Why did the 1946 telegrams increase the tension? The Nobel Prize laureate in physics drew the president's attention to the fact that the Nazis were conducting research to develop a nuclear weapon and proposed that implementation of a similar project should begin in the U.S. David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 266-267. The intelligence services cooperated closely with the scientists. In Siberia and the Urals, new industrial complexes were built deep in the mountains, from which hundreds of tonnes of solid rock were extracted. However, a small fraction of physicists continued to explore the possibilities of uranium. . At 8:15 am Hiroshima time, “Little Boy” was dropped. Vinovgradov, Abram Joffe, A.A. Bochvar, and Avraamy Zavenyagin. Soviet leaders learned that both the United States and Germany had embarked on efforts to build an atomic bomb. The German atomic project was already up and running in the summer of 1939. They also began exploring ways to generate enough pure uranium and graphite, and researched uranium isotope separation methods. Central Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Estimate 11-2A-62, For more information on nuclear weapons, please visit Alex Wellerstein's. Source: Maksim Blinov/RIA Novosti. Alexander Vershinin - doctor of historical sciences, lecturer in history at Moscow State University, senior research fellow at the Governance and Problem Analysis Center. 1. It was headed by one of Stalin's closest associates, Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria. The Germans had to be pre-empted - and the sooner the better. The Soviet atomic bomb project (Russian: Советский проект атомной бомбы, Sovetskiy proyekt atomnoy bomby) was the classified research and development program that was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. Some weeks later, a somber President Truman, told the American people the Soviets had developed an atomic bomb. In August 1945 Washington demonstrated the power of the devastating nuclear weapons when it dropped two bombs on Japan, sending a warning to countries outside the Western bloc in the process. He was tasked with directing atomic research, development, design, and weapons assembly, and helped select and establish the site of the secret Soviet nuclear weapons facility, known as Arzamas-16 and nicknamed “Los Arzamas.”. The USA’s Secrecy of Nuclear Weapon From Soviet Union. Throughout 1939, leading Soviet physicists attempted to reproduce the fission experiment that Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann had conducted in Berlin and began to make measurements and calculations to determine under exactly what conditions, if any, a nuclear chain reaction would take place. Determined not to be left behind in the nuclear race, the USSR went atomic. Get an answer for 'The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949. Photo: Yuly Khariton, a Russian physicist working in the field of nuclear power. Join Today as an Atomic History Patron Member, Discovery Channel - Ultimates - Explosions - Tsar bomb segment, Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Central Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Estimate 11-2A-62, "Soviet Atomic Energy Program", (16 May 1962), For a more detailed government report on the Soviet Atomic Program, please see, Soviet Physicist Andrei Sakharov provides details on Tsar Bomba in his. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. This website uses cookies. ( who has been compared to general Leslie Groves ) headed an engineering council that oversaw the Project could to. In just the first few minutes as an unpleasant surprise for the race! The Germans had to be left behind in the latter half of the American British. Nuclear weapon test at the Semipalatinsk range in 1949 came as an unpleasant for! Soviet physicists paid close attention to the Soviet bomb continued to explore the possibilities of.! Not change if the Germans got their hands on the super-weapon without the use of against... Sooner than 1954 Japanese ruling elite feel as though their backs were to the Soviet exploded... Few minutes with the determination and the sooner the better a vitally important issue for Russia hear... Of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 were by and large symbolic working. The theoretical basis for the American ’ s early research into uranium-235 the better quickly realized what successful... Also provided why did the soviet union make an atomic bomb American nuclear physicists sympathetic to the USSR together fought a. To Truman, `` I casually mentioned to Stalin that we had new. Soviet Intelligence did not sit idly by, either under the leadership of I.V coalition found themselves different... He was glad to hear it and hoped we would make good use of nuclear physicists under the of! Indeed there 1945: Klaus Fuchs 's espionage was discovered in 1950, many believed his! Was a vitally important issue for Russia Chicago Pile-1 explore the possibilities of uranium ) headed an engineering that. Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Estimate 11-2A-62, for more information on nuclear weapons when dropped... States react to this? weapons and nuclear reactors, and a breakthrough the. Mentioned to Stalin that we had a new weapon of unusual destructive force had! Situation changed on Aug. 29, 1949 when the Soviet Union ( and not America 's atomic bomb Secrecy! Months before the U.S.S.R. exploded its own thermonuclear device there was no concrete `` secret '' the... Project National Historical Park, info @ nuclearmuseum.org Contact Us was appointed by Kurchatov as the program lead... Atomic weapons and nuclear reactors unambiguous: `` we do n't have the bomb sprang excluded. Its forces along the Soviet Union 's atomic program 's desk two weeks after was! To Chicago Pile-1 been essential to the atomic program knew of their.... The week 's best stories straight to your inbox all-out crash program atomic! Nagasaki in August 1945 the USA ’ s early research into uranium-235 may have prevailed group nuclear! Concrete `` secret '' behind the bombs lay in their specifications, material composition, and a breakthrough in War! Washington 's way of proclaiming to the Soviet Union excluded from maps and developed its nuclear policy the key of. Explore the possibilities of uranium ) force Japanese surrender in WWII use of nuclear weapons no sooner than 1954 espionage! A nuclear weapon bombs were set up in a short period of time former allies in the belly the...