Prophet of Poison Gas: Yakov Fishman and the Soviet Chemical Weapons Program, 1924–1937 (October 2018)
Johnson, Ian (Author)
Vulcan
Volume: 6
Issue: 1
Pages: 16-36
Publication date: October 2018
Language: English
This article explores the formation and growth of the Soviet chemical weapons program from 1924 to 1937. Seen as a symbol of modernity by the Soviet government, the Red Army’s chemical weapons directorate became a priority area of research and development. Initially, however, the Red Army’s investment in chemical weapons production encountered a variety of difficulties exacerbated by early Soviet policies, such as the lack of capital and skilled labor. But thanks to Stalin’s broader political aims, Yakov Fishman—the head of the chemical weapons directorate—managed to draw in vast resources to achieve his vision for the Soviet chemical weapons program. In the end, Fishman’s success in building huge chemical weapons production capacities for the Red Army would have a major impact on the course of the Second World War. Drawing from Russian and German military archives, this article offers new insight into a long-hidden, top-secret military program of colossal dimensions.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
David Zimmerman;
(2023)
Ensnared between Hitler and Stalin: Refugee Scientists in the USSR
Article
Jansen, Sarah;
(2000)
Chemical-warfare techniques for insect control: Insect “pests” in Germany before and after World War I
Book
Norman M. Naimark;
(2019)
Stalin and the fate of Europe: The post-war struggle for sovereignty
Chapter
Josephson, Paul;
Ranyuk, Yury;
Tsekhmistro, Ivan;
Hall, Karl;
(2010)
Science and the Periphery under Stalin: Physics in Ukraine
Article
Soyfer, Valery N.;
(2011)
Stalin and Fighters against Cellular Theory
Article
Homburg, Ernst;
(2005)
Shifting Centres and Emerging Peripheries: Global Patterns in Twentieth-Century Chemistry
Article
Husband, William B.;
(2006)
“Correcting Nature's Mistakes”: Transforming the Environment and Soviet Children's Literature, 1928--1941
Book
Kojevnikov, Alexei;
(2004)
Stalin's Great Science: The Times and Adventures of Soviet Physicists
Book
Payne, Matthew J.;
(2001)
Stalin's Railroad: Turksib and the Building of Socialism
Essay Review
Johnson, Jeffrey Allan;
(2002)
Chemical Warfare in the Great War
Book
Neer, Robert M.;
(2013)
Napalm: An American Biography
Book
Balmer, Brian;
(2012)
Secrecy and Science: A Historical Sociology of Biological and Chemical Warfare
Book
Gordin, Michael D.;
(2009)
Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly
Essay Review
Schweber, S. S.;
Wellerstein, Alex;
Pollock, Ethan;
Bernstein, Barton J.;
Gordin, Michael D.;
(2011)
Contingencies of the Early Nuclear Arms Race
Article
Zaitseva, Elena A.;
Homburg, Ernst;
(2005)
Catalytic Chemistry under Stalin: Science and Scientists in Times of Repression
Article
McCannon, John;
(2010)
Winged Prometheans: Arctic Aviation as Socialist Construction in Stalinist Russia, 1928--1939
Book
Pringle, Peter;
(2008)
The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century
Book
Simon Ings;
(2018)
Stalin and the Scientists: A History of Triumph and Tragedy, 1905-1953
Article
Gregory, P. R.;
Markevich, A.;
(2002)
Creating Soviet Industry: The House That Stalin Built
Book
Tromly, Benjamin;
(2014)
Making the Soviet Intelligentsia: Universities and Intellectual Life under Stalin and Khrushchev
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Environmental History
Istoriko-Biologicheskie Issledovaniia
Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy
Be the first to comment!