The Core of Truth: how the Soviet atomic project achieved success in just six years

In the 1930s, Soviet scientists conducted world-class research and made a number of discoveries in nuclear physics, primarily at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology under the leadership of A.I. Ioffe, the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, the Radium Institute in Leningrad, and the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology. In the USSR, several scientific conferences on atomic physics were held with the participation of foreign scientists, articles were published on this topic, two cyclotrons were built, and a strong scientific school was created.

All work was interrupted by the outbreak of war. However, at the end of September 1942, it was decided to resume them, and in April 1943, to create a special Laboratory No. 2 and appoint Igor Kurchatov, a 40—year-old physics professor, as the scientific director of the Soviet atomic project. On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet atomic bomb was successfully tested. Ekaterina Yatsishina, Deputy Director for Scientific Work at the Kurchatov Institute, told Izvestia about some pages from the history of the legendary Soviet atomic project. Our conversation took place at the Kurchatov Institute in the building of the first reactor F-1 on the continent of Eurasia.

Young science

The decision to resume "uranium mining" in the midst of the war was the first crucial step towards the creation of Soviet nuclear weapons. The country's leadership and a group of scientists, based on intelligence reports about ongoing work in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States to create new super—powerful weapons, made the strategically right choice at a time when the success of this endeavor was far from obvious, says Ekaterina Yatsishina.

It took only six years from the start of work at Laboratory No. 2 to the first test of the bomb. However, fundamental research in the field of nuclear physics in our country began long before that. An important role here was played by an outstanding scientist, encyclopedist, biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky. He initiated the first expeditions to search for uranium back in the Russian Empire, and in 1922 he created and headed the Radium Institute, where the first radium preparations in the USSR were obtained and the first cyclotron was built.

The Physics and Technology Department of the Radium Institute was subsequently transformed into the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology led by Abram Ioffe, who educated a whole galaxy of outstanding Soviet scientists. In the 1930s, LFTI began developing a new scientific field, nuclear physics, which, thanks to the outstanding scientific intuition of A.F. Ioffe, soon became the main one. In 1933, Igor Kurchatov was appointed head of the Department of Nuclear Physics.

Despite the research on nuclear physics that was conducted in the USSR and abroad, no one could imagine the possibility of creating a new destructive weapon. However, already at the turn of the 1930s, an idea began to form about the military prospects of using atomic energy. During this period, all nuclear-related works disappeared from the scientific press, and they were classified by those countries where development of new weapons had already begun.

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The Soviet Atomic Project

In 1940, Kurchatov's graduate students Georgy Fleurov and Konstantin Petrzhak, under his leadership, were the first to record nuclear fission in an ionization chamber — spontaneous fission of uranium occurred without bombardment by neutrons. On June 22, 1941, construction of Europe's largest cyclotron was completed in Leningrad under the leadership of Igor Kurchatov. This installation, which accelerates charged particles to very high speeds and energies, was necessary for further research. But they didn't have time to launch the cyclotron: the war began.

By the summer of 1942, sufficient intelligence data had been obtained that the United States was in full swing developing new weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. There were also works in Great Britain, in Nazi Germany. The Soviet Union could not lag behind in this race, so on September 28, 1942, the USSR State Defense Committee issued an order "On the organization of work on uranium." Research interrupted by the war needed not only to be resumed, but also accelerated.

During this period, Igor Kurchatov was called to the capital from evacuation, he analyzes the information received by intelligence and concludes that the information about the progress of work on the creation of atomic weapons is true and it is necessary to continue our research. The question arose about the choice of the head of the Soviet atomic project. Several candidates were considered, including Ioffe and P.L. Kapitsa, but the choice fell on Kurchatov.

"This decision has largely predetermined our future success,— emphasizes Ekaterina Yatsishina. — After all, Kurchatov already had a lot of experience in these studies. He was vouched for by Joffe, who had been working with him for more than 10 years and knew his abilities and personal qualities well, which was no less important. Kurchatov was an interdisciplinary specialist, as they say today, a theorist, an experimenter, and an organizer. He had the ability to select a team and determine exactly who was best suited for what. And those who didn't get along with him personally, but could benefit the project, he left in the team."

Its precise organization also played an important role in the success of the Soviet atomic project. In fact, everything was focused directly on the country's top leadership through the curator from the government, Lavrenty Beria, and the scientific supervisor, Igor Kurchatov. By the way, the Americans had a similar project organization, where these functions were performed by L. Groves and R. Oppenheimer, respectively.

In February-March 1943, Igor Kurchatov began to assemble a team of scientists for a future Laboratory, some were recalled from the front, some were returned from evacuation. In 1944, the staff of the secret Laboratory No. 2 moved to the outskirts of the capital in the Oktyabrsky Field area, where a 120-hectare plot of land with an almost completed building was allocated, which housed both laboratories and rooms for employees. At that time, the Laboratory staff consisted of 100 people, including a fireman and a groom, while the Manhattan project already had more than 100,000 employees.

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The Atomic Age

In July 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, US President Harry Truman informed I.V. Stalin about some new weapons that the Americans had. In early August, they tested these weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of more than 200,000 civilians, and many of the survivors subsequently suffered from radiation sickness all their lives.

This barbaric bombing was primarily intended to prove military superiority over the USSR. This could not be allowed, and at the end of August 1945, a Special Committee was established under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, whose task was to create Soviet nuclear weapons as soon as possible.

The first practical step was the construction of a reactor. There was a choice of its type — uranium-graphite or heavy-water. Kurchatov insisted on the first option, realizing that it would save us about a year. Given the plans for nuclear strikes against our country already being developed by the United States at that time, this year could be decisive.

For the construction of the reactor, uranium, high purity graphite, and new structural materials were needed. In the shortest possible time, it was necessary to ensure the exploration and extraction of uranium, create a new metallurgy from scratch, and establish graphite production. The work was carried out in an open field, everything was done for the first time. 450 tons of graphite and almost 50 tons of uranium were literally carried into a large army tent. Kurchatov personally supervised all the work. It took four models to be folded, examined, and disassembled. The fifth became a reactor," explains Ekaterina Yatsishina.

By the end of 1946, the construction of the world's first special building with a shaft for a reactor with reliable biological protection was completed. All work was carried out in strict secrecy, and the participants in the reactor assembly, the youngest of whom was only 15 years old, signed a receipt before the launch stating "non-disclosure of the nature of the work being carried out." On the evening of December 25, 1946, the last 62nd layer of the core was laid. Kurchatov himself sat down at the boiler control panel, which worked for about 4 hours at the first start. It took only 16 months to complete this grandiose project! Three days later, the country's leadership was informed: "With the help of the built uranium-graphite boiler, we are now able to solve the most important issues and problems of industrial production and use of atomic energy."

This made it possible to accelerate the creation of an industrial uranium-graphite reactor in the Urals for the production of plutonium, the charge for the first domestic atomic bomb. The Annushka reactor was built in the Urals, and it was a very difficult job. On June 22, 1948, the plant was successfully brought to its design capacity.

And a little over a year later, on August 29, 1949, thanks to the incredible dedication of all participants in the national atomic project, the first atomic bomb test took place in the USSR. Today, knowing that our former allies had dozens of plans for nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union, it is difficult to overestimate the significance of this event for the fate of our country and the whole world.

According to the calculations of the Americans, the bomb should have appeared in our country a few years later. However, they underestimated the capabilities of Igor Kurchatov's team.

— The Americans knew that we were working on developing our own weapons, but they believed that the USSR would have a bomb only in 1953-1955. Therefore, when the explosion was carried out in August 1949, it was an absolute shock for them," says Ekaterina Yatsishina.

In parallel with the creation of weapons, scientists also thought about the peaceful use of the atom. In late 1946 and early 1947, work began in the USSR on the creation of nuclear power plants for various purposes. And already in 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant, the Obninsk nuclear power plant, was launched. Four years later, in 1958, the first Soviet nuclear submarine Leninsky Komsomol was launched, and in 1959, the world's first nuclear icebreaker Lenin was commissioned. Thus began the era of nuclear energy, in which our country retains a leading position.

All this became possible thanks to the legendary Soviet atomic project and the people who created it.