Dzerzhinsk, Russia

Dzerzhinsk, Russia, is one of several cities in the former Soviet Union named after the first head of the Soviet secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky. The city is located approximately 250 miles east of Moscow, in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Dzerzhinsk was formed in 1929 because of its proximity to the railroad, proximity to the river Oka, and proximity to Nizhny Novgorod, the Oblast capital. Dzerzhinsk has been recognized as the second most polluted city (after Chernobyl) in the world. Recently, its prominence has been replaced by a few cities in China, although it continues to be listed in the top 10 most polluted cities in the world. As a result of improper disposal of chemical weapons that were produced from the mid to late 1940s until ...