In what year was the atomic bomb invented? The hydrogen bomb is a modern weapon of mass destruction.

Sergey LESKOV

On August 12, 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested at the Semipalatinsk test site. It was the fourth Soviet test of a nuclear weapon. The power of the bomb, which had the secret code “RDS-6 s product,” reached 400 kilotons, 20 times more than the first atomic bombs in the USA and the USSR. After the test, Kurchatov turned to the 32-year-old Sakharov with a deep bow: “Thank you, the savior of Russia!”

Which is better - Bee Line or MTS? One of the most pressing issues of Russian everyday life. Half a century ago, in a narrow circle of nuclear physicists, the question was equally acute: which is better - an atomic bomb or a hydrogen bomb, which is also thermonuclear? The atomic bomb, which the Americans made in 1945, and we made in 1949, is built on the principle of releasing colossal energy by splitting heavy nuclei of uranium or artificial plutonium. A thermonuclear bomb is built on a different principle: energy is released by the fusion of light isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. Materials based on light elements do not have a critical mass, which was a major design challenge in the atomic bomb. In addition, the synthesis of deuterium and tritium releases 4.2 times more energy than the fission of nuclei of the same mass of uranium-235. In short, the hydrogen bomb is a much more powerful weapon than the atomic bomb.

In those years, the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb did not scare away any of the scientists. The world entered the era of the Cold War, McCarthyism was raging in the United States, and another wave of revelations rose in the USSR. Only Pyotr Kapitsa allowed himself demarches, who did not even appear at the solemn meeting at the Academy of Sciences on the occasion of Stalin's 70th birthday. The question of his expulsion from the ranks of the academy was discussed, but the situation was saved by the president of the Academy of Sciences Sergei Vavilov, who noted that the first to be excluded was the classic writer Sholokhov, who skimps on all meetings without exception.

In creating the atomic bomb, as you know, intelligence data helped scientists. But our agents almost ruined the hydrogen bomb. The information obtained from the famous Klaus Fuchs led to a dead end for both Americans and Soviet physicists. The group under the command of Zeldovich lost 6 years to check the erroneous data. Intelligence provided the opinion of the famous Niels Bohr about the unreality of the "superbomb". But the USSR had its own ideas, to prove the prospects of which to Stalin and Beria, who were "chasing" the atomic bomb with might and main, was not easy and risky. This circumstance must not be forgotten in fruitless and stupid disputes about who worked harder on nuclear weapons - Soviet intelligence or Soviet science.

The work on the hydrogen bomb was the first intellectual race in human history. To create an atomic bomb, it was important, first of all, to solve engineering problems, to launch large-scale work in mines and combines. The hydrogen bomb, on the other hand, led to the emergence of new scientific areas - the physics of high-temperature plasma, the physics of ultrahigh energy densities, and the physics of anomalous pressures. For the first time I had to resort to the help of mathematical modeling. Lagging behind the United States in the field of computers (von Neumann's devices were already in use overseas), our scientists compensated with ingenious computational methods on primitive adding machines.

In a word, it was the world's first battle of wits. And the USSR won this battle. Andrei Sakharov, an ordinary employee of the Zeldovich group, came up with an alternative scheme for the hydrogen bomb. Back in 1949, he proposed the original idea of ​​the so-called "puff", where cheap uranium-238 was used as an effective nuclear material, which was considered as garbage in the production of weapons-grade uranium. But if this "waste" is bombarded by fusion neutrons, which are 10 times more energy-intensive than fission neutrons, then uranium-238 begins to fission and the cost of producing each kiloton decreases many times over. The phenomenon of ionization compression of thermonuclear fuel, which became the basis of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb, is still called "saccharization". Vitaly Ginzburg proposed lithium deuteride as a fuel.

Work on the atomic and hydrogen bombs proceeded in parallel. Even before the atomic bomb tests in 1949, Vavilov and Khariton informed Beria about the "sloika". After the infamous directive of President Truman at the beginning of 1950, at a meeting of the Special Committee chaired by Beria, it was decided to speed up work on the Sakharov design with a TNT equivalent of 1 megaton and a test period in 1954.

On November 1, 1952, at Elugelub Atoll, the United States tested the Mike thermonuclear device with an energy release of 10 megatons, 500 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. However, "Mike" was not a bomb - a giant structure the size of a two-story house. But the power of the explosion was amazing. The neutron flux was so great that two new elements, einsteinium and fermium, were discovered.

All forces were thrown at the hydrogen bomb. The work was not slowed down either by the death of Stalin or by the arrest of Beria. Finally, on August 12, 1953, the world's first hydrogen bomb was tested in Semipalatinsk. The environmental consequences were horrendous. The share of the first explosion for the entire time of nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk accounts for 82% of strontium-90 and 75% of cesium-137. But then no one thought about radioactive contamination, as well as about ecology in general.

The first hydrogen bomb was the reason for the rapid development of Soviet cosmonautics. After the nuclear tests, the Korolyov Design Bureau was given the task of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile for this charge. This rocket, called the "seven", launched the first artificial satellite of the Earth into space, and the first cosmonaut of the planet, Yuri Gagarin, launched on it.

On November 6, 1955, the test of a hydrogen bomb dropped from a Tu-16 aircraft was carried out for the first time. In the United States, the drop of the hydrogen bomb did not take place until May 21, 1956. But it turned out that Andrei Sakharov's first bomb was also a dead end, and it was never tested again. Even earlier, on March 1, 1954, near Bikini Atoll, the United States blew up a charge of unheard of power - 15 megatons. It was based on the idea of ​​Teller and Ulam about the compression of a thermonuclear assembly not by mechanical energy and a neutron flux, but by the radiation of the first explosion, the so-called initiator. After the ordeal, which turned into casualties among the civilian population, Igor Tamm demanded that his colleagues abandon all previous ideas, even the national pride of “sloika” and find a fundamentally new way: “Everything that we have done so far is of no use to anyone. We are unemployed. I am sure that in a few months we will reach the goal.”

And already in the spring of 1954, Soviet physicists came up with the idea of ​​an explosive initiator. The authorship of the idea belongs to Zeldovich and Sakharov. On November 22, 1955, a Tu-16 dropped a bomb with a design capacity of 3.6 megatons over the Semipalatinsk test site. During these tests, there were dead, the radius of destruction reached 350 km, Semipalatinsk suffered.

Ahead was a nuclear arms race. But in 1955 it became clear that the USSR had achieved nuclear parity with the United States.

In August 1942, in the building of a former school in the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, not far from Santa Fe, a secret "Metallurgical Laboratory" was launched. Robert Oppenheimer was appointed head of the laboratory.

It took the Americans three years to solve the problem. In July 1945, the first atomic bomb was detonated at the test site, and in August two more bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It took seven years for the birth of the Soviet atomic bomb - the first explosion was carried out at the test site in 1949.

The American team of physicists was initially stronger. Only 12 Nobel laureates, present and future, took part in the creation of the atomic bomb. And the only future Soviet Nobel laureate, who was in Kazan in 1942 and who was invited to take part in the work, refused. In addition, a group of British scientists, sent in 1943 to Los Alamos, helped the Americans.

Nevertheless, in Soviet times, it was argued that the USSR solved its atomic problem completely independently, and Kurchatov was considered the "father" of the domestic atomic bomb. Although there were rumors about some secrets stolen from the Americans. And only in the 90s, 50 years later, one of the main actors of that time - - spoke about the essential role of intelligence in accelerating the backward Soviet project. And the American scientific and technical results were obtained by those who arrived in the English group.

So Robert Oppenheimer can be called the "father" of bombs created on both sides of the ocean - his ideas fertilized both projects. It is wrong to consider Oppenheimer (as well as Kurchatov) only an outstanding organizer. His main achievements are scientific. And it was thanks to them that he turned out to be the scientific director of the project to create an atomic bomb.

Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York on April 22, 1904. In 1925 he received a diploma from Harvard University. During the year he trained with Rutherford at the Cavendish Laboratory. In 1926 he moved to the University of Göttingen, where in 1927, under the guidance of Max Born, he defended his doctoral dissertation. In 1928 he returned to the USA. From 1929 to 1947, Oppenheimer taught at two leading American universities - the University of California and the California Institute of Technology.

Oppenheimer was engaged in quantum mechanics, relativity theory, elementary particle physics, performed a number of works on theoretical astrophysics. In 1927, he created the theory of the interaction of free electrons with atoms. Together with Born, he developed the theory of the structure of diatomic molecules. In 1930 he predicted the existence of the positron.

In 1931, together with Ehrenfest, he formulated the Ehrenfest-Oppenheimer theorem, according to which nuclei consisting of an odd number of particles with spin ½ must obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, and from an even number - Bose-Einstein. Investigated the internal conversion of gamma rays.

In 1937 he developed the cascade theory of cosmic showers, in 1938 he first calculated the model of a neutron star, in 1939 in his work “Regarding the irreversible gravitational contraction”, he predicted the existence of “black holes”.

Oppenheimer wrote several popular science books: Science and Common Knowledge (1954), The Open Mind (1955), Some Reflections on Science and Culture (1960).

7 countries with nuclear weapons form a nuclear club. Each of these states spent millions to create their own atomic bomb. Development has been going on for years. But without the gifted physicists who were assigned to conduct research in this area, nothing would have happened. About these people in today's Diletant selection. media.

Robert Oppenheimer

The parents of the man under whose leadership the world's first atomic bomb was created had nothing to do with science. Oppenheimer's father was a textile trader, and his mother was an artist. Robert graduated early from Harvard, took a course in thermodynamics and became interested in experimental physics.


After several years of work in Europe, Oppenheimer moved to California, where he lectured for two decades. When the Germans discovered the fission of uranium in the late 1930s, the scientist thought about the problem of nuclear weapons. Since 1939, he was actively involved in the creation of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project and directed the laboratory at Los Alamos.

In the same place, on July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer's "brainchild" was first tested. "I have become death, the destroyer of worlds," said the physicist after the test.

A few months later, atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer has since insisted on the use of atomic energy exclusively for peaceful purposes. Having become a defendant in a criminal case because of his unreliability, the scientist was removed from secret developments. He died in 1967 from cancer of the larynx.

Igor Kurchatov

The USSR acquired its own atomic bomb four years later than the Americans. It was not without the help of scouts, but the merits of the scientists working in Moscow should not be underestimated. Atomic research was led by Igor Kurchatov. His childhood and youth were spent in the Crimea, where he first trained as a locksmith. Then he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Tauride University, continued to study in Petrograd. There he entered the laboratory of the famous Abram Ioffe.

Kurchatov took over the Soviet nuclear project when he was only 40 years old. Years of painstaking work involving leading experts have brought long-awaited results. The first nuclear weapon in our country called RDS-1 was tested at the test site in Semipalatinsk on August 29, 1949.

The experience accumulated by Kurchatov and his team allowed the Soviet Union to subsequently launch the world's first industrial nuclear power plant, as well as a nuclear reactor for a submarine and an icebreaker, which no one had been able to do before.

Andrey Sakharov

The hydrogen bomb appeared first in the United States. But the American sample was the size of a three-story house and weighed more than 50 tons. Meanwhile, the RDS-6s product, created by Andrei Sakharov, weighed only 7 tons and could fit on a bomber.

During the war, Sakharov, while in evacuation, graduated with honors from Moscow State University. He worked as an engineer-inventor at a military plant, then entered the FIAN graduate school. Under the leadership of Igor Tamm, he worked in a research group for the development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov came up with the basic principle of the Soviet hydrogen bomb - puff.

Tests of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb took place in 1953

The first Soviet hydrogen bomb was tested near Semipalatinsk in 1953. To assess the destructive capabilities, a city was built on the site from industrial and administrative buildings.

Since the late 1950s, Sakharov devoted much time to human rights activities. He condemned the arms race, criticized the communist government, spoke out for the abolition of the death penalty and against the forced psychiatric treatment of dissidents. He opposed the entry of Soviet troops into Afghanistan. Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 1980 he was exiled to Gorky for his beliefs, where he repeatedly went on hunger strikes and from where he was able to return to Moscow only in 1986.

Bertrand Goldschmidt

The ideologist of the French nuclear program was Charles de Gaulle, and the creator of the first bomb was Bertrand Goldschmidt. Before the start of the war, the future specialist studied chemistry and physics, joined Marie Curie. The German occupation and the attitude of the Vichy government towards the Jews forced Goldschmidt to stop his studies and emigrate to the United States, where he collaborated first with American and then with Canadian colleagues.


In 1945, Goldschmidt became one of the founders of the French Atomic Energy Commission. The first test of the bomb created under his leadership took place only 15 years later - in the south-west of Algeria.

Qian Sanqiang

The PRC joined the club of nuclear powers only in October 1964. Then the Chinese tested their own atomic bomb with a capacity of more than 20 kilotons. Mao Zedong decided to develop this industry after his first trip to the Soviet Union. In 1949, Stalin showed the possibilities of nuclear weapons to the great helmsman.

Qian Sanqiang was in charge of the Chinese nuclear project. A graduate of the Physics Department of Tsinghua University, he went to study in France at public expense. He worked at the Radium Institute of the University of Paris. Qian talked a lot with foreign scientists and did some pretty serious research, but he missed his homeland and returned to China, taking a few grams of radium as a gift from Irene Curie.

Nuclear weapons are explosive weapons of mass destruction based on the use of the fission energy of heavy nuclei of some isotopes of uranium and plutonium, or in thermonuclear fusion reactions of light nuclei of hydrogen isotopes of deuterium and tritium into heavier nuclei, for example, nuclei of helium isotopes.

Warheads of missiles and torpedoes, aviation and depth charges, artillery shells and mines can be equipped with nuclear charges. By power, nuclear weapons are distinguished as ultra-small (less than 1 kt), small (1-10 kt), medium (10-100 kt), large (100-1000 kt) and extra-large (more than 1000 kt). Depending on the tasks to be solved, it is possible to use nuclear weapons in the form of underground, ground, air, underwater and surface explosions. Features of the damaging effect of nuclear weapons on the population are determined not only by the power of the ammunition and the type of explosion, but also by the type of nuclear device. Depending on the charge, they distinguish: atomic weapons, which are based on the fission reaction; thermonuclear weapons - when using a fusion reaction; combined charges; neutron weapons.

The only fissile material found in nature in appreciable quantities is an isotope of uranium with a nucleus mass of 235 atomic mass units (uranium-235). The content of this isotope in natural uranium is only 0.7%. The rest is uranium-238. Since the chemical properties of the isotopes are exactly the same, separating uranium-235 from natural uranium requires a rather complicated isotope separation process. The result can be highly enriched uranium, containing about 94% uranium-235, which is suitable for use in nuclear weapons.

Fissile substances can be obtained artificially, and the least difficult from a practical point of view is the production of plutonium-239, which is formed as a result of the capture of a neutron by a uranium-238 nucleus (and the subsequent chain of radioactive decays of intermediate nuclei). A similar process can be carried out in a nuclear reactor running on natural or low enriched uranium. In the future, plutonium can be separated from the spent fuel of the reactor in the process of chemical processing of fuel, which is much simpler than the isotope separation process carried out in the production of weapons-grade uranium.

Other fissile substances can also be used to create nuclear explosive devices, for example, uranium-233 obtained by irradiating thorium-232 in a nuclear reactor. However, only uranium-235 and plutonium-239 have found practical application, primarily because of the relative ease of obtaining these materials.

The possibility of practical use of the energy released during nuclear fission is due to the fact that the fission reaction can have a chain, self-sustaining character. In each fission event, approximately two secondary neutrons are produced, which, being captured by the nuclei of the fissile material, can cause their fission, which in turn leads to the formation of even more neutrons. When special conditions are created, the number of neutrons, and hence the number of fission events, grows from generation to generation.

The explosion of the first nuclear explosive device was carried out by the United States on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The device was a plutonium bomb that used a directed explosion to create criticality. The power of the explosion was about 20 kt. In the USSR, the explosion of the first nuclear explosive device, similar to the American one, was carried out on August 29, 1949.

The history of the creation of nuclear weapons.

In early 1939, the French physicist Frederic Joliot-Curie concluded that a chain reaction was possible that would lead to an explosion of monstrous destructive power and that uranium could become an energy source like a conventional explosive. This conclusion was the impetus for the development of nuclear weapons. Europe was on the eve of the Second World War, and the potential possession of such a powerful weapon gave any owner of it a huge advantage. The physicists of Germany, England, the USA, and Japan worked on the creation of atomic weapons.

By the summer of 1945, the Americans managed to assemble two atomic bombs, called "Kid" and "Fat Man". The first bomb weighed 2722 kg and was loaded with enriched Uranium-235.

The Fat Man bomb with a charge of Plutonium-239 with a power of more than 20 kt had a mass of 3175 kg.

US President G. Truman became the first political leader who decided to use nuclear bombs. Japanese cities (Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kokura, Niigata) were chosen as the first targets for nuclear strikes. From a military point of view, there was no need for such bombardments of densely populated Japanese cities.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, there was a clear, cloudless sky over Hiroshima. As before, the approach from the east of two American aircraft (one of them was called Enola Gay) at an altitude of 10-13 km did not cause alarm (because every day they appeared in the sky of Hiroshima). One of the planes dived and dropped something, and then both planes turned and flew away. The dropped object on a parachute slowly descended and suddenly exploded at an altitude of 600 m above the ground. It was the "Baby" bomb. On August 9, another bomb was dropped over the city of Nagasaki.

The total human losses and the extent of destruction from these bombings are characterized by the following figures: 300 thousand people died instantly from thermal radiation (temperature about 5000 degrees C) and a shock wave, another 200 thousand were injured, burns, radiation sickness. On an area of ​​12 sq. km, all buildings were completely destroyed. In Hiroshima alone, out of 90,000 buildings, 62,000 were destroyed.

After the American atomic bombings, by order of Stalin, on August 20, 1945, a special committee on atomic energy was formed under the leadership of L. Beria. The committee included prominent scientists A.F. Ioffe, P.L. Kapitsa and I.V. Kurchatov. A conscientious communist, scientist Klaus Fuchs, a prominent worker at the American nuclear center at Los Alamos, rendered a great service to the Soviet atomic scientists. During 1945-1947, he transmitted information four times on the practical and theoretical issues of creating atomic and hydrogen bombs, which accelerated their appearance in the USSR.

In 1946-1948, the nuclear industry was created in the USSR. A test site was built near the city of Semipalatinsk. In August 1949, the first Soviet nuclear device was blown up there. Before that, US President G. Truman was informed that the Soviet Union had mastered the secret of nuclear weapons, but the Soviet Union would create a nuclear bomb no earlier than 1953. This message aroused in the US ruling circles a desire to unleash a preventive war as soon as possible. The Troyan plan was developed, which provided for the start of hostilities in early 1950. At that time, the United States had 840 strategic bombers and over 300 atomic bombs.

The damaging factors of a nuclear explosion are: shock wave, light radiation, penetrating radiation, radioactive contamination and electromagnetic pulse.

shock wave. The main damaging factor of a nuclear explosion. It consumes about 60% of the energy of a nuclear explosion. It is an area of ​​sharp air compression, spreading in all directions from the explosion site. The damaging effect of the shock wave is characterized by the amount of excess pressure. Overpressure is the difference between the maximum pressure at the front of the shock wave and the normal atmospheric pressure in front of it. It is measured in kilo pascals - 1 kPa \u003d 0.01 kgf / cm2.

With an excess pressure of 20-40 kPa, unprotected people can get light injuries. The impact of a shock wave with an excess pressure of 40-60 kPa leads to lesions of moderate severity. Severe injuries occur at an excess pressure of more than 60 kPa and are characterized by severe contusions of the whole body, fractures of the limbs, ruptures of internal parenchymal organs. Extremely severe lesions, often fatal, are observed at excess pressure over 100 kPa.

light emission is a stream of radiant energy, including visible ultraviolet and infrared rays.

Its source is a luminous area formed by the hot products of the explosion. Light radiation propagates almost instantly and lasts, depending on the power of the nuclear explosion, up to 20 s. Its strength is such that, despite its short duration, it can cause fires, deep burns of the skin and damage to the organs of vision in people.

Light radiation does not penetrate opaque materials, so any obstruction that can create a shadow protects against the direct action of light radiation and eliminates burns.

Significantly attenuated light radiation in dusty (smoky) air, in fog, rain.

penetrating radiation.

This is a stream of gamma radiation and neutrons. The impact lasts 10-15 s. The primary effect of radiation is realized in physical, physicochemical and chemical processes with the formation of chemically active free radicals (H, OH, HO2) with high oxidizing and reducing properties. Subsequently, various peroxide compounds are formed that inhibit the activity of some enzymes and increase the activity of others, which play an important role in the processes of autolysis (self-dissolution) of body tissues. The appearance in the blood of decay products of radiosensitive tissues and pathological metabolism when exposed to high doses of ionizing radiation is the basis for the formation of toxemia - poisoning of the body associated with the circulation of toxins in the blood. Violations of the physiological regeneration of cells and tissues, as well as changes in the functions of regulatory systems, are of primary importance in the development of radiation injuries.

Radioactive contamination of the area

Its main sources are fission products of a nuclear charge and radioactive isotopes, formed as a result of the acquisition of radioactive properties by the elements from which a nuclear weapon is made and which are part of the soil. They form a radioactive cloud. It rises to a height of many kilometers, and is transported with air masses over considerable distances. Radioactive particles, falling from the cloud to the ground, form a zone of radioactive contamination (trace), the length of which can reach several hundred kilometers. Radioactive substances pose the greatest danger in the first hours after falling out, since their activity is highest during this period.

electromagnetic pulse .

This is a short-term electromagnetic field that occurs during the explosion of a nuclear weapon as a result of the interaction of gamma radiation and neutrons emitted during a nuclear explosion with the atoms of the environment. The consequence of its impact is the burnout or breakdowns of individual elements of radio-electronic and electrical equipment. The defeat of people is possible only in those cases when they come into contact with wire lines at the time of the explosion.

A type of nuclear weapon is neutron and thermonuclear weapons.

A neutron weapon is a small-sized thermonuclear munition with a power of up to 10 kt, designed mainly to destroy enemy manpower due to the action of neutron radiation. Neutron weapons are classified as tactical nuclear weapons.

It attracted experts from many countries. Scientists and engineers from the USA, the USSR, England, Germany and Japan worked on these developments. Particularly active work was carried out in this area by the Americans, who had the best technological base and raw materials, and also managed to attract the strongest intellectual resources at that time to research.

The United States government has set a task for physicists - to create a new type of weapon in the shortest possible time that could be delivered to the most remote point on the planet.

Los Alamos, located in the deserted desert of New Mexico, became the center of American nuclear research. Many scientists, designers, engineers and the military worked on the top-secret military project, and the experienced theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who is most often called the "father" of atomic weapons, was in charge of all the work. Under his leadership, the best specialists from all over the world developed the controlled technology without interrupting the search process for even a minute.

By the autumn of 1944, the activities to create the first nuclear plant in history had come to an end in general terms. By this time, a special aviation regiment had already been formed in the United States, which had to carry out the tasks of delivering deadly weapons to the places of their use. The pilots of the regiment underwent special training, making training flights at different altitudes and in conditions close to combat.

First atomic bombings

In mid-1945, US designers managed to assemble two nuclear devices ready for use. The first objects to strike were also chosen. At that time Japan was the strategic adversary of the USA.

The American leadership decided to deliver the first atomic strikes on two Japanese cities in order to frighten not only Japan, but also other countries, including the USSR, by this action.

On August 6th and 9th, 1945, American bombers dropped the first ever atomic bombs on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Japanese cities, which were Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a result, more than one hundred thousand people died from thermal radiation and shock waves. Such were the consequences of the use of unprecedented weapons. The world has entered a new phase of its development.

However, the US monopoly on the military use of the atom was not too long. The Soviet Union also searched hard for ways to put into practice the principles underlying nuclear weapons. Igor Kurchatov headed the work of a team of Soviet scientists and inventors. In August 1949, tests of the Soviet atomic bomb were successfully carried out, which received the working name RDS-1. The fragile military balance in the world was restored.