Abstract
The story of the generation of the first atomic weapon in the USSR can be reconstructed today (1). Only four years after the success of the Manhattan Project, a major American achievement in technology and in the organization of a wealth of resoures, the Soviets detonated their counterpart to the U.S. design. By comparison, the Soviet effort may be even more impressive than its U.S. predecessor — if one looks at the poor shape of the war-stricken Soviet technology base, and the deficiencies of the Soviet central planning system, which appears badly prepared to deal successfully with a challenge of the order of magnitude that the bomb represented.
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Notes
The empirical basis for this study is provided by the unpublished memoirs of the head of the German uranium team in the USSR, Professor Nikolaus Riehl (IO Jahre im goldenen Käfig, quoted as “Riehl memoirs”), on a number of interviews with him and members of his former team, and on I. N. Golovine’s biography of the head of the Soviet bomb program, I. V. Kurchatov (Moscow: Atomisdat, 1972 ). Because neither of the principal written sources is available in English, I refrain from the normal practice of giving footnotes for factual statements; only verbal quotes are referenced to these two sources. I am greatly indebted to Professor Riehl and other Germans who supported the research for this study, and who also agreed to be filmed for a documentary, made by Michael Rossiter of the British “Channel Four” broadcasting system. The manuscript of this study was also sent to the Soviet Union. Academician Flerov responded in an open-minded manner, and I hope to have the possibility to continue the research in the USSR.
The best available Western account of the generation of the first Soviet atomic bomb is given in brief bits in David Holloway, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983), and in his article “Entering the Nuclear Arms Race: The Soviet Decision to build the Atomic Bomb, 1939–45,” Social Studies of Science 11 (1981), 159–197. The most detailed East German report is given by Professor Max Steenbeck, Impulse and Wirkungen: Schritte auf meinem Lebensweg (Berlin: Verlag der Nation, n.d.).
Golovine, op. cit.,1972 (1), p. 113.
Die Zeit,No. 29 of July 12, 1985, p. 26 (“Dossier”).
See the memoirs of the designer: Ferdinand Brandner Ein Leben zwischen Fronten (“A life between the fronts”) (Munich/Wels: Welsermuehl, 1973), pp. 103–231.
Golovine op. cit.1972 (1), p. 51.
Ibid.
Ibid.,p. 58.
Ibid.,p. 33.
David Holloway op. cit.1983 (1), p. 17.
Alexandr S. Yakovlev The Aim of a Lifetime: The Story of Alexander Yakovlev Designer of the YAK Fighter Plane (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972). See also Bill Gunston Aircraft of the Soviet Union: The Encyclopedia of Soviet Aircraft since 1917 (London: Osprey, 1983), p. 355.
Golovine op. cit.1972 (1), p. 68.
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 37.
Heinz and Elfi Barwich Das rote Atom (Munich: Scherz, 1967), p. 94.
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 37.
Golovine, op. cit.,1972 (1), p. 71.
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 18.
Ibid.,p. 36.
Written statement by an émigré Jewish physicist who participated in the interviews carried out for this project (name withheld by request).
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 73.
Ibid.,p. 6.
Ibid.,p. 8.
See Irmgard Groettrup, Rocket Wife (London: André Deutsch, 1959), which gives the text of this protest in the appendix.
Barwich and Barwich, op. cit.,1967 (13), p. 19.
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 131.
Ibid.,chap. 14.
Ibid.,p. 15.
Ibid.,p. 21.
Ibid.,p. 22.
Golovine, op. cit.,1972 (1), p. 68.
Quoted from Georgi K. Schukow, Erinnerungen and Gedanken ( Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 1969 ), p. 653.
Golovine, op. cit.,1972 (1), p. 68.
H. D. Smyth Atomic Energy: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes under the Auspices of the United States Government (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1945).
Riehl memoirs (1), p. 27.
Golovine op. cit.1972 (1), p. 87.
Ibid.
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Albrecht, U. (1988). The Development of the First Atomic Bomb in the USSR. In: Mendelsohn, E., Smith, M.R., Weingart, P. (eds) Science, Technology and the Military. Sociology of the Sciences, vol 12/1/2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2958-1_4
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