ATOM BOMB PLANT IN SOVIET ARMENIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320186-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 186
• Publication Date: June 20, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320186-0
CLASSIFICATION CONFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
N- vi=wN DCC'J ENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CO ~~O.
COUNTRY USSR DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
SUBJECT Scientific; Military - Atomic energy
HOW DATE DIST. 0 Jun 1950
PUBLISHED Semimonthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED Stockholm NO. OF PAGES 2
DATE
PUBLISHED
LANGUAGE
18 Jan 1950
TIU DOCONNNT CONTAINS INFORMATION UFICTINN THE NATIONAL DEFINIS
or TNN UNITED STATES 01TR1N THE MEANING OF %SSIONA$% ACT 50
O. ITS NI AND SI. AN AMENDED. ITS TRANSMISSION OR TNI REVELATION
of ITS CONTENTS IN ANY NARNES TO AN UNAUTHORIZED PERSON II FSO?
NISITND NT LAW. RRFIO!.~ :T10N OF TNI) FORM IS PROHIBITED.
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
ATOM BOMB PLANT IN SOVIET ARMENIA
According to many reports, the production of atomic bombs in the Soviet
Union is under the supervision of the chief of the secret police, Lavrentiy
teriya, who is also the chairman of the "Secret Committee for the Production
of Atomic Weapons." Stalin has given him unlimited freedom of action, order-
ing that all of Beriya's demands for labor, money, machinery, etc., are to be
met immediately.
The Politburo originally intended to produce atomic weapons serially by
1947, utilizing captured German specialists and secret information from-the
US and Canada. Molotov confirmed this in a speech in Moscow on 6 November
1945.
The Soviet experts required, first, many powerful electric plants for
the verious production processes. All of the "atomic cities" built in great
haste in the Urals near Chelyabinsk and in Western Siberia, southeast of Omsk
("New.Germany"), and in Tuva Autonomous Oblast (the upper course of the Yeni-
sey) proved unsatisfactory because of the topography which was very unsuitable
for hydroelectric power plants. Beriya's final choice was Armenia.
On the northern side of Mount Ararat is Lake Gokcha (Lake Sevan), 7,300
feet above sea level. It contains 60 billion tons of water and collects the
flow from 28 streams and brooks. The lake has only one outlet, the Zanga, a
tributary of the Araksen. This river, which flows between high -liffs of ba-
salt and forms several waterfalls, is ideal for hydroelectric power plants.
The development of the Zanga system was begun in 1932, and by 1947 there were
over ten power plants with a total'capacity of ,2 million kilowatts.
An enormous area along the river, between the eastern slopes of Mount
Alages, Lake Gokcha, and the Kanair Plateau, is now a secret zone, guarded by
select MGB troops. All departments of the atomic bomb plant are housed in
six caves along the basalt shore of the river. The work was performed by Ger-
ma:. prisoners of war and Soviet slave labor in conformity'with plans drawn up
by the German specialists who built Hitler's underground factories in Germany
and Austria. The caves are very deep and are absolutely secure against bombs
-1- CONE # E' IAL
NAVY
AIR
j Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320186-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/18: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600320186-0
SONFIDENTIAI
of all types. Part of the machinery was ordered from domestic factories and the
rest was imported from Germany. Assembly began in 1947. In addition, Germany
delivered a considerable quantity of high-tension equipment, cables, oil current
breakers, etc.
In January 1948, transport of uranium ore from Saxony and Czechoslovakia
began. The factory was ready for operation in May 1948. Power was drawn from
the Dzorages and Yerevan power plants I and II to supplement that from the ten
hydroelectric plants of the atomic plant. All other industrial enterprises in
Armenia are now forced to get along with a minimum of electrical power. The
"Atomgrads" in Chelyabinsk, Western Siberia, and Tannu Tuva are merely auxiliary
and experimental factories.
A certain Professor Arakelyan is the technical and scientific director of
the atomic plants. He is an Armenian, one of Mikoyan's school comrades, and he
enjoys Stalin's confidence.
Besides the plutonium-uranium factories and various experimental stations,
the USSR now has two secret centers where the characteristics of cosmic rays and
their military applications are being studied. Prof P. Kapitsa directs one of
approxiately 100
thekilometers
Itsisoan the Urals,
them. This center
partoof~
of Magnitogorsk.
is is underground. The second center, which is directed by Prof Alexander
Zhdanov, is somewhere in the Pamirs. Zhdanov is famous for the observations of
he properties of cosmic rays he undertook on top of Mount Alages during the to-
il solar eclipse in 1939. He published the results of his observations in an icle
on of the Ato oftC os,mic"The
Radiationn.."nsZhdenov wasldecorated formthisuworkswithethe orderlofnce
Lenin and won two Stalin prizes.
Wild rumors are circulating that Kapitsa has succeeded in reproducing cos-
mic rays artificially and that he has already constructed an apparatus which can
be used in war.
The first Soviet atomic bomb was completed at the Zanga plant in February
1949, and the first explosion took place on 10 July 1949 in the Eastern Ural
wastes near Mangyshlak Peninsula. London and Washington reported this explosion
on 23 September. The completed bombs are transported by plane to the Kuznetsk
area where they are stored in underground chambers 500 meters deep. It is said
that the "Kuzbass" is the center of the Soviet armaments industry and the main
citadel to which the government can withdraw with its entire political and mili-
tary administrative machine.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/18: CIA-