Operation "Enormoz": What role did Soviet intelligence officers play in the creation of a nuclear bomb in the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When the atomic bomb was tested in the Soviet Union, the information bulletins, of course, did not say anything about the details of its creation. Moreover, no information was made public about the role that foreign intelligence played in this. Almost half a century had to pass before the truth about the large-scale Operation Enormos, brilliantly carried out by scouts, was revealed. It was thanks to her that the creation of the atomic bomb in the USSR became possible.

Secret developments

The study of the radioactivity and properties of uranium has been carried out since the beginning of the twentieth century. Scientists around the world actively exchanged their achievements and developments, and the research results immediately became known to colleagues from different countries, they were published in specialized publications and were announced at scientific conferences.

But in the spring of 1939 in the London journal "Nature" was published an article "Release of neutrons in a nuclear explosion of uranium" by three scientists: Lev Kovarsky, Frederic Joliot-Curie and Hans von Halban. It became clear that atomic energy can be used not only for peaceful purposes. After Joliot-Curie received a patent for the drawings of an atomic reactor and an atomic bomb, the developments were immediately classified.

The last scientific article on this topic was published in June 1940 in the "Physicist-Review", after which even in specialized scientific journals there was a stage of complete silence. But at that time, work in the field of nuclear physics was also carried out in other countries, and the free publication of research materials had already ceased. At the same time, American scientists requested help from the government to carry out work on the development of an atomic bomb. In Western Europe and the USA, developments were carried out in the strictest secrecy, and even the use of the phrase "atomic energy" was banned in the press.

Data collection

For the first time, the head of the scientific and technical intelligence of the Soviet Union, Leonid Kvasnikov, drew attention to this, and his guesses were confirmed by Hayk Ovakimyan, a resident in New York, who reported the complete absence of publications on research.

At the initiative of Kvasnikov, directives were sent to the residencies in the UK, France, Germany and the United States, according to which they should immediately begin to search for scientific centers working on the development of nuclear weapons, as well as ensure that reliable information on this problem is obtained.

The operation was called "Enormoz", and access to it was available to a very limited circle of people, including the heads of the USSR foreign intelligence, the residents providing the mission, and the translator.

As early as the beginning of autumn 1941, the Center began to receive information that the creation of nuclear weapons in Britain and the United States had already acquired quite real outlines. British and American scientists have joined forces in the field of nuclear research. At the same time, nuclear facilities were to be built in the United States due to the constant bombing threats to Great Britain.

And already at the beginning of 1942, a prisoner was captured near Taganrog, in whose belongings a notebook was found containing records of the plans of the Germans to create and use nuclear weapons. The captured German officer served in engineering units and was clearly involved in scientific research in the past. The records, strange from the point of view of front-line intelligence, were transferred to the People's Commissar of Defense, and from there fell into the hands of Sergei Kaftanov, authorized by the State Defense Committee for Science.

Based on all the data received, a special message was prepared for Joseph Stalin, signed by Beria. It proposed creating an advisory scientific body under the State Defense Committee that would organize and coordinate work on the creation of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union.

Successful operation

For almost a year, all the information collected by the residents of foreign intelligence was accumulated in the special services and the special department of the USSR Academy of Sciences. But no one allowed physicists to access this information. Already in November 1942, it was decided to show the materials to scientists. The NKVD personally approved the candidacy of Igor Kurchatov, who had already proposed using a chain reaction in a uranium nuclear reactor.

But real materials from the American Center for Nuclear Research were obtained only at the end of 1943, when a group of scientists who were supposed to take part in the creation of the atomic bomb went to the United States from Great Britain. The group included Klaus Fuchs, a German communist and political émigré. He became a key figure, thanks to which the Soviet intelligence received the most valuable information from Los Alamos, where the secret center was located.

As a result, thousands of pages of descriptions of technical structures and the very principle of operation of the atomic bomb ended up in the hands of the USSR special services. In addition, the most valuable samples of substances used in the manufacture of weapons turned out to be in the Soviet Union. All materials were carefully studied by Igor Kurchatov. The scouts worked on collecting and transmitting information to scientists, while the data was received not only from the United States, but also from other countries where work was underway to create nuclear weapons.

As a result of studying the data, Soviet scientists were able to analyze the results of research by foreign scientists and develop their own concept for creating an atomic bomb, which was tested at the end of August 1949. It should be noted that without the participation of foreign intelligence, the path of Soviet scientists could be much longer, since the country was exhausted by the war. And the delay in such an important issue could end very badly for the Soviet Union.

A nugget from the provinces, the largest figure in Soviet and world science - Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov. Kurchatov, like a giant, pushed science forward in several directions at once, was focused on the main thing and knew how to consolidate others for the benefit of science and his country. Thanks to his contribution to the development of physics, the USSR was protected from nuclear aggression, and today, parity is possible between the powers that possess atomic weapons.