The name of the creator of the atomic bomb is Oppenheimer. Robert Oppenheimer quotes. Teaching and the atomic bomb

Robert Oppenheimer was only thirty-eight years old when he was offered the leadership of that “superlaboratory” from which the atomic bomb would later come out. By that time, he had already published numerous papers on a variety of issues in modern physics and, perhaps more than anyone else in the United States, made efforts to train a new generation of scientists. But he did not have a single truly outstanding discovery, unlike, for example, Enrico Fermi and many other deservedly famous physicists who were to work directly under Oppenheimer. Therefore, when General Groves, who headed the Manhattan Project, announced his choice, he, according to him, incurred fierce attacks:

“They told me reproachfully that only the laureate Nobel Prize or at least a sufficiently old person, can occupy a similar position. But I bet on Oppenheimer, and his success confirmed that I was right. No one could have done what he did."

And, indeed, Oppenheimer was just the right man for such an undertaking. Perhaps some brilliant theorist or researcher specializing in one direction would have achieved extraordinary success in the field of nuclear physics, having at his disposal the enormous credit and material resources that the richest state in the world unexpectedly provided to scientists. But the goal was not to promote the development of theoretical research, but to ensure that the knowledge acquired in previous years would find practical application on a huge scale. And this meant overcoming thousands of technological difficulties and carrying out serious coordination work - nothing more. We constantly read about how the war stimulated nuclear research in the United States. But this means mixing science with technology. Oppenheimer himself argued many times that the war had slowed down the development of science too much; Universities stopped teaching physics, and the formation of new researchers was delayed for several years. Young people who could have followed this path went to the front, and the most brilliant professors worked on creating a bomb.

As a physicist, Oppenheimer had the great virtue of combining deep knowledge with versatility. Without being confined to any of the special studies, he thoroughly knew the results of each of them. Not only did he know everything that was known about the fission of uranium, he foresaw further discoveries and the possible connections between them. Oppenheimer was first and foremost an organizer and leader; and he put that characteristic charm, which is testified by everyone who came into close contact with him, to the service of a specific cause. And what kind! After all, he had to create and lead the largest laboratory that has ever existed, from which superhuman weapons would emerge that could crush the forces of evil!

There has been much debate about what exactly prompted Oppenheimer to accept the Army's offer and take on such a mission with such enthusiasm, which repeatedly endangered his rather fragile health.

“Academic circles considered his achievements exceptional,” writes Jung. “But he himself, thinking critically, was fully aware that by the age of forty he had not been able to fulfill his greatest hopes and reach the highest peaks., in the field of physics.. In this “It was time that he had the opportunity to do something exceptional, but in a completely different direction: he was invited to lead the design of the most powerful weapon.”

Let's be fair. Among the atomic scientists of all countries who gathered at that time in Great Britain, Canada and the USA, there would hardly be at least one who, having received the same offer and considering himself able to cope with it, would not accept it and would not devote himself to it with the same conviction as Oppenheimer. Everyone's duty was so simple: Nazism has overrun Europe and threatens to drown the entire civilized world if it becomes the owner of the bomb; therefore, it needs to be done earlier. Einstein himself sent a second letter to the Washington government in March 1940, drawing its attention to the growing German interest in uranium, which arose at the beginning of the war.

The implementation of the Manhattan Project influenced Oppenheimer's deep nature; it can be said that in a sense the monster has consumed the one who gave birth to it. But this is another question, and we will return to it later. And what scientist who took on the same task would not ultimately find himself in the role of “the devil’s disciple”?

It was necessary to choose a location for the future superlaboratory. Oppenheimer suggested the Los Alamos Plateau in New Mexico to General Groves. It was a deserted area, equally remote from the Atlantic coast, where German submarines sometimes landed spies, and from all populated areas whose inhabitants might have suffered in the event of an accident during the experiments. Oppenheimer knew this area well: the only building there belonged to the boarding school where he studied as a child. The school was confiscated and workers arrived a few days later. General Groves assumed that about a hundred scientists with their families, not counting technical personnel, would be settled near the laboratory. But within a year there were 3,500 people living in Los Alamos, and later the population of the “Atomic Bomb City” ranged from 6,000 to 9,000 people.

Atomic scientists and military secrets

Oppenheimer's first task was to assemble a scientific team. This turned out to be no easy task. Oppenheimer flew thousands of kilometers by plane and by train to personally speak with the people he decided to recruit; he used the full force of his charm to convince them to move with their families to the desert of New Mexico. They had to sign a contract for the duration of the war and live in Los Alamos almost completely cut off from the outside world. But they were given the opportunity to work at a grandiose enterprise among a scientific team incomparable in its level. Oppenheimer managed to infect everyone with his passion. In the spring of 1943, the first atomic scientists appeared in the ancient town of Santa Fe - the former residence of the Spanish viceroys, from where laboratory employees were taken by bus every morning to the Los Alamos plateau until houses were built for them there.

The atmosphere that reigned in this emerging team was imbued with youthful cheerfulness and was slightly reminiscent of the atmosphere of student gatherings. Hectic meetings to plan ways to organize teamwork alternated with frequent parties and country walks. However, around this wonderful freedom the shackles of the most merciless coercive apparatus were already tightening: the military security apparatus. Oppenheimer knew this better than anyone.

Until the beginning of 1939, scientists from all countries formed one big family. Sometimes disagreements and even rivalries arose in her - as in every family. But the predominant features were fraternal emulation and a spirit of mutual aid in the common struggle for the advancement of human knowledge. From time to time, physicists gathered at international congresses. The results of experiments or theoretical studies were regularly reported by the scientific community and published in special journals. Every step forward made in the laboratories of Rome or Copenhagen was immediately exploited in Paris or Cambridge. The idea of ​​the secrecy of a scientific discovery was simply unimaginable, alien to the very foundations of science.

The first attack on these sacred principles occurred in November 1938, when Szilard suggested that Fermi refrain from detailed publications on the fission of uranium, so that they would not be used in German laboratories. Precisely because there was something shameful in such a proposal for scientists, most of them were hostile to it. But in February 1939, the American physicist Bridgman stated in Science magazine that from now on, no matter how regrettable it may be, he was denying access to his laboratory to scientists from totalitarian states. “The citizen of such a state,” Bridgman explained, “is no longer a free person; he may be forced to take any action that will serve the purposes of his state. The cessation of all scientific ties with totalitarian countries has a dual purpose: first, to prevent these countries from using scientific information for harm, and second, to enable scientists in other countries to express their disgust at their arbitrary methods.”

In 1942, Roosevelt and Churchill decided to concentrate all the work of British and American atomic scientists on the production of nuclear weapons in the United States. Leadership was entrusted to a committee consisting of two generals, an admiral and only two scientists. Since August, when the Manhattan Project began to be implemented, control was finally transferred to the army, and atomic scientists were forced to submit to a regime of military secrecy.

Most scientists recognized the need for this, because some of them themselves called for secrecy. What was less clear was why the military administration erected walls of silence inside the laboratory, among the scientific personnel working on the Manhattan Project. Each department of the research team had to work without knowing what the others were doing, and a significant part of the engineers employed at Los Alamos did not at first even know that they were participating in the creation of an atomic bomb. Coordination was carried out exclusively from above, according to the proven rules of the military hierarchy. These methods can be justified from a safety point of view, but they, of course, did not contribute to scientific work, and therefore these rules were often violated, which caused many conflicts between atomic scientists and their guards in uniform.

The security service at the Manhattan Project collected detailed information about all the activities of laboratory employees in the past and present, about their personal lives and political views. They couldn't walk down the street, go into a store, or visit a friend without being spied on and having their every move recorded. Their letters were opened and monitored, telephone conversations were eavesdropped. Special surveillance was organized for the most prominent employees, as well as for those who were considered unreliable for one reason or another. There were camouflaged microphones in office buildings and apartments. In their inquisitorial zeal, the military went further than government regulations required and often pursued its own policies without reporting to Washington. General Groves later boasted that he had sabotaged, as much as he could, cooperation with the British.

Oppenheimer's involvement in the preparation of nuclear weapons officially began in 1942 at the Metallurgical Laboratory (Chicago); at that time it was a center for research into uranium fission. Oppenheimer then had to fill out a questionnaire and indicate in it that in the past he was a member of left-wing political organizations. He knew that the security service considered membership in such organizations a compelling reason for exclusion from all responsible government work. Despite official White House policy, many security officials made no secret of the fact that they viewed US entry into the war against the Axis powers only as the first tactical stage of a long struggle in which the main enemy would ultimately be the Soviet Union. Anyone who dares to sympathize with him or simply does not approve of America’s attack on its temporary “ally” on the appointed day must be removed in advance from all leadership positions relevant to the conduct of the war. This precaution was considered necessary in relation to scientists who, by the nature of their work, were privy to important state secrets and might, in the opinion of the security service, be tempted to inform their Soviet colleagues.

Meanwhile, Oppenheimer filled out the questionnaire without much concern. Three years have already passed since he broke up with his former political friends, and so did his wife (she, too, was once associated with these circles).

But in June 1943, Oppenheimer, urgently summoned by his ex-fiancée, a communist, went to see her in San Francisco and stayed with her until the next day. This was not their first meeting of this kind after Oppenheimer's marriage. But this time Oppenheimer warned her that he was leaving her for a long time, perhaps for several years; he received an appointment that he has no right to talk about and because of which he leaves Berkeley and cannot even tell her his new address.

Oppenheimer had no doubt that security spies were following him relentlessly and that a lengthy report had been sent to the War Department in Washington about his trip to San Francisco and his connection with a politician from extreme leftist circles. In mid-July, General Groves received a ricochet blow: he was handed a memo informing him that, for security reasons, J. Robert Oppenheimer could not be confirmed as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. The general immediately summoned Oppenheimer and, having received verbal assurance from him that he had long ago broken with the communists, decided to ignore the ban from the security service.

The general had no sympathy for the communists and rather disapproved of the Soviet-American alliance. But he needed Oppenheimer. The Los Alamos laboratory was going through a difficult period: there was poor housing for the scientists who huddled in barracks. Only Oppenheimer could encourage his colleagues and maintain in them the enthusiasm with which they worked for the first few weeks. Without Oppenheimer, they would have completely fallen into despondency, and the team assembled with such difficulty would have been in danger of collapse. And the general, using the emergency powers given to him when creating the Manhattan Project, demanded and ensured that the counterintelligence report be shelved, and Oppenheimer was finally approved as director.

Despite his army crudeness, the general calculated well the psychological consequences of his decision: Oppenheimer became a person dependent on him. In addition to his gratitude to Groves for his intercession, the scientist was imbued with the consciousness that the sword of Damocles hung over his head, which so far was held only by the hand of the general: Oppenheimer’s political past could be resurrected at any moment, and then it would. will snatch from the hands of the scientist the mission entrusted to him to create an atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer makes a mistake

Whether it was because he wanted to prove to himself his complete break with the past, or because he wanted to prove it to the military, Oppenheimer made a strange mistake. In late August, he approached a security agent passing through Berkeley and told him that the Soviets had been trying to get information about the Manhattan Project for some time. To this end, a certain Englishman named Eltenton, who lived for a long time in the USSR, asked one person to be an intermediary to establish contact with some of the scientists working on the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer did not want to name the intermediary, who could have acted from honest motives.

This fictional story is based on a meeting that actually took place several months earlier between Oppenheimer and his friend Haakon Chevalier. Haakon Chevalier, a French father and Scandinavian mother, taught Romance languages ​​at the University of California. He was friends with Oppenheimer, and Oppenheimer used this communication for friendly conversations about the literature and philosophy of old Europe. But during their last meeting, the conversation touched on more pressing issues. Here is a quote from Jung, who collected direct evidence about this meeting: “Oppy began to prepare a cocktail. Chevalier at this time informed him that he had recently spoken with a man named George Eltenton. Eltenton expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that there was no exchange of scientific information between scientists in the United States and the Soviet Union, although these countries were allies. He went so far as to ask Chevalier to persuade Oppenheimer to transfer some scientific data privately. Oppenheimer reacted to Eltenton's proposal as Chevalier had foreseen. Oppenheimer exclaimed: “This is not the right way!” As Oppenheimer later argued, his answer was more definitive. He believed he responded: “It’s a terrible thing to do that, it would be treason!”

Oppenheimer's reaction is indicative of the path he has taken in these few years. To understand it, you need to forget about the “Cold War” that is being waged now, and remember the situation in the winter of 1942-1943, the time of the Battle of the Volga and the landing of Allied troops in North Africa. Roosevelt was the ardent inspirer of the United Nations struggle against fascism. Hollywood produced pro-Soviet films.

By reporting Eltenton's attempt as a spy raid, Oppenheimer hoped to prove his loyalty to the military security authorities. But in fact, he only gave them a terrible weapon against himself, since they continued to hold him under suspicion and did not forgive the fact that, against their wishes, he was left as head of the Los Alamos laboratory. Colonel Pash, the same one who signed the report on the need to fire Oppenheimer, immediately summoned him to his place. The report on this interrogation (as well as all subsequent ones) was published much later. In these dialogues between a cat and a mouse, when an outstanding scientist, a man of great intelligence, fends off the insidious questions of a military counterintelligence agent, trying in vain to escape the trap that he has prepared for himself, there is something that evokes special compassion.

Oppenheimer put himself in such a position that he was forced to support false testimony and refuse true ones. It was a lie, or at least a misrepresentation, that several members of the Manhattan Project knew about Eltenton's attempt, although only Oppenheimer himself knew about it. His first denial during interrogation was his refusal to give the name of his friend Chevalier. This refusal, unacceptable from the point of view of the security service, confirmed an unfavorable opinion about Oppenheimer.

Here is a typical excerpt from Oppenheimer's first interrogation.

Pash. Yes. This deserves attention... we, of course, believe that the people bringing you such information are one hundred percent your people, and therefore there can be no doubt as to their intentions. However, if...

Oppenheimer. Okay, I'll tell you one thing... I know of two or three cases... these were people closely associated with me.

Pash. How did they convey information to you? Was the contact really for this purpose?

Oppenheimer. Yes, for this one.

Pash. For this purpose!

Oppenheimer. So... I will now explain to you the essence of the matter. You know how difficult relations are between both camps of allies, because there are many people who do not really like Russia. So, there are also some of our military secrets, such as radar, which we especially strictly guard and do not disclose to the Russians. And for them it is a matter of life or death, and they would very much like to have an idea of ​​​​what is going on here; in other words, these data would supplement the fragmentary information in our official communications. This is how the case was presented to me.

Pash. Yeah! Understand...

After a few more supposedly naive remarks of the same kind, the colonel naturally returns to what he wants to know - the name of the notorious intermediary.

Pash. Great, now I would like to return to the presentation in order... These two people you mentioned... Did they come into contact on the instructions of Eltenton?

Oppenheimer. No.

Pash. Through others?

Oppenheimer. Yes.

Pash. Well, could we find out through whom the contact was established?

Oppenheimer. I think this might be a mistake, that is, I think... I told you where the initiative came from. Everything else was almost purely coincidental, and it would have gotten people involved that shouldn't have been involved.

Oppenheimer, as they say, put his hand into the machine. But counterintelligence has not released her. In Washington, where Oppenheimer was summoned several times, he refused to give the name of Haakon Chevalier, but did not show sufficient resistance to pressure and gave the names of people from his circle whom he suspected of being communists.

The logic of the “witch hunt” knows no mercy. From the moment Oppenheimer, of his own volition, made a report to the security officers, he was included in their system and could no longer justify his refusal to hand over people who, in their opinion, should be considered suspicious. And regarding the mysterious intermediary, who, according to Oppenheimer’s story, came into contact with “many” people working in the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer refused to talk, citing the fact that this person himself had no bad intentions and, therefore, there was no need to involve him in case. But the noose was getting tighter. Oppenheimer's personal file, which was constantly kept in Colonel Pash's office, contained the following memo, sent in September 1943 by one of the counterintelligence officers:

“It can be assumed that Oppenheimer is deeply interested in gaining world fame as a scientist and in taking his place in history as a result of the project. It also seems likely that the War Department may allow him to do this, but it may also liquidate his name, reputation and career if it sees fit. Such a prospect, if given to him clearly enough to realize it, will force him to take a different look at his attitude towards the military department";

The psychological correctness of such a judgment can be assessed in different ways. One way or another, it shows with what crude cynicism the political-military machine treated one of the largest US scientists who fell into its clutches. Having finally received orders to reveal the name of the intermediary, Oppenheimer gave up and betrayed Chevalier. He lost his place at the university and was forced to emigrate. He learned the reason for his misfortune much later, when Oppenheimer, during another interrogation, told the whole truth and admitted that he had “inflated” the Eltenton case.

Atomic scientists against the atomic bomb

The police's paw immediately unclenched and released the physicist. Fierce work continued at Los Alamos. At first it was thought that it would only take a year to make a bomb. But they soon discovered that it was impossible to meet this deadline. However, the war continued. In November 1944, the Americans seized documents in Strasbourg concerning German work on uranium fission. Based on these materials, it was possible to establish that, contrary to general fears that justified and stimulated the efforts of emigrant physicists working in the USA, the Germans were still very far from creating an atomic bomb. They had neither a plant for separating uranium-235 nor a reactor for producing plutonium. The fear that the Nazis would acquire nuclear weapons immediately dissipated, and when the Allied forces invaded Germany, no one doubted that the end of the war was near. Then the opinion spread among atomic scientists that the need for a bomb had disappeared and that humanity could be saved from the apocalyptic horrors that they were preparing for it.

However, there were few supporters of an immediate cessation of work on the creation of atomic weapons. It was difficult for people who had devoted all their efforts to implementing the project for so many months in a row to refuse this, and even at a time when the goal was already close. They could not fail to take into account the main argument of the military, namely, that Japan had not yet been defeated and that the possession of an atomic bomb would allow the United States to save the lives of a huge number of Americans, as it would speed up the outcome of the struggle on the Pacific front. They sincerely believed that it was enough just to demonstrate the power of the new weapon to the world - and it would no longer be needed, and an agreement between the victorious great powers would forever eliminate the threat of war and allow the use of uranium fission only for peaceful purposes.

Scientists did not know that Japan had already lost the war, at least potentially. And most importantly, they did not know that the fight against fascism was not the main goal of Washington's policy, that the bomb, even if it was dropped over Japan, would be a weapon of intimidation, which should strengthen America's hegemony after victory, and was in fact directed against the Soviet Union. The sorcerer's students - atomic scientists - wasted their strength, trying first to weaken the destructive effect of the evil spirit they had summoned, and then in vain hoping that they could drive it back into the bottle. But the military knew what they wanted, just like the “chief sorcerer” Oppenheimer, who was not afraid of his demon; on the contrary, he longed to see it rise in all its power and terrifying grandeur.

In August 1944, Niels Bohr submitted a memo to President Roosevelt in which he warned against the “dreadful prospect of competition between states for the possession of such formidable weapons.” He argued that the country, which is currently the only possessor of these weapons, should immediately advocate for an international agreement to avoid a nuclear arms race among future winners. Bohr believed that “personal connections between scientists from different countries could serve as a means of establishing preliminary, informal contacts.”

In December 1944, Alexander Sachs, the personal adviser to the president who five years earlier had helped Szilard and Einstein inform Roosevelt about the possibility of creating an atomic bomb, drew Roosevelt's attention to a project presented to him, which proposed that after the first successful test of an atomic weapon, the following should be done:

• display the bomb before internationally recognized scientists from allied and neutral countries, as well as representatives of all major religions (including Muslims and Buddhists);
• prepare a report, edited by scientists and other eminent persons, on the nature and significance of atomic weapons;
• publish an appeal from the United States and its allies involved in the atomic project to their main opponents, Germany and Japan, warning that a certain “zone” will be selected for the atomic bombing, from which people and animals must be evacuated in advance;
• after the direct demonstration of the atomic bomb, publish an ultimatum demanding the enemy’s surrender.

In the spring of 1945, in a strange twist of fate, the very two men who had most contributed to US involvement in the production of the atomic bomb, Szilard and Einstein, again turned to Roosevelt, but now they sought to stop the flow of events. “All through 1943 and part of 1944,” Szilard later wrote, “we were haunted by the fear that the Germans would manage to make an atomic bomb before we landed in Europe... But when we were freed from this fear in 1945, we began to think with horror “What other dangerous plans is the American government making, plans directed against other countries.”

Einstein insisted on the need to prevent a nuclear arms race; Szilard argued that the use of the atomic bomb, given the current situation in the world, would bring more harm to America than benefit. Roosevelt died without ever reading these two documents, although even if he had read them, it probably would have made little difference.

Because it was at this very time that a research group, which included Oppenheimer, had already gathered in Los Alamos to identify the bombing targets. This group decided that objects must satisfy the following conditions:

1. they must consist of a significant number of wooden buildings and other structures that are easily destroyed by the impact of a shock wave and subsequent fire;
2. since the radius of the destruction zone was estimated at approximately one and a half kilometers, a built-up area of ​​the same area should have been chosen;
3. the selected objects must be of great military and strategic importance;
4. the first object had to have no traces of previous conventional bombing in order for the effect of the atomic bomb alone to be determined.

All this meant that the target of the bombing should be a large city, because no purely military object could have an area occupied by buildings measuring 7-10 square kilometers. After drawing up this conclusion, American pilots stopped bombing four cities during their raids on Japan, including Hiroshima.

Roosevelt died without leaving any orders regarding the use of the first atomic bombs or the prospects for creating international control over nuclear energy. On May 31, 1945, shortly after the surrender of Nazi Germany, a commission called the Provisional Committee met to advise President Truman. It included five politicians and three scientists who were in charge of scientific research for military purposes. The commission was then replenished with four atomic scientists; they were Y. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Arthur H. Compton and Ernest O. Lawrence. General Groves was also present at the meetings. The four atomic scientists were faced with the question not of whether to use the atomic bomb, but only of how to use it. And the commission responded that the bomb should be dropped over Japan, as quickly as possible, and that it should target a military facility located in the middle or near residential buildings and other easily destroyed buildings. They decided to drop the bomb without warning the enemy about the nature of the weapon.

The opposition of atomic scientists to the use of the atomic bomb began to go on an open offensive. It began at the University of Chicago, where scientists working in the Metallurgical Laboratory throughout the war sought to make the purpose of their research not so much the military as the industrial use of atomic energy. The university created a commission of seven scientists, Nobel Prize laureate James Frank, a former professor at the University of Göttingen, was elected its chairman. The commission included Szilard and biochemist Rabinovich. In their report, solemnly presented to the Secretary of War, the seven scientists spoke not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of all employees of the Manhattan Project. At the beginning of their petition, they wrote that once scientists could not be held responsible for how humanity uses their discoveries. “But in our time we are obliged to take a more active position, since the successes we have achieved in the research of atomic energy are fraught with dangers incomparably greater than all past inventions. Each of us, and we are well aware of the state of atomic science at the present time, constantly imagines in our minds a picture of sudden destruction threatening our country with a catastrophe similar to Pearl Harbor, but a thousand times more terrible, which could break out over any of our large cities. ...

The authors of the report warned the American government against the illusion that the United States would be able to maintain a monopoly on atomic weapons for a long time. They reminded us of the importance of the work being carried out by French, German, and Soviet physicists. They wrote that even if the production methods developed in the Manhattan Project were kept completely secret, the Soviet Union would need only a few years to eliminate its backlog. In addition, when using atomic weapons, the United States will be more vulnerable due to the large crowding of its cities and industry. It is in the interests of the United States to either achieve an international agreement prohibiting the use of the atomic bomb, or at least not to do anything that might induce other states to produce an atomic bomb.

The “Frank Report,” as this message later became known, concluded with the following conclusions:

“We believe that... we have a duty to advise against the premature use of the atomic bomb in a surprise attack on Japan. If the United States were the first to unleash this blind weapon of destruction on humanity, it would lose public support around the world, accelerate the arms race, and disrupt the possibility of reaching an agreement on the preparation of an international agreement providing for the control of such weapons. A much more favorable atmosphere for such an agreement would be created if we made the world aware of the existence of such a bomb by first demonstrating it in a properly selected uninhabited area.

If we believe that there is very little chance of agreeing on effective control now, then not only the use of these weapons against Japan, but also their simple demonstration ahead of time is contrary to the interests of our country. Postponing such a demonstration in this case has the advantage of delaying the outbreak of an arms race for as long as possible.

If the government decided to demonstrate atomic weapons in the near future, then it should listen to the voice of our public and the public of other countries before deciding to use these weapons against Japan. In this case, other nations would share with us the responsibility for such a fatal decision.”

The scientists who signed this document enjoyed such authority that the War Department could not simply shelve their petition. The Ministry handed it over to four atomic scientists who were part of the Interim Committee. Their meeting had the character of a closed discussion, but it became known that under the influence of the clear and pathetic appeal of the Chicago Seven, only Lawrence and partly Fermi had hesitations. As for Oppenheimer, this is how he remembers it:

“We were invited to answer the question of whether the atomic bomb should be used. I believe that this question was asked to us in connection with the fact that a group of famous and authoritative scientists presented a petition demanding that the use of the atomic bomb be abandoned. Of course, this would be desirable from all points of view. But we knew almost nothing about the military situation in Japan. We did not know whether it could be forced to surrender by other means or whether our invasion of Japan was really inevitable. Moreover, the idea has taken root in our subconscious that an invasion of Japan is inevitable, because this was instilled in us...

We emphasized that, in our opinion, the title of scientist does not make us so competent that we are competent to judge whether bombs should be used or abandoned; that our opinions were divided, as they would be among other mere mortals if they knew the essence of the problem. We also pointed out the two most important, in our opinion, issues: firstly, the need to save human lives during hostilities, and secondly, the reaction to our actions and the consequences that will affect our own position and the stability of international conditions after the war. In addition, we added that, in our opinion, the effect of one such shell exploding over the desert would not be sufficiently impressive.”

First atomic explosion

Thus, representatives of the army were practically given freedom of action. In Los Alamos, in the conditions of a hot and dry summer, intense work was carried out. General Groves scheduled the test of the first bomb for mid-July. On July 12 and 13, the components of the projectile were secretly delivered to the Alamogordo area and lifted onto a metal tower built in the middle of the desert.

For Oppenheimer, as for General Groves, these were the most exciting days of his life. Will the bomb explode? According to calculations, it should have exploded, but there could have been an error in the calculations. There were several technical problems during the final preparations; True, they were quickly eliminated, but they were there, which means it is impossible to foresee everything in advance.

At two o’clock in the morning on July 16, all participants in the experiment were at their posts, fifteen kilometers from “point zero.” The loudspeakers played dance music. The explosion was scheduled for four o'clock, but due to bad weather it was postponed to five thirty in the morning. At five fifteen everyone put on dark glasses and lay face down on the ground, turning their faces away from point zero. At five thirty, a blinding white light, brighter than the rays of the midday sun, flooded the clouds and mountains. “At that moment,” writes Jung, “everyone forgot what he had intended to do,” frozen as if in tetanus, struck by the force of the explosion. Oppenheimer, who was clinging with all his strength to one of the posts of the control post, suddenly remembered a passage from the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Indian epic:

With immeasurable and formidable power
The sky above the world would shine,
If there were a thousand suns
At once it sparkled.

Then, as a giant, ominous cloud rose high above the explosion site, he remembered another line: "I become death, destroyer of worlds".

Thus spoke the divine Krishna, who commands the destinies of mortals. But Robert Oppenheimer was only a man to whose share fell an inordinately great power.

Quickly spreading through scientific circles despite all efforts to keep it secret, the news of the explosion enormously strengthened the opposition of scientists who opposed the use of the atomic bomb, at least without warning the civilian population. The explosion of the experimental bomb at Alamogordo revealed that the physicists' calculations were wrong, but the error was the opposite of what Oppenheimer had feared. The power of the projectile far exceeded all expectations. The measuring instruments least distant from “point zero” were simply destroyed. It became clear that atomic weapons would be a weapon of universal extermination.

Szilard sent a petition to President Truman signed by sixty-seven scientists, but it, like the previous one, had no effect, as it fell into the hands of Oppenheimer and three other atomic scientists on the Provisional Committee.

One cannot help but be surprised by the desperate tenacity with which so many participants in the Manhattan Project fought against bringing their own cause to its logical conclusion. The authors of the Frank Report explained it this way: “... the scientists felt obliged to complete their research in record time, since they were afraid that the Germans would be technically prepared to produce similar weapons and that the German government, devoid of any restraining moral incentives, will put it to use."

In July 1945, Hitler was already dead and Germany was occupied. That left Japan. Atomic scientists might have feared that she would still resist unless a bomb was dropped on her. But the Washington rulers no longer had any doubts about this. Since April, representatives of the Japanese armed forces stationed in Switzerland have repeatedly tried to find out under what conditions the Americans would accept Japan's surrender. In July, the Mikado himself tried to start negotiations through his ambassador in Moscow (the USSR had not yet declared war on Japan); Prince Konoe was authorized to conduct these negotiations.

No one doubted that Japan would be defeated in the summer of 1945. According to the agreements concluded between the USA and the USSR, the Soviet Union was to declare war on Japan, and the United Nations was to demand unconditional surrender from Tokyo. That is why the attempts of Japanese representatives did not meet with any response. But on August 6, the “sun of death” rose over Hiroshima. And on August 9 it was Nagasaki’s turn. According to some historians who have studied documents from that period, by detonating the atomic bomb, the United States was not only demonstrating its strength on the threshold of a new era of international politics; They also wanted, by winning a lightning victory, to prevent the USSR from entering the war and thereby eliminate it from final settlements in the Far East. This is what the works of Oppenheimer and the entire scientific team that worked in the Manhattan Project ultimately served.

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– The most suitable person (English)

Julius Robert Oppenheimer. Born April 22, 1904 - died February 18, 1967. American theoretical physicist, professor of physics at the University of California at Berkeley, member of the US National Academy of Sciences (since 1941). Widely known as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project, which developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II, Oppenheimer is often called the “father of the atomic bomb.”

The atomic bomb was first tested in New Mexico in July 1945. Oppenheimer later recalled that at that moment the words from the Bhagavad Gita came to his mind: “If the radiance of a thousand suns flashed in the sky, it would be like the splendor of the Almighty... I became Death, the destroyer of Worlds.”

After World War II, he became director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He also became chief advisor to the newly formed US Atomic Energy Commission and used his position to advocate for international control of nuclear energy to prevent the proliferation of atomic weapons and the nuclear race. This anti-war stance angered a number of political figures during the second wave of the Red Scare. As a result, after a widely politicized hearing in 1954, he was denied access to secret work. Having no direct political influence since then, he continued to lecture, write and work in the field of physics. Ten years later, the president awarded the scientist the Enrico Fermi Prize as a sign of political rehabilitation. The award was presented after Kennedy's death.

Oppenheimer's most significant achievements in physics include: the Born–Oppenheimer approximation for molecular wave functions, work on the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer–Phillips process in nuclear fusion, and the first prediction of quantum tunneling.

Together with his students, he made important contributions to the modern theory of neutron stars and black holes, as well as to the solution of certain problems in quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and cosmic ray physics.

Oppenheimer was a teacher and propagandist of science, the founding father of the American school of theoretical physics, which gained worldwide fame in the 30s of the 20th century.

In 1912, the Oppenheimers moved to Manhattan, to an apartment on the eleventh floor of 155 Riverside Drive, near West 88th Street. This area is known for its luxurious mansions and townhouses. The family's collection of paintings included originals by Pablo Picasso and Jean Vuillard and at least three originals by Vincent van Gogh.

Oppenheimer studied briefly at the Alcuin Preparatory School, then, in 1911, he entered the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. It was founded by Felix Adler to promote the education promoted by the Ethical Culture Movement, whose slogan was “Deed before Creed.” Robert's father was a member of this society for many years, serving on its board of trustees from 1907 to 1915.

Oppenheimer was a versatile student, interested in English and French literature and especially mineralogy. He completed the third and fourth grade program in one year and completed the eighth grade in six months and moved on to the ninth, and in the last grade he became interested in chemistry. Robert entered Harvard College a year later, at age 18, after suffering a bout of ulcerative colitis while prospecting for minerals in Jáchymov during a family vacation in Europe. For treatment, he traveled to New Mexico, where he became fascinated by horseback riding and the nature of the southwestern United States.

In addition to their major subjects, students were required to study history, literature and philosophy or mathematics. Oppenheimer compensated for his late start by taking six courses a semester and was inducted into the student honor society Phi Beta Kappa. As a freshman, Oppenheimer was allowed to take a master's program in physics on an independent study basis; this meant that he was exempt from elementary subjects and could immediately take advanced courses. After taking a thermodynamics course taught by Percy Bridgman, Robert became seriously interested in experimental physics. He graduated with honors (Latin: summa cum laude) after just three years.

In 1924, Oppenheimer learned that he had been accepted into Christ's College, Cambridge. He wrote a letter to Ernest Rutherford asking permission to work at the Cavendish Laboratory. Bridgman gave his student a recommendation, noting his learning abilities and analytical mind, but concluded by noting that Oppenheimer was not inclined towards experimental physics. Rutherford was not impressed, but Oppenheimer went to Cambridge in the hope of receiving another offer. As a result, J. J. Thomson accepted him on the condition that the young man complete a basic laboratory course.

In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge to study at the University of Göttingen under Max Born.

Robert Oppenheimer defended his PhD thesis in March 1927, at the age of 23, under the supervision of Born. At the end of the oral exam on May 11, James Frank, the presiding professor, reportedly said, “I'm glad it's over. He almost started asking me questions himself.”

In September 1927, Oppenheimer applied for and received a fellowship from the National Research Council to work at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). However, Bridgman also wanted Oppenheimer to work at Harvard, and as a compromise, he split his 1927-28 academic year so that he would work at Harvard in 1927 and at Caltech in 1928.

In the fall of 1928, Oppenheimer visited the Paul Ehrenfest Institute at Leiden University in the Netherlands, where he shocked those present by lecturing in Dutch, although he had little experience communicating in this language. There he was given the nickname "Opje" (Dutch. Opje), which his students later remade in English into "Oppie" (English: Oppie). After Leiden, he went to ETH Zurich to work with Wolfgang Pauli on problems in quantum mechanics and, in particular, the description of the continuum. Oppenheimer deeply respected and liked Pauli, who may have had a strong influence on the scientist's own style and critical approach to problems.

Upon returning to the United States, Oppenheimer accepted an invitation to take a position as an associate professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was invited by Raymond Thayer Birge, who wanted Oppenheimer to work for him so much that he allowed him to work simultaneously at Caltech. But before Oppenheimer took office, he was diagnosed with a mild form of tuberculosis; Because of this, he and his brother Frank spent several weeks on a ranch in New Mexico, which he rented and later bought. When he found out that this place was available for rent, he exclaimed: Hot dog! (English: “Wow!”, literally “Hot Dog”) - and later the name of the ranch became Perro Caliente, which is the literal translation of hot dog in Spanish. Oppenheimer later liked to say that “physics and desert country” were his “two great passions.” He was cured of tuberculosis and returned to Berkeley, where he excelled as a supervisor for a generation of young physicists who admired him for his intellectual sophistication and wide-ranging interests.

Oppenheimer worked closely with Nobel laureate experimental physicist Ernest Lawrence and his fellow cyclotron developers, helping them interpret data obtained from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory instruments.

In 1936, the University of Berkeley awarded the scientist a professorship with a salary of $3,300 per year. In exchange, he was asked to stop teaching at Caltech. As a result, the parties agreed that Oppenheimer was freed from work for 6 weeks every year - this was enough to conduct classes for one trimester at Caltech.

Oppenheimer's scientific research relates to theoretical astrophysics, closely related to the general theory of relativity and the theory of the atomic nucleus, nuclear physics, theoretical spectroscopy, quantum field theory, including quantum electrodynamics. He was attracted by the formal rigor of relativistic quantum mechanics, although he doubted its correctness. His work predicted several later discoveries, including the discovery of the neutron, meson, and neutron stars.

In 1931, together with Paul Ehrenfest, he proved the theorem according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of fermion particles should obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, and those consisting of an even number should obey Bose-Einstein statistics. This statement is known as Ehrenfest-Oppenheimer theorem, made it possible to show the insufficiency of the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of the atomic nucleus.

Oppenheimer made significant contributions to the theory of cosmic ray showers and other high-energy phenomena, using the then existing formalism of quantum electrodynamics, which was developed in the pioneering work of Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli, to describe them. He showed that within the framework of this theory, already in the second order of perturbation theory, quadratic divergences of integrals corresponding to the electron’s own energy are observed.

In 1930, Oppenheimer wrote a paper that essentially predicted the existence of the positron.

After the discovery of the positron, Oppenheimer, together with his students Milton Plesset and Leo Nedelsky, carried out calculations of the cross sections for the production of new particles during the scattering of energetic gamma rays in the field of an atomic nucleus. Later, he applied his results concerning the production of electron-positron pairs to the theory of cosmic ray showers, to which he paid great attention in subsequent years (in 1937, together with Franklin Carlson, he developed the cascade theory of showers).

In 1934, Oppenheimer, together with Wendell Furry, generalized Dirac's theory of the electron, including positrons in it and obtaining as one of the consequences the effect of vacuum polarization (similar ideas were simultaneously expressed by other scientists). However, this theory was also not free from divergences, which gave rise to Oppenheimer’s skeptical attitude towards the future of quantum electrodynamics. In 1937, after the discovery of mesons, Oppenheimer suggested that the new particle was identical to the one proposed several years earlier by Hideki Yukawa, and together with his students he calculated some of its properties.

With his first graduate student, Melba Phillips, Oppenheimer worked on calculating the artificial radioactivity of elements bombarded by deuterons. Previously, when irradiating the nuclei of atoms with deuterons, Ernest Lawrence and Edwin MacMillan found that the results were well described by the calculations of George Gamow, but when more massive nuclei and particles with higher energies were involved in the experiment, the result began to diverge from the theory.

Oppenheimer and Phillips developed a new theory to explain these results in 1935. She gained fame as Oppenheimer-Phillips process and is still in use today. The essence of this process is that a deuteron, when colliding with a heavy nucleus, decays into a proton and a neutron, and one of these particles is captured by the nucleus, while the other leaves it. Other results of Oppenheimer in the field of nuclear physics include calculations of the density of nuclear energy levels, the nuclear photoelectric effect, the properties of nuclear resonances, an explanation of the birth of electron pairs when fluorine is irradiated with protons, the development of the meson theory of nuclear forces and some others.

In the late 1930s, Oppenheimer, probably influenced by his friend Richard Tolman, became interested in astrophysics, which resulted in a series of papers.

Many believe that, despite his talents, the level of Oppenheimer's discoveries and research does not allow him to be ranked among those theorists who expanded the boundaries of fundamental knowledge. The diversity of his interests sometimes prevented him from fully concentrating on a particular task. One of Oppenheimer's habits that surprised his colleagues and friends was his penchant for reading original foreign literature, especially poetry.

In 1933, he learned Sanskrit and met Indologist Arthur Ryder in Berkeley. Oppenheimer read the Bhagavad Gita in the original. He later spoke of it as one of the books that had a strong influence on him and shaped his philosophy of life.

Experts such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez have speculated that if Oppenheimer had lived long enough to see his predictions confirmed by experiments, he might have won a Nobel Prize for his work on gravitational collapse related to the theory of neutron stars and black holes. In retrospect, some physicists and historians view it as his most significant achievement, although not picked up by his contemporaries. When the physicist and science historian Abraham Pais once asked Oppenheimer what he considered his most important contribution to science, he named his work on electrons and positrons, but did not say a word about his work on gravitational compression. Oppenheimer was nominated for the Nobel Prize three times - in 1945, 1951 and 1967 - but was never awarded it..

On October 9, 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt approved an accelerated program to build the atomic bomb. In May 1942, the chairman of the National Defense Research Committee, James B. Conant, one of Oppenheimer's Harvard teachers, invited him to head a group at Berkeley that would undertake calculations in the problem of fast neutrons. Robert, concerned about the difficult situation in Europe, enthusiastically took on this work.

The title of his position - "Coordinator of Rapid Rupture" - definitely hinted at the use of a chain reaction using fast neutrons in an atomic bomb. One of Oppenheimer's first acts in his new position was to organize a summer school on bomb theory at his Berkeley campus. His group, which included both European physicists and his own students, including Robert Serber, Emil Konopinsky, Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe and Edward Teller, studied what needed to be done and in what order to make a bomb.

To manage its part of the atomic project, the US Army founded the Manhattan Engineer District in June 1942, better known later as Manhattan Project, thereby initiating a transfer of responsibility from the Office of Scientific Research and Development to the military. In September, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. was named project manager. Groves, in turn, appointed Oppenheimer as head of the secret weapons laboratory.

Oppenheimer and Groves decided that for the sake of security and cohesion, they needed a centralized secret research laboratory in a remote area. The search for a convenient location at the end of 1942 led Oppenheimer to New Mexico, to an area near his ranch.

On November 16, 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves and others inspected the proposed site. Oppenheimer feared that the high cliffs surrounding the site would make his men feel confined, while engineers saw the possibility of flooding. Then Oppenheimer suggested a place that he knew well - a flat mesa near Santa Fe, where a private educational institution for boys was located - the Los Alamos Farm School. The engineers were concerned about the lack of good road access and water supply, but otherwise considered the site ideal. Los Alamos National Laboratory was hastily built on the site of the school. The builders occupied several of the latter's buildings for it and erected many others in the shortest possible time. There Oppenheimer assembled a group of outstanding physicists of the time, which he called "luminaries".

Oppenheimer directed these studies, theoretical and experimental, in the true sense of the words. Here his uncanny speed of grasping the main points on any subject was the decisive factor; he could familiarize himself with all the important details of each part of the work.

In 1943, development efforts focused on a gun-type plutonium nuclear bomb called the Thin Man. The first studies of the properties of plutonium were carried out using cyclotron-derived plutonium-239, which was extremely pure but could only be produced in small quantities.

When Los Alamos received the first sample of plutonium from the X-10 graphite reactor in April 1944, a new problem was discovered: the reactor plutonium had a higher concentration of the 240Pu isotope, making it unsuitable for gun-type bombs.

In July 1944, Oppenheimer abandoned the development of cannon bombs, directing his efforts to creating implosion-type weapons. Using a chemical explosive lens, a subcritical sphere of fissile material could be compressed to a smaller size and thus to a greater density. The substance in this case would have to travel a very short distance, so the critical mass would be reached in much less time.

In August 1944, Oppenheimer completely reorganized the Los Alamos laboratory, focusing efforts on the study of implosion (explosion directed inward). A separate group was tasked with developing a bomb of simple design that would only operate on uranium-235; The project for this bomb was ready in February 1945 - it was given the name “Little Boy”. After a herculean effort, the design of a more complex implosion charge, nicknamed the "Christy gadget" in honor of Robert Christy, was completed on February 28, 1945, at a meeting in Oppenheimer's office.

The result of the coordinated work of scientists at Los Alamos was the first artificial nuclear explosion near Alamogordo on July 16, 1945, in a place that Oppenheimer named in mid-1944 Trinity. He later said that the name was taken from John Donne's "Sacred Sonnets". According to historian Gregg Herken, the title may be a reference to Jean Tatlock (who committed suicide a few months earlier), who introduced Oppenheimer to Donne's work in the 1930s.

For his work as the head of Los Alamos in 1946, Oppenheimer was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit.

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Manhattan Project became public, and Oppenheimer became a national representative of science, symbolic of a new type of technocratic power[. His face appeared on the covers of Life and Time magazines. Nuclear physics became a powerful force as governments around the world began to understand the strategic and political power that came with nuclear weapons and their dire consequences. Like many scientists of his time, Oppenheimer understood that security regarding nuclear weapons could only be ensured by an international organization, such as the newly formed United Nations, which could introduce a program to curb the arms race.

In November 1945, Oppenheimer left Los Alamos to return to Caltech, but soon found that teaching did not appeal to him as much as before.

In 1947, he accepted an offer from Lewis Strauss to head the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in New Jersey.

As a member of the Board of Advisors to the commission approved by President Harry Truman, Oppenheimer had a strong influence on the Acheson-Lilienthal report. In this report, the committee recommended the creation of an international "Nuclear Industry Development Agency" that would own all nuclear materials and the means of their production, including mines and laboratories, as well as nuclear power plants that would use nuclear materials to produce energy for peaceful purposes. . Bernard Baruch was put in charge of translating this report into proposal form for the UN Council, and completed it in 1946. The Baruch Plan introduced a number of additional provisions relating to law enforcement, in particular the need for inspection of the Soviet Union's uranium resources. The Baruch Plan was perceived as an attempt by the United States to gain a monopoly on nuclear technology and was rejected by the Soviets. After this, it became clear to Oppenheimer that, due to the mutual suspicions of the United States and the Soviet Union, an arms race could not be avoided.

Following the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in 1947 as the civilian agency for nuclear research and nuclear weapons, Oppenheimer was appointed chairman of its General Advisory Committee (GAC).

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (then under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover) had been monitoring Oppenheimer since before the war, when he, as a professor at Berkeley, showed communist sympathies and was also closely acquainted with members of the Communist Party, including his wife and brother. He had been under close surveillance since the early 1940s: his house was bugged, telephone conversations were recorded, and his mail was scanned. Evidence of his connections with the Communists was eagerly used by Oppenheimer's political enemies, and among them was Lewis Strauss, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, who had long felt resentment towards Oppenheimer - both because of Robert's speech against the hydrogen bomb, the idea of ​​which Straus defended, and for Lewis's humiliation before Congress several years earlier; in response to Strauss's opposition to the export of radioactive isotopes, Oppenheimer memorably classified them as "less important than electronic devices but more important than, say, vitamins."

On June 7, 1949, Oppenheimer testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he admitted to having ties to the Communist Party in the 1930s. He testified that some of his students, including David Bohm, Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz, Philip Morrison, Bernard Peters, and Joseph Weinberg, were communists while working with him at Berkeley. Frank Oppenheimer and his wife Jackie also testified before the Commission that they were members of the Communist Party. Frank was subsequently fired from his position at the University of Michigan. A physicist by training, he did not find work in his specialty for many years and became a farmer on a cattle ranch in Colorado. He later began teaching high school physics and founded the Exploratorium in San Francisco.

In 1950, Paul Crouch, a Communist Party recruiter in Alameda County from April 1941 until early 1942, became the first person to accuse Oppenheimer of having ties to the party. He testified before a congressional committee that Oppenheimer hosted a meeting of Party members at his home in Berkeley. At that moment the case received wide publicity. However, Oppenheimer was able to prove that he was in New Mexico when the meeting took place, and Crouch was eventually found to be an unreliable informant. In November 1953, J. Edgar Hoover received a letter regarding Oppenheimer written by William Liscum Borden, former executive director of the Congress" Joint Atomic Energy Committee. In the letter, Borden expressed his opinion, " "Based on several years of research, it is believed by classified information that J. Robert Oppenheimer is - with a certain degree of probability - an agent of the Soviet Union."

Oppenheimer's former colleague, physicist Edward Teller, testified against Oppenheimer at his security clearance hearings in 1954.

Straus, along with Senator Brian McMahon, author of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, pressured Eisenhower to reopen the Oppenheimer hearings. On December 21, 1953, Lewis Straus informed Oppenheimer that the clearance hearing was suspended pending a decision on a number of charges listed in a letter from Kenneth D. Nichols, the general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, and suggested that the scientist resign. Oppenheimer did not do this and insisted on holding a hearing.

At the hearing, held in April-May 1954, which was initially closed and did not receive publicity, special attention was paid to Oppenheimer's previous connections with the Communists and his collaboration during the Manhattan Project with unreliable or communist scientists. One of the key points at this hearing was Oppenheimer's early testimony about conversations between George Eltenton and several scientists at Los Alamos - a story that Oppenheimer himself admitted to making up to protect his friend Haakon Chevalier. Oppenheimer was unaware that both versions had been recorded during his interrogations ten years earlier, and he was surprised when a witness produced these recordings, which Oppenheimer had not been given prior access to. In reality, Oppenheimer never told Chevalier that he had named him, and his testimony cost Chevalier his job. Both Chevalier and Eltenton confirmed that they had talked about the possibility of passing information to the Soviets: Eltenton admitted that he told Chevalier about it, and Chevalier admitted that he mentioned it to Oppenheimer; but both did not see anything seditious in idle conversations, completely rejecting the possibility that the transfer of such information as intelligence data could be carried out or even planned for the future. None of them were accused of any crime.

Edward Teller testified in the Oppenheimer case on April 28, 1954. Teller said he did not question Oppenheimer's loyalty to the United States, but "knew him to be a man of extremely active and sophisticated thinking." When asked whether Oppenheimer posed a threat to national security, Teller responded: “On a large number of occasions, I found Dr. Oppenheimer's actions inordinately difficult to understand. I completely disagreed with him on many issues, and his actions seemed to me confusing and complicated. In this sense "I would like to see the vital interests of our country in the hands of a man whom I understand better and therefore trust more. In this very limited sense I would like to express the feeling that I personally would feel more secure if the public interests were in other hands." .

This position caused outrage in the American scientific community, and Teller was, in fact, subjected to a lifelong boycott.

Groves also testified against Oppenheimer, but his testimony is riddled with speculation and contradictions.

During the trial, Oppenheimer willingly testified about the “leftist” behavior of many of his fellow scientists. According to Richard Polenberg, if Oppenheimer's clearance had not been revoked, he might have gone down in history as one of those who "named names" to save his reputation. But as it did, he was perceived by much of the scientific community as a “martyr” of “McCarthyism,” an eclectic liberal who was unfairly attacked by his militaristic enemies, a symbol of the shift of scientific creativity from the universities to the military. Wernher von Braun expressed his views on the scientist's trial in a sarcastic remark to a congressional committee: "In England, Oppenheimer would have been knighted."

P. A. Sudoplatov notes in his book that Oppenheimer, like other scientists, was not recruited, but was “a source associated with proven agents, proxies and operational workers." At a seminar at the Institute. Woodrow Wilson Institute May 20, 2009 John Earl Hines, Harvey Clair, and Alexander Vasiliev, based on a comprehensive analysis of the latter's notes based on materials from the KGB archive, confirmed that Oppenheimer never engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union. The USSR intelligence services periodically tried to recruit him, but were unsuccessful - Oppenheimer did not betray the United States. Moreover, he fired several people from the Manhattan Project who sympathized with the Soviet Union.

Beginning in 1954, Oppenheimer spent several months of the year on the island of St. John, one of the Virgin Islands. In 1957, he bought a 2-acre (0.81 ha) plot of land on Gibney Beach, where he built a spartan beach house. Oppenheimer spent a lot of time sailing with his daughter Toni and wife Kitty.

Increasingly concerned about the potential dangers of scientific discoveries to humanity, Oppenheimer joined Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Joseph Rotblat and other prominent scientists and teachers to found the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960. Following his public humiliation, Oppenheimer did not sign major public protests against nuclear weapons in the 1950s, including the 1955 Russell-Einstein Manifesto. He did not attend the first Pugwash Conference for Peace and Scientific Cooperation in 1957, although he was invited.

Oppenheimer was a heavy smoker since his youth. At the end of 1965 he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and, after unsuccessful surgery, he underwent radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the end of 1966. The treatment had no effect. On February 15, 1967, Oppenheimer fell into a coma and died on February 18 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.

A memorial service was held in Alexander Hall at Princeton University a week later, attended by 600 of his closest colleagues and friends: scientists, politicians and military men - including Bethe, Groves, Kennan, Lilienthal, Rabi, Smith and Wigner. Also present were Frank and the rest of his relatives, historian Arthur Meyer Schlesinger Jr., writer John O'Hara and New York Ballet director George Balanchine. Bethe, Kennan and Smith gave short speeches in which they paid tribute to the deceased's achievements.

Oppenheimer was cremated and his ashes were placed in an urn. Kitty took her to the island of St. John and threw her off the side of a boat into the sea within sight of their house.

After the death of Kitty Oppenheimer in October 1972 from an intestinal infection complicated by a pulmonary embolism, the Oppenheimer ranch in New Mexico was inherited by their son Peter, and the property on the island of St. John passed to their daughter Toni. Toni was denied the security clearance required for her chosen profession as a UN translator after the FBI brought up old charges against her father.

In January 1977, three months after the end of her second marriage, she committed suicide by hanging herself in a house on the coast; She bequeathed her property “to the people of the island of St. John as a public park and recreation area.” The house, originally built too close to the sea, was destroyed by a hurricane; the Government of the Virgin Islands currently maintains a Community Center on the site.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in the USA, into a family of German immigrants with Jewish roots. The family of Julius Oppenheimer and Ella Friedman had two children - the eldest Robert and the younger Frank, who later became the greatest physicists of their time.

Robert's first place of study was the Alcuin Preparatory School, followed by the School of the Society for Ethical Culture. Oppenheimer demonstrated an interest in a wide variety of sciences, completing the 3rd and 4th grade curriculum in one year. In the same way, he passed the exams in the eighth grade, mastering the entire program in just six months. Moving into the last grade, Oppenheimer gets acquainted with chemistry - science becomes his passion.

At the age of 18, young Robert went to Harvard College, where he had to learn not only his major subjects, but also choose an additional one: history, literature and philosophy or mathematics.

But that didn't bother him. Oppenheimer excelled in everything: he took a record six courses a semester, became a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was eligible to attend the master's program in physics on an independent study basis (by skipping the introductory courses) as a freshman. Robert became interested in experimental physics after taking a thermodynamics course taught by Percy Bridgman. Oppenheimer graduated with honors in just three years.

But Robert did not finish his studies there - educational institutions in different cities of Europe awaited him. So in 1924 he was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge. He simply dreamed of working at the Cavendish Laboratory - a laboratory where he could not only observe research, but also conduct it together with teachers. Having gone to Cambridge with a less than encouraging recommendation from Bridgman (it noted Oppenheimer's lack of inclination towards experimental physics), he was accepted to study with Joseph Thomson.

In 1926, Oppenheimer left Cambridge and headed to the University of Göttingen, which at that time was one of the most advanced in the study of physics in all its manifestations. In 1927, at the age of 23, Robert Oppenheimer defended his dissertation and received his PhD from the University of Göttingen.

Teaching and scientific activities

Upon returning home, Oppenheimer received permission to work at one of the most prestigious universities in California, while Bridgman wanted the promising physicist to work at Harvard. As a compromise, it was decided that Oppenheimer would teach part of the academic year at Harvard (1927) and the second part at the University of California (1928). In the last institution, Robert met Linus Pauling, with whom they planned to “revolutionize” ideas about the nature of the chemical bond, but Oppenheimer’s excessive interest in Pauling’s wife prevented this - Linus completely broke off contacts with Oppenheimer, subsequently even refusing to participate in his famous Manhattan Project.

As part of his teaching activities, Robert also visited a number of educational institutions. In 1928, he went to the University of Leiden (Netherlands), where he surprised the students by giving a lecture in their native language. Next was the Swiss Higher Technical School (Zurich), where he was able to work with his beloved Wolfgang Pauli. Scientists spent days discussing the problems of quantum mechanics and ways to solve them.

Returning to the United States, Robert accepted a position as a senior assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. However, very soon he had to leave the university for some time - Oppenheimer was diagnosed with a mild stage of tuberculosis. Having recovered, he began to work with renewed vigor.

Theoretical astrophysics is the main direction of Oppenheimer's scientific research. The list of his works numbers in the hundreds and includes articles and studies on quantum mechanics, astrophysics, theoretical spectroscopy and other sciences that in one way or another intersect with his dignified specialization.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was something completely new for Oppenheimer. By creating the nuclear bomb at the behest of President Franklin Roosevelt, surrounded by the best physicists of the day, he greatly expanded the range of available skills. Oppenheimer initially led the group at Berkeley University. Their task was to calculate fast neutrons. “Fast Break Coordinator,” as Oppenheimer’s position was called, worked hand in hand not only with eminent physicists, but also with talented students, including Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, Edward Teller and others.

Leslie Groves Jr. was nominated as project manager from the US Army (after transferring responsibility for the project from the scientific to the military side). He appointed Oppenheimer to head the secret weapons laboratory without hesitation. The decision came as a surprise to both scientists and the military. Govars explained the choice of a person for the role of manager who did not have a Nobel Prize and, accordingly, authority, by the personal qualities of the candidate. Including vanity, which, in his opinion, should have “spurred” Oppenheimer to achieve results.

The bomb development base, moved on Oppenheimer's initiative from New Mexico to Los Almos, was created in the shortest possible time - some buildings were rented, others were just being built. The number of physicists involved in the project grew every year - Oppenheimer's initial calculations turned out to be rather short-sighted. If in 1943 a couple of hundred people worked on the project, then already in 1945 this figure increased to several thousand.

At first, managing and coordinating groups was quite difficult for physicists, but very soon Oppenheimer mastered this science. Later, project participants noted his ability to smooth out contradictions between military and civilians, which arose for a variety of reasons - from cultural to religious. At the same time, he always took into account all the aspects and subtleties of such a specific project.

In 1945, the first test of the created product took place - near Alamogordo, on July 16, an artificial explosion took place, and it was successful.

The fate of the two “Manhattan” bombs, developed under the leadership of Oppenheimer, was determined long before their creation - the shells with the sarcastic names “Baby” and “Fat Man” were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1956, respectively.

Personal life

Personal and political life Oppenheimer have always been closely intertwined. He was repeatedly suspected of being a communist, and the social reforms he supported were regarded as pro-communist. But he only added fuel to the fire. So, in 1936, Oppenheimer began an affair with a medical school student, whose father was also a professor of literature at Berkeley. Jean Tatlock had similar views on life and politics with Oppenheimer; moreover, she even wrote notes for the newspaper published by the Communist Party. However, the couple broke up in 1929.

In the summer of the same year, Oppenheimer meets Katherine Puening Harrison, a former member of the Communist Party, behind whom she has three marriages, one of which is still valid. After spending the summer of 1940 at the Oppenheimer ranch, becoming pregnant and having difficulty obtaining a divorce from her then-husband, Kitty married Robert. In the marriage, the Oppenheimer couple have two children - a boy, Peter, and a girl, Katherine, but this does not stop Robert and he continues his relationship with Tatlock.

Katherine was by Oppenheimer's side until the last - she went with him to the end of the fight against cancer, which the scientist was diagnosed with in 1965. Surgeries, radiotherapy and chemotherapy did not bring results - on February 18, after a three-day coma, Robert Oppenheimer died.

Bibliography of Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer, who sacrificed his life on the altar of science, wrote about a dozen books on physics and published many scientific articles and publications. Unfortunately, most of the works were never translated into Russian. His books include:

• Science and the Common Understanding (Science and General Understanding) (1954)
• The Open Mind (1955)
• Atom and Void: Essays on Science and Community (1989) and many others.

• Oppenheimer, a genius of his time, had serious mental problems (once he soaked an apple in a poisonous liquid and put it on his boss’s desk), was a heavy smoker (from which he developed tuberculosis and laryngeal cancer), and sometimes even forgot to eat - physics fascinated him headlong .
• “I am death, destroyer of worlds,” is a phrase belonging to Oppenheimer in relation to himself. It came to his mind during the test explosion of his bomb and was borrowed from the Hindu book Bhagavad Gita.

Oppenheimer Robert

Assistant to US Army Lieutenant General Leslie Groves

The name of Julius Robert Oppenheimer is known not only to physicists. For most, Oppenheimer is first and foremost a man, led the effort to create the atomic bomb in the United States and was subsequently subjected to severe persecution by the notorious Un-American Activities Commission.

Like physicist R. Oppenheimer didn't such outstanding discoveries, which could be placed on a par with the most important works of A. Einstein, M. Planck, E. Rutherford, N. Bohr, W. Heisenberg, E. Schrödinger, L. de Broglie and other luminaries of physics of the 20th century. However, he did a lot of research that aroused the admiration of all physicists and promoted him to the ranks of major scientists.

On April 22, 1904, in New York, a son was born into the family of an influential industrialist, a Jewish emigrant from Germany, Julius Oppenheimer. No one in the family, naturally, suspected that 41 years later Robert Oppenheimer himself would become the father of such a brainchild, which will blow up the world- literally and figuratively. The first atomic bomb test in world history took place on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. irreversibly changed the course of history. In 1925, he graduated from Harvard University, completing the entire course in three years, and left to continue his education in Europe. He was admitted to the University of Cambridge and began working at the famous Cavendish Laboratory under the direction of E. Rutherford. Here he was extremely successful in theoretical physics, although, according to him, he failed in practical classes in the laboratory. At Cambridge, Oppenheimer met such leading physicists as M. Born, P. Dirac and N. Bohr. At the invitation of Professor M. Born of the University of Göttingen, Oppenheimer moved from Great Britain to Germany. During these years, he listened to lectures by outstanding physicists of the world - E. Schrödinger, W. Heisenberg, J. Frank - and worked with them in the field of quantum mechanics.

In 1929, Oppenheimer, having completed his course at the University of Leiden and the Higher Technical School in Zurich, returned to his homeland. A young, talented, already famous physicist 10 American universities became interested at once. Since his health was deteriorating at this time, doctors, fearing tuberculosis, recommended that he live in the western United States. Oppenheimer settled on a farm located in New Mexico. There was a small town west of the farm Los Alamos, in which subsequently, under the leadership Leslie Groves The secret laboratory of the Manhattan District operated successfully. For 20 years, Oppenheimer simultaneously served as an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and the University of California at Berkeley. Here he studied Sanskrit (the eighth language he spoke) from the famous Sanskrit scholar A. Rider. When asked why he chose Berkeley, Oppenheimer replied: “I was drawn there by several old books: the collections of French poets of the 16th and 17th centuries in the university library made all the difference.”

Close communication with outstanding physicists left its mark on Oppenheimer's entire biography. Working in the field of quantum mechanics, the scientist conducted research on new properties of matter and radiation, developed a method for calculating the intensity distribution over the components of radiation spectra, and created a theory of the interaction of free electrons with atoms. In the future, the scope of his scientific interests moved to the field of nuclear physics. Since the discovery of uranium fission in 1939, Oppenheimer has been constantly interested in studying this process and the related problem of creating atomic weapons. Since the fall of 1941, he participated in the work of a special commission of the US National Academy of Sciences, which discussed the problems of using atomic energy for military purposes. At the same time, Oppenheimer led a group of theoretical physics that studied ways to create an atomic bomb. The first American nuclear project was named "Manhattan" or "project Y". His headed by 46-year-old Colonel Leslie Groves, A scientific supervisor became Robert Oppenheimer, who proposed uniting all scientists in one laboratory in the provincial town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, near Santa Fe. About 130 thousand people worked on the creation of the bomb, among whom were outstanding physicists of the 20th century: Fermi, Pontecorvo, Szilard, Bohr and our compatriot Gamow. At the end of 1943, a group of English scientists was sent to Oppenheimer to strengthen the Manhattan Project. Participated in the project at least 12 Nobel laureates, present or future. True, Oppenheimer himself never became a Nobel laureate.

As it turned out later, the decision to invite Oppenheimer to the post of head of the Los Alamos laboratory was made by the US military-administrative elite not without hesitation. It was known that the scientist in the recent past had clearly sympathized with leftist circles and even had personal connections with some members of the American Communist Party. Oppenheimer was a wealthy man and more than once took part in fundraisers, the goals of which were later defined as “communist.” His younger brother Frank and his brother's wife at one time were members of the US Communist Party. Oppenheimer's own wife was previously married to a communist who died during the Spanish Civil War. The crimes of the Hitler regime in Germany deeply shocked Oppenheimer, who had hitherto been an absolutely apolitical person. Wanting to contribute to the fight against fascism, he accepted active participation in the work of a number of anti-fascist organizations and even wrote several propaganda brochures and leaflets and printed them at his own expense. By the time Oppenheimer was invited to the position of head of the laboratory, three years had already passed since he broke off his previous political connections. When starting work on the creation of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer filled out a very detailed questionnaire, listing all his connections with left-wing elements that might be of interest to the police and military authorities. The scientist understood quite well that the police and army should and would be interested in his past, since he was appointed to a very important position from a security and intelligence point of view.

The test site in New Mexico spans 10,000 square kilometers. In its northern part, in the early morning of July 16, 1945, the atomic sun lit up. Two days before, the first atomic bomb, or as it was called the “thing” or “device”, was assembled at the nearby McDonald Ranch from materials delivered from the nuclear laboratory in Los Alam oce, was placed on top of a 33-meter steel tower. Around, at various distances from the tower, seismographic and photographic equipment was placed, as well as instruments recording radioactivity, temperature and pressure. Three observation points were set up within a radius of 9 km, where project leaders took up their posts. Mounted on a steel tower, a new weapon designed to change the nature of war or which could become a means to end all wars, was activated by a slight movement of the hand. The work proceeded amid flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. Bad weather delayed the explosion, scheduled for 4 a.m., by an hour and a half.

The world's first atomic bomb They called it “Trinity” (“Trinity”). Forty-five seconds before the explosion, the automatic device was turned on, and from that time on, all parts of the complex mechanism operated without human control, and only a scientist was stationed at the reserve switch, ready to try to stop the explosion if the order was given. The order was not given. The actual detonation was entrusted to Dr. Bainbridge from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. General Leslie Groves, along with Doctors Conant and Bush, immediately before the test, joined the scientists gathered at the base camp. According to their orders, all available personnel gathered on a small hill. Everyone present was ordered to lie on the ground, face down, with their feet towards the explosion site. As soon as the explosion occurred, they were allowed to get up and admire it through the smoked glass with which everyone was equipped. The time was believed to be sufficient to protect the eyes of those watching from being burned.

Stunned scientists immediately began assessing the power of America's new weapon. To study the crater, specially equipped tanks were sent to the site of the explosion, one of which carried the famous core researcher Dr. Enrico Fermi. What appeared before his eyes was a dead, scorched earth, on which all living things had been destroyed within a radius of one and a half kilometers. The sand baked into a glassy greenish crust that covered the ground. In a huge crater lay the mangled remains of a steel tower. A mangled steel box, turned on its side, lay to the side. The power of the explosion turned out to be 20 thousand tons of trinitrotoluene. This effect could have been caused by 2 thousand of the largest bombs from the Second World War, which were called "destroyers of neighborhoods." The power of the detonated bomb exceeded all expectations. Just the day before, scientists conducted a kind of betting with a minimum bet of $1, which of them can most correctly guess the strength of the upcoming explosion. Oppenheimer, for example, called 300 tons in terms of conventional explosives. Most other answers were close to this figure. Few people dared to rise to 10 thousand tons, and only Dr. Rabi from Columbia University, as he himself explained later, out of a desire to please the creators of the new weapon, named 18 thousand tons. To his surprise, he turned out to be the winner.

If not for the desolation of the area where the test was carried out, and not for the agreement with the press in the area, the test would have attracted the attention of the general public. However, this did not happen. Only a few eyewitness accounts appeared in the media. So, for example, newspapers wrote that one girl, blind from birth, living near Albuquerque, many miles from the site of the explosion, at the moment when the flash lit up the sky and the roar had not yet been heard, exclaimed: "What is this?"

Robert Oppenheimer was very frank, quoting lines from the Bhagavad Gita in relation to himself: "I am becoming Death, the shatter of worlds" (“I have become Death, shaker of worlds”). After the war, the father of the atomic bomb complained to President Truman that he could feel blood on his hands. His opposition to the hydrogen bomb and his late 1930s association with communist Jane Tatlock led to suspicions of disloyalty to his country. In 1954, court hearings took place, as a result of which Oppenheimer was “excommunicated” from work related to nuclear laboratories. As it turned out later, these suspicions had some basis.

According to the memoirs of Pavel Sudoplatov, who during the war years led the Fourth Directorate of the NKVD, Comintern documents were discovered in the archives of the CPSU Central Committee in 1992, confirming Oppenheimer’s connections with members of the secret cell of the US Communist Party. Sudoplatov believes that in the traditional sense Oppenheimer, Fermi and Szilard were not agents of the Soviet Union. However, Oppenheimer's bet on anti-fascist emigrants was probably connected with his far-sighted desire avoid a monopoly on atomic weapons by one country.

The world's first atomic bomb test was successful. The military leadership of the Manhattan Project rejoiced. When the explosion occurred and the smoke that had enveloped the area cleared, his deputy Thomas Farrell said: "The war is over"- General Groves replied: - "Yes, but after we drop bombs on Japan." For him, this was a long-decided matter. The test of the first atomic bomb became the American trump card in a major game against the Soviet Union at the approaching Potsdam Conference. Truman expressed his hopes in his characteristically tough manner: “If it explodes, and I think it will, then I will have a club to hit this country with.”

The Manhattan Project cost the American government $2.5 billion. The Soviet Union received secret materials without such costs. “I would like to immediately note that... our first atomic bomb is a copy of the American one.” This statement was made on August 11, 1992 by the scientific director of VNIIEF, academician Julius Khariton and published in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. "This was the fastest and most reliable way to show that we also have nuclear weapons,- he said later. – The more efficient designs we saw could wait."

In October 1945, Oppenheimer resigned as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and headed the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. His fame in the United States and abroad reached its culmination. New York newspapers increasingly wrote about him in the style of reports about Hollywood movie stars. The weekly Time magazine placed his photo on the cover and dedicated a central article to him in the issue. It was from then on that they began to call him "father of the atomic bomb." President Truman awarded him the Medal of Merit, America's highest honor. Popular Medicine magazine ranked him among the “Pantheon of the first half of the century.” Many foreign higher educational institutions and academies sent him membership and honorary diplomas.

However, Oppenheimer's fate was connected with atomic weapons for a long time. In 1946, he became chairman of the advisory committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission, a trusted adviser to politicians and generals. In this position, he took part in the development of the American project for international control of atomic energy, the real goal of which was not to ban and destroy atomic weapons, stop their production and restore the free exchange of scientific information, but to ensure US hegemony in all areas of nuclear science and technology.

Oppenheimer also had to consider the project of creating a hydrogen bomb. At the same time, he actually spoke against the creation of new weapons of mass destruction. He believed that a hydrogen bomb cannot be produced. However, on January 31, 1950, Truman signed an order to begin work on creating a hydrogen bomb: “I have directed the Atomic Energy Commission to continue work on all types of atomic weapons, including hydrogen or the superbomb.” He ordered the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense to jointly determine the scope and cost of the program.

On August 8, 1953, the Soviet government reported to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR that the United States was not a monopoly in the production of the hydrogen bomb. And on August 20, a government message was published in the Soviet press, which said: “Recently in the Soviet Union, a type of hydrogen bomb was exploded for test purposes.” Physicists from the US Atomic Energy Commission compiled a report in this regard, which was presented to President D. Eisenhower. The essence of this document was that the Soviet Union produced “at a high technical level, the hydrogen explosion was in some respects ahead.” The authors of the report stated: “The USSR has already accomplished some of what the United States hoped to achieve as a result of the experiments scheduled for the spring of 1954.”

The news that The USSR solved the problem of hydrogen weapons, produced the impression of a bomb exploding in Washington. A number of questions arose before the ruling circles. When will the US have a hydrogen bomb? Should the population of the country be informed that the Soviet Union already has hydrogen weapons? For a whole month, confusion reigned in the White House. Exactly in order to hide failures, was raised and inflated campaign against Oppenheimer. They tried to accuse him of an anti-American way of thinking, of communism and other “deadly sins.” In circles where they did without a diplomatic dictionary, talked openly about espionage. On December 21, 1953, Oppenheimer was briefed on the charges brought against him by the Director General of the US Atomic Energy Commission, General Nichols. It turns out that Oppenheimer’s owners never forgot about his past “sins.” All these years he was closely monitored by military intelligence. And now “his hour has struck.” In the early 50s, spy mania spread in the United States; The fear of leaking government secrets seemed to become an obsession among members of Congress, the government, and parts of the American public. It was during this period that L. Borden, who was the administrative director for personnel issues of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, sent a letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation J. Hoover, in which, in particular, he noted that, but in his opinion, in 1939–1942 . Oppenheimer "most likely" spied for the Russians. On December 21, 1953, Oppenheimer, who had just returned from a trip to Europe, went with a report to Strauss, a member of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Oppenheimer could not be convicted either criminally or even disciplinaryly, since by this time he was no longer an employee of the Atomic Energy Commission. The proposal of his accusers was that deprive him of access to secret data in the field of atomic research. This was tantamount to condemning the scientist to limit his opportunities for scientific work. The trial was intended as a slap in the face to Oppenheimer and all scientists who supported him, as a warning to scientists. Oppenheimer's conviction also had a broader significance, since, according to the intention of his accusers and in its practical consequences, was directed against all American scientists. He was supposed to be a warning to them against contacts with politically unreliable people, against independence in thinking and expressing their opinions. This is exactly how American scientists, and especially atomic scientists, viewed the trial against Oppenheimer, and this is how they understood the guilty verdict, which caused indignation and protests among them.

The process brought many scientists back to Oppenheimer. Like other representatives of the American intelligentsia, they clearly saw how dangerous it was for science, democracy and progress McCarthyism. The Federation of American Scientists protested to the US government, and the administrative council of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton unanimously approved Oppenheimer as director of the institute.

More than 10 years after the first atomic explosion, the place named after the “Trinity” (Trinity Site) was surrounded by a wire fence. But as radioactivity decreased, it became increasingly accessible. In 1965, from pieces of black volcanic lava, which was abundant around, a low obelisk was built with a laconic inscription: “Trinity Site, where the world’s first nuclear device opened on July 16, 1945.” “Trinity” is still closed to the general public and not due to radioactive safety, but because it is still a missile test site. Every year, on the anniversary of the event, people gather here. Pray for peace in the whole world.

Biography:

Oppenheimer, Robert (Oppenheimer, J. Robert) (1904–1967), American physicist. Born in New York on April 22, 1904. Graduated from Harvard University in 1925. In 1925 he was admitted to the University of Cambridge and worked at the Cavendish Laboratory under the direction of Rutherford. In 1926 he was invited by M. Born to the University of Göttingen, where in 1927 he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1928 he worked at the Universities of Zurich and Leiden. From 1929 to 1947 he taught at the University of California and the California Institute of Technology. From 1939 to 1945, he actively participated in the work on creating an atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project, and headed the Los Alamos Laboratory. Over the next seven years he was an adviser to the US government, and from 1947 to 1952 he chaired the General Advisory Committee of the US Atomic Energy Commission. From 1947 to 1966, Oppenheimer was director of the Institute for Basic Research in Princeton (New Jersey).

Oppenheimer wrote works on quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, elementary particle physics, and theoretical astrophysics. In 1927, the scientist developed a theory of the interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he created the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1931, together with P. Ehrenfest, he formulated a theorem according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of particles with spin 1/2 should obey Fermi - Dirac statistics, and those of an even number - Bode - Einstein (Ehrenfest - Oppenheimer theorem). The application of this theorem to the nitrogen nucleus showed that the proton-electron hypothesis of the structure of nuclei leads to a number of contradictions with the known properties of nitrogen. Investigated the internal conversion of g-rays. In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he made the first calculation of a neutron star model, and in 1939 he predicted the existence of “black holes”.

Main works:

Science and Common Knowledge (1954)

Open Mind (1955)

Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960).

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“I need physics more than friends,” a famous American scientist once said. - Robert Oppenheimer was called that by his compatriots - he devoted his whole life to research. He suffered from depression, was a very eccentric person, and his interests were not limited to physics. The story of Julius Robert Oppenheimer is told in this article.

Childhood

Robert Oppenheimer was born in 1904 in New York. His father came from Germany and was engaged in the sale of fabrics. In addition, Oppenheimer Sr. acquired paintings throughout his life and assembled an excellent collection, which even included paintings by Van Gogh. The future scientist’s mother taught painting. She died young, her death devastated her son's inner world. One of the compilers of the biography of Robert Oppenheimer suggested that a certain sophistication of the scientist and his interest in art were caused by nothing more than the desire to preserve the image of his mother.

At the age of five, the hero of today's story began collecting mineral samples. As a gift from his grandfather, he received a wonderful collection of stones. When the boy turned eleven, he was accepted into the mineralogy club. After graduating from school, he entered Harvard University.

Youth

Robert Oppenheimer did not dream of becoming a physicist from an early age. Initially, he planned to study chemistry; in addition, he was attracted to poetry and architecture. This scientist was a versatile person. His interests covered the exact sciences and humanities. He studied physics, chemistry, Greek and Latin, and wrote poetry in his youth.

It is worth saying that in the United States, back in the first half of the 20th century, school and university education acquired a pronounced tendency towards specialization. This separated people and limited their range of knowledge. Oppenheimer's desire for knowledge in various fields testifies to his gifted, rich nature.

Passion for Eastern philosophy

He amazed those around him with his intellectual sensitivity and high ability to work. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, during one of his trips, in just a few hours, he read a monograph by an English historian dedicated to the collapse of the Roman Empire. One day he surprised his colleagues by suddenly starting to give lectures in Dutch. But nothing could satisfy Oppenheimer's thirst for knowledge. Later he began to study Buddhism, Indian philosophy. Moreover, I became interested in Sanskrit.

“I am the destroyer of worlds,” Robert Oppenheimer once said this odious phrase. It became one of his most famous sayings. Robert Oppenheimer extracted the quote from the work of the ancient Indian philosopher. Why he called himself the destroyer of worlds is discussed below.

In Europe

Robert Oppenheimer graduated in 1925. Moreover, he completed the standard course not in four, but in three years. Afterwards he went to Europe, where he continued his education. The glory of the universities of the Old World had not yet faded against the backdrop of rich American laboratories. Many US students sought to study in Europe.

Oppenheimer was accepted to Cambridge University. Here he began work in the Cavendish laboratory. Its leader was the scientist Rutherdorf, whom the students for some reason nicknamed “the crocodile.” By the way, one of the students of the teacher with a strange nickname was Pyotr Kapitsa. Oppenheimer differed from his comrades in his incredible ability to conduct theoretical and experimental research.

In the Cavendish laboratory, the young American witnessed the incredible struggle that scientists waged to obtain from philanthropists and the government the expensive, complex instruments needed for research.

Soon Oppenheimer received an invitation to the University of Georgia Augusta. This institution was famous primarily for its outstanding mathematicians, among whom was the famous Friedrich Gauss. George Augusta University was considered a scientific center where a revolution in physics took place.

In 1927, Oppenheimer passed the exams. He received “excellent” grades in all subjects except organic chemistry. He defended his dissertation brilliantly. Max Born characterized the work of the novice scientist very highly, noting that it significantly exceeds standard dissertations in its level.

Quantum revolution

Of course, Robert Oppenheimer did not play a role in modern physics significant role, unlike Schrödinger, Curie, Einstein. Moreover, he made no significant scientific discoveries. However, not a single scientist, like Oppenheimer, was able to understand the role of the quantum revolution and its possibilities to the same extent as the hero of the article did. He conducted numerous experimental and theoretical studies, discovered new properties of matter, and published many reports on this topic. Oppenheimer made a significant contribution to modern physics, which was built in the first half of the 20th century. He was a talented teacher and popularizer of new theories.

Even in short biography Robert Oppenheimer states an important fact about him: he was one of the leading American developers of nuclear weapons. That is why he was called the “father of the atomic bomb.” It was first tested in 1945 in New Mexico. Then it occurred to the scientist to compare himself with the destroyer of worlds.

Linus Pauling

In 1928, Oppenheimer became close friends with the famous American chemist. Together they planned to organize research in the field of chemical communication. Pauling was a pioneer in this area. Oppenheimer had to do the math part. However, the scientists' ideas were not implemented. The chemist began to suspect that the relationship between his colleague and his wife was becoming too close. He refused further cooperation, and when Oppenheimer later invited him to head the Chemical Division, he refused, citing his pacifist views.

Personal life

In 1936, Robert Oppenheimer began an affair with Jean Tatlock. The girl was studying at Stanford Medical School at that time. It is noteworthy that their relationship began on the basis of common political views. The scientist broke up with Tatlock three years after they met. At the same time, he began a relationship with Berkeley University student and former Communist Party member Katherine Harrison. At that time the girl was married. When she found out that she was pregnant with Oppenheimer's child, she filed for divorce. Their wedding took place in November 1940. While married, Oppenheimer resumed his relationship with his former lover Jean Tatlock.

There is a version that the scientist’s wife, Katherine Harrison, was a special agent of Soviet intelligence. Moreover, she was in America precisely for the purpose of establishing a relationship with Robert Oppenheimer. This point of view was expressed in his memoirs by saboteur Pavel Sudoplatov. Jean Tatlock, who also had connections with members of the Communist Party, also raised doubts. It is worth saying that in the circles of American scientists in those years, almost every third person was an intelligence officer from the USSR.

Political activity

In the twenties, Oppenheimer was not at all interested in politics. According to his statement, he did not read newspapers or listen to the radio. For example, he learned about the collapse in stock prices that occurred in 1929 several months later. He voted in the presidential election for the first time in 1936. In the mid-thirties, he suddenly became interested in international relations. In 1934, he expressed a desire to donate a small part of his salary to support German scientists forced to leave their homeland due to the totalitarian regime. Sometimes Oppenheimer even appeared at rallies.

Security clearance

American domestic intelligence followed Robert Oppenheimer back in the late thirties. The scientist aroused distrust due to his sympathies for the communists. In addition, his close relatives were members of this party. In the early forties, the scientist found himself under close surveillance. His telephone conversations were tapped. Knobs were installed in Oppenheimer's house.

In 1949, the scientist testified to government officials who were investigating anti-American activities. Oppenheimer admitted that in the early thirties he had connections with the communists. His brother Frank, who was a physicist by training, but after a high-profile incident lost his job and moved to Colorado, where he became a farmer, was also interrogated. Robert Oppenheimer was removed from secret activities. According to materials from the KGB archive, he was not recruited and never engaged in espionage for the Soviet Union.

Last years

Robert Oppenheimer spent most of his time since 1954 on the island of St. John. Here he acquired a plot of land and built a house. The scientist loved to sail on a yacht with his daughter and wife Katherine. Last years he was increasingly concerned about the dangers of scientific discoveries in the field of nuclear physics. He was completely deprived of political influence, but continued to lecture and write a monograph.

In 1965, the famous theoretical physicist was diagnosed with throat cancer. He was given chemotherapy, but the treatment was unsuccessful. Robert Oppenheimer passed away in February 1967.