Soviet program of biological weapons
Encyclopedia
The Soviet Union
began a biological weapons (BW) program in the 1920s despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention
, which banned both chemical and biological weapons. During World War II
, Joseph Stalin
was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces and may have used tularemia
against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad.
By 1960, numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union. Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
(BWC), the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs. These programs became immense and were conducted at 52 clandestine sites employing over 50,000 people. Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox
, for example, was 90 to 100 tons.
In the 1990s, Boris Yeltsin
admitted to an offensive bio-weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident
of 1979, which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people. Defecting Soviet bioweaponeers such as Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov confirmed that the program had been massive and still existed. An agreement was signed with the US and UK promising to end bio-weapons programs and convert BW facilities to benevolent purposes, but compliance with the agreement — and the fate of the former Soviet bio-agents and facilities — is still mostly undocumented.
. This occurred despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention
, which banned both chemical and biological weapons.
1928 - Revolutionary Military Council signed a decree about weaponization of typhus
. Leningrad Military academy began cultivation of typhus in chicken embryos. Human experimentation with typhus, glanders
and melioidosis
in Solovetsky camp. A laboratory on vaccine and serum research was also established near Moscow in 1928, within Military Chemical Agency. This laboratory was transformed to Red Army's Scientific Research Institute of Microbiology in 1933.
, Stalin was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces
1941: Soviet bioweapons facilities are evacuated to the city of Kirov
.
1942: Alleged use of tularemia
against German troops.
Tularemia
was allegedly used against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad. Around 10,000 cases of tularemia had been reported in the Soviet Union during the years of 1941 and 1943. However, the number of cases jumped to more than 100,000 in the year of Stalingrad outbreak. German panzer
troops fell ill in such significant numbers during the late summer of 1942 that German military campaign came to a temporary halt. German soldiers became ill with the rare pulmonary form of tularemia, which indicate the use of an aerosol biological weapon (the ordinary transmission pathway is through ticks and rodents). According to Kenneth Alibek the used tularemia weapon had been developed in the Kirov
military facility. It was suggested by some, however, that the outbreak might be of natural origin, since a pulmonary form of tularemia has also been noted in natural outbreaks in Martha's Vineyard
in 2000.
In the Soviet Union the outbreak at Stalingrad was described as a natural outbreak. Crops were left in the field during the German offensive and the rodent population swelled putting many inhabitants into contact with infected rodents. In some parts of the Stalingrad Oblast as many as 75% of the inhabitants became infected. It was noted that before the war there was a so-called threshing tularemia caused by people inhaling infected dusts soiled by rodents while threshing grain.
At the conclusion of the war, Soviet troops invading Manchuria
captured many Unit 731
Japanese scientists and learned of their extensive human experimentation through captured documents and prisoner interrogations. Emboldened by these discoveries, Stalin put KGB
chief Lavrenty Beria in charge of a new BW program.
.
1953: Fifteenth directorate of Red Army takes responsibility for the program.
By 1960, numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union. Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
(BWC), the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs. They doubted the United States’ claimed compliance with the BWC, which further motivated their program. The Soviet BW effort became a huge program, comprising various institutions under different ministries along with commercial facilities and collectively known as Biopreparat
after 1973. Biopreparat pursued offensive research, development, and production of biological agents under cover of legitimate civil biotechnology research. It conducted its clandestine activities at 52 sites and employed over 50,000 people. Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox, rabies, and typhus for example, was 90 to 100 tons.
1973: A "civilian" main directorate Biopreparat
was founded. Other organizations involved in design and production of biological weapons were Soviet Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture., Ministry of Health
., USSR Academy of Sciences, and KGB
.
Post-BWC developments
The Soviet Union
continued development and mass production of offensive biological weapons, despite having signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
(BWC). The development and production were conducted by a main directorate ("Biopreparat
") along with the Soviet Ministry of Defense, the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture, the Soviet Ministry of Health
, the USSR Academy of Sciences, the KGB
, and other state organizations.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture successfully developed variants of foot-and-mouth disease
and rinderpest
against cows, African swine fever for pig
s, and psittacosis
to kill chicken
. These agents were prepared to be sprayed down from tanks attached to airplanes over hundreds of miles. The secret program was code-named "Ecology".
Boris Yeltsin
admitted to an offensive bio-weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident
of 1979, which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people. Soviet defectors, including Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov, first deputy chief of Biopreparat from 1988 to 1992, confirmed that the program had been massive and still existed. In September 1992, Russia signed an agreement with the United States and Great Britain promising to end its bio-weapons program and to convert its facilities for benevolent scientific and medical purposes.
Compliance with the agreement as well as the fate of the former Soviet bio-agents and facilities, is still mostly undocumented.
1990s: specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses were stolen from Western laboratories and delivered by Aeroflot
planes to support Russian program of biological weapons. At least one of the pilots was a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service
officer". At least two agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens
Beginning of 2000s: Academician "A.S." proposed new biological warfare program "Biological Shield of Russia" to president Vladimir Putin
. The program reportedly includes institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences from Pushchino
reportedly had a large biological weapons program enhancing the usefulness of the Marburg virus
. The development was conducted in Vector Institute under leadership of Dr. Ustinov who accidentally died from the virus. The samples of Marburg taken from Ustinov's organs were more powerful than the original strain. New strain called "Variant U" had been successfully weaponized and approved by Soviet Ministry of Defense in 1990.
weapons factory in the Soviet Union
was established in 1947 in the city of Zagorsk, close to Moscow
. It was produced by injecting small amounts of the virus into chicken eggs. An especially virulent strain (codenamed India-1967 or India-1) was brought from India in 1967 by a special Soviet medical team that was sent to India to help to eradicate the virus. The pathogen was manufactured and stockpiled in large quantities throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
An outbreak of weaponized smallpox occurred during its testing in the 1970s. General Prof. Peter Burgasov, former Chief Sanitary Physician of the Soviet Army
, and a senior researcher within the program of biological weapons described this incident:
A production line to manufacture smallpox on an industrial scale was launched in the Vector Institute in 1990. The development of genetically altered strains of smallpox was presumably conducted in the Institute under leadership of Dr. Sergei Netyosov in the middle of the 1990s, according to Kenneth Alibek
It was reported that Russia made smallpox available to Iraq in the beginning of 1990s.
were accidentally released from a military facility near the city of Sverdlovsk
in 1979. The death toll was at least 105, but no one knows the exact number, because all hospital records and other evidence were destroyed by the KGB
, according to former Biopreparat
deputy director Kenneth Alibek.
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
began a biological weapons (BW) program in the 1920s despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention
Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons. It was signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925 and entered...
, which banned both chemical and biological weapons. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces and may have used tularemia
Tularemia
Tularemia is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. A Gram-negative, nonmotile coccobacillus, the bacterium has several subspecies with varying degrees of virulence. The most important of those is F...
against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad.
By 1960, numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union. Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
Biological Weapons Convention
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the...
(BWC), the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs. These programs became immense and were conducted at 52 clandestine sites employing over 50,000 people. Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, for example, was 90 to 100 tons.
In the 1990s, Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
admitted to an offensive bio-weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident
Sverdlovsk anthrax leak
The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak is an incident when spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk 1450 km east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. This accident is sometimes called "biological Chernobyl"...
of 1979, which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people. Defecting Soviet bioweaponeers such as Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov confirmed that the program had been massive and still existed. An agreement was signed with the US and UK promising to end bio-weapons programs and convert BW facilities to benevolent purposes, but compliance with the agreement — and the fate of the former Soviet bio-agents and facilities — is still mostly undocumented.
Pre-World War II
The Soviet BW program began in the 1920s at the Leningrad Military Academy under the control of the state security apparatus, known as the GPUState Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
. This occurred despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention
Geneva Protocol
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the first use of chemical and biological weapons. It was signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925 and entered...
, which banned both chemical and biological weapons.
1928 - Revolutionary Military Council signed a decree about weaponization of typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
. Leningrad Military academy began cultivation of typhus in chicken embryos. Human experimentation with typhus, glanders
Glanders
Glanders is an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses, mules, and donkeys. It can be contracted by other animals such as dogs, cats and goats...
and melioidosis
Melioidosis
Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a Gram-negative bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, found in soil and water. It is of public health importance in endemic areas, particularly in Thailand and northern Australia. It exists in acute and chronic forms. Symptoms may include pain in...
in Solovetsky camp. A laboratory on vaccine and serum research was also established near Moscow in 1928, within Military Chemical Agency. This laboratory was transformed to Red Army's Scientific Research Institute of Microbiology in 1933.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Stalin was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces
1941: Soviet bioweapons facilities are evacuated to the city of Kirov
Kirov, Kirov Oblast
Kirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...
.
1942: Alleged use of tularemia
Tularemia
Tularemia is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. A Gram-negative, nonmotile coccobacillus, the bacterium has several subspecies with varying degrees of virulence. The most important of those is F...
against German troops.
Tularemia
Tularemia
Tularemia is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. A Gram-negative, nonmotile coccobacillus, the bacterium has several subspecies with varying degrees of virulence. The most important of those is F...
was allegedly used against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad. Around 10,000 cases of tularemia had been reported in the Soviet Union during the years of 1941 and 1943. However, the number of cases jumped to more than 100,000 in the year of Stalingrad outbreak. German panzer
Panzer
A Panzer is a German language word that, when used as a noun, means "tank". When it is used as an adjective, it means either tank or "armoured" .- Etymology :...
troops fell ill in such significant numbers during the late summer of 1942 that German military campaign came to a temporary halt. German soldiers became ill with the rare pulmonary form of tularemia, which indicate the use of an aerosol biological weapon (the ordinary transmission pathway is through ticks and rodents). According to Kenneth Alibek the used tularemia weapon had been developed in the Kirov
Kirov, Kirov Oblast
Kirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...
military facility. It was suggested by some, however, that the outbreak might be of natural origin, since a pulmonary form of tularemia has also been noted in natural outbreaks in Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
in 2000.
In the Soviet Union the outbreak at Stalingrad was described as a natural outbreak. Crops were left in the field during the German offensive and the rodent population swelled putting many inhabitants into contact with infected rodents. In some parts of the Stalingrad Oblast as many as 75% of the inhabitants became infected. It was noted that before the war there was a so-called threshing tularemia caused by people inhaling infected dusts soiled by rodents while threshing grain.
At the conclusion of the war, Soviet troops invading Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
captured many Unit 731
Unit 731
was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. It was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese...
Japanese scientists and learned of their extensive human experimentation through captured documents and prisoner interrogations. Emboldened by these discoveries, Stalin put KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
chief Lavrenty Beria in charge of a new BW program.
The Cold War
1946: A biological weapons facility was established in SverdlovskYekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
.
1953: Fifteenth directorate of Red Army takes responsibility for the program.
By 1960, numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union. Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
Biological Weapons Convention
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the...
(BWC), the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs. They doubted the United States’ claimed compliance with the BWC, which further motivated their program. The Soviet BW effort became a huge program, comprising various institutions under different ministries along with commercial facilities and collectively known as Biopreparat
Biopreparat
Biopreparat was the Soviet Union's major biological warfare agency from the 1970s on. It was a vast network of secret laboratories, each focused on a different deadly agent...
after 1973. Biopreparat pursued offensive research, development, and production of biological agents under cover of legitimate civil biotechnology research. It conducted its clandestine activities at 52 sites and employed over 50,000 people. Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox, rabies, and typhus for example, was 90 to 100 tons.
1973: A "civilian" main directorate Biopreparat
Biopreparat
Biopreparat was the Soviet Union's major biological warfare agency from the 1970s on. It was a vast network of secret laboratories, each focused on a different deadly agent...
was founded. Other organizations involved in design and production of biological weapons were Soviet Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Agriculture., Ministry of Health
Ministry of Health (Soviet Union)
The Ministry of Health of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , formed on 15 March 1946, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was formerly known as the People's Commissariat for Health...
., USSR Academy of Sciences, and KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
.
Post-BWC developments
The Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
continued development and mass production of offensive biological weapons, despite having signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention
Biological Weapons Convention
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning the...
(BWC). The development and production were conducted by a main directorate ("Biopreparat
Biopreparat
Biopreparat was the Soviet Union's major biological warfare agency from the 1970s on. It was a vast network of secret laboratories, each focused on a different deadly agent...
") along with the Soviet Ministry of Defense, the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture, the Soviet Ministry of Health
Ministry of Health (Soviet Union)
The Ministry of Health of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , formed on 15 March 1946, was one of the most important government offices in the Soviet Union. It was formerly known as the People's Commissariat for Health...
, the USSR Academy of Sciences, the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, and other state organizations.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture successfully developed variants of foot-and-mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease
Foot-and-mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids...
and rinderpest
Rinderpest
Rinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001...
against cows, African swine fever for pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
s, and psittacosis
Psittacosis
In medicine , psittacosis — also known as parrot disease, parrot fever, and ornithosis — is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Chlamydophila psittaci and contracted from parrots, such as macaws, cockatiels and budgerigars, and pigeons, sparrows, ducks, hens, gulls and many...
to kill chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
. These agents were prepared to be sprayed down from tanks attached to airplanes over hundreds of miles. The secret program was code-named "Ecology".
The post-Soviet era
In the 1990s, President of the Russian FederationPresident of the Russian Federation
The President of the Russian Federation is the head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office within the Russian Federation...
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
admitted to an offensive bio-weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident
Sverdlovsk anthrax leak
The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak is an incident when spores of anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility in the city of Sverdlovsk 1450 km east of Moscow on April 2, 1979. This accident is sometimes called "biological Chernobyl"...
of 1979, which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people. Soviet defectors, including Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov, first deputy chief of Biopreparat from 1988 to 1992, confirmed that the program had been massive and still existed. In September 1992, Russia signed an agreement with the United States and Great Britain promising to end its bio-weapons program and to convert its facilities for benevolent scientific and medical purposes.
Compliance with the agreement as well as the fate of the former Soviet bio-agents and facilities, is still mostly undocumented.
1990s: specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses were stolen from Western laboratories and delivered by Aeroflot
Aeroflot
OJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines , commonly known as Aeroflot , is the flag carrier and largest airline of the Russian Federation, based on passengers carried per year...
planes to support Russian program of biological weapons. At least one of the pilots was a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service
Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is Russia's primary external intelligence agency. The SVR is the successor of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB since December 1991...
officer". At least two agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens
Beginning of 2000s: Academician "A.S." proposed new biological warfare program "Biological Shield of Russia" to president Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
. The program reportedly includes institutes of Russian Academy of Sciences from Pushchino
Pushchino
Pushchino is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated south of Moscow, on the right side of the Oka River opposite the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve. As it can be confused with other towns with similar names, it is informally called Pushchino-on-Oka...
List of Soviet/Russian BW institutions, programs and projects
- BiopreparatBiopreparatBiopreparat was the Soviet Union's major biological warfare agency from the 1970s on. It was a vast network of secret laboratories, each focused on a different deadly agent...
(18 labs and production centers)- Stepnagorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for MicrobiologyStepnagorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for MicrobiologyThe Stepnagorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for Microbiology, also known as the Scientific Experimental and Production Base, was one of the premier biological warfare facilities operated by the Soviet Union. It was the only Biopreparat facility to be built outside of Russia proper, and one...
, StepnogorskStepnogorskStepnogorsk is a town in Akmola Province, Kazakhstan. It was established in 1959, and has been a town since 1964. It is located about 200km North-East of Astana. It was first established as a secret town with code names Tselinograd-25 , Makinsk-2 . The town is known as a nuclear and biochemical site...
, northern KazakhstanKazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe... - Institute of Ultra Pure Biochemical PreparationsVladimir PasechnikVladimir Pasechnik was a senior Soviet biologist and bioweaponeer who defected to the UK in 1989, alerting Western intelligence to the vast scope of Moscow's clandestine biological warfare program, known as Biopreparat...
, LeningradLeningradLeningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, a weaponized plague center - Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR), a weaponized smallpox center
- Institute of Applied Biochemistry, OmutninskOmutninskOmutninsk is a town and the administrative center of Omutninsky District of Kirov Oblast, Russia. Population: It was first mentioned in 1773; town status was granted to it in 1921.The Institute of Applied Biochemistry is situated near Omutninsk...
- Kirov bioweapons production facility, Kirov, Kirov OblastKirov, Kirov OblastKirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...
- Zagorsk smallpox production facility, Zagorsk
- Berdsk bioweapons production facility, BerdskBerdskBerdsk is a town in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, a satellite of Novosibirsk, situated on a bank of the Berd River. Population: It was founded in 1716 as a fortress. Town status was granted to it in 1944...
- Bioweapons research facility, Obolensk
- Sverdlovsk bioweapons production facility (Military Compound 19), Sverdlovsk, a weaponized anthrax center
- Stepnagorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for Microbiology
- Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret servicesPoison laboratory of the Soviet secret servicesPoison laboratory of the Soviet secret services, alternatively known as Laboratory 1, Laboratory 12, and Kamera which means "The Chamber" in Russian, was a covert research and development facility of the Soviet secret police agencies,which notably also developed antidotes and internal...
- VozrozhdeniyaVozrozhdeniyaVozrozhdeniya, also known as Rebirth Island , was a former island of the Aral Sea or South Aral Sea. Due to the ongoing shrinkage of the Aral, it became first a peninsula in mid-2001 and finally part of the mainland. Since the disappearance of the Southeast Aral in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya effectively...
- Project Bonfire, development of antibiotic-resistant microbial strains
- Project Factor, creation of microbial weapons with new properties of high virulence, improved stability, and new clinical syndromes
Marburg virus
The Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
reportedly had a large biological weapons program enhancing the usefulness of the Marburg virus
Marburg virus
Marburg virus disease is the name for the human disease caused by any of the two marburgviruses Marburg virus and Ravn virus...
. The development was conducted in Vector Institute under leadership of Dr. Ustinov who accidentally died from the virus. The samples of Marburg taken from Ustinov's organs were more powerful than the original strain. New strain called "Variant U" had been successfully weaponized and approved by Soviet Ministry of Defense in 1990.
Smallpox
The first smallpoxSmallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
weapons factory in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
was established in 1947 in the city of Zagorsk, close to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. It was produced by injecting small amounts of the virus into chicken eggs. An especially virulent strain (codenamed India-1967 or India-1) was brought from India in 1967 by a special Soviet medical team that was sent to India to help to eradicate the virus. The pathogen was manufactured and stockpiled in large quantities throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
An outbreak of weaponized smallpox occurred during its testing in the 1970s. General Prof. Peter Burgasov, former Chief Sanitary Physician of the Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
, and a senior researcher within the program of biological weapons described this incident:
- “On Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral SeaAral SeaThe Aral Sea was a lake that lay between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
, the strongest recipes of smallpox were tested. Suddenly I was informed that there were mysterious cases of mortalities in Aralsk. A research ship of the Aral fleet came 15 km away from the island (it was forbidden to come any closer than 40 km). The lab technician of this ship took samples of plankton twice a day from the top deck. The smallpox formulation— 400 gr. of which was exploded on the island—”got her” and she became infected. After returning home to Aralsk, she infected several people including children. All of them died. I suspected the reason for this and called the Chief of General Staff of Ministry of Defense and requested to forbid the stop of the Alma-Ata to MoscowMoscowMoscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
train in Aralsk. As a result, the epidemic around the country was prevented. I called AndropovYuri AndropovYuri Vladimirovich Andropov was a Soviet politician and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 12 November 1982 until his death fifteen months later.-Early life:...
, who at that time was Chief of KGB, and informed him of the exclusive recipe of smallpox obtained on Vozrozhdeniya Island.”
A production line to manufacture smallpox on an industrial scale was launched in the Vector Institute in 1990. The development of genetically altered strains of smallpox was presumably conducted in the Institute under leadership of Dr. Sergei Netyosov in the middle of the 1990s, according to Kenneth Alibek
It was reported that Russia made smallpox available to Iraq in the beginning of 1990s.
Anthrax
Spores of weaponized anthraxAnthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
were accidentally released from a military facility near the city of Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
in 1979. The death toll was at least 105, but no one knows the exact number, because all hospital records and other evidence were destroyed by the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, according to former Biopreparat
Biopreparat
Biopreparat was the Soviet Union's major biological warfare agency from the 1970s on. It was a vast network of secret laboratories, each focused on a different deadly agent...
deputy director Kenneth Alibek.
List of Soviet/Russian bioweaponeers
- Igor Domaradskij
- Kanatjan Alibekov, known as Ken Alibek
- Vladimir PasechnikVladimir PasechnikVladimir Pasechnik was a senior Soviet biologist and bioweaponeer who defected to the UK in 1989, alerting Western intelligence to the vast scope of Moscow's clandestine biological warfare program, known as Biopreparat...
- Sergei PopovSergei Popov (bioweaponeer)Sergei Popov is a scientist and bioweaponeer formerly in the Soviet biological weapons program.He defected to the West in 1992 and now lives and works in the United States.-Biography:...
- Yuri Ovchinnikov
External links
- Soviet Defector Warns of Biological Weapons By Tim Werner, New York Times, February 25, 1998]
- Statement by Dr. Kenneth Alibek before the Joint Economic Committee of United States Congress, May 20, 1998
- Post-World War II Programs of Biological Weapons
- The Russian Biological Weapons Program: Vanished or Disappeared? by Dany Shoham and Ze'ev Wolfson, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Volume 30, Number 4, October-December 2004, pp. 241-261.
- Red Lies: Biological warfare and the Soviet Union, CBC NewsCBC NewsCBC News is the department within the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on CBC television, radio and online services...
Online, February 18, 2004 - Aspects of Biological Warfare During World War II, By Germar Rudolf
- An Obscure Weapon of the Cold War Edges Into the Limelight, by Gretchen Vogel, ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
, Vol. 302, pp. 222 - 223 - History of Biowarfare and Bioterrorism
- Soviet Army used 'rat weapon' during WWII
- Missed link Memories of bioweapons developer Domaradsky (Russian)
- Re-Evaluating Russia's Biological Weapons Policy, as Reflected in the Criminal Code and Official Admissions: Insubordination Leading to a President's Subordination by Jan T. Knoph; Kristina S. Westerdahl. Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Volume 32, Issue 1 January 2006 , pages 1 - 13
- "The Memoirs of an Inconvenient Man: Revelations About Biological Weapons Research in the Soviet Union" by Igor V. Domaradskij and Wendy Orent, Critical Reviews in Microbiology, Volume 27, Issue 4 October 2001 , pages 239 - 266.
- Russian Biological and Chemical Weapons, a useful page about non-state weapons transfers with a lot of links to information from CRSCRS-Science and technology:* Cambridge Reference Sequence, used in mitochondrial DNA testing* Canada Remote Systems, a now-defunct bulletin board system based in Toronto* Carrier Routing System, a large-scale core router...
, the GAOGaoGao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
and NGOs. - Bioweapons from Russia: Stemming the Flow, by Jonathan B. Tucker