when russia invent atomic bomb
By SERGE SCHMEMANN, MOSCOW, Jan. 13â The first Soviet atomic bomb, whose explosion in August 1949 formally launched the cold war arms race, was a copy of the first American A-bomb, built from plans supplied by at least one spy, according to the Russian who built that bomb.y SERGE SCHMEMANN, MOSCOW, Jan. 13â The first Soviet atomic bomb, whose explosion in August 1949 formally launched the cold war arms race, was a copy of the first American A-bomb, built from plans supplied by at least one spy, according to the Russian who built that bomb.