Near the close of the World War II, the Soviet Union sent special search teams into Germany to locate and acquired the German nuclear scientists or any others who could be of use to the Soviet program of nuclear weapons. The Russian Alsos mission was headed by the Soviet agency, the NKVD, under Avraami Zavenyagin and staffed with numerous scientists, from their only nuclear laboratory, attired in NKVD officer's uniforms. The main search team, headed by Zavenyagin, arrived in Berlin on 3 May, the day after Russia announced the fall of Berlin to their military forces; it included Major General of Engineering Vasily Makhnyov [ ru ], and Russian physicists Yulij Khariton, Isaak Kikoin, and Lev Artsimovich with targets on the top of their list were the physics facilities in Berlin and its environs.