More than 10 years ago, on an April 2004 day, residents of St. Petersburg were shocked by the report of the find. One of the Kronstadt forts, namely Fort Alexander 1, for a long time kept its terrible secret in the form of a sealed glass ampoule. A strange liquid splashed in an old vessel with an engraved Latin letter "T", a scorpion and a royal emblem.
Find
A few days later, the digger who found this ampoule tried to sell it, putting it up for auction under the name "plague in vitro." And, of course, the competent authorities very quickly became interested in them. The ampoule was withdrawn.
But how are the sea fort and the ampoule related to the terrible contents?
About the plague
The largest and first plague epidemic in human history was in the 6th century A.D. in Europe, during the reign of Emperor Justinian I. By the middle of the 14th century, the plague again made itself felt, moving along the caravan and sea routes from Asia to Europe, on the way wiping the cities off the face of the earth. She got to Russia. Then about 75 million people died from the "black death".
The third most powerful epidemic occurred at the end of the 19th century. In Russia they knew about the impending adversity 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 the deadly virus could break free, the research was moved away to the fort “Alexander 1”. Even now it’s difficult to get there: in the summer on water, and in winter - on the ice of the frozen Gulf of Finland.
Where is the fort "Alexander 1"
This is very interesting. On the southwestern coast of the island of Kotlin, in the Gulf of Finland, 5 km from Kronstadt is the abandoned fort “Alexander 1”. Almost 200 years ago, the naval department decided to strengthen the southern group of Kronstadt forts. In 1838, a defensive fort began to stand under the direction of Colonel-Engineer Fan der Wade. In its form, the design is similar to a bean with dimensions of 90 × 60 meters. 150 guns located on 3 tiers of the fort provided 360⁰ defense. And inside it was possible to place a half thousandth garrison.
"Alexander 1" - a fort in Kronstadt, built over 10 years. Larch 12-meter piles were hammered into its foundation, which required more than 5,000. The space between them was covered with sand and stones. The outer brick walls lined with granite had a thickness of 3 meters. Granite blocks were trimmed and adjusted on the spot, in the fort itself. More than 1.5 million rubles were allocated 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, named “Alexander I,” took place. Several forts - “Paul I”, “Peter I”, “Kronshlot”, the battery “Constantine”, and together with them “Alexander I” - constituted an insurmountable obstacle in the way of the enemy fleet and protected the fairway with artillery fire.
Powerful 11-inch guns were installed at the fort, and all approaches to it were mined. But here is the paradox: during his almost 200-year-old “life”, they have never fired from the fort.
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 this moment in the life of the fort, a new secret page was opened, with which a deadly ampoule was connected.
Laboratory appearance
To prevent the plague and fight it in January 1897, a special commission was created by decree of Nicholas II, headed by the Minister of Finance Witte and the Prince of Oldenburg. It was the prince who financed the laboratory, 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 to the authority of the Institute of Experimental Medicine. This was a precedent: for the first time, the philanthropist allocated funds for scientific research, from the molecular to the population level. There was no analogue to such an institution anywhere: neither in Russia, nor in the world.
It was the first and only anti-plague laboratory in Russia: then the Kronstadt residents were even afraid of the winds blowing from there, and the laboratory itself was nicknamed “Fort Plague”.
In the Middle Ages, various means were used to treat plague: they were wiped with vinegar, garlic. Exotic drugs were used: the heart of a toad, the skin of a snake and the horn of a unicorn. An excellent tool was the smell of a goat. Doctors at the time wore strange leather masks to protect themselves from the disease. It was discovered that the one who once suffered a disease did not suffer from it the second time. Such people looked after the sick and cleaned 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 set up his dangerous experiments with tubercle bacillus; Ilya Mechnikov worked on the theory of immunity. And finally, in 1894, a plague stick was discovered by French and Japanese bacteriologists Yersen A. and Sibasaburo K.
4 years after this, the Fort "Plague" acquired a laboratory. Doctors with 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 laboratory was maintained with the help of a small steamer, the Microbe. It was an autonomous unique center that had everything necessary for a full life.
In a special laboratory, doctors were engaged not only in the production of the plague vaccine: samples of deadly diseases were regularly delivered from various epidemic foci. Every day, doctors clashed with microscopic killers to improve and perfect new drugs. Very soon, vaccines against typhus, tetanus and cholera appeared here. But the most dangerous was still the plague.
Vivarium and vaccine
The fort was located vivarium, in which there were experimental animals: guinea pigs, monkeys, rabbits and rats. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, camels and reindeers were brought to the fort. But the main animal that produced the vaccine was a horse. On the second tier were stalls, which housed 16 horses. Many of them for several years developed a vaccine against plague.
To receive the vaccine, weakened but live microbes were introduced into the blood of the animal. The body began to resist their action and developed immunity. It was from such blood that a vaccine was made in order to subsequently inject sick people. 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, in the Far East, Odessa and Transcaucasia, in 1919 - typhus in Petrograd.
Vaccine fee
In 1904, on January 7, Petersburg was shocked by the death of the young head of a special laboratory, Dr. V. I. Turchinovich-Vyzhnikevich, who died from the bubonic plague. Anticipating a fatal outcome, Vladislav Ivanovich bequeathed himself to be cremated. His last will was fulfilled.
After 3 years, another doctor, Maniul Schreiber, also died of the plague. Colleagues managed to defend the sick doctor, who opened the body of Schreiber, at the "black death". Until now, no one knows for sure how many doctors gave their lives for receiving the vaccine, and where their ashes lie.
In the crematorium built in the fort for burning the bodies of sick animals, people were also cremated.
What's in the ampoule
The Institute of Experimental Medicine has an urn in the ashes of V.I. Turchinovich-Vyzhnikevich, transferred there from the fort in 1920, when a special laboratory was closed.
The ampoule, found in 2004, is considered the youngest exhibit in the museum of the institute. Perhaps there is a 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 poured in the ampoule, it is necessary to open it and conduct a study. It is quite expensive, and no one wants to do it. If you open the ampoule, it will lose its historical value, so it was sent to a shelf in the museum. Next to it is a similar bottle, found 15 years earlier, also with an unidentified liquid.
Fort closing
In 1918, the fort was disbanded, the equipment was dismantled and sent to Saratov, to the newly established Microbe Institute.
In the 1920s, there was no trace of the laboratory at the Plague. The fort was doused with kerosene and set on fire to get rid of the infection.
During the Second World War, the fort again entered the service of the Fatherland. Here they made "sugar rusks", a small but important part of the sea mine.
During the reign of Khrushchev, the marauders in the fort cut and removed all the metal, and it was then that he acquired his present appearance. A terrible reputation saved him from complete plunder.
Fort "Alexander 1" - how to get there?
Every summer, the Fort hosts “Rave Party,” tear-down discos. Large columns are installed in the courtyard, and lighting effects are set up. Guests get to the fort by water, by boat.