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Victor Ivanovich Kholstov was appointed as Director General of Russian Munitions Agency
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CW stockpiles in Russia
Chemical weapons
History of CW development
Chemical agents

History of CW Development

The ability of toxic substances to cause the death of human beings and animals has been known since time immemorial. In XIX century toxic substances came into use in the course of large scale combat operations. In Crimean War during the siege of Sevastopol the English Army used sulphur dioxide for "fumigate" of Russian garrisons from defensive engineer obstacles. Later, in 1899-1902 years in English-Boer War the English used experimental artillery shells, filling with picric acid that can cause vomiting of injured persons. Toward the end of XIX century threat of use of toxic and asphyxiant gases became actual. It was reflected in the Hague Convention of 1899, in its article 23 which declared the embargo on use of munitions, single assignment of which was to cause poisoning of enemy human forces. However, the birth of chemical weapons as a means of warfare in current understanding should be refereed to the time of the World War I.

The World War I shortly after its start assumed position character, that compelled to search for novel attack armaments. The German Army began massive attacks on enemy position using toxic and asphyxiant gases. On April 22, 1915 on the Western Front near Ypres (Belgium) the gaseous attack with chlorine has been held. The effect of massive use of toxic gas as a means of warfare was demonstrated for the first time. The result of the use of chlorine was stunning. There was a breach of 9 km in frontage and 10 km in depth in the French defensive position. The number of poisoned persons had reached 15 thousand, 5 thousand of them were killed on the battlefield. It is unlikely that there was somebody who thought of consequences of using that innovation in future, about the threat to people's health and environment, which soon arose with developing chemical armament race.

Since the war continued, many of toxic compounds in addition to chlorine have been tested on efficiency as agents of chemical warfare:
Bromine
Trichloromethylsulfuryl chloride
Phosgene (CG).
Trichloromethyl chloroformiate (DP, diphosgene)
Monochloromethyl formiate
Hydrogen cyanide (AC)
Hydrogen sulfide
Trichloronitromethane (PS, chloropicrin)
Bromine cyanide
Chloride cyanide (CK)
Phenylcarbaminedichloride (phosgene anilide)
Dichloromethyl ether
Dibromomethyl ether
Methyl cyanoformiate
Ethyl cyanoformiate
Methanesulfonyl chloride
Ethanesulfonyl chloride
Ethyldichloroarsine
Methyldichloroarsine
Ethyldibromoarsine
bis(2-Chloroethyl)sulfide (HD, mustard)
During the night from 12 till 13 July of 1917 to crack an attack of English-French troops Germany used mustard, the liquid blister toxic agent. The injuring of various severity received 2,490 persons, 87 of which passed away. The mustard possesses with a clean-cut local action. It affects eyes and respiratory organs, the gastrointestinal tract and skin integuments. Imbibing in blood, it shows common toxic action. The mustard affects skin integuments in both droplet and vapour state. Ordinary summer and winter army uniform, like practically any species of civilian clothes does not protect skin integuments against drops and vapor of mustard. There was not real protection of troops against mustard in those years, and its use on the battlefield was effective up to the end of war.

The ideas of chemical warfare occupied the reliable positions in military doctrines of all without exception leading states of the world. England and France had engaged in modernization of chemical weapon and increase of its production. Germany, beaten in the World War I, for which to have chemical weapon had been forbidden, and Russia not recovered after the civil war had agreed to build a joint mustard plant and conduct trials of chemical weapons samples at Russian grounds. USA met the end of the World War, having the powerful war-chemical potential, exceeding England and France taken together on production of toxic agents.

The history of nerve agents starts on December 23, 1936, when Dr. Gerhard Schroeder from "I. G. Farben" laboratory in Leverkuzen obtained tabun (GA, ethyl ester of dimethylphosphoramidocyanidic acid) for the first time.

In 1938, the second powerful organophosphorus agent - sarin (GB, 1-methylethyl ester of methylphosphonofluoridic acid) has been discovered. The structural analogue of sarin, called soman (GD, 1,2,2-trimethylpropyl ester of methylphosphonofluoridic acid), which is about 3 times more toxic than sarin, has been obtained in Germany in the late 1944.

The achievement of German chemists, discovered tabun, sarin and soman, resulted in sudden expansion of scales of work on search of novel toxic agents, conducted by USA, Soviet Union and other countries. The result has not compelled itself long to wait for. As early as 1952 Dr. R. Gosh from the laboratory of chemical plants protecting agents of the English "Imperial Chemical Industries" concern synthesized more toxic substance of phosphorylthiocholines class. At this time similar syntheses were carried out by Dr. G. Schroeder and Dr. Lars-Erik Tammelin from Swedish Institute of Defense Investigations.

In defense chemical laboratories of USA and UK hundreds of structural analogues of phosphoryltiocholine, obtained by R. Gosh, have been synthesized during short period of time and studied in toxicological respect. USA had selected O-ethyl S-(2-(diisopropylamino)ethyl) ester of methylphosphonothioic acid, which was called VX. The VX agent is about 10 times more toxic than sarin in case of intravenous injection and inhalation. But the main difference of VX from sarin and soman consists in its especially high level of toxicity in case of skin application.

A plant in New Port (state Indiana), producing VX and munitions filled with it, began operating at full capacity in April of 1961 in USA. The annual output of this plant was equal to 5,000 tons of agents at the year of its launching. According to press reports, in 1969 USA had reached planned level of VX agent reserves and the plant had been laid up, but it is kept in readiness to resumption of chemical weapons production, despite decisions on transition to the production of binary munitions with VX at other plants, adopted by the USA government.

In the early sixties the production of VX agent and corresponding chemical munitions had been established in the Soviet Union, in the begining exclusively on a chemical plant in Volgograd, and then on a new plant in Cheboksary of Medium Volga.

Subsequently no chemical agents had been created, which would essentially (on ranks) exceed toxicity of organophosphorus substances. Such agents are the microbial toxins (for instance, botulinic toxin), however traditionally they are considered as biological, but not chemical weapons. But the development of means of chemical defeat, however paradoxical it is, went in the direction of not increasing, but reducing of toxicity. The new classes of chemical agents such as incapacitants (temporarily putting out of action) and irritants have appeared. There are currently the group of so-called "police war gases", presented in particular by substances, causing lacrimation and used for dispersal of marchers, conducting police operations and as individual protective means.

The incapacitants were known before the World War II. Many of them have passed the toxicological testing on human beings. Among them the BZ agent (LSD analogue), having the narcotic effect and causing inadequate behaviour, is mostly known. Now the incapacitants are presented as several groups of substances, causing, for instance, vomiting or pains.