Poison Laboratory of The Soviet Secret Services - Chronology

Chronology

• 1921: First poison laboratory within the Soviet secret services was established under the name "Special Office". It was headed by professor of medicine Ignatii Kazakov, according to Pavel Sudoplatov.
• 1926: The laboratory was under the supervision of Genrikh Yagoda, a deputy of OGPU chairman Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, who became NKVD chief in 1934 after Menzhinsky's death.
• February 20, 1939: It becomes Laboratory 1 headed by Grigory Mairanovsky. The laboratory was under the direct supervision of NKVD director Lavrenty Beria and his deputy Vsevolod Merkulov from 1939 to March 1953.
• December 21, 1951: Grigory Mairanovsky arrested in connection with Viktor Abakumov's arrest, which was presumably a part of Joseph Stalin's campaign to remove NKVD chief, Lavrenty Beria.
• March 14, 1953: It was renamed to Laboratory 12. V. Naumov is the newly appointed head. Lavrenty Beria and Vsevolod Merkulov were executed after Stalin's death. Immediate NKVD supervisor of the laboratory, Pavel Sudoplatov, received a long term in prison.
• 1978: Expanded into the Central Investigation Institute for Special Technology within the First Chief Directorate of the KGB.
• Currently: Several laboratories of the SVR, (headquartered in Yasenevo near Moscow), are responsible for the "creation of biological and toxin weapons for clandestine operations in the West".