Описание (английский)
Dzerzhinsk is a city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Oka River, about 400 kilometers (250 mi) east of Moscow.
First mentioned in 1606 as Rastyapino (Растя?пино), it is named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik leader who was the first head of the Soviet Cheka (secret police), since 1929.Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with three work settlements and eleven rural localities, incorporated as the city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk—an administrative unit with a status equal to that of the districts.
As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk is incorporated as Dzerzhinsk Urban Okrug.Modern-day
Dzerzhinsk is a large center of the Russian chemicals production
industry. In the past, the city was also among Russia's principal
production sites for chemical weapons. Owing to its strategic
significance, this city was, until recently, officially closed to foreign visitors.
Manufacture of various chemical weapons started in 1941, particularly concentrating on the production of lewisite—the poisonous effects of which are 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.