The youngest of the circle, security chief of the atomic project
In the early hours of 29 August 1949 at the Semipalatinsk test site, Meshik personally removed the guards from the tower housing the assembled first Soviet atomic bomb and was the last man to evacuate the central field. Hours later, the USSR became a nuclear power.
The youngest of Beria's inner circle, Meshik was plucked from a Ukrainian factory into the NKVD in 1932 and rose swiftly through economic and counter-intelligence work. At thirty he became People's Commissar of State Security of Ukraine; during the war he served as deputy head of SMERSH. From 1945, as deputy head of the First Main Directorate, he ran security for the Soviet atomic bomb programme and built the closed-city system. In March 1953 Beria installed him as MVD minister of Ukraine, where he pushed Ukrainization in the western oblasts and clashed with the party leadership. Arrested in Kyiv after Beria's fall, he was tried and shot with him that December.
Career Timeline
- 1939–1941Head of the Investigative Unit, NKVD; deputy head of the Main Economic Directorate
- 1941People's Commissar of State Security, Ukrainian SSR
- 1941–1943Head of the Economic Directorate, NKVD
- 1943–1945Deputy head of SMERSH counter-intelligence
- 1945–1953Deputy head of the First Main Directorate, security and counter-intelligence for the atomic project
- 1953Minister of Internal Affairs, Ukrainian SSR
- 1953Arrested, tried and executed
Related historical events
- 1937–1938The Great PurgeHead of NKVD Investigation Department
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarDeputy head of SMERSHHe ran the NKVD's Economic Directorate during the war and then served as a deputy head of SMERSH counter-intelligence, taking over security for the atomic project from 1945.
- 1943–1949The Soviet Atomic ProjectDeputy head of First Main Directorate, responsible for security and counterintelligence of the atomic bomb project
- 1953The Fall of BeriaShot with Beria, December 1953MVD minister of Ukraine, where he was executing Beria's nationalities line, he was arrested in the Ukrainian party Central Committee building in Kyiv on 30 June 1953 and shot on 23 December.
The Atomic Project and the Closed-City System
When the First Main Directorate was created by State Defence Committee decree on 20 August 1945, Meshik was appointed deputy to Boris Vannikov with responsibility for security and counter-intelligence across the entire Soviet atomic project. His brief covered vetting personnel at research institutes, design bureaux and plants, establishing the secrecy regime, guarding facilities and fire prevention, and deceiving foreign intelligence. Meshik devised a code-name system for key materials and processes: uranium-238 became 'kremnil', plutonium-239 'ametil', uranium-235 'kremnil-1', and 'chain reaction' was replaced by 'oxidation' in all correspondence. He personally drafted the rules governing inter-agency documents and internal communications.
Meshik's most enduring legacy was the closed-city (ZATO) system. Between 1946 and 1953 he organised cities that appeared on no map: Arzamas-16 (now Sarov), Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozyorsk), Sverdlovsk-44 and others. Residents lived inside tightly controlled perimeters; all outside contact was censored. These cities became the backbone of Soviet nuclear-weapons production and remained sealed for decades after the Cold War ended.
At the Semipalatinsk test site in August 1949, Meshik was named deputy to scientific director Igor Kurchatov for security and evacuation. In the early hours of 29 August, he personally removed the guards from the tower housing the assembled bomb and was the last man to leave the central field. Hours later the USSR's first nuclear test succeeded. He received the Order of Lenin for his role and was awarded the Stalin Prize, 2nd class, in 1951.