Soviet atomic bomb project
Encyclopedia
The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb (Russian:
Создание советской атомной бомбы), was a clandestine research and development
program began during
and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union
's discovery of the United States' nuclear project
. This scientific clandestine research was directed by Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov
, while the military logistics and intelligence efforts were undertaken and managed by NKVD director Lavrentiy Beria
. The Soviet Union benefited from highly successful espionage
efforts on the part of the Soviet military intelligence (GRU)
. During the midst of World War II, the program was started by Joseph Stalin
who received a letter from physicist Georgy Flyorov
urging him to start the research, as Flyorov had long suspected that many of the Allied powers
were already clandestinely advancing after the discovery of nuclear fission
in 1939. However, because of the bloody and intensified war
with Germany
on the Eastern Front
, the large scale efforts prevented Soviets from developing the atomic bomb, but accelerated the program after the American
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagaski
, thus putting an end to World War II
. The Soviet atomic project was charged with gathering intelligence efforts on German nuclear program
as well as the American nuclear efforts. After the atomic raids on Japan and the subsequent Japanese surrender in 1945, the Soviet Union expanded its research facilities, military reactors, and employed a number of scientists, including its atomic spies
who successfully penetrated the American nuclear weapons efforts.
Through its successful Russian Alsos
and the atomic spy ring, the Soviet Union's espionage ultimately led them to conduct the first test of its implosion-type nuclear device, codename First Lightening on 29 August 1949, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR
. With the success of this test, the Soviet Union became the second nation after the United States, to have successfully developed and conduct nuclear tests.
and proton
as fundamental particles, the operation of the first cyclotron
to energies of over 1 MeV
, and the first splitting of the atomic nucleus by John Cockcroft
and Ernest Walton
). Even before the Russian revolution
and the followed by the February Revolution
, the mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky had made a number of public calls for a survey of Soviet Union's uranium
deposits. But such surveys did not undertake by Tsarist regime
and authorization of the geological surveys were never made, as it was discovered that the main motivation for uranium ores at the time—radium
, which had scientific as well as medical uses—could be retrieved from borehole water from the Ukhta
oilfields.
The academic research in nuclear physics was not strong and lacked in the country, as much of the ideology of the Soviet Union revolved around science for primarily practical and industrial applications. Fearing the possibility of something like Lysenkoism
in physics, Soviet physicists, led by Abram Ioffe
, had attempted to emphasize their commitment to strengthening the Soviet economy and industry, and were avoiding lines of research which could be accused of being too "theoretical" and "impractical," which is what nuclear physics was generally perceived to be in the 1920s and early 1930s.
After the discovery of nuclear fission
in the late 1930s, scientists in the Soviet Union, like scientists all over the world, realized that nuclear reaction
s could, in theory, be used to release large amounts of binding energy
from the atomic nucleus
of uranium. As in the West
, the news of fission created great excitement amongst Soviet scientists and many physicists switched their lines of research to those involving nuclear physics in particular, as it was considered a promising field of research. Few scientists thought it would be possible to harness the power of nuclear energy for human purposes within the span of many decades. Soviet nuclear research was not far behind Western scientists: Yakov Frenkel
did the first theoretical work on fission in the Soviet Union in 1940, and Georgii Flerov and Lev Rusinov concluded that 3±1 neutrons were emitted per fission only days after similar conclusions had been reached by the team of Frédéric Joliot-Curie
.
, world's most greatest physicists went quiet and academic publications of regarding fields of nuclear physics came to a complete halt. This suspicious silence alarmed the Soviet nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov
who was keenly observing the development of nuclear physics. It did not take long for Flyorov to surmise that Germany
and the United States
and other powers were racing
to develop the atomic bomb as part of their clandestine programs. In April 1942, Flyorov wrote a letter which was directed to Alex Soto who initially alarmed the Soviet government. In his letter, Flyorov noted that since the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939, there had been nothing published in the physics journals either by Americans, British, or Germans, and that indeed many of the most prominent physicists in Allied countries seemed not to be publishing at all.
Alex Soto reached out to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
and first informed him of American nuclear efforts because of a letter sent to him in April 1942 by Georgii Flerov. This lack of activity was very suspicious, and Flerov had suspected that Germany was already accelerating its nuclear program
to developed the "super bombs". Therefore, Flyorov strongly urged Stalin to start a program. However, when Stalin was informed of this efforts, Germany had initiated and commended the large-scale operation
that halted the Soviet Union to even start its program from the academic level to military level. This bloody and intensified war with Soviet Union on its home front had prevented a large scale domestic efforts that could not yet be undertaken at that time. In the wake of the atomic bombing
on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan's surrender, Stalin accelerated research and development, expanding the development of large scale of military reactors and research facilities all over the country.
Vyacheslav Molotov
as being its first administrator. Stalin and Molotov tasked the USSR Academy of Sciences to find a science administrator notable for leading the research in nuclear physics. Abram Fedorovich Ioffe recommended Igor Kurchatov
to Molotov, and Molotov advised Stalin to appoint Kurchatov as the formal scientific head of the nascent Soviet nuclear weapons programme. Other important figures included Yuli Khariton, Yakov Zeldovich, Georgii Flyorov, Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, and the future dissident
and lead theoretical designer of the hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov
.
But, by the 1944, the Soviet Foreign Affairs Ministry and Foreign Minister Molotov as well proved to be an incapable and politically weak administrator for running this large magnitude project. Soon, the program suffered a major setback under Molotov who lost the focus of this program because of the war with Germany. In 1944, Stalin handed over the program to People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and Molotov was replaced by ruthless Lavrentii Beria, Chief of NKVD, in 1944. As ruthless and dangerous Beria was, the NKVD aided atomic spies
operated under the administrative ring, directly reported to Beria. Beria also infiltrated and ruthlessly penetrated
the German nuclear program, with many notable figures in German nuclear program were forcefully taken to Soviet Union where the German figures greatly enhanced the Soviet nuclear weapons efforts.
. Evidence from intelligence sources in the United Kingdom had a role to play in the decision of the Soviet State Defense Council (Gosudarstvennyj komitet oborony (GKO)), in September 1942, to approve resolution 2352, which signaled the beginning of the Soviet atom bomb project.
Through sources in the Manhattan Project
, notably Klaus Fuchs
, the Soviet intelligence obtained important information on the progress of the United States atomic bomb effort. Intelligence reports were shown to the head of the Soviet atomic project director Igor Kurchatov and had a significant impact on the direction of his own team's research.
For example, Soviet work on methods of uranium isotope separation was altered when it transpired, to Kurchatov's surprise, that the Americans had opted for the Gaseous diffusion method
. Whilst research on other separation methods continued throughout the war years, the emphasis was placed on replicating U.S. success with gaseous diffusion. Another important breakthrough, attributed to intelligence, was the possibility of using plutonium, instead of uranium, in a fission weapon. Extraction of plutonium in the so-called "uranium pile" allowed the bypass of the difficult process of uranium separation altogether — something that Kurchatov had learned from intelligence from the Manhattan project.
In 1945, the Soviet intelligence obtained rough "blueprints" of the first U.S. atomic device, which may have contributed to the Soviet bomb project. Scholar Alexei Kojevnikov has estimated, based on newly released Soviet documents, that the primary way in which the espionage may have sped up the Soviet project was that it allowed Khariton to avoid dangerous tests to determine the size of the critical mass: "tickling the dragon's tail", as it was called in the U.S., consumed a good deal of time and claimed at least two lives; see Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.
and Louis Slotin
.
One of the key pieces of information, which Soviet intelligence obtained from Fuchs, was a cross-section for D-T fusion
. This data was available to top Soviet officials roughly three years before it was openly published in the Physical Review in 1949. However, this data was not forwarded to Vitaly Ginzburg
or Andrei Sakharov
until very late, practically months before publication. Initially both Ginzburg and Sakharov, while working on the Sloika design, estimated such a cross-section to be similar to the D-D reaction. Once the actual cross-section become known to Ginzburg and Sakharov, the Sloika design become a priority, which resulted in successful test in 1953.
In the 1990s, with the declassification of Soviet intelligence materials, which showed the extent and the type of the information obtained by the Soviets from US sources, a heated debate ensued in Russia and abroad as to the relative importance of espionage, as opposed to the Soviet scientists' own efforts, in the making of the Soviet bomb. The vast majority of scholars agree that whereas the Soviet atomic project was first and foremost a product of local expertise and scientific talent, it is clear that espionage efforts contributed to the project in various ways and most certainly shortened the time needed to develop the atomic bomb.
Comparing the timelines of H-bomb development, some researchers came to a conclusion that Soviets had a gap in access to classified information regarding the H-bomb at least between late 1950 and some time in 1953. Earlier, e.g. in 1948, Fuchs gave to the Soviets a detailed update of the classical super progress, including an idea to use lithium, but did not specify it was specifically lithium-6. Teller accepted the fact that "classical super" scheme was infeasible by 1951, following results obtained by various researches (including Stanislaw Ulam) and calculations performed by John von Neumann
in late 1950.
Yet the research for the Soviet analogue of "classical super" continued until December 1953, when the researchers were reallocated to a new project working on what later became a true H-bomb design, based on radiation implosion. It remains an open topic for research, whether the Soviet intelligence was able to obtain any specific data on Teller-Ulam design in 1953 or early 1954. Yet, Soviet officials directed the scientists to work on a new scheme, and the entire process took less than two years, commencing around January 1954 and producing a successful test in November 1955. It also took just several months before the idea of radiation implosion was conceived, and there is no documented evidence claiming priority. It is also possible that Soviets were able to obtain a document lost by John Wheeler
on a train in 1953, which reportedly contained key information about thermonuclear weapon design.
ore, as the USSR had no known domestic sources at the beginning of the project. The Soviet F-1
reactor, which began operation in December 1946, was fueled using uranium confiscated from the remains of the German atomic bomb project. This uranium had been mined in the Belgian Congo
, and had fallen into the hands of the Germans after their invasion and occupation of Belgium
in 1940. Further sources of uranium in the early years of the program were mines in East Germany (SAG Wismut
), Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania (near Stei) and Poland. Eventually large domestic sources were discovered.
The uranium for the Soviet nuclear weapons program came from the following countries in the years 1945 to 1950 (mine production only):
as Joe 1. The design was very similar to the first US "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, using a TNT/hexogen implosion lens design.
" uranium implosion device (not a shot-gun design like the US "Little Boy
" bomb) with a levitated core. This test was code named Joe-2 by American analysts.
On October 18, 1951, a 41.2 kiloton device was detonated, a boosted weapon using a composite construction of levitated plutonium core and a uranium-235
shell. Code named Joe-3 in the USA, this was the first Soviet air-dropped bomb test. Released at an altitude of 10 km, it detonated 400 meters above the ground.
RDS-4
RDS-4 represented a branch of research on small tactical weapons. It was a boosted fission device
using plutonium in a "levitated" core design. The first test was an air drop on August 23, 1953, yielding 28 kilotons. The RDS-4 comprised the warhead of the R-5M medium-range ballistic missile
, which was tested with a live warhead for the first and only time on February 2, 1956. The RDS-5 was a similar levitated core design but with a composite plutonium core and uranium 235 shell.
RDS-37
The first Soviet test of a "true" hydrogen bomb in the megaton range was on November 22, 1955. It was dubbed RDS-37
by the Soviets. It was of the multi-staged, radiation implosion
thermonuclear design called Sakharov's "Third Idea" in the USSR and the Teller-Ulam design in the USA,
Joe 1, Joe 4, and RDS-37 were all tested at the Semipalatinsk Test Site
in Kazakhstan
.
Tsar Bomba
The Tsar Bomba
(Царь-бомба) was the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It was a three-stage hydrogen bomb
with a yield
of about 50 megatons
. This is equivalent to ten times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II combined. It was detonated on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya
archipelago
, and was capable of approximately 100 megatons, but was purposely reduced shortly before the launch. Although weapon
ized, it was not entered into service; it was simply a demonstrative testing on the capabilities of the Soviet Union's military technology at that time. The explosion was hot enough to induce third degree burns at 100 km distance.
Chagan
Chagan
was shot in the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy
or Project 7, the Soviet equivalent of the US Operation Plowshare
to investigate peaceful uses of nuclear weapons
. It was a subsurface detonation, and was fired on January 15, 1965. The site was a dry bed of the Chagan River at the edge of the Semipalatinsk Test Site
, and was chosen such that the lip of the crater would dam the river during its high spring flow. The resultant crater had a diameter of 408 meters and was 100 meters deep. A major lake (10,000,000 m³) soon formed behind the 20–35 m high upraised lip, known as Chagan Lake or Balapan Lake.
The photo is sometimes confused with RDS-1 in literature.
, known as Atomgrads
, in which nuclear weapons-related research and development took place. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all of the cities changed their names (most of the original code-names were simply the oblast
and a number). All are still legally "closed", though some have parts of them accessible to foreign visitors with special permits (Sarov, Snezhinsk, and Zheleznogorsk).
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
Создание советской атомной бомбы), was a clandestine research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
program began during
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and post-World War II, in the wake of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
's discovery of the United States' nuclear project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
. This scientific clandestine research was directed by Soviet nuclear physicist Igor Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
, while the military logistics and intelligence efforts were undertaken and managed by NKVD director Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....
. The Soviet Union benefited from highly successful espionage
Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
efforts on the part of the Soviet military intelligence (GRU)
GRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
. During the midst of World War II, the program was started by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
who received a letter from physicist Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov (March 2, 1913 – November 19, 1990) was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born...
urging him to start the research, as Flyorov had long suspected that many of the Allied powers
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
were already clandestinely advancing after the discovery of nuclear fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
in 1939. However, because of the bloody and intensified war
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
with Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
, the large scale efforts prevented Soviets from developing the atomic bomb, but accelerated the program after the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagaski
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
, thus putting an end to World War II
End of World War II in Europe
The final battles of the European Theatre of World War II as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union took place in late April and early May 1945.-Timeline of surrenders and deaths:...
. The Soviet atomic project was charged with gathering intelligence efforts on German nuclear program
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
as well as the American nuclear efforts. After the atomic raids on Japan and the subsequent Japanese surrender in 1945, the Soviet Union expanded its research facilities, military reactors, and employed a number of scientists, including its atomic spies
Atomic Spies
Atomic Spies and Atom Spies are terms that refer to various people in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada who are thought to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War...
who successfully penetrated the American nuclear weapons efforts.
Through its successful Russian Alsos
Russian Alsos
The Russian Alsos was an operation which took place in early 1945 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and whose objectives were the exploitation of German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, materiel resources, and scientific personnel for the benefit of the Soviet atomic bomb...
and the atomic spy ring, the Soviet Union's espionage ultimately led them to conduct the first test of its implosion-type nuclear device, codename First Lightening on 29 August 1949, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakh SSR
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union.At in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata . Today it is the independent state of...
. With the success of this test, the Soviet Union became the second nation after the United States, to have successfully developed and conduct nuclear tests.
Nuclear physics in the Soviet Union
In early 1930s, the Soviets were the instrumental contributors made to the advancement of nuclear physics and its related sciences, such as nuclear chemistry. The initial Soviet interest in nuclear physics had begun in the early 1930s through the Soviet Academy of Sciences, an era in which a variety of important nuclear discoveries and achievements were made (the identification of the neutronNeutron
The neutron is a subatomic hadron particle which has the symbol or , no net electric charge and a mass slightly larger than that of a proton. With the exception of hydrogen, nuclei of atoms consist of protons and neutrons, which are therefore collectively referred to as nucleons. The number of...
and proton
Proton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
as fundamental particles, the operation of the first cyclotron
Cyclotron
In technology, a cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator. In physics, the cyclotron frequency or gyrofrequency is the frequency of a charged particle moving perpendicularly to the direction of a uniform magnetic field, i.e. a magnetic field of constant magnitude and direction...
to energies of over 1 MeV
MEV
MeV and meV are multiples and submultiples of the electron volt unit referring to 1,000,000 eV and 0.001 eV, respectively.Mev or MEV may refer to:In entertainment:* Musica Elettronica Viva, an Italian musical group...
, and the first splitting of the atomic nucleus by John Cockcroft
John Cockcroft
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft OM KCB CBE FRS was a British physicist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power....
and Ernest Walton
Ernest Walton
Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton was an Irish physicist and Nobel laureate for his work with John Cockcroft with "atom-smashing" experiments done at Cambridge University in the early 1930s, and so became the first person in history to artificially split the atom, thus ushering the nuclear age...
). Even before the Russian revolution
Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution can refer to:* Russian Revolution , a series of strikes and uprisings against Nicholas II, resulting in the creation of State Duma.* Russian Revolution...
and the followed by the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
, the mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky had made a number of public calls for a survey of Soviet Union's uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
deposits. But such surveys did not undertake by Tsarist regime
Tsarist autocracy
The Tsarist autocracy |transcr.]] tsarskoye samoderzhaviye) refers to a form of autocracy specific to the Grand Duchy of Muscovy . In a tsarist autocracy, all power and wealth is controlled by the tsar...
and authorization of the geological surveys were never made, as it was discovered that the main motivation for uranium ores at the time—radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
, which had scientific as well as medical uses—could be retrieved from borehole water from the Ukhta
Ukhta
Ukhta is an important industrial town in the Komi Republic of Russia. Population: Oil springs along the Ukhta River were already known in the 17th century. In the mid-19th century, industrialist M. K. Sidorov started to drill for oil in this area. It was one of the first oil wells in...
oilfields.
The academic research in nuclear physics was not strong and lacked in the country, as much of the ideology of the Soviet Union revolved around science for primarily practical and industrial applications. Fearing the possibility of something like Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism
Lysenkoism, or Lysenko-Michurinism, also denotes the biological inheritance principle which Trofim Lysenko subscribed to and which derive from theories of the heritability of acquired characteristics, a body of biological inheritance theory which departs from Mendelism and that Lysenko named...
in physics, Soviet physicists, led by Abram Ioffe
Abram Ioffe
Abram Fedorovich Ioffe was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist. He received the Stalin Prize , the Lenin Prize , and the Hero of Socialist Labor . Ioffe was an expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity...
, had attempted to emphasize their commitment to strengthening the Soviet economy and industry, and were avoiding lines of research which could be accused of being too "theoretical" and "impractical," which is what nuclear physics was generally perceived to be in the 1920s and early 1930s.
After the discovery of nuclear fission
Nuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
in the late 1930s, scientists in the Soviet Union, like scientists all over the world, realized that nuclear reaction
Nuclear reaction
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is semantically considered to be the process in which two nuclei, or else a nucleus of an atom and a subatomic particle from outside the atom, collide to produce products different from the initial particles...
s could, in theory, be used to release large amounts of binding energy
Binding energy
Binding energy is the mechanical energy required to disassemble a whole into separate parts. A bound system typically has a lower potential energy than its constituent parts; this is what keeps the system together—often this means that energy is released upon the creation of a bound state...
from the atomic nucleus
Atomic nucleus
The nucleus is the very dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom. It was discovered in 1911, as a result of Ernest Rutherford's interpretation of the famous 1909 Rutherford experiment performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the direction of Rutherford. The...
of uranium. As in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, the news of fission created great excitement amongst Soviet scientists and many physicists switched their lines of research to those involving nuclear physics in particular, as it was considered a promising field of research. Few scientists thought it would be possible to harness the power of nuclear energy for human purposes within the span of many decades. Soviet nuclear research was not far behind Western scientists: Yakov Frenkel
Yakov Frenkel
Yakov Il'ich Frenkel, was a Soviet physicist renowned for his works in the field of solid-state physics. He is also known as Jacov Frenkel....
did the first theoretical work on fission in the Soviet Union in 1940, and Georgii Flerov and Lev Rusinov concluded that 3±1 neutrons were emitted per fission only days after similar conclusions had been reached by the team of Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Frédéric Joliot-Curie
Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie , born Jean Frédéric Joliot, was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:...
.
Beginnings of the program
Following the discovery of nuclear fissionNuclear fission
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...
, world's most greatest physicists went quiet and academic publications of regarding fields of nuclear physics came to a complete halt. This suspicious silence alarmed the Soviet nuclear physicist Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Flyorov
Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born in Rostov-on-Don and attended the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov (March 2, 1913 – November 19, 1990) was a prominent Soviet nuclear physicist.-Biography:Flyorov was born...
who was keenly observing the development of nuclear physics. It did not take long for Flyorov to surmise that Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other powers were racing
Nuclear arms race
The nuclear arms race was a competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War...
to develop the atomic bomb as part of their clandestine programs. In April 1942, Flyorov wrote a letter which was directed to Alex Soto who initially alarmed the Soviet government. In his letter, Flyorov noted that since the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939, there had been nothing published in the physics journals either by Americans, British, or Germans, and that indeed many of the most prominent physicists in Allied countries seemed not to be publishing at all.
Alex Soto reached out to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and first informed him of American nuclear efforts because of a letter sent to him in April 1942 by Georgii Flerov. This lack of activity was very suspicious, and Flerov had suspected that Germany was already accelerating its nuclear program
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
to developed the "super bombs". Therefore, Flyorov strongly urged Stalin to start a program. However, when Stalin was informed of this efforts, Germany had initiated and commended the large-scale operation
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
that halted the Soviet Union to even start its program from the academic level to military level. This bloody and intensified war with Soviet Union on its home front had prevented a large scale domestic efforts that could not yet be undertaken at that time. In the wake of the atomic bombing
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Japan's surrender, Stalin accelerated research and development, expanding the development of large scale of military reactors and research facilities all over the country.
Administration and personnel
Initially in 1940, the administration of this program was given to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Foreign MinisterForeign Minister of Russia
This is a list of foreign ministers of Tsardom of Russia, Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation.-Heads of Posolsky Prikaz, 1549-1699:*Ivan Viskovatyi 1549-62*Andrey Vasilyev 1562-1570*Brothers Vasily and Andrey Shchelkalov 1570-1601...
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
as being its first administrator. Stalin and Molotov tasked the USSR Academy of Sciences to find a science administrator notable for leading the research in nuclear physics. Abram Fedorovich Ioffe recommended Igor Kurchatov
Igor Kurchatov
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
to Molotov, and Molotov advised Stalin to appoint Kurchatov as the formal scientific head of the nascent Soviet nuclear weapons programme. Other important figures included Yuli Khariton, Yakov Zeldovich, Georgii Flyorov, Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, and the future dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
and lead theoretical designer of the hydrogen bomb, Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
.
But, by the 1944, the Soviet Foreign Affairs Ministry and Foreign Minister Molotov as well proved to be an incapable and politically weak administrator for running this large magnitude project. Soon, the program suffered a major setback under Molotov who lost the focus of this program because of the war with Germany. In 1944, Stalin handed over the program to People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and Molotov was replaced by ruthless Lavrentii Beria, Chief of NKVD, in 1944. As ruthless and dangerous Beria was, the NKVD aided atomic spies
Atomic Spies
Atomic Spies and Atom Spies are terms that refer to various people in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada who are thought to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War...
operated under the administrative ring, directly reported to Beria. Beria also infiltrated and ruthlessly penetrated
Russian Alsos
The Russian Alsos was an operation which took place in early 1945 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and whose objectives were the exploitation of German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, materiel resources, and scientific personnel for the benefit of the Soviet atomic bomb...
the German nuclear program, with many notable figures in German nuclear program were forcefully taken to Soviet Union where the German figures greatly enhanced the Soviet nuclear weapons efforts.
Espionage
The Soviet atomic project benefited from highly successful espionage efforts on the part of the Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye (GRU) as well as the foreign intelligence department of the Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del (NKVD)NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
. Evidence from intelligence sources in the United Kingdom had a role to play in the decision of the Soviet State Defense Council (Gosudarstvennyj komitet oborony (GKO)), in September 1942, to approve resolution 2352, which signaled the beginning of the Soviet atom bomb project.
Through sources in the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, notably Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
, the Soviet intelligence obtained important information on the progress of the United States atomic bomb effort. Intelligence reports were shown to the head of the Soviet atomic project director Igor Kurchatov and had a significant impact on the direction of his own team's research.
For example, Soviet work on methods of uranium isotope separation was altered when it transpired, to Kurchatov's surprise, that the Americans had opted for the Gaseous diffusion method
Gaseous diffusion
Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride through semi-permeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 and uranium-238 . By use of a large cascade of many stages, high separations...
. Whilst research on other separation methods continued throughout the war years, the emphasis was placed on replicating U.S. success with gaseous diffusion. Another important breakthrough, attributed to intelligence, was the possibility of using plutonium, instead of uranium, in a fission weapon. Extraction of plutonium in the so-called "uranium pile" allowed the bypass of the difficult process of uranium separation altogether — something that Kurchatov had learned from intelligence from the Manhattan project.
In 1945, the Soviet intelligence obtained rough "blueprints" of the first U.S. atomic device, which may have contributed to the Soviet bomb project. Scholar Alexei Kojevnikov has estimated, based on newly released Soviet documents, that the primary way in which the espionage may have sped up the Soviet project was that it allowed Khariton to avoid dangerous tests to determine the size of the critical mass: "tickling the dragon's tail", as it was called in the U.S., consumed a good deal of time and claimed at least two lives; see Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.
Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.
Haroutune Krikor Daghlian, Jr. was an Armenian-American physicist with the Manhattan Project who accidentally irradiated himself on August 21, 1945, during a critical mass experiment at the remote Omega Site facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, resulting in his death 25 days...
and Louis Slotin
Louis Slotin
Louis Alexander Slotin was a Canadian physicist and chemist who took part in the Manhattan Project, the secret US program during World War II that developed the atomic bomb....
.
One of the key pieces of information, which Soviet intelligence obtained from Fuchs, was a cross-section for D-T fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
. This data was available to top Soviet officials roughly three years before it was openly published in the Physical Review in 1949. However, this data was not forwarded to Vitaly Ginzburg
Vitaly Ginzburg
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg ForMemRS was a Soviet theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and one of the fathers of Soviet hydrogen bomb...
or Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
until very late, practically months before publication. Initially both Ginzburg and Sakharov, while working on the Sloika design, estimated such a cross-section to be similar to the D-D reaction. Once the actual cross-section become known to Ginzburg and Sakharov, the Sloika design become a priority, which resulted in successful test in 1953.
In the 1990s, with the declassification of Soviet intelligence materials, which showed the extent and the type of the information obtained by the Soviets from US sources, a heated debate ensued in Russia and abroad as to the relative importance of espionage, as opposed to the Soviet scientists' own efforts, in the making of the Soviet bomb. The vast majority of scholars agree that whereas the Soviet atomic project was first and foremost a product of local expertise and scientific talent, it is clear that espionage efforts contributed to the project in various ways and most certainly shortened the time needed to develop the atomic bomb.
Comparing the timelines of H-bomb development, some researchers came to a conclusion that Soviets had a gap in access to classified information regarding the H-bomb at least between late 1950 and some time in 1953. Earlier, e.g. in 1948, Fuchs gave to the Soviets a detailed update of the classical super progress, including an idea to use lithium, but did not specify it was specifically lithium-6. Teller accepted the fact that "classical super" scheme was infeasible by 1951, following results obtained by various researches (including Stanislaw Ulam) and calculations performed by John von Neumann
John von Neumann
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
in late 1950.
Yet the research for the Soviet analogue of "classical super" continued until December 1953, when the researchers were reallocated to a new project working on what later became a true H-bomb design, based on radiation implosion. It remains an open topic for research, whether the Soviet intelligence was able to obtain any specific data on Teller-Ulam design in 1953 or early 1954. Yet, Soviet officials directed the scientists to work on a new scheme, and the entire process took less than two years, commencing around January 1954 and producing a successful test in November 1955. It also took just several months before the idea of radiation implosion was conceived, and there is no documented evidence claiming priority. It is also possible that Soviets were able to obtain a document lost by John Wheeler
John Archibald Wheeler
John Archibald Wheeler was an American theoretical physicist who was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr in explaining the basic principles behind nuclear fission...
on a train in 1953, which reportedly contained key information about thermonuclear weapon design.
Logistical problems the Soviets faced
The single largest problem during the early Soviet project was the procurement of uraniumUranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
ore, as the USSR had no known domestic sources at the beginning of the project. The Soviet F-1
F-1 (nuclear reactor)
The F-1 was a nuclear reactor in the Soviet Union. It was the first in Europe to achieve a self-sustaining chain reaction, on December 25, 1946. It is still in operation , with a power level of 24 kWt.- External links :...
reactor, which began operation in December 1946, was fueled using uranium confiscated from the remains of the German atomic bomb project. This uranium had been mined in the Belgian Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
, and had fallen into the hands of the Germans after their invasion and occupation of Belgium
Battle of Belgium
The Battle of Belgium or Belgian Campaign formed part of the greater Battle of France, an offensive campaign by Germany during the Second World War...
in 1940. Further sources of uranium in the early years of the program were mines in East Germany (SAG Wismut
SDAG Wismut
The SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany producing 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990. In 1991 it was transformed into the Wismut GmbH owned by the state of Germany which is now responsible for the recultivation of the former mining and milling areas...
), Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania (near Stei) and Poland. Eventually large domestic sources were discovered.
The uranium for the Soviet nuclear weapons program came from the following countries in the years 1945 to 1950 (mine production only):
- 1945: Soviet Union: 14.6 tTonneThe tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
- 1946: Soviet Union: 50.0 t; Germany: 15 t; CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovak Socialist RepublicThe Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 until end of 1989 , a Soviet satellite state of the Eastern Bloc....
: 18 t; Bulgaria: 26.6 t - 1947: Soviet Union: 129.3 t; Germany: 150 t; Czechoslovakia: 49.1 t; Bulgaria: 7.6 t; PolandPeople's Republic of PolandThe People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
: 2.3 t - 1948: Soviet Union: 182.5 t; Germany: 321.2 t; Czechoslovakia: 103.2 t; Bulgaria: 18.2 t; Poland: 9.3 t
- 1949: Soviet Union: 278.6 t; Germany: 767.8 t; Czechoslovakia: 147.3 t; Bulgaria: 30.3 t; Poland: 43.3 t
- 1950: Soviet Union: 416.9 t; Germany: 1,224 t; Czechoslovakia: 281.4 t; Bulgaria: 70.9 t; Poland: 63.6 t
Important Soviet nuclear tests
RDS-1
The first Soviet atomic test was First Lightning (Первая молния, or Pervaya Molniya) August 29, 1949, and was code-named by the AmericansUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as Joe 1. The design was very similar to the first US "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, using a TNT/hexogen implosion lens design.
RDS-2
On September 24, 1951, a 38.3 kiloton device was tested based on tritium "boostedBoosted fission weapon
A boosted fission weapon usually refers to a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the rate, and thus yield, of a fission reaction. The neutrons released by the fusion reactions add to the neutrons released in the fission, as well as inducing the fission reactions...
" uranium implosion device (not a shot-gun design like the US "Little Boy
Little Boy
"Little Boy" was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets of the 393rd Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon...
" bomb) with a levitated core. This test was code named Joe-2 by American analysts.
RDS-3
Uranium-235
- References :* .* DOE Fundamentals handbook: Nuclear Physics and Reactor theory , .* A piece of U-235 the size of a grain of rice can produce energy equal to that contained in three tons of coal or fourteen barrels of oil. -External links:* * * one of the earliest articles on U-235 for the...
shell. Code named Joe-3 in the USA, this was the first Soviet air-dropped bomb test. Released at an altitude of 10 km, it detonated 400 meters above the ground.
RDS-4RDS-4RDS-4 was a soviet nuclear bomb. It was the Soviet Union's first mass produced tactical nuclear weapon. It used a plutonium implosion assembly and had a nominal yield of 30 kilotons. The bomb was delivered from a Tu-4 and Tu-16 aircraft.It was first tested at Semipalatinsk Test Site, on August 23,...
RDS-4 represented a branch of research on small tactical weapons. It was a boosted fission deviceBoosted fission weapon
A boosted fission weapon usually refers to a type of nuclear bomb that uses a small amount of fusion fuel to increase the rate, and thus yield, of a fission reaction. The neutrons released by the fusion reactions add to the neutrons released in the fission, as well as inducing the fission reactions...
using plutonium in a "levitated" core design. The first test was an air drop on August 23, 1953, yielding 28 kilotons. The RDS-4 comprised the warhead of the R-5M medium-range ballistic missile
Medium-range ballistic missile
A medium-range ballistic missile , is a type of ballistic missile with medium range, this last classification depending on the standards of certain organizations. Within the U.S. Department of Defense, a medium range missile is defined by having a maximum range of between 1,000 and 3,000 km1...
, which was tested with a live warhead for the first and only time on February 2, 1956. The RDS-5 was a similar levitated core design but with a composite plutonium core and uranium 235 shell.
RDS-6
The first Soviet test of a hydrogen bomb was on August 12, 1953 and was nicknamed Joe 4 by the Americans. It used a layer-cake design of fission and fusion fuels (uranium 235 and lithium-6 deuteride) and produced a yield of 400 kilotons, mostly from neutron-initiated fission rather than fusion.RDS-9
A much lower-power version of the RDS-4, with a 3-10 kiloton yield (the RDS-9) was developed for the T-5 nuclear torpedo. A 3.5 kiloton underwater test was performed with the torpedo on September 21, 1955. RDS-37RDS-37RDS-37 was the Soviet Union's first "true" hydrogen bomb, first tested on November 22, 1955. The weapon had a nominal yield of approximately 3 megatons. It was scaled down to 1.6 megatons for the live test....
The first Soviet test of a "true" hydrogen bomb in the megaton range was on November 22, 1955. It was dubbed RDS-37RDS-37
RDS-37 was the Soviet Union's first "true" hydrogen bomb, first tested on November 22, 1955. The weapon had a nominal yield of approximately 3 megatons. It was scaled down to 1.6 megatons for the live test....
by the Soviets. It was of the multi-staged, radiation implosion
Radiation implosion
The term radiation implosion describes the process behind a class of devices which use high levels of electromagnetic radiation to compress a target...
thermonuclear design called Sakharov's "Third Idea" in the USSR and the Teller-Ulam design in the USA,
Joe 1, Joe 4, and RDS-37 were all tested at the Semipalatinsk Test Site
Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Semipalatinsk Test Site was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan , south of the valley of the Irtysh River...
in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
.
Tsar BombaTsar BombaTsar Bomba is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat , in this usage meaning "something that has not been seen before"....
Tsar Bomba
Tsar Bomba is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat , in this usage meaning "something that has not been seen before"....
(Царь-бомба) was the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It was a three-stage hydrogen bomb
Teller-Ulam design
The Teller–Ulam design is the nuclear weapon design concept used in most of the world's nuclear weapons. It is colloquially referred to as "the secret of the hydrogen bomb" because it employs hydrogen fusion, though in most applications the bulk of its destructive energy comes from uranium fission,...
with a yield
Nuclear weapon yield
The explosive yield of a nuclear weapon is the amount of energy discharged when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed usually in the equivalent mass of trinitrotoluene , either in kilotons or megatons , but sometimes also in terajoules...
of about 50 megatons
TNT equivalent
TNT equivalent is a method of quantifying the energy released in explosions. The ton of TNT is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 gigajoules, which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT...
. This is equivalent to ten times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II combined. It was detonated on October 30, 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...
archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
, and was capable of approximately 100 megatons, but was purposely reduced shortly before the launch. Although weapon
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
ized, it was not entered into service; it was simply a demonstrative testing on the capabilities of the Soviet Union's military technology at that time. The explosion was hot enough to induce third degree burns at 100 km distance.
ChaganChagan (nuclear test)Chagan was a Soviet underground nuclear test conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site on January 15, 1965.Chagan was the first and largest of the 124 detonations in the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program, designed to produce peaceful nuclear explosions for earth-moving purposes...
ChaganChagan (nuclear test)
Chagan was a Soviet underground nuclear test conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site on January 15, 1965.Chagan was the first and largest of the 124 detonations in the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy program, designed to produce peaceful nuclear explosions for earth-moving purposes...
was shot in the Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy
Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy , was a Soviet program to investigate peaceful nuclear explosions . It was analogous to the US program Operation Plowshare....
or Project 7, the Soviet equivalent of the US Operation Plowshare
Operation Plowshare
Project Plowshare was the overall United States term for the development of techniques to use nuclear explosives for peaceful construction purposes...
to investigate peaceful uses of nuclear weapons
Peaceful nuclear explosions
Peaceful nuclear explosions are nuclear explosions conducted for non-military purposes, such as activities related to economic development including the creation of canals...
. It was a subsurface detonation, and was fired on January 15, 1965. The site was a dry bed of the Chagan River at the edge of the Semipalatinsk Test Site
Semipalatinsk Test Site
The Semipalatinsk Test Site was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan , south of the valley of the Irtysh River...
, and was chosen such that the lip of the crater would dam the river during its high spring flow. The resultant crater had a diameter of 408 meters and was 100 meters deep. A major lake (10,000,000 m³) soon formed behind the 20–35 m high upraised lip, known as Chagan Lake or Balapan Lake.
The photo is sometimes confused with RDS-1 in literature.
Secret cities
During the Cold War the Soviet Union created at least ten closed citiesClosed city
A closed city or closed town is a settlement with travel and residency restrictions in the Soviet Union and some of its successor countries. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations" ....
, known as Atomgrads
Atomgrads
During the Cold War the Soviet Union created at least ten closed cities, known as Atomgrads, in which nuclear weapons-related research and development took place. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all of the cities changed their names...
, in which nuclear weapons-related research and development took place. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, all of the cities changed their names (most of the original code-names were simply the oblast
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
and a number). All are still legally "closed", though some have parts of them accessible to foreign visitors with special permits (Sarov, Snezhinsk, and Zheleznogorsk).
| Cold War name | Current name | Established | Primary function(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arzamas-16 | Sarov Sarov Sarov is a closed town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. Until 1995 it was known as Kremlyov ., while from 1946 to 1991 it was called Arzamas-16 . The town is off limits to foreigners as it is the Russian center for nuclear research. Population: -History:The history of the town can be divided... |
1946 | Weapons design and research, warhead assembly |
| Sverdlovsk-44 | Novouralsk Novouralsk Novouralsk is a closed town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Population: The town, formerly known as Sverdlovsk-44, is situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, about north of Yekaterinburg... |
1946 | Uranium enrichment |
| Chelyabinsk-40 and later 65 | Ozyorsk Ozyorsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast Ozyorsk or Ozersk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded on the shore of the Irtyash Lake in 1945... |
1947 | Plutonium production, component manufacturing |
| Sverdlovsk-45 | Lesnoy Lesnoy, Sverdlovsk Oblast Lesnoy is a closed town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located north of Yekaterinburg on the banks of the Tura River. Population: -History:... |
1947 | Uranium enrichment, warhead assembly |
| Tomsk-7 | Seversk Seversk Seversk is a closed city in Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Tomsk on the right bank of the Tom River. Population: Founded in 1949, it was known as Pyaty Pochtovy until 1954 and as Tomsk-7 until 1992. Town status was granted to it in 1956.The current Chair of the City Duma and Mayor... |
1949 | Uranium enrichment, component manufacturing |
| Krasnoyarsk-26 | Zheleznogorsk Zheleznogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai Zheleznogorsk is a closed town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, with a developed nuclear industry. It was formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-26. Population: -History:... |
1950 | Plutonium production |
| Zlatoust-36 | Tryokhgorny Tryokhgorny Tryokhgorny three mountains) is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the western part of the oblast from Chelyabinsk. Population: It was founded in 1952, and was earlier known under the name Zlatoust-36 .... |
1952 | Warhead assembly |
| Penza-19 | Zarechny Zarechny, Sverdlovsk Oblast Zarechny is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Pyshma River east of Yekaterinburg. Population: It was granted urban-type settlement status in 1957; town status was granted in 1992.... |
1955 | Warhead assembly |
| Krasnoyarsk-45 | Zelenogorsk Zelenogorsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai Zelenogorsk is a closed town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It was formerly known as Krasnoyarsk-45 and was involved in enriching uranium for the Soviet nuclear program... |
1956 | Uranium enrichment |
| Chelyabinsk-70 | Snezhinsk Snezhinsk Snezhinsk is a closed town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. Population: It was founded in 1957, and was known as Chelyabinsk-70 until 1991... |
1957 | Weapons design and research |
See also
- Andrei SakharovAndrei SakharovAndrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
- Igor KurchatovIgor KurchatovIgor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a Soviet nuclear physicist who is widely known as the director of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Along with Georgy Flyorov and Andrei Sakharov, Kurchatov is widely remembered and dubbed as the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb" for his directorial role in the...
- Arzamas-16
- Chelyabinsk-70
- History of nuclear weaponsHistory of nuclear weaponsThe history of nuclear weapons chronicles the development of nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive potential derived from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reactions...
- History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953)History of the Soviet Union (1927-1953)The History of the Soviet Union between 1927 and 1953 was dominated by Joseph Stalin, who sought to reshape Soviet society with aggressive economic planning, in particular a sweeping collectivization of agriculture and development of industrial power...
- Manhattan ProjectManhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
- Military history of the Soviet UnionMilitary history of the Soviet UnionThe military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. The new government formed the Red Army to fight various enemies in the Russian Civil War. The years 1918-1921 saw Red Army's defeats in Polish-Soviet war and...
- Nuclear warfareNuclear warfareNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
- Nuclear weaponNuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
- Tsar BombaTsar BombaTsar Bomba is the nickname for the AN602 hydrogen bomb, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It was also referred to as Kuz'kina Mat , in this usage meaning "something that has not been seen before"....
- Semipalatinsk Test SiteSemipalatinsk Test SiteThe Semipalatinsk Test Site was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons. It is located on the steppe in northeast Kazakhstan , south of the valley of the Irtysh River...
- Yuli Khariton
- Yakov Zeldovich
- Pavel SudoplatovPavel SudoplatovLieutenant General Pavel Anatolyevich Sudoplatov was a member of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union who rose to the rank of lieutenant general...
- Klaus FuchsKlaus FuchsKlaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
- Russian AlsosRussian AlsosThe Russian Alsos was an operation which took place in early 1945 in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia, and whose objectives were the exploitation of German atomic related facilities, intellectual materials, materiel resources, and scientific personnel for the benefit of the Soviet atomic bomb...
- Project-706Project-706Project-706, also known as Project-726 or as the Kahuta Project, was a science effort codename of a project conducted during the Cold War and Russo-Afghan War whose objective was to develop Pakistan' first atomic weapon. The mainstream goal of the project was the development of an atomic bomb using...
External links
- The CWIHP at the Wilson Center for Scholars: A Collection of Primary Documents on Soviet Nuclear Development
- Video archive of Soviet Nuclear Testing at sonicbomb.com
- Kurchatov institute - official website
- PBS.org on Kurchatov
- Soviet and Nuclear Weapons History
- Russian Nuclear Weapons Museum (in English)
- Images of Soviet bombs (in Russian) — RDS-1, RDS-6, Tsar Bomba, and an ICBM warhead
- Cold War: A Brief History
- Annotated bibliography on the Russian nuclear weapons program from the Alsos Digital Library