Decree No. 2352 cc of the State Committee of Defence.
"On the Organization of Work on Uranium"
28 September 1942.
Top secret
Moscow, Kremlin
The Academy of Sciences of USSR (Academician Ioffe) should renew the research on the use of nuclear energy and uranium nuclear fission. The Academy of Sciences should present to the State Committee of Defense a report on the possibility for uranium bomb or uranium fuel construction by 1 April 1943.
To achieve this goal:
1. The Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of USSR should:
a) organize a special nuclear atom laboratory[i] at the Academy of Sciences;
b) plan and construct an installation for thermal-diffusion separation of Uranium-235 at the Institute of Radiology by 1 January 1943;
c) separate Uranium-235 using centrifuges and thermal diffusion at the Institute of Radiology and Institute of Physics and Technology. The quantity of separated uranium should be enough for conducting physical research. Before 1 April 1943, it is necessary to conduct research on the feasibility of uranium-235 nuclear fission in the Nuclear Atom Laboratory.
2. The Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic (Academician Bogomolets) should organize under the direction of Professor Lange[ii] the project of the laboratory installation for uranium-235 separation in centrifuges. By 20 October, the technical project should be transmitted to the Kazan facility “Sickle and Hammer” of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Engineering Industry.
3. By 1 January 1943, the People's Commissariat of Heavy Engineering Industry (Comrade Kazakov) should construct a laboratory installation of the centrifuge according to Professor Lange’s project which will have been elaborated in the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. This installation should be constructed in the Kazan handling machinery facility “Sickle and Hammer.”
[note by editors of Atomic Project of USSR”] In the upper right corner of the first page of the document, the date and number of decree are handwritten. The word “Uranium” in the title of the decree is crossed out, and then it is handwritten above the line. Two copies of this decree were found during document viewing. These two copies were printed separately, but their content is identical. The delivery list was attached to this document. The full text of the decree was sent to V. M. Molotov, S. V. Kaphtanov, A. F. Ioffe, V. L. Komarov, Y. E. Chadayev, extracts from the decree were sent to those who were responsible for fulfilling the concrete tasks and who were mentioned in the text.
[i] This was Laboratory No. 2 (this name it received in 1943). Laboratory was established on the base of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology which was located in Kazan during the war. Laboratory was established according to Decree No. 2352 cc of the State Committee of Defense which was dated by 11 February 1943. Laboratory was moved to Moscow. [note by editors of Atomic Project of USSR”].
[ii] In 1942 Fritz Lange worked in Ufa at the Institute of Physics and Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic. [note by editors of Atomic Project of USSR”].