Why were the secret city in the Soviet Union

• Why were the secret city in the Soviet Union

were in the cities of the USSR, which no one knew, and whose residents talking to "strangers" were forced to indicate a fictitious place of residence. The appearance of the first Soviet closed cities was associated with the development of new types of weapons. Many of them still have the Closed status (Closed City).

The first and most secret

Confidential settlement with a special regime - not the invention of the Soviet state machine. The first area of this type appeared in the UK back in 1915 due to the opening of the border between England and Scotland plant for the production of cordite (smokeless powder). In early 1943, closed settlement was organized in the United States in the town of Los Alamos in connection with the launch of the Manhattan Project (the code name for the US program to develop nuclear weapons).

In the USSR, the formation of the first closed the city also was due to the beginning of the creation of the atomic bomb. The Soviet Union lagged behind in this matter by the US military. But thanks to the efforts of intelligence agents in the United States and Great Britain, the Soviet leadership has received the data necessary for the elimination of the backlog has arisen.

February 11, 1943 was accepted by the USSR State Committee of Defense of the start of practical work on the creation of a nuclear bomb. Initially working under the direction of Kurchatov took place in a secret laboratory №2 of Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of Atomic Energy. Kurchatov).

After the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union intensified its activities in the nuclear sphere. It needed to build a special facility, which would be located at a distance from the capital or other major cities. In early 1946, the place for such an object was found. April 9, 1946 was accepted by the Council of Ministers of the Organization Design Bureau (CB) at the Laboratory of Sciences of the USSR №2 in the village of Sarov in the Gorki region, near the Seraphim Diveevo Convent. In early 1947, KB-11 (later the city of Arzamas-16) received the status of a particular modal businesses. Here and the first Soviet atomic bomb was developed, tested in 1949.

What else existed closed cities

Over time, the number of closed cities in the USSR grew. They arise around critical facilities, including research institutes and enterprises for the production of various types of weapons.

Large objects nuclear industry has, in addition to Arzamas-16 in Sverdlovsk-44, which still produce the highly enriched uranium needed to produce nuclear weapons; Chelyabinsk-65, specialized in the production of radioactive isotopes; Snezhinsk, where was born the most powerful thermonuclear bomb "Kuz'kina-mother."

In the 1950s, the Soviet Union, is concerned the production of biological weapons in the West, begins the study of the effects of its application on the basis established in 1954 by the Research Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense sanitation. Subsequently, there was the industrial production of the Soviet biological weapons based on the variola virus. It also developed and vaccines against the most dangerous diseases, including Ebola.

The most important military facilities closed USSR include the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan, whose task was to prevent a nuclear missile attack.

What was appealing life in the closed city of

In cities with a special regime and the life she was special. They could not find on the map, and the name they were given for a particular principle in the name of one of the closest settlements adds a special number.

Check mode was strictly secret facilities. For example, scientists working at KB-11 to the mid-1950s, could travel from their city only on business trips.

The extent of the closed city was different. Some of them are allowed only employees of local businesses and living with them family members. But in today regulatory order may visit other relatives of employees, and sometimes they are opened for other people.

Due to the special regime of closed cities of their inhabitants had to suffer some inconveniences. However, this was compensated by increase in pay, as well as the creation of more favorable conditions than in conventional Soviet cities. Here there is all necessary infrastructure were available scarce products. Moreover, the crime rate in cities was lower.