Grigory Klinishov, one of the inventors of the former Soviet Union's initial two-stage thermonuclear bomb, has died by suicide in Moscow at the age of 92, "Regnum" reports, citing an undisclosed source.
Relatives discovered the engineer-physicist's body on June 17 in his apartment located in the Zamoskvorech district. Before his suicide, he left a letter, which has not been revealed.
Kommersant reports that Klinishov was grieving over the death of his wife, and he had his own health problems. Russian news agency Regnum reported that the nuclear physicist's daughter talked to her father shortly before his death. After their conversation, she left the apartment for a few hours and found his body when she returned home. In his note, he reportedly asked for forgiveness from his daughter.
Grigory Yemelyanovich Klinishov, born on October 30, 1930, held a Ph.D. in physical and mathematical sciences and was honored as a laureate of the Lenin Prize in 1962. He dedicated his career to developing thermonuclear weapons at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics. Notably, Klinishov played a role in creating the RDS-37, the first two-stage thermonuclear bomb in the Soviet Union.
The bomb tests for this particular project occurred on November 22, 1955, at the Semipalatinsk range. It marked the world's first successful testing of a hydrogen bomb with a yield exceeding 1 megaton.
Unfortunately, these tests resulted in a series of tragic events within a radius of over 200km. Numerous settlements suffered severe damage to buildings, dozens of people were injured, and within a 240-km radius of the explosion epicenter, houses experienced shattered windows and increased radiation levels.
Furthermore, Grigory Yemelyanovich was instrumental in developing various types of thermonuclear charges for future generations of bombs.
The Interfax news agency reports that news of Klinishov’s death comes as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reiterated plans on Wednesday to strengthen his country’s nuclear forces.
#nuclear_bomb #SovietUnion #USSR #ColdWar
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