Stalin and the Bomb
Subtitle: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956
By: David Holloway
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 1994-09-24
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 464
ISBN-13: 9780300060560
Subjects: Nuclear weapons -- Government policy -- Soviet Union -- History; Nuclear energy -- Research -- Soviet Union -- History; Science and state -- Soviet Union -- History; Soviet Union -- Foreign relations
Description: "In engrossing detail, David Holloway tells us how Stalin launched a crash atomic program only after the Americans bombed Hiroshima and showed that the bomb could be built; how the information handed over to the Soviets by Klaus Fuchs helped in the creation of their bomb; how the scientific intelligentsia, which included such men as Andrei Sakharov, interacted with the police apparatus headed by the suspicious and menacing Lavrentii Beria; what steps Stalin took to counter U.S. atomic diplomacy; how the nuclear project saved Soviet physics and enabled it to survive as an island of intellectual autonomy in a totalitarian society; and what happened when, after Stalin's death, Soviet scientists argued that a nuclear war might extinguish all life on earth." "This magisterial history throws light on Soviet policy at the height of the Cold War, illuminates a central but hitherto secret element of the Stalinist system, and puts into perspective the tragic legacy of this program - today environmental damage, a network of secret cities, and a huge stockpile of unwanted weapons."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.