>>23176501
Yeah Russians had infiltrated the Manhattan project in its initial stages. They weren't fully aware of its capability and Stalin vastly underestimated it. At the Potsdam Conference they hinted about a super weapon to Stalin without outright telling him what it is, but he already knew about it.
Industrial sabotage and spying can be just as lucrative as development. Even moreso, in fact. The reason the Romans overcame the Carthaginian navy after theirs got whipped to the floor of the Mediterranean, was by capturing a Carthaginian Trireme and reverse engineering it. Then they built a shitload and destroyed the Carthaginians on the water.
Pragmatic adoption of other cultures technologies and practices was what turned Rome from a fledgling kingdom city state into a republic and finally into an imperial superpower.
