Igor Kurchatov

Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov , was a <a href="/facts/Soviet_Union/m7wWsPto">Soviet</a> <a href="/facts/Physics/a7aH2y08">physicist</a> who played a central role in organizing and directing the former <a href="/facts/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project/b5kFJIPY">Soviet program of nuclear weapons</a>, and has been referred to as "father of the Russian atomic bomb".
As many of his contemporaries in <a href="/facts/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic/W9pC4bK6">Russia</a>, Kurchatov, initially educated as a <a href="/facts/Naval_architecture/dJnh5bsd">naval architect</a>, was an <a href="/facts/Autodidacticism/qCKsxtdc">autodidact</a> in <a href="/facts/Nuclear_physics/fzQbt1aF">nuclear physics</a> and was brought by Soviet establishment to accelerate the feasibility of the <a href="/facts/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction/eXCHTUhg">"super bomb"</a>. Aided by effective <a href="/facts/Intelligence_collection_management/QYoy5Gky">intelligence management</a> by Soviet agencies on the American <a href="/facts/Manhattan_Project/gtg8yRK2">Manhattan Project</a>, Kurchatov oversaw the quick development and testing of the <a href="/facts/RDS-1/mgXDp8fa">first Soviet</a> nuclear weapon, which was roughly based on the <a href="/facts/Fat_Man/2vlxvS9a">first</a> American device, at <a href="/facts/Semipalatinsk_Test_Site/WWDHCt0l">Semipalatinsk</a> in the <a href="/facts/Kazakh_Soviet_Socialist_Republic/qnq5kj2M">Kazakh SSR</a> in 1949.
Kurchatov, a recipient of many former Soviet honors, had an instrumental role in modern <a href="/facts/Nuclear_power_in_Russia/bos6kcTU">nuclear industry</a> in Russia. His rapid decline in health is mainly attributed to a 1949 radiation accident in <a href="/facts/Chelyabinsk-40/zdc51wVV">Chelyabinsk-40</a>.: 107–108  Kurchatov died in Moscow in 1960, aged 57.

Igor Kurchatov open-in-new

Igor Kurchatov