Almost 45 years on god forgotten island in the middle of the Aral Sea, there was a Soviet biological weapons testing center. A residential town with a school, shops, post office, a canteen, scientific laboratories and, of course, a testing ground where large-scale tests of deadly biological agents, including anthrax, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, typhoid, took place. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, the military threw both the city and the training ground in the Aral sands. Onliner.by tells about the history and present of the top-secret Renaissance island, which an ecological disaster in the Aral Sea turned into a ghost peninsula.
Back in the late 1920s, the command of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was preoccupied with the choice of a location for a scientific center for the development of biological weapons and a testing ground. The task of spreading the proletarian revolution to the whole world was still on the agenda, and shells with deadly strains inside could accelerate the construction of a state of workers and peasants on a planetary scale. For this good purpose, it was necessary to select a relatively large island with a distance from the coast of at least 5-10 kilometers. They even looked for a suitable candidate on Lake Baikal, but in the end they decided to stop at three objects: the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and the single Gorodomlya islands on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdenie in the Aral Sea.
The main pre-war center for the study of this important issue was the Gorodomlya island located in the Tver region, which was relatively close to the capital of the USSR. In 1936-1941, it was here that the 3rd testing laboratory, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons, was transferred from the Suzdal monasteries and was subordinate to the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army. However, the Great Patriotic War convincingly showed that such institutions should henceforth be created much further from the borders of the USSR with possible opponents.
Vozrozhdenie Island was perfect for this task. This deserted piece of land in the Aral Sea, an endless salt lake on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was discovered in 1848. A lifeless archipelago where there was no fresh water, for some unimaginable reason, was called the Tsar's Islands, and its constituent parts - the islands of Nicholas, Constantine and the Heir. It was Nikolai, optimistically (or perhaps with irony) renamed Vozrozhdenie Island, who, after the war, became a top-secret Soviet base-testing ground for testing deadly diseases put in the service of the motherland.
This island, with an area of about 200 square kilometers, at first sight met all safety requirements: practically uninhabited surroundings, flat relief, hot climate, unsuitable for the survival of pathogenic organisms.
In the summer of 1936, the first expedition of military biologists headed by Professor Ivan Velikanov, the father of the Soviet bacteriological program, landed here. The island was taken from the jurisdiction of the NKVD, the exiled kulaks were evicted from here, and the following year they tested some bioagents based on tularemia, plague and cholera. The work was complicated by the repressions to which the leadership of the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army was subjected (Velikanov, for example, was shot in 1938), and were suspended for the time of the Great Patriotic War to resume again with even greater zeal after it ends.
In the northern part of the island, the military town of Kantubek was built, officially named Aralsk-7. In general, it was similar to hundreds of its other analogues that arose in the vastness of the Soviet Union: a dozen and a half residential buildings for officers and scientific personnel, a club, a canteen, a stadium, shops, barracks and parade ground, its own power plant. This is how Aralsk-7 looked in the image of the American spy satellite of the late 1960s.
A unique airfield "Barkhan" was also built near the village, the only one in the Soviet Union that had four runways resembling a wind rose. It always blows on the island strong wind, sometimes changing its direction. Depending on the current weather, the planes landed on one or another lane.
In total, there were up to one and a half thousand soldiers and their families here. It was, in essence, an ordinary garrison life, the features of which were perhaps the special secrecy of the facility and the not very comfortable climate. Children went to school, their parents went to work, in the evenings they watched movies in the officers' house, and on weekends they had picnics on the shores of the Aral Sea, which until the mid-1980s really looked like the sea.
Kantubek at the time of its heyday. With the nearest city on " big earth”, Aralsk, the sea traffic was carried out. Fresh water was also delivered here by barges, which was then stored in special huge tanks on the outskirts of the village.
A laboratory complex (PNIL-52 - the 52nd field research laboratory) was built a few kilometers from the village, where, among other things, experimental animals were kept, which became the main victims of the tests carried out here. The scale of research is illustrated by the following fact. In the 1980s, specially for them in Africa, through the USSR Foreign Trade, a batch of 500 monkeys was purchased. All of them eventually became victims of the tularemia microbe strain, after which their corpses were burned, and the resulting ashes were buried on the island.
The southern part of the island was occupied by the actual test site. It was here that shells were blown up or pathogenic strains based on anthrax, plague, tularemia, Q fever, brucellosis, glanders, and other especially dangerous infections were sprayed from an airplane, as well as a large number of artificially created biological agents.
The location of the test site in the south was determined by the nature of the winds prevailing on the island. The aerosol cloud formed as a result of the test, in fact a weapon of mass destruction, was blown away by the wind in the direction opposite from the military town, after which anti-epidemic measures and decontamination of the territory were carried out without fail. A hot climate with a regular forty-degree heat was an additional factor that ensured the safety of military biologists: most bacteria and viruses died from prolonged exposure to high temperatures. All specialists participating in the tests also underwent mandatory quarantine.
Simultaneously with the post-war intensification of military scientific work on the Vozrozhdeniye island, the Soviet leadership laid an imperceptible at first the beginning of an ecological catastrophe, which ultimately led to the colossal degradation of the Aral Sea. The main source of food for the lake-sea was the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. In total, these two largest rivers Central Asia supplied to the Aral Sea about 60 cubic kilometers of water per year. In the 1960s, the waters of these rivers began to be sorted out by reclamation canals - it was decided to turn the surrounding deserts into a garden and grow such a necessary national economy cotton. The result was not long in coming: the cotton harvest, of course, increased, but the Aral Sea began to rapidly grow shallow.
In the early 1970s, the amount of river water reaching the sea decreased by a third, after another decade, only 15 cubic kilometers per year began to flow into the Aral Sea, and in the mid-1980s this figure completely dropped to 1 cubic kilometer. By 2001, the sea level dropped by 20 meters, the volume of water decreased 3 times, the area of the water surface - 2 times. The Aral Sea split into two unrelated large lakes and many small ones. In the future, the shallowing process continued.
With the shallowing of the sea, the area of the Vozrozhdeniye Island began to increase just as rapidly - and in the 1990s it grew almost 10 times. The Tsar's Islands first merged into one island, and in the 2000s it joined the "mainland" and turned, in fact, into a peninsula.
The disintegration of the USSR finally "buried" the test site on the Vozrozhdeniye Island. Weapons of mass destruction turned into an entity of little relevance in post-Soviet realities, and in November 1991 the military biological laboratory Aralsk-7 was closed. The population of the village was evacuated within a few weeks, all infrastructure (residential and laboratory), equipment were abandoned, Kantubek turned into a ghost town.
The place of the military was quickly taken by marauders, who, in their own way, appreciated the wealth of the former top-secret scientific center left by the army and scientists. Everything that was of any value and at the same time amenable to dismantling and transportation was removed from the island. Kantubek-Aralsk-7 has become an elusive dream for fans of abandoned cities.
The streets of the town of Soviet military biologists, where garrison life was flowing steadily just over two decades ago.
Residential buildings.
Children will never go to this school.
A reservoir for fresh water delivered from the "mainland".
Former Voentorg store.
For almost 45 years, a Soviet biological weapons testing center existed on a godforsaken island in the middle of the Aral Sea. A residential town with a school, shops, post office, canteen, scientific laboratories and, of course, a testing ground where large-scale tests of deadly biological agents, including anthrax, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, and typhoid fever, took place. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, the military threw both the city and the training ground in the Aral sands.
A source:
1. Back in the late 1920s, the command of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was concerned with the choice of a location for a scientific center for the development of biological weapons and a testing ground. The task of spreading the proletarian revolution to the whole world was still on the agenda, and shells with deadly strains inside could accelerate the construction of a state of workers and peasants on a planetary scale. For this good purpose, it was necessary to select a relatively large island with a distance from the coast of at least 5-10 kilometers. They even looked for a suitable candidate on Lake Baikal, but in the end they decided to stop at three objects: the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and the single Gorodomlya islands on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdenie in the Aral Sea.
2. The main pre-war center for the study of this important problem was the Gorodomlya island located in the Tver region, which was relatively close to the capital of the USSR. In 1936-1941, it was here that the 3rd testing laboratory, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons, was transferred from the Suzdal monasteries and was subordinate to the Military-Chemical Directorate of the Red Army. However, the Great Patriotic War convincingly showed that such institutions should henceforth be created much further from the borders of the USSR with possible opponents.
3. Vozrozhdenie Island was ideal for this task. This deserted piece of land in the Aral Sea, an endless salt lake on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was discovered in 1848. The lifeless archipelago, where there was no fresh water, for some unimaginable reason was called the Tsar's Islands, and its constituent parts - the islands of Nikolai, Constantine and the Heir. It was Nikolai, optimistically (and perhaps with irony) renamed Vozrozhdenie Island, who became, after the war, a top-secret Soviet base-testing ground for testing deadly diseases put in the service of the motherland.
4. This island with an area of about 200 square kilometers at first sight met all safety requirements: practically uninhabited surroundings, flat relief, hot climate, unsuitable for the survival of pathogenic organisms.
5. In the summer of 1936, the first expedition of military biologists headed by Professor Ivan Velikanov, the father of the Soviet bacteriological program, landed here. The island was taken from the jurisdiction of the NKVD, the exiled kulaks were evicted from here, and the following year they tested some bioagents based on tularemia, plague and cholera. The work was complicated by the repressions that the leadership of the Military-Chemical Directorate of the Red Army underwent (Velikanov, for example, was shot in 1938), and were suspended during the Great Patriotic War, in order to resume with even greater zeal after its end.
6. In the northern part of the island, the military town of Kantubek was built, officially named Aralsk-7. In general, it was similar to hundreds of its other analogues that arose in the vastness of the Soviet Union: a dozen or so residential buildings for officers and scientific personnel, a club, a canteen, a stadium, shops, barracks and parade ground, and its own power plant. This is how Aralsk-7 looked in the image of the American spy satellite of the late 1960s.
7. A unique airfield "Barkhan" was also built near the village, the only one in the Soviet Union that had four runways resembling a wind rose. A strong wind always blows on the island, sometimes changing its direction. Depending on the current weather, the planes landed on one or another lane.
8. In total, there were up to one and a half thousand soldiers and their families. It was, in essence, an ordinary garrison life, the features of which were perhaps the special secrecy of the facility and the not very comfortable climate. Children went to school, their parents went to work, in the evenings they watched movies in the officers' house, and on weekends they had picnics on the shores of the Aral Sea, which until the mid-1980s really looked like the sea.
10. Kantubek at the time of its heyday. With the nearest city on the "mainland", Aralsk, there was a sea connection. Fresh water was also delivered here by barges, which was then stored in special huge tanks on the outskirts of the village.
12. A laboratory complex (PNIL-52 - the 52nd field research laboratory) was built a few kilometers from the village, where, among other things, experimental animals were kept, which became the main victims of the tests carried out here. The scale of research is illustrated by the following fact. In the 1980s, specially for them in Africa, through the USSR Foreign Trade, a batch of 500 monkeys was purchased. All of them eventually became victims of the tularemia microbe strain, after which their corpses were burned, and the resulting ashes were buried on the island.
13. The southern part of the island was occupied by the actual test site. It was here that shells were blown up or pathogenic strains based on anthrax, plague, tularemia, Q fever, brucellosis, glanders, and other especially dangerous infections were blown up or sprayed from an aircraft, as well as a large number of artificially created biological agents. (Photo clickable)
14. The location of the landfill in the south was determined by the nature of the prevailing winds on the island. The aerosol cloud formed as a result of the test, in fact a weapon of mass destruction, was blown away by the wind in the direction opposite from the military town, after which anti-epidemic measures and decontamination of the territory were carried out without fail. A hot climate with a regular forty-degree heat was an additional factor that ensured the safety of military biologists: most bacteria and viruses died from prolonged exposure to high temperatures. All specialists participating in the tests also underwent mandatory quarantine.
15. Simultaneously with the post-war intensification of military scientific work on the Vozrozhdeniye island, the Soviet leadership laid an imperceptible at first the beginning of an ecological catastrophe, which ultimately led to the colossal degradation of the Aral Sea. The main source of food for the lake-sea was the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. In total, these two largest rivers of Central Asia supplied about 60 cubic kilometers of water to the Aral Sea per year. In the 1960s, the waters of these rivers began to be sorted out by reclamation canals - it was decided to turn the surrounding deserts into a garden and grow cotton there so much needed by the national economy. The result was not long in coming: the cotton harvest, of course, increased, but the Aral Sea began to rapidly grow shallow.
16. In the early 1970s, the amount of river water reaching the sea decreased by one third, after another decade, only 15 cubic kilometers per year began to flow into the Aral Sea, and in the mid-1980s this figure dropped to 1 cubic kilometer altogether. By 2001, the sea level dropped by 20 meters, the volume of water decreased 3 times, the area of the water surface - 2 times. The Aral was divided into two unconnected large lakes and many small ones. In the future, the shallowing process continued.
18. The area of the Vozrozhdeniye Island, with the shallowing of the sea, began to increase just as rapidly - and in the 1990s it grew almost 10 times. The Tsar's Islands first merged into one island, and in the 2000s it merged with the "mainland" and turned, in fact, into a peninsula.
19. The collapse of the USSR finally "buried" the test site on the Vozrozhdeniye Island. Weapons of mass destruction turned into an entity of little relevance in post-Soviet realities, and in November 1991 the military biological laboratory Aralsk-7 was closed. The population of the village was evacuated within a few weeks, all infrastructure (residential and laboratory), equipment were abandoned, Kantubek turned into a ghost town.
22. The place of the military was quickly taken by marauders who, in their own way, appreciated the wealth of the former top-secret scientific center left by the army and scientists. Everything that was of any value and at the same time amenable to dismantling and transportation was removed from the island. Kantubek-Aralsk-7 has become an elusive dream for fans of abandoned cities.
24. The streets of the town of Soviet military biologists, where garrison life was flowing steadily just a little over two decades ago.
A hot autumn day in the newly formed Aralkum desert was striving towards evening. After a detailed study of the military town of Kantubek at the now abandoned biological weapons testing ground Aralsk-7 Isle of Revival or Isle of Death? my partner Kostik and I moved towards site B, where biological weapons were tested and the consequences of their use were studied.
In general, back in 1936, an expedition headed by Professor Ivan Velikanov arrived on the Vozrozhdeniye Island. Scientists have tried to implement a controlled spread of tularemia. But in 1937 Velikanov was arrested by the NKVD, and the work stalled. When in 1942 the German army rapidly conquered western territories USSR, from the Gorodomlya island on Lake Seliger, laboratories for testing biological weapons were evacuated through Kirov and Saratov to the Vozrozhdenie island in the Aral Sea. After the war, the construction of an airfield, a military unit and laboratory buildings began on this largest island of the Aral Sea. It was the time of birth of the Aralsk-7 landfill. This military biological complex received this name in 1952.
I dreamed of researching (in the language of stalkers "shake") this object for more than a year. And so I walk up to him and enter the territory, as befits a stalker - through a gap in the fence. The double-barbed fence, once heavily guarded, is now toppled in many places. The wind rustles in the bushes, and this rustle is very similar to the rustle of car tires on a road made of concrete slabs. Again we sneak like bandits through the bushes, looking around at every sound. I walk past the ruins of barracks and stables. My partner is far ahead, and we are visible in the open space, as in the palm of your hand. Back in town, the battery on my big camera ran out and only GOPR0 was left for filming. The tongue grows numb from fear, but I have to gather my will into a fist and still tell the viewers of my channel something so that they watch a video somewhere by the New Year, which has no analogue on Youtube on this topic.
youtube.com/watch?v=dU8bk6rGf...
From fear and tension, at times I get confused and stumbled. In parallel with filming, I rack my brains over where my second partner did go. Was he accepted (caught, detained)? Are there people on the island besides us? If not, where did he go? Lost? Fell, broke a leg and can't walk? In general, solid questions ...
According to unverified data from the Internet, in the barracks in the first years of the existence of the test site, during the reign of Stalin, female prisoners lived and experiments with biological weapons were carried out on them. I read on the Internet that there are supposedly examination rooms with broken gynecological chairs in the laboratory. Well ... there is not much left - let's see ... There were stables behind the barracks. There were kept horses that also participated in trials (trips). They also made a nutrient medium for the reproduction of bacteria - agar - from their blood. Those who served at the landfill and those who entered site B called it liquid meat. An entire stud farm was built on the Kulandy Peninsula to breed horses for the needs of the training ground. The stud farm is still working. Now it is privately owned, and there are bred steppe horses for equestrian sports and Agriculture Kazakhstan, and not for senseless murder, as it was under Soviet rule. And this cannot but rejoice. In my previous videos of the project "In the footsteps of Alexei Butakov's expedition" you can see these beautiful, noble animals. You have to be not a man or even a beast, but just some kind of monster in order to calmly, "for scientific purposes" destroy such beauty. What kind of people worked in this laboratory, to the main building of which I am approaching? How do they live today after such activities? Thoughts swarm in my head like flocks of insects near a street lamp on a summer night. There is no more room for fear and panic in the brain tired of questions. Well, here, finally, he is: the 70th corps of PNIL
It contained animals infected during biological weapons tests. They worked here with guinea pigs, mice, rabbits and monkeys. In the last years of the work of the test site, during the service in the army of my partner, tests were carried out mainly on monkeys. We have never spared money for defense, and they bought monkeys for foreign currency and brought them here by plane - just to the very Barkhan airfield, where we did not dare to go in the first half of the day. The country had empty shelves in stores and the most ordinary food had to be obtained (in orders, queues, etc.), and the Ministry of Defense bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of monkeys to kill them in this gloomy building.
Building 70 has three floors. On the basement there are all sorts of office premises for the laboratory staff: instrumentation, disinfection,
washing
with autoclaves for disinfection of medical utensils,
showers, toilets, etc.
Each floor along the entire length of the building is cut by a long, wide corridor.
The floors are connected by two staircases at different ends of the building.
and a freight elevator, on which the corpses of animals were lowered down in special barrels, loaded these barrels into a car and taken to bury them at the burial ground behind the 70th building.
On the ground floor, there were rooms where the infected animals were kept.
Here they were observed, the course of the disease in vaccinated and unvaccinated animals was compared, some were treated, others were not, and the results and the rate of progression of the disease were observed in different conditions... In the laboratory, the animals were analyzed and various medical and biological factors were studied. In general, science! ...
The second floor is the most interesting. The spacious filter room immediately attracts attention.
They were approached by ventilation pipes from all over the hull. The air passed through them, and already cleared of deadly strains was removed through the pipes in the roof of the building to the outside.
There is also a hermetic zone, where especially dangerous work was carried out with contaminated biomaterial.
In this incubator, they worked with combat agents, and, perhaps, they opened the corpses of infected animals. In general, they did something especially serious - one large door with pressurized valves and sensors
and several airlock chambers, separated by now sawn-down pressurized doors, you have to go through to get into this eerie room
Conscripts were not allowed into the 70th Corps, only in exceptional cases, mainly for the repair of equipment. It is to them that my special gratitude for comments and explanations in such an unknown matter to me as testing of biological weapons. On the second floor, I came across a couple more interesting rooms. This is a central autoclave, where the carcasses of animals were sterilized before they were filled in special barrels,
and a room with incubators for Petri dishes, where bacteria multiplied in the agar and where their presence or absence in the given environment was revealed.
This is how anthrax spores, a strain of anthrax especially resistant to antibiotics, look under a microscope.
In 1979, due to the negligence of the personnel, these "cute" microscopic creatures entered the atmosphere of the city of Sverdlovsk and caused an epidemic of a particularly severe form of anthrax, as a result of which more than a hundred people died. Now the Sverdlovsk-19 facility is partially abandoned and getting into the hangars where biological weapons were produced and stored is my next dream. Sverdlovsk to check the implementation of agreements on the reduction and destruction of various types of weapons, containers with anthrax spores were taken to Uzbekistan and buried somewhere on Vozrozhdenie Island.
The basement of the 70th building is no less interesting. Here, in large containers at high temperature and high pressure, the entire sewage system of the 70th building was disinfected. All of it was poured into these containers.
23 years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin by his decree closed one of the most secret military installations of the Soviet Union. It was located in an extremely remote and sparsely populated region, then still a huge country - on an island in the center of the Aral Sea, which is still called the Revival Island.
It is known that experiments were carried out at this test site in the field of creation, production and testing of one of the most barbaric types of weapons of mass destruction - biological weapons. And now there is no longer the Aral Sea, the island also disappeared, turning into a part of the mainland desert, and all these 23 years the test site has been living its own strange life as a ghost.
Kazakh journalist and blogger Grigory Bedenko shared with our editors unique materials from his archive, which may somehow explain the phenomenon of the object "Aralsk-7".
One of the most famous pictures polygon on the Vozrozhdeniye Island, made by the American KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite at the height of the Cold War.
This is what the Aral Sea was like in the 60s of the 20th century. The red arrow points to the Island of Rebirth. Then its area was 260 square kilometers, the island was isolated from inhabited places by tens of kilometers of water surface and a very harsh deserted desert. Interesting fact, the island opened outstanding Russian geographer Nikolai Butakov in 1848 and named it after Emperor Nicholas I. Modern name this place appeared a little later. The most secret Soviet training ground was located there.
And this is how the Aral Sea looks now. There is practically no water left, nor is there any islands. The white line marks the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Between the former Island Revival in the south and the Kulandy peninsula in the north, where the eponymous Kazakh aul is now located, only a small strait remained. But even at the beginning of the 2000s, it was necessary to go by boat for at least 3 hours from Kulanda to the training ground, and then another 60 km to go by car. More on this later.
Large water remained only in the Northern Aral, which turned into an autonomous body of water, thanks to the construction of the Kok-Aral dam. This was done in order to somehow revive fishing in the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea. But it was also the final judgment on the sea.
Now comes the fun part. Polygon "Aralsk-7", or the village of Kantubek, as it was named on all maps is located here (shown by an arrow).
On images from space, the polygon can be recognized by the so-called "star". This is a unique field airfield built of 4 concrete strips. The creation of such a special design was dictated by the very changeable winds on the island. Those. a transport plane could land here in almost any weather conditions.
The polygon consisted of three main zones: 1 - airfield; 2 - residential area; and located at a considerable distance from these objects, absolutely closed - laboratory zone 3. A few kilometers from the landfill there was a pier, where ships and barges came with cargoes necessary for the life of the landfill.
This image shows that the concrete slabs have been removed from all four airfield lanes.
Some of the slabs are neatly stacked to the side. These are already traces of the marauders' work. After the military left the training ground, it actually remained abandoned and without protection, which was used by the local population and criminals. The landfill was robbed, taking out the most valuable from there, from the mid-90s to the beginning of the 2000s. And there was a lot of value ...
Administrative and residential area of the landfill. Almost half of all buildings are located where they have always been. Some buildings are half destroyed, others are completely destroyed.
1 - soldiers' barracks and the headquarters of the training ground. 2 - residential area, multi-storey buildings for officers and their families.
Boiler room of the landfill. The laboratory complex required a lot of steam - autoclaves were working to sterilize the equipment. And this despite the fact that sources drinking water was not on the island, it was brought in by special barges, and then entered the landfill via a special pipeline. It was made from alloys that did not corrode. Subsequently, all the pipes were removed from the island by looters.
Partially destroyed laboratory area. It was located two kilometers from the administrative office, and was completely isolated by several rows of barbed wire.
Three-story building of the main laboratory. It was here that the main and most dangerous experiments related to biological weapons were carried out.
And now we offer your attention a unique video taken during my visit to the landfill in 2001... All of the above objects were lifted from the ground. It can be concluded that almost nothing at the test site has changed in 14 years. Operator Khasen Omarkulov.
In general, you can find a lot of information related to the Renaissance Island on the network. However, it is all scattered, and due to the complete absence of any official data, the ghost landfill has overgrown with a huge amount of all kinds of speculation, sometimes the most incredible. Therefore, I would like first of all to comment on what we managed to shoot. I apologize for the not very good quality of the screenshots from the video, however, it should be noted that it is one of a kind. The internal structure of the main laboratory complex is filmed here in detail. Perhaps this one will somehow shed light on what kind of work was carried out at the landfill.
So, the way to the training ground begins from the ex-Kulandy peninsula, where a large aul is located and a horse farm, which is quite large for these forgotten by God places. Camels are also bred here.
It is known that the main types of experiments with weapons of mass destruction were carried out on horses. And these horses were supplied to the landfill by the Kulandy horse farm.
And this is the Island of Renaissance itself - a pier for ships and barges that delivered all kinds of cargo and fresh water here.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the landfill became the "property" of two newly independent states: the pier on the island and the support base "Chaika", located not far from Aralsk (now there is nothing left of it - it was smashed brick by brick locals), went to Kazakhstan. The airfield, administrative and laboratory areas of the test site became part of the territory of Uzbekistan.
In fact, our marauders were operating on the territory of a neighboring state, and with complete impunity. The landfill was almost 10 years old, starting from 1992, when the personnel was evacuated from there, and was not guarded by anyone in any way.
By the way, we got there, having agreed with the "foreman" of local stalkers. There was only one condition - not to remove them. Two teams were dismantling the landfill structures - one worked on the island, the second was taking out building materials, pipes, diesel fuel and other useful things in the direction of Aralsk. Local fishermen on their old motor boats transported it all across the strait. In 2001, it took about three hours to sail on it. The island connected to the mainland around 2009. The stalkers had at least two high-passable trucks - a three-axle Ural on Kulandy and an old GAZ-66 abandoned by the military on the island. Its stalkers restored it to operational condition, bringing spare parts to the island.
The range was covered by military boats.
The patrol boat of the T-368 project with serial number 79 was built in 1973. This is one of the modifications of the Soviet torpedo boats. Enterprise G-4306 - Sosnovsky shipyard... Located in the city of Sosnovka, Kirov region of the Russian Federation. The plant is located on the banks of the Vyatka River, a tributary of the Volga. Apparently, the boat hit the Aral Sea by railroad from one of the Caspian ports.
And on these self-propelled barges fresh water was delivered to Vozrozhdenie Island.
Administrative zone of the landfill.
A mysterious room with a very complex air intake and ventilation system. It can be assumed that there were powerful diesel generators here. Apparently, they provided energy for the landfill.
Alley with street lighting in the administrative area.
Remains of a powerful compressor.
The building was built in 1963.
It was an officers' club and a part-time cinema. In general, the history of the test site began in the distant 30s, when an expedition led by the famous Russian bacteriologist Ivan Velikanov landed on the Vozrozhdenie Island. His task was to investigate the possibility of using the bubonic plague as a means of destroying enemy personnel. Subsequently, the Japanese invaders were very successfully engaged in this in China, setting absolutely monstrous experiments on people there. And Professor Velikanov was arrested by the NKVD in 1937, and the work was curtailed until the beginning of the Cold War. So, there are several, so to speak, cultural layers at the test site.
Polygon connection node.
There was a military hospital and a polyclinic on the Vozrozhdeniye Island.
Arch at the entrance to the residential area of the landfill.
A two-storey building for a kindergarten. Military microbiologists lived on the Renaissance Island with their wives and children.
The residential area of the landfill is solid silicate brick houses. They are the best preserved.
View of the administrative area from the roof of a residential building. The soldiers' barracks and the headquarters building are visible.
The administrative zone also consisted of the same type of one-story panel houses.
Obviously, the peak of research on biological weapons occurred in the late 70s and early 80s. It was then that, according to various estimates, the number of military specialists and their family members permanently residing on the Renaissance Island reached 1,500 people. For these people, the most comfortable environment for those times and in those conditions was created. They were in a very ambiguous position. First, in 1972, the Soviet Union joined the so-called Nixon Pact. This international document prohibited the research, development and testing of all types of weapons of mass destruction based on biological weapons. However, research was carried out in secret, both in the United States and in the USSR.
The stool remained on the balcony of the officers' apartment. The 92nd year, when the landfill was closed by presidential decree, became a real disaster for the people who worked on the island. The evacuation of personnel proceeded so rapidly that the military threw all bulky items in their apartments - furniture, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. It is likely that people were promised a speedy return to the island, which never happened. And all the most valuable went to the marauders. In addition to the personal belongings of the military, fuel and lubricants warehouses, vehicles and much more were actually abandoned at the site. True, as they say, stalkers, food supplies turned out to be unfit for consumption, as they were covered with bleach and filled with lysol. Before leaving the test site, the military carried out a large-scale disinfection of all facilities.
And this is the dungeon of the main laboratory complex. There were powerful autoclaves for heat treatment of equipment.
Everything was washed and washed in ordinary cast-iron bathtubs, however, except for two taps with cold and hot water, a third was connected to them - with a disinfectant.
These ominous structures are so-called "blast chambers". The principle was as follows: the room was divided into two parts - "dirty" and "clean". Both could only be accessed by going through a sanitary inspection room with a disinfectant shower. In one part of the chamber, a shutter was opened, and a cage with an experimental animal was wound there along special guides. Then the shutter was closed, the animal was infected with a biological agent in the form of an aerosol. After that, from the "dirty" side, the specialists took the cage, and then monitored the course of the disease.
"Explosion chambers" are located on the second floor of the complex in a completely isolated room with sealed doors.
And this room is a "stone bag" - three sanitary inspection rooms lead to a room without windows.
There is a camera, type 5 K-NZh, number 254, produced in 1974. Such devices are used to work with radioactive materials. The Aralsk-7 specialists apparently adapted it for biological experiments.
Materials for experiments were fed into the chamber through this shutter.
A biohazard sign on the second floor airtight door.
In these cabinets, most likely, the packaging of biological agents was carried out. It could be, for example, a vaccine against an especially dangerous infection.
And this is perhaps the most interesting image! On the door to another "stone bag" the following is written: "Dangerous! T - 37, T +27 ". Experts say that a temperature of minus 37 degrees Celsius is optimal for storing strains of bubonic plague, and plus 27 for anthrax or anthrax spores. This is, to some extent, an explanation of what exactly they worked with at the test site. The graffiti in the upper left corner of the door is a new "cultural layer". The stalkers left him.
The military left the range so quickly that they did not even have time to “cover their tracks”, leaving plates with the names and initials of those responsible for this or that area.
Officer Mironin A.V. was responsible for the male sanitary inspection.
And for the dangerous furnace No. 6 VP Dushaev. What was burned in this oven, one can only guess.
And here is another curious inscription. Conscripts also worked in the laboratory. Now they are already 46 years old. Probably, they could tell a lot about this place, but, apparently, are under an almost lifetime nondisclosure agreement.
The room for experiments - a thick window, as in a nuclear power plant, a centrifuge, a bathtub, and a steel box of some unknown purpose with a powerful lock. Everything is painted in an unpleasant protective color.
This is how the main laboratory complex looks from the inside ...
... but like this - outside ...
What else do we know about this mysterious place?
In the period from 95th to 98th years, an American reconnaissance mission visited Renaissance Island in order to collect the maximum amount of data and samples from the test site. For this, the American side allocated 6 million dollars to the authorities of Uzbekistan.
But, perhaps, the most reliable information was published at one time by the famous microbiologist Kanatzhan Baizakovich Alibekov, better known as Ken Alibek.
The biography of this man is truly legendary. He was born in 1950 in the village of Kauchuk, Kazakh SSR. In 1975 he graduated from the military faculty of the Tomsk Medical Institute with a degree in infectious diseases and immunology. Since 1975, he worked in the military biotechnological complex "Biopreparat" under the Council of Ministers of the SSR, located in the city of Stepnogorsk, on the development and testing of biological weapons. From 1988 to 1992 he held the position of First Deputy Head of the Main Directorate of Biopreparat. He was the scientific director of programs for the development of biological weapons and biosecurity. Specialist in the field of immunology, biotechnology, biochemical synthesis, as well as acute and chronic infectious diseases.
Is also a colonel Soviet army In early 1992, Ken Alibek resigned from management due to his refusal to continue military biological research, and in the same year he emigrated to the United States. In 1999 he published a book called Biohazard (co-author - widely known in North America journalist Stephen Hendelman). The book was published in many languages of the world, and the Russian edition of Biohazard was published in 2003 under the title “Caution! Biological weapons!".
Around the personality of Ken Alibek, constant discussions continue: in the United States and in Europe he is considered one of the most outstanding people who stopped the biological arms race (from 2000 to 2006 he was on the list of outstanding historical personalities according to the Air Force), and in the military circles of the USSR they considered him a traitor who revealed the preparation of the USSR for biological warfare. He is one of the most active opponents of the use of microorganisms as a method of warfare.
In 2010 he moved to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Currently, he is the head of the Department of Chemistry and Biology at the School of Science and Technology of Nazarbayev University, where, among other things, he is engaged in the development of anticancer drugs and drugs to prolong life, and is also the chairman of the board of the Republican Scientific Center for Emergency Medical Aid. Retained US citizenship.
Back in the USA, I interviewed Kanatzhan Baizakovich, and this is what he told about the Renaissance Island
GB: Earlier, the West was actively discussing the successes of the Soviet Union in the creation of biological weapons. What is the general opinion in the United States now.
K.A .: The Soviet Union had the most powerful biological weapons program in the world. I do not think that this could be a matter of special pride, but the country had scientists who were able to develop technologies for the production of biological weapons of enormous power. Its first samples were tested at the end of the 30s. For this, a remote, deserted Revival Island in the Aral Sea was chosen. The first samples of biological weapons based on tularemia, glanders, plague, and anthrax were tested here. Vozrozhdenie Island was the main training ground for the Soviet biological weapons program for several decades. And this weapon was produced in Stepnogorsk, not far from the current capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. The organization was called Biopreparat. From 1983 to 1987, I was the director of this complex. My task was to develop new variant weapons based on anthrax. It was performed in 1987. There was only one department interested in this task - the Ministry of Defense. Now, most likely, Russia does not have any developed program related to biological weapons.
GB: Combat anthrax was produced here almost on an industrial scale. Where did all the supplies go?
K .A.: By 1990, the Soviet Union had produced about 200 tons of a combat agent based on anthrax. It was developed in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg - GB) There was an institute for engineering and technical problems of protection against biological weapons, which was dismantled in the late 1980s by order of Lieutenant General Lebedinsky. He was the head of the 15th Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense at the time. The reason for the dismantling was the scandal due to the outbreak of anthrax in Sverdlovsk in 1979 (we are talking about a disaster in the above-named institute, when due to an error of the operator of the drying cabinet, which incorrectly installed air filter, a lethal amount of anthrax spores was released into the atmosphere. As a result, according to various sources, from 70 to 100 people died from this disease in Sverdlovsk. - GB) There was very strong pressure from the USA and Great Britain. First, all biological weapons were transported to railway station Winter, in the area of Lake Baikal. There was a special storage facility for biological weapons. It did not last long there, for some reason an order was given to destroy all reserves of anthrax. In 1989, a special group of officers from the 15th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense was created. As far as I know, this work was headed by Major General Valentin Ivanovich Evstigneev. Anthrax in special containers was delivered to the city of Aralsk, from there - to the Vozrozhdenie Island. There were a huge number of containers (they were called TR-250). Each contained 250 kilograms of anthrax recipe. The bacteria were inactivated and buried. But, anthrax has one feature: it cannot be destroyed by 100% in this way. And therefore, if you take an analysis in burial places, of course, anthrax spores will be revealed in a fairly large amount.
GB: How dangerous is it now?
K.A .: Talking that anthrax can cause epidemics in Kazakhstan does not make sense. And that's why. By and large, there are many places in Kazakhstan that are infected with anthrax. They can be found in any burial ground with the remains of animals that died from this disease ten, twenty, and even fifty years ago. And there is no need to disinfect these burial grounds: c the pores of anthrax, if they are in the soil, cannot fly up into the air, create aerosols and fly hundreds of kilometers. Therefore, if you do not disturb the burial grounds, the probability of infection is quite low. But, one detail related to the island makes you worry. If this lake dries up and there is a danger that Vozrozhdenie Island will connect to the mainland, anthrax epidemics could occur among saiga herds. This is the biggest danger. But, if people do not go to the island, the likelihood of a large anthrax epidemic is unrealistic.
GB: But people can get there for a very specific purpose - to find these burial grounds and take possession of deadly bioagents.
K.A .: There are countries and there are organizations that are theoretically interested in such a thing.
And here is the subject of the interview itself. Anthrax combat agent created by Ken Alibek's team. To get sick, a person must inhale a certain amount of anthrax spores. As a biological weapon, anthrax bacilli are laboratory-glued to the wool of a fine-fleece sheep, and then dried using a special technology. Having inhaled such a hair, a person is guaranteed to get sick with anthrax.
And some more information about the landfill. In 2002-2003, a group of specialists from the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections (which, by the way, is under the patronage of the United States) landed on Vozrozhdenie Island in order to search for anthrax burials. However, the results of the expedition were immediately classified. A certain type of work, apparently, was carried out there until 2008, when Uzbekistan, again with American money and under the sensitive American leadership, allegedly began searching for oil and gas deposits in the area of the island. Similar surveys were carried out by the Kazakh side. Then, when nothing was found there, the topic was closed.
According to some reports, the work was not associated with oil and gas, but with the elimination of anthrax burials. However, no one can confirm or deny this. The authorities closed everything again, and getting some information from Uzbekistan can be about as successful as expecting publicity on North Korea's missile program.
Somewhere by 2010, information slipped through the media that the graves had been destroyed. But again, it has not been confirmed by anyone. And finally, there was also information that Kazakh specialists would monitor the former landfill until 2014. At the same time, apparently, measures were taken to eradicate stalking on the Island of Renaissance. A border outpost is located in Aralsk today, and the local prosecutor's office has also joined the case. Apparently, the Uzbek side did the same.
However, in this whole story there is some kind of understatement. And the events of the last decade confirm this.
2003-th year. The SARS epidemic is literally killing people in China. V different countries of the world from this mysterious disease, from which there is no vaccine or medicine, several thousand people die. Scientists (at the official level) racked their brains as to why a harmless coronavirus that does not infect humans became so aggressive towards this biological species. The unofficial one was about biological weapons: the coronavirus has gone through a process of genetic modification. A piece of DNA was inserted into it, a disease that is very dangerous for adults - measles. And what is interesting, the children did not get sick with atypical pneumonia. As a result, the virus disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. Moreover, without any consequences. Now let's remember what the biggest world event took place in 2003 - the US invasion of Iraq with the aim of overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime. And all over the world, thousands of antiwar actions took place on the streets of cities. Just a coincidence?
2007th year. Another epidemic of a viral disease that cannot be protected from is bird flu. The most aggressive was the H5N1 strain. And here, by a miraculous coincidence, the only effective means of fighting the infection turns out to be at the world's only pharmaceutical company, the Swiss F.Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd - this is a drug called Oseltamivir with the Tamiflu trademark. Its income in a matter of months grows to astronomical amounts.
And finally, 2014. V southwest region Hundreds of people a day in Africa are mowed down by Ebola hemorrhagic fever. By the way, it got its name in honor of the Ebola River, which flows in Zaire. It was there that a virus was first identified, which, although considered dangerous, but not enough to pose a threat on a global scale. What did the US and Russia do first? They sent their military microbiologists to the affected countries to study the consequences of the disease, or maybe something else ...
It is believed that no one in the world today develops or produces biological weapons. But is it really so? "The 20th century was the century of atomic energy," scientists say, "and the 21st is the century of biology." And the dismal ruins of the most secret test site, which still stand in the wild, waterless and windy Aral desert, are a reminder of that.
This report uses materials from Wikipedia and the Google maps project.
Photo gallery
Thursday. 22.10.2015
So, instead of two days for the examination of Kantubek and PNIL-52, we have one left. Today's. Fifteen kilometers to reach the city. If we add here the way back and the distance between the various objects of the Barkhan, a round number emerged - fifty kilometers. But this is why we saved our strength by abandoning night shifts.
We decided to go light. We took with us a first-aid kit, flashlights, cameras, batteries, one bottle of water per person, as well as biscuits and kozinaki. The rest was packed in backpacks and hid under the spreading saxaul, after having coated them with ointment for bruises and sprains. For what? The ointment had a sharp, star-like, but quite pleasant smell. In this way, we hoped to discourage local living creatures from encroaching on our property.
The weather turned out to be surprisingly pleasant: complete calm, blue sky and the bright sun.
The weather is just as ordered, - said Max.
“That's right,” I agreed.
Backpacks covered their backs, and the extra pounds helped keep you warm. Yesterday's wind would blow now, and we would be stunned by the cold. So we're very lucky.
It was a real bliss to walk without backpacks. And we have developed a decent speed. On the right, the rickety power lines turned white. I showed them to my partner:
Apparently, this power line stretches to the pier. We'll cross the road soon.
And indeed. First we met a huge tire,
Then a pile of boulder harvested by someone,
And after a few meters we came out onto the road itself.
The road was still used. I stopped and sat down to take a closer look at the tread marks.
Hell, how about going down the road? I understand that we will give a solid hook. But it's easier to walk along the road, - suggested the comrade.
- No, Max. Will not go. Look at the footprints. There is no speck or blade of grass on them anywhere. And they look like they drove here a couple of days ago. And there is almost nowhere to hide on the side of the road.
- Yeah ... - Max sighed.
I was in complete solidarity with my comrade, but secrecy had to be observed. Therefore, we went on to knead the loose sand.
The closer they came to the Barkhan, the thicker the vegetation became. Saxaul was no longer reddish with pathetic spots, but lined up in green walls, through which it was impossible to break through. The relief has also changed. Hills and lowlands appeared on the horizon, and somewhere in the northwest the steep rocky part of the coast was blackened. The concentration of small shells underfoot was melting with every kilometer. Hares began to come across to us. They literally jumped out from under their feet, and, energetically throwing out their paws, flew away in an unknown direction. We scared six of them that day.
We are approaching the border, - I notified my comrade.
- Something is not noticeable.
- Well, yes. Probably, they did not bother with demarcation. And for whom? Most recently, it was an island.
- How ?! - the comrade was jokingly indignant. - And we? And the marauders?
- Exactly! Don't forget about hares and gophers. In short, complete disregard. Wait a minute, there's a geodesic mark.
I checked the readings of the navigator.
Yes. Stands right on the border.
The milestone was set up in a dais, and we went up to it to look around.
On the right, in the lowland, is a salt marsh.
In the north-west, the steep coast still loomed.
And in the north, in the drifting haze, the angular outlines of buildings stood out.
- This is it? Max asked.
- Yes, this is Barkhan. The buildings that are closer are the residential town of Aralsk-7. Which are further away - the laboratory complex. And in-oh-he is there in the northeast of the airfield. Do you see the control room building?
- Looks like Mordor ...
We made a short halt, rewound our footcloths, ate some biscuits and moved on. Too dense thickets of saxaul began to impede our progress. And it’s not that he was growing all over. We just had to loop a lot in order to find another hole in the hedge. Familiar motorcycle tracks served as a guiding thread in this labyrinth.
Unexpectedly for themselves, they were shaved onto a rolled primer. I checked the satellite images.
Great, this is exactly the road we saw in the morning. Let's go along it.
- And if the car? Max asked.
- Let's dive into the bushes. Look how many of them are here, and how healthy they are.
The road went down into a ravine, then up. Turned around, and the first buildings rose in front of us.
We slowly, almost stealthily walked forward, every minute freezing and listening. We got to the corner of the three-story barracks
We looked out at the parade ground.
The vast square was paved with concrete slabs. In the middle of it, there is a thicket of bushes, surrounding a low concrete stele. All kinds of vegetation stuck out between the broken slabs. Along the perimeter of the parade ground are the headquarters of the regiment, two barracks and a soldier's canteen.
We walked along the barracks. Our attention was attracted by the smoking room, or rather the surviving benches.
We sat down on rotting boards and stretched out our legs, buzzing with fatigue. We took a sip of water.
I looked at my watch: a quarter to three.
“Oh, how little something. Here I would wander for a couple of days to inspect everything ... Alas and ah! Fate decreed otherwise, giving us only a few hours. We'll have to be content with this. On the other hand, the marauders have worked so hard here that there is almost nothing left inside the buildings, except for bare walls and shapeless rubbish. This, of course, is not Pripyat with its relatively whole apartments. "
I glanced sideways towards the entrance.
Opened doors, broken glass, pieces of batteries and furniture at the exit. The outlines of the devastated premises appeared through the window openings.
Max, as you understand, we are running out of time. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to visiting only some buildings.
- Good. Let's take a look at the headquarters?
- Yes, let's start with him.
Crunching with concrete crumbs and broken glass, they went to the headquarters building.
A look into the past: “Everyone could sunbathe on the sand ... high point... That was cool! Plus adrenaline! " Vadim Trukhin
A complete mess reigned inside. Rags of peeling paint hung from the walls. The floor was littered with papers, broken furniture, and ideological literature. On the shelves of the shelves there were still cans, flasks, parts of radio equipment. In one of the rooms, a switchboard for the automatic telephone exchange was found. And numerous broken telephones.
A characteristic room with massive metal safes was quickly found.
Partially opened safes bore the imprints of the marauders' naivety.
I don’t know what they hoped to find there, but I’m sure they didn’t find anything of value inside. In other matters, and my curiosity stirred, as always when meeting at an abandoned facility with something closed and deliberately empty. What if there is still something there?
From the windows of the upper floor there was an excellent view of the city.
A look into the past: “… from the second floor of the headquarters, straight ahead - my own canteen and my own barracks. The first entrance is a chepar. Second entrance, first floor - home security company and communications center, second floor - I don't remember, but the third floor is a cap. " Igor Tolmachev, 1984-86, security company.
A look into the past: "A one-story building without a roof - an infectious disease ward" Sergey Oryol
“On May 9, 1971, at the formation of the regiment, at the stadium, I was given a vacation. Probably, out of joy, I lost consciousness (I tolerated heat normally, even in defense). I woke up in this building. Then there was a hospital. " Grigory Pavlov, 1969-71, chemist.
“Out of stupidity, I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia under the very demobilization ... We decided to take a picture in panties in the snow. But for some reason, the shutter of the camera stuck, and I had to lie around longer than planned ... As a result, I lay in this shed for 40 days, of which 3 days under a dropper and with a temperature of 41 ... Then the butt became wooden from the injections, and the veins in my arms, like a drug addict ... I was treated, as far as I remember, by the wife of our company commander, Vasechkin. Gorgeous!" Dmitry Istomin
“I spent a month in the infectious diseases ward with jaundice. They were taken "by ambulance" from the night watch on the "VOLGA", he was already losing consciousness. I remember they were fed decently. For a month I got so drunk that the hebashka became too small. In front of the infectious diseases clinic, a wooden house with two windows is the hospital's storeroom. As a convalescent, I was plowed to help fold the laundry. And he was stroked by a pretty Kazakh girl, someone's wife, I don't remember whose. " Vadim Trukhin
Without protruding from the windows, standing in the twilight, we studied the abandoned buildings for a long time. A loud bang on the wooden surface broke the silence that reigned over the city. Several minutes of tense waiting. Another blow. The position of the sound source was determined - these were rare gusts of wind slamming a wooden door in the attic of a distant house. Movement was noticed near another building. Something white flashed around the corner. It appeared and disappeared from sight again. Also the wind. He played with a piece of whitish cloth.
We left the headquarters and went to the fuel and lubricants warehouse.
The area with three fuel tanks was encircled by a barbed wire fence.
Except these giant rusty barrels
Here containers of smaller volume were piled in a heap,
A curious thing was discovered at the backs. Apparently a floating tank.
A look into the past: “This crap was lying on our fuels and lubricants, the boss called her CIGARA. This tank with gasoline clung to the ship and floated behind it. It is still not so rusty in the photo, either in my album, or in Morozov's. We sit astride it. " Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-minder.
Behind the barbed wire was the bottom of a dry bay,
The cut-off piers of the pier stuck out at a distance.
On the opposite shore, a bright star twinkled a sun glare. I took out sheets of satellite images. But judging by them, there were no objects on there. Of course, during the preparation of the maps, I could have missed the watchtower or the attendant's booth, and did not make the appropriate marks. Just in case, I warned Max:
While we are walking here, look in the direction of the glare.
- Good. He also worries me.
From the fuel economy we proceeded to a diesel power plant, inside which a row of diesel generators froze. Once they supplied electricity to the entire Renaissance Island (with the exception of the laboratory complex - there was its own power plant), now their pistons and generators froze in the untimely anticipation of solarium.
In retrospect: “1980-82 there were five working diesels and they began to add two more. Diesel six cylinders, piston diameter: 820mm, operating speed: 375 rpm, double-circuit cooling: fresh water cooled the engine, and sea cooled fresh water. So the worst thing was to clean these coolers and change the oil ... ”Vladimir Fedorov, 1980-82, ETR, 1st platoon, diesel operator.
In the workers' locker room, posters on labor protection rules have been preserved.
On the floor lay a formidable weapon of a bygone era - a slingshot. Made with good sense and skill. At least now grab the rubber band and shoot!
We also dropped in at the officers' club. But little survived there: peeling drawings and plastic imitation of stucco molding. The roof over the assembly hall collapsed and was replaced by the vault of heaven.
A look into the past: “The club seemed so huge. Two floors. Between it and the school there was a fountain, the outer walls of which were lined with broken tiles, and in the center of the fountain there was a yellow lyre, the perimeter of which was studded with electric bulbs. I have never seen them burning, and I have not seen water there either ... " Olga a-k-a Ginger
We walked through the streets, courtyards and back streets of Aralsk-7.
A look into the past: "On the left is the 6th house (mine), in the middle - 1, on the right - 7" Irina Antakova
“When the sun went down and the heat subsided, we went out into this courtyard and culturally rested.” Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.
A look into the past: "That's right - a hostel, and on the first floor on the left is a television center." Sergey Lupin, 1983-85, head of the financial service.
"Almost all lieutenants began their lives on the Barkhan in it, especially single ones." Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.
On the way, we met burnt and fallen hangars, skeletons of all kinds of equipment and assemblies, heaps of metal structures,
A look into the past: “… these are the remains of PNU (transfer pumping unit). I pumped diesel fuel from ships from the Severnaya Bay to the town for fuel and lubricants and the boiler room for two navigations. " Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-minder.
And even the skeleton of an airplane
A look into the past: “… there was a twin-engine, broken-down AN at the airfield. They tore what they needed. I broke off the stainless steel pipe. Misha Senkin, turner RMM, made a ring. Here it is on the finger for 45 years. " Viktor Chikhirnikov, 1970-72, 1st company, 1st platoon, driver
Parting words and slogans
Household companions thrown into the street
And unpretentious yard infrastructure.
A look into the past: “School yard. And there is a post office in the center, where my mother worked. " Irina Antakova
I, of course, could not just walk past the arch with the words "Welcome". Having passed the camera to Max, I stood under it, and my friend took a photo, which was later supposed to be included in the very beginning of the story about the abandoned city.
Hell, I think from the outer apartments of that house, we can get a good look at the territory of the laboratory complex, - said Max and waved in the direction of the white brick house.
Flashback: “This is the youngest house. The command staff of the regiment and the platform lived in it. " Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.
We went to the extreme entrance and went up to the third floor. The doors of the apartments, opened wide, were inviting guests, and we proceeded to the one on the right. From the previous owners, decayed wallpaper and a corner of the kitchen, faced with multi-colored ceramic tiles, remained. From the kitchen you could go to the balcony.
I went to the balcony and, without stepping on it, looked through the open door around the surroundings.
A look into the past: “On the left - the remains of a clothing warehouse, behind it is one wall of an engineering warehouse ETCH, then a brick refrigerator and a food warehouse. In the foreground is the ETCH furniture warehouse, behind it is a brick car warehouse and a warehouse for grain and sugar. Removed from residential building # 4. " Vladimir Zotov, 1978-80, ETR, clerk of ETCH, private.
The view from here was good, but the laboratory complex was viewed from far from the most successful angle.
- It is difficult to distinguish something from here ... Okay, we'll figure it out on the spot.
We made it to the outskirts of town
And they walked along the road paved with chipped reinforced concrete slabs.
NS! How pleasant it is to walk on a normal, hard surface, - Max admired. - Shall we visit those buildings on the left?
I looked over to where the huge steel cylinders of the desalination station's tanks and the tall boiler-house chimney stood, and I replied:
No. I would like to take a look at the desalination plant, but we already have running out of time. We have not yet reached the "seventy".
Until "seventy"? Explain what you are talking about.
Well, I'm the one showing off like that. I litter, you know, with local jargon. The key object in the entire laboratory complex is the building with the index "B-070". It is already visible from here. Look, a three-story building.
Yes I see. By the way, you wanted to check something. What exactly? Max asked.
When I was collecting data on the Barkhan, I was faced with a lack of specifics and tons of journalistic nonsense. The general historical reference is more or less true. For the first time, a biological test site appeared on the Vozrozhdenie Island in 1936, but in 1937 it was closed. Apparently, the management and the project itself fell under the roller of repression. In 1942, PNIL-52 itself, previously located in the Tver region, was relocated here. In general, different dates of the creation of the Barkhan are mentioned: 1942, 1948, 1954, 1973. Presumably, these dates indicate some important stages in the development of the test site. One way or another, the Barkhan existed until the fall of 1992. During this time, they tested and developed a bunch of strains of all kinds of infection, from brucellosis to anthrax. The tests were carried out on animals. Mainly on rodents, monkeys and horses. Sometimes the tests were carried out outside special premises, on the site to the south of here. There are suggestions that virus strains have been tested in humans. Someone writes about isolated experiments on prisoners sentenced to death. Someone is talking about mass experiments. There are stories about the testing of some not particularly lethal samples over servicemen and residents of Aralsk-7. The hypothesis of testing the contagion in humans is the first thing that interests me.
And how do you plan to find the answer to this question?
Of course, you and I are not doctors or biologists. It is unlikely that we will be able to figure out the purpose of the equipment remaining there, and calculate the entire technological process from it. On the other hand, a fool understands that to contain a group of experimental people infected with dangerous rubbish, special conditions content. You can't do with a meter by meter room, as shown in the movies. We need a whole floor with isolated chambers, examination rooms, and a multi-stage disinfection system. Something like this…
Really. And what else?
They also talk about a large burial of anthrax. Allegedly, in 1988, two hundred and fifty containers of anthrax were brought to Vozrozhdenie Island and buried in the ground. Where exactly is unknown. According to some reports, a new burial ground was set up next to the one located in the north-west of the laboratory complex, just behind the fence. On the other - near an open area in the south.
What's in that burial ground? Well, which one is near the laboratories?
The corpses of animals were buried there.
Max paused, and then asked:
Do you admit the possibility of our infection?
I thought about it. There is, of course, a chance. But if the marauders who have crawled everything up and down here are still fattening, then nothing threatens us either.
What if we get infected?
Then the scheme is simple: if we catch some disease here, then with all our desire we will not be able to reach people. The same anthrax will kill us very quickly. Therefore, we will not become the cause of a deadly virus epidemic.
Thanks. You reassured me.
Max gave this phrase with that expression of cold seriousness, when it is impossible to understand whether he is joking or not.
Twenty minutes later we passed through the PNIL-52 checkpoint
Flashback: “This is my duty station. On the right is the entrance to the site. In the building on the right is the 1st checkpoint. Left - the 2nd guard "Grigory Kamarovskikh, 1977-79, since the spring of 1978 the controller on the building B-070
The burned down headquarters was ignored.
A small part of the disinfection body of personal protective equipment remained, a container filled with burnt gas masks, and a bunch of filters.
On the way to the B-070 building, we looked into a nearby building.
It has preserved the skeleton of a tricky system (presumably cooling or ventilation), woven from pipes, pipes, expansion tanks and valves. Pieces of this creation lay side by side in the street.
And to the left of the building, a structure made of pipes a la warm floor rested on the ground.
A look into the past: “This is my idea. In the summer, in order not to start up the boiler room, hot water was heated in pipes during the day, and then it was poured into a container and fed into residential buildings and the building of the site. Only in the town did they lie between the boiler room and the hotel, and were painted with Kuzbasslak. " Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.
A shed covered with slate adjoins the brick walls of the building.
In addition to the piling up of construction and industrial waste, there was a cage.
In terms of its size, it was even suitable for humans, but I think that it was intended for monkeys after all. And its large dimensions ensured the convenience of its use. Although everything can be ...
And so, we are a few steps from the entrance to the "seventy".
A quarter of a century ago, this unremarkable building was one of the most secret places in the Soviet Union, and maybe in the world.
We went inside.
Dusty gloom filled the corridors and rooms.
A look into the past: “Building 70, (laboratory) ground floor. On the left is the laboratory head's door, on the right, the first door is a toilet, the second is a walk-through door, but the third door is a panel room, there was "my" office. To the right of the photographer is a flight of stairs to 2,3 and basement floors. " Sergey Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Building B-070.
Liquid daylight barely filtered through the thick glass blocks, illuminating the gloomy rooms.
In some places, the floor is covered with a carpet of shards and surviving beakers and flasks.
Before the raid on Renaissance Island, I read that the looters seemed to have left PNIL-52 in relative integrity, being afraid to touch the abandoned equipment and other items. Apparently, by the time we arrived, they had time to get comfortable and overcome their fears. The hull with the index B-070 was devastated, except for those things that were of no value to lovers of easy money.
So in one room we came across a number of unusual boxes that looked like pressure chambers or fast freezing chambers.
A washing room was set up next door.
Flashback: “1st floor. Washing of laboratory glassware. I remember the sewer was clogged. We decided to pierce it with air under pressure. They stuck a hose from the receiver, plugged all the drain holes on the floor with rags (one can be seen), there are several of them in this room, and stood up: for each plug a soldier ... One gag was knocked out, and all the walls were covered in blood. " Sergey Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Building B-070.
Having finished with the basement floor, we went up to the second. There we were met by a massive pressurized door. To her left, a porthole with several layers of thick glass was mounted in the wall. There was a biohazard sign on the door.
Slipping through the door through the airlock, we found ourselves in the sanctuary of PNIL-52. It was on the second floor that an isolated block was based, in which biological weapons were manipulated.
Branched exhaust ventilation pipes and work tables remained in some of the spacious halls.
And also a wardrobe with two cells. A ventilation trunk was also reaching for him. There is a tiny window in the doors that lock the cells.
One closet was particularly different. A narrow L-shaped corridor with several airlock chambers and washing rooms led to it. All openings were closed with sealed doors. In the closet itself there was a laminar flow box for two workplaces. These are the ones that appear in films about epidemics or about biochemical terrorists.
The third floor introduced incubators to us.
A look into the past: “Yes, here they are, the incubators! And the eggs were hatched there, and the Petri dishes were placed there with the crops. " Sergey Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Building B-070.
A look into the past: “3rd floor. On the right, the first door is the office of the "group" workers on duty. The second door on the right is the utility room of the "visiting servicemen", but at the very end of the corridor there were filters. " Sergey Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Building B-070.
Opened from the windows good overview territory of PNIL-52.
The next point in line was the area of abandoned bunkers. Under such a mysterious name, this object was listed on a well-known cartographic resource. The shepherd mentioned him, warning us of the possible danger posed by him. In fact, the "bunkers" were ordinary free-standing cellars, hiding in themselves large bottles, boxes for them and filters.
And if the laboratory complex was surrounded by a continuous high picket fence, then the area with the cellars was protected by a wire fence on concrete pillars. It is possible that hazardous substances were stored here, but in the last years of the existence of the Barkhan landfill, this site was rather of an auxiliary nature.
The gigantic shadows from our figures eloquently warned of the imminent sunset.
Hell, have we looked at everything?
- Perhaps, yes. The main targets were visited.
- How about going back course?
- I completely agree. We do not have time to reach the airfield, and we didn’t really want to.
They entered the city again at dusk.
A look into the past: “Departure from the town. We walked to these gates, and then drove to the GAZ-66, to the site. But sometimes they ran after the car ... 3 km. " Sergey Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Building B-070.
Noticing the green corps in the saxaul thickets, I headed there and found a gutted infantry fighting vehicle.
A look into the past: “Once upon a time it was mine ... 1st company 1978-1980. When we received it, it had a sign on it, "Antifreeze". How cold it got, and they began to drain the water from the cars at night, we were warned not to drain the antifreeze! Well, she stood with a proud sign - "ANTIFREEZE". And the first time they rushed when they decided to ride it to the airfield. There were four of us: Major Lebedev with a soldier (I can't remember his name), Leshka Pleshakov and me. Halfway to the airfield, I heard water pouring under the hood. Lebedev shouts: "Stop!" We open ... And there, from under the head, the water gushes like a fan! On the street minus, snow and with a breeze. Well, what can I do? The lid was closed, the soldier was sent to the unit for technical equipment, and the hatches themselves were battened down and we are waiting. Hunt to smoke - do not pass! But it’s creepy when you take over. Finally, he saw that we were toiling without smoking, and he himself also began to freeze. “Smoke here,” he says. We lit a cigarette, let it go a little. And it's getting dark outside. Later, technical assistance came with warm water. Poured and forward at full steam, until all the water drained out. Lebedev has already sat down for the mechanic. Stopped several times - water was topped up so that the engine would not be screwed up. And so we got there. Then they drove away to a warm box. Here's a story about antifreeze ... "Sergei Denisenko, 1978-80, 1st company, 2nd platoon, deputy commander.
“Apparently she was unlucky: when they were taking her to the DPShke, she was caught in a storm. She was soaked all over. " Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-minder.
The marauders tore apart the engine and troop compartments and tore off the turret.
- Eh, barbarians! There is no price for such equipment on the farm!
We sighed in sorrow and returned to the main street of the city.
It was starting to get colder, and we accelerated, not forgetting, however, about caution.
The city accompanied us with the thoughtful gaze of empty window sockets.
We made a short halt on the outskirts. Max began to insulate himself with thermal underwear, and I left a modest treat to the Black Stalker in the form of two sweets on the cracked windowsill of the barracks.
V last time looking around the city, I mentally said goodbye to him. Of course, this can be called sentimental nonsense, but when you visit abandoned villages, townships and cities, you get the feeling as if you are communicating with a living being that personifies the place where people used to live. After their departure, this creature falls into a lethargic sleep, and leaves it for a short time in order to receive guests, albeit not asked ones. It tells about the past life, conducts excursions along deserted streets and houses, shows pictures of the past. When the hour of parting comes, it smiles sadly and absentmindedly, and then plunges into hibernation again ...
We decided to stomp on the dirt road as long as possible. This facilitated the process of orientation on the terrain and made it possible to develop a decent speed, which means to keep warm on the move.
An hour later, moonlight flooded the surrounding space, and it became almost as bright as day.
They tried to brighten up the long road with conversation. Sharing impressions of what we saw, we moved on to discussing issues about the laboratory.
What do you think, Hell, were there experiments on people there? - asked the partner.
I think no. Infected test subjects must be kept somewhere. We need observation rooms, bathrooms with an isolated water supply and sewerage system. An entire floor would have to be allocated for such a household. We found nothing of the kind. There were not even couches with straps for rigid fixation of patients and the very gynecological chairs mentioned by some sources.
They must have been taken away by marauders.
May be. But why did they leave three-legged chairs, tables and other more practical furniture? Or is the demand in Uzbekistan for ordinary interior items lower than for gynecological chairs? It seems that they were not in PNIL-52 at all. Why test viruses in humans when you can get similar results in animals? Of course, I feel sorry for the animals. But people feel even more sorry for them. It is hard to believe that the Barkhan team of scientists would be staffed with the followers of Joseph Mengele. People like you and I worked there. Only more educated and with higher moral standards.
You're idealizing, ”Max said. “They were developing weapons of mass destruction, not drugs.
Right. Weapon. But it is not the weapon that kills, but the man. The brainchild of Academician Sakharov was also intended for mass murder, but in the end, due to its destructive power, it became a means of deterring a nuclear war. The same song with bacteriological weapons. It should have been developed because a potential adversary was conducting research in the same direction. Moreover, in addition to the strains of viruses themselves, vaccines were developed.
What do you think about the anthrax burial?
It looks a little like the truth. Judge for yourself, what is it worth finding these containers here and digging up? There is no security or surveillance. Do what you want. Even from a satellite, local excavations are difficult to see.
The containers were brought here in 1988, when Barkhan was still working and guarded, - objected the comrade.
So be it. But then, when Barkhan was disbanded, the anthrax would be taken out of here.
Why are you so sure of this?
First, you have to be a complete burdock to throw such a "toy". Secondly, interested persons with terrorist inclinations would have already reached the containers. A metal detector or georadar, an entrenching tool, working hands - and containers with the virus have been mined. And then the pink powder scatters all over the planet. As for the expeditions of the Americans to the island to check the burials, their true goal lies on the surface - to examine the remains of laboratories to collect information about the research carried out there. Otherwise, if they found a burial ground with anthrax, they would have taken it from the island long ago. However, my hypotheses remain hypotheses, and do not claim to be true ... Oh! Comrade Max!
Congratulations on your successful double crossing of the Kazakh-Uzbek border!
Ah-ah, - Max smiled. - Are we now full-fledged repeat offenders?
What to do? We are not such, Life is so. And why did not Uzbekistan give the Barkhan to Kazakhstan?
Hell, why didn't we go through Uzbekistan?
The train is long. Wouldn't have done it in two weeks. It is not at all an option to fly on a plane with our equipment. Moreover, Uzbek customs officers are not as loyal as Kazakh ones.
They returned to the camp at two in the morning. Having strayed a little in search of a cache with backpacks and water, set up a tent and fell asleep.
