Gorodomlya Island () is located on

Lake Seliger Seliger ( rus, Селиге́р, p=sʲɪlʲɪˈgʲɛr) is a lake in Ostashkovsky District of Tver Oblast and, in the extreme northern part, in Demyansky District of Novgorod Oblast of Russia, in the northwest of the Valdai Hills, a part of the Vo ...

Tver Oblast Tver Oblast (russian: Тверска́я о́бласть, ''Tverskaya oblast'', ), from 1935 to 1990 known as Kalinin Oblast (), is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Tver. It was named after Mikhai ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, northwest of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The closed

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlementrussian: посёлок городско́го ти́па, translit=posyolok gorodskogo tipa, abbreviated: russian: п.г.т., translit=p.g.t.; ua, селище міського типу, translit=selyshche mis'koho typu, ab ...

of Solnechny is located on the island. In June 1930, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture (''

Narkomzem The People's Commissariat for Agriculture, abbreviated as ''Narkomzem'' was established in the USSR in 1929. Its headquarters building was located at Orlikov Pereulok, 1, Moscow, designed by Aleksey Shchusev in 1928. ''Narkomzem'' was reformed as ...

'') began construction on Gorodomlya Island of the Scientific-Research Institute for the Study of

Foot-and-Mouth Disease Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. The virus causes a high fever lasting two to six days, followe ...

. It was opened officially in October 1932 and incorporated the very best Soviet and imported equipment and its huge main building, occupying 25,000 square metres, incorporated both production facilities and research laboratories, a guinea pig nursery, biological wastewater treatment facilities, a museum, a library, a micro-photo laboratory, a cinema and a 100-seat lecture room. In 1934-1935, the FMD facility was transferred to the Red Army's BW facility, the Biotechnical Institute, also known by the code designation V/2-1094. German intelligence reported that the military institute was engaged in experiments focused on ''

Francisella tularensis ''Francisella tularensis'' is a pathogenic species of Gram-negative coccobacillus, an aerobic bacterium. It is nonspore-forming, nonmotile, and the causative agent of tularemia, the pneumonic form of which is often lethal without treatment. It is ...

'' (the causative agent of tularaemia) and ''

Yersinia pestis ''Yersinia pestis'' (''Y. pestis''; formerly '' Pasteurella pestis'') is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both ''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis'' and ''Yersinia enterocolitica''. It is a facult ...

'' (the causative agent of plague). Germany launched

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

in June 1941 and following the capture of Kalinin in October, the BW facility was evacuated from the island and eventually relocated to Kirov. The facilities served as a convalescent hospital in the following years. In 1946, more than 170 German rocket scientists and engineers, including

Helmut Gröttrup Helmut Gröttrup (12 February 1916 – 4 July 1981) was a German engineer, rocket scientist and inventor of the smart card. During World War II, he worked in the German V-2 rocket program under Wernher von Braun. From 1946 to 1950 he headed a grou ...

and Fritz Karl Preikschat, were brought to the island to work on the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program (russian: Космическая программа СССР, Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR) was the national space program of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), active from 1955 until the dissoluti ...

. At this time, the facilities were in severe disrepair due to wartime destruction and lacking electricity as well as running water. Over the following months, living conditions gradually improved and by the end of 1947 the problem with the water supply had been resolved. The German colony at Gorodomlya was designated as Branch 1 of research bureau

NII-88 TsNIIMash (russian: ЦНИИмаш) is a Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center, dealing with all phases of development from conceptual design to flight test. The Institute is the main analytical center of Roskosmos in the field of syste ...

. The bureau participated in the continued development of the

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...

as well as the design of the R-1 rocket, a version of the

manufactured with Russian parts. In June 1952, 100 German scientists were repatriated and sent home. Branch 1 of NII-88 eventually became a part of the Zvezda Branch of the

Academician Pilyugin Center Scientific Production Association Of Automation And Instrument-Building (russian: Научно-производственный центр автоматики и приборостроения), also known as the Academician Pilyugin Center is ...

, a subsidiary of

Roscosmos The State Space Corporation "Roscosmos" (russian: Государственная корпорация по космической деятельности «Роскосмос»), commonly known simply as Roscosmos (russian: Роскосмос) ...

References

External links

History of the Gorodomlya Island
* MAGNUS, Kurt: ''Slaves of Rockets'' Soviet and Russian space program locations Rocket launch sites in Russia Lake islands of Russia Lake islands of Europe Military installations of the Soviet Union Biological warfare facilities Weapons test sites Soviet biological weapons program {{Space-stub