A letter with Einstein's signature will be sold in New York

A letter with an appeal to the then US President Franklin Roosevelt will be put up for auction at Christie's in New York. This call from physicists for the development of the world's first nuclear bomb bears the signature of one of the most outstanding physicists and scientists of the 20th century, Albert Einstein.

The letter, dated 1939, contains a warning that Germany may begin work on developing nuclear weapons. Therefore, the US should warn them and start their own program.

Three years later, the Manhattan Project was launched in America, the result of which was the development of the world's first nuclear bomb. The program began in September 1942 and involved scientists from the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany and Canada. Three atomic bombs were created: two plutonium - "Trinity" (detonated during the first nuclear test near Alamogordo) and "Tovstun" (dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945), and uranium - "Malyuk" (dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945). . The project was led by the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves.

According to the auctioneers, this letter was written by the Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard together with other scientists. Einstein's signature was supposed to give it more importance. It is believed that he later greatly regretted this letter, as America became the country that was able to conquer nuclear fusion for military purposes.

"If I had known that the Germans would not succeed in making the atomic bomb, I would not have lifted a finger," wrote Albert Einstein in 1947.

The letter, like other items to be auctioned in September, belonged to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. It is expected that a price of $4-6 million will be offered for it.