hydrogen weapons, Lavrentiy Beria. After meeting with Beria, Lavrentiev was given a room in the new house and a scholarship. He was allowed to attend lectures at will and to request on-demand delivery of scientific literature. He was assigned a math supervising professor PhD A.A. Samarskii (later - academician and Hero of Socialist Labor). In May 1951, Lavrentiev got access to newly opened State program of fusion research. (Laboratory of instrumentation of the USSR, currently - Kurchatov Institute), where research was carried out on high temperature plasma physics classified as top-secret. There was already ongoing testing and development of Andrei Sakharov's and Igor Tamm's ideas for the fusion reactor. On August 12, 1953 the Soviet Union tested a thermonuclear warhead based on lithium deuteride. Unlike other participants in the development of new weapons that have received state awards and ranks, Lavrentiev was denied admission to the lab, and was forced to write a thesis project without access to the lab and without a scientific adviser. Nonetheless, he graduated with honors based on his theoretical work on controlled thermonuclear fusion. In the spring of 1956 Lavrentiev was sent to Kharkiv Theoretical Physics School (KIPT, Kharkov, USSR), and presented his report on the theory of electromagnetic traps to the director of the Institute Cyril Sinelnikov. In 1958, KIPT built the first electromagnetic trap. Restoring primacy In August 2001, the journal "Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk" (Advances in physics science) published Lavrentiev's biography; his proposal that was mailed from Sakhalin, July 29, 1950; the review by Sakharov, and Beria's orders, which were kept in the Archives of the Russian Federation President designated as secret. That has reestablished the primacy of his scientific achievement. Notes References Valentine Gatash, Kharkov " top secret physicist Lavrentiev "/ / Proceedings of the science. 29.08.2003. Proposal OA Lavrent'ev, sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) July 29, 1950 Bondarenko BD "The role of OA Lavrent'ev in the formulation of the problem and initiate research on controlled thermonuclear fusion in the USSR "/ / UFN 171, 886 (2001). The father of the hydrogen bomb - Oleg Lavrentiev. My world - mail.ru 2011 deaths 1926 births Theoretical physicists Ukrainian nuclear physicists Soviet nuclear physicists Soviet military personnel of World War II