Dzerzhinsk, Russia
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- The city in Belarus with the same name can be found at Dzyarzhynsk.
Dzerzhinsk (Russian: Дзержи́нск) is a city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia along the Oka River, about 400 km east of Moscow, at . Population: 261,334 (2002 Census); 285,000 (1995 est.). The city is named after Feliks Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, a Russian Bolshevik leader that came to be the first head of the cheka or secret police.
Modern-day Dzerzhinsk is a large center of the Russian chemical industry. In the past, the city was also among Russia's principal production sites of chemical weapons. Owing to its strategic significance, this city was until recently officially closed off to foreign visitors.
Manufacture of a number of chemical weapons started in 1941, particularly concentrating on the production of lewisite - the poisonous effects of which is owed to its arsenic trioxide content - and yperite (mustard gas). The factory producing these substances was called the Kaprolactam (or Caprolaktam) Organic Glass Factory, and in addition to its arsenic-based weapons, also produced prussic acid and phosgene.
Chemical weapons production at Dzerzhinsk ceased in 1945. Some materials were transferred to storage units, while large amounts of waste material - frequently containing high concentrations of arsenic - were buried in dumps on the site of the factory. Full dismantling of the yperite facility was commenced in 1994. In 1998 the lewisite production unit was still not completely disassembled. Many of the factories in Dzerzhinzk have since shut down. Here are some of the factories that exist or have existed in the past; Korund (since 1915. Was the first factory in Russia to produce cyanide. Still functioning), Kaprolaktam, Сhemmash (functioning. Makes сolumn equipment, evaporators, heat exchanging installations), Syntez (functioning. Nowadays makes electronics also), Oka, Yava, Orgsitilen, Orgsteclo (used to produce glass for aeroplanes), Zarya, Plant named after Sverdlov (located underground in the west part of the city. Probably Dzerzhinsk's largest factory. Used to produce explosives. Still functioning).
The Kaprolactam joint-stock company has been transformed into a producer of chemicals equipment, hydrochloric acid, ethylene oxide, polymer pellicle, and plastic products and is associated with NORSI (Nizhny Novgorod Orgsintes) Orgsteclo group. Western Investment into a joint venture manufacturing facility was carried out by Wella AG, a German personal care products company, to a value of more than $15 million. Finished products manufactured here include soaps, acrylic glass and car parts.
The city itself is today considered amongst the worst polluted in the world with a life expectancy of 42 years for men and 47 for women and is voted in the top ten of worst poluted places in the world, according to the Blacksmith Institute. Such low life expectancy has been attributed to high levels of persistent organic chemicals (or 'POPs'), particularly dioxins, by certain environmental action groups including Greenpeace.
[edit] The sights
The unique architectural construction – the 128 m steel lattice hyperboloid tower built by the Great Russian engineer and scientist Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov in 1929 is located near the town of Dzerzhinsk on the left bank of the Oka River.
[edit] See also
[edit] External link
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Cities and towns in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast |  |
| Administrative center: Nizhny Novgorod Arzamas | Balakhna | Bogorodsk | Bor | Chkalovsk | Dzerzhinsk | Gorbatov | Gorodets | Knyaginino | Kstovo | Kulebaki | Lukoyanov | Lyskovo | Navashino | Pavlovo | Perevoz | Pervomaysk | Sarov | Semyonov | Sergach | Shakhunya | Uren | Vetluga | Volodarsk | Vorsma | Vyksa | Zavolzhye |
