Dzerzhinsk, Russia

For other places with the same name, see Dzerzhinsk.
Dzerzhinsk (English)
Дзержинск (Russian)
-  City  -

Corner of Chkalova Avenue and Mayakovsky Street in Dzerzhinsk

Location of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in Russia
Dzerzhinsk
Location of Dzerzhinsk in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Coordinates: 56°14′N 43°27′E / 56.233°N 43.450°E / 56.233; 43.450Coordinates: 56°14′N 43°27′E / 56.233°N 43.450°E / 56.233; 43.450
Coat of arms
City Day Last Sunday of May
Administrative status (as of November 2011)
Country Russia
Federal subject Nizhny Novgorod Oblast[1]
Administratively subordinated to city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk[1]
Administrative center of city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk[1]
Municipal status (as of March 2010)
Urban okrug Dzerzhinsk Urban Okrug[2]
Administrative center of Dzerzhinsk Urban Okrug[2]
Mayor Gennady Vinogradov[3]
Statistics
Population (2010 Census) 240,742 inhabitants[4]
- Rank in 2010 77th
Time zone MSK (UTC+03:00)[5]
First mentioned 1606
Previous names Rastyapino (until 1929)[6]
Postal code(s)[7] 606000—606039
Dialing code(s) +7 8313
Official website
Dzerzhinsk on Wikimedia Commons
Dzerzhinsk aerial view

Dzerzhinsk (Russian: Дзержинск; IPA: [dʲzʲɪrˈʐɨnsk]) is a city in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located along the Oka River, about 400 kilometers (250 mi) east of Moscow. Population: 240,742 (2010 Census);[4] 261,334 (2002 Census);[8] 285,071 (1989 Census).[9]

History

First mentioned in 1606 as Rastyapino (Растя́пино), it is named after Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik leader who was the first head of the Soviet Cheka (secret police), since 1929.[6]

Administrative and municipal status

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.[1] As a municipal division, the city of oblast significance of Dzerzhinsk is incorporated as Dzerzhinsk Urban Okrug.[2]

Chemical weapons and other production

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.

Chemical weapons production at Dzerzhinsk ceased in 1965. 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. As of 1998, the lewisite production unit was still not completely disassembled.

As of 2008, Dzerzhinsk had 38 large industrial enterprises, which export their goods worldwide. About one thousand varieties of chemical products are produced in Dzerzhinsk. The largest factories, which exist as of 2012 or existed in the past, include:

Pollution

According to the September 12, 2007, study by the Blacksmith Institute (United States), Dzerzhinsk is one of the worst-polluted cities of the world and has a life expectancy of 42 years for men and 47 for women, with the 2003 death rate exceeding its birth rate by 260%.[10] Environmental action groups such as Greenpeace attribute such low life expectancy to high levels of persistent organic chemicals, particularly dioxins. The Blacksmith Institute also names sarin, lewisite, sulfur mustard, hydrogen cyanide, phosgene, lead, and organic chemicals among the worst pollutants.[10] Parts of Dzerzhinsk's water are contaminated with dioxins and phenol at levels that are reportedly seventeen million times the safe limit.[10]

Dzerzhinsk's environmental agency estimates that almost 300,000 tons of chemical waste were dumped in the city between 1930 and 1998. The Ecology Committee of the Russian State Duma also considers Dzerzhinsk among the top ten cities with disastrous ecological conditions.[11]

Dzerzhinsk's City Administration, however, asserts that the Blacksmith Institute report is false, stating, for example, that since sarin had never been produced in the city, it cannot be one of the major pollutants. Also, according to the city's health department, the average life expectancy in the city was 64 years in 2006. Askhat Kayumkov, the head of the Dront public ecological organization, which was quoted as a source by the Blacksmith Institute, states that his organization never provided the Blacksmith Institute with data of any kind. Furthermore, he does not believe that Dzerzhinsk is one of the most polluted cities in Russia, much less in the whole world.[12]

Additionally, a 2000 audit report by the Audiekometal organization, based in Moscow, asserted that, for the previous ten years, Dzerzhinsk had not made it to the top ten most polluted cities of the Russian Federation, and that the level of pollution in the city was “moderate”.

In the end, however, despite the ecological situation in the city being at its best in the previous 80 years (mostly due to bankruptcies and closures of the polluting factories), several locations in the city pose a tangible ecological risk. These sites include the landfill, toxic waste burial grounds, and a so-called “white sea”, composed of disposed chemical wastes.[13] These sites are kept under constant ecological monitoring.

Sights

Shukhov Tower on the Oka River near Dzerzhinsk
Tsiolkovskogo Avenue
Corner of Samokhvalova Street & Lenina Avenue
Narrow gauge railway of Caprolactam factory

The unique architectural construction—the 128-meter (420 ft) steel lattice hyperboloid tower built by Soviet engineer and scientist Vladimir Shukhov in 1929—is located near Dzerzhinsk on the left bank of the Oka River.

Notable people

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Dzerzhinsk is twinned with:[15]

In Russia

International

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Law #184-Z
  2. 1 2 3 Law #151-Z
  3. ↑ Глава Администрации городского округа город Дзержинск. dzr.nnov.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 Russian Federal State Statistics Service (2011). "Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года. Том 1" [2010 All-Russian Population Census, vol. 1]. Всероссийская перепись населения 2010 года (2010 All-Russia Population Census) (in Russian). Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
  5. ↑ Правительство Российской Федерации. Федеральный закон №107-ФЗ от 3 июня 2011 г. «Об исчислении времени», в ред. Федерального закона №248-ФЗ от 21 июля 2014 г. «О внесении изменений в Федеральный закон "Об исчислении времени"». Вступил в силу по истечении шестидесяти дней после дня официального опубликования (6 августа 2011 г.). Опубликован: "Российская газета", №120, 6 июня 2011 г. (Government of the Russian Federation. Federal Law #107-FZ of June 31, 2011 On Calculating Time, as amended by the Federal Law #248-FZ of July 21, 2014 On Amending Federal Law "On Calculating Time". Effective as of after sixty days following the day of the official publication.).
  6. 1 2 Emmanuel Carrère (21 October 2014). Limonov: The Outrageous Adventures of the Radical Soviet Poet Who Became a Bum in New York, a Sensation in France, and a Political Antihero in Russia. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-374-70921-1.
  7. ↑ Почта России. Информационно-вычислительный центр ОАСУ РПО. (Russian Post). Поиск объектов почтовой связи (Postal Objects Search) (Russian)
  8. ↑ Russian Federal State Statistics Service (May 21, 2004). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек" [Population of Russia, Its Federal Districts, Federal Subjects, Districts, Urban Localities, Rural Localities—Administrative Centers, and Rural Localities with Population of Over 3,000] (XLS). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года [All-Russia Population Census of 2002] (in Russian). Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  9. ↑ Demoscope Weekly (1989). "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 г. Численность наличного населения союзных и автономных республик, автономных областей и округов, краёв, областей, районов, городских поселений и сёл-райцентров" [All Union Population Census of 1989: Present Population of Union and Autonomous Republics, Autonomous Oblasts and Okrugs, Krais, Oblasts, Districts, Urban Settlements, and Villages Serving as District Administrative Centers]. Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года [All-Union Population Census of 1989] (in Russian). Институт демографии Национального исследовательского университета: Высшая школа экономики [Institute of Demography at the National Research University: Higher School of Economics]. Retrieved August 9, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 "The top most polluted places". Blacksmith Institute.
  11. ↑ Дзержинск вошел в десятку наиболее неблагополучных с экологической точки зрения территорий РФ – Косариков (Dzerzhinsk Makes It to the Top Ten Most Ecologically Adverse Cities of the Russian Federation) (Russian)
  12. ↑ «Дзержинский репортёр». «Кто "заказал" Дзержинск»? Официальная критика присутствия Дзержинска списке Института Блэксмита (Dzerzhinsky Reportyor newspaper. Official criticism of the inclusion of Dzerzhinsk into the Blacksmith Institute list) (Russian)
  13. ↑ «Живые здесь не ходят». Газета "RE:акция", №43ц 11-21 декабря 2006 г. (The Living Do Not Walk Here. "RE:aktsiya" newspaper, #43, December 11, 2006 – December 21, 2006) (Russian)
  14. ↑ Irina Voronina page on IMDB
  15. ↑ Sister cites Dzerzhinsk
  16. ↑ "Tarptautinis Bendradarbiavimas" [Druskininkai international cooperation]. Druskininkų savivaldybės administracija (in Lithuanian). 2012-03-22. Retrieved 2013-08-03.

Sources

External links

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