The First Lightning: The First Russian Nuclear Atomic Bomb

Two o’clock in the morning on August 29,1949 the first nuclear atomic bomb was dropped known as the “First Lighting.” It was dropped on the testing site in Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. This nuclear bomb was produced by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) also known as the Soviet Union.

Igor Kurchatov was the director of the scientific soviet nuclear bomb program. There were two practice rounds two weeks prior to the explosion. During these two weeks period the Special Committee on the atomic bomb sent Lavrentii Beria to go and watch the assembly work, and return back and show Joseph Stalin the Soviet leader, their progress. One of the main reasons for the producti on of this bomb was to teach the Soviet Union about the effects of nuclear bombs.

Since the effects were the main purpose of the the atomic bomb the USSR built tunnels, bridges, water towers, buildings, wooden houses, brick houses, and other different types of structures nearby. There was also all different type of animals caged up so they can examine the effects of nuclear radiation.

The Soviet Union used a train to ship all the components needed to create this bomb, to the weapons lab in Russia back to the testing site back in Kazakhstan, which was two-thousand miles away from Arzamas. The bomb was going to be tested in a tower built by the Soviet Union. While building this tower they placed the device in a concrete hall, with railway trucks all over the entire place. This was so the bomb pieces can come in one side and the finished product was carried out the other side to brought to the top of the tower for testing.

Although the atomic bomb hit the ground at two o’clock in the morning it was originally scheduled to be tested at six o’clock in the m...

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... Nations support.”

About a month after that a man named Klaus Fuchs, a German physicist, was arrested for giving the Soviet Union secretive information to help them develop the atomic bomb. During World War II, Fuchs was positioned at the U.S. atomic development headquarters. Fuchs was giving the USSR information about the U.S. program, including the blueprint for the atomic bomb known as the “Fat Man”, that was later dropped in Japan. He also told them about everything the Los Alamos scientist knew involving the hypothesized hydrogen weapon.

As a conclusion, the development of the nuclear atomic bomb “First Lighting”, was an overall great success for the USSR and improved the security system. This would not have happened if everyone would have not worked together. As the years passed the inventions of nuclear weapons has gotten every time they create a new one.