1. The USSR nuclear arms race

1.1 Priority to the creation of a "nuclear shield

In the years following the end of the Second World War, the USSR hastily put together a military nuclear program, with the aim of catching up with the USA. The region concerned by the development of the nuclear industry associated with this program is located east of the Urals, in its southern part, and covers a very vast area; the nerve center is the Mayak nuclear complex (also called Chelyabinsk-40), located north of the city of Chelyabinsk, southeast of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinenburg) and near Kyshtym.

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