in april of 1979
people from the soviet city of
sverdlovsk began falling strangely ill
with inexplicable symptoms soviet
intelligence is believed to have covered
up the true number of casualties
when the kremlin sent scientists and
military officials to investigate the
zone
they concluded it was contaminated meat
from the local cattle
but it was not the ussr hid the truth
from its population and the world
eventually word got out what truly
happened whistleblowers said
was an accident at a clandestine
biological weapons laboratory that
liberated deadly anthrax spores that
contaminated sverlovsk's air
it was in a mission that cost the soviet
military the secrecy of its top-secret
biological warfare projects
and at the height of the cold war during
the aggressive reagan administration
the ussr could not afford the luxury of
having its secret military programs
exposed
thus the accident was buried deep in
propaganda
after the accident occurred soviet
officials took over the zone and closed
the city
the military has been patrolling the
area until this very day
many suspect that russia still continues
to test deadly pathogens
and other hazardous materials at the
site
biological warfare biological weapons
have been used by mankind for centuries
during ancient sieges the enemy that
encircled the city or fortress would
turn to the carcasses of horses
cattle or even fallen soldiers to cause
terrible epidemics in the city garrison
the rotting waste would make its way
over the inner walls through catapults
contaminating the food and water
sometimes rivers were destroyed as well
with garbage and man-made poisons
during the great war the use of
biological and chemical weapons reached
new heights in battle
deadly gases were used on a grand scale
for the first time maiming thousands of
soldiers in the western front
soldiers from all nations returned to
their homes with deformities that had no
cure
the impact of this new type of warfare
terrorized society so much
that by the time world war ii began no
nation dared to use these gases again
nonetheless armies across the world
continued to do research on biological
weapons
discovering new ways of eradicating an
opponent without the use of nuclear or
explosive firepower
the cold war was no exception both the
us and the soviet union
did extensive scientific investigations
related to biological weapons
there were official treaties that forbid
the use of these weapons such as the
convention on the prohibition of the
development production and stockpiling
of bacteriological biological and toxin
weapons and on their destruction
signed in april 1972.
still both sides conducted experiments
in secret facilities to gain the upper
edge if a conflict came to be
the same happened with the production of
nuclear warheads the us
and ussr wanted to win the arms race at
all costs
weaponized anthrax after world war ii
concluded
the ussr quickly got to work with
intelligence seized from the german and
japanese armies
the us did the same under stalin's
regime
hundreds of secret facilities were
created to experiment with new
technologies that would make the ussr
the most potent military after the us
one of those centers was sverglovsk
where the soviets manufactured tanks
icbms and other cold war era weaponry
the biological weapons facility of
spheredloves was built using information
collected from the japanese germ warfare
program in manchuria
after they surrendered in 1945.
the site grabbed international attention
when a nuclear facility exploded in
1957.
since then the us and its spies
monitored the area under their soviet
developments
in military compound number 19 is fair
gloves the soviets heavily guarded a
deadly compound called anthrax 836
the disease had previously leaked out of
a facility in kirov in 1953
the ussr had plans of using it against
the u.s in case a war began
the anthrax strain was going to be used
on the ss-18 icbm
that would go after vital american
targets
anthrax is an infectious disease caused
by the bacterium bacillus anthracis
it can manifest in skin lung and
intestinal problems
it can take up to and over two months to
experience the symptoms
it is incredibly contagious as it
spreads upon contact with the infectious
spores through breathing
eating or contact with the skin the
bacteria was first tested by unit 731 of
the japanese kuantang army
in manchuria during the 1930s the allies
designated agent n during the war
weaponized anthrax became part of the
british arsenal during world war ii
the royal air force planned to use it
against germany in 1944
but they opted to continue
conventionally bombarding the country
with explosive ordinance
in 1969 president nixon ordered the
dismantling of u.s bio warfare programs
leading to the destruction of all
existing stockpiles of biological
weapons
the soviet union supposedly did the same
with the more than 100 tons of anthrax
spores that had stored
but a terrible accident in 1979 proved
otherwise causing global outrage
on friday march 30th 1979 a technician
from the soviet sphere lubs facility
removed a clogged filter while spore
drying machines were turned off
the anthrax produced had to be dried to
create a powder used as an aerosol for
military purposes
he left a written notice but the
supervisor did not write it down in the
logbook
when the next shift came nothing unusual
in the log was found
and the subsequent shift supervisor
turned the machines on
hours later a technician found out that
the filter was missing and reinstalled
it
but it was too late as the anthrax
contained in the facility made it out
into the exterior
the deadly infection slowly made its way
through the air infecting people and
animals in the surroundings the incident
was reported to high-ranking military
officials
but local police and guards were not
informed of the accident
most of the people that worked near the
zone fell immediately ill during the
next days
one week later they were no more
the official toll was 105 casualties
almost all of them mail
the kgb destroyed all hospital records
that occurred between the outbreak and
the following months
the cover-up and destruction of any info
related to the outbreak was so effective
that it was not until months later that
word got out of russia about the
incident
initial public reports emerged in
october 1979 from a russian language
newspaper in west germany
in it an article talked about a germ
accident that led to more than a
thousand deaths in russia
during the early 1980s rumors of an
explosion in april 1979
at a secret military facility near
sverdlovsk reached britain and the u.s
it was said that a large number of
anthrax spores had killed thousands in
the surrounding areas
reports specified that the area was
placed under soviet military control
and that extensive decontamination
efforts were implemented to clear the
zone
the accident gained global attention and
the us military intelligence began
conducting signals intercepts and plane
captures
with recon aircraft to find the truth
about the incident
they photographed roadblocks
decontamination tracks soldiers with gas
masks and special suits
confirming that something catastrophic
had likely happened in compound 19 at
sverdlovsk
the official russian response was that
the outbreak was provoked by
contaminated meat
to further cover up the accident soviet
newspapers and journalists wrote
articles related to livestock infected
by inadequate diets and other nonsense
explanations
american and soviet relations worsened
and the cold war tensions rose again in
the wake of afghanistan's russian
invasion in 1980.
reagan accused the ussr that soviet
allies used a mycotoxin known as yellow
rain against allied troops in asia
the aftermath
in 1986 during the last years of the
cold war professor matthew meselson of
harvard was granted permission by the
kremlin for a trip to moscow
to interview soviet health officials
about the outbreak of 1979.
professor ms olsen eventually released a
paper in which soviet officials admitted
that the outbreak was caused by a
contaminated meat processing plant
he concluded that the russian
explanation was quote completely
plausible and consistent with what is
known for medical literature and
recorded human experiences with anthrax
in 1988 soviet officials traveled to the
u.s to give a three-hour long talk at
the national academy of sciences
presenting the accident and even gut
tissue from the anthrax victims
autopsies
not everyone was convinced by the soviet
explanation philip russell
a retired army infectious disease
researcher said to source outlets quote
i knew they were lying and i knew they
were lying because i had been briefed in
defense intelligence agency evidence
nevertheless president boris yeltsin who
was fed love's communist party chief
back in 1979
later admitted the true nature of the
anthrax outbreak
wall street journal reporter peter
gumbel traveled to sverglovsk to
interview people affected by the
outbreak
this led to professor ms olson gaining
access to the region once again in 1992
to conduct further research around this
time
soviet authorities finally revealed the
real cause of the accident when the
world was about to discover the truth
hidden by propaganda
a soviet official revealed that had the
wind's been blowing in moscow's
direction at the time of the accident
it could have resulted in the pathogens
spreading to thousands of people
in 1992 ken albeck a soviet scientist
who worked in the bioweapons program
and defected to the u.s told scientists
that the anthrax got out because an air
filter was not correctly placed
he would later write biohazard the
chilling true story of the largest
covert biological weapons program in the
world
told from inside by the man who ran it
it was also in 1992 when prime minister
jaeger gaidar issued a decree to begin
the dematerialization of compound 19.
a second outbreak
although not a single journalist has
been allowed into the facility since
1992
it is said that it continues to operate
underground to this day
some 200 russian soldiers with dogs
patrol the complex and its surroundings
almost five decades later the russian
government is about to issue permits
that allow agencies to build residential
zones around the contaminated area
the local population fears that a second
outbreak would occur if that happens
hundreds of thousands of people will die
scientists
have said the area is still highly
infectious but the government has
remained firm on its posture
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