[pandaman]

In Russia, after seeing the nuclear weapon the Party realized that the Marxism-Leninism alone is not going to produce such a weapon and had allowed and forced real sciences to be taught in schools. Likewise, the "Sputnik moment" in the US resulted in massive education improvements, e.g. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/how-sputnik-c...

[Djemanac]

Those better schools payed up real quick. Soviet union created atomic bomb in 1949.

[pandaman]

The 1949 device was likely done with stolen technology both from the USA and Germany. Phystech opened in 1951.