Additionally, according to their results, the same was true for the thionic analog of the neopentyl ether of methylfluorophosphonic acid. The oxygen analog of this ether has toxic features identical to soman. That was a sensational discovery, but it could not be trumpeted to the public – to the deep regret of ambitious Bogomazov. Naturally, Bogomazov’s discovery was immediately reported to the headquarters of the Chemical Troops at the Ministry of Defense, and the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the eyes of those organizations, Bogomazov became one of the leading scientists, a man who made a revolution in military science.
With his usual grandeur, he returned to his research, and decided to attract large-scale resources to his discovery. A number of GOSNIIOKhT’s subdivisions began working under his scientific leadership.
A special group was organized under the supervision of Aleksander Yakovlev at the Engineering Department, to develop an automated device for the analysis of the adsorption properties of the newly synthesized compounds. According to the project, these new compounds should be brought on line by two groups of chemists who were specializing in synthesizing compounds.
Also, the Physical Chemistry Department started a broad-based study for the deeper understanding of the adsorption processes, which caused the breakthrough of chemical agents mentioned above.
A young graduate student, Aleksander Klochkov, from the X-ray Structure Analysis Group headed by Doctor of Chemistry Efim Galperin, began working on his masters’ thesis about the adsorption properties of the thionic analogs. Another graduate student from the group for determining physical-chemical constants, Valery Belikov, discovered that there was a great difference between the compounds that broke through the filter and those compounds which irreversibly adsorbed to the filter, in terms of the thermal effects on adsorption.
A real scientific fever was ignited, which also caused some new discoveries to be made. For example, one of Dubov’s favorite graduate students, Aleksander Tarasov, invented an inhibitor, which blocked the spontaneous ignition of the thionic analogs in the air. Tarasov also found the optimal concentration for the inhibitor, which secured retention of the so-called field or combat concentration of chemical agents in the air. However, everything was being done very incorrectly, because analyses of the mixtures were faulty.
The overwhelming power of the secret regime allows scientific schemers to work miracles, and to pay no attention whatsoever to any analysis. So, Tarasov successfully defended his thesis for his master’s degree before the Science Council.
I learned about all this work only two years after it began, when I transferred into the Physical Chemistry Department, to further research the adsorption processes connected with the breakthrough. True, I had seen Bogomazov before I came to the department. Several of my friends had pointed out a tall and heavy young blond man with blue eyes and a plump white face, and whispered in my ear that he was the author of a stupendous discovery.
Following GOSNIIOKhT’s principle: never ask about things that do not directly concern you, I did not ask anything about the nature of Bogomazov’s discovery then.
After so many years of frustration connected with my doctoral thesis, and simply longing for a team of true scientists, which I believed the Physical Chemistry Department to be, I came to Dubov’s office. Kurochkin and Bogomazov were also present.
Dubov, as head of the department, briefly told me about the importance of Bogomazov’s project, not only for the institute, but also for the “Foliant” program. Overall, my task was to provide compelling theoretical scientific grounds for Bogomazov’s discovery. I believe it was probably some kind of “landscaping job”, to give such a magnificent discovery additional grandeur.
Of course I was literally shaken when I heard about Bogomazov’s research results for the first time. His discovery would render any person helpless – whether he was a soldier or an innocent civilian. Being sensitive by nature, I was tormented at that moment by the vision of children meeting their painful deaths in gas masks, which became absolutely useless against a chemical weapons attack, thanks to Bogomazov’s discovery.
We discussed the details of my transfer into the department, and talked about my American instruments, which Dubov had managed to wangle away from Beresnev for my work. We also talked about the possibility that I would finally be able to defend my doctoral thesis, but I could not recover from the shock of what I had heard.
Sometime later, I went to lunch with the young genius and some of his colleagues, and I couldn’t help asking Yevgeny how he felt about it. What if his discovery was ever used against peaceful civilians?
He replied he realized that he might be prosecuted by an international tribunal, as the Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials had been. However, he said, he was only a scientist who had had a great bit of luck. I noticed an undisguised smugness and some kind of bragging on his plump face, probably caused by the presence of Galina Beletskaya, a pretty young laboratory assistant.
By that time, I had almost grown accustomed to shocking talk in some of the seminars run by my colleagues. For example, if they described the lethal properties of some newly synthesized compound as LD 50 (50-percent lethal intravenous dose), that meant that no less than 50 percent of the laboratory animals had to die during tests. I saw rabbits in their agonizing death throes in the test chambers at Department MB. Even after all of that, this young man’s obvious cynicism truly stunned me. I understood at once that we would never be on good terms.
However, despite my feelings and my private suffering over this, I had to do the work that I was assigned. I almost never had any assistants in my new department, so I had to do absolutely everything with my own hands. That was according to the wishes of the young genius. Certainly, that meant a lot of routine and unskilled work, but I didn’t have any choice. I patiently set up my chromatographs and assembled an experimental dynamic set for adsorption analysis.
By the winter of 1982, I already completely understood the uselessness of chemical weapons for our national defense. Even worse, I was convinced that they were directed at the helpless civilian population in the first place. I knew from the press that there were ongoing discussions and negotiations in Geneva for a treaty that would ban the development and production of chemical weapons. But wasn’t it strange that the new project we were developing would mean a new and dramatic turn for the worse in the chemical weapons race?
Since our military-chemical complex had big plans for developing new methods of breaking through the gas-mask filter, a special interdepartmental council was created for discussions and for coordinating the research related to that. Academician Lieutenant General Ivan Knunyants, a well-known military chemist, was appointed the head of this group.
Once I happened to be present at one of the meetings of that council. I was listening to the reports and papers delivered that morning, and I realized that they weren’t up to the job. They seemed like a bunch of dilettantes. I told Bogomazov about my misgivings, and as a result they stopped inviting me to the meetings.
While I was busy setting up my equipment, I was able to observe Bogomazov’s colleagues at work. Zalepugin and Dmitriev toiled selflessly, testing everything new and every new chemical compound that came in from the synthesis laboratories.
Soon they discovered that the selenium analogs of soman and sarin, synthesized by Dr. Evgeni Greenshtein’s group, could also break through the gas-mask filter. It looked like we would soon be able to meet the demand of the Directorate of the Chief of the Chemical Troops (UNKhV) to reduce the initial concentrations of aerosolized chemical agents to less than a few hundredths of a milligram per liter of air. For some reason the military authorities were stuck on the idea that this concentration of chemical agents would be economically “efficient” for killing soldiers on the battlefield, and those in the command stations and gas-protection chambers.