In 1946, the head of the KGB First Directorate, Boris Vannikov, sent Lavrentiy Beria an appeal from Soviet Academy of Science physicists to help them conduct airborne experiments that would allow them to collect radioactive particles near nuclear testing sites associated with the US ‘Operation Crossroads’. The concept would have Beria instruct Commander in ChiefContinueContinue reading “Soviet Scientists Develop Experiment to Conduct Air Sampling near US ‘Operation Crossroads’ Nuclear Test Sites”
Category Archives: nuclear weapons
Russia’s Nuclear Industry Celebrates its 80th Anniversary with Publication of Top Secret Implementation Decree
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 theContinueContinue reading “Russia’s Nuclear Industry Celebrates its 80th Anniversary with Publication of Top Secret Implementation Decree”
Hitler’s Plans to Nuke the Soviet Union: Gruppenführer Werner Wächter’s Interrogation
On September 14, 1945, the head of the NKVD Operations Sector in Berlin, Major General Aleksey Sidnev, sent the Deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General Ivan Serov, a new special message on the progress of the investigation into the case of SA Gruppenführer Werner Wächter. As revealed during interrogations, simultaneouslyContinueContinue reading “Hitler’s Plans to Nuke the Soviet Union: Gruppenführer Werner Wächter’s Interrogation”
Report on Effect of Blast from First Soviet Nuclear Bomb on Animals
On 30 August 1949, one day after the Soviet Union successfully detonated its first nuclear bomb, Avetik Ignatyevich Burnazyan, Deputy Minister of Health of the USSR, filed a report to Lavrentiy Beria on preliminary findings from data retrieved on more than 1500 animals purposely exposed to the explosion and radiation. As expected, the reading isContinueContinue reading “Report on Effect of Blast from First Soviet Nuclear Bomb on Animals”
London-Based Soviet Spy and Klaus Fuchs Discuss Status of England’s Progress in Building Atomic Bomb, 1941
The following is a decrypted Top Secret message from the head of the London rezidentura to the Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army General Staff on work in England to create an atomic bomb. The message provides information provided by Agent “Baron” (Simon Davidovich Kremer) regarding his meeting with German physicist-turned-spy Klaus Fuchs (covername “Fuka”)ContinueContinue reading “London-Based Soviet Spy and Klaus Fuchs Discuss Status of England’s Progress in Building Atomic Bomb, 1941”
Achilles Heel: The Stateside Soviet Spy and His Unknown Manhattan Project Source
Today we look at a March 1944 letter from the US-based GRU spy Arthur Adams, whose covername was “Akhill” (Achilles), to the Director of the GRU on American progress in efforts to create a nuclear weapon. This letter was sent via diplomatic mail, which in wartime conditions meant it would have to travel a circuitousContinueContinue reading “Achilles Heel: The Stateside Soviet Spy and His Unknown Manhattan Project Source”
Alarmed by Nuclear Lag, Soviet Ukrainian Physicist Requests Funding for US-Built Cyclotron (1944)
In early 1944, the President of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Science Akademik A.A. Bogomolets sent a Secret letter to then-Chair of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR Nikita Khrushchev, asking him to look into the possibility of not only procuring a cyclotron laboratory to hasten the Soviet Union’s lagging explorationContinueContinue reading “Alarmed by Nuclear Lag, Soviet Ukrainian Physicist Requests Funding for US-Built Cyclotron (1944)”
Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad
On 5 November 1944, the head of the Soviet NKVD Foreign Intelligence Directorate, Pavel Mikhaylovich Fitin, disseminated a Top Secret report on global advances in the field of nuclear weapon developments. The list of addressees for the report is not included in the material, but given the level of detail and the highly sensitive natureContinueContinue reading “Project “Enormoz” Update: 1944 NKVD Report on Foreign Nuclear Weapon Programs Using Input from Spies Abroad”
Closing In: Beria’s 1942 Report to Stalin on Allied Advances in Building the Bomb
In March 1942, Lavrentiy Beria penned a Top Secret internal report for Josef Stalin regarding recent advances by a number of non-Soviet countries (England, France, Germany, and the US) in trying to achieve nuclear fission as a new power source. These research efforts have, in turn, spawned interest in seeing how this new science couldContinueContinue reading “Closing In: Beria’s 1942 Report to Stalin on Allied Advances in Building the Bomb”
Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project
In September 1941, a Soviet rezident in London known as ‘Vadim’ (now known to be Anatoly Gorsky) sent an enciphered Top Secret cable to his NKVD colleagues in Moscow regarding details of a recent meeting of the “uranium committee” (presumed to be a reference to the MAUD Committee) and England’s continued efforts at pursuing theContinueContinue reading “Soviet Agent in 1941 London Reports to NKVD on England’s Atomic Bomb Project”
Translating History 