Aralsk-7: The Soviet Bioweapon Disaster

It’s late July 1971 at the Aral Sea. On  the deck of a biological research vessel, Lev Berg, a 24-year-old marine biologist  casts nets to collect plankton and fish. In the distance, some 15 kilometers away, she can  see the coast of Vozrozhdeniye Island.

People live there, but no one ever comes in contact with them.  The island is a restricted area, the property of the Soviet Military. The locals don’t know what  kind of military facility it is, only that no one is allowed to go anywhere near the island.

The young scientist could only wonder, watching from a distance, what kind of secret the island  and its people hide. Soon, she would learn that Vozrozhdeniye was off-limits for a good reason.  A week after she traveled near the island, the scientist fell ill.

Once she returned home  to Aralsk, the largest town on the coast of the Aral Sea, she developed a high fever. Her illness  raised the alarm locally and escalted to Moscow’s highest political circles. The disease she  carried was one of the most terrifying.

The military facility at Vozrozhdeniye Island was  anything but ordinary. There were no reports of loud explosions, rocket launches, or the usual  that one might expect from the mighty Red Army. Instead, it was home to a secret  biological weapon testing site.

At the time, the Soviet Union had an extensive  biological weapons program. The head of the program was the notorious chief of the secret  police (known as the NKVD), Lavrentiy Beria. Apart from commanding the Soviet biological  weapon program, Beria was also in charge of the atomic bomb project.

Under his leadership, the  Soviet Union developed a sophisticated biological weapon program, primarily as a response to a  similar program developed by the United States. Like most things related to Soviet military  efforts, the biological weapons project was shrouded in mystery. Apart from the  central research institute in Kirov, there were research facilities in  Sverdlovsk (present-day Yekaterinburg) and Zagorsk (present-day Sergiyev Posad).

In  addition, field tests were conducted at several locations, with the one at Vozrozhdeniye  Island being among the most important. Firsts tests took place on the island in 1936 and  1937, before the Second World War. In these tests, the military studied the effects of different  anti-personnel pathogens that cause cholera, dysentery, leprosy, paratyphus, plague, tetanus,  typhus, and bio-agents targeting livestock.

In the early years of the  Cold War, field tests resumed. By 1954, a large complex named Aralsk-7 was  built. It comprised of military barracks, a field scientific research laboratory with  high-containment facilities, and a small village called Kantubek where facility personnel and their  families lived.

Far downwind from this complex was a vast open-air test range spreading over  100 square kilometers (38. 6 square miles). Here scientists and military personnel carried  out pathogen tests that cause feared diseases like anthrax, tularemia, brucellosis,  Q-fever, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

Moreover, tests on Vozrozhdeniya Island included  the most potent recipes of weaponized smallpox. Tested agents were dispersed by exploding  bombs and through aerosol sprayers. On and above the ground, detectors  measured the level of pathogen dispersion.

Large animals like horses, donkeys, and sheep,  and smaller animals like mice, guinea pigs, and hamsters were brought to Vozrozhdeniye  Island as test subjects. The Soviets even imported hundreds of Hamadryas Baboons from  Africa, species closely related to humans. The test range was positioned on the southernmost  part of the island, and since the winds blew from north to south, all tested bio-agents ended up in  the Aral sea.

With the closest down-wind coastline being 125 kilometers (77. 6 miles) away, there was  little risk that any pathogens would reach the mainland. Additionally, no ship was allowed  within a 40-kilometer (25 miles) perimeter as a precaution. 

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Smallpox is one of the most terrible diseases  known to man. It is highly contagious and attacks membranes of the mouth, throat, and respiratory  tract, from where it spreads through the entire body. Victims then develop blisters across  their whole body.

On average, three out of every ten that are infected die. In the 20th-century  alone, smallpox killed up to 300 million people. By the 1950s, the virus was eliminated in North  America and Europe, but cases were still occurring in South America, Asia, and Africa.

In response,  a massive vaccination program started in 1967. Finally, the World Health Organization  declared the world free of smallpox in 1980. research journey.

It reached the island's vicinity  two weeks later, on July 30, allegedly entering the restricted area and passing only 15   kilometers (9. 3 miles) away from the island. According to a Deputy Chief of the Red  Army General Staff, General Pyotr Burgasov, the Army was testing biological weapons at  that time.

Four hundred grams (0. 88lbs) of an “exclusive smallpox recipe” had just been  dropped at the test range. The explosion of the virus bomb spread the pathogen,  reaching the biologist on Lev Berg’s deck.

On August 6, the biologist felt  the first symptoms of the disease: a fever accompanied by headache and muscle  aches. Upon returning to Aralsk on August 11, she immediately went home to be taken care of by  her mother. A general practitioner who visited her noted she had a high fever of 39 degrees  Celsius (102.

2 degrees Fahrenheit) and prescribed her aspirin and antibiotics. After the fever  broke, a rash appeared on her face, scalp, and back. Luckily, she recovered quickly, primarily  because she was vaccinated against smallpox.

Two weeks after the biologist came home,  her younger brother fell ill. He, as well, had a fever and a skin rash. His initial treatment  included tetracycline antibiotics and aspirin, but it didn’t stop the virus from spreading.

At  first, the physicians didn’t consider smallpox because the Soviets eradicated it a decade ago.  Eight more people got infected: six adults ages 24 to 60 and two children. A viral swab confirmed  the presence of the smallpox virus.

Antibody tests performed in the Institute for Viral  Preparations in Moscow also showed an increased level of antibodies to smallpox. Interestingly, no  other crew member from the Lev Berg got infected. Of the ten infected residents, one adult and two  less-than-a-year-old infants developed a highly lethal hemorrhagic form of the disease and died. 

None of them were vaccinated against smallpox, whereas the vaccinated marine biologist  and remaining individuals recovered. When General Burgasov heard of the infections,  he knew the cause since he was familiar with the test conducted at Aralsk-7. The General  then informed the Chief of the General Staff and asked that trains traveling from  the Kazakh capital Alma-Ata to Moscow should not be allowed to stop at Aralsk. 

The health authorities were quick to react by completely sealing Aralsk. No one was  allowed to enter or leave the town. A couple of hundred residents who had direct contact  with the virus were isolated in a tent city.

The entire population of nearly 50,000 was  vaccinated in just two weeks. Five thousand square meters (54,000 square feet) of living space and 18  metric tons of household goods were disinfected. KGB Chief Yuri Andropov, who Burgasov informed  of his doubts, ordered him not to speak to anyone else about it.

Disclosing the incident would  have undoubtedly caused panic in the country. More importantly, it would reveal the details of  the Soviet top-secret biological weapons program. The incident was circumstantial evidence that the  virus had been enhanced and “hardened” to maintain its infectivity after dispersion as an aerosol -  even after traveling downwind over at least 15 km.

The Soviets perfected the airborne delivery of the  virus by spreading it using aerial bombs — a far more effective method than person-to-person  transmission. In addition, many bio-agents were genetically altered to resist heat,  cold, and antibiotics in the following years. The 1971 smallpox break incident was a lone  case that resulted in minimal casualties, even though there was an objective  threat to infect the entire region.

Nevertheless, the secret facility continued  testing biological weapons. Until its closure, there were no records of similar  incidents. Not officially, that is.

A year after the 1971 incident, two fishermen  went missing. Their bodies were found in the boat drifting in the middle of the Aral Sea. They  were suspected of dying from the plague.

Then, in May 1988, 50,000 Saiga Antelopes died in a  short period. The cause of death remained unknown. Both incidents remain shrouded in mystery,  especially after the signing of the convention.

On April 10, 1972, the Soviet Union  signed and agreed to completely ban “microbial or other biological agents, or toxins  whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have  no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes; [and  on] weapons, equipment or means of delivery. ” Seventy-seven other countries signed the  convention, including the United States. However, the Soviets doubted the United  States’ compliance with the convention and subsequently ramped up their biowarfare  program.

It became a massive effort with dozens of secret sites employing up to 65,000 people. The Aralsk-7 facility continued its work until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. By  that time, the water level of the Aral Sea had dropped drastically after its water supply  had been re-routed to irrigate fields.

Therefore, the island grew ten times in size and  became a peninsula connected to the mainland. The former island's territory is split between  Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, two countries that declared independence from the Soviet Union.  In November 1991, the Aralsk-7 facility was officially closed.

The entire  infrastructure was abandoned, including the village of Kantubek, which became  a ghost town. What’s left behind are cache pits with anthrax slurry and mass graveyards with the  infected remains of thousands of test animals. As was the case in 1971, residents still stay  clear of the site.

It only reminds them of a time when a devastating secret  weapon nearly wiped them out. Watch this episode next if you  found this video interesting.