Bioweapons In The USSR

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Video: Bioweapons In The USSR

Video: Bioweapons In The USSR
Video: Inside the Georgian lab accused of testing biological weapons 2024, March
Bioweapons In The USSR
Bioweapons In The USSR
Anonim
Bioweapons in the USSR - biological weapons, bioweapons
Bioweapons in the USSR - biological weapons, bioweapons

In the process of scientific and technological progress, good and evil always walk side by side. Suffice it to recall the discovery of a nuclear reaction that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. Chemistry, biology, psychology were also involved in secret military developments. And in the USSR, throughout its history, various types of such weapons were actively developed …

The history of chemical weapons began during the First World War after the use of mustard gas by the Germans. But this industry reached its true heyday only during the years of Soviet power.

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Chemistry to the masses

In the USSR, the decision to work in this direction was made in the 30s of the last century. The first institution designed to tame chemistry was the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology (GNIIOKhT), created by the merger of the Olginsky plant and the special laboratory of the P. I. L. Ya. Karpov. A little later, the Scientific Testing Chemical Institute of the Red Army was created, which is today known as TsNII-33 of the Ministry of Defense of Russia.

For a long time it was located in Moscow on Bogorodsky Val, and in 1961 it was transferred to the small town of Shikhany, in the Saratov region. More than a dozen scientific institutions of the country took part in the development of toxic substances. It is clear that an appropriate department was needed to coordinate this research and production monster. So the VOKHIM-trust was born, later transformed into the First Main Directorate of the People's Commissariat of the Chemical Industry, and later it was subordinated to the All-Union Association "Soyuzorgsintez".

Chemists actively used the qualities of mustard gas, which is a skin blister agent. As a result of experiments, new modifications were obtained - for use in winter and summer conditions, for irrigation from aircraft tanks from low and high altitudes. At the same time, a brother of mustard gas in the class, lewisite, was born. In the second half of the 1930s, chemists began the synthesis of asphyxiating toxic substances - phosgene and diphosgene, and completed it fairly quickly.

And, finally, by the beginning of the 1940s, it was the turn of general toxic agents: hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride. So, from the point of view of providing itself with an arsenal of chemical weapons, the USSR turned out to be quite ready for war, which was confirmed by tests at proving grounds. The largest of them were the training grounds at TsNII-33 in Shikhany, on the territory of the tankodrome and not far from the town of Totsk in the Orenburg region (subsequently, in 1954, military exercises were held there using nuclear weapons).

By the beginning of World War II, personnel for the chemical troops were trained not only at the Military Academy of Chemical Defense, but also at special closed departments of civilian institutes, for example, the Moscow Chemical-Technological Institute named after V. I. Mendeleev. At the same time, two military groupings were created - the Western, which included two chemical divisions and two heavy aviation chemical brigades. The second group was located in the Far East - a division and a brigade.

As a result, the USSR approached the Great Patriotic War not only with a solid arsenal of toxic substances, but also with significant human potential. That is why, according to historians, knowing this, Hitler did not dare to use "silent death" during the hostilities, fearing an adequate answer, although at that time Germany had 12 thousand tons of domestic herd, similar to sarin.

Yes, and the local use of chemical substances is recorded in history only a few times, for example, during the Japanese-Chinese war in 1937-1945 and during the Iran-Iraq conflict in 1980-1988, when both warring parties used OS. As a result, the race to create new poisonous substances and the production of old ones came to an end in the form of the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which Russia also ratified almost five years later. Since then, eight plants for the disposal of lethal ammunition have been operating in the central part of our country, but, apparently, the process will not end until 2017.

Stalingrad fever reached Crimea

Work on the creation of biological weapons in the USSR began in parallel with the development of a chemical arsenal. At first, even the laboratories conducting research in this area were located in the premises of the Institute of Chemical Defense (IHO) of the RKKA, which was located in Moscow on Bogorodsky Val. Since 1934, it was called the Research Institute of the Red Army (Research Chemical Institute) and at the same time belonged to military unit 8952. Its main goal was to prepare the country for an offensive war - both chemical and biological.

In the structure of the institute, a biochemical department was provided, which was absolutely secret.

This institute prepared for war, creating biological attack weapons using strains of dangerous bacteria such as plague, tularemia, flu, cholera, glanders and others. I must say that the leaders of these directions understood that finding such an object in the center of a large city is extremely dangerous. Therefore, in the mid-thirties, he was transferred to Suzdal, and a little later - to Gorodomlya Island, which is located in the middle of Lake Seliger.

On February 22, 1938, the People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov announced that the country was ready to conduct an offensive bacteriological war. Nevertheless, before the war, for some reason, a whole complex of so-called biofactories was created all over the country - places for the large-scale production of not only vaccines and serums, but also means of biological attack!

Historians are silent about the use of biological weapons by our troops during the Second World War. Although, according to some reports, it was not done without its use: for example, some scientists suggest that the mass diseases of the German troops during the offensive on Moscow in the winter of 1941 were allegedly caused by the fact that not only "General Moroz" fought on the side of our army, but also bacteria of all kinds and forms.

And in the late summer of 1942, near Stalingrad, a large number of tularemia patients suddenly appeared in the German army (an infectious disease characterized by inflammatory processes accompanied by fever, high fever and general intoxication of the body).

A dangerous infection carried by rodents first struck part of the German army, and after the retreat of the Nazis, Soviet troops, in particular, soldiers of the 16th Air Army under the command of Sergei Rudenko. The fact that the tularemia epidemic was of artificial origin is evidenced by the fact that it mainly affected only the German side - in our troops, the outbreak of the epidemic was liquidated as soon as possible. Further evidence of the use of this type of weapon is the outbreak of Q fever (an animal-borne infectious disease) that occurred in Crimea in 1943, again among German troops.

After the war, the creation of biological weapons in the USSR was given great importance. Institutes and laboratories engaged in research of this kind were scattered throughout the country - Kirov, Zagorsk, Sverdlovsk-19. One of the main bases was in the Aral Sea on the island of Renaissance, where military and civilian biologists lived at a secret facility, using monkeys and supposedly even death row prisoners for their experiments.

And in 1973, the giant Biopreparat concern was created in the USSR (enterprise p / y A-1063) - a research and production association that, in addition to the usual production of medical drugs and vaccines, developed secret biological weapons. It consisted of more than 40 divisions - institutions, enterprises, military facilities that worked and were financed until the early 1990s, until the new government finally liquidated them.

Paralyzed consciousness

In the mid-1970s, in the USSR, work was carried out (and is still being carried out) on the creation of psychotronic weapons - these are weapons of mass destruction that forcibly destroy the human psyche and psyche of animals or exert a control effect on it. These weapons can affect both enemy troops and civilians. A variety of it are devices for controlling consciousness (lead machine, dream machine, brain machine).

Despite the fantastic nature of such weapons, the military periodically admit the reality of its existence. So, back in 2000, American scientists used a long-range acoustic device, which is used in attacks by terrorists, pirates, and aggressive demonstrators.

Something similar existed in the USSR.

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