The Soviet biological weapons program : a history / Milton Leitenberg and Raymond A. Zilinskas, with Jens H. Kuhn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leitenberg, Milton.

Contributor:

Zilinskas, Raymond A.

Kuhn, Jens H.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Biological weapons--Soviet Union--History.

Biological weapons.

Biological warfare--Soviet Union--History.

Biological warfare.

Biological arms control--Soviet Union--History.

Biological arms control.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 921 pages ) illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Russian officials claim today that the USSR never possessed an offensive biological weapons program. In fact, the Soviet government spent billions of rubles and hard currency to fund hugely expensive research that added nothing to the country's security. This history is the first attempt to understand the full scope of the USSR's offensive biological weapons research-its inception in the 1920's, its growth between 1970 and 1980, and its possible remnants in present-day Russia. We learn that between 1990 and 1992 the U.S. and U.K. governments never obtained clear evidence of the program's closure, raising the haunting question whether the means for waging biological warfare could be resurrected in Russia today. Based on interviews with important Soviet scientists and managers, papers from the Soviet Central Committee, and U.S. and U.K. declassified documents, this book peels back layers of lies, to reveal how and why Soviet leaders decided to develop biological weapons, the scientific resources they dedicated to this task, and the multitude of research institutes that applied themselves to its fulfillment. We learn that Biopreparat, an ostensibly civilian organization, was established to manage a top secret program, code-named Ferment, whose objective was to apply genetic engineering to develop strains of pathogenic agents that had never existed in nature. Leitenberg and Zilinskas consider the performance of the U.S. intelligence community in discovering and assessing these activities, and they examine in detail the crucial years 1985 to 1992, when Mikhail Gorbachev's attempts to put an end to the program were thwarted.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Preface

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1. The Soviet Union's Biological Warfare Program, 1918- 1972

2. Beginnings of the "Modern" Soviet BW program, 1970- 1977

3. USSR Ministry of Defense Facilities and its Biological Warfare Program

4. Open-Air Testing of Biological Weapons by Aralsk-7 on Vozrozhdeniye Island

5. Soviet Civilian Sector Defenses against Biological Warfare and Infectious Diseases

6. Biopreparat's Role in the Soviet Biological Warfare Program and Its Survival in Russia

7. Biopreparat's State Research Center for Applied Microbiology (SRCAM)

8. All-Union Research Institute of Molecular Biology and Scientific-Production Association "Vector"

9. Biopreparat Facilities at Leningrad, Lyubuchany, and Stepnogorsk

10. Soviet Biological Weapons and Doctrines for Their Use

11. Distinguishing between Offensive and Defensive Biological Warfare Activities

12. Assessments of Soviet Biological Warfare Activities by Western Intelligence Services

13. United States Covert Biological Warfare Disinformation

14. Soviet Allegations of the Use of Biological Weapons by the United States

15. Sverdlovsk 1979: The Release of Bacillus anthracis Spores from a Soviet Ministry of Defense Facility and Its Consequences

16. Soviet Research on Mycotoxins

17. Assistance by Warsaw Pact States to the Soviet Union's Biological Warfare Program

18. The Question of Proliferation from the USSR Biological Warfare Program

19. Recalcitrant Russian Policies in a Parallel Area: Chemical Weapon Demilitarization

20. The Soviet Union, Russia, and Biological Warfare Arms Control

21. The Gorbachev Years: The Soviet Biological Weapons Program, 1985- 1992

22. Boris Yeltsin to the Present

23. United States and International Efforts to Prevent Proliferation of Biological Weapons Expertise from the Former Soviet Union

Conclusion

Annex A. Annex B. Annex C. Annex D. Notes. Acknowledgments. Index

Annex A: Acronyms and Russian Terms

Annex B: Glossary of Biological Warfare-Related Words and Terms

Annex C: A Joint Decree of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, USSR, and the USSR Council of Ministers, Dated 24 June 1981

Annex D: Joint US/UK/Russian Statement of Biological Weapons

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Contains contribution by Raymond A. Zilinskas, MIIS faculty/staff.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674070233

0674070232

9780674065260

0674065263

OCLC:

800678784