Soviet biological weapons program The Soviet Union began a biological weapons program in the 1920s although the Soviet Union was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention , which banned both chemical and biological weapons . During World War II , Joseph Stalin was forced to move his biological weapons ( BW ) operations out of the path of advancing German forces and may have used tularemia against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad . By 1960 , numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union . Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention ( BWC ) , the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs . Over the course of its history , the Soviet program is known to have weaponized and stockpiled the following eleven bio - agent s ( and to have pursued basic research on many more ) : These programs became immense and were conducted at 52 clandestine sites employing over 50 , 000 people . Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox , for example , was 90 to 100 tons . In the 1980s and 1990s , many of these agents were genetically altered to resist heat , cold , and antibiotics . In the 1990s , Boris Yeltsin admitted to an offensive bio - weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident of 1979 , which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people . Defecting Soviet bioweaponeers such as Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov confirmed that the program had been massive and still existed . An agreement was signed with the US and UK promising to end bio - weapons programs and convert BW facilities to benevolent purposes , but compliance with the agreement — and the fate of the former Soviet bio - agents and facilities — is still mostly undocumented . History . Pre - World War II . The Soviet BW program began in the 1920s at the Leningrad Military Academy under the control of the state security apparatus , known as the GPU . This occurred despite the fact that the USSR was a signatory to the 1925 Geneva Convention , which banned both chemical and biological weapons . 1928 - Revolutionary Military Council signed a decree about weaponization of typhus . The Leningrad Military academy began cultivating typhus in chicken embryos . Human experimentation occurred with typhus , glanders and melioidosis in the Solovetsky camp . A laboratory on vaccine and serum research was also established near Moscow in 1928 , within the Military Chemical Agency . This laboratory was turned into the Red Army ' s Scientific Research Institute of Microbiology in 1933 . World War II . During World War II , Stalin was forced to move his BW operations out of the path of advancing German forces 1941 : Soviet bioweapons facilities are transferred to the city of Kirov . 1942 : Alleged use of tularemia against German troops . Tularemia was allegedly used against German troops in 1942 near Stalingrad . Around 10 , 000 cases of tularemia had been reported in the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1943 . However , the number of cases jumped to more than 100 , 000 in the year of the Stalingrad outbreak . German panzer troops fell ill in such significant numbers during the late summer of 1942 that the German military campaign came to a temporary halt . German soldiers became ill with the rare pulmonary form of tularemia , which may indicate the use of an aerosol biological weapon ( the ordinary transmission pathway is through ticks and rodents ) . According to Kenneth Alibek the used tularemia weapon had been developed in the Kirov military facility . It was suggested by some , however , that the outbreak might be of natural origin , since a pulmonary form of tularemia has also been noted in natural outbreaks in Martha ' s Vineyard in 2000 . In the Soviet Union the outbreak at Stalingrad was described as a natural outbreak . Crops were left in the field during the German offensive and the rodent population swelled , putting many inhabitants into contact with infected rodents . In some parts of the Stalingrad Oblast , as many as 75 % of the inhabitants became infected . It was also noted that before the war , there was a so - called " threshing tularemia " , caused by people inhaling infected dusts soiled by rodents while threshing grain . At the conclusion of the war , Soviet troops invading Manchuria captured many Unit 731 Japanese scientists and learned of their extensive human experimentation through captured documents and prisoner interrogations . Emboldened by these discoveries , Stalin put KGB chief Lavrenty Beria in charge of a new BW program . The Cold War . 1946 : A biological weapons facility was established in Sverdlovsk . The first smallpox weapons factory in the Soviet Union was established in 1947 in the city of Zagorsk , close to Moscow . It was produced by injecting small amounts of the virus into chicken eggs . An especially virulent strain ( codenamed India - 1967 or India - 1 ) was brought from India in 1967 by a special Soviet medical team that was sent to India to help eradicate the virus . The pathogen was manufactured and stockpiled in large quantities throughout the 1970s and 1980s . 1953 : The fifteenth directorate of the Red Army takes responsibility for the program . By 1960 , numerous BW research facilities existed throughout the Soviet Union . Although the USSR also signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention ( BWC ) , the Soviets subsequently augmented their biowarfare programs . They doubted the United States ’ claimed compliance with the BWC , which further motivated their program . The Soviet BW effort became a huge program , comprising various institutions under different ministries along with commercial facilities and collectively known as Biopreparat after 1973 . Biopreparat pursued offensive research , development , and production of biological agents under the guise of legitimate civil biotechnology research . It conducted its clandestine activities at 52 sites and employed over 50 , 000 people . Annualized production capacity for weaponized smallpox , rabies , and typhus , for example , was 90 to 100 tons . 1973 : A " civilian " main directorate Biopreparat was founded . Other organizations involved in the design and production of biological weapons were the Soviet Ministry of Defense , Ministry of Agriculture , Ministry of Health , USSR Academy of Sciences , and KGB . A production line to manufacture smallpox on an industrial scale was launched in the Vector Institute in 1990 . The development of genetically altered strains of smallpox was presumably conducted in the Institute under the leadership of Dr . Sergei Netyosov in the mid - 1990s , according to Kenneth Alibek . ( aka Kanatjan Alibekov ) . It has been reported that Russia made smallpox available to Iraq in the beginning of the 1990s . Post - BWC developments . The Soviet Union continued the development and mass production of offensive biological weapons , despite having signed the 1972 BWC . The development and production were conducted by a main directorate ( " Biopreparat " ) along with the Soviet Ministry of Defense , the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture , the Soviet Ministry of Health , the USSR Academy of Sciences , the KGB , and other state organizations . In the 1980s , the Soviet Ministry of Agriculture successfully developed variants of foot - and - mouth disease and rinderpest against cows , African swine fever for pigs , and psittacosis to kill chicken . These agents were prepared to be sprayed down from tanks attached to airplanes over hundreds of miles . The secret program was code - named " Ecology " . The post - Soviet era . In the 1990s , the President of the Russian Federation , Boris Yeltsin , admitted to an offensive bio - weapons program as well as to the true nature of the Sverdlovsk biological weapons accident of 1979 , which had resulted in the deaths of at least 64 people . Soviet defectors , including Colonel Kanatjan Alibekov , the first deputy chief of Biopreparat from 1988 to 1992 , confirmed that the program had been massive and that it still existed . In September 1992 , Russia signed an agreement with the United States and Great Britain promising to end its bio - weapons program and to convert its facilities for benevolent scientific and medical purposes . Compliance with the agreement as well as the fate of the former Soviet bio - agents and facilities , is still mostly undocumented . 1990s : Specimens of deadly bacteria and viruses were stolen from western laboratories and delivered by Aeroflot planes to support the Russian biological weapons program . At least one of the pilots was a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service officer " . At least two agents died , presumably from the transported pathogens 2000s ( decade ) : The academician , " A . S . " , proposed a new biological warfare program , called the " Biological Shield of Russia " to president Vladimir Putin . The program reportedly includes institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences from Pushchino Notable bio - agent outbreaks and accidents . Smallpox . An outbreak of weaponized smallpox occurred during testing in 1971 . General Prof . Peter Burgasov , former Chief Sanitary Physician of the Soviet Army , and a senior researcher within the program of biological weapons described this incident : Anthrax . Spores of weaponized anthrax were accidentally released from a military facility near the city of Sverdlovsk in 1979 . The death toll was at least 105 , but no one knows the exact number , because all hospital records and other evidence were destroyed by the KGB , according to former Biopreparat deputy director Kenneth Alibek . Marburg virus . The Soviet Union reportedly had a large biological weapons program enhancing the usefulness of the Marburg virus . The development was conducted in Vector Institute under the leadership of Dr . Ustinov who accidentally died from the virus . The samples of Marburg taken from Ustinov ' s organs were more powerful than the original strain . The new strain , called " Variant U " , had been successfully weaponized and approved by the Soviet Ministry of Defense in 1990 .