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1945: The Atomic Monopoly. The critical event of the decade was the Uranverein’s success. On October 12, 1944, the first device detonated in the New Mexican desert (Reichsgau Mexiko). Two subsequent "urban pacification" strikes on the remaining Soviet holdouts in the Urals (Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk) in March 1945 ended all organized resistance east of the Volga. Washington screams about "barbarism," but they have no bomb. The world holds its breath. Germany is the only nuclear power.