Chemical Troops - History
Chemical troops appeared during the First World War, when they began to use chemical weapons. The "attack of the dead" from the 13th company of the Zemlyansky Regiment on July 24, 1915, while repelling a German gas attack on the Eastern Front, has forever remained in history. There were no gas masks. All life on the territory of the Belarusian fortress Osovets was poisoned. A poisonous green layer of chlorine oxide covered the metal parts of guns and shells. After a gas attack and artillery shelling, 7,000 German infantrymen moved to storm the Russian positions. However, sixty surviving Russian soldiers at full height launched their last bayonet attack, and put the enemy to flight.
In Russia, chemical units appeared during the First World War as part of the Russian Imperial Army, although they were not then allocated to a separate branch of the military. By the way, it was in Russia that the first coal gas mask was created - this method of air purification was developed in 1915 by the Russian chemist Nikolai Zelinsky.
Modern troops of radiation, chemical and biological protection trace their history back to November 13, 1918. It was then that the chemical service was created in the Red Army. A few years later, chemical units appeared in all Red Army units. By the end of the 1920s, the chemical service of the Red Army had its own units in all rifle and cavalry units (both people and horses were provided with gas masks).
During the Great Patriotic War, technical brigades operated as part of the troops - to mask large objects with smoke, battalions and companies of chemical protection, flamethrower battalions and companies. During the Great Patriotic War, the chemical troops did not have to perform tasks directly in their specialty, but they were constantly ready to repel a gas attack. In rifle units, chemists fought like ordinary fighters. Large units performed tasks using flamethrowers. A total of 28 chemical soldiers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Soviet military planned to use nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons either to deter aggression or as a response to an enemy attack on the State. Soviet forces had short-, medium-, and intermediate-range SSMs capable of carrying nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads. Additionally, it could employ aircraft systems and cruise missiles to deliver an NBC strike. If needed, the majority of Soviet artillery (152-mm and above) was capable of firing nuclear or chemical munitions.
The mission of the Chemical Troops was to defend the armed forces against the effects of "weapons of mass destruction"-- nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons. With 50,000 soldiers in 1989, the Chemical Troops constituted the world's largest NBC defense force. The Chemical Troops would perform NBC reconnaissance; mark contaminated areas; and decontaminate personnel, weapons, and terrain during wartime. They operated 30,000 armored combat vehicles equipped for NBC reconnaissance and truck-mounted systems equipped to spray decontaminating solutions on the surface areas of tanks, combat vehicles, and aircraft.
During the years of the Cold War, the range of tasks facing the chemical forces expanded significantly. They began to prepare to protect the population also from radiation and biological threats. During this period, the most serious test for the chemical troops was the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986.
The Chemical Troops demonstrated the use of helicopters for NBC defense during the large-scale radiation cleanup operation after the Chernobyl' nuclear reactor accident in April 1986. In 1989 the Chemical Troops did not operate offensive delivery systems. Yet the strength of Soviet chemical defense provided an offensive potential by enhancing the ability of Soviet forces to fight on contaminated battlefields. Thus, supported by the Chemical Troops, Soviet forces were better prepared than any other in the world for NBC operations.
In the first days, more than 10,000 military personnel went to the disaster area - two chemical protection brigades, seven regiments and two separate battalions. They carried out the decontamination of equipment and protective equipment, were engaged in the collection and disposal of radioactive waste, and continuously conducted radiation reconnaissance. In the following months, almost all military personnel of the chemical troops passed through Chernobyl.
Many people remember the spontaneous launch of a nuclear reactor and a thermal explosion on a submarine in Chazhma Bay in the summer of 1985. Only experts know what mountains to move after such incidents. Floods and natural fires occur every year. And in almost all such cases, the disastrous consequences are eliminated with the involvement of the RCBZ troops.
Since 1992, they have been called the troops of radiation, chemical and biological protection (RCBZ). There are RKhBZ units in every military district, they are in constant combat readiness.
The military personnel of the RKhBZ troops performed tasks in Syria. Reconnaissance chemical units were deployed to the border of the demilitarized zone in the province of Idlib. Earlier, the Ministry of Defense repeatedly stated that there is a high probability of provocation by foreign special services with the use of poison gases. Warriors-chemists are constantly monitoring the RCB situation on the latest reconnaissance chemical machines RHM-6, capable of detecting 26 types of toxic substances in the air and even determining the source of their distribution.
In 2020, RCBZ units were involved in the disinfection of civilian and military infrastructure facilities throughout the country as part of the fight against COVID. According to the head of the troops, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, during this time the military disinfected about 113 thousand objects with a total area of more than 25 million square meters. m, more than 200 aircraft and more than 19 thousand pieces of equipment. More than 10,000 servicemen of the RKhBZ troops were involved in the fight against coronavirus infection.
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