The investigation took place in April-May 1954 in Washington and was called, in the American manner, “hearings.”
Physicists (with capital letters!), but for scientific world In America, the conflict was unprecedented: not a dispute about priority, not a behind-the-scenes struggle scientific schools and not even the traditional confrontation between a forward-looking genius and a crowd of mediocre envious people. The key word in the proceedings was “loyalty.” The accusation of “disloyalty,” which acquired a negative, menacing meaning, entailed punishment: deprivation of access to top-secret work. The action took place at the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Main characters:

Robert Oppenheimer, native New Yorker, pioneer of quantum physics in the USA, scientific director of the Manhattan Project, "father of the atomic bomb", successful scientific manager and refined intellectual, after 1945 national hero America...

“I’m not the simplest person,” he once remarked American physicist Isidore Isaac Rabi. “But compared to Oppenheimer, I am very, very simple.” Robert Oppenheimer was one of the central figures of the twentieth century, whose very “complexity” absorbed the political and ethical contradictions of the country.

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

Atomic weapons are the result of all previous developments of science and technology. Discoveries that are directly related to its occurrence were made in late XIX V. The research of A. Becquerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie, E. Rutherford and others played a huge role in revealing the secrets of the atom.

At the beginning of 1939, the French physicist Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible, which would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy, like ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments to create nuclear weapons.

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

From 1939 to 1945, more than two billion dollars were spent on the Manhattan Project. A huge uranium purification plant was built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) proposed a purification method based on the principle of gas diffusion followed by magnetic separation of the two isotopes. A gas centrifuge separated the light Uranium-235 from the heavier Uranium-238.

On the territory of the United States, in Los Alamos, in the desert expanses of New Mexico, an American nuclear center was created in 1942. Many scientists worked on the project, but the main one was Robert Oppenheimer. Under his leadership, the best minds of that time were gathered not only in the USA and England, but practically throughout Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 laureates Nobel Prize. Work in Los Alamos, where the laboratory was located, did not stop for a minute. In Europe, meanwhile, the Second World War was going on, and Germany carried out massive bombings of English cities, which endangered the English atomic project “Tub Alloys”, and England voluntarily transferred its developments and leading scientists of the project to the United States, which allowed the United States to take a leading position in the development nuclear physics(creation of nuclear weapons).

“The Father of the Atomic Bomb,” he was at the same time an ardent opponent of American nuclear policy. Bearing the title of one of the most outstanding physicists of his time, enjoyed studying the mysticism of ancient Indian books. Communist, traveler and staunch American patriot, very spiritual person, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to protect himself from attacks by anti-communists. The scientist who developed the plan to cause the greatest damage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki cursed himself for the “innocent blood on his hands.”

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

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

In 1928 he worked at the Universities of Zurich and Leiden. The same year he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945, he actively participated in the work on creating an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project; heading the Los Alamos laboratory specially created for this purpose.

In 1929, Oppenheimer, a rising scientific star, accepted offers from two of several universities vying for the right to invite him. He taught the spring semester at the vibrant, young California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and the fall and winter semesters at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became the first professor of quantum mechanics. In fact, the polymath had to adjust for some time, gradually reducing the level of discussion to the capabilities of his students. In 1936, he fell in love with Jean Tatlock, a restless and moody young woman whose passionate idealism found outlet in communist activism. Like many thoughtful people of that time, Oppenheimer studied the ideas of the left movement as one of the possible alternatives, although he did not join the Communist Party that made him younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends. His interest in politics, like his ability to read Sanskrit, was a natural result of his constant pursuit of knowledge. By his own account, he was also deeply alarmed by the explosion of anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and Spain and invested $1,000 a year from his $15,000 annual salary in projects related to the activities of communist groups. After meeting Kitty Harrison, who became his wife in 1940, Oppenheimer broke up with Jean Tatlock and moved away from her circle of left-wing friends.

In 1939, the United States learned that in preparation for global war Hitler's Germany discovered the fission of the atomic nucleus. Oppenheimer and other scientists immediately realized that the German physicists would try to create a controlled chain reaction that could be the key to creating a weapon far more destructive than any that existed at that time. Enlisting the help of the great scientific genius, Albert Einstein, concerned scientists warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the danger in a famous letter. In authorizing funding for projects aimed at creating untested weapons, the president acted in strict secrecy. Ironically, many of the world's leading scientists, forced to flee their homeland, worked together with American scientists in laboratories scattered throughout the country. One part of the university groups explored the possibility of creating a nuclear reactor, others took up the problem of separating uranium isotopes necessary to release energy in a chain reaction. Oppenheimer, who had previously been busy with theoretical problems, was offered to organize a wide range of work only at the beginning of 1942.

The US Army's atomic bomb program was codenamed Project Manhattan and was led by 46-year-old Colonel Leslie R. Groves, a career military officer. Groves, who characterized the scientists working on the atomic bomb as "an expensive bunch of nuts," however, acknowledged that Oppenheimer had a hitherto untapped ability to control his fellow debaters when the atmosphere became tense. The physicist proposed that all scientists be united in one laboratory in a quiet provincial town Los Alamos, New Mexico, an area he knew well. By March 1943, the boarding school for boys had been turned into a strictly guarded secret center, with Oppenheimer becoming its scientific director. By insisting on the free exchange of information between scientists, who were strictly forbidden to leave the center, Oppenheimer created an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which contributed to the amazing success of his work. Without sparing himself, he remained the head of all areas of this complex project, although his personal life suffered greatly from this. But for a mixed group of scientists - among whom there were more than a dozen then or future Nobel laureates and of whom it was a rare individual who lacked a strong personality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and a keen diplomat. Most of them would agree that lion's share credit for the final success of the project belongs to him. By December 30, 1944, Groves, who had by then become a general, could say with confidence that the two billion dollars spent would produce a bomb ready for action by August 1 of the following year. But when Germany admitted defeat in May 1945, many of the researchers working at Los Alamos began to think about using new weapons. After all, Japan would probably have soon capitulated even without atomic bombing. Should the United States become the first country in the world to use such a terrible device? Harry S. Truman, who became president after Roosevelt's death, appointed a committee to study possible consequences use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend resetting atomic bomb without warning to a major Japanese military installation. Oppenheimer's consent was also obtained.
All these worries would, of course, be moot if the bomb had not gone off. The world's first atomic bomb was tested on July 16, 1945, approximately 80 kilometers from the air force base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device being tested, named "Fat Man" for its convex shape, was attached to a steel tower installed in a desert area. At exactly 5:30 a.m., a remote-controlled detonator detonated the bomb. With an echoing roar, a giant purple-green-orange fireball shot into the sky across an area 1.6 kilometers in diameter. The earth shook from the explosion, the tower disappeared. A white column of smoke quickly rose to the sky and began to gradually expand, taking on the terrifying shape of a mushroom at an altitude of about 11 kilometers. The first nuclear explosion shocked scientific and military observers near the test site and turned their heads. But Oppenheimer remembered lines from the Indian epic poem Bhagavad Gita: “I will become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Until the end of his life, satisfaction from scientific success was always mixed with a sense of responsibility for the consequences.
On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach of two American planes from the east (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (since they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima every day). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object slowly descended by parachute and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the Baby bomb.

Three days after "Little Boy" was blown up in Hiroshima, exact copy The first "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. On August 15, Japan, whose resolve was finally broken by these new weapons, signed unconditional surrender. However, the voices of skeptics had already begun to be heard, and Oppenheimer himself predicted two months after Hiroshima that “mankind will curse the names Los Alamos and Hiroshima.”

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

Nevertheless, the following year he accepted an appointment as chairman of the scientific council of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), thereby becoming the most influential adviser to the government and military on nuclear issues. While the West and the Stalin-led Soviet Union prepared in earnest for the Cold War, each side focused its attention on the arms race. Although many of the Manhattan Project scientists did not support the idea of ​​creating a new weapon, former Oppenheimer collaborators Edward Teller and Ernest Lawrence believed that US national security required the rapid development of the hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer was horrified. From his point of view, the two nuclear powers were already confronting each other, like “two scorpions in a jar, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” With the proliferation of new weapons, wars would no longer have winners and losers - only victims. And the “father of the atomic bomb” made a public statement that he was against the development of the hydrogen bomb. Always feeling out of place under Oppenheimer and clearly envious of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to lead new project, implying that Oppenheimer should no longer be involved in the work. He told FBI investigators that his rival was using his authority to keep scientists from working on the hydrogen bomb, and revealed the secret that Oppenheimer suffered from bouts of severe depression in his youth. When President Truman agreed to fund the hydrogen bomb in 1950, Teller could celebrate victory.

In 1954, Oppenheimer's enemies launched a campaign to remove him from power, which they succeeded after a month-long search for "black spots" in his personal biography. As a result, a show case was organized in which many influential political and scientific figures spoke out against Oppenheimer. As Albert Einstein later put it: “Oppenheimer’s problem was that he loved a woman who didn’t love him: the US government.”

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

Oppenheimer is known not only as the creator of the American atomic bomb. He is the author of many works on quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, and theoretical astrophysics. In 1927 he developed the theory of interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, he and P. Ehrenfest formulated a theorem, the application of which to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen. Investigated the internal conversion of g-rays. In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he made the first calculation of a neutron star model, and in 1939 he predicted the existence of “black holes”.

Oppenheimer owns a number of popular books, including Science and the Common Understanding (1954), The Open Mind (1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960) . Oppenheimer died in Princeton on February 18, 1967.

Work on nuclear projects in the USSR and the USA began simultaneously. In August 1942, the secret “Laboratory No. 2” began working in one of the buildings in the courtyard of Kazan University. Igor Kurchatov was appointed its leader.

In Soviet times, it was argued that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the “father” of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main characters then, Yuli Khariton, spoke about the significant role of intelligence in accelerating the lagging behind. Soviet project. And American scientific and technical results were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.

Information from abroad helped the country's leadership to accept difficult decision- to begin work on nuclear weapons during a difficult war. The reconnaissance allowed our physicists to save time and helped to avoid a “misfire” during the first atomic test, which had enormous political significance.

In 1939, a chain reaction of fission of uranium-235 nuclei was discovered, accompanied by the release of colossal energy. Soon after, from the pages scientific journals Articles on nuclear physics began to disappear. This could indicate the real prospect of creating an atomic explosive and weapons based on it.

After the discovery by Soviet physicists of the spontaneous fission of uranium-235 nuclei and the determination of the critical mass, a corresponding directive was sent to the residency on the initiative of the head of the scientific and technological revolution L. Kvasnikov.

In the Russian FSB (formerly the KGB of the USSR), 17 volumes of archival file No. 13676, which document who and how recruited US citizens to work for Soviet intelligence, are buried under the heading “keep forever.” Only a few of the top leadership of the USSR KGB had access to the materials of this case, the secrecy of which was only recently lifted. Soviet intelligence received the first information about the work on creating an American atomic bomb in the fall of 1941. And already in March 1942, extensive information about the research ongoing in the USA and England fell on I.V. Stalin’s desk. According to Yu. B. Khariton, in that dramatic period it was safer to use the bomb design already tested by the Americans for our first explosion. “Taking into account state interests, any other solution was then unacceptable. The merit of Fuchs and our other assistants abroad is undoubted. However, we implemented the American scheme during the first test not so much for technical, but for political reasons.

The message that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons caused the US ruling circles to want to start a preventive war as quickly as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which envisaged the start of hostilities on January 1, 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers in combat units, 1,350 in reserve, and over 300 atomic bombs.

It was built in the area of ​​Semipalatinsk test site. At exactly 7:00 a.m. on August 29, 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device, codenamed RDS-1, was detonated at this test site.

The Troyan plan, according to which atomic bombs were to be dropped on 70 cities of the USSR, was thwarted due to the threat of a retaliatory strike. The event that took place at the Semipalatinsk test site informed the world about the creation of nuclear weapons in the USSR.

Foreign intelligence not only attracted the attention of the country's leadership to the problem of creating atomic weapons in the West and thereby initiated similar work in our country. Thanks to foreign intelligence information, as recognized by academicians A. Aleksandrov, Yu. Khariton and others, I. Kurchatov did not big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in the creation of atomic weapons and create more short time an atomic bomb in the USSR in just three years, while the United States spent four years on it, spending five billion dollars on its creation.
As he noted in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on December 8, 1992, the first Soviet atomic charge was manufactured according to the American model with the help of information received from K. Fuchs. According to the academician, when government awards were presented to participants in the Soviet atomic project, Stalin, satisfied that there was no American monopoly in this area, remarked: “If we had been one to a year and a half late, we would probably have tried this charge on ourselves.” ".

Under what conditions and with what efforts did the country, which survived the most terrible war of the twentieth century, create its atomic shield?
Almost seven decades ago, on October 29, 1949, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued four top-secret decrees awarding 845 people the titles of Heroes of Socialist Labor, the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor and the Badge of Honor. In none of them was it said in relation to any of the recipients what exactly he was awarded for: the standard wording “for exceptional services to the state while performing a special task” appeared everywhere. Even for the Soviet Union, accustomed to secrecy, this was a rare occurrence. Meanwhile, the recipients themselves knew very well, of course, what kind of “exceptional merits” were meant. All 845 people were, to a greater or lesser extent, directly connected with the creation of the first nuclear bomb of the USSR.

It was not strange for the awardees that both the project itself and its success were shrouded in a thick veil of secrecy. After all, they all knew well that they owe their success to a large extent to courage and professionalism Soviet intelligence officers, which for eight years supplied scientists and engineers with top-secret information from abroad. And so high mark, which the creators of the Soviet atomic bomb deserved, was not exaggerated. As one of the creators of the bomb, academician Yuli Khariton, recalled, at the presentation ceremony Stalin suddenly said: “If we had been one to a year and a half late, we would probably have tried this charge on ourselves.” And this is not an exaggeration...

Atomic bomb sample... 1940

The Soviet Union came to the idea of ​​creating a bomb that uses the energy of a nuclear chain reaction almost simultaneously with Germany and the United States. The first officially considered project of this type of weapon was presented in 1940 by a group of scientists from the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology under the leadership of Friedrich Lange. It was in this project that for the first time in the USSR, a scheme for detonating conventional explosives, which later became classic for all nuclear weapons, was proposed, due to which two subcritical masses of uranium are almost instantly formed into a supercritical one.

The project received negative reviews and was not considered further. But the work on which it was based continued, and not only in Kharkov. At least four large institutes were involved in atomic issues in the pre-war USSR - in Leningrad, Kharkov and Moscow, and the work was supervised by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Vyacheslav Molotov. Soon after the presentation of Lange's project, in January 1941, the Soviet government made a logical decision to classify domestic atomic research. It was clear that they could really lead to the creation of a new type of powerful technology, and such information should not be scattered, especially since it was at that time that the first intelligence data on the American atomic project was received - and Moscow did not want to risk its own.

The natural course of events was interrupted by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. But, despite the fact that all Soviet industry and science were very quickly transferred to a military footing and began to provide the army with the most urgent developments and inventions, strength and means were also found to continue the atomic project. Although not right away. The resumption of research must be counted from the resolution State Committee Defense of February 11, 1943, which stipulated the beginning of practical work on the creation of an atomic bomb.

Project "Enormoz"

By this time, Soviet foreign intelligence was already working hard to obtain information on the Enormoz project - this is how the American atomic project was called in operational documents. The first meaningful data indicating that the West was seriously engaged in the creation of uranium weapons came from the London station in September 1941. And at the end of the same year, a message comes from the same source that America and Great Britain agreed to coordinate the efforts of their scientists in the field of atomic energy research. In war conditions, this could only be interpreted in one way: the allies were working on creating atomic weapons. And in February 1942, intelligence received documentary evidence that Germany was actively doing the same thing.

As the efforts of Soviet scientists, working according to their own plans, advanced, intelligence work intensified to obtain information about the American and British atomic projects. In December 1942, it became finally clear that the United States was clearly ahead of Britain in this area, and the main efforts were focused on obtaining data from overseas. In fact, every step of the participants in the “Manhattan Project,” as the work on creating the atomic bomb in the United States was called, was tightly controlled by Soviet intelligence. Suffice it to say that detailed information the construction of the first real atomic bomb was received in Moscow less than two weeks after it was assembled in America.

That is why the boastful message of the new US President Harry Truman, who decided to stun Stalin at the Potsdam Conference with a statement that America had a new weapon of unprecedented destructive power, did not cause the reaction that the American was counting on. The Soviet leader listened calmly, nodded, and said nothing. Foreigners were sure that Stalin simply did not understand anything. In fact, the leader of the USSR sensibly appreciated Truman’s words and that same day in the evening demanded that Soviet specialists speed up work on creating their own atomic bomb as much as possible. But it was no longer possible to overtake America. Less than a month later, the first atomic mushroom grew over Hiroshima, and three days later - over Nagasaki. And over the Soviet Union hung the shadow of a new, nuclear war, and not with anyone, but with former allies.

Time forward!

Now, seventy years later, no one is surprised that the Soviet Union received the much-needed reserve of time to create its own superbomb, despite sharply deteriorating relations with ex-partners in the anti-Hitler coalition. After all, already on March 5, 1946, six months after the first atomic bombings, Winston Churchill’s famous Fulton speech was made, which marked the beginning of the Cold War. But, according to the plans of Washington and its allies, it was supposed to develop into a hot one later - at the end of 1949. After all, as it was hoped overseas, the USSR was not supposed to receive its own atomic weapons before the mid-1950s, which means there was nowhere to rush.

Atomic bomb tests. Photo: U.S. Air Force/AR

From today's heights, it seems surprising that the date of the start of the new world war - or rather, one of the dates of one of the main plans, Fleetwood - and the date of testing the first Soviet nuclear bomb: 1949. But in reality everything is natural. The foreign policy situation was heating up quickly, the former allies were speaking more and more harshly to each other. And in 1948, it became absolutely clear that Moscow and Washington, apparently, would no longer be able to come to an agreement with each other. Hence the need to count down the time before the start of a new war: a year is the deadline during which countries that have recently emerged from a colossal war can fully prepare for a new one, moreover, with a state that bore the brunt of the Victory on its shoulders. Even the nuclear monopoly did not give the United States the opportunity to shorten the preparation for war.

Foreign “accents” of the Soviet atomic bomb

We all understood this perfectly well. Since 1945, all work related to the atomic project has sharply intensified. During the first two post-war years, the USSR, tormented by the war and having lost a considerable part of its industrial potential, managed to create a colossal nuclear industry from scratch. Future nuclear centers emerged, such as Chelyabinsk-40, Arzamas-16, Obninsk, and large scientific institutes and production facilities emerged.

Not so long ago, a common point of view on the Soviet atomic project was this: they say, if not for intelligence, USSR scientists would not have been able to create any atomic bomb. In reality, everything was far from being as clear as the revisionists of Russian history tried to show. In fact, the data obtained by Soviet intelligence about the American atomic project allowed our scientists to avoid many mistakes that their American colleagues who had gone ahead inevitably had to make (whom, let us recall, the war did not seriously interfere with their work: the enemy did not invade US territory, and the country did not lose a few months half of the industry). In addition, intelligence data undoubtedly helped Soviet specialists evaluate the most advantageous designs and technical solutions that made it possible to assemble their own, more advanced atomic bomb.

And if we talk about the degree of foreign influence on the Soviet nuclear project, then, rather, we need to remember the several hundred German nuclear specialists who worked on two secret objects near Sukhumi - in the prototype of the future Sukhumi Institute of Physics and Technology. They really helped greatly to advance work on the “product” - the first atomic bomb of the USSR, so much so that many of them were awarded Soviet orders by the same secret decrees of October 29, 1949. Most of these specialists went back to Germany five years later, settling mostly in the GDR (although there were also some who went to the West).

Objectively speaking, the first Soviet atomic bomb had, so to speak, more than one “accent.” After all, it was born as a result of a colossal cooperation of efforts of many people - both those who worked on the project of their own free will, and those who were involved in the work as prisoners of war or interned specialists. But the country, which at all costs needed to quickly obtain weapons that would equalize its chances with the ex-allies who were rapidly turning into mortal enemies, had no time for sentimentality.

Russia does it itself!

In the documents relating to the creation of the first nuclear bomb of the USSR, the term “product”, which later became popular, had not yet been encountered. Much more often it was officially called a “special jet engine,” or RDS for short. Although, of course, there was nothing reactive in the work on this design: the whole point was only in the strictest requirements of secrecy.

With the light hand of Academician Yuli Khariton, the unofficial decoding “Russia does it itself” very quickly became attached to the abbreviation RDS. There was a considerable amount of irony in this, since everyone knew how much the information obtained by intelligence had given our nuclear scientists, but also a large share of truth. After all, if the design of the first Soviet nuclear bomb was very similar to the American one (simply because the most optimal one was chosen, and the laws of physics and mathematics do not have national characteristics), then, say, the ballistic body and electronic filling of the first bomb were a purely domestic development.

When work on the Soviet atomic project had progressed far enough, the USSR leadership formulated tactical and technical requirements for the first atomic bombs. It was decided to simultaneously develop two types: an implosion-type plutonium bomb and a cannon-type uranium bomb, similar to that used by the Americans. The first received the RDS-1 index, the second, respectively, RDS-2.

According to the plan, RDS-1 was to be submitted for state tests by explosion in January 1948. But these deadlines could not be met: problems arose with the production and processing of the required amount of weapons-grade plutonium for its equipment. It was received only a year and a half later, in August 1949, and immediately went to Arzamas-16, where the almost finished first Soviet atomic bomb was waiting. Within a few days, specialists from the future VNIIEF completed the assembly of the “product”, and it went to the Semipalatinsk test site for testing.

The first rivet of Russia's nuclear shield

The first nuclear bomb of the USSR was detonated at seven o'clock in the morning on August 29, 1949. Almost a month passed before overseas people recovered from the shock caused by intelligence reports about the successful testing of our own “big stick” in our country. Only on September 23, Harry Truman, who had not so long ago boastfully informed Stalin about America’s successes in creating atomic weapons, made a statement that the same type of weapons was now available in the USSR.

Presentation of a multimedia installation in honor of the 65th anniversary of the creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb. Photo: Geodakyan Artem / TASS

Oddly enough, Moscow was in no hurry to confirm the Americans’ statements. On the contrary, TASS actually came out with a refutation of the American statement, arguing that the whole point is in the colossal scale of construction in the USSR, in which blasting operations with the use of latest technologies. True, at the end of the Tassov statement there was a more than transparent hint about possessing its own nuclear weapons. The agency reminded everyone interested that back on November 6, 1947, USSR Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov stated that no secret of the atomic bomb had existed for a long time.

And this was twice true. By 1947, no information about atomic weapons was any longer a secret for the USSR, and by the end of the summer of 1949, it was no longer a secret to anyone that the Soviet Union had restored strategic parity with its main rival, the United States. A parity that has persisted for six decades. Parity, which helps to maintain nuclear shield Russia and which began on the eve of the Great Patriotic War.

After the end of World War II, the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition rapidly tried to get ahead of each other in the development of a more powerful nuclear bomb.

The first test, carried out by the Americans on real objects in Japan, heated the situation between the USSR and the USA to the limit. Powerful explosions that thundered through Japanese cities and practically destroyed all life in them forced Stalin to abandon many claims on the world stage. Most Soviet physicists were urgently “thrown” into the development of nuclear weapons.

When and how did nuclear weapons appear?

The year 1896 can be considered the year of birth of the atomic bomb. It was then that the French chemist A. Becquerel discovered that uranium is radioactive. The chain reaction of uranium creates powerful energy, which serves as the basis for a terrible explosion. It is unlikely that Becquerel imagined that his discovery would lead to the creation of nuclear weapons - the very terrible weapon worldwide.

The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century was a turning point in the history of the invention of nuclear weapons. It was during this time period that scientists various countries world were able to discover the following laws, rays and elements:

• Alpha, gamma and beta rays;
• Many isotopes of chemical elements with radioactive properties were discovered;
• The law was discovered radioactive decay, which determines the time and quantitative dependence of the intensity of radioactive decay, depending on the number of radioactive atoms in the test sample;
• Nuclear isometry was born.

In the 1930s, they were able to split the atomic nucleus of uranium for the first time by absorbing neutrons. At the same time, positrons and neurons were discovered. All this gave a powerful impetus to the development of weapons that used atomic energy. In 1939, the world's first atomic bomb design was patented. This was done by a physicist from France, Frederic Joliot-Curie.

As a result of further research and development in this area, a nuclear bomb was born. The power and range of destruction of modern atomic bombs is so great that a country that has nuclear potential practically does not need a powerful army, since one atomic bomb can destroy an entire state.

How does an atomic bomb work?

An atomic bomb consists of many elements, the main ones being:

• Atomic bomb body;
• Automation system that controls the explosion process;
• Nuclear charge or warhead.

The automation system is located in the body of the atomic bomb, along with the nuclear charge. The housing design must be reliable enough to protect the warhead from various external factors and impacts. For example, various mechanical, temperature or similar influences, which can lead to an unplanned explosion of enormous power that can destroy everything around.

The task of automation is full control over ensuring that the explosion occurs at the right time, so the system consists of the following elements:

• A device responsible for emergency detonation;
• Automation system power supply;
• Detonation sensor system;
• Cocking device;
• Safety device.

When the first tests were carried out, nuclear bombs were delivered on airplanes that managed to leave the affected area. Modern atomic bombs are so powerful that they can only be delivered using cruise, ballistic or at least anti-aircraft missiles.

Atomic bombs use various detonation systems. The simplest of them is a conventional device that is triggered when a projectile hits a target.

One of the main characteristics of nuclear bombs and missiles is their division into calibers, which are of three types:

• Small, the power of atomic bombs of this caliber is equivalent to several thousand tons of TNT;
• Medium (explosion power – several tens of thousands of tons of TNT);
• Large, the charge power of which is measured in millions of tons of TNT.

It is interesting that most often the power of all nuclear bombs is measured precisely in TNT equivalent, since atomic weapons do not have their own scale for measuring the power of the explosion.

Algorithms for the operation of nuclear bombs

Any atomic bomb operates on the principle of using nuclear energy, which is released during a nuclear reaction. This procedure is based on either the division of heavy nuclei or the synthesis of light ones. Since during this reaction a huge amount of energy is released, and in the shortest possible time, the radius of destruction of a nuclear bomb is very impressive. Because of this feature, nuclear weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction.

During the process that is triggered by the explosion of an atomic bomb, there are two main points:

• This is the immediate center of the explosion, where the nuclear reaction takes place;
• The epicenter of the explosion, which is located at the site where the bomb exploded.

The nuclear energy released during the explosion of an atomic bomb is so strong that seismic tremors begin on the earth. At the same time, these tremors cause direct destruction only at a distance of several hundred meters (although if you take into account the force of the explosion of the bomb itself, these tremors no longer affect anything).

Factors of damage during a nuclear explosion

The explosion of a nuclear bomb does not only cause terrible instant destruction. The consequences of this explosion will be felt not only by people caught in the affected area, but also by their children born after the atomic explosion. Types of destruction by atomic weapons are divided into the following groups:

• Light radiation that occurs directly during an explosion;
• The shock wave propagated by the bomb immediately after the explosion;
• Electromagnetic pulse;
• Penetrating radiation;
• Radioactive contamination that can last for decades.

Although at first glance a flash of light appears to be the least threatening, it is actually the result of the release of enormous amounts of heat and light energy. Its power and strength far exceeds the power of the sun's rays, so damage from light and heat can be fatal at a distance of several kilometers.

The radiation released during an explosion is also very dangerous. Although it does not act for long, it manages to infect everything around, since its penetrating power is incredibly high.

The shock wave during an atomic explosion acts similarly to the same wave during conventional explosions, only its power and radius of destruction are much greater. In a few seconds, it causes irreparable damage not only to people, but also to equipment, buildings and the surrounding environment.

Penetrating radiation provokes the development of radiation sickness, and the electromagnetic pulse poses a danger only to equipment. The combination of all these factors, plus the power of the explosion, makes the atomic bomb the most dangerous weapon in the world.

The world's first nuclear weapons tests

The first country to develop and test nuclear weapons was the United States of America. It was the US government that allocated huge financial subsidies for the development of new promising weapons. By the end of 1941, many outstanding scientists in the field of atomic development were invited to the United States, who by 1945 were able to present a prototype atomic bomb suitable for testing.

The world's first tests of an atomic bomb equipped with an explosive device were carried out in the desert in New Mexico. The bomb, called "Gadget", was detonated on July 16, 1945. The test result was positive, although the military demanded that the nuclear bomb be tested in real combat conditions.

Seeing that there was only one step left before the victory of the Hitlerite coalition, and such an opportunity might not arise again, the Pentagon decided to strike nuclear attack according to the last ally of Nazi Germany - Japan. In addition, the use of a nuclear bomb was supposed to solve several problems at once:

• To avoid the unnecessary bloodshed that would inevitably occur if US troops set foot on Imperial Japanese soil;
• With one blow, bring the unyielding Japanese to their knees, forcing them to accept terms favorable to the United States;
• Show the USSR (as a possible rival in the future) that the US Army has a unique weapon capable of wiping out any city from the face of the earth;
• And, of course, to see in practice what nuclear weapons are capable of in real combat conditions.

On August 6, 1945, the world's first atomic bomb, which was used in military operations, was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bomb was called "Baby" because it weighed 4 tons. The dropping of the bomb was carefully planned, and it hit exactly where it was planned. Those houses that were not destroyed by the blast wave burned down, as stoves that fell in the houses sparked fires, and the entire city was engulfed in flames.

The bright flash was followed by a heat wave that burned all life within a radius of 4 kilometers, and the subsequent shock wave destroyed most of the buildings.

Those who suffered heatstroke within a radius of 800 meters were burned alive. The blast wave tore off the burnt skin of many. A couple of minutes later a strange black rain began to fall, consisting of steam and ash. Those caught in the black rain suffered incurable burns to their skin.

Those few who were lucky enough to survive suffered from radiation sickness, which at that time was not only unstudied, but also completely unknown. People began to develop fever, vomiting, nausea and attacks of weakness.

On August 9, 1945, the second American bomb, called “Fat Man,” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This bomb had approximately the same power as the first, and the consequences of its explosion were just as destructive, although half as many people died.

The two atomic bombs dropped on Japanese cities were the first and only cases in the world of the use of atomic weapons. More than 300,000 people died in the first days after the bombing. About 150 thousand more died from radiation sickness.

After the nuclear bombing of Japanese cities, Stalin received a real shock. It became clear to him that the issue of developing nuclear weapons in Soviet Russia was a matter of security for the entire country. Already on August 20, 1945, a special committee on atomic energy issues began to work, which was urgently created by I. Stalin.

Although research in nuclear physics was carried out by a group of enthusiasts back in Tsarist Russia, V Soviet time she was not given enough attention. In 1938, all research in this area was completely stopped, and many nuclear scientists were repressed as enemies of the people. After nuclear explosions in Japan, the Soviet government abruptly began to restore the nuclear industry in the country.

There is evidence that the development of nuclear weapons was carried out in Nazi Germany, and it was German scientists who modified the “raw” American atomic bomb, so the US government removed from Germany all nuclear specialists and all documents related to the development of nuclear weapons.

The Soviet intelligence school, which during the war was able to bypass all foreign intelligence services, transferred secret documents related to the development of nuclear weapons to the USSR back in 1943. At the same time, Soviet agents were infiltrated into all major American nuclear research centers.

As a result of all these measures, already in 1946, technical specifications for the production of two Soviet-made nuclear bombs were ready:

• RDS-1 (with plutonium charge);
• RDS-2 (with two parts of uranium charge).

The abbreviation “RDS” stood for “Russia does it itself,” which was almost completely true.

The news that the USSR was ready to release its nuclear weapons forced the US government to take drastic measures. In 1949, the Trojan plan was developed, according to which 70 largest cities The USSR planned to drop atomic bombs. Only fears of a retaliatory strike prevented this plan from coming true.

This alarming information coming from Soviet intelligence officers forced scientists to work in emergency mode. Already in August 1949, tests of the first atomic bomb produced in the USSR took place. When the United States learned about these tests, the Trojan plan was postponed indefinitely. The era of confrontation between two superpowers began, known in history as the Cold War.

The most powerful nuclear bomb in the world, known as the Tsar Bomba, belongs specifically to the Cold War period. USSR scientists created the most powerful bomb in the history of mankind. Its power was 60 megatons, although it was planned to create a bomb with a power of 100 kilotons. This bomb was tested in October 1961. The diameter of the fireball during the explosion was 10 kilometers, and the blast wave circled the globe three times. It was this test that forced most countries of the world to sign an agreement to stop nuclear testing not only in the earth’s atmosphere, but even in space.

Although atomic weapons are an excellent means of intimidating aggressive countries, on the other hand they are capable of nipping out any military conflicts in the bud, since an atomic explosion can destroy all parties to the conflict.

Introduction

Interest in the history of the emergence and significance of nuclear weapons for humanity is determined by the significance of a number of factors, among which, perhaps, the first row is occupied by the problems of ensuring the balance of power on the world stage and the relevance of building a system of nuclear deterrence of the military threat to the state. The presence of nuclear weapons always has a certain impact, direct or indirect, on the socio-economic situation and political balance of power in the “countries that own” such weapons. This, among other things, determines the relevance of our chosen research problem. The problem of the development and relevance of the use of nuclear weapons in order to ensure the national security of the state has been quite relevant in domestic science for more than a decade, and this topic has not yet exhausted itself.

Object this study is atomic weapons in the modern world, the subject of research is the history of the creation of the atomic bomb and its technological device. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the problem of atomic weapons is covered from the perspective of a number of areas: nuclear physics, national security, history, foreign policy and intelligence.

The purpose of this work is to study the history of the creation and role of the atomic (nuclear) bomb in ensuring peace and order on our planet.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved:

the concept of “atomic bomb”, “nuclear weapon”, etc. is characterized;

the prerequisites for the emergence of atomic weapons are considered;

The reasons that prompted humanity to create atomic weapons and use them were identified.

the structure and composition of the atomic bomb were analyzed.

The set goals and objectives determined the structure and logic of the study, which consists of an introduction, two sections, a conclusion and a list of sources used.

ATOMIC BOMB: COMPOSITION, COMBAT CHARACTERISTICS AND PURPOSE OF CREATION

Before you begin studying the structure of an atomic bomb, you need to understand the terminology on this problem. So, in scientific circles, there are special terms that reflect the characteristics of atomic weapons. Among them, we especially note the following:

Atomic bomb is the original name of an aircraft nuclear bomb, the action of which is based on an explosive chain nuclear fission reaction. With the advent of the so-called hydrogen bomb, based on thermonuclear reaction fusion, a common term for them was established - a nuclear bomb.

Nuclear bomb- an aircraft bomb with a nuclear charge, has a large destructive force. The first two nuclear bombs with a TNT equivalent of about 20 kt each were dropped American aviation on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, on August 6 and 9, 1945, and called huge sacrifices and destruction. Modern nuclear bombs have a TNT equivalent of tens to millions of tons.

Nuclear or atomic weapons are explosive weapons based on the use of nuclear energy released during a nuclear chain reaction of the fission of heavy nuclei or a thermonuclear fusion reaction of light nuclei.

Refers to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) along with biological and chemical ones.

Nuclear weapons are a set of nuclear weapons, means of delivering them to the target and control means. Refers to weapons of mass destruction; has enormous destructive power. For the above reason, the USA and the USSR invested huge amounts of money in the development of nuclear weapons. Based on the power of charges and range, nuclear weapons are divided into tactical, operational-tactical and strategic. The use of nuclear weapons in war is disastrous for all humanity.

A nuclear explosion is a process of instantaneous release of a large amount of intranuclear energy in a limited volume.

The action of atomic weapons is based on the fission reaction of heavy nuclei (uranium-235, plutonium-239 and, in in some cases, uranium-233).

Uranium-235 is used in nuclear weapons because, unlike the most common isotope uranium-238, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is possible in it.

Plutonium-239 is also called "weapons-grade plutonium" because it is intended for the creation of nuclear weapons and the content of the 239Pu isotope must be at least 93.5%.

To reflect the structure and composition of an atomic bomb, as a prototype we will analyze the plutonium bomb “Fat Man” (Fig. 1) dropped on August 9, 1945 on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

atomic nuclear bomb explosion

Figure 1 - Atomic bomb "Fat Man"

The layout of this bomb (typical of plutonium single-phase munitions) is approximately as follows:

The neutron initiator is a ball with a diameter of about 2 cm made of beryllium, coated with a thin layer of yttrium-polonium alloy or metal polonium-210 - the primary source of neutrons for sharply reducing the critical mass and accelerating the onset of the reaction. It is triggered at the moment the combat core is transferred to a supercritical state (during compression, polonium and beryllium are mixed with the release of a large number of neutrons). Currently, in addition to this type of initiation, thermonuclear initiation (TI) is more common. Thermonuclear initiator (TI). It is located in the center of the charge (similar to NI) where a small amount of thermonuclear material is located, the center of which is heated by a converging shock wave and during the thermonuclear reaction, against the background of the resulting temperatures, a significant number of neutrons are produced, sufficient for the neutron initiation of a chain reaction (Fig. 2).

Plutonium. The purest isotope plutonium-239 is used, although to increase stability physical properties(density) and improve charge compressibility, plutonium is doped with a small amount of gallium.

A shell (usually made of uranium) that serves as a neutron reflector.

Aluminum compression shell. Provides greater uniformity of compression by the shock wave, while at the same time protecting the internal parts of the charge from direct contact with the explosive and the hot products of its decomposition.

Explosive with complex system detonation, ensuring synchronized detonation of all explosives. Synchronicity is necessary to create a strictly spherical compressive (directed inside the ball) shock wave. A non-spherical wave leads to the ejection of ball material through inhomogeneity and the impossibility of creating a critical mass. The creation of such a system for the placement of explosives and detonation was at one time one of the most difficult tasks. A combined scheme (lens system) of “fast” and “slow” explosives is used.

The body is made of stamped duralumin elements - two spherical covers and a belt, connected by bolts.

Figure 2 - Operating principle of a plutonium bomb

The center of a nuclear explosion is the point at which the flash occurs or the center of the fireball is located, and the epicenter is the projection of the center of the explosion onto the earth or water surface.

Nuclear weapons are the most powerful and dangerous looking weapons of mass destruction, threatening all of humanity with unprecedented destruction and the extermination of millions of people.

If an explosion occurs on the ground or quite close to its surface, then part of the explosion energy is transferred to the Earth's surface in the form of seismic vibrations. A phenomenon occurs that resembles an earthquake in its characteristics. As a result of such an explosion, seismic waves are formed, which propagate through the thickness of the earth over very long distances. The destructive effect of the wave is limited to a radius of several hundred meters.

As a result of the extremely high temperature of the explosion, a bright flash of light is created, the intensity of which is hundreds of times greater than the intensity of sunlight falling on the Earth. A flash produces a huge amount of heat and light. Light radiation causes spontaneous combustion of flammable materials and skin burns in people within a radius of many kilometers.

A nuclear explosion produces radiation. It lasts about a minute and has such a high penetrating power that powerful and reliable shelters are required to protect against it at close ranges.

A nuclear explosion can instantly destroy or disable unprotected people, openly standing equipment, structures and various material assets. The main damaging factors of a nuclear explosion (NFE) are:

shock wave;

light radiation;

penetrating radiation;

radioactive contamination of the area;

electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

During a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, the distribution of released energy between PFYVs is approximately the following: about 50% for the shock wave, 35% for light radiation, 10% for radioactive contamination and 5% for penetrating radiation and EMR.

Radioactive contamination of people, military equipment, terrain and various objects during a nuclear explosion is caused by fission fragments of the charge substance (Pu-239, U-235) and the unreacted part of the charge falling out of the explosion cloud, as well as radioactive isotopes formed in the soil and other materials under the influence of neutrons - induced activity. Over time, the activity of fission fragments decreases rapidly, especially in the first hours after the explosion. For example, the total activity of fission fragments in the explosion of a nuclear weapon with a power of 20 kT after one day will be several thousand times less than one minute after the explosion.

The first Soviet charge for an atomic bomb was successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk test site (Kazakhstan).

This event was preceded by a long and hard work physicists. The beginning of work on nuclear fission in the USSR can be considered the 1920s. Since the 1930s, nuclear physics has become one of the main directions of domestic physical science, and in October 1940, for the first time in the USSR, a group of Soviet scientists made a proposal to use atomic energy for weapons purposes, submitting an application to the Invention Department of the Red Army "On the use of uranium as a explosive and toxic substances."

The war that began in June 1941 and the evacuation of scientific institutes dealing with problems of nuclear physics interrupted work on the creation of atomic weapons in the country. But already in the autumn of 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 explosives of enormous destructive power.

This information forced, despite the war, to resume work on uranium in the USSR. On September 28, 1942, the secret decree of the State Defense Committee No. 2352ss “On the organization of work on uranium” was signed, according to which research on the use of atomic energy was resumed.

In February 1943, Igor Kurchatov was appointed scientific director of work on the atomic problem. In Moscow, headed by Kurchatov, Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences was created (now the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute), which began to study atomic energy.

Initially, the general management of the atomic problem was carried out by the Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee (GKO) of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov. But on August 20, 1945 (a few days after the US atomic bombing of Japanese cities), the State Defense Committee decided to create a Special Committee, headed by Lavrentiy Beria. He became the curator of the Soviet atomic project.

At the same time, for the direct management of research, design, engineering organizations and industrial enterprises, engaged in the Soviet nuclear project, the First Main Directorate was created under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (later the Ministry of Medium Engineering of the USSR, now the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom). The head of the PSU became the former people's commissar ammunition Boris Vannikov.

In April 1946, the design bureau KB-11 (now the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - VNIIEF) was created at Laboratory No. 2 - one of the most secret enterprises for the development of domestic nuclear weapons, the chief designer of which was Yuli Khariton. Plant No. 550 of the People's Commissariat of Ammunition, which produced artillery shell casings, was chosen as the base for the deployment of KB-11.

The top-secret facility was located 75 kilometers from the city of Arzamas (Gorky region, now Nizhny Novgorod region) on the territory of the former Sarov Monastery.

KB-11 was tasked with creating an atomic bomb in two versions. In the first of them, the working substance should be plutonium, in the second - uranium-235. In mid-1948, work on the uranium option was stopped due to its relatively low efficiency compared to the cost of nuclear materials.

The first domestic atomic bomb had the official designation RDS-1. It was deciphered in different ways: “Russia does it itself”, “The Motherland gives Stalin”, etc. But in official resolution The Council of Ministers of the USSR dated June 21, 1946, it was encrypted as “Special jet engine (“S”).

The creation of the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 was carried out taking into account the available materials according to the scheme of the US plutonium bomb tested in 1945. These materials were provided by the Soviet foreign intelligence. An important source of information was Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist who participated in the work on nuclear programs USA and UK.

Intelligence materials on the American plutonium charge for an atomic bomb made it possible to reduce the time needed to create the first Soviet charge, although many of the technical solutions of the American prototype were not the best. Even at the initial stages, Soviet specialists could offer the best solutions for both the charge as a whole and its individual components. Therefore, the first atomic bomb charge tested by the USSR was more primitive and less effective than the original version of the charge proposed by Soviet scientists in early 1949. But in order to reliably and quickly demonstrate that the USSR also possesses atomic weapons, it was decided to use a charge created according to the American design in the first test.

The charge for the RDS-1 atomic bomb was a multilayer structure in which the translation active substance- plutonium into a supercritical state was carried out due to its compression by means of a converging spherical detonation wave in an explosive.

RDS-1 was an aircraft atomic bomb weighing 4.7 tons, with a diameter of 1.5 meters and a length of 3.3 meters. It was developed in relation to the Tu-4 aircraft, the bomb bay of which allowed the placement of a “product” with a diameter of no more than 1.5 meters. Plutonium was used as fissile material in the bomb.

To produce an atomic bomb charge in the city of Chelyabinsk-40 at Southern Urals the plant was built under the conditional number 817 (now FSUE " Production Association"Lighthouse"). The plant consisted of the first Soviet industrial reactor for producing plutonium, a radiochemical plant for separating plutonium from uranium irradiated in the reactor, and a plant for producing products from metallic plutonium.

The plant's reactor 817 was brought to its design capacity in June 1948, and a year later the enterprise received required amount plutonium to make the first charge for an atomic bomb.

The site for the test site where it was planned to test the charge was chosen in the Irtysh steppe, approximately 170 kilometers west of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. A plain with a diameter of approximately 20 kilometers was allocated for the test site, surrounded from the south, west and north low mountains. In the east of this space there were small hills.

Construction of the training ground, called training ground No. 2 of the USSR Ministry of Armed Forces (later the USSR Ministry of Defense), began in 1947, and was largely completed by July 1949.

For testing at the test site, an experimental site with a diameter of 10 kilometers was prepared, divided into sectors. It was equipped with special facilities to ensure testing, observation and recording of physical research. In the center of the experimental field, a metal lattice tower 37.5 meters high was mounted, designed to install the RDS-1 charge. At a distance of one kilometer from the center, an underground building was built for equipment that recorded light, neutron and gamma fluxes of a nuclear explosion. To study the impact of a nuclear explosion, sections of metro tunnels, fragments of airfield runways were built on the experimental field, samples of aircraft, tanks, artillery rocket launchers, and ship superstructures were placed various types. To ensure the operation of the physical sector, 44 structures were built at the test site and a cable network with a length of 560 kilometers was laid.

In June-July 1949, two groups of KB-11 workers with auxiliary equipment and household supplies were sent to the test site, and on July 24 a group of specialists arrived there, which was supposed to be directly involved in preparing the atomic bomb for testing.

August 5, 1949 government commission After testing, RDS-1 gave a conclusion that the test site was completely ready.

On August 21, a plutonium charge and four neutron fuses were delivered to the test site by a special train, one of which was to be used to detonate a warhead.

On August 24, 1949, Kurchatov arrived at the training ground. By August 26, all preparatory work at the site was completed. The head of the experiment, Kurchatov, gave the order to test the RDS-1 on August 29 at eight o'clock in the morning local time and to carry out preparatory operations starting at eight o'clock in the morning on August 27.

On the morning of August 27, assembly of the combat product began near the central tower. On the afternoon of August 28, demolition workers carried out a final full inspection of the tower, prepared the automation for detonation and checked the demolition cable line.

At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 28, a plutonium charge and neutron fuses for it were delivered to the workshop near the tower. The final installation of the charge was completed by three o'clock in the morning on August 29. At four o'clock in the morning, installers rolled the product out of the assembly shop along a rail track and installed it in the tower's freight elevator cage, and then lifted the charge to the top of the tower. By six o'clock the charge was equipped with fuses and connected to the blasting circuit. Then the evacuation of all people from the test field began.

Due to the worsening weather, Kurchatov decided to postpone the explosion from 8.00 to 7.00.

At 6.35, the operators turned on the power to the automation system. 12 minutes before the explosion the field machine was turned on. 20 seconds before the explosion, the operator turned on the main connector (switch) connecting the product to the automatic control system. From that moment on, all operations were performed by an automatic device. Six seconds before the explosion, the main mechanism of the machine turned on the power of the product and some of the field instruments, and one second turned on all the other instruments and issued an explosion signal.

At exactly seven o'clock on August 29, 1949, the entire area was illuminated with a blinding light, which signaled that the USSR had successfully completed the development and testing of its first atomic bomb charge.

The charge power was 22 kilotons of TNT.

20 minutes after the explosion, two tanks equipped with lead protection were sent to the center of the field to conduct radiation reconnaissance and inspect the center of the field. Reconnaissance determined that all structures in the center of the field had been demolished. At the site of the tower, a crater gaped; the soil in the center of the field melted, and a continuous crust of slag formed. Civil buildings and industrial structures were completely or partially destroyed.

The equipment used in the experiment made it possible to carry out optical observations and measurements of heat flow, shock wave parameters, characteristics of neutron and gamma radiation, and determine the level radioactive contamination areas in the explosion area and along the explosion cloud trail, study the impact damaging factors nuclear explosion on biological objects.

For the successful development and testing of a charge for an atomic bomb by several closed decrees of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR on October 29, 1949, orders and medals of the USSR were awarded to a large group of leading researchers, designers, and technologists; many were awarded the title of laureates Stalin Prize, and more than 30 people received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

As a result of the successful test of the RDS-1, the USSR abolished the American monopoly on the possession of atomic weapons, becoming the second nuclear power in the world.