Biohazard

Moscow, Scientific and Production Center of Medical Biotechnology. Basic research into human genome, in order to identify new BW possibilities.

Moscow Region, Center of Toxicology and Hygienic Regulation of Biopreparations. Studied toxic biological compounds with a high killing potential for aerosol use.

Sukhumi, Georgia. Breeding facility for monkeys used in BW testing.

USSR ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The state scientific federation of the Soviet Union controlled funding and organized research in every major scientific discipline. Leading scientists accepted for membership earned the title of Academician (Akademik). The academy acted in an advisory capacity to the Council of Ministers and the Central Committee. The Interagency Scientific and Technical Council, formed in the early 1970s, coordinated advanced research in biological weaponry. The chairman was a government minister. Members included ranking representatives from the Central Committee, the Fifteenth Directorate, and Biopreparat; directors of leading scientific institutes; the vice president of the Academy of Sciences; the first deputy minister of health; the deputy minister of chemical industries; and the chief of the biological warfare directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture. The council acted as the principal scientific and industrial advisory body to the biological weapons system.

Moscow, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. Fundamental research into BW.

Moscow, Institute of Molecular Biology. Fundamental research into BW.

Moscow, Institute of Protein. Fundamental research..

Moscow, Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Microorganisms. Fundamental research.

Vladivostock, Pacific Ocean Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry. Fundamental research into marine toxic substances..

COMMITTEE OF STATE SECURITY (KGB)

First Main Directorate

Responsible for foreign intelligence gathering, including the monitoring of foreign biological weapons programs. Conducted its own research into biological weapons, primarily for assassination purposes. Controlled several covert research units for chemical warfare and biological weapons, including Laboratory 12.

Third Main Directorate

Responsible for domestic counterintelligence and security. Regional branches provided security for individual Biopreparat facilities as well as camouflage and disinformation operations.

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Moscow, Main Directorate of Labor-Correction Enterprises. Supervised prisons and concentration camps. Provided prison labor for the construction of BW facilities.

Moscow, Main Directorate of Internal Military Forces. Provided guards for BW facilities not controlled by the army's Fifteenth Directorate.

MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL TRADE

Responsible for Soviet foreign trade. Special departments arranged covert purchases of equipment and animals used in biological weapons program. Representatives and agents were posted abroad.

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

A special department at the Ministry of Justice was responsible for legal services for biological weapons facilities and personnel. It included special prosecutors, lawyers, judges, and special courts.

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Stephen Handelman, who provided me with the voice to tell my story, using his excellent writing skills. I benefited from the added dimension he brought to this book with his knowledge of Russia, but perhaps most of all from his friendship.

Special thanks are due to Joy de Menil, my editor at Random House, whose probing mind and dedication kept us on our toes from start to finish. Much of this book is due to her vision. I am also grateful to Jennifer Guernsey, whose research skills, knowledge of biology, and enthusiasm were invaluable. Both Stephen and I are in her debt. Cynthia Cannell, my agent, deserves special gratitude for perceiving the importance of this project early on and for her tireless marketing work.

Particular thanks are due to Charles Bailey and Bill Patrick, who have provided — and continue to provide — support and advice to a scientific colleague once separated from them by Cold War politics. I am grateful to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr., for his encouragement and to Vaughan Forrest, a senior staffer with the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, who was among the first to perceive the potential of nonspecific immune defense.