How Did the Soviets Get Their Hands on the Atomic Bomb?
In 1949 USSR became the second country to build nuclear weapons.
We all know the story of how the first atomic bomb was created. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission at their laboratory in Berlin in 1938, kicking off the race to the first atomic bomb. I’ve already discussed why the Germans failed so spectacularly at creating nuclear weapons despite making the initial breakthrough. At the same time, the Manhattan Project in the United States brought along one of humanity’s scariest weapons.
In World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union reluctantly joined forces to fight a mutual enemy. However, their uneasy alliance ended right after the war as the world transitioned into the Cold War era.
The two world superpowers battled for supremacy in the decades to come, and the US had the upper hand with its weapon of mass destruction. However, it was only a matter of time before the Soviets figured out how to make an atomic bomb of their own — and that, they did.
Soviet Physicists Knew the Potential of an Atomic Bomb
Hahn and Strassman’s discovery of nuclear fission sent shockwaves throughout the global physics community. In the subsequent year…
