Question by LiverCancer: How exactly did Russia learn how to make atomic weapons?
I thought the concepts that fueled the Manhattan Project were relatively unknown and revolutionary. Did Russia just “figure it out”, or were they able to successfully steal secrets that helped them create/test First Lightning in 1949?
Answers and Views:
Answer by I Love New York
A jewish american spy couple, the Rosenbergs, gave them the secret. I’m pretty sure at least one of them got the electric chair. The complete story is right here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg
Don’t hate the Jews for it! Hate the greedy!
What do you think? Answer below!
Alex Vorobiev says
Did you hear about Korolev? No? So yes we steal it from the USA (the cleverest nation in the world)!
Chris says
Also, along with what has been mentioned about the Rosenburgs, I understand that they gave the information to the Russians so the US wouldn't go on a power trip. If there are at least two with atomic weapons, then they will move to prevent the other from using them.
Joe says
It had nothing to do with the Rosenburgs, and the "concepts that fueled the Manhattan Project" were known in many countries for many years beforehand. They weren't revolutionary – it's just that Manhattan was the first successful practical application of them (in terms of making a bomb, that is).
The Russians had a low-level interest in the possibility of an atomic bomb since the early-1930s, had already had a project in place early in WW2. They weren't very far behind the Western powers at the time, but what changed things was nothing to do with the Rosenburgs (that was much later). When the GRU (Soviet military intelligence) caught wind of the fact that the British had been persuaded by the US to drop their independent a-bomb project (which was in place, in partnership with the Canadians) to join a larger project in the US (which turned out to be the Manhattan Project, which was actually a joint British-American-Canadian project), their interest in the technology was suddenly renewed and the low-level Soviet project suddenly got a huge injection of money and expertise.
They also maneuvered people like Klaus Fuchs into position in the Manhattan Project to see what was happening there. The ultimate value of the information obtained from that spying is debatable, since they altered their existing designs to take account of what was discovered in Manhattan, but when they constructed weapons to their previous designs much later on, actually found them to be better. That said, part of the reason they were able to test a bomb so quickly after that was that the information obtained from spying on Manhattan saved them time by not having to explore dead-ends that Manhattan had already gone through.
However, a REALLY big reason for the speed of the Soviets advancement was that, prior to the war, it had very limited access to nuclear material but, after the defeat of Germany, it suddenly gained access to huge amounts of material that the Germans had obtained when they invaded Belgium (who had previously got it in Africa).
Wayne C says
Come on do we have to be over 50 to know how to use a search line??????????????????????
Member of the "duck and cover" club 1960-1973
SSG US Army 73-82
Living 1000m from 100 warheads in NATO site 5 from 4/74-7/76 about 40 miles west of the border with east Germany. Cold War Speed Bump Society
ScottH says
Russia got weapons plans from two places. First of all, Soviet forces occupied Peenemunde where the German atomic weapons project had been. They took the weapons and research from there and applied these to their own means. In the United States, several people in the Atomic weapons program were also Communist Party members and sympathetic to the Soviet Communist cause. Plans, developments and discoveries were leaked to Soviet agents. This discovery gave rise to the anti-Communism backlash in the 1950's that are commonly referred to as The McCarthy Era.
ExTanker85 says
It was a combination of many factors.
Spying. Their own research. And they captured their own German scientists. And after we detonated the bomb, the world suddenly knew that it was possible so that they could apply their own researchers to the task knowing what the end result should be. Makes it easier to know what the end result should be when looking than to discover it on your own and not know if your on the right track until after testing.
BigBill says
Two American Jews: Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs, gave the Atomic Bomb secrets to the Soviets for which they were rightly executed.
I think Klaus Fuchs gave the Soviets the secrets to the Hydrogen bomb.
Reality has a Libera says
They had a spy, Klaus Fuchs (I think), working at Los Alamos.
Unknown says
Spies in America, reporting back to them