Soviet Decapitation of the Manhattan Project before the end of WW2

Instead of the "WW3 in May 1946" scenario, is it possible to decapitate the western atomic bomb efforts before the end of WW2? How does the USSR delay the Western development of the atomic bomb? Who do they assassinate? Or kidnap? What infrastructure do they blow up or otherwise sabotage? What do they steal? What documents need to be destroyed? What mines need to be sabotaged? Which Phyiscs departments need to be targeted? Which Generals have to be killed? How would this all be done simultaneously? How would such a massive operation be carried out? Could it be made to look like the Nazis did it? How much time could be bought by such an operation? How would it affect allied war planning towards the end of WW2? Would the Soviets be able to march against the West with confidence if they chose to once the Germans were defeated? ASB this, ASB that... I know, I know, just play along anyway. It's still an interesting AH scenario, and besides, I'm not 100% sure it's entirely ASB...:D This is of course inspired by Hairog's and Rex Romanum's threads.
 
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Stalin recieved a copy of the MAUD report, so if he somehow saw the future and realised it was a serious threat he could perhaps take action at that early stage.

They key thing would be to act quickly and try to delay the project getting off the ground in the first place. Trying to stop it by 1945 is almost impossible.

But 'accidents' in 1941 for the key scientists and perhaps more important the more dynamic science policy makers along with sabotage of the research cyclotrons and Fermi's reactor research would slow things down a lot.

Your best bet to slow things down would be to severely reduce the cooperation between the British and the USA. Intercepting the copy of the MAUD report that was sent to the USA (and any follow ups) would be good. With luck, the USA might then continue with its policy of nuclear energy research (rather than nuclear bomb research) for several years.
 
I'm not sure the Soviets would want to do that. Mind you the Soviets based a lot of their own bomb project on information gleaned from Manhattan. Get rid of that and the Soviet's own bomb project probably gets set back by a good half decade. Also such an ambitious amount of espionage will more or less tip the Soviet's hand to the Americans, which will probably lead to them sealing a lot of the holes that they did have in their own bomb project. Then there is the fact that a lot of scientists who would have betrayed the US government to give secrets to the Soviets will either be killed or will be turned off by the fact that the Soviet government just killed a bunch of their friends/colleagues.

Stalin wanted detente with the Western powers, letting the Americans develop their own bomb and copying that work to develop a Soviet one would be able to maintain a certain balance of power in the post war world. You've also got the fact that conducting large scale wet works and acts of sabotage inside of the borders of another country is going to make the leaders of said nation more inclined to react hostilely to your own actions.

Also; at the time, the Soviets were losing badly against the Germans. I'm sure they would have been happy with an American monopoly on the atom bomb if it meant that Berlin got a delivery of instant sunshine.

I just don't see the Soviets attempting to sabotage the Manhattan project at that point. Now, after the war, I could see a significant amount of effort devoted toward slowing bomb production, but not during it.
 
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