Soviet Postcards

Private train carriage of Yuli Khariton, who was the main constructor of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Because he was indispendable to the country, he was not allowed to travel by plane or public train. He always travelled in this special carriage, along with the caretaker lady Klavdiya (who cooked, cleaned and served) and armed guards.

This is the real carriage he used since 1961.

The carriage consists of firewood-heated kitchen, Klavdiya’s compartment, guest room, guards room, Khariton’s room with a private bathroom, and conference room. Khariton’s room was both his bedroom and study. The bathroom has a whole bath tub in it! In the room is the 1902 carpet that Khariton refused to change for a newer one. :) There are also radio phones, you could phone from the guest room to Khariton’s room, for example.

Yuli Khariton travelled a lot. The carriage would be hitched up to any train going in the needed direction, passenger or cargo. None of the train’s passengers knew that there was an additional car travelling with them.

This is a great piece of history that I truly enjoyed. Secret lives of trains and scientists! :)

Look where I was today—in our local museum of nuclear weapons. Sarov (Arzamas-16) is like the American Los Alamos of the Manhattan Project, the only difference is that it’s in the middle of the forest, not desert. :)

In true nature of a local, I’ve never visited this museum before. I only went today because I have relatives visiting who wanted to see it. :)

There are several real-life size models of various nuclear bombs that were developed here over since 1949, including the very first one—RDS-1 (it’s the cute one with eyes and red nose).

I’m not into weapons at all if I’m honest, but having lived here most of my life I do feel certain familial ties with RDS-1. My favourite part of the museum however was the real train carriage of Yuli Khariton! I’ll show it in a separate post.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.