Did you know that the first ideas for creating atomic weapons arose at the beginning of the last century and were founded by a brilliant inventor, an outstanding physicist and a great novelist? How did it happen that the world's first operational nuclear weapon design was born in the pre-war Soviet Union, came to Germany, and then to the USA? What is the history of alternative nuclear projects based on? The author examines these and many other intricate questions of the history of the development of the nuclear military-industrial complex using the method of artistic reconstruction based on known scientific and historical facts.