Tomka gas test site

Tomka gas test site (German: Gas-Testgelände Tomka) was a secret chemical weapons testing facility near a place codenamed Volsk-18 (Wolsk, in German literature), 20 km off Volsk, now Shikhany,[1] Saratov Oblast, Russia created within the framework of German-Soviet military cooperation to circumvent the demilitarization provisions of the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles.

It was co-directed by Yakov Moiseevich Fishman (начальник воен­но-химического управления Красной Армии), and German chemists Alexander von Grundherr and Ludwig von Sicherer.

[2][3][4] It operated (according to an agreement undersigned by fictitious joint stock companies) during 1926-1933.

[5] After 1933 the area was used by the Red Army and expanded under the name "Volsk-18" or "Schichany-2" to Russia's most important center for the development of chemical warfare agents and protective measures against NBC weapons.

Another chemical site was established by the settlement of Ukhtomsky, Moscow Region.

German staff at Tomka chemical weapons facility, 1928