Sarov (Russian Саров) is a town of Russia pertaining to the Oblast of Nijni-Novgorod. It took again its name of origin in 1995, after being called Kremlyov (Кремлёв) of 1991 at 1995. Of long time holy place of the orthodoxe Christian religion, it shelters since 1946, under the name of code Arzamas-16 (Арзамас-16), a secret site of research on the nuclear weapons. Its population was of: 87652 inhabitants at the time of the census of 2002.
History of the city
The oldest known human establishment with Sarov is that of populations mordves which were installed on this site with S. In 1298, the city was taken by the Tatars.The monastery of Sarova, created with the confluence of the rivers Sarovka and Satys, whose water passed to have a capacity of cure, gave its name to the city. In 1664, the Theodosius monk was installed on the mountain of Sarov. The first church of Sarov was founded in 1706. The father Seraph (Prokhore Isidorovitch Mochnine), become holy Seraph of Sarov, lived with the monastery of 1778 with 1833. In 1903, the family of the Tsar visited the city. At that time, it had nine churches, including one underground, and 320 monks approximately lived in the monastery, which had taken the name of Saint-Seraph of Sarov.
The tsar and his family visited Sarov, at the time of the canonization of saint Séraphin, the tsar himself was a carrier of the remainders of St Seraph during their translation in the cathedral. The tsarina had had four girls, but not male heir. She went to bathe in the miraculous source of the oratory of St Seraph located at some distance from the monastery. Last nine months after the tsarévitch were born. In 1923, the monastery was completely closed, following repression Bolshevik on the monks, of which a big number was carried out. During the Second world war, the buildings of the monastery were used like manufacturing planies of the rockets intended for the launchers Katioucha, also said “rocket launchers”.
The monastery and its churches were returned to the worship in 2006
The Nuclear research center
In 1946, a whole of new buildings was built on the grounds surrounding the old monastery, to accommodate the development center of the nuclear weapons, known in occident by its Acronyme VNIIEF, and in which worked Igor Kurchatov in particular, founder of science and the nuclear engineering in Soviet Union, and Andreï Sakharov, father of the Soviet Bombe H, Sakharov which in its Memories calls this city “ Installation ”. The city was seen allotting the code name of KB11 (Office of N°11 construction) then of Arzamas-60 because the city is located at 60km town of Arzamas, the indication of " 60" having been considered to be too indicative the name was transformed into “ Arzamas-16 ”, and disappeared from all the charts and all the statistics. The existence even of the city will remain secret until in 1989, date on which the Soviets published statistics on the quantities of household refuse produced by cities of the USSR; the quantity of household refuse corresponded to a city of: 80000 inhabitants whereas the charts mentioned only one monastery. The American satellites are reflected in action and the city was localized in its entirety.This new city, built mainly by German prisoners of war, lodges moreover a “Museum of the atomic bomb”, where are presented a certain number of nuclear weapons of the Soviet era (emptied of their contents) and photographs of the personnel having taken part in their production. It is this museum which is presented at the time of the visits from abroad. A second museum exists showing all the technological details, but this one is accessible only to the approved Russian scientists.
The city is surrounded by barriers monitored by military patrols. The foreigners, and even Russian who does not live in Sarov, are not authorized to enter there without permission. The foreigners who go there on business must deposit their passports, cellphones, cameras and cameras at the station of safety; however, some realizers the documentary ones could film sequences inside the city. The majority of the visitors reach Sarov by the train; this one can penetrate in the city only after one stop intended for the security checks of the travellers and the luggage. The small airport being generally accessible only to the official visitors, the visitors arriving by plane usually unload with the airport of Nijni-Novgorod, located at three hours of car of Sarov.
In 1992, two directors of the National laboratory of Los Alamos, and Laurence Livermore National Laboratory were invited to visit the VNIIEF. For this visit all the experimenters having to present laboratories had been replaced by members of the special services. But it was all the same possible to transmit discreetly to these two directors a written message underlining the great economic distress of the inhabitants of the city as well as the potential danger as for the proliferation which could result from the expatriation of the scientists abroad. Following this visit it was decided to create the ISTC intended to help with the reconversion the scientists potentially proliferating and to fix them in their laboratories.
In 1993, the city was twinned with Los Alamos, site of the National laboratory of Los Alamos, research laboratory on the nuclear weapons of the the United States. The similarity of functions of the laboratories Russian and American had led the Russian scientists besides to call in a humorous way their own laboratory " Los Arzamas".
At the request of its inhabitants, the city is lived to make its name original of Sarov by Boris Eltsine, in August 1995.
See too
Internal bonds
External bonds
- Sarov (Arzamas-16) Overview
- Sarov (IFSSEHT - 2003)
- Los Alamos and Arzamas-16: The “Sister Cities” Relationship
- life of saint Seraph of Sarov
- Information on Sarov - Nuclear Cities Initiative Website
- Information on Andrei Sakharov (with some photographs of Sarov) - Center for History off Physics
- the program of Soviet nuclear armament (with other photographs of Sarov and “Museum of the atomic bomb”)
- Historical and description of the site Arzamas-16
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