More than 10 years ago, on an April day in 2004, the residents of St. Petersburg were shocked by the discovery. One of the Kronstadt forts, namely the Alexander 1 fort, kept its terrible secret for a long time in the form of a sealed glass ampoule. A strange liquid splashed in an ancient vessel engraved with the Latin letter "T", a scorpion and the royal coat of arms.
Nakhodka
A few days later, the digger who found this ampoule tried to sell it, putting it up for auction under the name "plague in a test tube". And, of course, they were very quickly interested in the competent authorities. The ampoule has been seized.
But what is the connection between the sea fort and the ampoule with terrible contents?
About the plague
The largest and first plague epidemic in the history of mankind was in the 6th century AD. in Europe, under the reign of Emperor Justinian I. By the middle of the 14th century, the plague again made itself felt, moving along caravan and sea routes from Asia to Europe, erasing cities along the wayearth. She also made it to Russia. Then about 75 million people died from the "Black Death".
The third most powerful epidemic came at the end of the 19th century. In Russia, they knew about the impending misfortune and tried to prepare for it.
The production of the first anti-plague drugs was decided to be carried out on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, but in the future, fearing that a deadly virus could break free, the research was moved further away, to Fort Alexander 1. Even now it is difficult to get there: in summer by water, and in winter - by the ice of the frozen Gulf of Finland.
Where Fort Alexander 1 is located
This is quite interesting. At the southwestern coast of the island of Kotlin, in the Gulf of Finland, 5 km from Kronstadt, there is an abandoned fort "Alexander 1". Almost 200 years ago, the naval department decided to strengthen the southern group of Kronstadt forts. In 1838, the construction of a defensive fort began under the direction of engineer-colonel Van der Weid. In its shape, the design is similar to a bean with dimensions of 90 × 60 meters. 150 guns, located on 3 tiers of the fort, provided defense at 360⁰. And inside it was possible to place a half-thousand garrison.
"Alexander 1" - a fort in Kronstadt, built over 10 years. Larch 12-meter piles were hammered into its foundation, of which more than 5000 were required. The space between them was covered with sand and stones. The outer brick walls lined with granite were 3 meters thick. Granite blocks were hewn and adjusted on the spot, in the fort itself. More than 1.5 million rublesallocated from the state treasury for this building.
In 1842, on August 14, Emperor Nicholas I paid a visit to Fort Alexander 1.
Fort Description
In 1845, on July 27, the grand opening and lighting of the fort, which received the name "Alexander I", took place. Several forts - "Paul I", "Peter I", "Kronshlot", the battery "Konstantin", and with them the "Alexander I" - constituted an insurmountable obstacle in the path of the enemy fleet and protected the fairway with artillery fire.
Powerful 11-inch guns were installed on the fort, and all approaches to it were mined. But here's the paradox: in its almost 200-year "life" the fort has never been shot at.
In 1860, with the advent of weapons of new power, 3-meter walls could no longer serve as reliable protection. Therefore, in 1896, the Minister of War signed a decree excluding the forts Perth I, Kronshlot and Alexander I from the defense structure. From that moment on, a new secret page was opened in the life of the fort, with which the deadly ampoule was connected.
The appearance of the laboratory
To prevent the plague and fight it in January 1897, by decree of Nicholas II, a special commission was created, headed by Finance Minister Witte and Prince of Oldenburg. It was the prince who financed the laboratory, and he also found an isolated and remote place - Fort Alexander 1. In the same year, permission was obtained from the commandant of the Kronstadt fortress and the Minister of War. After that, the fort was transferred tomanagement of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. This was a precedent: for the first time, funds were allocated by a patron for scientific research, from the molecular to the population level. There were no analogues of such an institution anywhere: neither in Russia, nor in the world.
It was the first and only anti-plague laboratory in Russia: then the inhabitants of Kronstadt were afraid even of the winds blowing from there, and the laboratory itself was nicknamed “Fort Plague”.
In the Middle Ages, various means were used to treat the plague: they wiped themselves with vinegar, garlic. Exotic medicines were used: the heart of a toad, the skin of a snake and the horn of a unicorn. The smell of a goat was considered an excellent remedy. Doctors at that time wore strange leather masks to protect themselves from illness. It was discovered that one who once had an illness did not get sick a second time. Such people looked after the sick and removed the corpses of the dead.
It was at this time that discoveries of pathogens of various infectious diseases began to occur around the world: Louis Pasteur in France began to develop a vaccine against rabies and anthrax; Robert Koch in Germany performed his dangerous experiments with the tubercle bacillus; Ilya Mechnikov worked on the theory of immunity. And finally, in 1894, a plague bacillus was discovered by the French and Japanese bacteriologists Yersin A. and Shibasaburo K.
4 years after that, Fort "Plague" acquired a laboratory. Doctors with their families and attendants were brought here. Unique equipment was delivered and installed. Only a limited circle of people could get into the fort, and the connection between Kronstadt and the laboratorysupported by a small steamer - "Microbe". It was an autonomous unique center that had everything you need for a fulfilling life.
In a special laboratory, doctors were busy not only with the production of an anti-plague vaccine: samples of deadly diseases were regularly delivered from various epidemic foci. Physicians battled microscopic killers every day to improve and perfect new drugs. Very soon vaccines against typhus, tetanus and cholera appeared here. But the plague was still the most dangerous.
Vivarium and vaccine
A vivarium was located in the fort, in which there were experimental animals: guinea pigs, monkeys, rabbits and rats. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, a camel and reindeer were brought to the fort. But the main animal that produced the vaccine was the horse. Stalls were located on the second tier, which housed 16 horses. Many of them have been developing a plague vaccine for several years.
To get a vaccine, weakened but live microbes were injected into the blood of an animal. The body began to resist their action and developed immunity. It was from such blood that a vaccine was made in order to inject sick people in the future. The risk of doctors and scientists working at the fort was justified: the drugs developed by them stopped many epidemics. In 1908, cholera was stopped in St. Petersburg, in 1910 - the plague in the Volga region, the Far East, Odessa and Transcaucasia, in 1919 - typhus in Petrograd.
Vaccine fee
In 1904, on January 7, St. Petersburg was shocked by the death of a young head of a special laboratory, Dr. V. I. Turchinovich-Vyzhnikevich, who died of bubonic plague. Anticipating a fatal outcome, Vladislav Ivanovich bequeathed himself to be cremated. His last wish was done.
Three years later, another doctor, Maniul Schreiber, also died of the plague. The sick doctor, who opened the corpse of Schreiber, colleagues managed to defend against the "black death". Until now, no one knows exactly how many doctors gave their lives for the vaccine, and where their ashes rest.
In the crematorium built in the fort for burning the corpses of diseased animals, people were also cremated.
What's in the ampoule
In the Institute of Experimental Medicine there is an urn in the ashes of V. I. Turchinovich-Vyzhnikevich, transferred there from the fort in 1920, when the special laboratory was closed.
The ampoule, found in 2004, is considered the youngest exhibit in the institute's museum. It is possible that there is an anti-plague vaccine inside it, but this cannot be said with certainty. What does the Latin letter "T" and the scorpion depicted on the glass mean? There is no data about this, even in the archives of the institute.
To determine what is transfused in the ampoule, it must be opened and examined. It is quite expensive, and no one wants to do it. If the ampoule is opened, it will lose its historical value, so it was sent to the shelf in the museum. Next to it is a similar bottle, found 15 years earlier, also withunidentified liquid.
Closing the fort
In 1918, the fort was disbanded, the equipment was dismantled and sent to Saratov, to the Microbe Institute that was being created.
In the 1920s, not a trace of the laboratory remained at the Plague. The fort was doused with kerosene and set on fire to rid itself of the infestation.
During World War II, the fort again served the Fatherland. Here they made "sugar shells", a small but important part of a naval mine.
During the reign of Khrushchev, looters in the fort cut and carried out all the metal, and it was then that it acquired its present form. A terrible reputation saved him from complete plunder.
Fort "Alexander 1" - how to get there?
Every summer, the fort hosts "Rave Party" - tear-off discos. Large speakers are installed in the courtyard, lighting effects are set up. Guests get to the fort by water, on a boat.
