End of Innocence

A more detailed investigation of Russia's nuclear coming-of-age, this episode traces the atom bomb back to its infancy – to a time when state-sponsored Russian physicists were sent to Cambridge in pursuit of an obscure new technology. But the Bolshevik government was slow to catch on to the strategic importance of atomic energy, continually dismissing it in favour of good old traditional weapons. The Americans had Einstein, Niels Bohr and a state-of-the-art testing base in New Mexico. Meanwhile, the Russians had a "tiny cluttered laboratory" in central Moscow (later upgraded to a tent in a muddy field) and no uranium to speak of. Told by the men who were involved, this is a tale of success against the odds, achieved thanks to an eccentric yet dedicated network of scientists and spies (including a bicycling femme fatale nicknamed "Red Sonya"), and the fatal negligence of MI5.