Center for Military-Technical Problems of Bacteriological Defense Research Institute of Microbiology of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

In the late 1940s, the number of works in the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene of the Red Army and their complexity increased significantly. There was a need for a new center. In 1949, based on several laboratories of the Kirov Institute in Sverdlovsk, the Scientific Research Institute of Hygiene of the Ministry of Defense was created. The new institute was located in the buildings of the former Cherkassk-Sverdlovsk Infantry School. And in September 1949 the first group of employees arrived at the institute from Kirov , headed by the first head of the institute N.F. Kopylov.

The names of such famous researchers of infectious diseases as P. N. Burgasov , V. I. Evstigneev , V. A. Mikhailov, V. I. Ogarkov , A. T. Kharechko, G. I. Arkhangelsky, K. K Styazhkin and M. G. Scherbakov.

At the beginning of construction, he was on the outskirts of Sverdlovsk and was surrounded by forest. When it became clear that, due to the expansion of the city, its borders would come close to the city, it was decided to place industrial enterprises around it in order to avoid its proximity to residential areas. As a result of the expansion of the city’s borders, he was in the center of the Chkalovsky district of the city.

Sverdlovsk-19 was a member of the Biopreparat NGO ^[1] , which was engaged in the development and production of biological weapons prohibited by an international convention, which the USSR also joined in 1972.

According to some researchers, an epidemic of anthrax in Sverdlovsk in 1979 was caused by leakage of anthrax spores in one of the center’s laboratories due to a late filter replacement ^{[2] [3] [4]} . According to the official version - it was caused by meat from cows infected with anthrax. During the epidemic, none of the residents of Sverdlovsk-48 became ill. According to other sources, there were several deaths on the campus’s territory: according to the head of the Sverdlovsk-48 personnel department E. Tulikin, at the beginning of the epidemic Nikolaev, an employee of the logistics department, died, after which they were vaccinated without exception. Men of draft age were vaccinated on the remaining sepsis 004 did not work, women were injected with a vaccine to hide information. According to official figures, during the epidemic in Sverdlovsk 64 people died, researchers and journalists call a larger number - up to 100 people. Extremely high mortality during the epidemic, uncharacteristic of “ordinary” anthrax strains, is the main argument of the supporters of the version about the leakage of bacteriological weapons . In addition, in Sverdlovsk a very rare and most dangerous pulmonary anthrax prevailed, transmitted by airborne droplets.

In 1980, B. N. Yeltsin , who was then the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU, it was decided to move the Center outside the city, but it remained unfulfilled. On April 4, 1992, on the 13th anniversary of the tragedy, Yeltsin signed the Law of the Russian Federation “On improving the retirement benefits of families of citizens who died due to anthrax in Sverdlovsk in 1979” ^[5] , equating the Sverdlovsk accident with Chernobyl and actually recognizing the responsibility of the military bacteriologists for the death of innocent people.

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• Volkov S. N. Yekaterinburg - a man and a city. Experience in social ecology and practical geo-urban studies. Yekaterinburg, 1996, 130 p.
• Miller J. Poison island: a special report. At bleak Asian site, killer germs survive. The New York Times. June 2, 1999.
• Alibek K. Caution! Biological weapons! M .: Gorodets-Izdat LLC, 2003, 347 p. - Russian translation of the book Alibek K., Handelmann S. Biohazard. NY: Random house, 1999.
• Parfenov S. Death from a test tube // article in the journal Ural, No. 3, 2008

• About the Sverdlovsk accident at the HIMBAT forum