The work highlights the contribution of employees of the Institute of Metal Physics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to the first stage of the USSR Atomic Project. The main part of it is related to the solution of one of the most difficult problems facing the developers of the USSR atomic shield — the industrial separation of uranium isotopes. So at the institute in 1943, under the leadership of I.K. Kikoin began the first work on isotope separation using diffusion and centrifugation methods. I.K. Kikoin was appointed deputy I.V. Kurchatov and was the main person responsible for the development of an industrial method for producing uranium-235.