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.
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The Soviet BW program began in the 1920s at the Leningrad Military Academy under the control of the state security apparatus, known as the GPU. This occurred despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention, which banned both chemical and biological weapons.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3]
During World War II, Stalin was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces [4]
1941: Soviet bioweapons facilities are evacuated to the city of Kirov.
1942: Alleged use of tularemia against German troops.[2][5]
Tularemia was allegedly used against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad.[2] 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.[2] 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.[5]
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.[6]
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.
1946: A biological weapons facility was established in Sverdlovsk.
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.[7] 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.[8]
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.[2]
In the 1980s, the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture successfully developed variants of foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest against cows, African swine fever for pigs, 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".[2]
In the 1990s, President of the Russian Federation 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.[9] 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.[10]
Compliance with the agreement as well as the fate of the former Soviet bio-agents and facilities, is still mostly undocumented.[11]
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".[12] At least two agents died, presumably from the transported pathogens [12]
2000s (decade): 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 [3]
The Soviet Union 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.[2]
The first smallpox weapons factory in the Soviet Union was established in 1947 in the city of Zagorsk, close to Moscow.[2] 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.[2] 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 [2]
It was reported that Russia made smallpox available to Iraq in the beginning of 1990s.[13]
Spores of weaponized anthrax 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.[2]