Soviet atomic bomb project

Soviet atomic bomb project
Soviet atomic bomb project
	Probable location of first Soviet nuclear test, 1949.
Operational scope	Operational R&D
Location	Atomgrad, Semipalatinsk, Chagan
Planned by	NKVD, NKGB, MGB PGU; GRU
Date	1942–1949
Executed by	Soviet Union
Outcome	The successful development of nuclear weapons; Further escalation of the Cold War;

The Soviet atomic bomb project was authorized by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union to develop nuclear weapons during and after World War II.^[1]^[2]

Russian physicist Georgy Flyorov suspected that the Allied powers were secretly developing a "superweapon"^[2] since 1939. Flyorov urged Stalin to start a nuclear program in 1942.^[3]^: 78–79 Early efforts mostly consisted of intelligence gathering from the Soviet spy rings working in the Manhattan Project in the United States.^[1]

After Stalin learned of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear program was accelerated through intelligence gathering about the German nuclear weapon project and the American Manhattan Project.^[4] The Soviet army forced captured German scientists to assist nuclear program.^[5]^{: 242–243}

On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union secretly conducted its first successful weapon test in Kazakhstan.^[1]

^ ^a ^b ^c Sublette, Carey. "The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program". nuclearweaponarchive.org. nuclearweaponarchive, part I. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
^ ^a ^b Swift, John. "The Soviet-American Arms Race". www.historytoday.com. History Today. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
^ Holloway, [by] David (1994). Stalin and the bomb : the Soviet Union and atomic energy. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 421. ISBN 978-0300066647. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
^ "Manhattan Project: Espionage and the Manhattan Project, 1940–1945". www.osti.gov. US Dept of Energy. Retrieved 21 April 2017.
^ Strickland, Jeffrey (2011). Weird Scientists: the Creators of Quantum Physics. New York: Lulu.com. p. 549. ISBN 978-1257976249. Retrieved 21 April 2017.