In the command bunker - leaders of tests of the first Soviet atomic bomb.
The announcement through the system of the loudspeaker is sounds:
- Readiness - five minutes!
1902, December 30 [8(21) January 1903]. Igor Kurchatov was born in the Simsky Zavod, Ufa Governorate.
The new information through the system of the loudspeaker:
- Readiness - one minute!
1912. The Kurchatov' family moved to the Crimea, in Simferopol. In 1920 Igor Kurchatov graduated from Simferopol gymnasium with the gold medal. Entered the first year of physical-mathematical faculty of the the Taurian (Crimea) State University. In 1923 Igor completed the four-year course in three years .
So, Igor Kurchatov spends in Crimea the most important years of his life. Here he learns. He works here. Here he meets his future wife. He - becoming a major, outstanding, successful scientist - comes on business trips here, in the Crimea. Crimea becomes his native land.
Seconds run fast. The countdown begins through the system of the loudspeaker:
- Three!
August 9, 1941 Kurchatov flies from the Moscow to the Crimea, in the Sevastopol. As part of a group of employees of the Leningrad Institute for Physics and Technology, he will work on demagnetization of ships to protect the fleet from the enemy non-contact mines.
- Two!
October 25-27, 1941, the enemy breaks through the defense of the Soviet troops on the Isthmus of Perekop. Nazi troops occupied almost the entire Crimea. October 30 - November 9, 1941 the enemy troops are trying to seize the Sevastopol.
October 30, 1941 almost all Soviet ships go from Sevastopol toward the bases at the Caucasus coast.
November 4, 1941, the "Volga", floating submarine base, begins the exit from the Sevastopol bay. The "Volga" goes under intense bombing, with the risk of being blown up by mines. The "Volga" was the aim for torpedoes. In a hold of the "Volga" from the Crimea, from the Sevastopol Igor Kurchatov floats.
On the left native Crimean coast - death, death, death. And destruction.
By the time of leaving the Sevastopol, Kurchatov had already had news about the siege of the Leningrad. On September 17, 1941 I. V. Kurchatov learned about the death (in Leningrad) of his father. Learned that his mother remained in Leningrad. She was evacuated from the besieged Leningrad, but soon she died of weakness.
Probably, Kurchatov was captured by a different feelings when he was floating in the hold of the 'Volga' submarine base across the Black Sea from the native Crimea to the Poti port city.
If he was also visited by the feeling of the fugitive deprived of the homeland and parents, the person "nobody" running in "anywhere", then such the feeling hardly was pleasant for him.
After the solution of a military and technical tasks on the Black Sea and Caspian coasts Igor Kurchatov has left to the Kazan city.
In 1942 Kurchatov among initiators of a new method of protection of the ships against mines has been awarded the State premium of the first degree.
After the arriving in Kazan in early 1942, Kurchatov fell seriously ill. What a visions were upon him in the painful unconsciousness? The disease promised to be fatal. But he recovered.
He decided not to shave off the beard grown during a period of a sick.
What did this beard mean? That a "new man" appeared? The boy and the young man Igor Kurchatov lived in the Crimea. He lived and under "whites", and under "reds". And under soldiers of the army of the emperor Wilhelm, and under the troops of the Entente.
Any sharp statements from Igor Kurchatov or from members of his family concerning any of these administrations it isn't noticeable. It seems, the tolerant attitude to circumstances was.
Leonardo da Vinci was born in the family of a notary. In some respects, a land surveyor - is a Russian notary. A surveyor has special knowledge, skills. A land surveyor need any authorities. He apolitical. Igor Kurchatov was the son of a surveyor.
Having received education and started his activity, Igor Kurchatov became a scientist. He became the outstanding, but, in general, the standard Soviet scientist - physicist.
- One!
The man with the mustache was thinking. "Who should be appointed the head of the nuclear project?"
Georgy Nikolayevich Flyorov has addressed to the leaders of the state in 1943 with the letter. Flyorov raised the issue of the resumption of active development on nuclear project.
Why Igor Kurchatov?
Perhaps, the Person with moustaches has deciphered Kurchatov's beard as the sign?
At different photos she, this beard, looks differently. For those times and for those circle of people she was unusual. Someone can have an opinion that such beard was not characteristic for the Russian traditions at all.
This beard was unusual... A professorial beard? Perhaps, with professorial beards can be was find distant analogy... But if to speak about a remote analogies, this beard may lead someone to thoughts about the creators of the ancient writing in Mesopotamia - the Cuneiform script.
The Hint From Above?
The choice of the chief of the atomic project in the conditions of limited resources was the choice between success and failure.
The Person with moustaches has chosen success.
- Start-up! Explosion!! Horror!!!
The terrible view of the testing ground which has taken up the atomic explosion.
The birds, semi-live, semi-dead, semi-burned. Helpless birds...
And the relative peace at the planet. Already nearly 70 years.
May 06, 2017 - May 07, 2017, July 2, 2018.
Translation from Russian into English: May 30, 2018 - May 31, 2018, July 2, 2018.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Рассказ об Игоре Курчатове'.