Chapter 300
As the main institution for the development of nuclear weapons in the Soviet Union, Laboratory No. 2 was originally a secret agency under the Soviet Academy of Sciences. However, as the Soviet central leadership, including Stalin, included the nuclear weapons development program in the key core work sequence of the entire union, the entire Laboratory No. 2 was separated from the Academy of Sciences and directly placed under the People's Committee.
In other words, in the current alliance organization, this Laboratory No. 2 is actually a ministerial-level organization. If it is placed in China, it is actually a ministry directly under the State Council, and is on the same level as organizations such as the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Health.
However, the level of Laboratory No. 2 was only retained for less than two weeks. With the convening of the "Kontsevo Conference", a new round of adjustments appeared again. Proposed by Comrade Beria, approved by Stalin, and discussed and passed by the National Defense Council, an order "Urgent Measures to Ensure the Work of Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences" was issued, and a new special committee was immediately established.
This special committee was the organization specifically responsible for the so-called "uranium project". Comrade Stalin served as its chairman, and its vice-chairmen included Beria, Malenkov, and Voznesensky. In addition, there were several other members, including Zaviniakin, Vannikov, Yuri, Bervukhin, Kapitsa, and Kurchatov.
Abraham Zaviniakin, Deputy People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs, had been cooperating with Beria in the past , and was mainly responsible for the construction of secret projects. After the capture of Berlin, he was also responsible for the dismantling of a large number of high-tech factories in Germany. In other words, he was a technical official with strong technical ability. However, in this committee, he was mainly responsible for intelligence and confidentiality work, that is, he was engaged in espionage and counter-espionage at the same time, which was of the nature of internal security.
Vannikov, needless to say, is in charge of equipment. He has been doing this kind of work in the past and has become familiar with it.
Yuri was mainly responsible for manpower mobilization and logistics support. In addition, he was also responsible for organizing construction projects. Of course, this so-called responsibility was only a general responsibility, and he was not the supervisor.
Bervukhin is mainly responsible for technical support work, including the allocation of necessary chemicals. Although the workload is not large, it is very difficult. To be honest, his job is more troublesome than Yuri's.
Both Kapitsa and Kurchatov were responsible for the specific research work in the laboratory, but they were responsible for different directions. Yuri was not knowledgeable in this area, and due to the confidentiality principle, he was not clear about the specific work in the laboratory. Therefore, he had no idea about the specific division of work of these two people.
After the establishment of the Special Committee, Yuri could clearly feel Stalin's emphasis on this work. The entire No. 2 Laboratory was transferred to the Special Committee, and the Special Committee was positioned as the first agency under the People's Commissars. As a member of the Special Committee, Yuri then became a member of the People's Commissars in order to enhance the convenience of his work.
In accordance with the order "Urgent Measures to Ensure the Work of Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences", once the special committee was established, it received a large number of staff and an absolutely huge financial allocation. Laboratory No. 2 itself alone received a staff of 855 people and a financial allocation of 15.6 million rubles.
In those days, considering that an ordinary worker's daily wage was only three or four rubles, this financial allocation was definitely a huge sum of money. The most important thing was that this money was only used for experiments. Corresponding things like the construction of laboratories and the replenishment of basic chemical supplies were free of charge and were considered off-budget expenses.
During those years, anything was easy to do in the Soviet Union. The key was to avoid attracting the attention of Comrade Stalin. As long as Comrade Stalin noticed you, the people in charge of the corresponding work would not have an easy time.
Everyone has to admit that Comrade Stalin is definitely a great man. Even if he has ten thousand shortcomings, his contributions to the Soviet Union are obvious to all. But then again, no one is perfect, and it is impossible for a great man to know everything, let alone all kinds of science. Therefore, when he issues instructions, he often makes plans according to the urgency of the corresponding work.
In his previous life, Yuri knew that the Americans should have successfully developed nuclear weapons in 1945, after all, they dropped two on Japan. Now it is the end of August 1944, and there are less than four months to 1945. So how far has the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons development progressed? It is hard to believe that so far, let alone other work, even the basic uranium enrichment technology has not been truly mastered, and there is no uranium mine available for development.
At present, Laboratory No. 2 only has 700 kilograms of uranium powder, 100 tons of uranium oxide and 12 tons of uranium ore, and the latter items were all looted from Germany.
Fortunately, the special committee headed by Comrade Malenkov dismantled the two pure uranium plants in Oranienburg, Germany, and all the equipment, including a large number of German experts, were brought to Noginsk, where they planned to build the Soviet Union's own uranium purification plant.
In addition, Comrade Beria's intelligence network provided Laboratory No. 2 with a large amount of core intelligence from the United States, and the laboratory's experts have begun analyzing the technical data in the intelligence.
In general, the main pressure of the entire committee is currently concentrated on Yuri, because he is responsible for two important tasks: the laboratory infrastructure project and the uranium mine development project.
As mentioned earlier, Comrade Stalin would not consider the complexity or difficulty of the work. He only gave orders: The Executive Bureau of the Disarmament Commission must build corresponding experimental bases for the eight subordinate research laboratories of Laboratory No. 2. This experimental base covers an area of 120 hectares and is planned by the expert group of Laboratory No. 2. In order to achieve the effect of radiation protection, all buildings will use granite as the main material. In addition, a large number of buildings will be built underground.
How long did Comrade Stalin give for such a huge and professional project? Two months, only two months. If the task was not completed, he would replace the person.
In Yuri's opinion, this job is relatively simple, but the second job is really difficult, which is the development of uranium mines.
In fact, even during the Soviet-German War, Soviet geologists did not give up the search for uranium mines. Just last year, they discovered rich uranium mines in the Tuva-Muyong Mountain in the northern part of the Alai Mountains in Uzbekistan. Although the uranium mines here are associated minerals, the reserves are not low and are very suitable for mining.
In addition, they had previously discovered uranium mines as a by-product of iron ore in the Tergifodu Mountains in western Ukraine, which are also available for development.
However, according to experts, although uranium mines do not emit any serious radiation when they exist in nature, they are often accompanied by a large number of other heavy metals or highly toxic metals or β and γ decay substances, which are fatal to humans. In other words, if these uranium mines are developed rashly without detailed surveys and precise preliminary preparations, it is likely to cause heavy casualties. These people will not be killed by the radiation of the uranium mines, but will be poisoned by heavy metals and steamed to death by those decay substances.
So, did the Soviet Union have the corresponding survey and protection technology? Unfortunately, the answer is no. Not to mention the corresponding protection technology, there is not even professional protective clothing. The military can provide some gas masks and chemical protective clothing, but no one knows whether they are suitable.
However, Comrade Stalin did not pay attention to these problems. He only gave Yuri one month and asked the Executive Bureau to make practical results in this regard that he could see. In order to provide him with sufficient support, Yuri was given the status of People's Commissar of Internal Affairs.
As the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, Yuri has the power to mobilize the internal security forces, border guards and prison police under the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. This also means that the corresponding uranium mine development work needs to be handed over to the prisoners of war.
Yuri today is no longer the young man who has just been reincarnated. In his body, the sympathy and compassion that ordinary people have have long been worn out by years of war. Therefore, he will not have any so-called sympathy for those prisoners of war. All he needs to do is to complete the task assigned to him by the special committee, and it must be completed within the specified time.
Under the Soviet system, once a task was assigned as a core task, the intensity of its implementation would be astonishing.
In just a few days, the Executive Bureau established an administrative agency code-named "No. 1 Mining Administration" in Tuva, Uzbekistan, and the 209th Motorized Rifle Division of the Western Ukrainian Border Guard was responsible for the security of the administration.
On the same day, an administrative agency code-named "No. 2 Mining Administration" was established in Terkivdu, western Ukraine. Two regiments under the command of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs were sent there from the Moscow Military District to be responsible for the security of the administration.
At the same time as the two mining administrations were established, nearly 8,000 German prisoners of war and nearly 20,000 Japanese prisoners of war were transported to these two regions from the Ural Mountains and Khabarovsk in the Far East in sealed trains. After that, they would be responsible for the development of the two uranium mines in the absence of basic protective measures.
