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

Manufacture of various chemical weapons started under Soviet government control 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).

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.

[12] 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.

[12] Parts of Dzerzhinsk's water are contaminated with dioxins and phenol at levels that are reportedly seventeen million times the safe limit.

[citation needed] In June 2019[17] a powerful explosion at State Research Institute Kristall injured 79 people and destroyed 180 homes in the neighbourhood.

[20] According to sources [21] the amount of waste is 57% more than expected, and the cleanup might only finish in autumn of 2021 with an extra 238 million rubles from the central government, but the request was denied.