Anthrax release at Soviet weapons laboratory killed 66 in 1979 cover-up
In April 1979, an anthrax outbreak in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk killed 66 people, while officials blamed contaminated meat and food poisoning. The account says the deaths were caused by spores released from a nearby biological weapons facility, a serious laboratory accident whose true cause was concealed for years.
Patients suffered severe respiratory illness and died within days. Autopsies and preserved tissue samples later helped US scientists establish that victims had inhaled anthrax, while interviews and illness locations pointed to Compound 19, downwind of the city. In 1992, Soviet scientist Ken Alibek said the release followed a failure to replace an air filter; the Soviet Union had denied accusations of a biological weapons leak.
- Anthrax spores from a Soviet weapons lab caused the 1979 outbreak.
- The outbreak killed 66 people in Sverdlovsk.
- Officials initially blamed contaminated meat.
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Anthrax is a disease caused by bacteria that can form hardy spores. Breathing in the spores can cause a severe lung infection, which may worsen quickly and be fatal without prompt treatment.
Sverdlovsk, now called Yekaterinburg, was a Soviet industrial city with a military biological weapons facility nearby. The outbreak’s pattern and later examination of victims’ preserved tissue led scientists to conclude that people had inhaled anthrax released from the facility.
Soviet officials initially attributed the deaths to contaminated food, and the government denied that a weapons facility was responsible. The episode matters because it became evidence in disputes over the Soviet biological weapons programme and the openness of official investigations.
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Originally published by Daily Mail as “The ‘biological Chernobyl’ lab leak that Russia covered up as ‘food poisoning’: How dozens died frothing at the mouth after anthrax blunder at bioweapons unit”.