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Shikhany

Summary

Shikhany, also spelled Shikhansky (Russian: Шиханы) is a closed town in Saratov Oblast, Russia, 130 kilometers (81 mi) north of Saratov on the right bank of the Volga River Population: 6,067 (2010 Russian census);[2] 6,738 (2002 Census);[7] 12,763 (1989 Soviet census).[8]. It has been a closed town since 1997, but lost this status on 1 January 2019.[9] The town is 2 kilometres from the major chemical weapons base Shikhany-2 (previously known as Vol'sk-18).

Shikhany
Шиханы
Closed town[1]
Flag of Shikhany
Flag
Coat of arms of Shikhany
Coat of arms
Location of Shikhany
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Shikhany
Shikhany
Location of Shikhany
Shikhany is located in Saratov Oblast
Shikhany
Shikhany
Shikhany (Saratov Oblast)
Coordinates: 52°07′N 47°12′E / 52.117°N 47.200°E / 52.117; 47.200
CountryRussia
Federal subjectSaratov Oblast[1]
Founded1928
Closed town status since1996
Elevation
210 m (690 ft)
Population
 (2010 Census)[2]
 • Total6,067
 • Estimate 
(2018)[3]
5,560 (−8.4%)
 • Subordinated toclosed administrative-territorial formation of Shikhany
 • Capital ofclosed administrative-territorial formation of Shikhany
 • Urban okrugShikhany Urban Okrug[4]
 • Capital ofShikhany Urban Okrug[4]
Time zoneUTC+4 (MSK+1 Edit this on Wikidata[5])
Postal code(s)[6]
412950Edit this on Wikidata
OKTMO ID63746000001

History edit

The original settlement at Shikhany was founded in 1820 as part of the estate of Count Vasily Vasil'evich Orlov-Denisov. The first school was opened at the site in 1876. By 1917, there were still only five inhabitants resident in two houses. The subsequent expansion of the settlement was presumably a consequence of the opening of the adjacent chemical warfare establishment. On 30 June 1997, the town was transformed by an edict of President Yeltsin into a Closed Administrative-Territorial Formation (ZATO).[10] Under the terms of this edict, travel to Shikhany was restricted and special police, procuracy and courts operated directly under Moscow jurisdiction. This status was revoked on 1 January 2019.[9]

The town comprises Shikhany-1, the town proper, Shikhany-2, the military chemical base, and Shikhany-4, the arsenal. Shikhany-4 appears to be the location of the 115th Arsenal of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops.[11]

Shikhany-2 (Vol'sk-18) edit

 
German personnel participating in the secret Tomka Project at Shikhany, 1928

The military chemical base at Shikany-2 (previously known as Vol'sk-18) has a long history. At the end of 1927, a secret Soviet–German agreement was reached concerning the construction of a joint chemical warfare experimental establishment at the site. Under the Versailles Treaty, Germany was forbidden from undertaking tests with chemical warfare agents or developing associated delivery systems. Collaboration with the Soviet Union was viewed as a useful means of concealing such activities from the eyes of the Western allies. The Shikhany-2 site was located 15 kilometres from the town of Vol'sk. It had been selected as early as 1924 to become a centre of Soviet chemical warfare activities. Under the terms of the agreement with the Germans, the Tomka project was created with the aim of both producing chemical weapons and operating experimental establishments at the site. The main focus of the Tomka project was on mustard gas, the climate at Shikhany being well suited for studying the field behaviours of the gas. Studies were also made of its toxicology. Stores for the joint project, including huts for accommodation, were transferred from Berlin to Shikhany. By the summer of 1928, chemical warfare field trials were fully underway. During the period through to 1931, around thirty German staff were based at Shikhany. The Tomka project was terminated in the spring of 1933.[12]

After the departure of the German scientists, the Soviet military remained at the Shikhany-2 site, and the proving grounds and other facilities were now officially designated as the Central Army Chemical Proving Ground (TsVKhP). The area of the site increased from its original 100 square kilometres to 600 square kilometres by 1938. A further expansion in size took place in 1941–1942, by which time the site occupied 1,000 square kilometres. By 1940, Shikhany incorporated large laboratories occupying nine to ten buildings, workshops, garages, stalls for animals, barracks, a building for the commander and his subordinates, an airfield with hangars, a gas school with spacious instruction halls, a military hospital and buildings for the production of chemical warfare agents. The staff at this time comprised a Major General, 100 other officers, 850 non-commissioned officers and 250 scientists and related personnel. During the Second World War, Soviet POWs who had been employed at Shikhany revealed to German intelligence that trials had been undertaken during the period 1939–1943 to test the dispersion of various chemical warfare agents in aerial bombs and aircraft sprayers. Beginning in 1934, trials were also conducted in great secrecy of simulants of biological weapons at Shikhany. Soviet POWs revealed to their German captors that these BW trials continued through to at least December 1940.[13]

On 6 August 1987, chemical weapons negotiators at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva were invited to visit the Soviet military chemical establishment at Shikhany. During the period 3–4 October 1987, Colonel General Vladimir Karpovich Pikalov hosted foreign disarmament negotiators at the proving ground. The guests are reported to have been shown a range of chemical munitions and during their visit a rabbit was injected with sarin extracted from a bomb to demonstrate that it was real. The rabbit is reported to have died instantly and then the weapon was destroyed.[14]

The following institutions and military units are currently reported to be located within Shikhany-2: the USSR Ministry of Defence's Order of the Red Banner of Labour 33rd Central Scientific-Research Experimental Institute (33rd TsNII);[15] the proving ground of the 33rd TsNII; the 16th Central Military Clinical Hospital; Secondary School No. 44 of the Russian Ministry of Defence; School of Music; 2 kindergartens; 2 hotels; and officers quarters including a cinema. In 2004 a branch was opened in Shikhany-2 of Moscow's Contemporary Humanitarian Academy. The 1st Mobile Brigade (ru:1-я мобильная бригада РХБ защиты) of the Russian NBC Protection Troops is based at the site. There is a well-developed infrastructure at the base including access to a cable TV network and the internet, a café, nine grocery stores, three department stores, a post office and a branch of Russia's Sberbank, a sports centre incorporating a gym and swimming pool, a football pitch and ice hockey rink.

Administrative and municipal status edit

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as the closed administrative-territorial formation of Shikhany[16]—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.[citation needed] As a municipal division, the closed administrative-territorial formation of Shikhany is incorporated as Shikhany Urban Okrug.[4]

Allegations concerning Shikhany-2 as source of novichok agent edit

Based upon a report submitted by Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a British chemical weapons expert indicated that Shikhany was the source of the novichok agent used in the 2018 poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.[17] However, a chemical weapons site in Uzbekistan that was dismantled and decontaminated in 1999 may have been used to originally produce and test the agent.[18][19]

See also edit

  • Video Footage of Shikhany
  • Shihan

References edit

  1. ^ a b Charter of Saratov Oblast
  2. ^ a b Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1 [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года [2010 All-Russia Population Census] (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service.
  3. ^ "26. Численность постоянного населения Российской Федерации по муниципальным образованиям на 1 января 2018 года". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Law #79-ZSO
  5. ^ "Об исчислении времени". Официальный интернет-портал правовой информации (in Russian). 3 June 2011. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  6. ^ Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. (Russian Post). Поиск объектов почтовой связи (Postal Objects Search) (in Russian)
  7. ^ Federal State Statistics Service (21 May 2004). Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian).
  8. ^ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. 1989 – via Demoscope Weekly.
  9. ^ a b Путин упразднил упоминавшееся в «деле Скрипалей» ЗАТО Шиханы
  10. ^ Rimmington, Anthony (15 October 2018). Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-005034-4.
  11. ^ "Шиханы: считаю до трех". Новая газета - Novayagazeta.ru (in Russian). 7 April 2018. Archived from the original on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  12. ^ Rimmington, Anthony (15 October 2018). Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-005034-4.
  13. ^ Rimmington, Anthony (15 October 2018). Stalin's Secret Weapon: The Origins of Soviet Biological Warfare. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-005034-4.
  14. ^ Parfitt, Tom (6 April 2018). "Shikhany lab complex: cafés, schools – and a nerve agent lab". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  15. ^ "33 Центральный научно-исследовательский испытательный институт Министерства обороны Российской Федерации : Министерство обороны Российской Федерации". ens.mil.ru. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  16. ^ Государственный комитет Российской Федерации по статистике. Комитет Российской Федерации по стандартизации, метрологии и сертификации. №ОК 019-95 1 января 1997 г. «Общероссийский классификатор объектов административно-территориального деления. Код 63 500», в ред. изменения №278/2015 от 1 января 2016 г.. (State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation. Committee of the Russian Federation on Standardization, Metrology, and Certification. #OK 019-95 January 1, 1997 Russian Classification of Objects of Administrative Division (OKATO). Code 63 500, as amended by the Amendment #278/2015 of January 1, 2016. ).
  17. ^ "Novichok: nerve agent produced at only one site in Russia, says expert". The Guardian. 14 March 2018. Archived from the original on 14 March 2018.
  18. ^ "Russian spy: What are Novichok agents and what do they do?". BBC News. 13 March 2018.
  19. ^ "World: Asia-Pacific: US dismantles chemical weapons". BBC News. 9 August 1999.

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