Gorodomlya Island is located on the Seliger Lake in the Tver Oblast of Russia. It is 200 miles northwest of Moscow.
The Soviet government established a biological research center at Gorodomlya Island in 1928. During the 1930s the island was a test site for pathogens that cause foot-and-mouth disease.
In 1946, German rocket scientists, including Helmut Gröttrup, were brought to the island to work on the Soviet space program. The German colony at Gorodomlya was designated as Branch 1 of research bureau NII-88. The bureau participated in the design of the R-1 rocket, a version of the V-2 manufactured with Russian parts.