When we say “anthrax”, we first of all recall the fever of “postal terrorism” that swept many countries of the world in 2001-2002. Then, due to the fault of unknown intruders, dozens of people were infected with the bacteria of this most dangerous disease, and some of them died. However, not everyone remembers that exactly 30 years ago, in 1979, perhaps the largest incident in history occurred in the USSR, associated with the mass infection of the population with anthrax bacilli in non-combat conditions. According to now published data, that spring in Sverdlovsk, the largest city in the Urals, 64 people died from an unknown disease, but independent researchers believe that in fact the number of victims was estimated at thousands
By the way, the secret services still have not finally established who in 2001 sent the powder with anthrax spores by mail - the terrorists of bin Laden or the insane bacteriologist who decided to challenge the whole world. One way or another, but one thing is absolutely clear to specialists: in our time, even a super-genius scientist is not able to single-handedly create combat strains of deadly bacilli, such as anthrax, in order to then blackmail whole countries and continents with them.
This can only be done by a powerful, well-financed organization - it doesn't matter whether it is a terrorist or a government one. Moreover, not so long ago secret plans for conducting bacteriological warfare lay in the safes of the general staffs of many armies of the world.
Some foreign strategists represented these invisible battles: “The bacteria anthrax, plague and smallpox entered the battle even before the official declaration of war. The population of the hostile state and the enemy's army were gripped by panic, especially since the "fifth column" funded by us deliberately exacerbated the terror in the enemy camp and exaggerated the bacteriological danger with the help of the media.
At the climax of the war, we also used bacteria that caused massive death of farm animals and plants. This led to the destruction of the entire food base of the enemy. As a result, the renowned army of our enemy, invincible in ordinary combat conditions, laid down its arms in two months, and the government was forced to accept the terms of surrender, which are very difficult for the country."
This is a quote from the article "Bacteriological Warfare", which was published in the serious scientific journal "Journal of Immunology" ("Journal of Immunology") at the end of the 1950s. American microbiologists J. Rosebery, G. Cabett and A. Boldt published it during the period of the greatest aggravation of relations between the USSR and the USA, without even assuming that at the very beginning of the 21st century, according to the scenario developed by them, some malefactors would begin a "mail terror" against themselves USA, sending deadly powder in ordinary envelopes and parcels …
Secret weapons of past centuries
However, it should not be considered that bacteriological warfare is an invention of the 20th century. It turns out that the very first mentions of this terrible method of struggle against all living things can be found even … in the Old Testament. For example, in the book “Exodus” the Lord God threatens the enemies of his chosen Jewish people: “And I will bring a vengeful sword at you … and send a pestilence on you …” (read - an epidemic). And in the "Book of the Prophet Jeremiah" it is said: "And I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem: with sword, hunger and pestilence."
Of course, now all this can only be perceived as biblical legends. However, here is an absolutely reliable historical fact. Even from school, we know that at the beginning of the 16th century, the notorious Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro barbarously destroyed the Indians of South America. But only recently from archival documents it became known that fire and sword during that war seemed to him not enough: once during negotiations, the Spaniards presented the Indians with clothes taken from patients with smallpox. The resulting epidemic in Peru and Chile alone claimed the lives of three million Aboriginal people.
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However, even 250 years after these events, the authorities of the newly formed North American States did not disdain to use biological weapons against the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. Not so long ago, historians have discovered an interesting correspondence between the commander of the American army and the commandant of Fort Pitt. The superior advised his subordinate the following: “Could you try to spread smallpox among the rebellious Indian tribes? All means must be used to exterminate these savages. " And soon, at the "peace" negotiations with the Indian leaders, American soldiers handed them two blankets and a scarf taken from the hospital for smallpox patients. A month later, the revolt of the aboriginal tribes of Ohio stopped by itself: by that time there was simply no one to rebel …
But all these were, so to speak, "spontaneous" experiments in the use of bacteriological weapons. It was only in the 20th century that the governments of the leading world powers fully realized all the "conveniences" that the controlled use of the most terrible infections known to mankind for military purposes can bring. To develop biological products of this kind, at the beginning of the century, top-secret laboratories were created in many countries, where the best minds of biological science worked on the creation of new weapons under the close supervision of the military. Even the 1926 Geneva Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical and Bacteriological Means of Warfare, which was signed by almost all large states, did not stop the hawks. Previously closed archives also spoke about this.
Only a few will survive
However, we have already learned something about the preparation of different states for conducting bacteriological warfare. Back in the 60s of the XX century, the British government removed the secrecy from information about experiments with anthrax bacteria, which were carried out in 1940-1943 on the deserted rocky island of Greenard in the North Sea. Since then, no one can appear here without a special insulating suit, since it is deadly for him. Analyzes of soil samples that microbiologists still regularly take on this piece of land show that more than 60 years after those military experiments, the anthrax bacteria remain viable and therefore may well cause a catastrophic epidemic.
But the information that such experiments were carried out not only in England, but also in the USSR, was allowed to be published in our open press only during perestroika times. It turns out that back in 1938, Soviet military microbiologists infected all the soil on the Vozrozhdenie and Komsomolsky Islands in the Aral Sea with anthrax. Just like in England, from that time to the present day this deserted corner of the former USSR is completely closed to people. And here, as a result of an experiment that has been going on for 70 years, it was possible to prove that all this time the anthrax bacteria in the soil are able to maintain their pathogenicity.
However, experiments with anthrax on the islands of the Aral Sea turned out to be only a "touchstone" of the top secret work on the creation of vaccines, which, in the event of the outbreak of a bacteriological war against the USSR, was carried out by Soviet military doctors since the 30s. The anti-plague institutes officially existing to this day in Stavropol, Rostov and Saratov already at that time began to train specialists who, along with methods of combating especially dangerous infections, studied the damaging properties of the same plague, smallpox, anthrax, as well as many dozens of other terrible diseases.
In parallel with the institutes open to the press, there were also completely secret biological centers, where the possibilities of using the same infections in combat conditions were investigated. Of these closed institutions, the most famous is an enterprise in Yekaterinburg (formerly Sverdlovsk), which in Soviet times was codenamed "mailbox A-1063" (it is also a secret plant number 19). Its fame is associated primarily with the tragic incident that happened here in April 1979.
A resident of Samara, Andrei Kuznetsov, born in 1956 (his name and surname have been changed for the reasons that will be indicated below), in 1978 after graduating from the institute he was called up for military service in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR and sent for its passage to one of the units of the construction troops stationed in Sverdlovsk. There he became an unwitting witness and at the same time a victim of an accident at a secret biological weapons plant. Here is his story.
“One morning our lieutenant ran into the unit's club. Seeing me, he shouted in a voice that was not his own: "Get ready immediately - and for the vaccine!" From the disheveled look of the lieutenant, I understood that something extraordinary had happened. Therefore, he dropped everything and rushed to carry out the order. I ran to the vaccine in the forefront. In a specially equipped room, there were already five or six needleless pneumatic injectors that inject the vaccine into the human body directly through the skin. They rubbed the soldier's forearm with a cotton swab and alcohol, and for a second, he was free. All soldiers who arrived on time were vaccinated very quickly.
What kind of emergency happened and where exactly, they did not explain to us then, and we did not ask. It was only a few days later that talk of mass deaths in Sverdlovsk from an unknown disease reached us. I immediately linked this news with the general vaccination of the personnel of our unit. By the way, none of the soldiers of the construction battalion then died and did not even get sick. But in a neighboring military unit, two soldiers died from the same mysterious disease. It was rumored that they did not have enough grafting material. And according to the information that reached us, more than a thousand people died in Sverdlovsk during these events.
I ask you not to indicate my name and surname anywhere. I have good reasons for this. The fact is that, together with me, three more soldiers, my fellow countrymen, were witnesses of all the events described above. So, now I'm the only one left alive. Then I found out that two of my colleagues, who were too talkative, had suddenly died in Soviet times
for some unknown reason, and the third died mysteriously in an accident."
Bacteriological catastrophe
The history of the origin and activity of the secret plant No. 19 in Sverdlovsk is still covered with a dense veil of secrecy. According to some materials published by former military doctors and biologists, back in 1972, a secret resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued on the creation of advanced technology for the production of biological weapons in the country. In accordance with this decree, several top secret facilities were created on the territory of the USSR at the same time, where studies of various types of bacteria that are deadly to humans were conducted. In particular, on the territory of the Sverdlovsk military town No. 19, bacteriological weapons based on anthrax, a disease well-studied by doctors, have been created for several years.
The leakage of bacterial material from this production occurred on the morning of April 3, 1979. According to published sources, this happened during the adjustment of a new plant in the drying shop. The reason was the mistakes of the workers during the installation. When the accident occurred, an aerosol containing anthrax bacteria was released into the atmosphere through cracks in the ventilation system. As a result, a deadly cloud spread over Sverdlovsk, which subsequently caused the death of many people. It was a pulmonary form of infection, the rarest and most dangerous.
According to official figures, in the period from April 4 to May 10, 1979, 64 people died in the city from direct exposure to bacteria. However, experts believe that in fact, the deaths during this man-made epidemic were from several hundred to several thousand people. Firstly, the authorities tried to make all deaths, in the slightest degree similar to anthrax, as classified as possible. Secondly, the sources of infection in the city remained after May 10, when the official disinfection was completed. After all, anthrax bacteria can be stored dry for hundreds of years, and when they enter a favorable environment, they begin to multiply rapidly.
But this is not the most terrible conclusion: most likely, in 1979, at the military enterprise No. 19, research was carried out not on the natural form of anthrax, but on its "enhanced" version, which, thanks to the methods of genetic engineering, had its destructive power many times increased. In the fight against this form of "Siberian", ordinary vaccines are useless - you need a special one, developed by the same specialists who bred the deadly bacterium.
Unfortunately, the secret vaccine was not used for mass treatment of the inhabitants of Sverdlovsk in 1979. It was enough only for the soldiers of several military units, in one of which the hero of the above interview served. Let him say thanks to the lieutenant, who sent him away for vaccination in time …
Valery YEROFEEV
Secrets of the 20th century №42 2009