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Science at War (LOGIN TO VIEW THIS EPISODE)
Russia's Nuclear Patriots (Episode 5)
The Soviet Union- 1950. In the secret city of Arzamas – 16 the brightest and best scientific minds were ordered by Stalin to build weapons which, if used, could destroy the world.
Working under intense political pressure, fear of execution and with near-primitive technology, the Soviets, headed by a young Andrei Sakharov, were still able to produce a deliverable H-bomb way ahead of Western predations.. For the U.S the possibility of Soviet nuclear dominance was too terrible to contemplate – and the Cold War was about to enter its most terrifying phase.
Making Hydrogen bombs that actually exploded represented a scientific problem so complex it should, by rights, have never been solved. Harnessing energy equal to that produced by the sun occupied the minds of the worlds greatest physicists for over a decade. In America, Edward Teller rallied Presidents and politicians to his cause – that the tide of Communism must be turned at all costs. The laboratories of Los Alamos, which had produced the decisive weapon of the war were mobilised once again.
The story had begun in the ruins of Hiroshima in 1945. In a state of shock, Soviet observers were able to report to Stalin that their spies had been correct, the American atomic bomb was a weapon of incredible destructive capability. In an immediate and massive mobilisation of scientific manpower, the Soviets were able to match their enemies atomic achievements after only four years. So began a scientific tit for tat which was to define the nuclear age for the next forty years.
By 1961, Soviet scientists were ready to test the most powerful bomb ever. It would, said Premier Nikita Khrushchev, ‘hang over the heads of the Capitalists like a Sword of Damocles’. At over 100 megatons, the force of the explosion would be equal to that of 10,000 Hiroshima bombs.
The brinkmanship of the Cuban missile crisis a year later demonstrated to the world how tenuous the stalemate had become. Against all odds, Russia’s nuclear patriots had played the Americans at their own game – but the question of whether they would actively contribute to the waging of nuclear war remained. For some scientists, including Andrei Sakharov, the prospect of creating such a deadly legacy proved too much. For others, it was the profound desire to fulfil their patriotic and scientific duty which drove them on.
Using previously unseen archive film and first time interviews with surviving witnesses, Russia’s Nuclear Patriots tells the story of the unknown men and women of Russia who dedicated their lives to the development of the Hydrogen bomb – the greatest weapon of mass destruction ever known. |
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