ABSTRACT
The explosion of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima — the bomb in whose existence Stalin had refused to believe at Potsdam — bewildered him. All his calculations were suddenly over-thrown. The famous equilibrium which he had sought to establish was broken, to the disadvantage of the USSR, which emerged from the war bruised and economically enfeebled by the demands of reconstruction, demands which it had to meet without assistance. The second atomic bomb, dropped on Nagasaki, liberated Tokyo from the ascendancy of the military clans, and the Japanese capitulation finally upset all Stalin's calculations as to the future. The government of the Kremlin did its best to conceal the importance of the event from the country as a whole. However, Stalin assumed the function of President of a committee of atomic research, whose political direction was confided to Béria, and the scientific section to Kapitza and Ioffe.
