Say No to the Nuclear Blast

The area of Kurchatov’s interests included not just science. He was an avid peace advocate. Realizing the huge danger that the nuclear arms race poses for mankind, he consistently promoted the unconditional ban on nuclear weapons and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes only. All of Kurchatov’s vigorous activity, the efforts of the entire country in those tough years of its history that on a tight schedule built a weapon of nuclear containment, contributed to preserving peace.

On the session of the Superme Soviet of the USSR on March 13, 1958, Igor Kurchatov said the following words, “Scientists are deeply concerned about the lack of an international treaty on the unconditional ban of nuclear and hydrogen weapons. We are addressing the scientists of the entire world, calling for converting the energy of hydrogen nuclei from the weapon of destruction into a powerful, vivifying energy source that would carry prosperity and happiness for all the people on Earth.”

During the years of working on the uranium problem under Kurchatov’s scientific supervision, the first Soviet atomic and thermonuclear weapon was created, the first in the world nuclear power plant was launched, the nuclear icebreaker and nuclear submarine were set afloat, and a strong national nuclear science school emerged, producing a powerful nuclear industry. But years of hard work impacted Kurchatov’s health. Soon after returning from England, where Igor Kurchatov, in 1956, made a presentation at the atomic center in Harwell, he suffered a stroke.

His rehabilitation was slow; doctors limited Igor Kurchatov in his activities and even in meetings with colleagues. This depressed Kurvchatov who was accustomed of being always at the center of operations. When the disease subsided, he dove into atomic power, transportation nuclear units, but especially enthusiastically — into the problems of thermonuclear fusion. At home, Igor Kurchatov read books and listened to his wife playing the piano or to records that he collected. He loved music, especially Rakhmaninov. If health permitted, he attended concerts at the Conservatory. A few days before dying, in February 1960, he was listening to Mozart’s Requiem.

It happened offensively simple and matter-of-factly. After the meeting with academicians Kapitza and Topchiev, Kurchatov went to Barvikha, where academician Yuliy Khariton was vacationing. They walked in the garden, then sat down to rest. Suddenly, there was a long pause in the conversation. Khariton turned around and saw that Kurchatov died. The life journey of a brilliant scientist and science organizer has ended. Everyone who knew him was in mourning. He departed — one of the greatest physicists on the planet, the founder of the Institute of Atomic Energy, an outstanding personage of Soviet and world science, an intellectual, an encyclopedist, a charming person loved by everyone.

To remember

Kurchatov didn’t like to be sick; he was an optimist and believed that diseases are made to go away. In his recollection, academician Anatoliy Alexandrov describes, “While having pneumonia (at the very beginning of the atomic project — Editor’s note), Kurchatov grew a big black beard. His associates gave him the nickname ‘Beard.’ To the question, when is he going to shave it off, Kurchatov, with a cunning smile, replied, ‘What kind of a Beard will I be without a beard?’ He even developed habits that allowed associates to guess his mood. If he patted his beard, everything was fine, but if he picked it and pulled it down, then things were not so good…” Academician Andrey Dmitrievich Sakharov recalls, “Once our young team brought to the ‘hut’ a huge sheet of Whatman paper with dozens of problems written down in its checks, along with their solution sequences. Igor looked amusedly at these cells, whistled, and called this plan ‘nut rustle.’ To the question ‘why?’ he replied with a story about a Georgian merchant who sold nuts at the market for the same price he purchased them, simply because he ‘loved the nut rustle.’ Kurchatov ended his conversation with the youngsters with the following words, ‘In your work and in life, do only the most important things. Otherwise, secondary stuff, even if needed, will fill your life, take away your strength, and you will not reach your main goal… Research only that which leads you to your goal.’”