[Navy Patriot]

Heck, the Russian A-bomb program cost less, it was called Rosenberg.

[hoagy62]

And, as I recall, both the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death by electric chair.

[colorado tanker]

Although the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies and traitors, the person who handed over the secrets to building the atomic bomb was Klaus Fuchs. He was a German Communist who fled to Britain after the Nazi takeover. He became part of the Tube Alloys program to develop a nuclear bomb. When the UK and US decided to combine their programs, Fuchs was sent to Los Alamos. In both the UK and US, he was a Soviet agent.

He returned to the UK after the war and eventually was identified through intercepts. After serving prison time, he went to East Germany where he could enjoy that communist paradise.

[Fred Hayek]

The Soviets were pursuing their own nuke, led by Kurchatov. All the Rosenberg spy ring did was confirm that Kurchatov was on the right track. Later on, the Soviets beat us to first developing a “dry” hydrogen bomb, that effort led by Andrei Sakharov. The same Sakharov who was later a dissident.