COMMENTS ON BACTERIOLOGICAL WARFARE BY A SOVIET SCIENTIST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700090400-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 10, 2011
• Sequence Number: 400
• Publication Date: November 24, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION S-E-C-R-E-T
CENTRAL INTEL GEN ER AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
~ FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
Military - BW
Scientific - Medicine, BW
Monthly periodical
Moecw
May 152
Russian
S01!RCE Priroda, Vol XLI, No 5, 1952, pp 3-6.
CD NO.
DATE OF
DATE DIST. a.~ Nov 1952
N0.OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
COMMENTS ON BACTERIOLOGICAL WARFARE BY p 30VIE1' SCIENTIST
/The Pollnwing is a summary of an article by Pr^O V. D. Timakov,
Active Member, Academy of Medical Sciences USSR, published under the
title "To Protect Humanity Prom the Threat of Biological Warfare."7
The great pioneers in the field of microbiology, those who belonged to di-
verse nationalities and especially Russian microbiologists, worked primarily for
the benefit of humanity. Rusrian microbiologists is their heroic and self-
eacrificing work have exposed themselves to accidental infection with dangerous
dieeaie~i and in wary instances purposely infected themselves xith microorganisms
causing diseases like cholera, typhus, relapsing fever, etc. Atypical instance
of thls self-sacrificing attitude is the voluntary exile to which D. K. Zabo-
lotnyy, N. M. Berestnev, V. N. Isayev, and others aub,jected themselves when they
worked in the plague laboratory that was opened _n 1898 on a small island near
Kronshtadt. In this laboratory, methods of producing plague vaccint.and anti-
plague serum were developed. Some of the people engaged ii, this work caught
plague and died.
Soviet microbiologists inherited the great tradition of prerevolutionary
Russian scientists. In 1932, when the first outbreak of tick encephalitis, a
disease which was unknown until then, occurred in the Far Eaat, Soviet scien-
tists went into the depth of the tayga to study the disease. These scientists
rapidly isolated the causative factor of tick encephalitis, investigated its
spread and mode of propagation, and developed a method of preventing the dis-
ease.
While working on live vaccines for the prophylaxis of plague, Sovlet scien-
tists fearlessly tested on themselves vaccines consisting of modified plague ba-
cilli.
As a result of work by Soviet microbiologists, and- by reason of favorable
conditionE which exist in the USSR for combating infectious diseases, smallpox,
plague, cholera, and relapsing fever were entirely eradicated. The occurrence
COUNTRY
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of malaria, typhoid, and diphtheria was sharply curtailed, and the spread of
other infections prevented. During the difficult years of World War II, Soviet
microbiologists developed new methods of preparing living vaccines which are
active againa? anthrax, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, sad other diseases.
In the field of theoretical microbiology, Soviet scientists were the first
to demonstrate the possibility of transrv*ation of one species oP bacteria into
another related species, and to establisb that microorganisms pass through
different phases during development.
Wh11e Soviet scientists npply their efforts and knowledge only toward the
prevention and elimination of infects^?~s diseases, the imperialists have begun
to use bacteria for the mass extermination of human beings. They purposely
spread epidemics to achieve this purpose. In capitalistic countries, particu-
larly the US, scientists paid by monopolies are doing research aimed at in-
creasing the pathogenic qualities of microorganisms.
These activities are by no means new. During World War I, the German high
command atteapted to use bacteriological weapons. According to the London
Times, the Germans made thorough preparations for biological warfare prior to
World War II. These included selection and breeding of pathogenic bacteria,
study of air drafts at entrances to the Paris subway, research on aerosols,
etc. The trial of certain Nazi physicians established that the Germans experi-
mented on thousands of war prisoners in their work on infectious agents (see
the testimony oP Gen Walter Schreiber). The Japanese vent still further in ex-
periments on the application of BW weapons. In 1931, the Kwaatung Army created
large bacteriological laboratories for the study of RW methods and weapons. It
appears from the minutes of the Khabarovsk trial that Detachment No 731 alone
could produce in ore month 300 kg of plague bacilli, 700 kg of anthrax bacllii,
and more than a ton of the causative factor of cholera. Japanese bacteriolo-
gists working under the direction of Ishii Tiro developed methods for the mass
breeding of fleas, ticks, and other disease-carrying parasites. They designed
special bacteriological bombs, which were then released over Chinese territory.
Particularly extensive investigations in connection with preparations for
biological warfare have beer. carried out in the US since 1941. In the US 4,000
experts employed at special Air Force institutes (Camp Detrick, tQd, and Ran-
dolph Field, Texas) are working on the application of bacteria Por military
purposes.
Alfred Zimmeri, director of the so-,ailed scientific center at Hertford,
has written; "BW weapons bs.ve already been prepared for use and may be applied
immediately. There la no point in quibbling and distinguishing between legal
and illegal use of force." The Canadian professor Karrer ~arrerY7 has pointed
out the advantages of BW weapons, stating which microbes can be used against
human beings and which against animals. Re has said that extermination of, cat-
tle can be achieved by spreading rinderpeat, from which 90$ of the cattle per-
ish.
At present, over the territories oP Korea and northeast China, the Ameri-
can imperialists are dropping fleas, ticks, flies, mosquitoes, and sand flies
infected with microbes of plague, cholera, typhus, encephalitis, and the causa-
tive factors of other diseases. Among all diseases produced by microorganisms
in humans and animals, these are the moat severe and cause the greatest amount
of suffering.
One of the dangerous aspects of BW is that foci of infection are created
in places where they did not exist before. These foci may continue to be ac-
tive not only during the war, but for prolonged periods after the war. The
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causative factors of InPectioiis diseases forming natural foci are preserved is
the bodies of various insects, ticks, and other disease carriers. Some of the
disease carriers being dropped by Americans over Korea end China, ticks for in-
stance, preserve the artificially introduced disease factor in their bodies for
a long time and in the course of propagation transmit it to their progeny from
generation to generation. Such carriers of infectious diseases adapt themselves
with comparative facility to aev natural conditions sad produce new foci of in-
fection vhich remain active for n ice.,,, a,__
The application of HW for the extermination of Lumen beings sad animals is
a barbarous way of va iag war; this is why Bii, ae yell as CW, Las been outlawed
by the international ~eneva?7 convention of 1925. The sager anti resentment
vhich application of BW has caused throughout the xor)d hen forced US Secretary
of State Acheson to take recourse to the untrue statement that Americana do not
use BW weapons. This assertion does not gibe with writings by US bacteriolo-
gists ~rof Th.] Roaebury, Bold, ~Dr Walter J~] Ruagester, president of the
American Bacterlologicel Society, a:d others, who with great cynicism discussed
in considerable detail the possibilities and applications of BW. Ia the name
of humanity and peace, the peace-loving nations of the whole world, under the
leadership of the USSR, x111 succeed in putting E atop to the evil deeds of
American imperialists, and thus protect humanity Prom the threat of bacteriolcg-
ic6 +arfare.
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