Sarov is the first Nuclear Center of Russia. The beginning of the history of the first nuclear center is dated by April, 1946 when the closed regulation regarding creation of design office attached to a Laboratory N2 of USSR Academy of Sciences was adopted by USSR Council of Ministers. It was entitled as the KB-11 Design Bureau. The chief of this bureau was Pavel Michailovich Zernov, the design manager was Yuly Borisovich Khariton. The goal of this organization while solving a wide of design problems regarding new atomic industry was manufacturing of an “item”, i.e. an atomic bomb. The location of a base for manufacturing first samples of nuclear weapons should meet a number of requirements. This place shouldn’t be located near densely populated regions and near big cities. The closeness to Moscow, rather extensive territory for carrying out work with explosives and initial material and technical basis etc. were necessary. Among the considered variants was the plant N550 situated in the village Sarova known all over the world for its monastery. A group of searchers consisting of Y.B.Khariton, P.M.Zernov and I.I.Nikitin visited Sarov at the beginning of April, 1946 and this visit was decisive of the village fate. Problems regarding religious matters, cultural monuments connected with Orthodoxy were not paid much attention to at that time.
		Analysis of the copying documents of the object with the Center in 1946-1947 confirmed that at that time the initial Sarov basis for design and further functioning of KB-11 wasn’t significant. They started from practically nothing… As the object started to “become clear” and the most urgent question was the protection of the specified territory. The KB-11 Design Bureau was added to highly classified secure enterprises with confined space territory on February, 17 1947 by Council of ministers regulation N297-130 signed by I.V.Stalin. Though the town was not formed yet, the village had already disappeared. At that time it was an anonymous settlement that was condemned to be “invisible” for several decades not only for foreign countries but also for own countrymen. Manufacturing process was building up in the center of it; its aim was to ensure security blankets of the country in the new conditions of world confrontation. It was initially given several provisional names, such as Base 112, Site 550, and then it was called Yasnogorsk, Kremlyev, and Arzamas-75. Afterwards "75" was changed into "16", and with the name of Arzamas-16 the nuclear center became famous not only countrywide but also worldwide in the epoch of glasnost.
		The history of the town is tightly connected with the names of outstanding scientists. Academician Y.B Khariton, permanent scientific adviser of atomic project and patriarch of nuclear physics has lived here for 50 years. A.D.Sakharov has worked in our town for many years. Under his supervision the first Soviet atomic bomb was manufactured. Thanks to Y.B.Zeldovich, P.M.Zernov, N.LDukhov, V.A.Alexandrovich, A.K.Bessarabenko, A.S. Silkin, V.A.Davidenko and others formation and development of the town has taken place. Half a century after the world war was finished was considered a peaceful time. Though the time was relatively peaceful but "better a lean peace that a fat victory". Such is indeed the significance of the case the people of the "object" devoted their life to. The core of life of the pioneer-nuclear physicists was activity regarding native nuclear shield manufacturing. They successfully fulfill assigned tasks, thanks to them our country ensured peace not only for our countrymen but for the whole mankind.
Informational support is taken from the website www.vniief.ru. Additional information: A page about Sarov at the website globalsecurity.org. Description, history, a large number of photos taken from the satellites.