In its genre, Vsevolod Ovchinnikov’s book “Hot Ashes” is a combination of documentary chronicle and political detective story. It tells about the dramatic episodes of the race for the possession of atomic weapons, the participants of which during the Second World War were not only France, England, Germany and the United States, but also Japan, which few people know about yet. Strictly following the chronology of events, the author reveals the origins of American politics atomic blackmail shows that it was directed not only against the USSR, but also against other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - England and France. The facts presented in the book irrefutably indicate that it was Washington that unleashed the nuclear arms race, that it was he who initiated each new round of it. By a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the writer Vsevolod Vladimirovich OVCHINNIKOV was awarded for his journalistic works “Sakura and Oak” and “Hot Ash” USSR State Prize 1985