Vozrozhdeniya

This article is about the island. For the album by folk metal band Arkona, see Vozrozhdeniye.

Vozrozhdeniya Island from space, November 1994

The Aral Sea in 1989 and in 2008

Rebirth Island joins the mainland in mid-2001.

Vozrozhdeniya, also known as Rebirth Island (Russian: Остров Возрождения, Ostrov Vozrozhdeniya), was a former island of the Aral Sea or South Aral Sea. Due to the ongoing shrinkage of the Aral, it became first a peninsula in mid-2001 and finally part of the mainland.^[1] Since the disappearance of the Southeast Aral in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya effectively no longer exists as a distinct geographical feature. The area is now shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

History

Located in the central Aral Sea, Vozrozhdeniya Island was one of the main laboratories and testing sites for the Soviet Union's Microbiological Warfare Group. In 1948, a top-secret Soviet bioweapons laboratory was established here, which tested a variety of agents, including anthrax, smallpox, plague, brucellosis, and tularemia.^[2]

In the 1990s, word of the island's danger was spread by Soviet defectors, including Ken Alibek, the former head of the Soviet Union's bioweapons program.^[3] It was here, according to recently released documents, that anthrax spores and bubonic plague bacilli were made into weapons and stored. The main town on the island was Kantubek, which lies in ruins today, but once had approximately 1,500 inhabitants.

The laboratory staff members abandoned the small island in 1992.^[4] Many of the containers holding the spores were not properly stored or destroyed, and over the last decade many of these containers have developed leaks.

In 2002, through a project organized by the United States and with Uzbekistan assistance, 10 anthrax burial sites were decontaminated. According to the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections, all burial sites of anthrax were decontaminated.^[5]

See also

• Biopreparat
• Ken Alibek
• Kantubek
• Gruinard Island in Scotland, used for anthrax testing.

References

1. ^ NASA Visible Earth - “Rebirth” Island Joins the Mainland, Aral Sea
2. ^ Tom Mangold; Jeff Goldberg (2001). Plague Wars: The Terrifying Reality of Biological Warfare. Macmillan. pp. 46–47. ISBN 9780312263799. http://books.google.com/books?id=9_9Q7cZh91YC&pg=PA46. 
3. ^ Hoffman, David (2009). The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy. Random House. pp. 460. ISBN 9780385524377. http://books.google.com/books?id=JQGHqScEFtoC&pg=PA460. 
4. ^ Pala, Christopher (2003), Anthrax Island, The New York Times, January 12, 2003.
5. ^ Khabar Television/BBC Monitoring (2002-11-20). "Kazakhstan: Vozrozhdeniya Anthrax Burial Sites Destroyed". Global Security Newswire (Nuclear Threat Initiative). http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/newswires/2002_11_20.html. Retrieved 2008-05-17. 

External links

• Youtube: Going To Extremes: Voz-Island (Part 1)
• Youtube: Going To Extremes: Voz-Island (Part 2)
• Welcome to Anthrax Island - Guardian Unlimited
• Rebirth Island joins the mainland (2000 and 2001 satellite images)
• NASA satellite image comparison between 1989 and 2003
• Biological Decontamination of Vozrozhdeniye Island: The U.S.-Uzbek Agreement
• Former Soviet Biological Weapons Facilities in Kazakhstan: Past, Present, and Future
• 1960's Satellite images of Soviet laboratory

Coordinates: 45°09′N 59°19′E / 45.15°N 59.317°E / 45.15; 59.317