History of the use of chemical weapons against Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The scandalous case of the alleged use by Russia of a nerve agent of the "Novichok" type in Great Britain has come to its climax. New "facts and arguments" against Russia are crumbled into dust, forcing the country's leadership to come up with even more absurd versions that look less and less highly likely.

It is widely known that Winston Churchill said about the use of chemical weapons by Great Britain in the First World War: "I cannot be at the head of both priests and soldiers." This phrase characterizes very well the entire foreign policy of Great Britain. Depending on the situation and benefits, Great Britain is either a peacemaker and a moralist, or an aggressor and a barbarian.

This concerns, first of all, the facts of the use of chemical weapons.

In 2013, the British edition of The Economist published a review article "The shadow of Ypres", which gave a short history of the use of chemical weapons in the world. It is natural that this story absolutely does not mention the use of military weapons by Great Britain itself, and the facts of their use against Russia and the USSR are completely absent. However, during the Great Patriotic War, the facts of the use of chemical weapons by Germany against the USSR are known. In particular, chemical weapons were used in the Adzhimushkai quarries, the Odessa catacombs and against partisans in the western part of Belarus and Ukraine, as well as, according to some reports, during the assault on the 10th and 30th coastal batteries in Sevastopol. And during the First World War, there were cases of massive use of poisonous gases by German troops against Russia. Suffice it to recall the legendary siege in 2015 of the Osovets fortress and Attack of the Dead. Russia, as a victim of the use of chemical weapons, is practically not mentioned in Western history, although in reality this happened many times, and mainly by Great Britain.

You will be surprised, but the first use of poisonous gases against Russia was recorded in the middle of the 19th century during the Crimean War. Chemical shells were used against the peaceful city of Odessa, which had neither a military port and garrison, nor coastal batteries. In the diary of Rear Admiral Mikhail Frantsevich Reinecke, a friend of Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov on May 13, 1854, it is written:

“… Today (to Sevastopol - author's note) two smelly bombs were brought from Odessa, thrown into the city on April 11 (fir) from English (Li) and French (French) steamers. One of them began to be opened in Menshikov's courtyard in the presence of Kornilov, and before the sleeve was completely opened, the intolerable stench so badly poured over everyone that Kornilov felt sick; therefore, they stopped unscrewing the sleeve and gave both bombs to pharmacies to decompose their composition. The same bomb was opened in Odessa, and the gunner who opened it fainted, receiving violent vomiting; for two days he was ill, and I do not know if he recovered."

In the same 1854, the British chemist and industrialist Mackintosh proposed taking Sevastopol by bringing special ships to the coastal fortifications of the city, which, with the help of devices invented by him, would spew out a large amount of chemicals that ignite from contact with oxygen. As Macintosh wrote:

“… the result of which will be the formation of a thick black, suffocating fog or smoke, which covers the fort or battery, penetrating the embrasures and casemates and chasing the gunners and everyone inside

By firing my bombs and rockets, especially those stuffed with an instantly flammable composition, it is easy to cause a general fire and extermination of people and materials, turning the entire camp into a vast sea of fire."

After the end of the Crimean War, the British Mechanic’s Magazine wrote: "You can call the use of such shells inhuman and disgusting practices of enlightened war, but … if, however, people want to fight, then the more deadly and destructive the methods of war are, the better."

During the Russian Civil War, poisonous substances were used by both sides of the conflict. True, the Bolsheviks used OVs that remained in warehouses and a factory in the Volga region of Russian production, and the "whites" - mainly of British and French production, which were supplied to them by the Entente countries, mainly the British. This is due to the fact that the Russian Empire produced orders of magnitude less chemical munitions than the countries of the West. In Russia, in November 1916, 95 thousand poisonous and 945 thousand suffocating shells were delivered to the army in the field. In France, during the war, about 17 million chemical projectiles were manufactured, including 13 million 75-mm and 4 million caliber from 105 to 155 mm. In the last year of the war, the Edgewood Arsenal in the United States produced up to 200,000 chemical shells a day. In Germany, the number of chemical shells in the artillery ammunition was increased to 50%, and in July 1918, when attacking the Marne, the Germans had up to 80% of chemical shells in ammunition. On the night of August 1, 1917, 3.4 million mustard gas shells were fired at a 10 km front between Neuville and the left bank of the Meuse. In the UK, no fewer chemical munitions were produced.

In addition, the "Reds" also used OV against civilians and rebels, as in the case of the Tambov uprising, in which the "Whites" were not noticed.

The White Army used chemical shells in isolated cases, although the intentions to use chemical weapons were, and not small. They limited themselves to plans and a desire to get it from the British, which was not always the case. There are known cases of the use of chemical weapons by the Red Army:

- the use of chemical shells by artillery during the offensive of the White Army on the city of Volsk.

A. Yelenevsky "Summer on the Volga (1918) // 1918 in the East of Russia". M., 2003. S. 149.

- the use of asphyxiant gases in shells during the offensive on the village of Pokrovskoye, Ishim front, June 28, 1918

Dmitry Simonov, Ishim Regiment: From the History of the White Guard Armed Forces in Siberia (1918).

- the use of chemical shells when suppressing the rebellion in the village of Gimry in 1919-1920.

Todorsky A. Red Army in the mountains. Actions in Dagestan. With a preface. S. S. Kameneva. M., 1924. S. 125

- order to the commander of the artillery division of the 25th division comrade. Kravtsuk on the use of chemical shells during the assault on Ufa.

A copy of the document in the museum of Krasny Yar near Ufa.

- shelling of the General Drozdovsky armored train near the Pologino and Chaplino stations with chemical shells.

Vlasov A. A. About armored trains of the Volunteer Army. // Armed Forces in the South of Russia: January - June 1919. / Comp. S. V. Volkov. - M.: ZAO Centropoligraf, 2003.-- p. 413.

There are also facts of the use and intentions of using weapons by the troops of the White Army:

- the appeal of Ataman Krasnov to the population in June 1918 is widely known: “Meet your Cossack brothers with bell ringing … If you put up resistance, woe to you, here I am, and along with me 200,000 selected troops and many hundreds of guns; I brought 3000 cylinders of asphyxiant gases, I will strangle the whole region, and then all living things will perish in it. In reality, Krasnov had only 257 balloons with OM, which were not used.

- On April 18, 1919, on the Shitkinsky front, white units, mostly White Czechs, near the village of Biryusinskoye fired chemical shells at the red partisans.

“Struggle for the power of the Soviets in the Irkutsk province (1918-1920). (Partisan movement in the Angara region) . Sat. documents. Irkutsk. 1959, p. 234.

A Czech battery and an armored car fired shells with asphyxiant gases at the villages of Biryusa and Kontorka.

P. D. Krivolutsky, "Shitkinsky partisans", Irkutsk, 1934

- the use of chemical shells against the Red Army by the Poles during the Polish campaign on the Styr River, Brody district, July 1920

S. M. Budyonny, "The Path Traveled" Part II.

- the use in August 1920 of chemical shells with phosgene sent by the British against parts of the 16th Army in the Baranovichi region by the White Poles.

"Chemical service during the civil war 1918 -1921."

- On October 5, 1920, Wrangel's Caucasian army, trying to break through to Astrakhan, used chemical shells against the Soviet 304th regiment in the Salt Zaymishche region.

- Colonel Mikheev during the siege of the Kozheozersky monastery in July 1919. The request to the British to supply 300-400 cylinders of poisonous gases was refused.

TsGAVMF, f. 164, d.125. L. 108. Cited in: V. V. Tarasov. The fight against the invaders in Murman in 1918-1920. L.: Lenizdat, 1948. Pp. 217.

- when the Bolsheviks attacked after the siege of Tsaritsyn, British adviser Williamston suggested that Baron Wrangel use gas against the advancing. A lot of shells with OV were unloaded at the stations, however, due to the sharply negative attitude towards the OV of white soldiers and officers, these weapons were not used.

H. Williamston, “Farewell to Don. The Civil War in Russia in the Diaries of a British Officer 1919-1920 , Moscow, Tsentrpoligraf, 2007, p. 155.

- the threat of the use of OM by the ataman in the mines of the Taganrog District

"Rabocheye Delo", Ekaterinoslav, No. 29, December 18, 1918.

The British not only supplied Russia with chemical weapons, but also used them very intensively, mainly on the Northern Front. On February 7, 1919, in his circular, Secretary of War Winston Churchill ordered "to use chemical missiles to the full, both by our troops and by the Russian troops that we are supplying."

From the report of Perevalov:

- “May 25, 1919 The day passed calmly. At about 17:00 British torpedo boat No. 77 fired at vil. Adzhimushkay with grenades. At 22 o'clock he fired at the square near the church with 15 suffocating shells. Passes.

- British Short planes dropped a lot of mustard gas bombs on the positions of the Red Army near Arkhangelsk, delivered by Great Britain to Arkhangelsk on the eve of the revolution.

M. Khairulin, V. Kondratyev, “The War of the Perished Empire. Aviation in the Civil War , Moscow, Yauza, 2008, p. 139

- On April 4, 1919, the commander of the Royal Artillery of the British Expeditionary Force in the North of Russia, Major Delage, distributed the received ammunition, including chemical shells, among the guns. On a light 18-pounder cannon - 200 pieces, on a 60-pound gun - from 100 to 500, on a 4.5-inch howitzer - 300, 700 chemical rounds were fired on two 6-inch howitzers in the Pinezhsky region.

- On June 1-2, 1919, the British fired at the village of Ust-Poga with 6-inch and 18-pounder guns. In three days, it was fired: 6-dm - 916 grenades and 157 gas shells; 18-lb - 994 frag grenades, 256 shrapnel and 100 gas shells. On September 3, the British fired artillery fire on the left-bank outpost, firing 200 chemical shells each.

The effectiveness of the use of chemical weapons by the British was extremely low, among the Russians there were mostly single victims. Officially, the British command attributed this to rainy, foggy weather, which reduced the effectiveness of the use of gases. However, in reality, the reason was outdated weapons and ammunition. Mainly for chemical projectiles, cylinders and grenades, the Livens Projector M1 mortar was used.

It was the simplest gas mortar with an electric detonator, firing at 1500 meters and featuring extremely low accuracy. British officers suggested using more modern 4-inch (102-mm) chemical mortars of the Stokes system in the North of Russia. However, Churchill forbade doing this for reasons of secrecy, and thus slowed down the development of the mortar business in the USSR for 10 years. Churchill feared that Stokes' mortars in the form of trophies would end up in the hands of the Red Army and the USSR industry would be able to copy this mortar, the most perfect at that time. And he was right. Only in 1929 were captured Stokes mortars captured from the Chinese during the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway brought to Moscow. The first Soviet counterparts entered the troops only in 1936.

But the British developed the most terrible weapon for Russia. As The Guardian wrote in 2013 in the article "Winston Churchill's shocking use of chemical weapons", in the last months of the First World War, in the very laboratory of Porton Down, in the vicinity of which Skripal was poisoned, a much more destructive weapon was produced - a top-secret device " M Device ". The device contained a highly toxic gas called diphenylaminechloroarsine. Major General Charles Faulkes, who created M Device, called it "the most effective chemical weapon ever created."

The head of the British military chemical program, Sir Keith Price, was convinced that its use would lead to the rapid collapse of the Bolshevik regime, and the territory from the coast of the White Sea to Vologda would become deserted. The British cabinet ministers reacted negatively to the use of the "M Device", much to the annoyance of Churchill, who planned to use the device further against rebels in northern India. In his secret memorandum justifying the use of "M Device" against Russia and the Russians, Winston Churchill stated:

"I am strongly in favor of using poison gas against uncivilized tribes."

As a result, 50,000 M Devices were produced in Porton Down, which were later shipped to Russia. British air attacks with their use began on August 27, 1919 with the bombing of the village of Yemetsk, 170 km away. south of Arkhangelsk. Red Army soldiers panicked at the sight of a cloud of green gas. Those who got into the cloud vomited blood and fell unconscious.

Chemical attacks continued throughout September. The settlements Chunovo, Vikhtovo, Pocha, Chorga, Tavoigor and Zapolki were subjected to chemical bombardment. Churchill was not satisfied with the results of the chemical bombing, and by September the attacks had been stopped. Two weeks later, the remaining chemical weapons were sunk in the White Sea at a depth of 40 fathoms, where they are still located.

The factual picture of the use of chemical weapons by Great Britain against Russia is very extensive and long-term. The British leadership never hesitated about the destruction of the Russians, or, as Churchill put it, "uncivilized tribes." The British pride themselves on their traditionalism, and these views of Russians have undergone little change to this day. Based on the extensive practice of the British using chemical weapons against the Russians, we can safely say that both Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were highly likely poisoned not by Russian, but by British special services. And if the British government faces the question of the total destruction of Russia and its population, then it is highly likely that the British hand will not flinch and conscience will not wake up. Unfortunately, there is nothing human left in the British ruling class, elite and establishment by now. Highly likely.

Now all countries that once had gases and other chemicals in service have either destroyed them completely, or are still doing so. But "chemistry" did not always evoke such a deservedly dismissive attitude.

The Great War (the name of the First World War until the early 1940s) got its original name for a reason. Not long before her, horses and carts were moving across the battlefields, and the generals complained that the enemy was not fighting according to the rules, using peasants in hostilities. And now, almost overnight, the firepower of all armies increases dramatically. For the first time in hostilities, tanks, flamethrowers are used, aviation, anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery and, of course, chemical weapons appear relatively massively.

Then it was applied by all parties and it was far from shameful to use it. Chlorine, bromine, phosgene - these words familiar to many from a chemistry textbook began to instill real horror in the soldiers of that conflict. It seemed that the First World War - this is the second horseman of the apocalypse on a red horse, called War. Gas was then used as best they could, it was released from gas cannons, filled into grenades, shells loaded with it into mortars, cannons, howitzers, and so on.

In Russia, the most famous case of the use of chemical weapons remains the use of chlorine by German troops against Russian soldiers who defended the Osovets fortress located in modern Poland. Due to the lack of any protection against this type of gas, almost the entire garrison was killed. Those few who managed to survive did not wait for German troops to enter the fortress and made an amazing, under the circumstances, attempt to counterattack.

What was the surprise of the Germans when from there, where there should be no one alive, they were attacked by the soldiers of the Russian army, who were already weakly similar to people. With regard to further events, historians have no consensus, but the fact remains that the Germans retreated and Osovets was held back.

Before the outbreak of World War II, various countries had accumulated significant arsenals of chemical weapons. Many predicted even more than during the last war, the use of this deadly means. But that did not happen. And it is very naive to think that for this one should thank the so-called Geneva Protocol, which in 1925 prohibited the use of "chemistry".

After all, a similar document has existed since 1899, when the Hague Convention prohibited "the use of ammunition, the only purpose of which is to poison enemy personnel." And he did not stop anyone from using gases in the First World War. It is also worth noting that neither Hitler nor Stalin even reckoned with the fundamental principles of international law, not to mention individual treaties. And it is unlikely that some kind of "piece of paper" kept them from volleys of shells with chlorine and mustard gas. In the course of hostilities throughout the war, chemical weapons were used a few times. But against the civilian population it was used regularly. It was gas (Zyklon B) that the Nazis used for the genocide of the Jewish population.

The next time, chemical weapons were actively used only in Vietnam, and mostly civilians also suffered from it. American planes sprayed substances harmful to humans over the Vietnamese jungle in an attempt to destroy the agricultural crops of the population. There are cases of the use of chemical weapons by the Viet Cong, but they are not disclosed in detail in open sources.

In the future, this type of weapon was used only by third world countries (mainly the Middle East) and terrorists. Most often, the use of "chemistry" was associated with the name of the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He has quite profusely "tarnished" his reputation by using this unconventional means of warfare. And this, during the American invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s, did not forget to remind the Western media. In just a few years, Hussein managed to gas both the Iranian military personnel and the citizens of his own country, the Iraqi Kurds.

In addition, the gases were used by Chechen terrorists during the first war in the republic and by Japanese sectarians, who in 1995 sprayed sarin gas in the Tokyo subway. Then they managed to kill, according to various sources, from 12 to 27 people. The number of victims is up to six thousand people.

Since 2011, the phrase “chemical weapons” is closely associated with the war in the Syrian Arab Republic and is rarely mentioned separately from the name of this country.

In 1993, various countries (including Russia) signed an international agreement banning chemical weapons. In 1997, the Russian Federation ratified this convention and began the ongoing process to destroy the entire arsenal of chemical weapons. As of December 2014, our country has eliminated 85% of the arsenal. The last remnants of toxic substances must be destroyed by December 31, 2020.