First mention of the Institute
Resolution of the State Defense Committee dated December 8, 1944.
First mention of the Institute
The first mention of the establishment of the Institute is dated December 8, 1944, when the State Defense Committee has issued the Resolution "Concerning measures to ensure the development of mining and processing of uranium ores". Did anyone could assume that by the end of the XX century after several reorganizations and changes of name the Institute would turn from a top-secret laboratory into an advanced research institution with a developed structure, whose scientists and their discoveries will become widely known all over the world.
STATE DEFENSE COMMITTEE
Concerning measures to ensure the development of
mining and processing of uranium ores.
Considering the worldwide development of uranium mining and uranium production to be a critical objective of the state, the State Defense Committee decrees:
- To commit the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR (headed by comrade Beria) to:
- a) Establish a science and research Institute dedicated to uranium as part of the system of NKVD of the USSR, giving it the name NKVD Institute of special materials.
Entrust NKVD Institute of special materials with the study of raw uranium resources and the development of methods for mining and processing of uranium ores into uranium compounds and uranium metal;
- b) Construct a plant for the production of uranium compounds and uranium metal in the Moscow region.
- Permit NKVD of the USSR to locate NKVD Institute of special materials and the plant for the production of uranium compounds and uranium metal at the site and within the premises previously occupied by VIEM.
- Charge NKVD and Narkomtsvet to submit proposals within a 15-day period for the organization of NKVD Institute of special materials..., the list of laboratories transferred by Narkomtsvet, and the list of transferred professionals.
The Chairman of the SDC I. Stalin
Extract from SDC Resolution No. 7102
dated December 8, 1944 The Kremlin, Moscow.
The Resolution included appendices listing hundreds of items of materials and equipment for uranium enterprises. Among other things, the following items have been also listed: "... rubber work boots -- 5,000 pairs, ... writing pencils -- 10,000 pieces, ... colored pencils -- 2,000 pieces, ... erasers - 800 pieces..." An interesting note was made: "To ensure delivery ... ahead of all other consumers..."
The Resolution of the SDC consolidated and formalized the activities related to the uranium problem, that in fact had already been commenced.
Less than a month later, on 03.01.1945, an order was issued by Directorate of NKVD on the appointment of Engineer-Colonel of NKVD V. Shevchenko, the former head of the Krasnoyarsk refining plant, as the Director of the Institute.
The Institute was entrusted to develop the technology and material engineering of the whole uranium-related complex, from the analysis of deposits and exploration methods to the production of uranium metal (stable in reactor conditions), separation of plutonium by irradiation for the production of plutonium metal, creating alloys and technologies of manufacturing of nuclear weapon components.
Those days the organizational issues were resolved promptly. A construction site was in the area of Oktyabrsky field, where the Institute of Experimental Medicine (VIEM) was previously supposed to be.
By that time one building on the territory of the future Special Metals Institute was almost completed, and a case of the other was ready. A small group of managers led by V. Shevchenko, which included A. Zavenyagin and the Head of Laboratory No. 1 of Giredmet (State Research and Planning Institute for the Rare Metal Industry) Z. Ershova, inspected the site and concluded, that, despite the fact that it did not quite meet their expectations they would have to settle here due to lack of anything else.
The hard work has begun. Construction of buildings and organization of laboratories was carried out almost simultaneously.