Deadliest Outbreak: Sverkivsk

East of Moscow in 1979 the first reports emerged about the epidemic in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk. Many speculate it to be intestinal, an accident caused by the consumption of contaminated meat. Others believe it to be some invisible killer germ that may have been caused by some sort of industrial spillage. The United States administration attributed it to inhalation of spores that may or may not have been accidental. “Some pathologists came to believe that something else was happening so they carried out dozens of autopsies and found the anthrax bacteria in the lungs and lymph nodes of those who had died, indicating it was airborne” (Hoffman, 1998). If this is the case then it would be in violation of the Biological Weapons Convention that was signed in 1972. And more to the point now perhaps was whether the Soviet Union was capable of fully revealing any violations and if not, could the world trust the Russian government. Needless to say, as people continued to die, suspicion mounted that there was something more insidious behind the scene.

The geographical location of the Sverdlovsk is a very unique place. It’s located in the center of Russia, making it a very important trading route. The region of Sverdlovsk is a major contributor to the development of the country. They are rich in a variety of natural resources. Sverdlovsk is also a closed city, meaning that it is a settlement with travel and residential restrictions. There are no road signs or similar designations and they’re not represented on any maps, except classified ones. Sverdlovsk now called Ekaterinburg, which is known to be the fourth largest city in Russia and since World War II had been a major industrial production compound for the Soviet mili...

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