It would be an apples and oranges comparison to some extent. The Soviets were able to skip some expensive research and production steps that the Americans went

It would be an apples and oranges comparison to some extent. The Soviets were able to skip some expensive research and production steps that the Americans went through by exploiting intelligence gained from espionage [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_atomic_bomb_project