Who invented the atomic bomb? History of the atomic bomb. "Father" of the Soviet atomic bomb: Igor Kurchatov

In the USA and USSR, work began simultaneously on atomic bomb projects. In August 1942, the secret Laboratory No. 2 began to operate in one of the buildings located in the courtyard of Kazan University. The head of this facility was Igor Kurchatov, the Russian “father” of the atomic bomb. At the same time, in August, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the building of a former local school, a “Metallurgical Laboratory”, also secret, began operating. It was led by Robert Oppenheimer, the “father” of the atomic bomb from America.

It took a total of three years to complete the task. The first US bomb was blown up at the test site in July 1945. Two more were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. It took seven years for the birth of the atomic bomb in the USSR. The first explosion took place in 1949.

Igor Kurchatov: short biography

The "father" of the atomic bomb in the USSR, was born in 1903, on January 12. This event took place in the Ufa province, in today's city of Sima. Kurchatov is considered one of the founders of peaceful purposes.

He graduated with honors from the Simferopol men's gymnasium, as well as a vocational school. In 1920, Kurchatov entered the Tauride University, the physics and mathematics department. Just 3 years later, he successfully graduated from this university ahead of schedule. The “father” of the atomic bomb began working at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology in 1930, where he headed the physics department.

The era before Kurchatov

Back in the 1930s, work related to atomic energy began in the USSR. Chemists and physicists from various scientific centers, as well as specialists from other countries, took part in all-Union conferences organized by the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Radium samples were obtained in 1932. And in 1939 the chain reaction of fission of heavy atoms was calculated. The year 1940 became a landmark year in the nuclear field: the design of an atomic bomb was created, and methods for producing uranium-235 were proposed. Conventional explosives were first proposed to be used as a fuse to initiate a chain reaction. Also in 1940, Kurchatov presented his report on the fission of heavy nuclei.

Research during the Great Patriotic War

After the Germans attacked the USSR in 1941, nuclear research was suspended. The main Leningrad and Moscow institutes that dealt with problems of nuclear physics were urgently evacuated.

The head of strategic intelligence, Beria, knew that Western physicists considered atomic weapons an achievable reality. According to historical data, back in September 1939, Robert Oppenheimer, the leader of the work on creating an atomic bomb in America, came to the USSR incognito. The Soviet leadership could have learned about the possibility of obtaining these weapons from the information provided by this “father” of the atomic bomb.

In 1941, intelligence data from Great Britain and the USA began to arrive in the USSR. According to this information, intensive work has been launched in the West, the goal of which is the creation of nuclear weapons.

In the spring of 1943, Laboratory No. 2 was created to produce the first atomic bomb in the USSR. The question arose about who should be entrusted with its leadership. The list of candidates initially included about 50 names. Beria, however, chose Kurchatov. He was summoned in October 1943 to a viewing in Moscow. Today the scientific center that grew out of this laboratory bears his name - the Kurchatov Institute.

In 1946, on April 9, a decree was issued on the creation of a design bureau at Laboratory No. 2. Only at the beginning of 1947 were the first production buildings, which were located in the Mordovian Nature Reserve, ready. Some of the laboratories were located in monastery buildings.

RDS-1, the first Russian atomic bomb

They called the Soviet prototype RDS-1, which, according to one version, meant special." After some time, this abbreviation began to be deciphered somewhat differently - "Stalin's Jet Engine." In documents to ensure secrecy, the Soviet bomb was called a "rocket engine."

It was a device with a power of 22 kilotons. The USSR carried out its own development of atomic weapons, but the need to catch up with the United States, which had gone ahead during the war, forced domestic science to use intelligence data. The basis for the first Russian atomic bomb was the Fat Man, developed by the Americans (pictured below).

It was this that the United States dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. "Fat Man" worked on the decay of plutonium-239. The detonation scheme was implosive: the charges exploded along the perimeter of the fissile substance and created a blast wave that “compressed” the substance located in the center and caused a chain reaction. This scheme was later found to be ineffective.

The Soviet RDS-1 was made in the form of a large diameter and mass free-falling bomb. The charge of an explosive atomic device was made from plutonium. The electrical equipment, as well as the ballistic body of the RDS-1, were domestically developed. The bomb consisted of a ballistic body, a nuclear charge, an explosive device, as well as equipment for automatic charge detonation systems.

Uranium shortage

Soviet physics, taking the American plutonium bomb as a basis, was faced with a problem that had to be solved in an extremely short time: plutonium production had not yet begun in the USSR at the time of development. Therefore, captured uranium was initially used. However, the reactor required at least 150 tons of this substance. In 1945, mines in East Germany and Czechoslovakia resumed their work. Uranium deposits in the Chita region, Kolyma, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, the North Caucasus and Ukraine were discovered in 1946.

In the Urals, near the city of Kyshtym (not far from Chelyabinsk), they began to build Mayak, a radiochemical plant, and the first industrial reactor in the USSR. Kurchatov personally supervised the laying of uranium. Construction began in 1947 in three more places: two in the Middle Urals and one in the Gorky region.

Construction work proceeded at a rapid pace, but there was still not enough uranium. The first industrial reactor could not be launched even by 1948. It was only on June 7 of this year that uranium was loaded.

Nuclear reactor startup experiment

The “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb personally took over the duties of the chief operator at the control panel of the nuclear reactor. On June 7, between 11 and 12 o'clock at night, Kurchatov began an experiment to launch it. The reactor reached a power of 100 kilowatts on June 8. After this, the “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb silenced the chain reaction that had begun. The next stage of preparing the nuclear reactor lasted for two days. After cooling water was supplied, it became clear that the available uranium was not enough to carry out the experiment. The reactor reached a critical state only after loading the fifth portion of the substance. The chain reaction became possible again. This happened at 8 o'clock in the morning on June 10.

On the 17th of the same month, Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, made an entry in the shift supervisors' journal in which he warned that the water supply should under no circumstances be stopped, otherwise an explosion would occur. On June 19, 1938 at 12:45, the commercial launch of a nuclear reactor, the first in Eurasia, took place.

Successful bomb tests

In June 1949, the USSR accumulated 10 kg of plutonium - the amount that was put into the bomb by the Americans. Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, following Beria's decree, ordered the RDS-1 test to be scheduled for August 29.

A section of the Irtysh arid steppe, located in Kazakhstan, not far from Semipalatinsk, was set aside for a test site. In the center of this experimental field, whose diameter was about 20 km, a metal tower 37.5 meters high was constructed. RDS-1 was installed on it.

The charge used in the bomb was a multi-layer design. In it, the transfer of the active substance to a critical state was carried out by compressing it using a spherical converging detonation wave, which was formed in the explosive.

Consequences of the explosion

The tower was completely destroyed after the explosion. A funnel appeared in its place. However, the main damage was caused by the shock wave. According to the description of eyewitnesses, when a trip to the explosion site took place on August 30, the experimental field presented a terrible picture. The highway and railway bridges were thrown to a distance of 20-30 m and twisted. Cars and carriages were scattered at a distance of 50-80 m from the place where they were located; residential buildings were completely destroyed. The tanks used to test the force of the impact lay with their turrets knocked down on their sides, and the guns became a pile of twisted metal. Also, 10 Pobeda vehicles, specially brought here for testing, burned down.

A total of 5 RDS-1 bombs were manufactured. They were not transferred to the Air Force, but were stored in Arzamas-16. Today in Sarov, which was formerly Arzamas-16 (the laboratory is shown in the photo below), a mock-up of the bomb is on display. It is located in the local nuclear weapons museum.

"Fathers" of the atomic bomb

Only 12 Nobel laureates, future and present, participated in the creation of the American atomic bomb. In addition, they were helped by a group of scientists from Great Britain, which was sent to Los Alamos in 1943.

In Soviet times, it was believed that the USSR had completely independently solved the atomic problem. Everywhere it was said that Kurchatov, the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR, was its “father.” Although rumors of secrets stolen from Americans occasionally leaked out. And only in 1990, 50 years later, Julius Khariton - one of the main participants in the events of that time - spoke about the large role of intelligence in the creation of the Soviet project. The technical and scientific results of the Americans were obtained by Klaus Fuchs, who arrived in the English group.

Therefore, Oppenheimer can be considered the “father” of bombs that were created on both sides of the ocean. We can say that he was the creator of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. Both projects, American and Russian, were based on his ideas. It is wrong to consider Kurchatov and Oppenheimer only as outstanding organizers. We have already talked about the Soviet scientist, as well as about the contribution made by the creator of the first atomic bomb in the USSR. Oppenheimer's main achievements were scientific. It was thanks to them that he turned out to be the head of the atomic project, just like the creator of the atomic bomb in the USSR.

Brief biography of Robert Oppenheimer

This scientist was born in 1904, April 22, in New York. graduated from Harvard University in 1925. The future creator of the first atomic bomb interned for a year at the Cavendish Laboratory with Rutherford. A year later, the scientist moved to the University of Göttingen. Here, under the guidance of M. Born, he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1928 the scientist returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, the “father” of the American atomic bomb taught at two universities in this country - the California Institute of Technology and the University of California.

On July 16, 1945, the first bomb was successfully tested in the United States, and soon after, Oppenheimer, along with other members of the Provisional Committee created under President Truman, was forced to select targets for future atomic bombing. Many of his colleagues by that time actively opposed the use of dangerous nuclear weapons, which were not necessary, since Japan's surrender was a foregone conclusion. Oppenheimer did not join them.

Explaining his behavior further, he said that he relied on politicians and military men who were better familiar with the real situation. In October 1945, Oppenheimer ceased to be director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. He began work in Priston, heading a local research institute. His fame in the United States, as well as outside this country, reached its culmination. New York newspapers wrote about him more and more often. President Truman presented Oppenheimer with the Medal of Merit, the highest award in America.

In addition to scientific works, he wrote several “Open Mind”, “Science and Everyday Knowledge” and others.

This scientist died in 1967, on February 18. Oppenheimer was a heavy smoker from his youth. In 1965, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer. At the end of 1966, after an operation that did not bring results, he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, the treatment had no effect, and the scientist died on February 18.

So, Kurchatov is the “father” of the atomic bomb in the USSR, Oppenheimer is in the USA. Now you know the names of those who were the first to work on the development of nuclear weapons. Having answered the question: “Who is called the father of the atomic bomb?”, we told only about the initial stages of the history of this dangerous weapon. It continues to this day. Moreover, today new developments are actively underway in this area. The “father” of the atomic bomb, the American Robert Oppenheimer, as well as the Russian scientist Igor Kurchatov, were only pioneers in this matter.

When Yakov Zeldovich was allowed to publish his scientific articles in foreign academic journals, many Western scientists did not believe that one person could cover such diverse areas of science. The West sincerely believed that Yakov Zeldovich was the collective pseudonym of a large group of Soviet scientists. When it turned out that Zeldovich was not a pseudonym, but a real person, the entire scientific world recognized him as a brilliant scientist. At the same time, Yakov Borisovich did not have a single diploma of higher education - from his youth he simply delved into those areas of science that were interesting to him. He worked from morning to night, but did not sacrifice himself at all - he did what he loved more than anything in the world and what he could not live without. And the scope of his interests is truly amazing: chemical physics, physical chemistry, combustion theory, astrophysics, cosmology, physics of shock waves and detonation, and of course – physics of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles. Research in this latter area of ​​science secured Yakov Zeldovich the title of chief theorist of thermonuclear weapons.

Yakov was born on March 8, 1914 in Minsk, in connection with which he constantly joked that he was born as a gift to women. His father was a lawyer, a member of the bar, his mother was a translator of French novels. In the summer of 1914, the Zeldovich family moved to Petrograd. In 1924, Yasha went to study in the third grade of high school and six years later he successfully graduated. From the autumn of 1930 to May 1931, he attended courses and worked as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Mechanical Processing of Mineral Resources. In May 1931, Zeldovich began working at the Institute of Chemical Physics, with which he connected his entire life.

According to the memoirs of Professor Lev Aronovich Sena, Zeldovich’s appearance at the Institute of Chemical Physics - then the institute was in Leningrad - happened like this: “On that memorable March day, an excursion from Mekhanoob came. Among the excursionists there was a young man, almost a boy - as it later turned out, he had recently turned 17 years old. Like every guide, I started with my topic. The tourists listened politely, and the young man began to ask questions, which showed that he mastered thermodynamics, molecular physics and chemistry at a level not lower than the third year of university. Taking a moment, I go up to the head of the laboratory, Simon Zalmanovich Roginsky, and say:

- Simon! I really like this boy. It would be nice if he came to us.
Simon Zalmanovich answered me:
- Me too, I heard your conversation out of the corner of my ear. I’ll continue the tour myself, and you talk to him, does he want to join us? Then you can take him with you.
I took the young man aside and asked:
– Do you like it here?
- Very.
– Would you like to work with us?
“Partly because of this, I came on the excursion.”
Soon Yasha Zeldovich - that was the name of the young man - came to us and began working with me, since I discovered him.”

Communication with theorists of the Leningrad Physics and Technology Institute, along with self-education, became the main source of knowledge for Zeldovich. At one time he studied by correspondence at Leningrad University, later attended some lectures at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, but never received a diploma of higher education. Despite this, the “non-graduate” but talented young man was accepted into graduate school at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1934, and later was even allowed to take candidate exams.

In 1936, Zeldovich defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, and in 1939 he defended his doctoral dissertation. By that time he was barely 25 years old, and everyone around him understood that this was just the beginning! All these years, Zeldovich was searching for effective substances for gas masks and delved into the problem of adsorption - the process of absorption of gases or substances by an adsorbent, for example, activated carbon. After his doctoral dissertation, which became a generalization of his work on the problem of nitrogen oxidation in a hot flame, the name of Zeldovich became widely known in the scientific world.

Even before defending his PhD, Yakov Borisovich became the head of one of the laboratories of the Institute of Chemical Physics. At this time he was studying the theory of combustion. He formed a new approach that organically combined chemical kinetics with the analysis of the thermal and then hydrodynamic picture, taking into account the movement of gas. When the war began, the institute was evacuated to Kazan, where Zeldovich was studying the combustion of propellant rockets for Katyusha rockets, since the combustion of gunpowder in winter was unstable. This problem was solved by him in the shortest possible time. In 1943, for a series of works on the theory of combustion, Yakov Borisovich was awarded the Stalin Prize.

Even before the war, Zeldovich began to study nuclear physics. After the appearance in 1938 of an article by O. Hahn and F. Strassmann on the fission of uranium, Zeldovich and Khariton immediately realized that not only ordinary chain reactions were possible in the process, but also those that could lead to nuclear explosions with the release of enormous energy. At the same time, each of them had their own, completely different working research, so Zeldovich and Khariton began to study the “nuclear” problem in the evenings and on weekends. Together, the scientists published a number of works - for example, for the first time they calculated the chain reaction of uranium fission, which made it possible to determine the critical size of the reactor. That is why, after the appointment of Igor Kurchatov as scientific director of the Soviet atomic project, Khariton and Zeldovich were first on the list of scientists involved in work on the atomic bomb.

From the beginning of 1944, while remaining a full-time employee of the Institute of Chemical Physics and holding the position of head of the laboratory, Zeldovich began working on the creation of atomic weapons in Laboratory No. 2 under the leadership of Kurchatov. In Kurchatov’s draft notes on the laboratory’s work plan, there was, for example, the following paragraph: “Theoretical development of issues related to the implementation of the bomb and boiler (01.01.44–01.01.45) - Zeldovich, Pomeranchuk, Gurevich.” Zeldovich eventually became the main theorist of the atomic bomb - for this in 1949 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, awarded the Order of Lenin and awarded the title of laureate of the Stalin Prize.

In 1958, Zeldovich was elected academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1965 to 1983, he worked as head of a department at the Institute of Applied Mathematics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while at the same time being a professor at the Faculty of Physics at Moscow State University. In addition, from 1984 to 1987, having become interested in astrophysics and cosmology, he headed the department of relativistic astrophysics at the State Astronomical Institute. Sternberg.

The breadth of Yakov Borisovich's interests amazed everyone. For example, Andrei Sakharov called him “a man of universal interests,” Landau believed that not a single physicist, except, perhaps, Enrico Fermi, had such a wealth of new ideas, and Kurchatov invariably repeated one phrase: “Still, Yashka is a genius !” Over the 73 years of his life - the outstanding physicist died in 1987 - Zeldovich wrote about 500 scientific papers and dozens of monographs, medals named after him are awarded in various fields of science around the world.

115 years ago, on January 12, 1903 (December 30, 1902), in the city of Sim in the Urals, in the family of a land surveyor and a teacher, Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was born - the future world-famous physicist, scientific director of the atomic project in the USSR, the “father” of the Soviet atomic and thermonuclear bombs, founder of nuclear energy, founder and first director of the Institute of Atomic Energy (now the National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, laureate of 4 Stalin and Lenin Prizes, three times Hero of Socialist Labor.

Under his leadership, the first Soviet cyclotron was built (1939), spontaneous nuclear fission was discovered (1940), mine protection for ships was developed (1942), and the first nuclear reactor in Europe was built (1946).

Since 1925, Igor Vasilyevich, having a diploma from the Taurida University (Simferopol), began working at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. What issues he dealt with is interesting only to specialists. Let's just say that he made a huge contribution to the physics of dielectrics and laid significant stones in the foundation of semiconductor physics. Already at the age of 31 he became a doctor, professor, and his name was well known throughout the scientific world.

Then his scientific interests turned sharply towards nuclear physics - an area that Phystech did not deal with. And here he managed to do a lot, and even before the war he became a world-famous star. Then there was the evacuation of the institute to Kazan, then work on protecting ships from magnetic mines, and then by Government Decree of February 11, 1943, he was appointed scientific director of the “uranium problem.”

Why him? After all, there were many other nuclear scientists in the country. Because there was no personality equal to him in science. When it became known about the work in the USA and Nazi Germany on nuclear weapons and academicians Vernadsky, Kapitsa, Ioffe and Khlopin were called to the Kremlin to discuss this information, it was no coincidence that they named Kurchatov.

He combined the powerful talent of an experimenter, the breadth of scientific thinking, the ability to instantly determine the essence of any scientific problem and unerringly find the right way to solve it, discarding trifles. In addition - a unique memory, fortitude, integrity, leadership talent and, at the same time, an amazing ability to get along with people, even with the most irreconcilable opponents.

Here's what his closest employees wrote about him: “Having taken up the matter, Kurchatov lights himself up, lights up those around him and gives no rest to anyone until the research is brought to complete clarity. But it is impossible to be angry with Kurchatov. He himself works harder than anyone. But as soon as the main thing is decided, he moves on to a new topic, showing little interest in fine-tuning minor details.”. It's about the 1930s.

And this is about the 1940s: “During this period, Kurchatov became a statesman. Possessing rare charm, he quickly makes friends among leaders of industry and the army. He organizes new large research institutes, new design bureaus, new industries. Possessing an excellent memory and oratorical talent, Kurchatov speaks with unsurpassed clarity at numerous meetings. His convincing speeches, impeccable in style and brevity, are a constant success. Scientific teams are happy to welcome him in their laboratories. Every conversation with him brings scientific clarity and directs me to the main thing. Kurchatov, like a commander, sets masses of people in motion and invariably wins brilliant victories, moving towards the goal faster than the most optimistic calculations predicted.”. At the same time, he directly supervised the work at his institute.

For almost 15 years, Igor Vasilyevich bore the heavy, enormous responsibility of scientific and government work. His heart could not stand it, but he did the most important thing - he protected the country from the nuclear aggression already planned by the Americans. The urn with his ashes is buried in the Kremlin wall.

In recent years, there has been an objective reassessment of the activities of L.P. Beria. There are no words, this man’s contribution to the creation of Russia’s nuclear shield is enormous. But he had a completely different function - a government function and, in fact, he solved those tasks that only the Government could solve and which Kurchatov set for the Government.

The Russian people are always rich in geniuses. But the 20th century is special. In that century, a galaxy of people was born who combined the genius of a scientist with the wisdom of a statesman - S.P. Korolev, M.V. Keldysh, M.A. Lavrentyev... And the first in this galaxy is Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov.

The kingdom of heaven be upon him!

Valery Gabrusenko, publicist, candidate of technical sciences, associate professor, corresponding member. Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts

“I am not the simplest person,” American physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi once remarked. “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 man 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 emergence were made at the end of the 19th century. 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 that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive force and that uranium could become a source of energy, like an ordinary explosive. This conclusion became the impetus for developments in the creation of 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 in almost all of Western Europe. A huge team worked on the creation of nuclear weapons, including 12 Nobel Prize laureates. 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 of nuclear physics (creation of nuclear weapons).

“”, 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, he enjoyed studying the mysticism of ancient Indian books. A communist, a traveler, and a staunch American patriot, a very spiritual man, he was nevertheless willing to betray his friends in order to protect himself from the attacks of 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 the time, Oppenheimer explored the ideas of the left as a possible alternative, although he did not join the Communist Party, as his younger brother, sister-in-law and many of his friends did. 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 Hitler's Germany had discovered nuclear fission in preparation for global war. 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 the scientists be brought together in one laboratory in the quiet provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 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 did not have a strong personality - Oppenheimer was an unusually dedicated leader and a keen diplomat. Most of them would agree that the lion's share of the credit for the project's ultimate success 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 the 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 the possible consequences of the use of the atomic bomb, which included Oppenheimer. Experts decided to recommend dropping an atomic bomb without warning on a large 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 the 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 detonated in Hiroshima, a replica of 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 an 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 a 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 uncomfortable with Oppenheimer and clearly jealous of his achievements, Teller began to make efforts to head the 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 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 make a 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, articles on nuclear physics began to disappear from the pages of scientific journals. 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.

A test site was built in the area of ​​Semipalatinsk. 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 make big mistakes, we managed to avoid dead-end directions in the creation of atomic weapons and create an atomic bomb in the USSR in a shorter time, in just three years , while the United States spent four years on this, spending five billion dollars on its creation.

As academician Yu. Khariton 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.” ".
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From WIKI: J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904, into a Jewish family. His father, wealthy textile importer Julius S. Oppenheimer (1865-1948), immigrated to the United States from Hanau, Germany, in 1888. The mother's family—the Paris-educated artist Ella Friedman (d. 1948)—also immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1840s. Robert had a younger brother, Frank (Frank Oppenheimer), who also became a physicist.

Robert Oppenheimer. Photo. http://konvenat.ru/component/option,com_true/Itemid,54/func,detail/catid,30/id,604/lang,russian/

From WIKI: Many believe that, despite his talents, the level of Oppenheimer's discoveries and research does not allow him to be ranked among those theorists who expanded the boundaries of fundamental knowledge. The diversity of his interests sometimes prevented him from fully concentrating on a particular task. One of Oppenheimer's habits that surprised his colleagues and friends was his penchant for reading original foreign literature, especially poetry. In 1933, he learned Sanskrit and met Indologist Arthur W. Ryder in Berkeley. Oppenheimer read the original Bhagavad Gita; he later spoke of it as one of the books that had a strong influence on him and shaped his philosophy of life.

His close friend and colleague, Nobel laureate Isidor Rabi, later gave his own explanation:

Oppenheimer was overeducated in areas outside the scientific tradition, for example, he was interested in religion - in particular, the Hindu religion - which resulted in a sense of mystery of the Universe that surrounded him like a fog. He understood physics clearly, looking at what had already been done, but at the frontier he tended to feel that there was much more mysterious and unknown there than there actually was... [he turned] away from the heavy, crude methods of theoretical physics towards the mystical realm free intuition.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer [note 1] (eng. Julius Robert Oppenheimer, April 22, 1904 - February 18, 1967) - American theoretical physicist, professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, member of the US National Academy of Sciences (since 1941). He is widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, within the framework of which the first samples of nuclear weapons were developed during the Second World War; because of this, Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb".

The atomic bomb was first tested in New Mexico in July 1945.; Oppenheimer later recalled that at that moment it occurred to him words from Bhagavad Gita:

« If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the splendor of the Almighty... I am Death, Destroyer of Worlds.”

Battle of Civilizations #8. "Battles of Ancient Kings" (01/05/2013) See from 44 min.

On Earth there are traces of atomic explosions and missile strikes that are... several thousand years old. In turn, ancient texts describe superbeings who travel on aircraft, own superweapons and advanced technologies.