Russia commemorated the anniversary of the first test of the Soviet nuclear bomb, carried out on August 29, 1949. President Vladimir Putin sent a message to the gathering, praising the work of the Russian nuclear scientists in protecting the nation and in making the Russian nuclear industry a world-class enterprise.
“With their achievements, they ensured the country’s leading position in nuclear energy and nuclear parity in the world, made a colossal contribution to strengthening our defense capability, security and sovereignty, laid the foundations for the emergence of fundamentally new areas of science and industry, medicine and space technology, for the development of hard-to-reach territories of the Arctic,” Putin’s message says.
He called the test of the first domestic nuclear charge an event of historical significance, which entered the annals of the achievements of domestic science, and became evidence of its unique creative potential. Most importantly, a breakthrough success in this area was achieved at the end of the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet Union was restoring the national economy and rebuilding destroyed cities, the Russian leader remarked.
The rapid study of the atom was caused primarily by the atomic race between the U.S.A., Germany, and the U.S.S.R. that unfolded during the Second World War. Then, under the competent leadership of Russian physicist Igor Kurchatov, it simultaneously created the basis for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, with the world’s first commercial nuclear plant built in Obninsk in 1954, and even advanced research on the commercial development of thermonuclear fusion energy.