Strain U. Tragedy of Dr. Ustinov

29
Since 1994, the full name of the institution in Koltsovo is the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology "Vector", or the Research Institute of the World Bank "Vector". It was founded in 1974, and Lev Stepanovich Sandakhchiev (1937-2006), a prominent scientist in the field of virology, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences became the founder and the main character of the project. As is usually the case, almost any Soviet institution engaged in viruses and pathogenic bacteria should be blamed by the Western media for developing offensive biological weapons.

Strain U. Tragedy of Dr. Ustinov

Sinister marburg



The Washington Post journalist David Hoffman in The Dead Hand book directly points to this specificity of the Vector’s work. Hoffman's documentary work was so great in the West that it even won the Pulitzer Prize. The former Soviet scientist Kanatzhan Alibekov together with Stephen Hendelman writes in the resonant book “Caution! Biological weapons". According to these authors, the NGO "Vector" was one of the most important elements of the Soviet program for the development of biological weapons, called "Biopreparation".


Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the founder of "Vector" Lev Sandakhchiev

Supervised the program to create biological weapons 15-e management of the USSR Ministry of Defense. It is worth noting that no one from Vektor’s management ever mentioned the development of biological weapons - Lev Sandakhchiev denied this possibility until the end of his days. However, in 1999, the head of the Directorate for Biological Protection of the RF Ministry of Defense Lieutenant-General Medical Service Valentin Evstigneev said in an interview with the collection “Nuclear Control” that the 15 Department of the RF Ministry of Defense (USSR) only in 1992 closed all programs for developing offensive biological weapons. According to him, all the work of 15-th control was aimed at modeling biological weapons based on intelligence from abroad. Such is the vague wording.


NPO Vector, Koltsovo

One of their areas of work for the Vector was the line of research and cultivation of the Marburg virus, which belongs to the deadly Ebola family. The name of the virus was in honor of the university city of Marburg, located near Frankfurt. It was there that in 1967, green monkeys were brought from Central Africa, from which the nursery keeper was infected with an unknown disease. He suffered for two weeks and passed away. Later, several other lab workers died using monkey kidney cells to grow the vaccine. The specificity of Marburg’s actions on a person is terrible - he provokes hemorrhages all over his body, actually dissolving a person in his own blood. Relatives of the virus (filovirus) of Marburg hemorrhagic fever (Marburg marburgvirus) are Ebola with Bundibugo, Zaire, Sudan, Tai and Reston. The names of these "creatures" were given either by the place of detection or by the name of the laboratory in which the virus was able to identify. Mortality from Marburg and others like him can in some cases reach 70%, but the average is about 45%. This puts them in the category of "emergency and emergency viruses."






Caution! Biological threat

In the Soviet Union, Marburg was tentatively in the 1977 year and immediately came under close scrutiny of scientists. Appeared in the country, of course, not naturally, but was acquired through intelligence channels, presumably in Germany. At this time, we were working with a large spectrum of hemorrhagic fever pathogens - the Crimean-Kongan virus, Junin from Argentina and the Bolivian Machupo. Directly in Koltsovo, work on Marburg was headed by Candidate of Medical Sciences Nikolai Vasilyevich Ustinov, who in 1988 conducted a series of experiments with rabbits and guinea pigs. The specifics of the experiments were in a constant increase in the concentration of the injected virus and in monitoring the reactions of dying animals. One April day, Ustinov worked with guinea pigs in a special glove box, but did not save himself from a thumb prick with a syringe needle. From the very beginning, the researcher had virtually no chance of survival - the concentration of Marburg virus that entered the blood was several times higher than any permissible norms.










Part of the industrial and laboratory premises "Vector" is now abandoned

As it turned out, there was no corresponding serum in the “Vector”, and the closest one was located in the Moscow Region Sergiev Posad at the Institute of Virology of the Moscow Region. According to any scenario, it would take at least a day, until a serum would be supplied to an infected Ustinov, and for Marburg it is an eternity.

Theories about why this state of emergency happened are different. In one case, they say that the physician did not fix the guinea pig before the virus was injected, and this led to an accidental injection. In the second version, the blame is placed on the technician who pushed Ustinov in the elbow at the moment of injection of the contents of the syringe into the skin fold of the guinea pig. The hand jerked and pierced two layers of gloves, blood appeared on the finger. According to the third version, Nikolai Vasilyevich, together with the laboratory assistant, carried out a very complicated procedure: they took blood from the guinea pig, which was infected with the Marburg virus. By negligence, the laboratory assistant pierced the animal with a needle from a syringe, and the same needle went through rubber gloves and scratched Ustinov’s hand. Then Nikolay Ustinov acted according to the instructions - he called the dispatcher, took a shower and went out to the doctors, who managed to put on protective suits. Further, the insulating box in the hospital on the territory of the Vektor complex of buildings and three weeks of torment.

Of course, Ustinov was well aware of what had happened and what fatal consequences awaited him, but when he was still injected with serum from Moscow, he could for some time believe in a favorable outcome. The chronicle of the course of the disease was documented in detail and remained in the archives of the Vector. Two days later, the unfortunate began to complain of nausea and headache - a toxic shock from the metabolites of viruses developed in the body. Directly clinical signs of hemorrhagic fever appeared on the fourth day in the form of hemorrhages under the skin and in the eyeballs. It is not known whether Ustinov received strong painkillers, but he regularly fainted for several hours. However, he was able to find the strength in himself and record his feelings during the course of the disease. This is certainly a unique case confirming the heroism of the researcher. Until now, nothing is known about the fact that these records: they are classified. After ten days, there was a period of temporary relief, the patient had vomiting and pain. But after five days the condition deteriorated sharply - the skin thinned, the bruises turned dark purple, and the blood began to leak out. Now Ustinov could not write, he was unconscious for a long time, alternating with delirium. 30 April Nikolai Vasilyevich Ustinov passed away ...










Part of the industrial and laboratory premises "Vector" is now abandoned

In the blood samples that were taken from the dying person, a new virus strain proved to be much more stable than all the others obtained in the laboratory. Specialists "Vector" identified the strain in a new line, which was given the name U - in honor of the deceased researcher. Legend from the mouth of the “defector” Kanatzhan says that already by 1989, the U strain of the Marburg virus was ready for testing as a biological weapon. Allegedly, Lev Sandakhchiev personally requested permission to conduct them at the base of the landfill site in Stepnogorsk (Kazakhstan). After the test, twelve unfortunate monkeys died within three weeks, which confirmed the success of the work. By the end of 1990, research at VECTOR actually led to the creation of biological weapons based on the Marburg virus, only minor improvements remained to achieve the necessary concentration for the duration of combat use.

But the coming era of devastation and lack of money put an end to this and other developments. However, the death of Nikolai Ustinov from a highly dangerous virus was not unique - later on, several people within the walls of Vektor put their lives and health on the altar of military biology.

Based on:
The publication "Nuclear Control". International Security. Non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Journal of the PIR Center for Political Studies (Russia). 1999. No.4.
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29 comments
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  1. +7
    18 March 2019 05: 42
    Hmm what very interesting.
    Unfortunately, the study of Mother Nature’s strength is not safe ... I sympathize with Ustinov’s fate.
    Thanks Eugene for the informative article hi ... there is little information about such cases in the media.
  2. +8
    18 March 2019 06: 07
    Yes, an impressive menagerie. At the expense of an accidental needle stick, naturally noodles. For such people, there are practically no accidents. Here, either he decided to try it himself, which is unlikely, due to the lack of serum, or they helped and not necessarily at the moment with mumps. Well, let the kingdom be to him and thank you for continuing to keep a diary. I won't be mistaken if I say that such laboratories, unfortunately, are needed, everything awaits us, up to viruses from space unknown on earth. Many thanks to the author of the article - a strong topic, and what photos!
    1. +5
      18 March 2019 09: 18
      Quote: bald
      Yes, an impressive "menagerie

      Still, I especially liked this:"It appeared in the country, of course, not naturally, but was acquired through intelligence channels, presumably in Germany." Into a mess, if our intelligence officers were able to "acquire" it, as in some supermarket, then all sorts of "dark personalities" could and apparently can acquire it.
      The chronicle of the course of the disease was documented in detail.
      I read this and immediately remembered V. Pikul's story "A Letter from a Student Mamontov" about the struggle of our volunteer doctors against the pneumonic plague epidemic in Manchuria in 1910-1911 ... There were also unknown heroes who saved humanity.
      1. +7
        18 March 2019 10: 40
        was acquired through intelligence channels, presumably in Germany Perhaps it was through the German communists? Once I read that the Stasi was active, cooperated with the USSR, and brought a lot of benefits to the USSR in the field of commercial and scientific espionage. The Stasi motto was: "Unimportant information does not exist." With German punctuality, they collected a mass of information, one of the most effective intelligence services in the world. Was.
        It is impossible not to recall that, both labeled and drunk, many of them were condemned to death, in 90
        1. +2
          18 March 2019 10: 57
          Quote: Reptiloid
          I once read that the Stasi was active

          No one questions the effectiveness of the Stasi staff, but what did they do after they switched to the "free shooters"? Is there any confidence that they did not work for the same "fiery revolutionaries" of the "Islamic persuasion" and did not buy something for them in such "supermarkets"?
          1. +2
            18 March 2019 11: 37
            Quote: svp67

            No one questions the effectiveness of the Stasi staff, but what did they do after they switched to the "free shooters"? Is there any confidence that they did not work for the same "fiery revolutionaries" of the "Islamic persuasion" and did not buy something for them in such "supermarkets"?

            Probably, after such changes "" at the top "" destinies changed, often crippled. I meant those who died as a result of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the GDR. I read that there were their unrequited appeals to Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
            And when they were abandoned --- everyone survived as best he could, I guess. After all, they have families, children! I need to read more on this topic.
          2. +2
            18 March 2019 14: 44
            There is no certainty and cannot be, here you are right. On the other hand, present something to them .... And for what? because the system they were working on threw them away like toilet paper? well, and, according to rumors, of course))), a wholesale buyer was nevertheless found on them .....
        2. 0
          April 22 2019 18: 14
          Quote: Reptiloid
          It is impossible not to recall that, both labeled and drunk, many of them were condemned to death, in 90
          Well, don’t tell tales, even with many of the top Stasi leaders who clearly have tarnished themselves with past crimes, they treated more than correctly, only a few of them received real terms of imprisonment.

          Quote: Reptiloid
          The Stasi motto was: "Unimportant information does not exist." With German punctuality, they collected a mass of information, one of the most effective intelligence services in the world. Was.
          Yeah. It only became famous among the Germans worse than the Gestapo. Do you think this is normal?
      2. +2
        18 March 2019 11: 35
        Quote: svp67
        Still, I especially liked this: "It appeared in the country, of course, not naturally, but was acquired through intelligence channels, presumably in Germany." Into a mess, if our intelligence officers were able to "acquire" it, as in some supermarket, then all sorts of "dark personalities" could and apparently can acquire it.
        Have you ever thought that the phrase about the purchase is nothing more than a cover-up, voiced under the guise of a leak in order to divert curious people away from looking for real channels of getting the virus? Or should the word "purchased" be understood as an award to a deeply buried agent who was able to transfer a sample to the center? Or another option - maybe there were people sympathetic to our country, like the Rosenbergs from the United States, who themselves passed the sample to our special services. Who knows how it was there, but the purchase was unlikely to be similar to trading in the car market, that's for sure.
      3. 0
        18 March 2019 13: 17
        We have to put up with this and be ready for everything. Yes, at the expense of Ustinov did not express himself. When tested on a person, a person would not come from the side, and Ustinov is the most suitable. He, like no other, could describe the effect of the virus. This is just a guess.
    2. +4
      19 March 2019 11: 12
      At the expense of a random needle prick, naturally noodles.
      Any person doing the most mundane actions that he does many dozens of times a day can make a mistake. And microbiologists with scientific degrees are no exception.
      Mass culture has instilled in us a stamp that the truth is only a very confusing version that is not immediately obvious. And this was done consciously, for greater entertainment. But in real life, simple scenarios dominate.
  3. 0
    18 March 2019 06: 50
    It is strange to read about the laboratory of virology as many as 15 departments of the Moscow Region and a random injection of a researcher. Even in laboratory studies at a university with a chemical bias, I so forgot about safety precautions, I still remember. And then ... yeah. I do not believe..
    1. +9
      18 March 2019 11: 01
      Quote: Ali Kokand
      And then ... yeah. I do not believe..

      And that one of the employees, a laboratory assistant, died in Novosibirsk in the same place from Ebola and also from an accidental injection, through two protective gloves, and that there was a catastrophe in Sverdlovsk due to sloppiness, do you believe? But these people also studied somewhere and studied safety requirements.
      1. +3
        18 March 2019 13: 25
        As we were told about TB: the greatest risk of TB violation comes from the very green, who haven’t everything in their heads, or from the masters who work for 20 years and consciously spit on the norms
  4. +1
    18 March 2019 07: 35
    I read that the residents of the Novosibirsk region were "lucky" to be a part of experiments with biological weapons. They say that they sprayed safe strains over populated areas, and then tracked the spread of viruses among the population. Speed, direction and more. I don't know if it's true or not. But judging by the photo, Vector was a serious organization. There are so many bioreactors ..
    1. +5
      18 March 2019 07: 39
      Vector was and is a very serious organization. It is strange that it was placed next to the millionth Novosib ... I cannot support you about testing "safe" viruses. I don't want to believe in that, to be honest.
      1. +3
        18 March 2019 07: 58
        I am not saying that this is true. But to build such a dangerous colossus near Novosibirsk, one also had to think of it. Also in Berdsk branch.
        1. +5
          18 March 2019 10: 00
          There is such a cunning organization "Doctors Without Borders". If you look for information about it, then in the public domain you can read that it is supported by the UN and all kinds of "charitable" foundations and organizations, and partly for the days of pharmaceutical companies. however, I myself have seen how these "volunteers" operated super-expensive equipment under the protection of PMCs in places where it is practically impossible to get access from the local authorities. Once I talked with one of the "volunteers" - he preferred to keep quiet about many things, but nevertheless he said that he studied in Germany as a virologist and, allegedly, the system there is to stay at least a year in the system of "doctors without borders" not like ordinary volunteers, but sign a special "contract" with some organization, where their responsibilities and especially the non-disclosure clause are clearly regulated. Upon arrival at the place you are immediately taken into circulation - you sign another contract with the final responsibilities and where to fulfill them, temporary certificates are issued, etc. The system itself is "very closed" - it resembles a military organization and is clearly controlled, clearly not by "doctors". Others do not know anything about the tasks performed by some; there is special supervision over secrecy. To cover this, the main activity, the "achievements" of a few "real" volunteers, who act completely separately, are being promoted. You can guess what this organization "Médecins Sans Frontières" actually does, but any encroachments on its image are instantly suppressed from the highest tribunes of international organizations. Yes
          1. +2
            18 March 2019 10: 45
            I liked the article very much. Material ---- rare, important. Comments also.
            Thank you, I’ll return to the article, I’ll try to find something similar on the topic myself.
          2. +3
            18 March 2019 21: 59
            Quote: Monster_Fat
            There is such a cunning organization "Doctors Without Borders". If you look for information about it, then in the public domain you can read that it is supported by the UN and all kinds of "charitable" foundations and organizations, and partly for the days of pharmaceutical companies. however, I myself have seen how these "volunteers" operated on super-expensive equipment ....... I once talked with one of the "volunteers" - he preferred to keep quiet about many things, but still said that he studied in Germany to a virologist and supposedly there is a system - it is necessary to stay at least a year in the system of "doctors without borders",

            I agree with you, I myself had the opportunity to talk closely with the representative of this organization in the 90's, an oncologist from L.-A., they came to work at the Totsky training ground, and I got into the hands, the Latinos himself, well, the spilled flower shop of Hussein from the local market, By the way, he also spoke good Russian. I sat at the table with him and he talked a lot of interesting things about the State, the Los Angeles police, his work is not very much, but he mentioned many places where he was, in general, an interesting man.
            And about
            Quote: Moskovit
            I read that the residents of the Novosibirsk region were "lucky" to be a part of experiments with biological weapons. They say that they sprayed safe strains over populated areas, and then tracked the spread of viruses among the population. Speed, direction and more. I don't know if it's true or not.

            I don’t exclude that everything is possible. I once read about the bioweapons laboratory in Fort Derrick and its director Sidney Gottlieb, unfortunately I do not remember the name of the book. They also sprayed some bacillus spores in the subway to find out the speed of spread, they didn’t launch deadly viruses, but somewhere in Guatemala or El Salvador, I don’t remember now, they tried both tuberculosis and cholera on the inhabitants. In general, if there is a weapon, then it is necessary to test its striking properties, and since it is intended against people, then they are tested on people. Maybe cynical, well, what to do. It’s possible to shoot an armor-piercing projectile at the armor plate and no one will suffer (except the sheet), but here the germs are alive and you can only test them on the living. And then where can you get such a bunch of monkeys? Expensive...
        2. -1
          April 22 2019 18: 17
          Quote: Moskovit
          I am not saying that this is true. But to build such a dangerous colossus near Novosibirsk, one also had to think of it. Also in Berdsk branch.

          Unfortunately, this was a very common practice for the USSR.
      2. +1
        18 March 2019 14: 55
        Who wants to believe? But, let’s say, “Sea Spray”, characteristically, even got into the wiki. And, again, not at all with us. and similar games happened ...... more often than ordinary citizens would like. It’s just that there are at least some links to this, and others ...... There will be no proofs adequate for the general public. And there - who knows))
      3. +2
        19 March 2019 06: 11
        Created a compact scientific cluster. Akademgorodok - RAS, Krasnoobsk - VASKhNiL, Koltsovo - SB AMS
      4. The comment was deleted.
    2. 0
      18 March 2019 11: 37
      Quote: Moskovit
      Like, safe strains were sprayed over a populated area, and then they tracked the spread of viruses among the population.

      It looks like "scandals, intrigues, investigations" and so on. From the category "another flew to Gagarin, but died, the authorities are hiding."
      1. +1
        18 March 2019 12: 44
        I remembered reading Lev Fyodorov's "Soviet biological weapons: history, ecology, politics". I know the book is biased, but a number of facts are confirmed.
        The Soviet military-industrial complex knows how to keep secrets, and for the sake of security, countries could conduct such experiments.
  5. +8
    18 March 2019 09: 19
    none of the management of the “Vector” has ever mentioned the development of bio-weapons - Lev Sandakhchiev denied this possibility until the end of his days.

    all the work of the 15 governing body was aimed at modeling biological weapons based on intelligence from abroad.

    To make an antidote, you need to know how the poison works. Therefore, there were probably samples of biological weapons, there were antidotes. There is nothing shameful or forbidden here. At the borders of Russia, many American laboratories work, what they do is unknown. But you need to be prepared, at a minimum, have the equipment and specialists to stop possible threats.
    I look in the photo, and my heart bleeds. Where is our science, where are the experts, where is the equipment? It’s probably not economically profitable to maintain. But nobody thinks that they can save the lives of thousands of people.
    1. +1
      18 March 2019 11: 24
      I recalled a long-standing Soviet film. (Name ??? forgot) There, the robot intentionally injected a girl with a syringe infected with the Ebola virus.
      There are different assumptions about the Ebola virus and bats ---- either spread by their saliva and excrement, or even like, but like this virus, like the others, Marburg, for example, they have already had many millions of years.
      Both an animal and a person can become infected with the Ebola virus through a violation of the skin, through the things of the patient, as well as during funeral rites.
      1. 0
        April 22 2019 18: 19
        Quote: Reptiloid
        but it’s as if this virus, like the others, Marburg, for example, has been with them for many millions of years.
        Strange as it may seem, it will be strange to hear you, but the age of the Earth in millions of years has not been scientifically proven. This is just a hypothesis. A huge mass of scientific facts testifies to the fairly young age of our planet, measured in thousands or, in extreme cases, tens of thousands of years.

        Quote: Reptiloid
        Both an animal and a person can become infected with the Ebola virus through a violation of the skin, through the things of the patient, as well as during funeral rites.
        Unfortunately, equatorial hemorrhagic fevers mainly spread like flu or like pneumonic plague - by airborne droplets ...
  6. 0
    1 May 2019 22: 08
    I can’t see these photos without crying tears .... Abomination and desolation are what Gorbachev and Yeltsin left behind.
    The richest scientific and applied schools are thrown to the wind .. Schools are things that cannot be bought for any money!
    Damn the communist geeks and their Komsomol accomplices.

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