Revolutionary who went from Left SR leader to architect of Soviet chemical warfare
In July 1918, Left SR Central Committee member Fishman personally manufactured the two bombs used to assassinate German ambassador Wilhelm von Mirbach and handed them to his comrades.
An SR militant who escaped Siberian exile to study explosives and poison-gas chemistry at the University of Naples, Fishman returned in 1917, became a Left SR Central Committee member, and personally manufactured the bombs for the 1918 assassination of German ambassador Mirbach. After joining the Bolsheviks in 1920, he was appointed the first head of the Red Army's Military-Chemical Directorate (VOKhIMU) in 1925, laying the foundations of the Soviet chemical and biological weapons program; his 1928 report to Voroshilov argued for the offensive use of bacteriological warfare. Arrested in 1937 and sentenced to ten years, he developed a new gas mask model at the NKVD Special Technical Bureau; he was rehabilitated in 1955 with the rank of major general of technical troops.
Career Timeline
- 1904Joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party
- 1905Petrograd Soviet deputy; led Okhta Powder Factory combat druzhina
- 1917Left SR Central Committee member; took part in the October Revolution
- 1918Left SR combat druzhina chief; manufactured bombs for Mirbach assassination
- 1921–1925Red Army intelligence officer; military attaché in Italy and Germany
- 1925–1937Head of Red Army VOKhIMU; director of Institute of Chemical Defence
- 1937–1947Arrested, 10-year sentence; developed gas mask at NKVD Special Technical Bureau
- 1955Rehabilitated; promoted to major general of technical troops