotopes, lithium-6).

Reinhold Reichman (Reichman)

1951 - Stalin Prize 1st degree (posthumously) (technology development

production of ceramic tubular filters for diffusion machines).

Nikolaus Riehl

1949 - Hero of Socialist Labor, Stalin Prize 1st degree (development and implementation of industrial technology for the production of pure uranium metal).

Herbert Thieme

1949 - Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (development and implementation of industrial technology for the production of pure uranium metal).

1951 - Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (development of industrial technology for the production of high-purity uranium and the manufacture of products from it).

Peter Thiessen

1956 - State Prize Thyssen,_Peter

Heinz Froehlich

1953 - Stalin Prize, 3rd degree (electromagnetic isotope separation, lithium-6).

Ziehl Ludwig

1951 - Stalin Prize, 1st degree (development of technology for the production of ceramic tubular filters for diffusion machines).

Werner Schütze

1949 - Stalin Prize, 2nd degree (mass spectrometer).

ARI: This is how the story turns out - not a trace remains of the myth that the Volga is a bad car, but we made an atomic bomb. All that remains is the bad Volga car. And it wouldn’t have existed if they hadn’t bought the drawings from Ford. There would be nothing because the Bolshevik state is not capable of creating anything by definition. For the same reason, the Russian state cannot create anything, only sell natural resources.

Mikhail Saltan, Gleb Shcherbatov

For the stupid, just in case, we explain that we are not talking about the intellectual potential of the Russian people, it is quite high, we are talking about the creative possibilities of the Soviet bureaucratic system, which, in principle, cannot allow scientific talents to be revealed.

On August 12, 1953, at 7.30 am, the first Soviet hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site, which had the service name “Product RDS-6c”. This was the fourth Soviet nuclear weapons test.

The beginning of the first work on the thermonuclear program in the USSR dates back to 1945. Then information was received about research being carried out in the United States on the thermonuclear problem. They were started on the initiative of the American physicist Edward Teller in 1942. The basis was taken by Teller’s concept of thermonuclear weapons, which in the circles of Soviet nuclear scientists was called a “pipe” - a cylindrical container with liquid deuterium, which was supposed to be heated by the explosion of an initiating device such as a conventional atomic bomb. Only in 1950 did the Americans establish that the “pipe” was futile, and they continued to develop other designs. But by this time, Soviet physicists had already independently developed another concept of thermonuclear weapons, which soon - in 1953 - led to success.

An alternative design for a hydrogen bomb was invented by Andrei Sakharov. The bomb was based on the idea of ​​a “puff” and the use of lithium-6 deuteride. Developed at KB-11 (today the city of Sarov, former Arzamas-16, Nizhny Novgorod region), the RDS-6s thermonuclear charge was a spherical system of layers of uranium and thermonuclear fuel, surrounded by a chemical explosive.

Academician Sakharov - deputy and dissidentMay 21 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet physicist, political figure, dissident, one of the creators of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, Nobel Peace Prize laureate academician Andrei Sakharov. He died in 1989 at the age of 68, seven of which Andrei Dmitrievich spent in exile.

To increase the energy release of the charge, tritium was used in its design. The main task in creating such a weapon was to use the energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb to heat and ignite heavy hydrogen - deuterium, to carry out thermonuclear reactions with the release of energy that can support themselves. To increase the proportion of “burnt” deuterium, Sakharov proposed surrounding the deuterium with a shell of ordinary natural uranium, which was supposed to slow down the expansion and, most importantly, significantly increase the density of deuterium. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called “saccharization.”

Based on the results of work on the first hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and laureate of the Stalin Prize.

“Product RDS-6s” was made in the form of a transportable bomb weighing 7 tons, which was placed in the bomb hatch of a Tu-16 bomber. For comparison, the bomb created by the Americans weighed 54 tons and was the size of a three-story house.

To assess the destructive effects of the new bomb, a city of industrial and administrative buildings was built at the Semipalatinsk test site. In total, there were 190 different structures on the field. In this test, vacuum intakes of radiochemical samples were used for the first time, which automatically opened under the influence of a shock wave. In total, 500 different measuring, recording and filming devices installed in underground casemates and durable ground structures were prepared for testing the RDS-6s. Aviation technical support for the tests - measuring the pressure of the shock wave on the aircraft in the air at the time of the explosion of the product, taking air samples from the radioactive cloud, and aerial photography of the area was carried out by a special flight unit. The bomb was detonated remotely by sending a signal from a remote control located in the bunker.

It was decided to carry out an explosion on a steel tower 40 meters high, the charge was located at a height of 30 meters. The radioactive soil from previous tests was removed to a safe distance, special structures were built in their own places on old foundations, and a bunker was built 5 meters from the tower to install equipment developed at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences that recorded thermonuclear processes.

Military equipment from all branches of the military was installed on the field. During the tests, all experimental structures within a radius of up to four kilometers were destroyed. A hydrogen bomb explosion could completely destroy a city 8 kilometers across. The environmental consequences of the explosion were terrifying: the first explosion accounted for 82% strontium-90 and 75% cesium-137.

The power of the bomb reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and USSR.

Destruction of the last nuclear warhead in Semipalatinsk. ReferenceOn May 31, 1995, the last nuclear warhead was destroyed at the former Semipalatinsk test site. The Semipalatinsk test site was created in 1948 specifically to test the first Soviet nuclear device. The test site was located in northeastern Kazakhstan.

The work to create the hydrogen bomb became the world's first intellectual "battle of wits" on a truly global scale. The creation of the hydrogen bomb initiated the emergence of completely new scientific directions - the physics of high-temperature plasma, the physics of ultra-high energy densities, and the physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time in human history, mathematical modeling was used on a large scale.

Work on the “RDS-6s product” created a scientific and technical basis, which was then used in the development of an incomparably more advanced hydrogen bomb of a fundamentally new type - a two-stage hydrogen bomb.

The hydrogen bomb of Sakharov’s design not only became a serious counter-argument in the political confrontation between the USA and the USSR, but also served as the reason for the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics in those years. It was after successful nuclear tests that the Korolev Design Bureau received an important government task to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to deliver the created charge to the target. Subsequently, the rocket, called the “seven”, launched the first artificial Earth satellite into space, and it was on it that the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, launched.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

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

Creation of the atomic bomb

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

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

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

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

How does a nuclear bomb work?

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

It includes:

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

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

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

Principle of operation

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

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

Damaging factors

Atomic weapons have the following destruction factors:

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

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

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

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

First tests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Technical task

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

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

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

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

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

Tests

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

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

"Nuclear Club" of the world

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

It includes:

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

History of the creation of weapons

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

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

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

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

Having gone through the Second World War in the Resistance, in the 1950s the couple (Frederick and Irene), realizing the destructive power of war, advocated for general disarmament. They are supported by Niels Bohr, Albert Einstein and other prominent physicists of the time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

World's first tests

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

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

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

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

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

Damaging factors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The most powerful bomb in the world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Atomic bomb device

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The danger of nuclear war and nuclear disasters

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nuclear weapons past and present

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

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

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

Video

The creation of the Soviet atomic bomb(military part of the USSR atomic project) - 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 largely stimulated by the activities in this direction of scientific institutions and the military industry of other countries, primarily Nazi Germany and the USA [ ] . In 1945, on August 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.

  During this decade, fundamental radiochemical research was carried out, without which a complete understanding of these problems, their development, and, especially, their implementation would be unthinkable.

  Work in 1941-1943

  Foreign intelligence information

  Already in September 1941, the USSR began to receive intelligence information about secret intensive research work being carried out in Great Britain 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 documents received back in 1941 by Soviet intelligence is the report of the British “MAUD Committee”. From the materials of this report, received through external intelligence channels of the NKVD of the USSR from Donald McLean, it followed that the creation of an atomic bomb is real, that it could probably be created even before the end of the war and, therefore, could influence its course.

  Intelligence information about work on the problem of atomic energy abroad, which was available in the USSR at the time the decision was made to resume work on uranium, was received both through the intelligence channels of the NKVD 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 USSR Academy of Sciences about the presence of reports of work abroad on the problem of using atomic energy for military purposes and asked to report 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 over the past year, almost no work related to solving the problem of using atomic energy has been published in the scientific literature.

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

  Soviet intelligence had detailed information about the work to create an atomic bomb in the United States, coming from specialists who understood the danger of a nuclear monopoly or sympathized with the USSR, in particular, Klaus Fuchs, Theodore Hall, Georges Koval and David Gringlas. However, as some believe, the letter of the Soviet physicist G. Flerov addressed to Stalin at the beginning of 1943, who was able to explain the essence of the problem popularly, 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 the head of the scientific and technical intelligence department of the NKVD, Leonid Kvasnikov, back in 1942, but fully developed only after the arrival of the famous pair of Soviet intelligence officers in Washington: Vasily Zarubin and his wife Elizaveta. It was with them that the NKVD resident in San Francisco, Grigory Kheifitz, interacted, who reported that the most prominent American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and many of his colleagues had left California for an unknown place where they would create some kind of superweapon.

  Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Semenov (pseudonym “Twain”), who had been working in the United States since 1938 and had assembled a large and active intelligence group there, was entrusted with double-checking the data from “Charon” (that was Heifitz’s code name). It was “Twain” who confirmed the reality of the work on creating an atomic bomb, named the code for the Manhattan Project and the location of its main scientific center - the former colony for juvenile delinquents Los Alamos in New Mexico. Semenov also reported 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, upon returning to the USA, did not lose ties with far-left organizations.

  Thus, Soviet agents were introduced into the scientific and design centers of America, where nuclear weapons were being created. However, in the midst of establishing undercover activities, Lisa and Vasily Zarubin were urgently recalled to Moscow. They were at a loss, because not a single failure occurred. It turned out that the Center received a denunciation from an employee of Mironov’s station, accusing the Zarubins of treason. And for almost six months, Moscow counterintelligence checked these accusations. They were not confirmed, however, the Zarubins were no longer allowed abroad.

  Meanwhile, 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 efficient and unafraid were the Cohen couple, Maurice and Lona. After Maurice was drafted into the US Army, Lona began independently delivering information materials from New Mexico to New York. To do this, she went to the small town of Albuquerque, where, for appearances, she visited a tuberculosis clinic. There she met with agents named “Mlad” and “Ernst”.

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

  The primary tasks were the organization of industrial production of plutonium-239 and uranium-235. To solve the first problem, it was necessary to create an experimental and then industrial nuclear reactor, and build a radiochemical and special metallurgical workshop. To solve the second problem, the construction of a plant for the separation of uranium isotopes by the diffusion method was launched.

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

  In 1945, the Government of the USSR made the following most important decisions:

  • on the creation at the Kirov Plant (Leningrad) of two special development bureaus designed to develop equipment that produces uranium enriched in the 235 isotope by gas diffusion;
  • 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 using natural uranium;
  • on the selection of a site and the start of construction in the Southern Urals of the country's first plant for the production of plutonium-239.

  The enterprise in the Southern Urals should have included:

  • uranium-graphite reactor using natural uranium (plant “A”);
  • radiochemical production for the separation of plutonium-239 from natural uranium irradiated in a reactor (plant “B”);
  • chemical and metallurgical production for the production of highly pure 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 (about 300 people) of them were brought to Sukhumi and secretly housed in the former estates of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and millionaire Smetsky (sanatoriums “Sinop” and “Agudzery”). Equipment was exported 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 out of four German cyclotrons, powerful magnets, electron microscopes, oscilloscopes, high-voltage transformers, and ultra-precise instruments were brought to the USSR. In November 1945, the Directorate of Special Institutes (9th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR) was created within the NKVD of the USSR to manage the work on the use of German specialists.

  The Sinop sanatorium 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 “D” - Nikolaus Riehl, Max Vollmer, who built the first installation for the production of heavy water in the USSR, Peter Thiessen, designer of nickel filters for gas diffusion separation of uranium isotopes, Max Steenbeck and Gernot Zippe, who worked on centrifugal separation method and subsequently received patents for gas centrifuges in the West. On the basis of objects “A” and “G” (SFTI) was later created.

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

  In the period 1954-1959, German specialists moved to the GDR at different times (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, called Plant No. 813 (plant D-1) and intended for the production of highly enriched uranium. The plant produced its first products in 1949.

  Construction of uranium hexafluoride production in Kirovo-Chepetsk

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

  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

  Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1286-525ss “On the plan for the deployment of KB-11 work at Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences” determined the first tasks of KB-11: the creation, under the scientific leadership of Laboratory No. 2 (Academician I.V. Kurchatov), ​​of atomic bombs, conventionally called in the resolution “jet engines C”, in two versions: RDS-1 - implosion type with plutonium and the RDS-2 gun-type atomic bomb with uranium-235.

  Tactical and technical specifications for the RDS-1 and RDS-2 designs 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 submitted for state testing 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. Work on the creation of structures should have be carried out in parallel with the organization of special laboratories in KB-11 and the deployment of work in these laboratories. Such short deadlines and the organization of parallel work also became possible thanks to the receipt of some intelligence data about American atomic bombs in the USSR.

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