Sverdlovsk: The Soviet BW Program Analysis
The Sverdlovsk Controversy:
The US Version
"in February I receive a letter through the underground sent to me from
Moscow in January, in which a friend informed me that last spring an
infectious strain had spread throughout Sverdlovsk, following an explosion
in a secret bacteriological compound. My friend informed me that an
infectious cloud had been driven by wind south from the city, and that no
less than 1,000 people had died, both in the city and its suburbs. Residents
within a very large radius of the military bacteriological compound were
vaccinated twice. The vaccinations were painful and people refused to go to
the clinics for vaccination. The nature of the disease was not known, but it
was thought to be a very virulent form of anthrax. Those who came down
with the disease died within a few hours after arriving at the hospital."
-Congressional testimony of Mark Popovskiy, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center
Sverdlovsk Incident: Soviet Compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention? Subcommittee
on Oversight, Select Committee on Intelligence. House of Representatives. May 29 1980, p.4.View entire presentation