German staff at Tomka chemical weapons facility, 1928

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 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

References

  1. Note: Shikhany still has a chemical testing ground (Шиханский полигон)
  2. 1 2 Sally W. Stoecker, Forging Stalin's Army: Marshal Tukhachevsky And The Politics Of Military Innovation , Routledge, 2018, ISBN 0429980027, pp.137-150
  3. Es riecht nach Senf!, Henning Sietz, Die Zeit, Nr. 26, 2006
  4. 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
  5. 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)
  6. Note: Now Ukhtomsky is part of Kosino-Ukhtomsky District of Moscow, see ru:Ухтомская (платформа) for more detail
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