Igor "The Beard" Kurchatov

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov (И́горь Васи́льевич Курча́тов) (January 8, 1903 – February 7, 1960), Soviet/Russian physicist. He was the leader of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Kurchatov was born in Simsky zavod, Ufa Guberniya (now city of Sim, Chelyabinsk Oblast). He studied physics at Crimea State University and ship building at the Polytechnical Institute in Petrograd. In 1925 he moved to the Physico-Technical Institute, where he worked (under Abram Fedorovich Ioffe) on various problems connected with radioactivity. In 1932 he received funding for his own nuclear science research team, which built the Soviet Union's first cyclotron. Image File history File links Picture of Igor Kurchatov and his crazy beard, probably ca. ... Image File history File links Picture of Igor Kurchatov and his crazy beard, probably ca. ... January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1903 has the latest occurring solstices and equinoxes for 400 years, because the Gregorian calendar hasnt had a leap year for seven years or a century leap year since 1600. ... February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... State motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (transliteration: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Official language None; Russian (de facto) Capital Moscow Area  - Total  - % water 1st before collapse 22,402,200 km²  ?% Population  - Total  - Density 3rd before collapse 293,047,571 (July 1991) 13. ... The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb began during World War II in the Soviet Union. ... View of Ufa 100 years ago. ... Guberniya (also gubernia, guberniia, and gubernya) (Russian: губе́рния) was a major administrative subdivision of the Imperial Russia, usually translated as province or Governorate General. ... Categories: Stub | Oblasts of Russia ... Since antiquity, people have tried to understand the behavior of matter: why unsupported objects drop to the ground, why different materials have different properties, and so forth. ... Saint Petersburg  listen (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute is one of Russias largest research centers specialized in physics and technology. ... Abram Fedorovich Ioffe (Абра́м Фёдорович Ио́ффе, October 29, 1880 (new style) – October 14, 1960) was a prominent Soviet/Russian physicist. ... Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei (nuclides) emit subatomic particles. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... 60-inch cyclotron, circa 1939, showing beam of accelerated ions (perhaps protons or deuterons) causing a blue glow, almost certainly the Cherenkov effect. ...

Kurchatov at around age 20.

When, in 1941, war broke out between Germany and the USSR, Kurchatov switched his researches first to protecting shipping from magnetic mines, and later to tank armour. In 1943 the NKVD obtained a copy of a secret British report concerning the feasibility of atomic weapons, which led Stalin to order the commencement of a Soviet programme (albeit with very limited resources). Ioffe recommended Kurchatov to Molotov, and Kurchatov was appointed director of the nascent programme later that year. The Soviet atomic bomb project remained a relatively low priority until information from spy Klaus Fuchs and later the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki goaded Stalin into action. Stalin ordered Kurchatov to produce a bomb by 1948, and put the ruthless Lavrenty Beria in direct command of the project. The project took over the town of Sarov in the Gorki Oblast (now Nizhny Novgorod Oblast) on the Volga, and renamed it Arzamas-16. The team (which included other prominent Soviet nuclear scientists such as Julii Borisovich Khariton and Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich) was assisted both by public disclosures made by the US government and by further information supplied by Fuchs, but Kurchatov and Beria (fearing the intelligence was misinformation) insisted his scientists retest everything themselves. Beria in particular would use the intelligence as a third-party check on the conclusions of the teams of scientists. a young Igor Kurchatov This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... a young Igor Kurchatov This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... In physics, magnetism is a phenomenon by which materials exert an attractive or repulsive force on other materials. ... The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. ... A hoplite wearing a helmet, a breastplate and greaves (and nothing else). ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Black Ravens by Boris Vladimirski, a depiction of the cars used by NKVD agents. ...   Joseph Stalin? (December 21, 1879 – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953), a position which had later become that of party leader. ... Molotov can refer to: Vyacheslav Molotov - a Soviet politician a former name of the Russian city of Perm Molotov - a Mexican hiphop group Molotov Cocktail - a crude explosive weapon devised using a flamable fluid inside a bottle with a saturated wick (rag) inserted to cause immolation of a target when... The Soviet project to develop an atomic bomb began during World War II in the Soviet Union. ... Im new to this and Im not sure how to edit the page. ... Citizens of Hiroshima walk by the A-Bomb Dome, the closest building to have survived the citys atomic bombing. ... 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Lavrenty Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich Beria (Georgian: ; Russian: ; (29 March 1899 - 23 December 1953), Soviet politician and police chief, is remembered chiefly as the executor of Joseph Stalins Great Purge of the 1930s, although in fact he presided only over the closing stages of the Purge. ... Sarov (Саро́в) is a town in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia. ... Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (Нижегоро́дская о́бласть) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). ... For other meanings of the word Volga see Volga (disambiguation) Волга Length 3,690 km Elevation of the source 225 m Average discharge  ? m³/s Area watershed 1. ... Sarov (Саро́в) is a town in Russia. ... Julii Borisovich Khariton (Ю́лий Бори́сович Харито́н, February 27, 1904 - December 18, 1996) was a Soviet physicist working in the field of atomic energy. ... Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich (Russian:Яков Борисович Зельдович) (March 8, 1914 – December 2, 1987) was a prolific Soviet physicist. ... The word Usa has more than one meaning: U.S.A. - The United States of America The United States Army Usa, Oita - A city in Japan The USA cable network USA Today national daily newspaper The University of Southern Alabama goes by the initials U.S.A. The patriotic cheer...

On August 29, 1949 the team detonated First Lightning, its initial test device (a plutonium implosion bomb) at the Semipalatinsk Test Site; Kurchatov later remarked that his main feeling at the time was one of relief, as he was confident that had the weapon failed, Stalin would have had him shot. August 29 is the 241st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (242nd in leap years), with 124 days remaining. ... 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... External links http://gawain. ... The Semipalatinsk Test Site (STS) was the primary testing venue for the Soviet Unions nuclear weapons. ...

Kurchatov subsequently worked on the Soviet hydrogen bomb program (1953), but later worked for the peaceful use of nuclear technology, and advocated against nuclear bomb tests. The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945 lifted nuclear fallout some 18 km (60,000 feet) above the epicenter. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

During the A-bomb programme, Kurchatov swore he wouldn't cut his beard until the program succeeded, and he continued to wear a large beard (often cut into eccentric styles) for the remainder of his life, earning him the nickname "The Beard". Kurchatov died in Moscow in 1960 of a blood clot in his brain. Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA:   listen?) is the capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva. ... 1960 was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

References

• Dark Sun: The Making Of The Hydrogen Bomb by Richard Rhodes (ISBN 0684824140)
• PBS documentary Citizen Kurchatov

External links

• Biography of Igor Kurchatov (in Russian)