History of Science and Engineering Annotation << Back H-bomb and Lavrenty Beria in the Turning-point of the Soviet History, Summer-1953 (Рart 1) B.S. Gorobets The documents on the «Atomic project of the USSR», recently published, make clearer the history of the creation of thermonuclear weapons in the USSR and the USA, the basic physico-technical ideas born and realized here and there, the intelligence factor, and the role of L.P. Beria, the Soviet state chief of the project, having been hushed up for a long time. The declassified documents and the chronicle of the political events of the summer, 1953, being analyzed together, allow to connect the preparing of the first Soviet thermonuclear test and the success of the Kremlin plot against Beria. In Рart 1, the essay treats the movement, in the USSR and the USA, towards their first efficient thermonuclear installations. Colourful episodes of the contacts of Beria with physicists are described too. In Part 2 (in History of Science and Engineering. 2010. № 10.), the events are treated to begin with the arrest of Beria, the nuclear test of «Sloika» up to creation modern thermonuclear arms. Key words: atomic bomb; hydrogen bomb; thermonuclear weapons; Beria. E-mail: bgorobets@rambler.ru