Georgi Flerov (or Georgy Flyorov) (2 March 1913 - 19 November 1990) was a Soviet physicist. In April 1942, Flerov wrote Joseph Stalin a letter pointing out the conspicuous silence within the field of nuclear fission in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. From this, Flerov concluded that those three countries were building an atomic bomb, and he successfully urged Stalin to initiate an atomic bomb project for the USSR.
Georgi Flerov was part of the team of nuclear physicists headed by Igor Kurchatov working on the Soviet Union'satomic bomb. Although the team had one of the Race's bombs to study, they were still well behind their German and American counter-parts. Flerov had the unpleasant task of informing Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov of the fact that the Soviet Union might be years from building their own bombs. He also made it clear to Molotov that if Joseph Stalin decided to liquidate the whole team, he would be removing the country's only truly competent scientists, a fact that Molotov had no choice but to accept. He nonetheless reminded the team that the Race was not likely to oblige them the necessary time, even if Stalin did.[1].
