The Stepnogorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for Microbiology, also known as the Scientific Experimental and Production Base, was one of the premier

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

facilities operated by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. It was the only

Biopreparat The All-Union Science Production Association Biopreparat (russian: Биопрепарат, p=bʲɪəprʲɪpɐˈrat, lit: "biological preparation") was the Soviet agency created in April 1974, which spearheaded the largest and most sophisticated ...

facility to be built outside of Russia proper, and one of the few ever visited officially by Western experts. As of 1998 the site conducted civilian biological research overseen by director Vladimir Bugreyev. At the time the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation provided significant funds supporting civilian research at Stepnogorsk.

History

The facility was built in 1982, ten kilometers from

Stepnogorsk Stepnogorsk ( kk, Степногорск, translit=Stepnogorsk; russian: Степногорск) is a town in Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. History Stepnogorsk was established in 1959, and has been a town since 1964. It is located about 200 km ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, in the wake of the accident at Sverdlovsk. It was built to develop and produce large quantities of weaponized

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

, almost 300 tons annually, in order to fill the production gap caused by a potential shutdown of their Sverdlovsk facility.Miller, Judith; Engelberg, Stephen; and Broad, William. ''Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War''. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 2002. Soviet leadership placed Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov (a.k.a.

Ken Alibek Kanatzhan "Kanat" Alibekov ( kk, Қанатжан Байзақұлы Әлібеков, Qanatjan Baizaqūly Älıbekov; russian: Канатжан Алибеков, Kanatzhan Alibekov; born 1950), known as Kenneth "Ken" Alibek since 1992, is a Kazak ...

) in charge of the base until his transfer to Moscow in 1987. Following the

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

in 1991, the Stepnogorsk base fell under the purview of the nascent Kazakh government, who, having little interest in

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

, let the secret city fall into disrepair. Kazakh President

Nursultan Nazarbayev Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev ( kk, Нұрсұлтан Әбішұлы Назарбаев, Nūrsūltan Äbişūlı Nazarbaev, ; born 6 July 1940) is a Kazakh politician and military officer who served as the first President of Kazakhstan, in off ...

personally granted a team of American experts, led by

U.S. Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

diplomat Andy Weber, permission to visit the still-operational site in 1995, the first time an American intelligence team had ever been allowed to do so.

References

{{authority control Biological warfare facilities Medical research institutes in the Soviet Union Microbiology institutes Military installations of the Soviet Union Soviet biological weapons program