Biohazard

The Central Committee Secretariat acted as the Party's administrative apparatus. The secretariat's Defense Department was in charge of biological warfare as well as other military and defense-related matters. The Committee of State Security (KGB) was the Party's intelligence and security organ. Its chairman sat on the Politburo.

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

The highest body of the Soviet government, consisting of the prime minister (the de jure head of government) and all government ministers. Ministers derived their real authority in the system from their positions in the Party. The most powerful ministers, including the prime minister, had seats on the Politburo and were thus subordinate to the Party organs and to the general secretary.

Gosplan, the state economic planning agency, was attached to the Council of Ministers and authorized budget expenditures for all government departments and activities, including Defense (but it had no authority over Party spending). Gosplan's Biological and Chemical Weapons Department supplied funding to all biological weapons (BW) facilities. The State Technical Commission, based in Moscow, developed and supervised electronic surveillance and electronic counterespionage measures at all biological weapons facilities.

Ministers responsible for defense-related industries sat on the Military-Industrial Commission, which ran the Soviet Union's military-industrial complex. The chairman was a deputy prime minister, but the commission's activities were ultimately responsible to the Politburo member in charge of military matters. The Military-Industrial Commission was divided into directorates responsible for different military sectors. The Biological Weapons Directorate coordinated the development and production of biological weapons.

MINISTRY OF DEFENSE

The General Staff Operations Directorate of the Ministry of Defense was the chief war-fighting organ. The Special Biological Group, attached to this directorate, was responsible for the development of biological war-fighting doctrine and logistics. The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) was responsible for military espionage and counterespionage. GRU agents conducted covert operations abroad to monitor foreign biological weapons programs and acquire strains of pathogens and documentation that might be useful for the USSR's biological weapons program. Biological weapons procurement (including testing, approval of weapons for the Soviet arsenal, and annual quotas for biological weapons stockpiles) was supervised by the Special Armaments Group, a unit administered by the deputy minister of defense for armaments.

The Fifteenth Directorate of the Soviet army developed and produced biological weapons. It commanded specific military units — some of brigade size — assigned to testing grounds and to provide security for military biological weapons facilities. In the event of war, biological weapons deployment would be the responsibility of military units of the Strategic Rocket Forces and Air Force. Between 1945 and 1973, the Fifteenth Directorate was the leading Soviet agency for biological weapons research. Although its research and planning role was eclipsed by the creation of Biopreparat, it continued to control biological weapons stockpiles and the primary facilities for biological weapons production. The following facilities were under its control.

Zima, Irkutsk region, Railway Station Zima. Storage, anthrax weapons.

Kirov, Institute of Microbiology. Developed BW weapons: typhus, Q fever, tularemia, brucellosis, glanders, anthrax, and melioidosis. Studied toxin weapons. Researched genetically altered bacterial strains. Produced and stockpiled plague.

Moscow region, Kubinka Military Airport. Home base for Air Force unit that delivered cargo, personnel, and animals to testing grounds.

Moscow, Institute of Safety Techniques. Developed BW production equipment.

Nukus, Kara Kalpak Autonomous Republic. Testing ground for BW and chemical warfare simulants.

Reutov, Moscow region. Storage: BW warheads, bombs, and bomblets.

Shikhany, Volga River region. Testing ground for chemical weapons and BW simulants.

Strizhi, Kirov region. Manufactured viral and bacterial BW. Built in the late 1980s, it was the last plant created by the Fifteenth Directorate before the collapse of the USSR.

Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Institute of Military Technical Problems. Developed BW: anthrax, tularemia, glanders, melioidosis. Researched toxic weapons, including botulinum toxin. Researched antibiotic-resistant anthrax and multidrug-resistant glanders. Produced anthrax, glanders. Stockpiled anthrax.