Abstract
This chapter reveals that in the early 1970s the Soviet Union greatly increased the resources available to its agricultural biowarfare programme and expanded the USSR Ministry of Agriculture’s network of BW facilities. New Ekologiya branches were created in Estonia, Armenia and Tajikistan. This was immediately after the termination of the US programme and exploited the lack of verification protocols in the 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. The expanded Ekologiya network had a sharp focus on the development of genetically modified agents, with wholly new and unexpected properties. In addition, virulent new pathogens were isolated by a network of monitoring stations across the USSR. Novel pathogens were also isolated at Soviet anti-livestock and anti-crop laboratories established in the People’s Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
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Notes
- 1.
The Main Administration of the Microbiological Industry under the USSR Council of Ministers (Glavnoe upravlenie mikrobiologicheskoi promyshlennosti pri Sovete Ministrov SSSR or Glavmikrobioprom) was created on 18 February 1966.
- 2.
The secretariat operated under the cover designation of P.O. Box A-3092 (p/ya A-3092). Domaradskij, I.V., with Orent, W., Biowarrior, pp. 145 and 154–155.
- 3.
Alibek, K., The Soviet Union’s Anti-Agricultural Biological Weapons, p. 18.
- 4.
Annual inflation over this period was some 3.62 per cent.
- 5.
Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R.A., with Kuhn, J.H., The Soviet Biological Weapons Programme, note 8, p. 772.
- 6.
Ibid., p. 155.
- 7.
Domaradskij, I.V., with Orent, W., Biowarrior, p. 157.
- 8.
The author wishes to acknowledge his thanks to Professor Aryvydas Janulaitis, director of the Institute of Applied Enzymology Fermentas, who on 23 March 1991 sent a copy of the regulations governing work in the USSR on recombinant DNA. See Sanitarno-protivoepidemicheskie pravila “bezopasnost’ raboty s rekominantnymi molekulami DNK”, USSR Ministry of Health, Moscow 1989.
- 9.
Otdel’ No. 7—Otdel molekulyarnoi biologii, Entry on the official website of VNIIF, 25 December 2015, http://www.vniif.ru/vniif/structure/otdel7, Accessed on the 24 November 2020.
- 10.
Vserossiiskii nauchno-issledovatel’skii institut fitopatologii (VNIIF), Date and Place of Publication Unknown.
- 11.
Rimmington, A., The Soviet Union’s Invisible Weapons of Mass Destruction: Biopreparat’s Covert Biological Warfare Programme, Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.
- 12.
Slavnye stranitsy iz zhizni.
- 13.
Vasil’ev Nikolai Nikolaevich (1929–1985), p. 313 in Lukina, R.N., Lukin, E.P., Bulavko, V.K., Dostoiny izvestnosti: 50 let virusologicheskomu tsentru ministerstva oborony, Ves’ Sergiev Posad, Sergiev Posad, 2004, p. 313.
- 14.
Bozheyeva, G., Kunakbayev, Ye., Yeleukenov, D., Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan, p. 11.
- 15.
One anti-crop researcher based at NISKhI (Gvardeiskii) was reported to be a regular traveller to Stepnogorsk. However, he was never granted permission to visit Biopreparat’s SNOPB plant focused on production of B. anthracis. Interview with former Gvardeiskii scientist, 30 January 2002.
- 16.
Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan, p. 11.
- 17.
Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R.A., with Kuhn, J.H., The Soviet Biological Weapons Programme, p. 215.
- 18.
Domaradkii, I., “Perevertysh”: Rasskaz “neudobnogo” cheloveka, Self-Published, Moscow, 1995, p. 89.
- 19.
Stranitsy istorii.
- 20.
Information supplied by former Soviet senior anti-crop scientist, 16 February 2001.
- 21.
Ibid.
- 22.
Interview with former staff member (1960–1985) of Scientific-Research Agricultural Institute (Gvardeiskii, Kazakhstan), Ala-Acha, Kyrgyz Republic, 12 September 1999.
- 23.
Information provided during tour of anti-crop laboratories and greenhouses to author, Scientific-Research Agricultural Institute, Gvardeiskii settlement, Kazakhstan, 13 September 1999.
- 24.
Information provided by senior GUNIiEPU scientist, 31 January 2002.
- 25.
Late blight related activities at experimental station of All-Union Institute of Plant Pathology (VNIIF) in Kamara (Viljandi county, Estonia), Information provided by Estonian plant breeding scientist, 11 November 2002.
- 26.
Interview with two former employees of Kamara Experimental Station, Kamara, Mõisakula, Viljandi county, Estonia, 3 July 2002.
- 27.
Late blight related activities at experimental station of All-Union Institute of Plant Pathology (VNIIF).
- 28.
Novoaleksandrovka has since been incorporated into the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Otdel No. 5—Otdel mikologii i immuniteta, Istoriya, Federal’noe gosudarstvennoe byudzhetnoe nauchnoe uchrezhdenie Vserossiiskii nauchno-issledovatel’skii institut fitopatologii, http://vniif.ru/vniif/structure/otdel5/page/75, Accessed on the 24 September 2019.
- 29.
Sakhalinskii opornyi punkt vsesoyuznogo nauchno-issledovatelskogo instituta fitopatologii, pos. Novoaleksandrovka Anivskogo raiona (1971–1972), Fond No. R-56, http://galsso.ru/funds/list/fund-p56, Accessed on the 24 September 2019.
- 30.
Dinamika ras vozbuditelya fitoftoroza kartofelya na Sakhalinskom opornom punkte VNIIF v 1978 g., 1978. Original VNIIF document consulted by the author.
- 31.
Information provided by former Soviet anti-crop scientist to author, 29 January 2002.
- 32.
Sanin, S.S., 50—let na strazhe prodovol’stvennoi bezopasnosti strany.
- 33.
Opisanie granitsy gorodskogo poseleniya “poselok Olekminsk” Olekminskogo upusa (raiona), Prilozhenie 1.10 k Zakonu Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya) “Ob ustanovlenii granits i o naselenii stausom gorodskogo i sel’skogo poselenii munitsipal’nykh obrazovanii Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya)”, Zakon Republiki Sakha (Yakutiya) ot 30.11.2004 173-3 N 353-III ob ustanovlenii granits i o naselenii stausom gorodskogo i sel’skogo poselenii munitsipal’nykh obrazovanii Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya), http://pravo.levonevsky.org/bazazru/zakon63/str2.htm, Accessed on the 6 March 2020.
- 34.
Information provided by former Soviet anti-crop scientists, 30 January 2002.
- 35.
Information provided by senior scientist at NISKhI, Gvardeiskii, Kazakhstan, 8 April 2003.
- 36.
Information provided by Georgette Naskidashvili (Director), main building, Institute of Plant Immunity, Kobuleti, Achara Republic, Georgia, 5 May 2001.
- 37.
Information provided by former Soviet anti-crop scientists, 30 January 2002.
- 38.
“Rossel’khoznadzor Federal’noe gosudarstvennoe uchrezhdenie “Federal’nyi tsentr okhrany zdorov’ya zhivotnykh” (FGU “VNIIZZh”) Tsentr MEB po sotrudnichestvo v oblasti diagnostiki i kontrolya …”, http://wiki.pdfm.ru/36selskohozyaistvo/72209-1-rosselhoznadzor-federalnoe-gosudarstvennoe-uchrezhdenie-federalniy-centr-ohrani-zdorovya-zhi.php, Accessed on the 6 November 2019.
- 39.
Anufriev, Aleksandr Ivanovich, MKUK TsBS Krasnenskogo raiona, https://kcbs.bel.muzkult.ru/zemlyaki?mobile=0, Accessed on the 13 March 2020.
- 40.
Information provided during meeting interview with management at the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture’s Livestock Breeding and Veterinary Scientific Centre, Yerevan, Armenia, 21 September 2002.
- 41.
Ibid.
- 42.
Ibid.
- 43.
Sotrudniki FGBU “VNIIZZh” ne zabyvayut svoikh veteranov v Krymu, Website of the All-Russian Institute of Animal Health, http://arriah.ru/en/node/3846, Accessed on the 3 March 2020.
- 44.
Interview with senior staff member of the Central Asian FMD Institute, Almaty, Kazakhstan, 9 April 2003.
- 45.
Rimmington, A., Fragmentation and Proliferation? The Fate of the Soviet Union’s Offensive Biological Weapons Programme, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 20, No. 1, April 1999, p. 89.
- 46.
Westerdahl, K., Building and Measuring Confidence, Appendix A, p. 5.
- 47.
The plant incorporated a number of Departments including Department of Media Production; Department of Cell Culture; Department of Virus Production in Suspension; and Department of Vaccine Formulation, Filling and Packing. Of the 260 employees in the main production area, 22 were degree holders. Poster display at “Russian Biotechnology – An Overview of its Standards & Efficiency & Opportunities of Cooperation with Western Companies”.
- 48.
Zakharov, V.M., Perevozchikova, N.A., Na krutom perelome, Veterinariya segodnya, No. 2 (5), May 2013, https://www.fsvps.ru/fsvps-docs/ru/news/smi/veterinary/veterinary-5-2013.pdf, Accessed on the 31 May 2019.
- 49.
Kak eto nachinalos’ … Timiryazevskaya akademiya i sovetskii Atomnyi proekt, https://gorodnica.livejournal.com/34073.html, 14 May 2013, Accessed on the 18 November 2020.
- 50.
Ministerstvo nauki i vyshego obrazovaniya Rossiiskoi Federatsii Federal’noe gosudarstvennoe byudzhetnoe nauchnoe uchrezhdenie “Vserossiiskii nauchno-issledovatel’skii institute radiologii i agroekologii”, Scientific Archive of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Information System of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISARAN), http://isaran.ru/?q=ru/fund&guid=C16E22C1-CB84-4BE5-AEB0-FBBB8DBF3A9A&ida=42, Accessed on the 18 November 2020.
- 51.
Personal communication with Estonian scientist, Late Blight Related Activities at Monitoring and Diagnosis Stations of Estonian Plant Protection Service Under the Leadership of Headquarter (sic) of Civil Defence, 11 November 2002.
- 52.
Personal communication with Estonian scientist, Activities at Jõgeva Plant Breeding Institute in Collaboration of (sic) All Union Institute of Plant Pathology (VNIIF) in Period 1971–1991, 11 November 2002.
- 53.
Kongo v XX veke, http://www.hrono.ru/land/1900kong.html, Accessed on the 9 March 2020.
- 54.
Photo # 5613446, http://visualrian.ru/media/5613446.html, Accessed on the 9 March 2020.
- 55.
Inauguration of the Veterinary Scientific Laboratory, Bulletin Quotidien de L’aci, 27 July 1977, pp. 1 B, 2 B, translated in Translations on Sub-Saharan Africa, No. 1842, Joint Publications Research Service, JPRS-70254, 30 November 1977, pp. 47–48.
- 56.
Burdovu aleksandru nikolaevichu—90 let, Veterinarnaya segodnya, No. 3 (18), 2016, http://rsn-msk.ru/files/veterinary-18-2016.pdf, Accessed on the 9 March 2020.
- 57.
Dumnov, D., Lyusov, V., Agriculture in the People’s Republic of Congo, Ekonomika sel’skogo khozyaystva, No. 9, September 1977, pp. 112–115, translated in Translations on Sub-Saharan Africa, No. 1849, US Joint Publications Research Service, 13 December 1977, p. 54.
- 58.
Rakhmanov, A.M., Glushko, B.A., Voennoe pokolenie sotrudnikov vsesoyuznogo nauchno-issledovatel’skogo yashchurnogo instituta—FGBU “Federal’nyi tsentr okhrany zdorov’ya zhivotnykh” (k 70-letiyu Pobedy v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine), p. 8 in Veterinariya segodnya, No. 2(13), May 2015, p. 4, https://www.fsvps.ru/fsvps-docs/ru/news/smi/veterinary/veterinary-13-2015.pdf, Accessed on the 30 May 2019.
- 59.
Soglashenie mezhdu pravitel’stvom soyuza sovetskikh sotsialisticheskikh respublik i imperatorskim efiopskim pravitel’stvom ob organizatsii nauchnoi fitopatologicheskoi laboratorii, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, https://www.mid.ru/foreign_policy/international_contracts/2_contract/-/storage-viewer/bilateral/page-544/58747, Accessed on the 11 November 2020; Agreement on Establishment of Scientific Phytopathology Laboratory, 3 May 1972, International Environmental Agreements (IEA) Database Project, https://iea.uoregon.edu/treaty/1961, Accessed on the 11 November 2020; Ambo Research Centre, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), http://www.eiar.gov.et/ambo-plant-protection-research-center, Accessed on the 20 September 2019; The USSR—Ethiopia: Shoulder to Shoulder, Soviet Military Review, No. 3, March 1982, p. 48.
- 60.
Research Papers Presented at National Conferences, International Congresses and Symposia, Scientific Phytopathological Laboratory, USSR Ministry of Agriculture, Ambo, Ethiopia, 1984, p. 6, http://197.156.72.153:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3174/018%20RESEARCHPAPERS%20PRESENTED%20AT%20NATIONAL%20CONFERENCES%20INTERNATIONAL%20CONGRESSES%20AND%20SYMPOSIA.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y, Accessed on the 11 November 2020.
- 61.
Iskanderov, I.I., Glavnyi orientir—uskorenie sotsial’no-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya, Obshchestvennye nauki uzbekistane, 1985, https://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/42994/1/isawdca_000524.pdf, Accessed on the 9 March 2020.
- 62.
K stoletiyu FGBNU “FITs kartofelya imeni A.G. Lorkha”, Kartofel’naya Sistema, 20 September 2020, https://potatosystem.ru/k-stoletiyu-fgbnu/, Accessed on the 13 November 2020.
- 63.
Research Papers Presented at National Conferences, pp. 6–15.
- 64.
K stoletiyu FGBNU “FITs kartofelya imeni A.G. Lorkha”.
- 65.
An example of such international transfers concerns the Institute of Tropical Medicine (Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde)—ITM—in Antwerp. It provided both Marburg virus (the Voege isolate or MARV-Voe) and Ebola virus (the Mayinga isolate or ZEBOV-May) to researchers in Belarus. The variants of the viruses were subsequently transferred to a Biopreparat facility in Siberia. Information provided by scientists within Group of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Scientific-Research Institute of Epidemiology & Microbiology, Minsk, 18 February 1997. See also Kuhn, J.H., Filoviruses: A Compendium of 40 Years of Epidemiological, Clinical, and Laboratory Studies, Springer-Verlag, Wien, 2008, p. 54, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-69495-4, Accessed on the 28 September 2020.
- 66.
For a full discussion of Soviet agriculture at this time see Harrison, M., Stalinism and the Economics of Wartime. This paper was prepared for the international conference on “The History of Stalinism: Research Problems and Results”, Moscow, 5–7 December 2008, https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/stalinism_en_2011.pdf, Accessed on the 19 September 2019. First draft: 1 December 2008. This version: 9 December 2008.
- 67.
Strainitsy istorii.
- 68.
Information supplied by former Soviet senior anti-crop scientist, 16 February 2001.
- 69.
Interviews with former Soviet anti-crop scientists, 13 June 2003 and 12 October 2003.
- 70.
Interview with former Soviet anti-crop scientists, 12 October 2003.
- 71.
Interview with former senior scientist from Central Asian Scientific-Research Institute of Phytopathology, 10–11 June 2003.
- 72.
Ibid.
- 73.
Ibid.
- 74.
Interview with scientist from the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, December 2003.
- 75.
Ibid.
- 76.
Interview with former senior scientist from Central Asian Scientific-Research Institute of Phytopathology, 10–11 June 2003.
- 77.
Istoriya, Nauchno-issledovatel’skii institute problem biologicheskoi bezopasnosti, http://www.biosafety.kz/, Accessed on the 4 March 2020.
- 78.
Istoricheskaya spravka, Volginskii branch clinic of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency (no date of publication), http://volginskfmba.ru, Accessed on the 7 December 2020.
- 79.
Information provided by former senior anti-crop scientist, Plant Immunity Research Institute. Interview conducted at the Eliava Institute of Bacteriophage, Microbiology and Virology, Tbilisi, Georgia, 1630, 31 October 2000.
- 80.
Information provided by Georgette Naskidashvili (Director), main building, Institute of Plant Immunity, Kobuleti, Achara Republic, Georgia, 4 May 2001.
- 81.
Ibid.
- 82.
Information regarding the meeting at Chimgan-Tashkent provided by former senior scientist from Central Asian Scientific-Research Institute of Phytopathology, London, 31 September 2004. Numbers in attendance estimated from group photograph detailing participants at the event.
- 83.
Fedorov, L.A., Soviet Biological Weapons, p. 75.
- 84.
Istoriya FGUP “VNIIKHSZR”, http://vniihszr.ru/history, Accessed on the 29 May 2019.
- 85.
Fedorov, L.A., Soviet Biological Weapons, p. 71. See also Leitenberg, M., Zilinskas, R.A., with Kuhn, J.H., The Soviet Biological Weapons Programme, p. 754, Note 43.
- 86.
Interview with senior staff member, Institute of Genetics and Plant Experimental Biology, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 10 December 2002.
- 87.
Fedorov, L.A., Soviet Biological Weapons, pp. 75–76.
- 88.
Ibid., pp. 73–74.
- 89.
Alibek, K., The Soviet Union’s Anti-Agricultural Biological Weapons, pp. 18–19.
- 90.
Interview with former senior scientist from Central Asian Scientific-Research Institute of Phytopathology, 10–11 June 2003.
- 91.
Bozheyeva, G., Kunakbayev, Ye., Yeleukenov, D., Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan, p. 16.
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Rimmington, A. (2021). From Estonia to Sakhalin Island: The Expansion of the USSR Ministry of Agriculture’s Toxic Archipelago in the 1970s and 1980s. In: The Soviet Union’s Agricultural Biowarfare Programme. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73843-3_4
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