Chemical Industry of Nizhny Novgorod Region — one of the leading sectors of the regional economy, which over the course of a century grew from a mineral acids plant near the Rastyapino station into one of the major centers of Russia's chemical industry[1][2]. Its heart is Dzerzhinsk: in the 1970s–1980s, 60% of its population was employed in the chemical industry[2]. The second hub is Kstovo, with its oil refinery and ethylene production[3][4]. The industry carries a heavy legacy — military chemistry, accidents, and accumulated waste — and has its own scientific base: academic institutes in Nizhny Novgorod and branch research institutes in Dzerzhinsk.

Chernorech'ye and Rastyapino

Industry came to Chernorech'ye — a locality near the Oka, named after the Chyornaya River — with the arrival of the railway[1]. In the 1860s a small halt called "Chernoye" appeared here, followed by an alabaster-and-gypsum plant and a rope factory; by 1900, thirteen enterprises employing 1,700 workers were operating in the area[2].

The industry traces its origins to 1915. World War I demanded ammunition, chemical-protection equipment, and medicines, yet Russia's chemical plants were dependent on foreign firms[2]. On 25 September 1915, "on the state lands of the Chernorechnenskaya dacha in Balakhna District," near Rastyapino station, a mineral-acids plant was founded — the future Chernorechnenskiy Chemical Plant, now known as "Korund"[1]. A gunpowder plant was also relocated here from Petrograd — the future Ya. M. Sverdlov Plant[2]. In October 1916 "Korund" produced its first sulfuric and nitric acid; in November 1920 its first superphosphate; and on 9 February 1928 the country's first ammonia-synthesis workshop was commissioned here — a date regarded as the birthday of Russia's nitrogen industry[1].

In 1929 construction began on a socialist city of the chemical industry on the site of the workers' settlement of Rastyapino, and it was named Dzerzhinsk; on 30 March 1930 the settlement was granted town status[2]. In the late 1930s the plants "Oka" (later "Sintez"), "Zavodstroy" (later "Kaprolaktam"), "Zarya", and "Rulon" (later "Orgsteklo") went into operation, followed in 1939 by the Igumnovo combined heat and power plant[2].

In Nizhny Novgorod itself, Chemical-Pharmaceutical Plant No. 10 opened in January 1919: 35 workers there manually prepared galenical preparations from plant and animal materials. Today it is a production site of the Nizhfarm group[5].

Military chemistry

From 1939 onward, Dzerzhinsk produced chemical warfare agents — in five workshops of "Kaprolaktam" and at "Orgsteklo." Capacity was designed for 40,000 tonnes of mustard gas, 8,000 tonnes of lewisite, and 3,000 tonnes of phosgene per year[6].

During the Great Patriotic War, Dzerzhinsk became the center of Soviet chemical industry: the USSR People's Commissariat of the Chemical Industry was evacuated here, the city's plants supplied up to half the country's explosives, and they produced more than 150 million munitions[2]. Work was distributed as follows:

  • Plant No. 80 named after Ya. M. Sverdlov — over the course of the war: 148 million artillery shells and mortar rounds, 5.5 million aerial bombs, 5 million anti-tank mines, and 2.8 million rocket shells for the Katyusha[2];
  • Plant No. 96 ("Zavodstroy," later "Kaprolaktam") — mustard gas, lewisite, chlorine, and ethyl fluid; in 1944, this plant was the first in the country to produce polyvinyl chloride resin using the suspension method[2];
  • Plant No. 148 ("Rulon," later "Orgsteklo") — transparent armor and armored visors for the Il-2 ground-attack aircraft and the Yak-1 and La-5 fighters; the creator of the acrylic glass, chemical engineer Boris Zverev, received a Stalin Prize, second degree, for this work[2];
  • The Chernorechnsky Plant named after M. I. Kalinin (now "Korund") — from the first month of the war, the self-igniting anti-tank liquid "KS"; from September 1941, cyanide salts for steel hardening; over the entire war, the plant mastered 18 new products[1];
  • Plants No. 365 "Oka" and No. 506 "Yava" — ethyl fluid for aviation gasoline, later sulfanilamide and sulfidine[2];
  • Plant No. 397 "Zarya" — activated charcoal and MO-2 gas masks; no other manufacturers of these gas masks existed in the USSR[2].

The Cost of Wartime Production

In October 1941, the mustard gas production building at Kaprolaktam exploded. According to a report by the Gorky Research Institute of Occupational Hygiene and Occupational Diseases, the explosion and leaks of mustard gas and lewisite caused 765 people — the majority of them women — to be poisoned in the second half of 1941; in 1942, the number of poisoning cases reached 2,397. Over the entire course of the war, Dzerzhinsk produced nearly 100,000 tons of toxic agents[6].

The military production operations at Kaprolaktam were subsequently shut down: the technology and equipment were destroyed in accordance with the international obligations of the USSR and Russia, under the supervision of international observers and with the participation of the European Union's Tacis program[7].

Postwar Growth

After the war, the plants returned to peacetime production. Dzerzhinsk was the first in the country to launch and develop 76 chemical production lines — for phenol, acetone, caprolactam, and synthetic precious corundum; the Dzerzhinskhimmash chemical engineering plant, the Dzerzhinsk combined heat and power station, and the Plastik plastics plant all appeared[2]. During the 1970s and 1980s, nine of the largest enterprises of the Ministry of the Chemical Industry and ten research and design institutes operated in the city; in 1980, Dzerzhinsk was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, in part for its major role in the development of the country's chemical industry[2].

At Korund in the 1950s, the country's first anti-tuberculosis drug, PASK, was developed, and the cultivation of rubies, alexandrites, and sapphires for the jewelry industry was perfected; from 1974, serial production of laser rubies began[1].

«Kaprolaktam» was the country's sole supplier of ethylene and propylene — the feedstock underpinning the entire Soviet chemical industry[6]. On 12 February 1960, an explosion occurred in its Shop No. 6, where pyrolysis gas was separated into ethylene and propylene: the building was completely destroyed and 24 workers on shift were killed[6][8]. A state commission identified the cause as a crack in the body of a large gate valve on the pyrolysis gas line, caused by metal fatigue; the disaster was classified, and the relatives of the dead were required to sign non-disclosure agreements[6]. The production manager, Mark Sedov, managed to order the closure of the fittings separating the shop from the gas-holder facilities, preventing the disaster from spreading further. From 1970 he headed the Kaprolaktam association; under his leadership, polyvinyl chloride and ethylene oxide production facilities were brought online using imported equipment[8].

The industry's second hub grew up near Kstovo. In the early 1950s, a decision was made to build the largest oil refinery in the European part of the country — oriented toward fuel and lubricants — some 20 kilometres south of Gorky; on 23 August 1958, the refinery dispatched its first trainload of products to consumers, and this date is considered the birthday of the Novogorkovskoye refinery[3]. In the 1970s, an AT-6 distillation unit with a capacity of 6 million tonnes of oil per year was commissioned here, and for the first time in the USSR, biological treatment of industrial wastewater from petroleum products was introduced[3].

In 1977, construction of a petrochemical plant began nearby. On 18 October 1981, it produced its first tonne of ethylene, and from February 1982 an integrated production chain came into operation: ethylene from Kstovo was processed in Dzerzhinsk into ethylene oxide and glycols[4]. This facility was commissioned as part of Kaprolaktam on 16 February 1982[7]. Kstovo ethylene was awarded the state Quality Mark, and throughout the 1980s the Gorknefteorgsintez association produced 22 types of products bearing this mark[9].

The crisis of the 1990s and new owners

The collapse of the USSR severed long-established production ties: plants had to find new sources of raw materials and new markets, and pulling the chemical industry out of crisis became Dzerzhinsk's central challenge at the turn of the century[2]. Veterans of the Gipropolimer design institute recall that in the mid-1990s wages went unpaid for about six months and workers were instead given paint and roofing felt; some of the facilities that had been built were never put into operation, and a controlling stake in the institute itself was purchased by German investors[10].

Oil refining in Kstovo fell to just over 3 million tonnes per year, with fixed-asset depreciation at 54.6%; in 2002, the plant joined LUKOIL and was renamed LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez[3]. The Dzerzhinsk ethylene oxide and glycols facility was idle in 1996–1997 due to a raw-materials crisis and in December 1999 joined SIBUR[7].

The old giants went through bankruptcies. JSC Kaprolaktam was liquidated in December 2006; the insolvency administrator was Ilya Vasyanin[11]. The property complex of Korund was sold at auction on April 30, 2004, and the new owner began restoring production: in 2007 a complex polyester workshop was launched, in 2008 a paints and enamels workshop, and in 2013 a new cyanide salts production facility[1]. In autumn 2015, an arbitration court declared Dzerzhinskoye Orgsteklo bankrupt with debts of around 2 billion rubles; by that time, the production of extruded acrylic glass and methyl methacrylate had been transferred to other legal entities within the Korund group[12].

The industry today

The main active enterprises in the industry are:

EnterpriseGorodProfile
Korund (formerly Chernorechensky Chemical Plant)Dzerzhinskindustrial site for resident companies; cyanide salts, complex polyesters, paints and enamels[1]
JSC SIBUR-NeftekhimDzerzhinskethylene oxide and glycols; acrylic acid and its esters since 2004[7]
GK Sintez OKADzerzhinskthe largest producer of ethanolamines in Russia and the CIS[13]
JSC NII PolimerovDzerzhinskadhesives and sealants, acrylic glass, PVC plasticates, acrylic polymers[14]
FKP Zavod imeni Ya. M. SverdlovaDzerzhinskdefense enterprise; traces its history to a gunpowder plant relocated from Petrograd in 1915[2][15]
JSC GosNII KristallDzerzhinsktechnologies for the production of explosives and compositions for military hardware and civilian industries[16]
OOO LUKOIL-NizhegorodneftteorgsinтезKstovooil refining, capacity of 17 million tonnes per year, approximately 50 types of petroleum products[9]
OOO SIBUR-KstovoKstovoethylene production since 1981[4]
OOO RusVinylKstovopolyvinyl chloride of nine grades; three million tonnes over the first ten years of operation[17]
NizhfarmNizhny Novgorodpharmaceuticals; the site traces its history to Chemical-Pharmaceutical Plant No. 10[5]

New Industries

The Kstovo oil refinery, according to the plant itself, produces one in every ten liters of gasoline in the country; in 2017 it became the first in Russia to produce gasoline with an octane rating of 100[9]. New chemical facilities are being drawn to the special economic zone Kulibin: chemical and petrochemical industries are named among its primary areas of focus, and by spring 2024 the zone's expert council had approved 27 companies with declared investments of more than 70 billion rubles[18].

Accidents of the Modern Era

On August 31, 2018, an explosion at the Sverdlov Plant claimed five lives[15]. On June 1, 2019, a series of explosions in the polymer workshop of JSC GosNII Kristall destroyed five buildings; windows were blown out in approximately 185 homes, and a state of emergency was declared in Dzerzhinsk and the settlements of Pyra, Zhelnino, and Kordon Lesnoy[16]. Eighty-nine people sought medical attention — 44 plant workers and 45 city residents[19].

Environmental Legacy

Over a century of chemical industry, Dzerzhinsk has accumulated waste that has made its name known far beyond the country's borders. In 2007, the American Blacksmith Institute included the city on its list of the most polluted places on the planet: according to the city's environmental authority, between 1930 and 1998 approximately 300,000 tonnes of chemical waste were improperly buried here[20]. The compilers of the list also noted that local authorities do not acknowledge an environmental disaster in the city[21].

Three of the largest accumulated-harm sites are being remediated under the federal project Clean Country, part of the national project Ecology[22]:

  • the Beloye More ("White Sea") sludge pond — a hydraulic engineering structure built in 1973 to hold chemical production waste, covering 71.5 hectares. Reclamation began in 2018 and was completed in February 2020: the basin was sealed with sand, bentonite mats, a geomembrane, and topsoil[23][22];
  • the Igumnovo landfill — a municipal solid waste dump that operated from 1983 to 2012, covering 111.5 hectares with a volume of 4.55 million cubic metres; by February 2020 its reclamation was 90% complete[22];
  • the "Black Hole" — a karst sinkhole into which waste from the Dzerzhinsk Orgsteklo plant had been dumped for decades; it accumulated approximately 71,500 cubic metres of liquid, paste-like, and solidified waste[24][22]. Remediation began in 2019; in 2025 the Region was preparing an application to have the site included in the federal project "General Clean-Up," with completion targeted by 2030[24].

Science and Education

Applied science grew up directly on the factory floors. In 1949, Laboratory No. 10 of Moscow's GSNII-42 was established at the Rulon plant — the forerunner of the present Polymers Research Institute; in 1951 a branch focused on polyvinyl chloride opened at Zavodstroy, and in 1960 the pilot production facility became a pilot plant[14]. The institute bears the name of Academician V. A. Kargin[25]. During the 1970s and 1980s, Dzerzhinsk was also home to the Dzerzhinsk Experimental Design Bureau of Automation, LenNIIkhimmash, a branch of Gipropolimer, and the nitrogen industry institute GIAP[2]; Gipropolimer, which designed production facilities for Kaprolaktam, Orgsteklo, and Sintez plants, employed 900 people[10].

Academic chemistry in Gorky began with the Laboratory of Polymer Stabilization of the USSR Academy of Sciences, opened on 5 March 1963 — the city's first academic institution. Its director, Grigory Razuvayev, was closely connected with the factories of Dzerzhinsk, and the laboratory was created to serve the needs of the rapidly growing chemical industry; based on its developments, the Kaprolaktam plant established production of the organo-chromium liquid "Barkhos" for carbide-chromium coatings[26]. In 1969 the laboratory became the Institute of Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1988 it was divided into the Institute of Organometallic Chemistry — whose director became Gleb Abakumov — and the Institute of Chemistry of High-Purity Substances[26]. The founder and first director of the latter (1988–1998) was Academician Grigory Devyatykh, who had studied at the chemistry faculty of Gorky University[27].

Engineers for the plants were trained locally: Dzerzhinsk had a polytechnic institute with a chemistry faculty[10] — now the Dzerzhinsky Polytechnic Institute. Mark Sedov also graduated from the evening division of the Gorky Polytechnic Institute while continuing to work at the Kaprolaktam plant[8].

People of the Industry

Enterprises and Organizations

See Also

Links

Sources

  1. korund-nn.ru — Korund LLC — History of the enterprise (archive)
  2. адмдзержинск.рф — Administration of the City of Dzerzhinsk — Historical background; includes a certificate from the Archives Committee of Nizhny Novgorod Region on the industrial enterprises of Dzerzhinsk in 1941–1945 (archive)
  3. nnos.lukoil.ru — LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez LLC — History of the enterprise (archive)
  4. sibur.ru — SIBUR-Kstovo LLC — History of the enterprise (archive)
  5. remedium.ru — The oldest production site in Russia, owned by the Nizhfarm Group, celebrates its 105th anniversary and sums up its results, June 27, 2024 (archive)
  6. MK — Nizhny Novgorod — MK in Nizhny Novgorod — Classified explosions. What blew up in Dzerzhinsk in 1960, and why, March 15, 2012 (archive)
  7. sibur.ru — SIBUR-Neftekhim JSC — History of the enterprise (archive)
  8. warheroes.ru — Heroes of the Country — Sedov Mark Pimenovich, Hero of Socialist Labor (archive)
  9. Kommersant (Volga Region) — LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez — 65 years! Partner material, August 23, 2023
  10. d-ved.ru — Dzerzhinskiye Vedomosti — A plant begins with a design. The story of a chemical production veteran from Dzerzhinsk, March 3, 2024 (archive)
  11. rusprofile.ru — Kaprolaktam OJSC, Dzerzhinsk: data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (archive)
  12. Kommersant (Volga Region) — "Dzerzhinskoye Orgsteklo" to be sent for remelting. The enterprise has been declared bankrupt, November 3, 2015 (archive)
  13. sintez-oka.com — Sintez OKA Group — official website of the group of companies
  14. nicp.ru — Research Institute of Polymers JSC — History of the institute (archive)
  15. Vremya N — Explosion at the Sverdlov Plant in Dzerzhinsk: information on five fatalities confirmed, September 2018 (archive)
  16. Interfax — Explosion at a plant in Dzerzhinsk. Roundup, June 1, 2019 (archive)
  17. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kstovo's RusVinyl plant has produced three million tons of PVC in 10 years, November 5, 2024 (archive)
  18. Kommersant (Volga Region) — The Development Corporation presented the opportunities of the Kulibin Special Economic Zone to Russian chemical enterprises, March 27, 2024 (archive)
  19. Interfax — 89 people sought medical help after the explosion in Dzerzhinsk, June 2, 2019
  20. content.time.com — The World's Most Polluted Places: Dzerzhinsk, Russia (Blacksmith Institute list), 2007 (archive)
  21. worstpolluted.org — Blacksmith Institute — Dzerzhinsk, Russia — description of the polluted area (archive)
  22. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Reclamation of the "White Sea" sludge storage site in Dzerzhinsk completed, February 11, 2020 (archive)
  23. RIA Novosti — Chemical production waste storage facility eliminated in Dzerzhinsk, February 11, 2020 (archive)
  24. GIPERNN — The "Black Hole" landfill in Dzerzhinsk is planned to be eliminated by 2030, July 29, 2025 (archive)
  25. plastics-news.ru — Plasticheskiye Massy — Kozlova I. I., Kornienko P. V., Lukonin V. P. Academician V. A. Kargin Research Institute of Polymer Chemistry and Technology — 75 Years, 2024, No. 4 (archive)
  26. iomc.ras.ru — IOMC RAS — History of the G. A. Razuvaev Institute of Organometallic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences (archive)
  27. ichps.ru — ICHPS RAS — Academician Grigory Grigoryevich Devyatykh, founder of ICHPS RAS (archive)