Kirill Shchelkin is the “godfather” of the atomic bomb. Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin: biography Academician Shchelkin biography

04.03.2024

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Biography

In 1924-1928. studied in Karasubazar. In 1928, Kirill Shchelkin entered the physics and technology department of the Crimean Pedagogical Institute, where he successfully completed his studies in 1932.

Kirill Ivanovich's scientific career began in Leningrad, at the newly organized Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he was invited immediately after graduating from the institute.

The young researcher quickly identified one of the mysterious problems of that time in the combustion of gases - spin detonation. Already in May 1934, he submitted an article to the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, “An Attempt to Calculate the Detonation Spin Frequency,” which attracted the attention of combustion specialists.

The works of this period formed the basis of his Ph.D. thesis, which Shchelkin successfully defended on December 19, 1938 at the age of 27.

Kirill Ivanovich planned to carry out extensive research on the combustion and detonation of gas mixtures and present them in the form of a doctoral dissertation by 1943, but the war prevented the implementation of these plans. In the very first days of the war, he signed up as a volunteer and went to the front. Shchelkin took part in fierce battles on the outskirts of Moscow, in the decisive battle for Moscow. In January 1942, by order of Deputy People's Commissar of Defense E.A. Shchadenko, he was recalled from the active army to continue scientific work at the Institute of Chemical Physics, which was evacuated to Kazan.

During this period of scientific activity, Kirill Ivanovich focused on the processes occurring in the combustion chamber. From the experience of previous research, he understood the important role of turbulent processes in increasing the intensity and efficiency of combustion. The introduction of these ideas significantly contributed to the development of domestic jet technology. In parallel with applied research, Kirill Ivanovich continued his scientific work, and on November 12, 1946, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Fast combustion and spin detonation.” Based on the materials of his dissertation, in 1949 he published a monograph under the same title.

Soon after defending his doctoral dissertation, Kirill Ivanovich was invited to the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where its president I. Vavilov offered him the position of deputy director of the Institute of Physical Problems, but he refused this flattering offer, citing his desire to engage in science. However, this invitation turned out to be a turning point for K.I. Shchelkin: the former People’s Commissar of Ammunition, member of the Special Committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR B.L. Vannikov, who was involved in organizing and speeding up work “on the use of intra-atomic energy”, including “ development and production of the atomic bomb." Two months after this meeting, Kirill Ivanovich was appointed to the newly created nuclear center.

Already in April 1947, K.I. Shchelkin took part in a meeting of the Special Committee, at which, among other things, the creation of a test site - the "Mountain Station" - was discussed.

A brilliant result of the efforts of not only the first Soviet nuclear weapons center, but also the entire young nuclear industry was the successful test of the first Soviet atomic bomb on August 29, 1949. This explosion ended the United States' nuclear monopoly. The work of scientists and engineers was highly appreciated by the government. Shchelkin was also on the list of those awarded the highest awards. Continuing the work he started with his characteristic dedication, he also made a significant contribution to the development and testing of the next nuclear charge, entirely based on domestic ideas. For this work in 1951 he received the second star of the Hero of Socialist Labor.

The intensity of work in KB-11 and in the nuclear industry as a whole was increasing: on August 12, 1953, the first thermonuclear bomb was tested in the Soviet Union (namely a bomb, that is, a charge ready for combat use, and not a thermonuclear “laboratory”), and on November 22 1955 - the first Soviet superbomb - a cascade thermonuclear charge. American hopes of increasing the nuclear lead turned out to be unfounded. For his contribution to the development and testing of the first thermonuclear charge in December 1953, Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin was awarded the third star of the Hero of Socialist Labor.

During his time at KB-11, Kirill Ivanovich’s talent as a scientist and organizer fully manifested itself. He was distinguished by his depth of understanding of problems, clarity of goal setting, ability to work with people, large-scale thinking, and focus on the future. While still in Leningrad, he developed friendly relations with the scientific director of the Soviet nuclear project, I.V. Kurchatov. Igor Vasilyevich highly appreciated Shchelkin’s energy, knowledge, experience and business qualities. Kirill Ivanovich's authority was high among industry leaders and in scientific circles. Therefore, when the task of creating a second nuclear weapons center arose, K. I. Shchelkin was recommended for the position of its scientific director and chief designer.

The results were already evident in 1957, when the first thermonuclear charges developed by the new center were tested. These tests convincingly demonstrated the viability and potential of the newly created institute. By the way, the first thermonuclear charge adopted by the Soviet Army was developed and tested precisely by the Ural Nuclear Center in that first test session for it. For these successes, a group of specialists from the center, together with Kirill Ivanovich, were awarded the Lenin Prize.

Such hard work could not pass without leaving a mark on his health. The body, trained in young years, began to malfunction. The illnesses followed one after another, becoming more protracted and debilitating. In 1960, K.I. Shchelkin was forced to retire for health reasons.

Even during the most difficult years of work at KB-11 and NII-1011, Kirill Ivanovich found time for scientific research on combustion, which he continued with his colleagues at the Institute of Chemical Physics. His works, personal and co-authored, regularly appeared in scientific journals. After retiring, he did not stop, but, on the contrary, expanded his scientific research and range of scientific interests. The frequency of his publications has increased. Shchelkin's works received worldwide recognition, they were read and quoted. In 1963, the monograph “Gas Dynamics of Combustion” was published, which he prepared together with Y. K. Troshin. At the same time, he continued to work on a book on the physics of the atom, nucleus and subnuclear particles, “Physics of the Microworld.”

Kirill Ivanovich paid great attention to the popularization of science, publishing articles in many magazines and giving lectures. He took care of the scientific shift, organized the Department of Combustion at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and himself lectured there. Paying tribute to his comrades in the atomic epic, K. I. Shchelkin in the mid-60s wrote an introductory article and edited the collection “Soviet Atomic Science and Technology,” dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Soviet power. He emphasizes that one of the main components of the success of the domestic Atomic Project lies in the collective feat of all its participants.

Activities

Combustion and explosion specialist

Essays

Proceedings on combustion and detonation as applied to a nuclear explosion. Proposed the theory of spin detonation. The term “turbulent flame zone according to Shchelkin” is known in the scientific literature.

Dissertation (topic - gas dynamics of combustion) for the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences (defended in 1939)
Doctoral dissertation on the topic "Fast combustion and spin detonation"
Gas dynamics of combustion, M., 1963 (together with Ya. K. Troshin)
His popular essays “Physics of the Microworld” went through several editions and received first prize at the All-Union competition of popular science books.

Achievements

Doctor of Technical Sciences (1949)
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1953)
Professor (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)

Awards

Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1951, 1954)
Order of Lenin (4)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor
Order of the Red Star
Lenin Prize laureate (1958)
Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1949, 1951, 1954)

Images

Monuments

Miscellaneous

His scientific ideas are still used today, in particular, in describing new classes of phenomena, such as thermonuclear combustion in modern systems or in the atmospheres of neutron stars during the development of X-ray flares.
The city of Shchelkino in the Leninsky district of Crimea, founded in October 1978 as a settlement for construction workers of the Crimean Nuclear Power Plant, is named in honor of Shchelkin.
Bronze bust of three times Hero of Socialist Labor K.I. Shchelkin was installed and inaugurated in his homeland - Tbilisi (Georgia) in 1982. Currently dismantled by the new Georgian authorities.
Publication “Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich (Metaksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich) from the book by Arutyunyan K.A., Pogosyan G.R. “The contribution of the Armenian people to the victory in the Great Patriotic War”, part of the photo was sent

Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich (Metaksyan Kirakos Ovanesovich) was born on May 17, 1911 in Tbilisi. Mother - Vera Alekseevna Shchelkina, teacher. Father - Ivan Efimovich Shchelkin (Oganes Epremovich Metaksyan), land surveyor.

In 1924-1928 he studied in Karasubazar, where there is a memorial in his honor. In 1932 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Technology of the Crimean State Pedagogical Institute. He defended his dissertation (topic - gas dynamics of combustion) for the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences in 1938, his doctorate in 1945 (opponents were future academicians - the founder of the theory of air-jet engines B. S. Stechkin, the outstanding theoretical physicist L. D. Landau and the largest aerodynamicist S. A. Khristianovich), became a professor of physical and mathematical sciences in 1947.

It was Shchelkin who signed for the “receipt” of the first Soviet atomic explosive device RDS-1 from the assembly shop. Then they made fun of him: where did you put the bomb you signed for? The landfill documents still state that K.I. Shchelkin is responsible for the “product” (followed by the number and code). It was he who, on August 29, 1949, at the Semipalatinsk test site, placed the initiating charge into the plutonium sphere of the first Soviet atomic explosive device RDS-1 (This name comes from a government decree where the atomic bomb was encrypted as a “special jet engine,” abbreviated RDS. The designation RDS- 1 came into widespread use after the test of the first atomic bomb and was deciphered in different ways: “Stalin’s jet engine”, “Russia makes it itself”, etc.; the “American version” of the design was used). It was he who came out last and sealed the entrance to the tower with RDS-1. It was he who pressed the “Start” button.

This was followed by RDS-2 and RDS-3. Based on the results of testing the first Soviet nuclear device, a group of scientists, designers and technologists were awarded the titles of Hero of Socialist Labor (I.V. Kurchatov, V.I. Alferov, N.L. Dukhov, Ya.B. Zeldovich, P.M. Zernov, Yu. B. Khariton, G. N. Flerov, K. I. Shchelkin) and a laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree, plus dachas and cars for each, as well as the right to educate children at the expense of the state in any educational institutions of the USSR. Nuclear veterans joked (the joke is quite in the style of life) that when submitting for awards, they proceeded from a simple principle: those who, in case of failure, were destined to be shot, were awarded the title of Hero if successful; those doomed in case of failure to maximum imprisonment in case of a successful outcome are given the Order of Lenin, and so on downwards.

In total, in October 1949, 176 scientists and engineers were awarded Stalin Prizes, and in December 1951, after the second successful test on September 24, 1951 (of a uranium charge), another 390 participants in the atomic project were awarded. In 1954, K. I. Shchelkin received the Hero for the third time together with I. V. Kurchatov, Ya. B. Zeldovich, Yu. B. Khariton, B. L. Vannikov and N. L. Dukhov for the creation of a series of Soviet atomic charges.

In 1960, Shchelkin moved to Moscow, worked as a professor, head of the combustion department at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and gave lectures to students and popular lectures to a wide audience. His popular essays “Physics of the Microworld” went through several editions and received first prize at the All-Union competition of popular science books.

The son, Felix, is also a nuclear physicist and was involved in the development of nuclear weapons.

Daughter - Anna, biophysicist.

It should be noted that the scientist’s relatives do not recognize the version of his Armenian origin. In the metric book of the archival fund of the Spiritual Consistory of the Assumption Church in the city of Krasny, Smolensk province, record No. 9 was discovered about the birth on February 24 and the baptism on February 26, 1881 of the baby Ivan (the future father of the nuclear physicist). Ivan’s father is listed there as a tradesman of the city of Krasny, Evfimy Fedorovich Shchelkin, and his mother is Anastasia Trofimovna.

Awards

Three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1949, 1951, 1954).

Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1958) and the Stalin Prize (1949, 1951, 1954).

He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Red Star, as well as medals.

Based on site materials

Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin(May 17, 1911, Tiflis - November 8, 1968, Moscow) - first scientific director and chief designer of the Chelyabinsk-70 nuclear center (Snezhinsk, since 1992 RFNC-VNIITF - Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics), three times Hero Socialist Labor.

Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (since October 23, 1953, Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences). A specialist in the field of combustion and detonation and the role of turbulence in these processes (it was he who formulated the theory of spin detonation), the term “turbulent flame zone according to Shchelkin” is known in the scientific literature.

Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich was born on May 17, 1911 in Tbilisi. Mother - Vera Alekseevna Shchelkina, teacher. Father - Ivan Efimovich Shchelkin, land surveyor.

Family

The son, Felix, is also a nuclear physicist and was involved in the development of nuclear weapons.
Daughter - Anna, biophysicist.

At the same time, despite denial from his relatives, the National Archives of Armenia also contains information about his Armenian origin. A letter addressed to the author of a biographical book about Shchelkin indicates that there are no grounds to refute his Armenian origin... inappropriate. Here is the text of the letter.

"Russian Academy of Sciences INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS named after N.N. Semenov.

Dear Grigory Khachaturovich! The Institute staff expresses its deep appreciation and gratitude to you for publishing a popular science, biographical book about the life and scientific activities of three times Hero of Socialist Labor, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Shchelkin (Metaksyan) Kirill Ivanovich, who achieved outstanding results in the field of combustion and explosion and, in particular , the creation of nuclear weapons in our country. A significant part of the scientific activity of K.I. Shchelkina is associated with the Institute of Chemical Physics named after. N.N. Semenov. That is why we are especially grateful to you for your work to perpetuate the memory of our colleague and the person who glorified our Institute, Soviet science and our country. We hope that in the future your book will find its reader in the Russian Federation.

Director of the Institute, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.A. Berlin"

He was not a native Crimean - the peninsula accepted his family 87 years ago. But his name remained forever on the map of Crimea - in the name of the city on the coast of the Azov Sea. And school No. 1 in Belogorsk bears his name - he graduated from it in 1928. One of the creators of the Soviet atomic bomb, three times Hero of Socialist Labor Kirill Shchelkin would have turned one hundred years old.

Natives of the Smolensk and Kursk provinces, land surveyor Ivan Efimovich and elementary school teacher Vera Alekseevna Shchelkin had a chance to wander around the Russian Empire. In the center of one of its provinces, Tiflis, their son was born on May 17, 1911, named by the ancient name Kirill. Thirteen years later, the family moved to Karasubazar (now Belogorsk). Alas, even the Crimean climate did not help Ivan Efimovich defeat tuberculosis. At the age of fourteen, Komsomol member Kirill was forced to work part-time at a forge and state farm to help his mother raise his younger sister Irina. But the guy didn’t drop out of school, he studied smoothly, and was especially good at exact sciences. He chose them and entered the Crimean State Pedagogical Institute named after Frunze - the Faculty of Physics and Technology. By the way, five years earlier, Igor Kurchatov, the future scientific director of the USSR atomic project, “the father of the atomic bomb,” graduated from the Frunze Crimean University (that was the name of the educational institution at that time, now the Vernadsky Tauride National University). Graduates of Igor Kurchatov and Belogorsk school No. 1 Kirill Shchelkin will later have to work together, creating the nuclear shield of the Motherland, and relations between them will be the most friendly.

Kirill Ivanovich’s son Felix, who wrote the book “Apostles of the Atomic Age” in memory of his father and his comrades, recalled that in the last years of his studies, student Shchelkin “worked at the meteorological, optical and seismic stations of the institute,” and upon graduation he was “awarded” for his academic success trousers." But the graduate refused to work as a school director in Yalta - he chose science and left for Leningrad, in. He did not leave alone - with his classmate Lyubov Mikhailovna Khmelnitskaya, who became his wife.

In the city on the Neva, Kirill Shchelkin became a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Chemical Physics, Lyubov Mikhailovna became a school teacher. Three years before the Great Patriotic War, Kirill Ivanovich defended his candidate’s thesis “Experimental studies of the conditions for the occurrence of detonation in gas mixtures.” The scientist’s achievements have found application in industry. The preparation of the doctoral dissertation was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. It is noteworthy that Kirill Shchelkin, who had a reservation, managed to be sent to the front. He, the grandson of a holder of two St. George's Crosses, could not engage in science when the fate of the country had to be decided with arms in hand.

The communist battalion of Leningrad volunteers, in which Kirill Shchelkin began to fight, joined the 64th Rifle Division, our fellow countryman became a Red Army soldier in the reconnaissance platoon of the division artillery chief. The first battle was near Smolensk, then the defense of Kursk. Felix Shchelkin recalled that “fate gave his father a chance to fight for the small homelands of his ancestors.” The division was renamed the 7th Guards. Guard Private Shchelkin defended Moscow and took part in the December offensive that drove the Nazis back from the capital. Like any front-line soldier, he more than once looked death in the face. Felix Shchelkin recalls one episode, known from the words of fellow soldier Father F. Svichevsky. Congratulating the family of a front-line comrade on the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory, the veteran wrote to them about the battle near the village of Bolshiye Rzhavki, from where the remains of an unknown soldier were later transferred to the Kremlin wall: “But it could have been us: me and Kirill Ivanovich. When remembering your father, you should remember this,” the front-line soldier wrote. “Heavy fighting took place in the area of the 41st kilometer of the Leningradskoye Highway. The units retreated from the village, while the gun crew left a cannon on the outskirts of the village and arrived at the location without it. The gun commander was shot, and the reconnaissance platoon was ordered to deliver the gun to the unit. Six people, including privates F. S. Svichevsky and K. I. Shchelkin, left for the task in a lorry. Having approached the gun, the scouts saw that at the same time a column of six German tanks was moving along the highway on the other side towards the village. The infantry followed her. The commander ordered to prepare for battle; there was no time to take away the gun. Everyone said goodbye to each other. And then shots rang out. The front and rear German tanks caught fire. A little later, another one. The three remaining tanks, not understanding where the fire was coming from, turned around and retreated along with the infantry. A T-34 tank emerged from behind a pile of logs piled up at the site of the destroyed hut. Having approached the artillerymen, the tankers asked for a smoke. They said that they were left in an ambush.”

The Nazis were driven away from Moscow, and already at the beginning of January 1942, Kirill Shchelkin was recalled from the front “to continue his scientific work at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences.” It was impossible to do without a specialist in the theory of combustion and detonation when developing jet engines for aviation. In November 1946, Kirill Shchelkin defended his doctoral dissertation “Fast combustion and spin detonation of gases,” and within six months he, who knew “everything about the internal mechanisms of an explosion,” was invited to the “Atomic Project” to the position of deputy chief designer of the created KB-11 (“ Arzamas-16", now Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region). Much can be said about the colossal work done by Kirill Shchelkin and his colleagues, but the main result: on August 29, 1949, Kirill Ivanovich placed the first detonator capsule in the first Soviet atomic bomb. Its creators did not want war; they did everything to create a nuclear shield for the Motherland, which declared that it would never be the first to use atomic weapons. Presenting awards to the employees of the “Atomic Project”, including Kirill Shchelkin the “Hammer and Sickle” Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor, Joseph Stalin said:

If we had been one to one and a half years late with the atomic bomb, we would probably have tried it on ourselves.

Then there were new tests, new bombs. For thermonuclear (August 12, 1953) Kirill Shchelkin became a Hero of Socialist Labor three times.
And soon he headed the second nuclear center “Chelyabinsk-70” created on his initiative (Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region, Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics).

For six years, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of three Stalin Prizes, the Lenin Prize, the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner of Labor, and the Red Star, he worked in the Urals. And suddenly he left all his posts, was excommunicated from work on creating nuclear weapons, went to Moscow and became a teacher, head of department at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Kirill Shchelkin, Igor Kurchatov (he died in February 1960), other creators of the country’s first atomic bomb opposed the creation of megaton bombs with powerful charges, “nuclear madness”, when the USSR, led by Nikita Khrushchev, was trying hard to prove its superiority over the United States and The world found itself on the brink of World War III - nuclear war. The authorities did not forgive Kirill Shchelkin, who argued that it was necessary to have only small nuclear charges; after his death, all his awards were taken away from his relatives and they were told that he should not be kept in the family. He died in 1968; his faithful life partner, Lyubov Mikhailovna, survived him by ten years. And the city appeared on the map of Crimea in 1982.

A man of word and deed, Kirill Shchelkin was very fond of the circus and opera; in everyday life he was modest and unpretentious. Felix Shchelkin recalled that “outwardly, in his clothes, in his behavior, my father looked very simple.” He never wore all his awards; he thought there was no need to stand out. But there is a photograph in which on Kirill Shchelkin’s jacket there are three Stars of the Hero of Socialist Labor, a medal of the Lenin Prize laureate and three medals of the Stalin (State) Prize laureate (there are not enough orders and other medals. - Ed.). The photo was born as a result of a joke among friends. Felix Shchelkin in his book “Apostles of the Atomic Age” recalls:

The scientific director and chief designer of Chelyabinsk-70, Kirill Shchelkin, was a delegate to the CPSU Congress from the Chelyabinsk region.
On the first day of the congress, Boris Vannikov (head of the First Main Directorate under the Council of People's Commissars (Council of Ministers) of the USSR, which organized all research and work on the creation of an atomic bomb, and then the production of nuclear weapons. - Ed.), and Igor Kurchatov put on the Stars of Heroes and signs of laureates, and father, as always, came without awards.
During the break, Vannikov and Kurchatov began to “sternly” reprimand him: they say, you were awarded, chosen for such a solemn event as the congress, and you came without awards, neglected everyone, we did not expect this from you. The father took these reproaches at face value, the next day he came with awards, and Vannikov and Kurchatov, having agreed, removed the awards. Seeing their father, they both began to scold him: you were chosen to work at the congress, why are you bragging about the Stars, they didn’t expect you to be so immodest. On the same day, a photojournalist photographed my father in the conference room.

To the point

In August 1969, a decision was made to build a Crimean nuclear power plant on the Kerch Peninsula. Soon the town of nuclear power engineers began to emerge, which became a republican Komsomol, and then an All-Union shock construction site. In April 1982, it received the name Shchelkino. Nowadays, the Shchelkinsky City Council has issued an anniversary medal “In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin.”

On the memorial sign at the Belogorsk secondary school No. 1 named after Shchelkin, the words of the scientist are inscribed: “I am happy that I was able to benefit my Motherland, my people.”

Natalya Pupkova, "

		Tombstone (front view)
		Tombstone (back view)
		Bust in Tbilisi
		Bust in Snezhinsk
		Annotation board in Snezhinsk
		Memorial plaque in Snezhinsk
		Memorial plaque in Simferopol
		Memorial plaque in Shchelkino

Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich – Deputy Chief Designer and Scientific Director of Design Bureau No. 11 of the USSR Ministry of Medium Engineering, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Chelyabinsk Region.
Born on May 4 (17), 1911 in the city of Tiflis, Tiflis province, now Tbilisi - the capital of Georgia, in the family of a land surveyor. Russian. In 1918, he and his family moved to his father’s homeland - to the urban village of Krasny, now in the Smolensk region, but in 1924, due to his father’s illness, the Shchelkin family moved to Crimea. After the death of his father in 1926, Kirill Shchelkin had to combine his studies at school with work on the state farm. In 1928, he entered the physico-technological department of the Crimean Pedagogical Institute and at the same time worked as an assistant to the head of the optical station of the USSR Academy of Sciences and as a preparator at the Department of Physics of the Pedagogical Institute.
In 1932, after graduating from the institute, the young specialist came to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and began working as a laboratory assistant at the Institute of Chemical Physics. In 1938 he defended his Ph.D. thesis, in 1938 he became the head of the department, and in March 1939 - a senior researcher. In 1940 he began writing his doctoral dissertation. But all his plans were mixed up by the Great Patriotic War that began on June 22, 1941.
In July 1941 he volunteered for the communist battalion. He took part in battles on the outskirts of Moscow, fought near Leningrad in the 64th (which later became the 7th Guards) Rifle Division, and was a reconnaissance computer for an artillery battery. In January 1942, by order of the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR E.A. Shchadenko, he was recalled from the active army to continue scientific work at the Institute of Chemical Physics, which was evacuated to the capital of Tatarstan - the city of Kazan.
In the fall of 1943, the institute returned to Moscow. In 1944, Kirill Shchelkin was appointed head of the laboratory. He continued to work on his doctoral dissertation on the topic “Fast combustion and spin detonation of gases.” In November 1946, he defended his dissertation and was awarded the academic degree “Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences”, and then the academic title “Professor”.
In 1947, he was sent to work at KB-11 (Arzamas-16, in 1991–1995 - the city of the Kremlin, now - Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region) as Deputy Chief Designer and Scientific Director. At KB-11, he headed work on gas-dynamic testing and physical research within the framework of the Soviet nuclear project.
In April 1947, he took part in a meeting of the Special Committee No. 1 under the Council of Ministers of the USSR (USSR Council of Ministers) under the leadership of the head of the First Main Directorate under the USSR Council of Ministers, established and controlled to resolve issues related to the creation of atomic weapons, at which, among others, the issue of creating testing site "Mountain Station".
An outstanding result of the efforts of not only the first Soviet nuclear weapons center - KB-11, but also the entire then young nuclear industry of the USSR was the successful test of the first Soviet atomic bomb on August 29, 1949. It was K.I. On this historic day at the Semipalatinsk test site, Shchelkin placed an initiating charge into the plutonium sphere of the first Soviet atomic explosive device RDS-1 (“Jet Engine of Stalin”, also known as “Russia Makes Itself”), which used the American version of the design).
This first explosion of a Soviet atomic bomb ended the nuclear monopoly of the United States of America (USA), which by that time possessed nuclear weapons, which they had already repeatedly tested by detonating a plutonium bomb on July 16, 1945, and then using these deadly weapons at the end of World War II , dropping a uranium bomb on Japanese cities: on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Now the whole world has learned that the Soviet Union also has this super-powerful weapon to deter any aggressive plans.
By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (“closed”) of October 29, 1949, for exceptional services to the state when performing a special task Shchelkin Kirill Ivanovich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.
When presenting high state awards after the first test of the atomic bomb, he said: “If we had been one to a year and a half late with the atomic bomb, we probably would have tried it on ourselves.”.
Continuing the work begun, the Deputy Chief Designer and Scientific Director of KB-11, with his characteristic dedication, made a significant personal contribution to the development and testing of the next, but uranium charge, the tests of which were successfully carried out on September 24, 1951.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (“closed”) of December 8, 1951, for exceptional services to the State while carrying out a special task of the Government, he was awarded the second gold medal “Hammer and Sickle”.
In response to Soviet nuclear weapons testing, the United States began a thermonuclear race, fearing that the USSR would overtake them. The Americans were driven to this by the desire to achieve superiority in nuclear weapons. In November 1952, on the Eniwetak Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean, the United States tested the Mike thermonuclear device, which was a bulky experimental installation.
The threat of an unanswered nuclear strike once again loomed over the USSR, but now of a super-powerful strike. But Soviet scientists and engineers accepted this challenge. Work in KB-11 and in the entire nuclear industry as a whole began to accelerate. A series of atomic charges were created. The result was that on August 12, 1953, the first thermonuclear bomb was tested in the Soviet Union. Thus, the hopes of American politicians and scientists to increase the nuclear gap from the USSR turned out to be unrealistic.
For the creation of domestic thermonuclear weapons in 1953, he was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.
By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (“closed”) of January 4, 1954, “for exceptional services to the state while carrying out a special task of the Government, he was awarded the third gold medal “Hammer and Sickle.”
In 1955, K.I. Shchelkin was transferred to Research Institute No. 1011 - NII-1011 (Russian Federal Nuclear Center - RFNC; All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Technical Physics - VNIITF, with the location of Chelyabinsk-70, now the city of Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region) to the position of Chief Designer and scientific supervisor. Headed by Shchelkin, the still very young institute, from the first days of its existence, strived for major successes. And the results were not long in coming. In 1957, the first thermonuclear charges of its own design were tested at NII-1011. Thus, the newly created institute convincingly confirmed both its viability and its potential. Moreover, the first thermonuclear charge adopted by the Soviet Army was developed and tested precisely in Chelyabinsk-70. For these colossal successes, a group of specialists from NII-1011, together with K.I. Shchelkin was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1958.
And another significant event occurred during the period when, under the leadership of K.I. Shchelkin developed a unique thermonuclear munition, which included the most powerful thermonuclear charge of that time, the body of an aircraft bomb carrying it, an activation system and a unique parachute system. But full-scale tests were not carried out due to the unpreparedness of the test site for such work. And in 1961, a number of the main elements of this unique development were used by KB-11 in Arzamas-16 when testing the most powerful thermonuclear charge. And the parachute system later found its wide application in the Soviet space program.
After some time, periods of intensive work in the new center alternated for K.I. Shchelkin with no less intense trips to Moscow and other cities. He traveled throughout the Soviet Union in search of new employees, established the necessary scientific and technical connections, and organized orders for unique equipment for the experimental base of NII-1011.
The intense, wear-and-tear work could not pass without leaving a mark on the health of the scientist, whose body began to malfunction, and illnesses followed one after another, becoming protracted and debilitating. In 1960, K.I. Shchelkin was forced to retire due to disability. And since 1965, he continued to work at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in the department of combustion of condensed systems as a senior researcher, and while retired, he did not stop, but, on the contrary, expanded his scientific research and range of scientific interests. The frequency of his publications increased, his work gained worldwide recognition, was read and cited. In 1963, the monograph “Gas Dynamics of Combustion” was published, which he prepared together with Y.K. Troshin. At the same time, he continued to work on a book on the physics of the atom, nucleus and subnuclear particles, “Physics of the Microworld.” It was published in 1965.
He paid great attention to the popularization of science, publishing his articles in many magazines and giving lectures. He took care of the scientific shift, organized the Department of Combustion at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and himself lectured there. Paying tribute to his comrades in the atomic epic, K.I. In the mid-1960s, Shchelkin wrote an introductory article and edited the collection “Soviet Atomic Science and Technology,” dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Soviet power (November 1967).
Died on November 8, 1968 in Moscow. One of the first three times Heroes of Socialist Labor, K.I. Shchelkin, unfortunately, remained practically unknown to the general public... He was buried on November 12, 1968 in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery, to the left of the main entrance (section 6).
Awarded 4 Orders of Lenin (including: 10/29/1949; 09/11/1956), Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (08/21/1953), Red Star (06/10/1945), medals.
Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1958), three times laureate of the Stalin Prize (1949, 1951, 1954).
Bronze bust of three times Hero of Socialist Labor K.I. Shchelkin was installed and inaugurated in 1982 in his homeland - Tbilisi (dismantled by the Georgian authorities in 2009). In honor of K.I. Shchelkino was named the city of Shchelkino in the Leninsky district of the Crimean region (now the Republic of Crimea), founded in October 1978 as a settlement for builders of the Crimean nuclear power plant; A memorial plaque was erected in the city in his honor. In the city of Snezhinsk, Chelyabinsk region, a bust of the Hero was erected, a street was named after him, and a memorial plaque was installed on the house where he lived. In the city of Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region, a memorial plaque was installed on the VNIIEF building.
Essays:
Gas dynamics of combustion, M., 1963 (together with Y.K. Troshin);
Physics of the Microworld, M., 1965.

Kirill Shchelkin is the “godfather” of the atomic bomb. Kirill Ivanovich Shchelkin: biography Academician Shchelkin biography

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