Stalin's Bomb Project Flashcards
The Great Purge
1936-38: Stalin was paranoid about disloyalty in the Soviet party so he eliminated potential rivals, which affected scientists and institutions, hindered growth of Soviet nuclear research, allowed USA to accelerate its development
Georgii Flerov and Konstantin Petrzhak
continued nuclear research but there was a lack organization to coordinate it, formulated reactions for a chain reaction and sent a letter to Stalin (Apr 1942) to urge an atomic bomb project
Stalin’s interest in Nuclear Project
late 1942: spies in UK provided info about the MAUD report and this sparked his interest
Soviet Bomb Project
Apr 1943: USSR set up a new project with Kurchatov as director and headed by Lavrentii Beria
Igor Kurchatov
director of the Soviet bomb project
Lavrentii Beria
chair of special committee on the atomic project, chief of the Commisariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) which oversaw state security and (secret) police
Klaus Fuchs
German physicist who joined the UK project and the UK Delegation of Scientists that worked on initiation of the Manhattan Project, worked at Los Alamos on development of NWs, sent detailed info about the bombs and nuclear tests to USSR
Stalin’s response to Hiroshima
surprised by it and made him consider escalating the Soviet project, concerned with USA’s power thru nuclear warfare, balance of power, and atomic diplomacy, ordered a crash program to develop a NW ASAP with Kurchatov and Beria, provided incentives to renew engagement
Environmental Effects
radiation-related illnesses, in Mayak (main processing plant for processing plutonium) radiation was released and contaminated the soil, water, and air
RDS-1 or the First Lightning
Aug 29, 1949: first Soviet test, conducted at Semipalantinsk site in Kazakhstan, 22 kilotons, resulted in mass destruction and contamination, radiation burns, crater
