Tomka gas test site (German: Gas-Testgelände Tomka) was a secret chemical weapons testing facility near a place codenamed Volsk-18 (Wolsk, in German literature), 20 km off Volsk, now Shikhany,[1] Saratov Oblast, Russia created within the framework of German-Soviet military cooperation to circumvent the demilitarization provisions of the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles. It was co-directed by Yakov Moiseevich Fishman (начальник военно-химического управления Красной Армии), and German chemists Alexander von Grundherr and Ludwig von Sicherer.[2][3][4] It operated (according to an agreement undersigned by fictitious joint stock companies) during 1926-1933.[5]
After 1933 the area was used by the Red Army and expanded under the name "Volsk-18" or "Schichany-2" to Russia's most important center for the development of chemical warfare agents and protective measures against NBC weapons.
Another chemical site was established by the settlement of Ukhtomsky, Moscow Region.[6][2]
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Note: Shikhany still has a chemical testing ground (Шиханский полигон)
- ^ a b Sally W. Stoecker, Forging Stalin's Army: Marshal Tukhachevsky And The Politics Of Military Innovation , Routledge, 2018, ISBN 0429980027, pp.137-150
- ^ Es riecht nach Senf!, Henning Sietz, Die Zeit, Nr. 26, 2006
- ^ Weapons of Mass Destruction: Nuclear weapons, Volume 2 of Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Encyclopedia of Worldwide Policy, Technology, and History, James J. Wirtz, 2005, ISBN 1851094903 p. 257, citing N. S. Antonov
- ^ Николай Антонов (N.S. ANTONOV), ХИМИЧЕСКОЕ ОРУЖИЕ НА РУБЕЖЕ ДВУХ СТОЛЕТИЙ (CHEMICAL WEAPONS AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY), Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1994, Section Становление исследовательских центров (in Russian)
- ^ Note: Now Ukhtomsky is part of Kosino-Ukhtomsky District of Moscow, see ru:Ухтомская (платформа) for more detail