Key point:Biological and chemical weapons were explored by the major powers during the Cold War. Thankfully, aside from accidents, they were never deliberately used in a Third World War.
In October 1979, a West German newspaper run by Sovietmigrsran a vague story alleging that an explosion in a military factory in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) had released deadly bacteria, killing as many as a thousand. The story swiftly drew attention from other Western newspapers and eventually the U.S. government, because if Soviet factories were producing biological weapons, they were doing so in contravention of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.
Recommended:8 Million People Could Die in a War with North Korea
Recommended:Why North Korea Is Destined to Test More ICBMs and Nuclear Weapons
Recommended:5 Most Powerful Aircraft Carriers, Subs, Bombers and Fighter Aircraft Ever
Not so, Moscow swiftly retorted. Yes, an outbreakhadkilled dozens in Sverdlovsk, a closed city devoted to the Soviet military-industrial complex and the fourth largest in Russia today. But the culprit was tainted meat afflicted by anthrax.
This first appeared earlier and is being reposted due to reader interest.
Anthrax is an infection caused by a naturally occurring bacteria transported via spores that can be found all over the planet, and that can lie dormant in the soil for some time. Humans are most commonly affected by anthrax when abraded skin makes contact while handling an affected animal, particularly sheep or cattle, or animal products such as hides or wool. This form, known as cutaneous anthrax, leaves nasty sores, but is only fatal 20 percent of the time when left untreated. Much rarer gastrointestinal anthrax infections can result from eatinginfected animals.
However, the deadliest form of transmission involves breathing in anthrax spores, and has an 85 percent fatality rate. For pulmonary anthrax infections to occur, high concentrations of spores must be inhaled, and the spores cannot be too large, so as to slip past human mucous membranes. Once inside the human body, the bacteria multiply and in a couple of days begin producing deadly toxins. The victim may feel flu-like symptoms such as a sore throat and aching muscles, as well as shortness of breath and nausea. These symptoms progress to intense bleeding coughs, fevers, interrupted breathing and lethal meningitis (inflammation of the brain), leading to characteristic dark swelling along the chest and neck. Vaccination with antibiotics is effective at preventing the infection, but is not effective once the infection sets in.
Because anthrax can be easily manufactured and remains stable for years, it also was ideal as a biological weapona fact that U.S. scientists were aware of due to the experience of their own biological-weapons program, which had been active since 1943. It ultimately mass-produced six major strains of deadlybioweapons, many of which were designed to be spread by air-dropped cluster bombs. However, President Richard Nixon brought an end to the program in 1969, and three years later most of the worlds nations signed onto the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, banning not only the use, but the production and development, of biological weapons.
However, the convention lacked a formal compliance and monitoring mechanism. Furthermore, it does not ban research on how to defendagainst bioweaponswhich explains why weapons-grade anthrax is stored in U.S. government laboratories, and was available for use in the infamous anthrax letters that were sent shortly after 9/11, likely by a disgruntled employee.
U.S. intelligence analysts were skeptical of the Soviet tainted-meat storyCIA agents had obtained scattered reports supporting the narrative that there had been a factory accident at the time of the outbreak. Furthermore, the deaths of Soviet citizens spanning over two months did not cohere with a tainted meat-supply problem, which could have been dealt with swiftly. The Reagan administration seized on the incident to lay into the Soviet Union for apparently contravening the bioweapons ban.
The Soviet press maintained that this just showed how Washington was ready to use any tragedy afflicting the Soviet people to its political advantage. Some U.S. scientists, such as renowned Harvard researcher Matthew Meselson, were also inclined to believe the Soviet explanation. In 1981, the United States had alleged that Communist forces in Asia made use of Yellow Rain mycotoxins in Asiaallegations that were widely discredited. When, in 1988, Soviet scientist Pyotr Burgasov flew to the United States and presented autopsy records and photos from the victims of the Sverdlovsk outbreak, many Western scientists were finally persuaded that the incident merely reflected an embarrassing slip-up of the Soviet medical system.
However, even that autopsy data suggested some curious anomalies, including evidence of swelling of the lungs corresponding to a pulmonary anthrax infection. Furthermore, why had the outbreak mostly affected adult males, and relatively few women or children? New rumors emerged that the Soviet Union had developed some form of disease tailored to kill military-age men.
The true situation would soon come to light in 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union. The newly anointed Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, confided to President George H.W. Bush at a conference that U.S. allegations about the Soviet bioweapon were entirely true. Yeltsin, as it happened, had been the party boss in the Sverdlovsk during the outbreak, which he admitted wasthe result of the bioweapons accident.
Just a year after signing on to the 1972 bioweapons ban, the Soviet Union had actually expandedits bioweapons production via a massive new civilian program, known as Biopreparat,that employed fifty thousand personnel scattered across fifty-two separate facilities. Biopreparathad manufactured hundreds of tons of a dozen different biowarfare agents, designed to be spread by missiles or sprayed out of airplanes. And mishaps didoccurfor example, in 1971, weaponized smallpox being tested on Vozrozhdeniya Island had infected a scientist on a passing ship, leading to three deaths.
The deputy director of Biopreparat, Kanatzhan Alibekov (now Ken Alibek), would later immigrate to the United States and give his account of the Sverdlovsk incident in his bookBiohazard, based on accounts he overheard from several colleagues.
The bacteria had originated from a bioweapons facility in Sverdlovsk known as Compound 19A, built in 1946 using specifications found in the Japanese germ warfare documents captured in Manchuria, according to Alibekov. The Japanese Unit 731 was infamous during World War II for both testing and field deploying bioweapons targeting Chinese civilians.
Compound 19A produced tons of anthrax in powdered form annually, for release from ballistic missilesin particular a strainknown as Anthrax 836selected (not designed) because it was particularly deadly to humans. One dayAlibek places the date as March 30, 1979, though most sources insist it was early Aprila technician removed a clogged filter and left a note indicating it needed to be replaced.
His account continues:
Compound 19 was the Fifteenth Directorate's busiest production plant. Three shifts operated around the clock, manufacturing a dry anthrax weapon for the Soviet arsenal. It was stressful and dangerous work. The fermented anthrax cultures had to be separated from their liquid base and dried before they could be ground into a fine powder for use in an aerosol form, and there were always spores floating in the air. Workers were given regular vaccinations, but the large filters clamped over the exhaust pipes were all that stood between the anthrax dust and the outside world. After each shift, the big drying machines were shut down briefly for maintenance checks. A clogged air filter was not an unusual occurrence, but it had to be replaced immediately.
Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Chernyshov, supervisor of the afternoon shift that day, was in as much of a hurry to get home as his workers. Under the army's rules, he should have recorded the information about the defective filter in the logbook for the next shift, but perhaps the importance of the technician's note didn't register in his mind, or perhaps he was simply overtired. When the night shift manager came on duty, he scanned the logbook. Finding nothing unusual, he gave the command to start the machines up again. A fine dust containing anthrax spores and chemical additives swept through the exhaust pipes into the night air.
The missing filter was noticed hours later and swiftly correctedbut by then it was too late. A brisk night breeze had carried the deadly spores over into an adjacent ceramics factory, infecting the largely male factory laborers working the night shift. Nearly all died within a week.
The city authorities were kept in the dark about the accident until the outbreak became apparent. Then the party swiftly engaged in a cover-up. Troops established a perimeter around the factory, while Soviet officials announced that tainted meat was responsible. Hundreds of stray dogs were shot and black-market food vendors were arrested for spreading tainted food. The KGB destroyed hospital records and pathological reports documenting the outbreak, while the victims bodies were bathed in chemical disinfectants to remove the evidence left by the spores.
According to Alibek, damage control measures instigated by ill-informed Soviet officials actually worsened the outbreak.
Originally posted here:
Top Secret: Russia Had a Military Accident With Anthrax in 1979 - The National Interest
- Xinhua Headlines: In Harbin's icy embrace, tourists flock to offer condolences, cherish memories - Xinhua - February 11th, 2024 [February 11th, 2024]
- Empires of lies The China Project - The China Project - October 22nd, 2023 [October 22nd, 2023]
- Official records on Japanese Imperial Army unit unearthed | NHK ... - NHK WORLD - August 26th, 2023 [August 26th, 2023]
- Today's Nuclear Balance of Power: The Wells of Doom - Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) - August 26th, 2023 [August 26th, 2023]
- People thought the Beatles were God. That's not correct: the ... - Louder - August 26th, 2023 [August 26th, 2023]
- The startling role that disease played in human evolution - Sydney Morning Herald - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Celebrate Mothers Day With These 15 Stuntcasted Sitcom Moms - Cracked.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Smallpox in Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia - November 27th, 2022 [November 27th, 2022]
- Microorganism - Wikipedia - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Andrew Kaufman on the false germ paradigm - Jerm Warfare - November 16th, 2022 [November 16th, 2022]
- The Strategic National Stockpile failed during COVID and monkeypox. Will it come through next time? - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The SKELP Directives: U.S. Secret Financing of Germ Warfare during the ... - September 29th, 2022 [September 29th, 2022]
- Germ Warfare: GSA Supports Rapid Deployment of Xenex LightStrike Germ ... - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- You need to watch the most underrated apocalypse movie before it leaves HBO Max this week - Inverse - July 29th, 2022 [July 29th, 2022]
- Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War - Wikipedia - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- The deadly germ warfare island abandoned by the Soviets - BBC - May 9th, 2022 [May 9th, 2022]
- The Terrifying Cherry Blossoms at Night of the Japanese Military - SOFREP - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- Avoid Chinas stockmarket heres what to invest in instead - MoneyWeek - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- A Perfect Storm Could Make Measles a Nightmare in 2022, WHO and UNICEF Warn - Gizmodo Australia - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- Colwell: Things would surely be different in Ukraine if Trump were president - South Bend Tribune - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- Patriotic Propaganda: Staying silent as a choice when what is seen does not match with what is believed - Milwaukee Independent - April 9th, 2022 [April 9th, 2022]
- Germ warfare: Saginaw hospital becomes battleground in U.S ... - March 15th, 2022 [March 15th, 2022]
- U.S. Biological Weapons in UkraineSeparating the Facts From the Fiction - Newsweek - March 15th, 2022 [March 15th, 2022]
- Wanted: A rallying cry to hold back the coming 'Dark... - Daily Maverick - March 15th, 2022 [March 15th, 2022]
- Putin's Apocalypse: How Far Is the Russian President Willing To Go? - DER SPIEGEL International Edition - March 15th, 2022 [March 15th, 2022]
- Yamashita: The pandemic generation will learn to succeed - Guam Pacific Daily News - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Bill M. McClure Obituary - Times Record - Times Record - February 17th, 2022 [February 17th, 2022]
- Urban explorer sneaks on to top secret germ warfare base known as UKs Area 51 exposing security ris... - The Sun - February 5th, 2022 [February 5th, 2022]
- Modern warfare - Wikipedia - February 3rd, 2022 [February 3rd, 2022]
- US Military Released Bacteria to Test Biological Warfare - February 3rd, 2022 [February 3rd, 2022]
- This week in Texas History: Spanish flu, our ancestors' pandemic - Hays Free Press - February 3rd, 2022 [February 3rd, 2022]
- Yamashita: Boundaries should be respected | Opinion | guampdn.com - Guam Pacific Daily News - February 3rd, 2022 [February 3rd, 2022]
- The Army tested 'germ warfare' on the NYC subway by ... - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- Biological Warfare: Infectious Disease and Bioterrorism - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- Opinion: Vaccines are a tool, not a silver bullet. If we'd allowed more scientific debate, we would have realized this earlier - The Globe and Mail - January 24th, 2022 [January 24th, 2022]
- SARS: A Mystery Illness To Impact Air Travel - Aviation Week - December 10th, 2021 [December 10th, 2021]
- We Need To Protect Earth (And Space) From Interplanetary Invaders - IFLScience - November 21st, 2021 [November 21st, 2021]
- Louis Pasteur | Science History Institute - November 19th, 2021 [November 19th, 2021]
- Pontiac's War - Wikipedia - November 19th, 2021 [November 19th, 2021]
- Japan and weapons of mass destruction - Wikipedia - November 19th, 2021 [November 19th, 2021]
- Andreas Kluth - The War of Nerves on Europe's Border Could Turn Hot - Asharq Al-awsat - English - November 17th, 2021 [November 17th, 2021]
- Microorganisms as potent biological weapons The National - The National - November 15th, 2021 [November 15th, 2021]
- Who is and what does the playwright Yunior Garca Aguilera think, the promoter of the new protests in Cuba - Market Research Telecast - November 15th, 2021 [November 15th, 2021]
- Terrorists will wage terrifying new biowar as Wuhan lab leak chaos shows they could get away with mur... - The Sun - November 9th, 2021 [November 9th, 2021]
- US vicious slanders on China over COVID-19 origins tracing and the truth (Part 7) - China.org.cn - November 9th, 2021 [November 9th, 2021]
- Scientists, Emergency Planners Conducting Air Flow Study In NYC This Week To Improve Response Protocols - CBS New York - October 21st, 2021 [October 21st, 2021]
- Letter to the Editor - Masks: one of the three best defenses in modern germ warfare - The Havre Daily News - September 27th, 2021 [September 27th, 2021]
- Ancient Greek Medicine: Who Was Hippocrates And What Was The Hippocratic Oath? - BBC History Magazine - September 27th, 2021 [September 27th, 2021]
- The US government's comic approach to information warfare - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - September 20th, 2021 [September 20th, 2021]
- The enduring appeal of the Bond villain - Spectator.co.uk - September 4th, 2021 [September 4th, 2021]
- Letters To The Editor Week of 8/16/2021 | The Press - Press Publications Inc. - August 14th, 2021 [August 14th, 2021]
- Talk of the Town: | Blowing Rocket | wataugademocrat.com - Watauga Democrat - July 29th, 2021 [July 29th, 2021]
- Letter to the Editor: Joe Bialek - Atlanta Jewish Times - July 18th, 2021 [July 18th, 2021]
- America's Impressive History of Bioweapons Attacks Against Its Own People - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch - July 10th, 2021 [July 10th, 2021]
- Lee Camp: Americas impressive history of bioweapons attacks against its own people - RT - July 10th, 2021 [July 10th, 2021]
- Laboratory leaks have happened before more frequently than we would like to believe - Yahoo Eurosport UK - June 4th, 2021 [June 4th, 2021]
- Biden's Renewed Interest in COVID Lab Leak Theory Likely to Worsen Anti-Asian Sentiment - UrduPoint News - June 4th, 2021 [June 4th, 2021]
- 10 Fascinating Facts About The US Army - War History Online - June 4th, 2021 [June 4th, 2021]
- US targeting China to hide its own past: expert - Chinadaily USA - May 31st, 2021 [May 31st, 2021]
- Dr. Fauci Just Discovered What Rush Told Us Last Year - Rush Limbaugh - May 31st, 2021 [May 31st, 2021]
- Everything is reopening. But lets not bring back the handshake, OK? - The Boston Globe - May 20th, 2021 [May 20th, 2021]
- Fake news, conspiracy theories and a deadly global pandemic and that was in 1918 - Salon - May 9th, 2021 [May 9th, 2021]
- North Korea and China Accused America of Biowarfare During the Korean War - The National Interest - April 21st, 2021 [April 21st, 2021]
- Chaos Walking: Wanna Hear What Tom Hollands Thinking? Think Again - Rolling Stone - March 7th, 2021 [March 7th, 2021]
- Josh Freed: COVID has robbed us of small talk, and that's a big deal - Montreal Gazette - February 21st, 2021 [February 21st, 2021]
- Letter to Editor | Letters to the Editor - Hermann Advertiser Courier - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Letter: Need to return to united, not divided states - Whidbey News-Times - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Whats Keeping the Vaccine From Getting to Those Who Need it Most? - The Nation - February 8th, 2021 [February 8th, 2021]
- Letter: Need to return to united, not divided states - South Whidbey Record - February 2nd, 2021 [February 2nd, 2021]
- Bill Gates: 3 innovations that will help America get ahead of the next pandemic - CNBC - February 2nd, 2021 [February 2nd, 2021]
- 1887: The invasion of the rabbit - Stuff.co.nz - February 2nd, 2021 [February 2nd, 2021]
- The Recorder - My Turn: Germ warfare - The Recorder - January 25th, 2021 [January 25th, 2021]
- Paul Kaufman on Trump and nuclear weapons - Newham Recorder - January 25th, 2021 [January 25th, 2021]
- Biological warfare experiment in India and the curious case of yellow fever mosquitoes - Frontline - January 21st, 2021 [January 21st, 2021]
- How the KGB convinced the world that AIDS was a Pentagon invention - Russia Beyond - January 21st, 2021 [January 21st, 2021]
- South African Doctor Who Tried to Wipe Out Black People Still Practising - iAfrica.com - January 21st, 2021 [January 21st, 2021]
- The militarization of American democracy | TheHill - The Hill - January 21st, 2021 [January 21st, 2021]
- The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 1/14/21 ~ State Extends, Expands Eviction and Foreclosure Bans Credited with Saving Thousands of Lives - ebroadsheet.com - January 15th, 2021 [January 15th, 2021]
- Measuring Impact in a Complex and Interconnected World - Chief Executive Group - January 15th, 2021 [January 15th, 2021]
- Protesters Gather as Spiffy's and Farm Boy Drive-in Go to Court - Centralia Chronicle - January 5th, 2021 [January 5th, 2021]