This volume in the series "National Treasure of Russia. Outstanding scientists of the Urals" is dedicated to Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov, an outstanding physicist who was born in the South Urals and worked as the scientific director of plant (combine) No. 817 in Chelyabinsk-40 in the initial period of its functioning. The collective monograph contains materials, archival documents and photographs, most of which are little known to a wide range of readers, and some of them are first introduced into scientific circulation.