Throughout the course of history there have been individuals that have left a lasting impact on humankind, but failed to achieve notoriety or recognition for their work. One such individual was Andrei Sakharov, Soviet physicist and architect of the Soviet Union’s first hydrogen bomb. Sakharov’s contributions in the field of science were revolutionary, monumental, and far-reaching in terms of their impact on the cold war, and also in modern times. Sakharov’s impact on the world derived from his voice as an activist in the realms of human rights, nuclear disarmament, and peace between nations. Twenty years after assisting the Soviet Union in developing its most powerful weapon, Sakharov became one of it’s greatest opponents, and worked diligently …show more content…
Despite the many deterrents to success that Sakharov faced from his own government that he had empowered beyond belief, he remained steady on his journey to liberate the oppressed and strive for a peaceful world. Sakharov’s interest in physics started at an early age. His father, Dmitri Ivanovich Sakharov, taught Physics and Mathematics to young Andrei and instilled in him a strong work ethic. In his memoirs, Sakharov remarks that his father was pleased to see his growing interest in physics and math, and was convinced that he had far surpass his father in understanding of the subjects. Sakharov also stated regarding his father, “He constantly warned me against any form of snobbery, and passes on to his children his own firm …show more content…
As stated earlier, Sakharov’s passion for physics from his father, and he continued to excel in the field. Sakharov was homeschooled until the eighth grade, and eventually he would graduate high school with honors. Graduating with honors gave Sakharov the opportunity to advance straight to Moscow University, which housed the best Physics department in the country. In his first three years at the University, Sakharov excelled in brilliant fashion. However, upon the German invasion in in 1941, Sakharov was forced to move to Ashkhabad to continue his studies. Before doing so, Sakharov was to be enlisted in the army, but he failed a physical fitness test due to a chronic heart condition. Sakharov contributed to the war effort in a different way. “For the duration of the war, Sakharov was assigned to a cartridge factory, where he made a substantial contribution to the reliable production of 14.5 millimeter armor-piercing bullets by inventing a magnetic device to test their cores.” This contribution was crucial maintaining effectiveness of Soviet anti-tank guns on the frontlines. Prior to the introduction of Sakharov’s device, faulty rounds of the 14.5-millimeter variety were exploding whilst in the bores of the guns. Sakharov’s success in this endeavor, as well as his exceptional grades gave him crucial experience and a worthy resume to began his
Imagine working with radioactive materials in a secret camp, and the government not telling you that this material is harmful to your body. In the book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters by Kate Brown, she takes her readers on a journey to expose what happened in the first two cities that started producing plutonium. Brown is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has won a handful of prizes, such as the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for the Best Book in International European History, and was also a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow. Brown wrote this book by looking through hundreds of archives and interviews with people, the evidence she found brought light to how this important history of the Cold War left a nuclear imprint on the world today.
The Soviet’s were responsible for putting man on the moon, rovers on Mars, and launching the Hubble Space Telescope. Indeed, it was the United States’ foes that drove the U.S. to accomplish perhaps the greatest feats of the twentieth century. Following the defeat of Germany and Japan in World War II, tensions between former allies, the United States and the Soviet Union, began to grow. In the following decades, the two superpowers would duke it out in competitions and tremendous shows of nationalism. They formed unmatchable rivalries in politics, economics, sciences, and sports. These rivalries would become clear when two countries competed in the space race, a competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union concerning achievements in the field of space exploration. The Soviet’s took the early lead as they put the first satellite, Sputnik 1, into space. The launch of Sputnik 1 established a sense of fear into the American Public, resulting in the creation of NASA in the late 1950’s which opened the door for space exploration today and for future generations.
Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union made it a priority to outdo each other in every possible facet from arsenals of missiles to international alliances and spheres of influences. Yet when the Soviets launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, the world changed forever. The first manmade object was fired into space, and it appeared that American technology and science had fallen behind. Yet, the public feared that not only were they now technologically inferior to the Soviets, but also deduced that if a satellite could be launched into space, a nuclear missile could just as likely reach the mainland United States. Less than a month later, the Soviets pushed the bounds of technology yet again by
The Space Race is remarkably similar to that of the arms race because of the parallel between the creation of the atomic bomb and the goal of reaching the moon. The United States’ bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki effectively established its place as the technologically superior nation; however, major milestones in space achieved early by the Soviets damaged America’s reputation. In 1957, Soviet scientists shocked the world by successfully launching the Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, beyond the Kármán Line (the boundary of space). This amazing breakthrough “rattled American self-confidence”. It cast doubts on America’s vaunted scientific superiority and raised some sobering military questions.”
There have been many attempts to explain the origins of the Cold War that developed between the capitalist West and the communist East after the Second World War. Indeed, there is great disagreement in explaining the source for the Cold War; some explanations draw on events pre-1945; some draw only on issues of ideology; others look to economics; security concerns dominate some arguments; personalities are seen as the root cause for some historians. So wide is the range of the historiography of the origins of the Cold War that is has been said "the Cold War has also spawned a war among historians, a controversy over how the Cold War got started, whether or not it was inevitable, and (above all) who bears the main responsibility for starting it" (Hammond 4). There are three main schools of thought in the historiography: the traditional view, known alternatively as the orthodox or liberal view, which finds fault lying mostly with the Russians and deems security concerns to be the root cause of the Cold War; the revisionist view, which argues that it is, in fact, the United States and the West to blame for the Cold War and not the Russians, and cites economic open-door interests for spawning the Cold War; finally, the post-revisionist view which finds fault with both sides in the conflict and points to issues raised both by the traditionalists as well as the revisionists for combining to cause the Cold War. While strong arguments are made by historians writing from the traditionalist school, as well as those writing from the revisionist school, I claim that the viewpoint of the post-revisionists is the most accurate in describing the origins of the Cold War.
Chernobyl wouldn’t have been the traumatic event that it was if the Soviets were technologically advanced and obviously, if they trained their personnel to manage radioactive materials.
Civilization. Jan./ Feb. 1995: 30 - 39. Smirnov, Yuri, Adamsky, Viktor. “Moscow’s Biggest Bomb: The 50-Megaton Test of October 1961.” Cold War International History Project.
The major inventions during the Cold War included the Hydrogen Bomb, the Nuclear Powered Submarine, and the Computer Guided Intercontinental Nuclear Missiles. The Hydrogen Bomb was first tested in 1952; it explodes violently when reacted with an intense amount of heat. Unlike the Atomic Bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, these Hydrogen Bombs are much stronger with intent to damage anything within a one-mile radius. Moreover, heavy particles of radiation will fall to the ground, affecting the environment and healt...
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev Dmitri Mendeleev was one of the most famous modern-day scientists of all time, who contributed greatly to the world’s fields of science, technology, and politics. He helped modernize the world and set it further ahead into the future. Mendeleev also made studying chemistry easier, by creating a table with the elements and the atomic weights of them put in order by their properties. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev was born in Tobolsk, Siberia, on February 7, 1834. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy was the son of Maria Dmitrievna Korniliev and Ivan Pavlovitch Mendeleev and the youngest of 14 children.
From when World War II ended in 1945, all the way up to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Cold War was the center of attention of international affairs. It was a struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. From an American view the Cold War was a mostly a war on communism. The US caused and maintained the Cold War, the US is to blame for the Cold War for disparish of the communist Soviet Union in support of the political and economic systems.
The term "cold war" first appeared in an essay written in 1945 by English writer George Orwell titled You and the Atomic Bomb and is defined as a state of political hostility between countries characterized by threats, propaganda, and other measures that don’t utilize warfare. The international conflict we know as the Cold War is one of, if not, the most bizarre periods in the long, ridiculous history of worldwide conflict. For forty-five years, it drove the political status of the United States and the Soviet Union and also cost both sides a ton of time and resources. It altered the destinies of smaller countries that were dragged into the control of the superpowers and escalated the viciousness of civil wars. Through the Space Race, the Cold
From scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized our understanding of the world to practical inventions that changed the way we live, scientific and technological developments in the 20th century have profoundly altered nearly every aspect of our lives. We usually think of these changes as wholly positive, but when you look at the destruction caused after the first two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan in 1945, this view tends to be distorted. As we can see by this horrific event, technology can be used to improve lives, but also destroy them.
The 20th century was arguably the most eventful span of a hundred years ever. Innumerable wars (Including two World Wars), countless inventions and discoveries, space explorations, great achievements, Liberalization of various countries, have occurred during this span of time. I would pick out one such incident from the 20th century which has had a great impact- if not the greatest on the world. According to me, The Cold war which lasted for nearly forty-three years was a significant event in the 20th century. I believe the cold war is the most important event to happen in the 20th century because in the 20th century there was all kind of inventions made that made a big impact on this world that’s still making that big impact in today’s world.
President Truman was convinced from the beginning that Stalin intended to take over countries based solely by the fact that there were communist parties present in them.
Causes and Effects of the Cold War The Cold War, though never involving any fighting on either side, resulted in one of the biggest scares the U.S. society and government had ever experienced. The Cold War was, all in all, an extended period of political and military tensions between the United States and our allies in the Western Bloc, and the pre-existing Soviet Union and their allies involved in the Warsaw Pact. If not had been dealt with very carefully, the Cold War would’ve gained a new name after much likely nuclear warfare between world powers. This caused the U.S. to put a new step in their strategy to contain communism. The U.S. started taking the side of any anti-communist country that the USSR tried to gain control of.