Today (20 August 2025) marks the 80th anniversary of the official establishment of the Russian (then Soviet) nuclear industry. The event was marked by an open letter to the world, signed by Rosatom’s General Director Aleksey Likhachev, the Chairman of RPRAEP [the Russian Professional Union of Atomic Energy and Industry Workers] Vladimir Kuznetsov, and the Chairman of the MODV AEP [Interregional Social Movement of Veterans of the Atomic Energy Industry] Council Vladimir Ognev. The letter points to the difficult origins facing the industry, noting that “it was created in the most difficult times for the entire country, immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War.”
It continues: “In the shortest possible time, the first Soviet atomic bomb was created, and then an arsenal of weapons was gradually developed, which made it possible to establish nuclear parity. The existence of a nuclear shield and its maintenance to this day guarantee the national sovereignty of the Russian Federation. Soviet nuclear engineers did not just protect the country in that extremely difficult time. They ensured global peace on the planet. We were not the first to make an atomic bomb. But we were the first to build an industrial nuclear power plant and a nuclear icebreaker fleet. Solving the country’s security problems, our scientists were able to look into the future, stay one step ahead of the rest of the world and find opportunities for the peaceful use of atomic energy.”
Included in the article that accompanies the letter is a rather grainy photograph of the first and last pages of the Top Secret decree that ordered the implementation of the nuclear industry. The first page establishes the names of the members of the Special Committee to stand up the industry, and the last page places the seal of approval on the project with the signature of Josef Stalin.
The translation of this document, which curiously does not carry the “DECLASSIFIED” stamp we’ve come to know, can be found below. The document itself is anything but dynamic – rather dry compared to other documents we’ve translated and published, but worth noting for the names involved, if nothing else.
One note on the translation: italics are used to indicate those sections of the decree that were hand-written by an unknown author.
Top Secret
Special folder
DECREE
OF THE STATE DEFENSE COMMITTEE [GOKO]
No. 9887ss/on
20 August 1945 Moscow / The Kremlin
“On the Special Committee under GOKO”
The State Defense Committee DECREES:
1. To create a Special Committee under GOKO, consisting of:
L.P. BERIYA (chairman)
2. Entrust the Special Committee with the supervision of all activities on the use of the subatomic energy of uranium;
the development of scientific research efforts in this field;
the wide deployment of geological exploration and the creation of a raw material base of the USSR for uranium mining, as well as the use of uranium deposits outside the USSR (in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and other countries);
the management of the uranium processing industry, the production of special equipment and materials related to the use of subatomic energy;
as well as the construction of nuclear power plants and the development and production of the atomic bomb.
3. For the preliminary consideration of scientific and technical issues raised for discussion of the Special Committee of the GOKO, consideration of plans for scientific research work and subsequent reports, as well as technical projects of structures, designs, and installations for the use of the subatomic energy of uranium – create a Technical Council from the committee, consisting of:
B.L. Vannikov (chairman)
A.I. Alikhanov (scientific secretary)
I.N. Voznesenkiy, associate member of the USSR Academy of Science
A.P. Zavenyagin
A.F. Ioffe, Academy member
P.L. Kapitsa, Academy member
I.K. Kikoin, associate member of the USSR Academy of Science
I.V. Kurchatov, Academy member
V.A. Makhnev
Yu.B. Khariton, professor
V.G. Khlopin, Academy member
4. For the direct supervision of scientific research, design, and construction organizations and industrial enterprises for the use of the subatomic energy of uranium and the production of atomic bombs, to organize a Main Directorate at the USSR SNK [Council of People’s Commissars] — “The First Main Directorate of the USSR SNK” – subordinate to the Special Committee of the GOKO.
5. Commit the Special Committee of the GOKO to develop and submit for the approval of the Chairman of the GOKO the work plan of the committee and the First Main Directorate of the USSR SNK and measures for their implementation
6. The Special Committee under the GOKO takes operational measures to ensure the fulfillment of the tasks assigned to it through this decree, issues orders that are mandatory for the people’s committees and agencies, and in cases requiring a government decision, submits its proposals directly to the GOKO chairman for approval.
The special committee under the GOKO has its own apparatus, budget, and running inventory in the USSR Gosbank.
7. The Special Committee under the GOKO determines and approves for the First Main Directorate of the USSR SNK the amount of allocated funds, manpower, and materials and equipment it requires, so that these resources are included in the distribution balances as “Special expenses of the GOKO” by the Gosplan [State Planning Committee] of the USSR.
8. The Chairman of the Gosplan of the USSR, Comrade N.A. Voznesensky, is to organize in the Gosplan a directorate to support the assignments of the GOKO Special Committee.
Appoint the deputy chairman of Gosplan N.A. Borisov as the head of this directorate, having relieved him of other Gosplan and GOKO work.
9. Establish that the financing of the expenditures and maintenance of the GOKO Special Committee, the First Main Directorate of the USSR SNK, scientific research, construction, and design organizations and industrial enterprises of the latter, as well as the work performed by other people’s commissars and agencies based on orders from the directorate, shall be included in the Union budget under the article “Special expenditures of the State Committee.”
Financing of capital construction for the First Main Directorate is to carried out through Gosbank.
The First Main Directorate and its subordinate institutions and enterprises are to be exempted from manpower registration in financial bodies.
10. Comrade B.L. Vannikov is to be approved as head of the First Main Directorate of the USSR SNK and the deputy chairman of the GOKO Special Committee, with his release from the duties of People’s Commissar of Armaments.
Deputy chiefs of the Central Committee:
A.P. Zavenyagin – first deputy
N.A. Borisov – deputy
P.Ya. Meshyk – deputy
P.Ya. Antropov – deputy
A.G. Kasatkin – deputy
11. Establish that the First Main Directorate of the SNK of the USSR, its enterprises and institutions, as well as the work performed by other people’s commissars and departments for it, are controlled by the GOKO Special Committee.
No organizations, institutions, or officials without special permission from the GOKO have the right to interfere in the administrative, economic, and operational activities of the First Main Directorate, or that of its enterprises and institutions, or to demand information about its work or the work performed on the orders of the First Main Directorate. All reporting on the assigned work is sent solely to the Special Committee under the GOKO.
12. Instruct the Special Committee within a 10-day period to submit for approval to the GOKO chairman a proposal for the transfer to the First Main Directorate of the SNK the scientific, design, project, construction organizations and industrial enterprises necessary for its work, and approve the structure, staff, and the salaries of the staff of the committee and the First Main Directorate of the SNK.
13. Instruct Comrade Beria to take steps to manage foreign intelligence operations to acquire more complete technical and economic information about the uranium industry and atomic bombs, having entrusted him with the management of all intelligence work in this area conducted by intelligence agencies (NKGB, Red Army Intelligence Directorate, etc.).
Chairman of the State Defense Committee Iosef Stalin <signed>
Translation © 2025 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
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