Knowing the fate of unfortunate countries without a means of a nuclear deterrent Russia remained free thanks to nuclear weapons created ‘under the protection of St. Seraphim of Sarov.’ Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ spoke about this when awarding physicist Radiy Ilkaev with the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, 1st degree.

Mr Ilkaev heads the national research center Kurchatov Institute, created by the Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov. The Patriarch called Radiy Ilkaev a great Russian scientist. According to the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, ‘if it were not for the work of Kurchatov, Radiy Ivanovich, their colleagues, brothers, it is difficult to say whether’ Russia would exist.

‘They created weapons under the protection of St. Seraphim of Sarov because according to God’s ineffable providence, these weapons were created in the monastery of St. Seraphim. Thanks to this force, Russia remained independent and free, and, of course, we must all keep in our hearts and memories this wonderful feat of our scientists, who practically saved the country,’ says the patriarch (quoted by TASS ).

President Vladimir Putin, during his address to the Federal Assembly in February, said that the Ministry of Defense and Rosatom ‘must ensure readiness to test Russian nuclear weapons.’ 

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He promised that Russia would not be the first to conduct them, ‘but if the United States conducts tests, then we will conduct them.’ Today, October 18, the State Duma, at the initiative of Mr. Putin, withdrew ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty.

In 1946, in Sarov, Nizhny Novgorod region, on the site of the Assumption Monastery (Sarov Hermitage) closed by the Bolsheviks in 1927, it was decided to build a center for the development of an atomic bomb – the KB-11 design bureau at Laboratory N2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In August 1949, the first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1 (‘Stalin-1 jet engine’), created in Sarov, which by that time had been renamed Arzamas-16, was tested. PLEASE SHARE STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA