Soviet penetration of the Manhattan Project

[Admiral Kutzov]

I was reading Masada's thread about Japanese capitulation and there was an entry about how Stalin had the best spies at the time. I've read some history/historical fiction, and was wondering, just how far the Soviets had penetrated the project and how much it jump started their a-bomb project? Did they steal it from the US or from the scientists they abducted from Germany at the end of the war?

 

[Ajidica]

IIRC it was a combination of their scientists and stolen American info. The German atom bomb project had basicaly reach a dead end and they had gone off in the wrong direction.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Someone's never heard of Julius Rosenberg.

 

[Ajidica]

Wasn't the trial very suspect though? I remember reading about it in school, and there was only tenous links for Julis and next to none for Ethel.

 

[Weik]

Klaus Fuchs was the most important spy of the Soviet Union. He was a theoretical physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Wasn't the trial very suspect though? I remember reading about it in school, and there was only tenous links for Julis and next to none for Ethel.

Yes it was. They unprecedentedly executed two people for espionage with questionable evidence on one and absolutely nothing on the other. It was only verified that Julius was a Soviet agent like thirty years later through his son's testimony.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Wasn't the trial very suspect though? I remember reading about it in school, and there was only tenous links for Julis and next to none for Ethel.

Yes it was. They unprecedentedly executed two people for espionage with questionable evidence on one and absolutely nothing on the other. It was only verified that Julius was a Soviet agent like thirty years later through his son's testimony.

Its still questionable about Ethel, whether the US government executed a totally innocent person or not simply because they were a communist.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Wasn't the trial very suspect though? I remember reading about it in school, and there was only tenous links for Julis and next to none for Ethel.

There were definite links for Julius. Even the protests to the execution eventually focused more on whether or not he should be executed, not whether or not he was a spy. That being said, I do believe that the general consensus is that Ethel wasn't involved (as I understand it, she was tried as a move to get Julius to name names of other conspirators).

So, yes, the Soviets did steal atomic secrets from the United States and Julius was involved (although I'm not positive how important his involvement was, I don't believe it was minimal).