These words in the headline could serve as the motto of biological weapons developers around the world. For many years, all materials on this topic were classified as "secret".
Relatively recently, the veil of secrecy was opened and some archival documents, monographs, as well as eyewitness accounts became available …
Reply to the imperialists
The use of biological weapons has a rich history. It is known for certain that in 1518 the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez deliberately infected the Aztec tribe with smallpox. As a result, half of the natives became extinct, which Cortez proudly reported to the Spanish king.
In 1741, the British, who took part in military campaigns in Mexico and Peru, were infected with yellow fever, losing 80 percent of their personnel. The British general Jeffrey Amherst was also noted, who in 1763 made a broad gesture and presented the American Indians with thousands of blankets that were previously used to shelter smallpox patients, which caused an epidemic among the Indians that claimed many lives.
The 1925 Geneva Protocol banning the use of biological weapons did not stop its development in different countries of the world. Naturally, the young Soviet Republic could not stand aside and attracted its best scientists to create effective means of biological warfare.
In 1926, the Military Chemical Directorate began active work on the creation of biological weapons.
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"This will be our response to the aggressive imperialist powers who cherish the hope of strangling the young republic and are not averse to using deadly bacteria against the Soviet people at any time!" - such words of Stalin served as an impetus for the beginning of intense research, on the results of which the leader regularly received detailed reports.
Mice and rabbits
Since 1923, the issues of creating biological weapons were supervised by the prominent Bolshevik leader Iosif Unshlikht.
A special laboratory was created in the capital under the leadership of Professor A. N. Ginzburg, who studied the damaging ability of anthrax bacteria. As a result of the research, it was possible to significantly increase the virulence of bacteria, which was confirmed by tests on small rodents. It was found that "they died within 22-24 hours after the application of the spore-bearing broth to the skin." Tests were soon carried out on larger animals (cats, rabbits, rams) - also "with a positive result."
In the village of Perkhushkovo near Moscow, biologists and chemists have developed means of effective protection against biological attacks. At Stalin's instructions, secret firms appeared in Leningrad, Sverdlovsk, Kursk, Suzdal, Stepnogorsk.
In 1933, on a secluded island in the Aral Sea, an institution was deployed officially engaged in obtaining a vaccine against foot and mouth disease. In fact, its employees were developing effective types of biological weapons.
Effective breakthrough
However, despite the heightened interest of Joseph Vissarionovich in the problem of biological weapons, research was difficult. Only in 1934, the head of the military-chemical directorate, Yakov Fishman, reported to the People's Commissar for Defense of the USSR Kliment Voroshilov that the weapon, codenamed "substance 49" based on anthrax, was ready and could be used by the army. And the creation of a more expanded range of biological weapons was completed only by 1940.
According to the well-known chemist and writer Lev Fedorov, who devoted a number of articles and monographs to the study of the creation of biological weapons in the USSR, the effectiveness of this type of weapon by that time was confirmed by numerous tests both on animals and on humans - prisoners in prisons and camps.
The infamous sharashka also appeared, where, in fact, famous scientists accused of various articles worked for soldering. In the 1930s, specialists who were engaged in research on plague, cholera and tularemia were arrested. Among those arrested were microbiologists Alevtina Volferts, Dmitry Golov, Ivan Rogov, Sergei Suvorov and dozens of other professionals. They were charged with various charges (espionage, sabotage, sabotage), but instead of camps, the convicts were placed in a secret institution located in Suzdal, whose team was developing offensive and defensive bacteriological weapons. A fundamental breakthrough in its creation occurred when, in 1939, General Efim Smirnov headed the Main Military Sanitary Directorate. By the beginning of World War II, many types of bacteriological weapons had been created in the USSR. Smirnov strengthened the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene (NIIEG), which moved to Kirov with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.
The rodents ran in the wrong direction
Competent experts are inclined to explain the outbreak of tularemia in the Nazi troops attacking Stalingrad in 1942 with the use of biological weapons. As a result, the offensive was suspended. But then the outbreak spread to the Soviet troops, which was caused by the migration of infected rodents towards our positions. Air Marshal Sergei Rudenko wrote in his book Wings of Victory: “The ten days preceding the counter-offensive proved to be dramatic for the 16th Air Army. In the first half of November, we were warned about the invasion of mice. In addition, the rodents were sick with tularemia. The most unlucky thing was the army headquarters. Penetrating into houses, mice contaminated food and water, people got sick … Soon my deputies got sick, then the signalmen and doctors fell ill. The disease was difficult for all, with high fever. There were even two deaths. Only two remained in the ranks: me and Lieutenant Colonel Noskov from the operations department. I contacted Moscow and asked to send a new chief of staff. After all, the date of the operation was already approaching …”.
Closed area
After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, the development of biological weapons in the USSR continued and concentrated on the creation of aerosol-type means. It was recognized that it was aerosols that would become the most effective in the event of a biological war. Lev Fedorov quotes the statement of General V. I. Evstigneeva: “In our opinion, the most reliable way of spreading infectious diseases pathogens will be the creation of an aerosol carrying an infectious disease agent in each of its particles. A person, inhaling such air, immediately becomes infected."
According to this concept, the potential enemy's manpower located in open areas and in leaky premises is subject to infection. It was assumed that the transfer of biological elements into aerosols would be achieved with the help of explosions, for which special projectiles and bombs were developed at an accelerated pace. Personnel were being trained to service such special equipment.
These developments were concentrated in a closed area on the Vozrozhdenie island in the Aral Sea, called Aralsk-7. The use of aviation continued, which sprayed new types of "battle strains" - from anthrax and cholera to bubonic plague.
Sheep and even primates were used as test subjects, as their respiratory system was similar to that of humans. Unfortunately, not without human sacrifice. In 1971, a sudden gust of wind blew the contaminated cloud into the Aral Sea. As a result, almost fifty people died from the research vessel.
What did the defector tell us about?
During the years of perestroika, the secrecy of domestic biological weapons development was dealt a significant blow.
In 1989, in France, Vladimir Pasechnik, director of the Institute of Highly Pure Biologicals (St. Petersburg), asked for political asylum. Naturally, he immediately fell into the hands of experienced Western intelligence officers, who siphoned all the information out of him. The defector said that his enterprise was engaged in the development of biological weapons. A special commission of competent American and British scientists, intelligence officers and analysts was even created to assess the huge amount of information transmitted to the Western intelligence services by the traitor. One of them - John Coleman - called the information "amazing" and stated:
- We realized that Gorbachev lied to the West when he claimed that the USSR did not and did not have an offensive biological weapons program!
It is believed that after the collapse of the USSR, all biological weapons development in our country was phased out, and secret laboratories were closed.
According to official data, today Russia does not possess bacteriological weapons. In 1992, President Yeltsin issued a decree according to which the development and implementation of biological weapons programs are not allowed in our country.
In 1997, American scientists and the military arrived in Russia to conduct an inspection, and they concluded that laboratories for the creation of biological weapons no longer exist in our country, and dangerous burial grounds are reliably mothballed.