How did the USSR get its nukes? (Short Animated Documentary)

The USSR was famously the second nation ever to build nuclear weapons, when it successfully detonated one in 1949. However, given the destruction that it had suffered in World War 2, how exactly did it do this? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.
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[@bagelmaster2]

Slight correction: Plutonium wasn't mined in the Urals, as plutonium does not occur in nature in quantities feasible to collect. It's synthesized from Uranium. The project in the Urals was a nuclear reactor for this purpose.

[@big_sea]

yes

[@AllenGarvin]

Oh, good, first thing I scrolled down to comment on, is already covered.

[@canuckster24]

Kelly Moneymaker forgot their monthly donation...

[@calmbbaer]

"Mining plutonium" is a bit like "mining garlic salt." Yes, what you start with is mined, but you have to do something to it which changes it fundamentally enough that it sounds weird to put it that way.

[@Fractured_Unity]

@@calmbbaerAlso, when the initial thing that’s needed to be mined in the manufacturing process is the thing you claim they don’t know they have, it’s misinformation.

[@douglasboyle6544]

One minor correction, the Soviets didn't mine plutonium as it's only in the Earth's crust in trace amounts. The issue was they couldn't enrich their uranium to weapons grade (an expensive and difficult process), so they converted it to plutonium in breeder reactors instead.

[@big_sea]

yes

[@KatDoesWeather]

I can smell the "🤓"

[@abbyalphonse499]

@@KatDoesWeather Well you can't smell things over the internet, so I suggest you take a shower

[@MimOzanTamamogullar]

​@@abbyalphonse499ouch 🔥

[@kemarisite]

Thank you, was going to question the "mining plutonium" thing (Pu-239 has a half-life of about 24,000 years, so over a geologic time scale there wouldn't be any to mine) but wasn't sure about the rest of it.

[@LordMerji]

James and Kelly could have easily funded their own nuke program.

[@richbulena8847]

What makes you think they haven’t?

[@big_sea]

yes

[@jamesbissonette8002]

Never!

[@DylanoRevs]

Marvin (Cassal?) would also help with it too

[@iecasper]

I think Marvin would have his own.

[@Mtn_Dewit]

Great video, as always. Here's a video idea. How did India and Pakistan get their nukes?

[@joehouston1650]

I'm not sure about India, but I know that Pakistan got its Nukes from the US.

[@Evan_Bell]

​@@joehouston1650Pakistan got its nukes via A Q Khan from China, which got them from the USSR.

[@JonathanMeyer84]

Don't worry about it ;-)

[@himangshu2843]

​@@joehouston1650actually India had planned to develop it's nuclear bomb after independence from British in 1947 but nehru rejected that idea from his scientist dismissing India need for such type of bomb but after betrayal of Chinese in 1962 and development of Chinese nuclear program in 1960's it started a whole chain of Domino effect in the continent India developed it's first bomb in 1974 after that Pakistan felt paranoid and with the help of Americans they did it in 1998-9 to be precise

[@kj4748]

​@@himangshu2843Pakistan began it's nuclear program after the 1971 war. And never got any help form anyother country in making the bomb.

[@Fernandinioo]

My Great Grandfather (Manfred von Ardenne) himself was one of the leading scientist contributing to the Soviet Atomic Bomb Project. As he was German he was taken after the war by the Soviets under Beria and he was one of the leading scientist stationed and isolated in today Georgia working to enrich the Uranium, completely cut of of the world with many other German scientists. He was working there until the completion of the hydrogen bomb, where he was awarded the Stalin prize first grade, as well as allowed to return to East Germany. Therefore, I really have to say this video is just great portraying all the different compositions of the project in just 3 minutes. A+ from me.

[@seronymus]

Are you Argentinian now? Also what an honorable lineage, very epic. Would be funny if you became a nuclear engineer

[@Fernandinioo]

@@seronymus nah still German haha, probably not becoming an nuclear engineer, but many people in my family are physicist though

[@dr.nosborn6330]

Such a legacy 🧎🧎

[@JR-gp2zk]

I will make sure to curse your great grand father if WW3 starts.😂 Otherwise nice story.

[@dabbasw31]

Von Ardenne worked as scientist in Germany after the fall of the Eastern Bloc. So all in all he experienced the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, East Germany and FR Germany as scientist. Achievement unlocked. :)

[@jbrothman]

You can't mine plutonium, it's made (at scale) in a reactor from uranium.

[@TheBierp]

This is what I came here to say. That seems like a miss.

[@xXFlameHaze92Xx]

also, they made it with uranium from Czechoslovakia, Occupied Austria, Bulgaria, Romania and East Germany (yes have their own Alsos operation), until they discover Uranium deposits on Kazakhstan

[@annekekramer3835]

You can mine it, but it can be found in very small quantities in uranium ore. So... that didn't solve anything, because he said they didn't have uranium. What I think he was supposed to say, was that crafting a uranium bomb was not possible due to not having enough of the right uranium isotope, they started making a plutonium bomb instead, by bombarding uranium 238 (abundant availability) with neutrons to form plutonium 239.

[@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286]

@@annekekramer3835 If you have a source of U-238, you have a source of U-235. You need to enrich the U-235 (quite a lot) to make a bomb. Usually easier to build a reactor (needs less enrichment, or none) to create the neutrons to bombard the U-238 to transmute it into Pu-239.

[@someguy3766]

Well technically you CAN mine plutonium... but it would be an extremely tedious task to the point of absurdity.

[@JarrodFrates]

The USSR discovered uranium ore during the war and used that to eventually create plutonium, which is not a naturally occurring element in any useful amount. They had uranium ore mines by 1942, starting with a mine in Taboshar (now Istiqlol), Tajikistan, and adding several more sites over the ensuing years. They developed plutonium from that by bombarding U-238 with neutrons to form U-239, which decays to Np-239, which then decays to Pu-239, then using various processes to isolate the plutonium, just as the US did.

[@heyhoe168]

Yeah, but the first bombs were pure uranium.

[@chardaskie]

Nneerrdddd! Jk thanks for the science my friend

[@piotrzbies8683]

Influence of Taboshar uranium mine on Soviet nuclear program is overrated

[@itsblitz4437]

​@@piotrzbies8683more underrated.

[@user-wc9vy4oc5h]

A huge portion of the Soviet uranium was east German as well. Uranium deposits in Thuringia an Saxony were known. They demanded Uranium deliveries from the GDR as war reparations. The GDR founded the VEB Wismut. The name Wismut (a harmless not very useful metal) was used to conceal the real purpose. Until 1990 east Germany was on of the worlds largest uranium producers. As far I know fourth largest in 1990. The Uranium production was ultimately stopped a couple of years after the reunification. Labour costs and Safety and Environmental Standards were to high in the unified Germany

[@jamesbissonette8002]

I was not involved.

[@naturlichemomente1629]

nice of you

[@Jammy__100]

THE GOAT

[@TheMowmans]

yes my guy

[@PulseRasar]

OMG ITS JAMES BISSONETTE

[@Maxfromohio2155]

How much do we believe you

[@JA432123]

Now we just need a “How the US got nukes” video and that’ll be the first 5 on this channel

[@MatheusLB2009]

Theres a 180 minute video called "Oppenheimer"

[@JA432123]

@@MatheusLB2009 true but Oppenheimer didn’t have fun signs and actually funny humor lol

[@MatheusLB2009]

@@JA432123lmao fair enough

[@HyperVegitoDBZ]

We want the humour and animations tho. Those are unique to this channel

[@Discosaturn]

We should see a "How Israel got nukes" video. They have a very secret history behind that.

[@Heath580]

It's really wild how the Soviets had elite sympathizers in basically every country, especially Britian

[@HannoversSoap]

There are still too many champagne socialists these days anyhow

[@MrMike855]

Considering that the world had just got through the Great Depression, which led to the widespread discrediting (at least for a few decades) of laissez-fair capitalism and the USSR, for all they knew (through propaganda) had built an incredibly effective worker-friendly country, it made sense why quite a few would support them at the time.

[@kyle-7107]

It's almost like they have something in common 🤔 ✡️

[@Swaggedoutshorty]

Almost like there was an “international cabal” with no loyalty to any nation.

[@danielschick7554]

It was a British spy that gave them the info on how to make a bomb.

[@comicus01]

I liked both the "Stalinized" erasing from the photograph, and the running through the field of proliferation flowers. Lots of great humor as always.

[@TheMCzorro]

"Not unless they could find a nearly unending source of cheap labor, that was. Oh, wait!"

[@mx2000]

This is a real thing that happened, he was "vanished" from official photos. And shot, of course. Working for Stalin was pretty much as dangerous for your health as working against him.

[@XelitexX360]

So far we had how China, USSR, France & Britain got its nukes. As someone below mentioned, I do hope we eventually get a video about India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. Really interesting topics!

[@WoaHusko]

Also South Africa had nukes for a time. I wonder how they got it

[@grandmoffgigi]

@@WoaHusko It's part of their video on why they got rid of them

[@rufusray]

Wait Israel has nukes? Jk

[@NakAlienEd]

@@rufusray Of course it doesn't have nukes. Those things in the corner are just really fancy paper-weights.

[@caseclosed9342]

South Africa as well and Taiwan (although the program shut down before they could build a finished project).

[@PfcDupuis]

I'm a long time subscriber, I really do miss your 10min history, any chance you bring them back every so often?

[@Zquirrelthing]

i second this question

[@MatheusLB2009]

He answered, maybe in hes last Q&A. Ain't worth it anymore. 10min videos demand too much effort, 3min videos compensate more money-wise

[@PfcDupuis]

@@MatheusLB2009 Make the money making videos, and every once in a while make something for the truly passionate. It seems fair

[@valasarius]

​@@PfcDupuis Sadly, that is not for us to decide

[@PfcDupuis]

@@valasarius thats why I asked

[@pridelander06]

"At which point minds became much more focused" *Stalin running around on fire* I love this channel so much.

[@humorpalanta]

My favouite is Beria holding the sign: "Know stuff" XD

[@marvinellis7221]

Mistakes = a purging. Might be the best single frame in your fantastic collection. Thank you History Matters

[@dfv2060]

I think anyone that knows anything about Beiria can agree that that man having any kind of influence over the use of nuclear weapons is beyond terrifying.

[@KingNik1994]

Truth.

[@milobem4458]

Most of people "know" about Beria comes from his trial. He was not a nice guy, but a lot of those accusations were made up. It was common in the purges to accuse people of all kind of random shit, because they couldn't accuse him of doing Stalin's bidding.

[@DonBean-ej4ou]

Stalin also liked young teenage girls but Beria prefered grape to just liking if you know what I mean

[@thomaswinters3341]

"Oh Wait" I actually laughed out loud at a history video. Never change man. :D

[@jacksontaylor290]

That was hilarious!

[@Maike_I.F]

What an unespected series, with four episodes by now, and I'm loving it.

[@elivanto1673]

Always pause on the newspapers and read the articles. They are hilarious!

[@Merennulli]

The notion of them settling for plutonium instead of uranium is pretty funny. I know others already explained plutonium isn't something you can meaningfully mine, but I felt it was worth adding - the US used both. Little Boy, used on Hiroshima, was uranium, while Fat Man, used on Nagasaki was plutonium. The Trinity test was also plutonium.

[@walterbushell7029]

Enriching uranium to bomb standards was difficult and expensive. Plutonium was a simple chemical separation despite plutonium being extremely toxic and difficult hence to handle.

[@Merennulli]

@@walterbushell7029Plutonium was produced by the Soviet breeder plants from mined uranium. The benefit was a less expensive separation process with the uranium. Mined uranium is mostly u238 that you have to extract u235 from to use. It takes a lot of work to separate the two, so the benefit of plutonium is that you can do less intensive separation of the u235/u238 mix to produce a uranium pile that you can then react to transmute some of it into plutonium that you can chemically extract, as you said. But the point is, it's mined as uranium.

[@patrickhaeusler]

Since you've already covered why Ethiopia did (almost) not get colonized, it might be interesting to talk about Siam/Thailand as well. I've heard it was seen as a buffer state between British India/British Malaya and French Indochina, but since that didn't save other non-western nations from being split up as well and the colonial possessions weren't even completely prevented from bordering each other, I assume there's been some other reasons as well.

[@Jotari]

Much like Ethiopia, the truth about whether or not it was coloinized is pretty nuanced and not clear cut. For example, France was able to sail right into the capital, point a gunship at the royal palace and demand they hand over a large chunk of territory which is now Laos.

[@ar0568]

Theres a video by Countryballs Explained that pretty much sums it up

[@kimsmoke17]

Lmao. “Being thoroughly Stalin’d”. I did spew my drink. Thank you very much. 😂

[@km_b1178]

Video idea: how did the world (or Europe) react to the English Civil War

[@crazydinosaur8945]

English Civil War china reaction when!

[@peterg76yt]

"Again but bigger" Fun fact: the hydrogen bomb is so bad ass is uses an atomic bomb as its detonator.

[@certifiedrealwaterdrinker]

Part of the reason why I love this channel, aside from how informative and easy to grasp it is, are the terms for death such as "his predecessor had been thoroughly stalined" xD

[@Vuosta]

History Matter's maps are always on point. He clearly knows history well.

[@ArthurCSchaper]

Please do videos on the following subjects: 1. Why did the revolution of 1848 fail in the Germanies and Spain? 2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?

[@J_Sunn]

the “oh wait” got me lol

[@J-Bahn]

COmmunist propoganda: our society is free from exploitation. Communist reality: exploitation to mine radioactive material

[@leonardorivelorivelo9253]

2:14 i will admit that the gulag joke was very funny but i still felt bad laughing

[@gameofender4463]

Anyone else wait till the end of the credits to see if they add anything at the end like in the old videos? 😂

[@prestallar4339]

I always do.

[@littlemeow124]

"Not unless they could find a nearly unending source of cheap labor that was... oh wait!" Ok that line was pretty funny 😅

[@ZachBrannigan]

One thing that is surprising about inventing things or understanding physics is that the discovery of the driving principles becomes much easier once there's proof that it can be done.

[@NineWorldsFromDrew]

“Oh wait… we have an abundance of prisoners!” - Likely the USSR’s reaction to most of its problems 😂

[@SlivCommique]

Blud saw Oppenheimer and thought we wouldn’t know

[@joenobody5631]

"If that's the only thing that's stopping war, then thank God for the bomb." - Ozzy Osbourne

[@cattysplat]

We still war against those not in the nuke havers club.

[@Yabuturtle]

@@cattysplat True, but no nuclear country has ever waged direct war to another nuclear country. They seemed to use proxy wars, but never directly attacked each other.

[@Grayg]

just a small correction. Nikolai Yezhov was'nt exactly "stalined" as his execution was masterminded by Beria himself so that he could control the NKVD, Just like how Yezhov had conspired agaisnt Yagoda to become the head of the NKVD

[@mojewjewjew4420]

No, stalin wanted both of them gone, they just benefited, towards his end stalin wanted beria purged too.

[@heyhoe168]

Fun fact, Yezhov was actually the bloodiest NKVD leader. Majority of Yezhovs purges propaganda/history now paints as Stalins. This dude was so murderous, he left the trace in the russian language, while Yezhov himself was forgotten. Holding with "Yezhovs gloves" means being cruel.

[@angelb.823]

@@heyhoe168 Another fun fact: Yezhov hysterically begged not to die during his torture trial by Beria and his staff, before his execution. Same pattern followed with Beria when he was also sentenced to death in the post-Stalinist period.

[@mojewjewjew4420]

I didnt find anything about that about Yezhov,however I did find that Yezhov said he was regretting not killing more people.@@angelb.823

[@mojewjewjew4420]

He was also a dwarf and supposedly gay,explains alot.@@heyhoe168

[@Draxis32]

One curious thing to notice is that during The Potsdam conference, where all the allied forces met, Truman said to Stalin that they had a "new kind of weapon" one day after the Trinity test. And is said that Stalin just nodded to Truman, almost saying "I know". When he most likely knew of the successful test because of his spy's work.

[@haldir3120]

If the Soviets for something going for them it was spying. Nobody was even close to them. They bascially knew everything.

[@mojewjewjew4420]

stalin also introduced berias as "our himmler"

[@Darkfawfulx]

I remember this from the documentary "Hiroshima " the American delegation didn't think Stalin knew about it but he really did.

[@cm275]

I still think this show would have been well served with a short recap of the animated series or a live action flashback to set the stage a bit more. That said, even without watching all of the animated stuff I’m following along easily but I’ve watched all of the recaps on this channel.

[@mixererunio1757]

Soviets actually mined and processed uranium in Poland, basically not paying for it at all. But there are really nicely preserved mines in Kowary to visit, highly recommend.

[@I_Have_The_Most_Japanese_Music]

I don't want to glow in the dark, thank you.

[@PavelQuiteGood]

Soviets supplied everyone in Eastern Europe with oil and gas.

[@addmissive3984]

Love the videos, keep up the good work!

[@PHX787]

The charts and graphs in this video are among your best work!

[@AH-sp8vi]

Thank you for another great video.

[@dragonknight512]

Ummmm mining Pu? I’m a bit confused, I thought no natural Pu exists on earth and all Pu was synthesized in reactors?

[@niclausgronwaldt7718]

I had always wondered why you hadn’t covered this topic! Very informative, it touched on many points I hadn’t known about!!🤫🤫

[@MohabWali08]

Great Video Like Always

[@ForgedCalamity]

“Thoroughly Stalined”

[@lonecom685]

Man, I could swear you had posted this video before a while ago. But not. You just mentioned the USSR in your other videos on this series. My friend thought the same. What a Mandela effect!

[@oliversherman2414]

I love your channel keep up the great stuff

[@qsc_slime2448]

Finally, I waited for this and I kept Searching for this type of videos.

[@HistoryfortheAges]

Good summary. Ties in a bit with the new Oppenheimer movie. Great movie!!! I made a review of it if anyone is interested

[@mr.salisbury2435]

Good summary, but Plutonium is made in reactors from Uranium you have to mine. Its not naturally occuring thankfully. Enriched uranium is the alternative. Both were used by the US.. Enriching Uranium is very expensive . Making Plutonium in reactors and refining is not exactly easy either and a lot more hazardous -hence slave labor.

[@mr.salisbury2435]

Britain also used Plutonium in its early weapons due to cost and speed. Early nuclear accidents in several countries were associated with this step perofrmed as a crash miltary program e.g. Windscale

[@muhammadcalvin8281]

2:16 that gag feels like it came straight from Kelly's Heroes "I need support units, Oddball. I need at least 100 guys, where do i find 100 men just like that?" *sudden realization*

[@notsuper69]

Great video, short and informative

[@ram0166]

I think Julius and Ethel Rosenberg deserve a mention since they paid with their lives for their role in this.

[@unclenogbad1509]

They never had anything to do with it. Julius has been shown to have passed a few, not top secret, designs from the aero plant he was working at, but nothing of any consequence. They both then told their Soviet handlers that they were finished with any form of espionage, even low-level, such as being couriers. They paid with their lives all right, but only because the US needed to promote the idea that the 'primitive' USSR couldn't possibly have matched them on their own.

[@Carl_ATHF]

found the zionist defender -----> @@unclenogbad1509

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

James Bisonette is probably funding his own nuclear project by now.

[@joec9693]

Yeah but "Words about Books Podcast" must be making up for lost time because they get mentioned twice.

[@olicox2344]

Great video as always and greatly explained in 3 minutes. Liking the detail on Stalin being angry face all the time 😂

[@Aydin-Adam]

Glad I finally turned on Notifications for this channel

[@josephd.3654]

It was all James Bisonette's budget that funded USSR's dream of nuclear bomb

[@J-Bahn]

Funny I wrote a historical fiction book (still unpublished) where Soviet spies try to steal tailings from Colorado mines that in real life were refined into yellowcake (uranium) for the first atomic bomb. The premise probably isn't too too accurate but it's gratifying knowing the Soviets would have liked a source of uranium since they didn't have any.

[@GRANOLA77]

Report back here if/when it's published

[@mnxs]

Except it's incorrect, the video got it wrong. They did have uranium, what they didn't have was the capacity to enrich it the way the Americans did, and so they had to transmute it into plutonium in breeder reactors.

[@J-Bahn]

@@GRANOLA77 thanks i will

[@stevejohnson3357]

History matters is such a happy place. Everybody is smiling and dancing and sometimes there's a silly game of hide behind the couch. I love it.

[@tvdan1043]

I love your animations. Especially the AA batteries at 0:35 🤣

[@SirJeffry]

You vids answer questions I never know I needed answers. You vids are amazing keep it up❤

[@connorgolden4]

James Bisonette obviously.

[@jamesbissonette8002]

Nah

[@Simon_the_penguin]

Finally the long awaited finale to this series

[@slippingwings7096]

Love your videos

[@NovikNikolovic]

You should do a video on why the Nazis held onto (almost) the entirety of Denmark and Norway but almost none of Germany itself during the final days of WW2

[@mojewjewjew4420]

Thats a stupid idea, the allies just didn't want to occupy them, it was "rush berlin" time.

[@derrickthewhite1]

@@mojewjewjew4420 I bet there are all sorts of fun little details, like "They planned a landing at XYZ, but ABC politician said MNOP"

[@chaosXP3RT]

Why does everyone always bring up Operation Paperclip, but nobody talks about the German scientists the Soviets used to build nukes and rockets?

[@command_unit7792]

The soviets mostly used the germans to write books to teach their own people the germans where not involved in the actual projects unlike the USA

[@Admiral45-10]

Probably for the same reason as why everyone talks about Guantanamo Bay crime, but never about Russian penal colonies in XXIst Century.

[@fabvz5436]

This "oh wait" got me by surprise and it was perfect

[@mariotcarreon]

I laughed out loud at the "oh wait!" part. Totally unexpected. Also, this is probably the best dancing in the daisies scene I've ever seen.

[@SomebodywithaYouTubeaccount]

2:13 Despite the uranium/plutonium inaccuracy, this is one of HM’s best jokes. Has real “Welcome to the Soviet Union” spirit

[@nerrler5574]

Oh no, using Nazis to work in mines how horrible.

[@michaelcassin9655]

‘Oh, wait’

[@familygash7500]

*VIDEO SUGGESTION(S):* When, why and how did India, Pakistan and North Korea aquire nuclear weapons?

[@kratos_rural6704]

Love the vids

[@Rudero3]

Lmao I love all your videos but the ending showing that dude getting erased from that Stalin photo is amazing.

[@AreaEightyNine]

Before I even watch this I’m going to guess they got them through spying or something like that. Edit: I knew it, but I never thought the British would’ve been helping them.

[@nonameuserua]

This is clearly west propaganda! Mozer rusha can into nuke her own!!

[@piratamaia]

Oh yes, full circle Now we only nead the US to complete the series of how the UN Security Council got its nukes

[@squeaksquawk4255]

April 1st next year, perhaps?

[@Tankcommander518]

Might it intrest you in oppenheimer directed by Christopher nolan

[@muhammadhabibieamiro3639]

Another amazing video

[@belbrighton6479]

I absolutely adore all the visual gags. Including the “produce of the USSR” chalked onto the bomb. Brilliant.

[@alastairward2774]

Weird that development of the bomb cost America less than development of the plane to drop them on Japan.

[@mintheman7]

The B29 program indeed costed more and the fire bombing of Tokyo also killed more people in one night than either of the A-bombs. But it is not really that surprising considering near 4000 B29’s were produced and the Manhattan project only produced 3 bombs.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

​@@mintheman7 That's countered by the fact that the nuclear industry had to be built from scratch while the aircraft industry was well established. The issue isn't building bombs. It's building the stuff that then builds bombs

[@joermnyc]

Also rumor was that Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist wanted to loop the Soviets in on the Manhattan Project, as he felt the allies needed more people working on the atomic bomb so they could beat the German program (no one knew just how horribly inept the German program was until the allied troops captured their lab.) Bohr even went to Churchill to implore him to talk to the Soviets about the project. Churchill went to FDR and basically said, “time to keep a close watch on Bohr.” Once the Soviet bomb test went off, Bohr admitted that he did leak information because “I thought they were our allies!”

[@Bertie_Ahern]

Interesting comment, thanks!

[@MCsCreations]

Fascinating!

[@yurimow]

great videos as usual, but that plutonium thing is a massive oversight

[@NontonSejarah-drg.naufal]

Cheap labours really got me😂

[@Siptom369]

Short answer, Espionage

[@Marlin123]

The outro animation is the reason I'm subscribed

[@williamharris8367]

I like the fact that most any project is feasible if enough resources are allocated to it.

[@saidgaziev6677]

My grandmother, a Crimean Tatar teenager girl deported from her homeland to Central Asia in 1944 by the Russians, was forced to work in one of those uranium mines (in Soviet Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) extracting low grade ore to feed the Soviet nuclear ambitions. None of the Crimean Tatars (mostly women, elderly, and children) who toiled in these mines were told about the dangers of this radioactive ore to their health. I appreciate a good sense of humour of this video while it describes such tragic events.

[@maddog526]

One of the main reasons why some people at Los Alamos committed espionage for the Soviets was not because of communist sympathy, but mostly because they believed that this shouldn't be kept secret to the Soviets because they were our ally during WW2

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

The US was mostly isolationist and getting it to participate in the world wars was like pulling teeth, the Soviets clearly had imperialist ambitions plus they had at one point also allied with Germany even if just for convinience. Giving such a tremendous power away because of a temporary alliance would be the epitome of idiocy. It's actually more respectful to say it was about sympathy than accuse them of such naivete. I have more respect for a traitor than a fool.

[@AsanpiCh]

That "Oh wait!" coupled with the visual gave me quite the laugh.

[@deleted-something]

Always wanted to know this!

[@BartlomiejDmowski]

I'm from Poland, during one school trip I visited a uranium mine in Lower Silesia, nearby the Czech border. So it was on the lands Germany lost after WW2. The guide told us how many anti-Nazi (but at the same time not fans of USSR) partisans were imprisoned after the war and forced to work there, in very unhealthy and unethical conditions (for instance, they were collecting this material with their bare hands), to gather this uranium or plutonium for the Soviets. Now I wonder if this was for the atomic bomb... I remember how I almost broke into tears, because those people truly loved their homeland and devoted their lives to liberate it and for this they became slaves. This is just one of many stories about injustice Poland faced after WW2

[@cerneysmallengines]

an uncomfortable truth about atomic weaponry is that it has saved more lives than it has ever taken. if you Google casualties of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, you will get a number of 135k and 65k, however actual death numbers are 66k and 39k. those 110k dead bodies saved millions of Japanese and American soldiers. since WW2, the bombs have kept conflicts from escalating into grand wars, such as Korea and Vietnam. even now, the threat of a nuclear arsenal has kept the Ukraine war relatively small. that war could easily grow into a lot more if Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy or even Britain were to join the conflict, leaving out if Russia were to fully commit or if America were to land full armies in.

[@Cage66666]

Nvm the fact that if any reckless country uses them it'll be the end of the world

[@bad_covfefe]

​@@Cage66666source: trust me bro

[@Cage66666]

@@bad_covfefe what source do you need? Even 1 nuke can cause nuclear war resulting in end of humanity

[@cerneysmallengines]

@@Cage66666 but has it? a single bullet fired at a Duke caused the greatest war up until that point. any action or inaction can cause a war. I'm a student of the philosophy "speak softly and carry a big stick"

[@shan4680]

Yet another recommendation for The Death of Stalin and also if you can find it, a not entirely dissimilar film from 1983 called Red Monarch for a bit of a feel of what it was like at the upper echelons of the Soviet leadership.

[@Alzeinat]

Love the credit scene

[@KurtisC93]

Quite simply, Stalin wanted nukes. And when Stalin wanted something done, it got done.

[@UL1999]

You explained the "money thing" wrong. The USSR had its own currency so it could always acquire everything, what is sold in Rubels. A country can not go bankrupt in its own currency.

[@TheFranchiseCA]

A nation's fiat currency is only worth what its economic output will support.

[@UL1999]

@@TheFranchiseCA It still can use it to boost the economy (until a certain limit) and can not go broke in it. HistoryMaters said, that the USSR had no money, which is impossible.

[@jaedenb3795]

Can we all appreciate for History Matters being one of the greatest historian in KZbin?

[@rico1346]

I am quite pleased that this video came out when it did as I just saw Oppenheimer recently; brilliant film btw for anyone reading, well worth the ticket price!

[@lubusbtch]

"His predecessor had gotten thoroughly Stallined." This is why I keep coming back to this channel.

[@halnywiatr]

Time for a History Matters episode on the "Cambridge Five".

[@Bryzerse]

Thoroughly Stalined should be made the official terminology for when Stalin does some Stalining

[@ZuperZocker]

Can we get a video on Beria? Between the movie the death of Stalin and this, he seems interesting