Learn Russian with us. Red Kalinka is the largest Russian school in the world.

VIDEO LESSONS + TUTOR ONE-to-ONE LESSONS BOOKS EXERCISE ONLINE

Learn Russian with us. Red Kalinka is the largest school of Russian in the world. We have all you need to learn.Here you’ll find ONE-to-ONE LESSONS   VIDEO LESSONS   BOOKS , educational applications for your telephone, downloadable learning materials...

Online Russian lessons

Online Russian lessons

Choose how you want to learn Russian with us: one-to-one lessons or video lessons. In either case, you will be learning from home with the best Russian school in the world.

One-to-One Lessons



Video Lessons + Tutor

Arzamas-16 and the first Soviet atomic bomb (part 2)

Tuesday 7, January 2014, 2:12 pm Red

In the first part of this article, we discovered that Arzamas-16 was a Soviet city that for years could not be found on any map. Its origin lies in the need to create a nuclear bomb to balance forces against the US. The Soviet Union considered that a secret city would be the best defense against American spies. And maybe they were right.

Sarov is renamed Arzamas-16

We are going to discover the Russian plan to bring their research into secrecy. It’s the year 1946. The USSR chooses, as a research center for its nuclear program, the city of Sarov, about 300 kilometers from Moscow. It was a place close enough to the power to be controlled and far enough to not be detected by spies. The idea was simple: transform a little-known city in a place similar to Los Alamos, where the Americans developed their nuclear program.

First, the city was fenced off creating an exclusion zone of about 80km. Then, neither the civilian population nor the scientists were allowed to leave the perimeter. Finally, the Soviets put into motion the plan of concealment intended to erase all knowledge of the city. To do this, they changed the name of the town and it and was removed from all maps. At that moment the city of Sarov disappeared for the world and the legend of Arzamas-16 was born.

At its busiest point, the facility was home to 25,000 people dedicated exclusively to the creation of nuclear devices. In order for scientists and other workers not to fall into the temptation to flee or spying for other countries, Arzamas-16 salaries were higher than the average in the Soviet Union. In addition, its stores had a wide range of different products. Other advantages like shows, good schools and kindergartens, completed the catalog of services available to workers and their families. The city had more than 80,000 inhabitants.

tsar bomb
The Tsar bomb

Manhattan Project Vs Arzamas-16

July 16, 1945. Two hours after the first nuclear bomb in history, called Trinity, detonated in Alamogordo, in the United States, the Soviet government was already informed by their spies. The Manhattan Project had succeeded and reports from American spies estimated that Russia would not have nuclear capability until 1955, being very optimistic. But they were wrong. Laboratory-2 in Arzamas-16 was working around the clock, and without the knowledge of the United States. Finally, on August 22, 1949, in Kazakhstan, the RDS-1, the first Soviet atomic bomb, was detonated, only four years after the Americans. Then, the Cold War began.

Arzamas-16 continued in the utmost secrecy and became a kind of an urban legend, just like Area 51 in Nevada. Nuclear devices continued being developed, such as the Tsar Bomb: With 50 megatons, it was the most powerful bomb ever detonated in history. The most powerful bomb on the American side was the Castle Bravo, at 15 megatons.

trinity bomb
The Trinity bomb from Project Manhattan

Arzamas-16 today

Today, Arzamas-16 is still the largest nuclear research facility in Russia and their security measures are still very strict. In 1989 the existence of the city and the role it played was officially recognized. Finally, in 1995 it got back its original name of Sarov.

Curiosities: project leader of Arzamas-16, Igor Kurchatov, was so obsessed with getting the atomic bomb, that he decided not to shave his beard before until achieving it. All his colleagues began calling him “the beard”. Also Russian scientists had such a complete knowledge of the American facilities in Los Alamos that jokingly, they called their own facilities “Los Arzamas”.

And now, a happy ending to this story of secret: since 1993 the city of Sarov (Arzamas-16) and Los Alamos are sister cities.

arzamas 16
Atomic bombs in Arzamas-16

Russian language and culture - Red Kalinka and Facebook

Discover with us the wonderful Russian culture and its language. Click the buttons on the right to share this article or to follow us on Facebook.

Did you like this article? Leave us a comment:

Online Russian lessons

Online Russian lessons

Choose how you want to learn Russian with us: one-to-one lessons or video lessons. In either case, you will be learning from home with the best Russian school in the world.

One-to-One Lessons



Video Lessons + Tutor

RED KALINKA© | Spain