The authors of the book are Academician Yu.B. Khariton, who has been the scientific director of the Russian nuclear center for more than 45 years, and Yu.N. Smirnov, who previously worked at VNIIEF in the group of A.D. Sakharov, and now an employee of the Russian Scientific Center "Kurchatov Institute," talk about individual milestones in the formation and development of the Soviet atomic project, the true role of intelligence in its implementation. In order not to disrupt the structure of the story, the editors decided to completely reproduce the texts of the published articles, although in some places of these publications there are some repetitions. The book is based on documentary material and may be of interest to a wide range of readers.