.jpg)
Gorodomlya Island (островГородомля) is located onLake Seliger inTver Oblast,Russia, 300 kilometres (200 mi) northwest ofMoscow. Theclosedurban-type settlement ofSolnechny is located on the island.
In June 1930, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture (Narkomzem) began construction on Gorodomlya Island of the Scientific-Research Institute for the Study ofFoot-and-Mouth Disease. 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.[1] In 1934–1935, the FMD facility was transferred to the Red Army'sBW 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 onFrancisella tularensis (the causative agent of tularaemia) andYersinia pestis (the causative agent of plague). Germany launchedOperation Barbarossa in June 1941 and following the capture of Kalinin in October, the BW facility was evacuated from the island and eventually relocated toKirov.[2] The facilities served as a convalescent hospital in the following years.[3]
In 1946, more than 170 German rocket scientists and engineers, includingHelmut Gröttrup andFritz Karl Preikschat, were brought to the island to work on theSoviet space program. 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.[3] The German colony at Gorodomlya was designated as Branch 1 of research bureauNII-88. The bureau participated in the continued development of theV-2 as well as the design of theR-1 rocket, a version of theV-2 manufactured with Russian parts. In June 1952, 100 German scientists were repatriated and sent home.[4]: 3–4 Branch 1 of NII-88 eventually became a part of the Zvezda Branch of theAcademician Pilyugin Center, a subsidiary ofRoscosmos.
57°12′8″N33°04′2″E / 57.20222°N 33.06722°E /57.20222; 33.06722
 | Thisspace- orspaceflight-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
