First Chief Directorate (PGU)

Founding

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, the Soviet government established the Special Committee by State Defense Committee decision No. 9887ss/ov of 20 August 1945 and placed the First Chief Directorate (PGU) under it. The PGU was to direct the research, design and construction organizations and industrial enterprises engaged in the atomic project. Vannikov, who had run wartime armaments production, was appointed chief and also deputy chairman of the Special Committee; Zavenyagin became first deputy chief, with Borisov, Meshik, Antropov and Kasatkin as deputies. Vannikov drew up the structure and staff and had them approved with Beria's signature at the Special Committee session of 24 August 1945. At its creation the directorate comprised a secretariat, eight directorates and three departments, with a staff of 415, not all of whose posts could be filled.

Tasks and Powers

Enterprises and institutions were transferred to the PGU from other commissariats, including the scientific-technical department of intelligence and the NKVD's Main Directorate of Camps for Industrial Construction (GULPS) and Main Directorate of Camps for Mining and Metallurgical Enterprises (GULGMP), the two camp branches alone holding about 293,000 prisoners. A Council of People's Commissars decision of 28 September 1945 brought further scientific institutions, scholars and specialists into the work. On 30 November 1945 the PGU took on the additional task of housing and servicing the Engineering and Technical Council of the Special Committee. Stalin's directive required the PGU to deliver both a uranium and a plutonium bomb by 1948. Outwardly the PGU was known by the industrial cover name Glavgorstroy.