Search | Wilson Center Digital Archive

Switch to Visualization

Soviet Nuclear History Clear All

Related Resources

Soviet Nuclear History

Soviet soldier taking a photograph of another soldier in Red Square, Moscow, 1959

Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Soviet Union. Communist Party. Central Committee (CPSU CC). Politburo

-

Ukrainian Nuclear History

Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)

Aerial view of National Mall

North America

United States

Ukrainian Motherland Monument, Kyiv

Eastern Europe

Ukraine

The Atomic Energy Commission of the United Nations meets on June 14, 1946.

Baruch Plan for International Control of Atomic Energy

Portrait of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, 1972.

East Asia

China

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhaylovich

1890- 1986

Sino-Soviet Relations

A photo of Joseph Stalin from 1943

Stalin, Joseph

1879- 1953

Chernobyl nuclear accident

Ukraine

Chernobyl

Nuclear Proliferation

Nikita Khrushchev at the UNGA, 1962.

Khrushchev, Nikita Sergeevich

1894- 1971

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Kurchatov, Igor V.

-

Pyongyang photographed in March 20212

East Asia

North Korea

Placeholder image for when a portrait image is not available

Soviet Union. Council of Ministers

-

Results:

121 - 130 of 147

Display:

Sort By:

Documents

February 28, 1955	Report by the Measurement Lab of the USSR Academy of Science, 'On the Properties of the Atomic Bombs Detonated on the Marshal Islands in 1954' Soviet scientific intelligence report on U.S. nuclear weapons testing on the Marshall Islands in 1954. This report concludes that the Ivy Mike and Castle nuclear detonations were thermonuclear based on gamma ray spectroscopy of fission fragments collected by Soviet aircraft over the USSR and PRC.
June 21, 1946	Soviet Council of Ministers Resolution, No. 1286-525, On Development of Soviet Atomic Weapons Resolution outlining the work of the newly established Design Bureau No.11 (KB-11). Atomic bombs are referred to in the resolution as “jet engines S,” in two versions, S-1 and S-2 (abbreviated as RDS-1 and RDS-2). RDS-1 meant the analog of the first U.S. plutonium-239 implosion type atomic bomb tested on 16 July 1945 in New Mexico RDS-2 signified the analog of the uranium-235 gun type bomb exploded over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
April 9, 1946	Soviet Council of Ministers Resolution, Establishing Design Bureau No. 11 Resolution establishing Design Bureau No.11 (KB-11), which was the Soviet analog of the secret wartime American nuclear weapons laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
August 20, 1945	Soviet State Defense Committee Edict No. GKO-9887ss/op Instructions for the creation of a Special Committee which would supervise nuclear research and development of an atomic bomb.
May 6, 1958	Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A. M. Puzanov for 6 May 1958 Puzanov reports on the premises selected to house the Soviet exhibition on the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
April 14, 1950	National Security Council Report, NSC 68, 'United States Objectives and Programs for National Security' On US national security policy at the beginning of the Cold War. Includes an assessment of the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as US and Soviet nuclear weapons capabilities.
October 21, 1957	Journal of Soviet Ambassador to the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 21 October 1957 Puzanov discusses the logistics of the display of mobile Soviet exhibits about the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes in Pyongyang with Nam Il.
January 25, 1946	Handwritten notes by Igor V. Kurchatov, Director of the Soviet Nuclear Program, on a Meeting with Stalin, Beria and Molotov Excerpts from Igor V. Kurchatov's handwritten notes from a conversation with Stalin on the secret Soviet nuclear project, accompanied by Beria and Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov, at the Kremlin on the evening of 25 January 1946.
September 29, 1944	Letter, Igor V. Kurchatov, Director of the Soviet Nuclear Program, to Lavrenti Beria In this letter, physicist Igor V. Kurchatov, the scientific director of the Soviet nuclear project, writes to secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, whom Stalin had given principal responsibility for the atomic effort. Prodded by his own scientists and by intelligence reports of the secret Anglo-American atomic enterprise, Stalin had initiated a small-scale Soviet nuclear weapons program in late 1942-early 1943. But the level of support political leaders had given the project failed to satisfy Kurchatov, who pleaded with Beria for additional backing.
November 25, 1991	Memo, US Proposals Concerning Limited Non-Nuclear Space Defense and Missile Attack Warning System Memo on Soviet-American consultations in Washington between November 25 and 27, 1991. The American side proposed discussion of limited non-nuclear missile defense and early warning systems, but the Soviet side refused to be drawn into lengthy discussions. The US also rejected the Soviet proposal to create joint missile attack warning systems.