In Atomic Anna, the protagonist Anna Berkova is the Soviet Union's top nuclear scientist. Collaborating with famed German chemist Otto Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, Anna helps discover nuclear fission, the reaction which serves as the basis for nuclear power. As World War II begins, Anna escapes Germany and returns to her homeland, where she joins the Soviet bomb project to develop a weapon to stop Hitler. Her dedication to her work comes at the cost of her family — and the resulting weapon could take thousands of lives — but Anna refuses to let the science go unstudied.

Although Anna and her role in the project are fictional, the Soviet atomic bomb project is not. Russian scientists began researching radioactive elements as early as 1910, but the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war slowed their efforts. Research between Soviet and European scientists commenced throughout the 1920s, but it wasn't until 1938 when Otto Hahn ...