Stalin. Part 24: Under the Seal of Silence
Soviet studies of the atom have been going on since pre-war times. The war postponed experiments. All forces were thrown into the needs of the front; only the United States could continue to work on expensive atomic projects. And they conducted, only for some time now they stopped publishing research results.
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Soviet studies of the atom have been going on since pre-war times. The war postponed experiments. All forces were thrown into the needs of the front; only the United States could continue to work on expensive atomic projects. And they conducted, only for some time now they stopped publishing research results. The absence of publications on this topic at the beginning of the war alerted the young physicist G. N. Flerov, the author of the discovery of spontaneous fission of uranium nuclei with a priority of 1940.
Then the experiment was carried out at the Dynamo metro station. The deep planting of the station provided the layer of earth necessary to refute the assertion of Niels Bohr about the effect of cosmic radiation on atomic fission. The experiment of Soviet scientists GN Flerov and KA Petrzhak convincingly proved that nuclei are capable of spontaneous fission. The results were published, but Western scientists did not react to them. The world was preparing for war.
In 1941, in the militia, miraculously seizing on scientific periodicals, Lieutenant-Technician Georgy Flerov wrote several letters in a row to his colleagues and scientific leaders IV Kurchatov and SV Kaftanov about the need to continue the work on uranium fission, interrupted by the war. The answer is silence. Such a decision could only be made at the very top. In April 1942, confident in his correctness, Flerov wrote personally to Stalin:
“In all foreign journals, there is a complete absence of any works on this issue. This silence is not the result of a lack of work … In a word, the seal of silence has been imposed, and this is the best indicator of the tireless work being done abroad now … We need to continue working on uranium. The only thing that makes uranium projects fantastic is that they are too promising if the problem is successfully solved. … We make a big mistake, voluntarily surrendering the conquered positions”[1].
Sonic Flerov knew how to hear silence. It became clear to the young physicist, who voluntarily went to the front, that he would bring incomparably more benefits to the country by fulfilling his specific role as the night guard of the pack, that is, continuing to work on the deterrent weapon. Many nuclear physicists subsequently argued that their research was not military in nature. Flerov never denied that he was the initiator of the work on the atomic bomb. The most dangerous experiment to determine the critical mass of a substance necessary for an explosion was carried out by this amazing man personally, risking his life. The value of life for a sound engineer is small compared to the process of winning back the meanings encoded in it from silence.
1. Must do
The rational mind of many Soviet leaders was skeptical about the uranium problem: "Who saw these atoms at all?" War, Stalingrad, to the atom?.. Stalin's olfactory psychic prompted: we must do.
On February 11, 1943, the GKO decides to organize work on atomic energy. I. V. Kurchatov was appointed as the leader, V. M.
Flerov's powerful sound, his persistence in sound search could not go unnoticed by the olfactory "twins". Only such as Julius Khariton, Georgy Flerov, Igor Kurchatov and many other sound specialists, who were able to feel the desires of the whole flock, as their own, could ensure the country's defense from the atomic threat from outside. The night guards, along with the olfactory advisors, were rapidly making up for the lost time of the war to enter a new era of nuclear weapons.
Those whose sound developed in response withstood the pressure of smell remained in the project, those who showed signs of egocentrism (for example, P. L. Kapitsa, who believed that "the time had not yet come for fruitful cooperation of political forces with scientists" "Comrades like Comrade Beria do not want to begin to learn respect for scientists"), retired without regret, despite all their genius.
Stalin offered all-round support to those who passed the olfactory test for readiness to give to the flock. IV Kurchatov made several illegible notes after his meeting with Stalin. It was about raising the welfare of Soviet scientists. “He (Stalin) said that our scientists are very modest, they never notice that they live badly - this is already bad, and although, he says, our state has suffered greatly, but it is always possible to ensure that (several? Thousand?) people lived well, their dachas, so that people could have a rest, so that there was a car”.
Soviet scientists did not work for cars and dachas, although the encouragement was a pleasant thing. Everything is interesting in the topic “Atomic Project of the USSR”. Sound geniuses at the highest stage of the development of sound, having overcome egocentrism, worked in return, not thinking how the state would treat them, what they would receive or not receive from it. People had no ambitions and resentments. The general was more important than the most terrible particular.
2. "Hostages" of the system
The chief designer of the Soviet atomic bomb, Yu. B. Khariton, was the son of the editor of the cadet newspaper Rech, who was expelled from the USSR along with Berdyaev, Frank and Ilyin. Julius Khariton worked in Cambridge, where he prepared his doctoral thesis under the leadership of Rutherford and had more than one opportunity to leave the USSR forever. Yu. B. preferred the scientific leadership of the Soviet atomic project to world fame and wealth. For decades, the unknown sonic genius has been under the watchful eye of internal intelligence. In 1942, Yu. B. Khariton's father was shot. And the son was developing an atomic bomb to protect the country from outside attack.
In a closed design bureau ("sharashka"), SP Korolev, arrested on a false denunciation, worked, improved jet engines for aviation. In prison, during interrogations, Sergei Pavlovich was terribly beaten and once severely crushed his jaw, which then did not grow together correctly. This became the reason for his death on the operating table in 1966, it was impossible to enter the tube of the artificial respiration apparatus. The special structure of the highly developed sonic psychic pulled people like Korolev and Khariton out of the black hole of rapture with injustice to oneself into the realm of the highest justice of survival, not of an individual, but of a species.
You can endlessly talk about such people. One thing is systematically clear: “the desire to cognize the mind of God” [2] among sound specialists prevails over all other needs. Only a collective solution of one, the most important task can give sound the necessary development and realization.
State security was such a common and most important task in the USSR during the Stalinist period. The best sound and olfactory forces were directed to its solution. In numerous closed design bureaus throughout the country up to the 90s. people worked together for defense and lived like one family: they worked and rested together, raised children, celebrated holidays, together overcame the stressful days of project delivery, worked seven days a week, sometimes at night, without further claims for overtime.
Now, in the skin phase of the development of society, it is difficult to imagine such a unity. The opinion was strengthened that Soviet scientists were hostages of the system, they worked under pain of death, from under the stick, against their will. This is not true. Inevitably, you can do anything but one. One cannot involuntarily perform a feat. The work of Soviet nuclear physicists during the war and in the first post-war years was a real feat. The successful test of the Soviet atomic bomb on August 29, 1949 (ten years earlier than the most daring forecasts of Western experts) was a triumph of scientific thought and political will of the citizens of the USSR.
Nuclear weapons gave our country the opportunity to fully enter a new civilization, a new world without great commanders, big politicians and other strong personalities making history. The atomic bomb has become the main factor of political choice, the main argument of any international conflict. Only the collective intelligence of the corresponding force can be opposed to this power. We just have to grow it.
Continue reading.
Other parts:
Stalin. Part 1: Olfactory Providence over Holy Russia
Stalin. Part 2: Furious Koba
Stalin. Part 3: Unity of opposites
Stalin. Part 4: From Permafrost to April Theses
Stalin. Part 5: How Koba became Stalin
Stalin. Part 6: Deputy. on emergency matters
Stalin. Part 7: Ranking or the Best Disaster Cure
Stalin. Part 8: Time to Collect Stones
Stalin. Part 9: USSR and Lenin's testament
Stalin. Part 10: Die for the Future or Live Now
Stalin. Part 11: Leaderless
Stalin. Part 12: We and They
Stalin. Part 13: From plow and torch to tractors and collective farms
Stalin. Part 14: Soviet Elite Mass Culture
Stalin. Part 15: The last decade before the war. Death of Hope
Stalin. Part 16: The last decade before the war. Underground temple
Stalin. Part 17: Beloved Leader of the Soviet People
Stalin. Part 18: On the eve of the invasion
Stalin. Part 19: War
Stalin. Part 20: By Martial Law
Stalin. Part 21: Stalingrad. Kill the German!
Stalin. Part 22: Political Race. Tehran-Yalta
Stalin. Part 23: Berlin is taken. What's next?
Stalin. Part 25: After the War
Stalin. Part 26: The Last Five Year Plan
Stalin. Part 27: Be part of the whole
[1] Yu. Smirnov. Stalin and the atomic bomb.
[2] S. Hawking
