Be respectful, keep it civil and stay on topic. Commentary: One era of nuclear brinksmanship was enough for CNET's Stephen Shankland, who visited the Russian nuclear weapons center of Sarov just after the first Cold War ended. Hecker was serving as director … Russia can no longer beat around the bush, and Alexei Likhachev has himself said, “This [pandemic] creates a direct threat to our nuclear towns. I was then director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and­­ accompanied by two senior scientists from my own lab plus three colleagues from the Lawrence Secret facility for their development, called KB-11 decided to build on the site of the village of Sarov, later turned into Arzamas-16 (other names Kremlёv, Arzamas-75, Gorky-130). Paying Russians to better control those materials -- and to discourage scientists from looking for new jobs elsewhere -- made sense for US foreign policy. 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Our visit was timed to coincide with a 50th anniversary celebration of the end of the Great Patriotic War, aka World War II, which for the Russians ended when the Germans capitulated in May 1945. T-Series has a bad day in office, Laundrywood: Bollywood launders thousands of crores through production houses and it needs to be dealt with seriously, The man who wanted to kill Mukesh Ambani has been found dead. During World War II, the monastery buildings were used as factories to produce rockets. These cities, excluded from train and bus routes, were referred to by their codenames and Sarov, for example, was known as Arzamas-16. In November 1942, physicist Igor Kurchatov was given a small Moscow laboratory, four grams of radium, … There was a clear kinship between the cities' researchers -- a curious camaraderie given that those very researchers designed the warheads perched atop ICBMs aimed at each other. The situation in Sarov, Elektrostal [and] Desnogorsk is today particularly alarming.” Sarov seems to be worst-hit and Likhachev has said, “The situation in Sarov is exacerbated by an outbreak of the illness in the nearby Diveyevo monastery.”. The Coronavirus Pandemic is fast turning out to be once in a lifetime phenomenon that is pushing countries to take some of the most unprecedented measures. One gave me a present symbolic of US-Russian cooperation: a massive hand-cranked drill, made in Massachusetts but given to Russians in World War II and used during the German siege of Leningrad. The two countries can move past sticking points like NATO's eastward expansion and Russia's military action in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Hecker says. During the Cold War, Sarov was a top-secret city known as Arzamas-16. The security fence around Sarov came to be enjoyed as a way to keep away the outsiders who'd had it even worse. The city, where England memorably defeated Sweden, is still home to Russia’s aerospace and aviation industries - but the veil of secrecy has now been lifted. Hardest hit by the end of the Cold War were elderly World War II veterans thrust back onto the job market after their pensions became worthless. And he's keeping his communication links alive even though the US-Russia lab-to-lab collaboration project he helped begin is now all but dead. Together with the collapse of the Soviet State, they ceased to be secret, but it is likely there are more, unknown yet. The city of Sarov is so secret that it doesn’t even appear on old maps of Russia and the Russians need special permits to be allowed to visit the city. Siegfried Hecker (second from left) tours a secret Russian nuclear facility in the city of Sarov in February, 1992. During World War II, mail for Manhattan Project researchers in Los Alamos was addressed to P.O. He's friends with plenty of Russians and sees their cultural values as very similar to ours. And I felt the same tie when five Sarov scientists were killed in a Russian missile test explosion this month. Commie Camaraderie- Why are Russia and China acting like best friends forever? The Soviet government removed it from all maps, and its name disappeared from every document. In February 1992, I landed in the formerly secret city of Sarov, the Russian Los Alamos, followed a few days later by a visit to Snezhinsk, their Livermore. What puts this city on the list is not the fact that it is another closed city or that it was cut off from the public for decades or even that it was removed from maps in 1947 and not acknowledged until as late as 1994. "There is absolutely no need for Russia and the US to be adversaries and enemies," Hecker tells me. That troubles Hecker -- even though he spent much of his career designing the nuclear weapons the US aimed at the then-USSR. 1992_visit_in_sarov.png. Today's nationalistic fervor might make it hard to defrost the relationship, but seeing the world from the other side's perspective will help, he says. But the novel Coronavirus is turning out to be sneakier than spies, and while espionage never infiltrated into the secret cities, the Pandemic has managed to penetrate the defences of Russia’s most carefully-guarded secret. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Siegfried Hecker (second from left) takes a tour of a secret Russian nuclear facility in the city of Sarov in February, 1992. Your email address will not be published. news Russian … Patriot, Political Analyst, Amateur Historian, Your email address will not be published. The center produced the Soviet Union’s first nuclear weapons. Sometimes closed cities may only be represented on classified maps that are not available to the general public. Surrounded by barbed wire, protected by armed guards, the entry of these secret areas is strictly forbidden to foreigners. Today it is making one missile after another. Arzamas-16 was the codename of a Russian city (today called Sarov) then in the 1940s ceased to exist, at least officially. The Sarov institute, where the first Soviet nuclear weapon was made in 1949, is home to some of Russia’s most powerful supercomputers. Both cities teem with elite researchers who play important military roles and are curious about what makes the universe tick. In some cases there may be no road signs or directions to closed cities, and they are usually omitted from railroad time tables and bus routes. Last month, 14 Russian navy officers were killed in a fire on a top-secret nuclear-powered submersible in circumstances that have not been fully revealed. I'm in the center photo, showing the newspaper to some students. The USSR chooses, as a research center for its nuclear program, the city of Sarov, about 300 kilometers from Moscow.It was a place close enough to the power to be controlled and far enough to not be detected by spies. A Russian in the nuclear weapons design city of Sarov in 1995 gave me this medal -- the Order of the Badge of Honor -- as a token of goodwill after the Cold War ended. An official state of mourning was declared in the city. But the story that made the biggest impression on me took place thousands of miles away, in Russia. On February 23, 1992, less than two months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, I landed on the tarmac in Sarov, a city the government had removed from maps to keep secret its status as a nuclear weapons center. 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I'm remembering it now because I've recently interviewed Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and a key leader of the US-Russian lab collaboration that led to my trip. The launch comes about two weeks after five nuclear specialists were killed in a blast at the Russian secret city of Sarov. I covered everything from President Bill Clinton visiting the lab to mostly harmless radioactive cat poop triggering radiation alarms at the county landfill. "The border is secured with a high fence; there are only few checkpoints to get into the city," said Konstantin, a former resident of the closed city of Ozyorsk in the Chelyabinsk Region, 850 miles east of Moscow. The centre produced the Soviet Union’s first nuclear weapons. I felt it more closely than an "ordinary" episode of political violence. The effort, funded by the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, saw US and Russian scientists working on joint research and helping to get a grip on the vast quantities of Soviet-era nuclear weapons materials. Rosatom corporation manages Russia’s nuclear industry and the three secret cities that are now getting exposed due to the Coronavirus outbreak are closely linked with its nuclear programme. Nehru’s massive strategic blunder – How Nehru gave Coco Islands to Burma that China later grabbed, Hagia Sophia is not the only one: Turkey has a shameful history of desecration, 5 Reasons Why Your Eyes Get Watery While Wearing Contact Lenses, Biometric Attendance System Can Push Employees towards Productivity, Wondering If You Need Masks in 2021? Read This, He was forced to sell WhatsApp to Facebook. Both cities have nuclear weapons museums showing off the hulking casings of early bombs. All ZATOs have simila… Sarov is another Russian “closed city” that is well-known for being one of the main producers for the country’s nuclear arsenal to this day. I feel a more personal connection to Russia myself, too. During the time of my trip, relations between Russia and the US were warming, but now they're cooling once again. Sarov, called Arzamas-16 during the Cold War, is home to a museum showing several historic Russian nuclear bombs. Located approximately 250 miles from Moscow, it was the center of research and production for the first Soviet atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb. © 2021 CNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. I spent more than five years as a reporter in Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the atomic bomb, home to a major national laboratory, and the 18,000-person town where I grew up. For Russia, the novel Wuhan virus entails several severe consequences from a public health emergency with more than 1,00,000 cases and an economic collapse in sanctions-hit Moscow with historically low oil prices. The Soviet Union awarded the medal for achievements in labor, culture and science. In May 1995, I was part of a seven-person civilian delegation that traveled to Los Alamos sister city Sarov, about 230 miles east of Moscow. These are many of Russia’s secret nuclear cities, which are often codenamed and whose details are only blurry to the outside world. On February 23, 1992, less than two months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, I landed on the tarmac in Sarov, a city the government had removed from maps to keep secret its status as a nuclear weapons center. It was a sobering visit -- the economic devastation; the Soviet-era microphones bugging away in our hotel; the angry and impoverished veterans; and the daunting quantities of vodka, champagne and cognac that accompanied us during a weeklong series of banquets. It's the home of the institute where Russia developed its first atomic bomb. Privacy Policy Agreement * I agree to the Terms of use and Privacy Policy. "Absolutely none.".