<P> Behind the scenes , the Soviet government was working on building its own atomic weapons . During the war , Soviet efforts had been limited by a lack of uranium but new supplies in Eastern Europe were found and provided a steady supply while the Soviets developed a domestic source . While American experts had predicted that the Soviet Union would not have nuclear weapons until the mid-1950s , the first Soviet bomb was detonated on August 29 , 1949 , shocking the entire world . The bomb , named `` First Lightning '' by the West , was more or less a copy of `` Fat Man '' , one of the bombs the United States had dropped on Japan in 1945 . </P>
<P> Behind the scenes , the Soviet government was working on building its own atomic weapons . During the war , Soviet efforts had been limited by a lack of uranium but new supplies in Eastern Europe were found and provided a steady supply while the Soviets developed a domestic source . While American experts had predicted that the Soviet Union would not have nuclear weapons until the mid-1950s , the first Soviet bomb was detonated on August 29 , 1949 , shocking the entire world . The bomb , named `` First Lightning '' by the West , was more or less a copy of `` Fat Man '' , one of the bombs the United States had dropped on Japan in 1945 . </P>
when did the ussr became a nuclear power
when did the ussr became a nuclear power
August 29 , 1949
August 29 , 1949