home Documentation Aralsk 7 closed ghost town. Biochemical test site in the Aral Sea: Vozrozhdeniye Island

Aralsk 7 closed ghost town. Biochemical test site in the Aral Sea: Vozrozhdeniye Island

23 years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, by his decree, closed one of the most secret military facilities in the Soviet Union. It was located in an extremely remote and sparsely populated region, then still a huge country - on an island in the center Aral Sea, which is still called Renaissance Island.

It is known that experiments were carried out at this test site in the field of creation, production and testing of one of the most barbaric types of weapons of mass destruction - biological weapons. And now the Aral Sea is gone, the island has also disappeared, turning into a part of the mainland desert, and the landfill has been living its strange ghost life for all these 23 years.

Kazakh journalist and blogger Grigory Bedenko published unique materials from his archive, which may somehow explain the phenomenon of the Aralsk-7 facility.

Let's take a look at them...

One of the most famous images of the Vozrozhdeniye Island test site, taken by the American KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite at the height of the Cold War.

The idea of creating a scientific center for the development of biological weapons in the USSR arose in the 1920s. The military already then began to think big and flirt with weapons of mass destruction. In 1915, in the area of the town of Ypres, the 4th German Army first used the spraying of chlorine from cylinders. Bacteriological weapons had a much longer history - for example, in the ancient world, plague corpses were thrown over the walls of besieged cities to cause an epidemic among the defenders. And H.G. Wells described an attempt to change the world with the help of cholera in the story "The Stolen Bacillus" in 1894.

The science center needed a place that would be sufficiently remote and isolated from others. settlements. On the one hand, these are the requirements of secrecy, on the other hand, security. An island would be ideal. Three "candidates" were selected: one of Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, Gorodomlya Island on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea. We stopped at Gorodoml. Here, in 1936-1941, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons was located - the 3rd test laboratory, which was subordinate to the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army. Previously, she occupied one of the Suzdal monasteries.

After the Great Patriotic War, it became clear that such institutions should be located as far as possible from the border. The next location of the bacteriological laboratory was the island of Vozrozhdenie, the former Nikolai.

This is what the Aral Sea was like in the 60s of the 20th century. The red arrow points to Renaissance Island. Then its area was 260 square kilometers, the island was isolated from inhabited places by tens of kilometers of water surface and a very harsh desert desert. Interesting fact, the island was discovered by the prominent Russian geographer Nikolai Butakov in 1848 and named after Emperor Nicholas I. The modern name of this place appeared a little later. The most secret Soviet training ground was located there.

Nicholas, this island with an area of about 200 square meters. kilometers was named after the emperor. It was discovered along with two other islands - Naslednik and Konstantin - in 1848. For some unknown reason, the archipelago was called Tsarsky. Before the revolution, local residents and industrialists were engaged in fishing, hunting, extracting salt, exporting saxaul to the mainland, etc. After 1917, all this economy was nationalized, and completely ruined by collective farm methods. The population of the island was reduced to 4-5 Kazakh families, the infrastructure - to a few buildings.

In 1924, the people arrived - on the island of Vozrozhdenie, the Regional Special Purpose Detention Center was created, in which 45 prisoners convicted of robbery and banditry served their sentences. The report of the head of the detention center states that the island is convenient for both fishing and cattle breeding, since the soil is well suited for pastures.

And this is how the Aral Sea looks now. There is practically no water left, no islands either. The white line marks the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The special purpose prison was liquidated in 1926. Instead, an isolation ward of regional importance was opened, designed for 400 prisoners. However, it was also closed in 1929-1930. No mysterious reasons. It was just that the flywheel of the Soviet repressive machine was accelerating, the number of prisoners was increasing, and this required the creation of places of detention of a different format.

In 1936, an expedition of military biologists landed on Vozrozhdeniye Island, led by the father of the Soviet bacteriological program, Professor Ivan Velikanov. The researchers tested bioagents based on tularemia, cholera and plague. Further development was suspended due to repression. Professor Velikanov was shot in 1938.

Then the war began. The testing laboratory was evacuated from Gorodomlya Island, first to Kirov, then to Saratov, and finally to Vozrozhdeniye Island. Since 1942, the biochemical test site "Barkhan" began to operate here - the 52nd field research laboratory (PNIL-52) - military unit 04061. Then the military town of Kantubek, officially called Aralsk-7, was built in the northern part of the island.

Between former Island Renaissance in the south and the Kulandy peninsula in the north, where the Kazakh village of the same name is now located, only a small strait remained. But even at the beginning of the 2000s, it was necessary to sail from Kulanda to the training ground by boat for at least 3 hours, and then another 60 km by car. More on this later.

The test site occupied the southern part of the island. The tests consisted of exploding projectiles and spraying from an aircraft with strains developed from anthrax, plague, brucellosis, tularemia, Q fever, glanders and other deadly infections. The strains were produced at the enterprises of the defense complex in Sverdlovsk, Kirov, Zagorsk, Stepnogorsk.

In the planned kill zone, conscripts placed cages with experimental animals or tied them to stakes. "Vacuum cleaners" were installed nearby - special devices with tubular filters that allowed the concentration of bacteria at one point or another. After spraying, the same soldiers in chemical protection suits collected the animals and sent them to the laboratory. All this was very similar to the procedure "dirty bomb" tests on the islands of Lake Ladoga .

This is how the test on Vozrozhdeniye Island is described in the book by Ken Alibek, former scientific director of biological weapons and biodefense programs in the USSR, and then the initiator of the elimination of these programs, “Beware! Biological weapons!”: “About a hundred monkeys are sitting on a dull, windswept island off the coast of the Aral Sea, tied to poles stretched in long parallel rows almost to the horizon. A dull pop breaks the silence, and a thick cloud of mustard-colored smoke appears at the point of explosion. Seeing him, the animals in fright begin to scream and rush about, pulling on the leashes holding them. Monkeys try to escape by covering their heads, hiding their nose and mouth. But the animals are doomed: soon they will die.”

Monkeys were chosen because their respiratory organs are most similar to those of humans. Monkeys in Aralsk-7 were supplied by the Sukhumi nursery, but for some experiments it was necessary to get animals from abroad. In the 1980s, 500 monkeys were purchased through the USSR Foreign Trade in Africa and delivered to Vozrozhdenie Island through a network of front companies. They tested the anthrax strain Anthrax-836 and specially bred "combat" plague bacteria. By their death, the animals proved that the developed strains are able to “break through” the defense of a potential enemy. It is estimated that spraying 100 kilograms of anthrax spores in densely populated urban areas could kill about 3 million people.

Tests were also carried out on rabbits, sheep and horses. They were grown specifically for "laboratory needs" on the Kulandy Peninsula, located nearby.

Large water remained only in the Northern Aral, which turned into an autonomous reservoir, thanks to the construction of the Kok-Aral dam. This was done in order to somehow revive fishing in the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea. But it was also the final verdict on the sea.

There are suggestions that the matter was not limited to animal experiments. This idea is suggested by the strange-looking barracks that adjoined the laboratory located a few kilometers from Aralsk-7.

“The laboratory building and the barracks adjacent to it are unusual and mysterious,” writes the own correspondent of the newspaper “Trud. Tashkent” by Valery Biryukov in the article “Secrets of the Renaissance Island” (“Trud”, October 25, 2001). - Judging by the well-preserved inscriptions and tablets, women mostly lived in other barracks. Moreover, judging by the conditions of their detention, they were most likely prisoners. In the laboratory building itself, several rooms, similar to examination rooms, are equipped with gynecological chairs. The room next to them has only one hermetically sealed door. From the ceiling, about a meter short of the floor, a stainless steel pipe descends. In another room, several dozen beautifully executed male and female mannequins with bendable arms and legs are stored. A rich library on biology and a huge warehouse of all kinds of flasks and special utensils have been preserved. The iron doors to most of the basements are welded on and have not been opened to this day. Safes of various sizes are scattered everywhere.

... Between the village and the laboratory building there is a strange object that looks like a boiler room, but there are no boilers there. From the tanks towards the laboratory building go three pipes, painted in different colors. It is strange, but in the forty-four years of its existence, the secret garrison has never acquired its own cemetery. There was a crematorium here.

And now the most interesting. The Aralsk-7 polygon, or the village of Kantubek, as it was called on all maps, is located here (shown by an arrow).

Terrible things were happening at the test site and in the laboratory, and the city of Aralsk-7 at that time lived peacefully or slept peacefully. It was no different from other Soviet closed cities: a dozen and a half residential buildings, a canteen, a club, shops, a stadium, barracks, a parade ground, a power plant. The population of Aralsk-7 reached 1500 people - the military, scientists, other specialists and their families. The children went to school, their parents went to work. The soldiers were engaged in drill training on the parade ground. Movies were shown in the officers' house in the evenings, and picnics were arranged on the shores of the Aral Sea on the weekends.

WITH " big land th ”the island was connected by sea and air traffic. Fresh water, products and equipment were delivered here by barges. The runway, equipped back in 1949, later turned into the Barkhan airfield. This building, unique for the USSR, had four runways. The choice of one or another lane was determined depending on what kind of wind was blowing. Renaissance Island was distinguished by strong winds.

By the way, the local wind rose served as protection for Aralsk-7 from biological threats. The location of the test site was chosen so that the wind immediately carried the aerosol cloud formed as a result of the test in the opposite direction from the military camp. True, they say that in 1972 there was a case when, due to a sudden gust of wind, two fishermen fell into a plague cloud. Both died.

In addition, mandatory anti-epidemic measures and decontamination of the territory were carried out at the site. All test participants were subject to mandatory quarantine. The hot climate served as additional insurance. Most bacteria and viruses could not withstand prolonged exposure to local temperatures. Therefore, as a rule, tests were carried out in the late afternoon. The layer of cold air that covered the heated ground kept the bacteria, thereby reducing the risk of infection transfer outside the landfill.

The protection of the top-secret island from prying eyes was ensured by military boats continuously cruising the sea and patrol cars on land. The laboratory building and the test site were surrounded by several rows of barbed wire.

In images from space, the polygon can be recognized by the so-called "asterisk". This is a unique field airfield built from 4 concrete strips. The creation of such a special design was dictated by the very changeable winds on the island. Those. a transport aircraft could land here in almost any weather conditions.

Aralsk-7 literally closed in 1992. On the one hand, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain secrecy. As a result of the ecological catastrophe, the Aral Sea was rapidly shrinking; in the 1990s, the area of Vozrozhdeniye Island increased by almost 10 times. Protecting such a vast territory has become increasingly difficult.

Another reason, more serious, is the collapse of the USSR. In 1990, Ken Alibek, already mentioned by us, handed over a note to President Mikhail Gorbachev with a proposal to close the biological weapons program. Gorbachev agreed and the liquidation began. It took place in 1990-1991.

The population was evacuated within a few weeks. People left Aralsk-7 with the essentials, furniture and even the main value of that time - color TVs. Equipment was also abandoned - brand new trucks and tractors, spare parts for them, as well as laboratory equipment. Only the most valuable items were removed from the equipment. Dangerous strains were either destroyed or conserved in burial grounds.

For some time, Aralsk-7 was empty. Then the marauders were pulled into it.

In 1998, ecologists, epidemiologists and geologists visited Vozrozhdeniye Island. Among the epidemiologists were American specialists. The general conclusion that they made: this place does not pose any threat, either bacteriological or ecological. Today, Renaissance Island has become a peninsula. The former secret city lies in ruins. Nothing of value is left here. But who knows what is stored underground here. The military is not too willing to share their secrets.

The polygon consisted of three main zones: 1 - airfield; 2 - residential area; and located at a considerable distance from these objects, absolutely closed - laboratory zone 3. A few kilometers from the test site there was a pier where ships and barges arrived with cargoes necessary for the life of the test site.

This image shows that the concrete slabs from all four runways of the airfield have been removed.

Some slabs are neatly stacked to the side. These are traces of the work of looters. After the military left the training ground, it actually remained abandoned and without protection, which was used by the local population and criminal elements. The landfill was robbed, taking out the most valuable from there, from the mid-90s to the beginning of the 2000s. And there was a lot of value there ...

Administrative and residential area of the landfill. Almost half of all buildings are where they always were. Some buildings are half destroyed, others are completely destroyed.

1 - soldiers' barracks and headquarters of the training ground. 2 - residential area, multi-storey buildings for officers and their families.

Polygon boiler room. The laboratory complex required a lot of steam - autoclaves were working to sterilize the equipment. And this despite the fact that there were no sources of drinking water on the island, it was brought in by special barges, and then entered the landfill through a special pipeline. It was made from alloys that did not corrode. Subsequently, all the pipes were taken from the island by marauders.

Partially destroyed laboratory area. It was located two kilometers from the administrative office, and was completely isolated by several rows of barbed wire.

Three-story building of the main laboratory. It was here that the main and most dangerous experiments related to biological weapons were carried out.

And now we bring to your attention a unique video filmed during my visit to the test site in 2001. All of the above objects are removed from the ground. It can be concluded that almost nothing has changed at the test site in 14 years. Operator Khasen Omarkulov.

In general, you can find a lot of information related to Renaissance Island on the net. However, all of it is fragmented, and due to the complete absence of any official data, the ghost test site has acquired a huge number of all kinds of speculation, sometimes the most incredible. Therefore, I would like first of all to comment on what we managed to film. I apologize for the not very good quality of the screenshots from the video, however, it should be noted that it is one of a kind. Here, the internal structure of the main laboratory complex is filmed in detail. Perhaps this one will somehow shed light on what work was carried out at the site.

So, the path to the training ground begins from the ex-peninsula of Kulandy, where there is a large village and a rather large horse farm for these God-forgotten places. Camels are also bred here

It is known that the main types of experiments with WMD were carried out on horses. And these horses were supplied to the landfill by the Kulandy horse farm.

And this is Renaissance Island itself - a pier for ships and barges that delivered all kinds of cargo and fresh water here.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the landfill became the "property" of two newly independent states: a pier on the island and the Chaika support base, located near Aralsk (now nothing is left of it - they smashed it brick by brick locals), went to Kazakhstan. The airfield, the administrative and laboratory zone of the test site became part of the territory of Uzbekistan.

In fact, our marauders operated on the territory of a neighboring state, and with complete impunity. The landfill for almost 10 years, starting from 1992, when personnel were evacuated from there, was not guarded by anyone.

By the way, we got there by agreeing with the "foreman" of local stalkers. There was only one condition - not to remove them. Two teams dismantled the facilities of the landfill - one worked on the island, the second took out building materials, pipes, diesel fuel and other useful things towards Aralsk. Local fishermen on their old motor boats transported all this through the strait. In 2001, it took about three hours to sail along it. The island joined the mainland sometime in 2009. The stalkers had at least two off-road trucks - a three-bridge Ural to Kulandy and an old GAZ-66 abandoned by the military on the island. Its stalkers restored it to operational condition by bringing spare parts to the island.

The range was covered by military boats.

Project T-368 patrol boat with serial number 79 was built in 1973. This is one of the modifications of the Soviet torpedo boats. Enterprise G-4306 - Sosnovsky shipyard. It is located in the city of Sosnovka, Kirov Region, Russian Federation. The plant stands on the banks of the Vyatka River, a tributary of the Volga. In the Aral Sea, apparently, the boat hit railway from one of the Caspian ports.

And on these self-propelled barges, fresh water was delivered to Vozrozhdeniye Island.

The administrative area of the landfill.

A mysterious room with a very complex air intake and ventilation system. It can be assumed that there were powerful diesel generators. Apparently, they provided energy for the landfill.

Alley with street lighting in the administrative area.

The remains of a powerful compressor.

Building built in 1963.

It was an officer's club and part-time cinema. In general, the history of the landfill began back in the distant 30s, when an expedition landed on Vozrozhdeniye Island led by the famous Russian bacteriologist Ivan Velikanov. His task was to explore the possibility of using the bubonic plague as a means of destroying enemy manpower. Subsequently, the Japanese invaders did this very successfully in China, putting absolutely monstrous experiments on people there. And Professor Velikanov was arrested by the NKVD in 1937, and work was curtailed until the start of the Cold War. So, there are several, so to speak, cultural layers at the training ground.

Polygon communication node.

There was a military hospital and a polyclinic on the Renaissance Island.

Arch at the entrance to the living area of the landfill.

Two-storey kindergarten building. Military microbiologists lived on Renaissance Island with their wives and children.

The living area of the landfill is solid houses made of silicate bricks. They are the best preserved.

View of the administrative zone from the roof of a residential building. You can see the soldiers' barracks and the headquarters building.

The administrative zone also consisted of the same type of one-story panel houses.

Obviously, the peak of research on biological weapons came in the late 70s and early 80s. It was then that the number of military specialists and members of their families permanently residing on Vozrozhdeniye Island reached, according to various sources, 1,500 people. For these people, the most comfortable environment for those times and in those conditions was created. They were in a very ambiguous position. First, in 1972 Soviet Union joined the so-called Nixon Pact. This international document prohibited the research, development and testing of all types of WMD based on biological weapons. However, research was secretly carried out both in the USA and in the USSR.

The stool remained standing on the balcony of the officer's apartment. A real disaster for the people working on the island was the 92nd year, when the landfill was closed by presidential decree. The evacuation of personnel took place so rapidly that the military abandoned all bulky items in the apartments - furniture, televisions, washing machines, refrigerators, etc. It is likely that people were promised a speedy return to the island, which never happened. And all the most valuable went to the marauders. In addition to the personal belongings of the military, fuel depots, vehicles and much more were actually abandoned at the training ground. True, as the stalkers say, the food stocks turned out to be unusable, as they were covered with bleach and filled with lysol. Before leaving the training ground, the military conducted a large-scale disinfection of all facilities.

And this is the dungeons of the main laboratory complex. There were powerful autoclaves for heat treatment of equipment.

Everything was washed and washed in ordinary cast-iron bathtubs, however, except for two taps with cold and hot water, a third one was connected to them - with a disinfectant.

These ominous constructions are the so-called "explosion chambers". The principle was this: the room was divided into two parts - "dirty" and "clean". Both could be reached only by passing through the sanitary inspection room with a disinfectant shower. In one part of the chamber, a shutter was opened, and a cage with an experimental animal was brought there along special guides. Then the shutter was closed, the animal was infected with a biological agent in the form of an aerosol. After that, from the “dirty” side, the specialists took the cage, and then monitored the course of the disease.

The "explosive chambers" are located on the second floor of the complex in a fully isolated room with sealed doors.

And this room is stone bag”- three sanitary checkpoints lead to a room without windows.

Here is a camera, type 5 K-NZh, number 254, released in 1974. Such devices are used to work with radioactive materials. Aralsk-7 specialists apparently adapted it for biological experiments.

Materials for experiments were fed into the chamber through this shutter.

Biohazard sign on the sealed door to the second floor.

In these cabinets, apparently, the packaging of biological agents was carried out. It could be, for example, a vaccine against a particularly dangerous infection.

And this is perhaps the most interesting image! On the door to another "stone bag" is written the following: "Danger! T - 37, T +27. Specialists say that a temperature of minus 37 degrees Celsius is optimal for storing strains of bubonic plague, and plus 27 for anthrax or anthrax spores. This is, to some extent, an explanation of what exactly they worked with at the training ground. The graffiti in the upper left corner of the door is already a new "cultural layer". The stalkers left him.

The military left the training ground so quickly that they did not even have time to “cover up their tracks”, leaving signs with the names and initials of those responsible for one or another section.

The officer Mironin A.V. was responsible for the male sanitary checkpoint.

And for the dangerous furnace No. 6 V. P. Dushaev. What was burned in this furnace, one can only guess.

And here is another interesting inscription. Conscript soldiers also worked in the laboratory. They are now 46 years old. They probably could tell a lot about this place, but, apparently, they are under an almost lifelong non-disclosure subscription.

The room for experiments is a thick porthole, like at a nuclear power plant, a centrifuge, a bathtub, and a steel box with a powerful lock of some incomprehensible purpose. Everything is painted in an unpleasant protective color.

This is what the main laboratory complex looks like from the inside…

... and this is how it is outside ...

What else do we know about this mysterious place?

Between 1995 and 1998, an American reconnaissance mission visited Renaissance Island in order to collect the maximum amount of data and samples from the test site. For this, the American side allocated $6 million to the authorities of Uzbekistan.

And some more information about the landfill. In 2002-2003, a group of specialists from the Kazakh Scientific Center for Quarantine and Zoonotic Infections (which, by the way, is under the patronage of the United States) landed on Vozrozhdenie Island in order to search for anthrax burials. However, the results of the expedition were immediately classified. A certain type of work, apparently, was carried out there until 2008, when Uzbekistan, again with American money and under the strict American leadership, allegedly began searching for oil and gas deposits in the area of the island. Similar surveys were carried out by the Kazakh side. Then, when nothing was found there, the topic was closed.

According to some reports, the work was not associated with the nave

Saved

23 years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, by his decree, closed one of the most secret military facilities in the Soviet Union. It was located in an extremely remote and sparsely populated region, then still a huge country - on an island in the center of the Aral Sea, which is still called Renaissance Island.

One of the most famous images of the Vozrozhdeniye Island test site, taken by the American KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite at the height of the Cold War

Kazakh journalist and blogger Grigory Bedenko published unique materials from his archive, which may somehow explain the phenomenon of the Aralsk-7 facility.

Let's take a look at them...

The scientific center needed a place that would be sufficiently remote and isolated from other settlements. On the one hand, these are the requirements of secrecy, on the other hand, security. An island would be ideal. Three "candidates" were selected: one of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, Gorodomlya Island on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea. We stopped at Gorodoml. Here, in 1936-1941, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons was located - the 3rd test laboratory, which was subordinate to the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army. Previously, she occupied one of the Suzdal monasteries.

This is what the Aral Sea was like in the 60s of the 20th century. The red arrow points to Renaissance Island. Then its area was 260 square kilometers, the island was isolated from inhabited places by tens of kilometers of water surface and a very harsh desert desert. An interesting fact, the island was discovered by the outstanding Russian geographer Nikolai Butakov in 1848 and named it in honor of Emperor Nicholas I. The modern name of this place appeared a little later. The most secret Soviet training ground was located there.

And this is how the Aral Sea looks now. There is practically no water left, no islands either. The white line marks the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Only a small strait remained between the former Renaissance Island in the south and the Kulandy peninsula in the north, where the Kazakh village of the same name is now located. But even at the beginning of the 2000s, it was necessary to sail from Kulanda to the training ground by boat for at least 3 hours, and then another 60 km by car. More on this later.

Tests were also carried out on rabbits, sheep and horses. They were grown specifically for "laboratory needs" on the Kulandy Peninsula, located nearby.

... Between the village and the laboratory building there is a strange object that looks like a boiler room, but there are no boilers there. Three pipes, painted in different colors, go from the tanks towards the laboratory building. It is strange, but in the forty-four years of its existence, the secret garrison has never acquired its own cemetery. There was a crematorium here.

And now the most interesting. The Aralsk-7 polygon, or the village of Kantubek, as it was called on all maps, is located here (shown by an arrow).

The island was connected with the "mainland" by the sea and air traffic. Fresh water, food and equipment were brought here by barges. The runway, equipped back in 1949, later turned into the Barkhan airfield. This building, unique for the USSR, had four runways. The choice of one or another lane was determined depending on what kind of wind was blowing. Renaissance Island was distinguished by strong winds.

For some time, Aralsk-7 was empty. Then the marauders were pulled into it.

This image shows that the concrete slabs from all four runways of the airfield have been removed.

Administrative and residential area of the landfill. Almost half of all buildings are where they always were. Some buildings are half destroyed, others are completely destroyed.

1 - soldiers' barracks and headquarters of the training ground. 2 - residential area, multi-storey buildings for officers and their families.

Partially destroyed laboratory area. It was located two kilometers from the administrative office, and was completely isolated by several rows of barbed wire.

Three-story building of the main laboratory. It was here that the main and most dangerous experiments related to biological weapons were carried out.

So, the path to the training ground begins from the ex-peninsula of Kulandy, where there is a large village and a rather large horse farm for these God-forgotten places. Camels are also bred here

It is known that the main types of experiments with WMD were carried out on horses. And these horses were supplied to the landfill by the Kulandy horse farm.

And this is Renaissance Island itself - a pier for ships and barges that delivered all kinds of cargo and fresh water here.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the landfill became the “property” of two new independent states: the pier on the island and the Chaika support base, located not far from Aralsk (now there is nothing left of it - the locals smashed it brick by brick), went to Kazakhstan. The airfield, the administrative and laboratory zone of the test site became part of the territory of Uzbekistan.

The range was covered by military boats.

Project T-368 patrol boat with serial number 79 was built in 1973. This is one of the modifications of the Soviet torpedo boats. Enterprise G-4306 - Sosnovsky shipyard. It is located in the city of Sosnovka, Kirov Region, Russian Federation. The plant stands on the banks of the Vyatka River, a tributary of the Volga. Apparently, the boat got to the Aral Sea by rail from one of the Caspian ports.

And on these self-propelled barges, fresh water was delivered to Vozrozhdeniye Island.

The administrative area of the landfill.

A mysterious room with a very complex air intake and ventilation system. It can be assumed that there were powerful diesel generators. Apparently, they provided energy for the landfill.

Alley with street lighting in the administrative area.

The remains of a powerful compressor.

Building built in 1963.

Polygon communication node.

There was a military hospital and a polyclinic on the Renaissance Island.

Arch at the entrance to the living area of the landfill.

Two-storey kindergarten building. Military microbiologists lived on Renaissance Island with their wives and children.

The living area of the landfill is solid houses made of silicate bricks. They are the best preserved.

View of the administrative zone from the roof of a residential building. You can see the soldiers' barracks and the headquarters building.

The administrative zone also consisted of the same type of one-story panel houses.

Obviously, the peak of research on biological weapons came in the late 70s and early 80s. It was then that the number of military specialists and members of their families permanently residing on Vozrozhdeniye Island reached, according to various sources, 1,500 people. For these people, the most comfortable environment for those times and in those conditions was created. They were in a very ambiguous position. First, in 1972, the Soviet Union joined the so-called Nixon Pact. This international document prohibited the research, development and testing of all types of WMD based on biological weapons. However, research was secretly carried out both in the USA and in the USSR.

And this is the dungeons of the main laboratory complex. There were powerful autoclaves for heat treatment of equipment.

Everything was washed and washed in ordinary cast-iron bathtubs, however, except for two taps with cold and hot water, a third one was connected to them - with a disinfectant.

The "explosive chambers" are located on the second floor of the complex in a fully isolated room with sealed doors.

And this room is a "stone bag" - three sanitary checkpoints lead to a room without windows.

Here is a camera, type 5 K-NZh, number 254, released in 1974. Such devices are used to work with radioactive materials. Aralsk-7 specialists apparently adapted it for biological experiments.

Materials for experiments were fed into the chamber through this shutter.

Biohazard sign on the sealed door to the second floor.

In these cabinets, apparently, the packaging of biological agents was carried out. It could be, for example, a vaccine against a particularly dangerous infection.

The officer Mironin A.V. was responsible for the male sanitary checkpoint.

And for the dangerous furnace No. 6 V. P. Dushaev. What was burned in this furnace, one can only guess.

This is what the main laboratory complex looks like from the inside…

... and this is how it is outside ...

What else do we know about this mysterious place?

According to some reports, the work was not associated with oil and gas, but with the elimination of anthrax burials. However, no one can confirm or deny this. The authorities have again closed everything, and getting some information from Uzbekistan can be about the same success as expecting publicity on North Korea's missile program.

Somewhere by 2010, information slipped through the media that the burials had been destroyed. But again, it has not been confirmed by anyone. Well, and finally, there was also information that Kazakhstani specialists would monitor the former landfill until 2014. At the same time, apparently, measures were taken to eradicate stalking on Vozrozhdeniye Island. A border outpost is located in Aralsk today, and the local prosecutor's office has also joined the case. Apparently, the Uzbek side did the same.

However, there is something wrong with this whole story. And the events of the last decade confirm this.

2003 year. The SARS epidemic is literally decimating people in China. IN different countries of the world from this mysterious disease, from which there is no vaccine or cure, several thousand people die. Scientists (at the official level) puzzled over why a harmless coronavirus that does not affect humans has become so aggressive towards this biological species. On the unofficial one, it was about biological weapons: the coronavirus went through the process of genetic modification. A piece of DNA was built into it, a very dangerous disease for adults - measles. And interestingly, the children did not get sick with SARS. As a result, the virus disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. And, without any consequences. And now let's remember what the world's largest event took place in 2003 - the US invasion of Iraq to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. And throughout the world, thousands of anti-war actions took place on the streets of cities.

Just a coincidence?

2007 year. Another epidemic of a viral disease from which it is impossible to protect yourself is bird flu. The most aggressive strain was H5N1. And here, by a miraculous coincidence, the only effective means of fighting the infection turns out to be in the world's only pharmaceutical company, the Swiss F.Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd - a drug called Oseltamivir with the trademark Tamiflu. Her income in a matter of months grows to astronomical amounts.

And finally, 2014. Ebola haemorrhagic fever kills hundreds of people a day in southwestern Africa. By the way, it got its name in honor of the Ebola River, which flows in Zaire. It was there that the virus was first identified, which, although considered dangerous, was not so dangerous as to pose a threat on a global scale. What was the first thing the US and Russia did? They sent their military microbiologists to the affected countries in order to study the consequences of the disease, and maybe something else ...

Thursday. 22.10.2015

So, instead of two days to examine Kantubek and PNIL-52, we only had one. Today's. It was fifteen kilometers to reach the city. If we add here the way back and the distance between the various objects of the Barkhan, a round number loomed - fifty kilometers. But for this we conserved our strength, refusing night duty.

We decided to go light. We took with us a first aid kit, flashlights, cameras, batteries, one bottle of water per person, as well as biscuits and gozinaki. The rest was packed in backpacks and hidden under a spreading saxaul, pre-smeared with ointment from bruises and sprains. For what? The ointment had a sharp reminiscent of "Asterisk", but quite a pleasant smell. In this way, we hoped to ward off local living creatures from encroachment on our property.

The weather turned out to be surprisingly pleasant: complete calm, blue sky and bright sun.

The weather is right on order, - said Max.
“True,” I agreed.

Backpacks covered their backs, and the extra pounds helped keep them warm. Yesterday's wind would blow now, and we would be stunned by the cold. So we're pretty lucky.

Walking without backpacks was true bliss. And we have developed a decent speed. To the right, rickety poles of power lines turned white. I showed them to my partner:

Apparently, this power line stretches to the pier. We'll cross the road soon.

And indeed. First we met a huge tire,

Then a hill of boulder prepared by someone,

And after a few meters we came to the road itself.

The road was still in use. I stopped and crouched to take a closer look at the tread marks.

Hull, maybe go down the road? I understand that we will give a solid hook. But it’s easier to go along the road, - the comrade suggested.
- No, Max. Will not go. Look at the footprints. There is no mote or blade of grass anywhere on them. And they look like they drove here a couple of days ago. And there's almost nowhere to hide on the sidelines.
- Yeah ... - Max sighed.

I was in full solidarity with my comrade, but secrecy had to be observed. So we went on to knead the loose sand.

The closer we got to Barkhan, the denser the vegetation became. Saxaul no longer turned red with miserable spots, but lined up in green walls, which it was not possible to break through. The terrain has also changed. Hills and lowlands appeared on the horizon, and somewhere in the northwest a sheer rocky part of the coast loomed black. The concentration of small shells underfoot melted with every kilometer. We started getting rabbits. They literally jumped out from under the feet, and, vigorously throwing out their paws, fled in an unknown direction. In total that day we scared off six pieces.

We are approaching the border, - I informed my comrade.
- Something is not noticeable.
- Well, yes. Probably, they did not bother with demarcation. Yes, and for whom? More recently it was an island.
- How? - jokingly indignant comrade. - And we? And the marauders?
- Exactly! Don't forget about hares and gophers. In short, complete disregard. But wait, there's a geodesic sign.

I checked with the navigator.

Yes. It's right on the border.

The milestone was set on a raised platform, and we went up to it to look around.

To the right, in the lowland, there is a salt marsh.

In the northwest, a steep bank still loomed.

And to the north, in the floating haze, the angular outlines of buildings appeared.
- This is it? Max asked.
- Yes, this is Barkhan. Those buildings that are closer are the residential town of Aralsk-7. Which are further away - a laboratory complex. And in-oh-he is there in the north-east of the airfield. Do you see the control room?
Looks like Mordor...

We made a short halt, rewound footcloths, ate a few biscuits and moved on. Too dense thickets of saxaul began to impede our progress. And it's not like he's growing all the way. We just had to do a lot of winding in order to find another hole in the hedge. A guiding thread in this labyrinth was the familiar traces of motorcycles.

Unexpectedly for themselves, they wandered onto a rolled primer. I checked the satellite imagery.

Great, this is exactly the road we saw in the morning. Let's go for it.
- What if it's a car? Max asked.
- Let's dive into the bushes. See how many of them are here, and how healthy they are.

The road descended into a ravine, then up. I made a turn, and the first buildings rose in front of us.

We slowly, almost stealthily, went forward, stopping and listening every minute. We reached the corner of the three-story barracks,

We looked out on the platform.

The vast square was paved with concrete slabs. A thicket of bushes spread out in the middle of it, surrounding a low concrete stele. Vegetation of all kinds protruded between the broken slabs. Along the perimeter of the parade ground were the headquarters of the regiment, two barracks and a canteen.

We walked along the barracks. Our attention was drawn to the smoking room, or rather the surviving benches.

We sat down on the rotting planks and stretched out our tired, humming legs. Swallowed water.

I looked at my watch: a quarter to three.

“Oh, how little. I would like to wander here for a couple of days to see everything ... Alas, ah! Fate decreed otherwise, allocating us only a few hours. You'll have to be content with that. On the other hand, the marauders have worked so hard here that there is almost nothing left inside the buildings except bare walls and shapeless trash. This, of course, is not Pripyat with its relatively complete apartments.

I glanced towards the entrance.

Open doors, broken glass, pieces of batteries and furniture at the exit. Through the window openings, the outlines of devastated rooms showed through.

Max, as you know, we're running out of time. Therefore, we will limit ourselves to visiting only some buildings.
- Fine. Shall we take a look at headquarters?
Yes, let's start with him.

Crunching with concrete chips and broken glass, we headed towards the headquarters building.

A look into the past: “Everyone could sunbathe on the sand ... But after dinner, in pre-demobilization anticipation, soak up the roof of the HQ, on its very high point... That was cool! Plus adrenaline! Vadim Trukhin

Inside, there was a complete mess. Scraps of peeling paint hung from the walls. The floor was littered with papers, broken furniture, ideological literature. On the shelves of the racks there were still jars, bottles, parts of radio equipment. In one of the rooms, a PBX switching cabinet was found. And numerous broken phones.

A characteristic room with massive metal safes was quickly found.

Partially opened safes bore the imprints of marauders' naivete.

I don’t know what they hoped to find there, but I’m sure they didn’t find anything of value inside. In other matters, my curiosity stirred, as always when meeting at an abandoned facility with something closed and obviously empty. But is there still something there?

From the windows of the upper floor there was an excellent view of the city.

A look into the past: “... from the second floor of the headquarters right - the native canteen and the native barracks. The first entrance is a chepar. The second entrance, the first floor - the native security company and the communications center, the second floor - I don’t remember anymore, but the third floor is caps. Igor Tolmachev, 1984-86, security company.

A look into the past: "One-story building without a roof - an infectious diseases department" Sergey Orel

“On May 9, 1971, at the construction of the regiment, at the stadium, I was declared a vacation. Probably, I lost consciousness from joy, (I tolerated heat normally, even in defense). I woke up in this building. Then there was the hospital. Grigory Pavlov, 1969-71, chemist.
“I foolishly ended up in the hospital with pneumonia right under the very demobilization ... We decided to take a picture in shorts in the snow. But for some reason, the shutter of the camera jammed, and I had to lie longer than planned ... As a result, I lay in this shed for 40 days, of which 3 days were under a dropper and with a temperature of 41 .... Then my ass became wooden from injections, and the veins on my arms, like those of a drug addict .... As far as I remember, the wife of our company commander, Vasechkina, treated me. Gorgeous!" Dmitry Istomin

“I spent a month in the infectious diseases hospital with jaundice. They were taken away "by ambulance" from night duty on the "VOLGA", he was already losing consciousness. I remember the food was good. For a month I ate so much that the hebeshka became too small. In front of the infection room, a wooden house with two windows is the storeroom of the hospital. As a recovering person, they plowed me to help fold the laundry. And he was stroked by a pretty Kazakh girl, someone’s wife, I don’t remember whose.” Vadim Trukhin

Without leaning out of the windows, standing in the twilight, we studied the abandoned buildings for a long time. A loud bang on the wooden surface broke the silence that reigned over the city. A few minutes of intense waiting. Another blow. We determined the position of the sound source - these were rare gusts of wind slamming a wooden door in the attic of a distant house. Movement was noticed near another building. Something white flashed around the corner. It appeared and disappeared again. Also the wind. Played with a piece of whitish cloth.

We left the headquarters and went to the fuel depot.

The area with three fuel tanks was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

Except those giant rusty barrels

Here, containers of a smaller volume were heaped in a heap,

And a curious thing was found on the back. Apparently a floating tank.

A look into the past: “This crap was lying on our fuel and lubricants, the boss called it a CIGAR. This bulk container with gasoline clung to the ship and sailed after it. It is still not so rusty in the photo, either in my album or in Morozov's. We're sitting on top of it." Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-mechanic.

Behind the barbed wire lay the bottom of a dry bay,

In the distance, the cut-off supports of the quay stuck out.

On the opposite shore, a bright star flickered the sun's glare. I took out sheets of satellite images. But judging by them, there were no objects there. Of course, during the preparation of the maps, I could miss the watchtower or the duty booth, and not make the appropriate marks. Just in case, I warned Max:

While we are walking here, look in the direction of the glare.
- Fine. He worries me too.

From the fuel facilities we proceeded to a diesel power plant, inside which a row of diesel generators froze. Once they supplied electricity to the entire island of Vozrozhdenie (with the exception of the laboratory complex - it had its own power plant), now their pistons and generators froze in the untimely expectation of a solarium.

A look into the past: “In 1980-82 there were five working diesels and they began to attach for two more. Diesel six cylinders, piston diameter: 820 mm, operating speed: 375 per minute, dual-circuit cooling: fresh water cooled the engine, and sea cooled fresh water. So the worst thing was to clean these coolers and change the oil ... ”Vladimir Fedorov, 1980-82, ETR, 1st platoon, diesel operator.

Posters on the rules of labor protection have been preserved in the locker room of the workers.

On the floor lay a formidable weapon of a bygone era - a slingshot. Made with care and skill. At least now cling to the rubber band and shoot!

We also visited the officers' club. But little has survived there: peeling drawings and plastic imitation of stucco. The roof over the assembly hall collapsed, and it was replaced by the vault of heaven.

A look into the past: “The club seemed so huge. Two floors. Between him and the school was a fountain, the outer walls of which were lined with broken tiles, and in the center of the fountain stood a yellow lyre, the perimeter of which was studded with electric bulbs. I have never seen them burning, and I have never seen water there, it seems, too .... "Olga a-k-a Ryzhy

We walked through the streets, courtyards and back streets of Aralsk-7.

A look into the past: "On the left is the 6th house (mine), in the middle - 1, on the right - 7" Irina Antakova
“When the sun set and the heat subsided, we went out into this courtyard and had a cultural rest.” Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.

A look into the past: "That's right - a hostel, and on the first floor on the left - a television center." Sergey Lupin, 1983-85, head of the financial service.
“Practically all lieutenants began their lives on Barkhan in it, especially the single ones.” Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.

Along the way, we met burnt and collapsed hangars, skeletons of all kinds of equipment and units, heaps of metal structures,

A look into the past: “... these are the remains of a PNU (pumping unit). I pumped such diesel fuel from ships from Severnaya Bay to the town for fuel and lubricants and a boiler room for two navigations. Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-mechanic.

And even the skeleton of the plane,

A look into the past: “... at the airfield there was a twin-engine, broken-down AN. They gave whoever needed what. I broke off the stainless steel pipe. Misha Senkin, a RMM turner, made the ring. Here it is on the finger of 45 years. Viktor Chikhirnikov, 1970-72, 1st company, 1st platoon, driver

Parting words and slogans

Household companions thrown into the street

And unpretentious yard infrastructure.

A look into the past: “Schoolyard. And ahead in the center is the post office, where my mother worked. Irina Antakova

Of course, I could not just walk past the archway with the words "Welcome". Having handed over the camera to Max, I stood under it, and my friend took a photo, which was later supposed to be included at the very beginning of the story about the abandoned city.

Hull, I think from the extreme apartments of that house, we can clearly see the territory of the laboratory complex, - Max said and waved towards the white brick house.

A look into the past: “This is the youngest house. The commanding staff of the regiment and the platform lived in it. Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.

We went to the last entrance and climbed to the third floor. The wide open doors of the apartments were inviting guests, and we proceeded to the one on the right. From the previous owners, decayed wallpaper and a corner of the kitchen, lined with multi-colored ceramic tiles, remained. From the kitchen you could go out to the balcony.

I went to the balcony and, without stepping on it, looked around through the open door.

A look into the past: “On the left are the remains of a clothing warehouse, behind it is one wall of the ETC engineering warehouse, then a brick refrigerator and a food warehouse. In the foreground is the ETC furniture warehouse, followed by a brick auto warehouse and a warehouse for grain and sugar. Removed from residential building number 4. Vladimir Zotov, 1978-80, ETR, ETC clerk, private.

The view from here was good, but the laboratory complex was viewed from far from the best angle.
- It's hard to discern something from here... Okay, let's figure it out on the spot.

We got out to the outskirts of the city

And they walked along the road, paved with chipped reinforced concrete slabs.

Ooo! How nice it is to walk on a normal, hard surface, - Max admired. – Shall we visit those buildings on the left?

I looked to where the huge cylinders of steel tanks of the desalination plant and the tall chimney of the boiler house stood, and answered:

No. I would like to take a look at the desalination plant, but we are running out of time anyway. We have not yet reached the "seventies".

Until the seventies? Explain what you're talking about.

Well, this is how I show off. Soryu, you know, local jargon. The key object in the entire laboratory complex is the building with the index "B-070". It's already visible from here. Wow, three-story building.

Yes I see. By the way, you wanted to check something. What exactly? Max asked.

When I collected data about Barkhan, I encountered a lack of specificity and tons of journalistic nonsense. The general historical background is more or less true. The first biological test site appeared on Vozrozhdeniye Island in 1936, but was closed in 1937. Apparently, the management and the project itself fell under the rink of repression. In 1942, the PNIL-52 proper, previously located in the Tver region, was relocated here. In general, different dates for the creation of the Barkhan are mentioned: 1942, 1948, 1954, 1973. Presumably, these dates mark some important stages in the development of the landfill. One way or another, Barkhan existed until the autumn of 1992. During this time, a bunch of strains of all kinds of infection were tested and developed here, from brucellosis to anthrax. Tests were carried out on animals. Mainly on rodents, monkeys, and also horses. Sometimes the tests were carried out outside special rooms, at a site to the south of here. There are suggestions that strains of viruses have been tested on humans. Someone writes about isolated experiments on prisoners sentenced to death penalty. Someone talks about mass experiments. There are stories about the testing of some not particularly lethal samples on the military and residents of Aralsk-7. The human testing hypothesis is the first thing that interests me.

And how do you plan to find the answer to this question?

Of course, you and I are not doctors or biologists. It is unlikely that we will be able to figure out the purpose of the equipment remaining there, and calculate the entire technological process from it. On the other hand, it is clear to a fool that for the maintenance of a group of experimental people infected with dangerous rubbish, special conditions content. Here you can’t get by with a room meter by meter, as they show in the movies. We need a whole floor with isolated chambers, examination rooms, a multi-stage disinfection system. Something like this…

Really. And what else?

They also talk about a large burial of anthrax. Allegedly, in 1988, two hundred and fifty containers with anthrax were brought to Vozrozhdeniye Island and buried in the ground. Where exactly is unknown. According to some data, a new burial ground was built next to the one located in the north-west of the laboratory complex, immediately behind the fence. According to others - near an open area in the south.

What's in that graveyard? Well, the one near the labs?

Animal corpses were buried there.

Max paused, and then asked:

Do you admit the possibility of our infection?

I thought about it. There is a possibility, of course. But if marauders are still living here, who have crawled all the way and across here, then nothing threatens us either.

What if we get infected?

Then the scheme is simple: if we catch some kind of disease here, then with all our desire we will not be able to get to people. The same anthrax will kill us very quickly. Therefore, we will not become the cause of the deadly virus epidemic.

Thank you. You reassured me.

Max issued this phrase with the same expression of cold seriousness, when it is impossible to understand whether he is joking or not.

Twenty minutes later we passed through the checkpoint PNIL-52

A look into the past: “This is my duty station. To the right is the entrance to the site. In the building on the right is the 1st checkpoint. On the left - the 2nd guard "Grigory Kamarovskikh, 1977-79, since the spring of 1978 the controller on the B-070 case

The burned headquarters was left without attention.

Only a small part of the body of disinfection of personal protective equipment remained, a container filled with burnt gas masks, and a bunch of filters.

On the way to building B-070, we looked into a nearby building.

It preserved the skeleton of an intricate system (presumably cooling or ventilation), woven from pipes, pipes, expansion tanks and valves. Pieces of this creation lay side by side on the street.

And to the left of the building on the ground rested a structure made of pipes a la a warm floor.

Looking back: “This is my idea. In summer, in order not to start the boiler house, hot water was heated during the day in pipes, and then poured into a container, and served in residential buildings and buildings of the site. Only in the town they lay between the boiler room and the hotel, and were painted with Kuzbasslak. Sergey Takeev, 1988-91 ETC regiment, the last head of the boiler room.

A barn covered with slate adjoined the brick walls of the building.

In addition to a heap of construction and industrial debris, there was a cage here.

In terms of its size, it even fit a person, but I think that it was still intended for monkeys. And the large dimensions ensured the convenience of its use. Although everything can be...

And now, we are a few steps away from the entrance to the "seventies".

This building, unremarkable from the outside, a quarter of a century ago was one of the most secret places in the Soviet Union, and perhaps in the world.

We went inside.

Corridors and rooms filled with dusty dusk.

A look into the past: “Building 70, (laboratory) ground floor. On the left is the door of the head of the laboratory, on the right the first door is a toilet, the second is a checkpoint, but the 3rd door is a switchboard, there was "my" office. To the right of the photographer is a flight of stairs to 2.3 and the basement floors. Sergei Telenkov, 1978-80, Private. Case B-070.

Liquid daylight barely filtered through the thick glass blocks, illuminating the gloomy rooms.

In some places the floor is covered with a carpet of fragments and surviving beakers and flasks.

Before the raid on Vozrozhdeniye Island, I read that the marauders seemed to have left PNIL-52 relatively intact, being afraid to touch abandoned equipment and other items. Apparently, by the time of our arrival, they managed to get comfortable and overcome their fears. The building with the B-070 index was emptied, except for those things that were of no value to lovers of easy money.

So in one room we came across a number of unusual boxes that looked like hyperbaric chambers or quick freezing chambers.

There was a washing machine next door.

A look into the past: “1st floor. Washing laboratory glassware. I remember the sewer was clogged. We decided to pierce it with air under pressure. They put the hose from the receiver, plugged all the drain holes with rags, which are on the floor (one is visible), there are several of them in this room, and stood up: for each plug, a fighter ... One gag was knocked out, and all the walls were covered in blood. Sergei Telenkov, 1978-80, Private. Case B-070.

Having finished with the basement, we went up to the second. There we were met by a massive hermetic door. To her left, a porthole with several layers of thick glass was mounted into the wall. There was a biohazard sign on the door.

Slipping through the door through the lock chamber, we ended up in the holy of holies PNIL-52. It was on the second floor that an isolated block was based, in which manipulations with biological weapons were carried out.

Branching exhaust ventilation pipes and work tables remained in some of the spacious halls.

As well as a wardrobe with two cells. It also had a ventilation trunk attached to it. In the doors that lock the cells, each has a tiny window.

One closet stood out in particular. A narrow L-shaped corridor with several lock chambers and washing rooms led to it. All openings were sealed with airtight doors. In the closet itself there was a laminar flow hood for two workplaces. These are the ones that appear in films about epidemics or about biochemical terrorists.

The third floor introduced us to the incubators.

A look into the past: “Yes, here they are, incubators! And eggs were hatched there, and Petri dishes were placed there with crops. Sergei Telenkov, 1978-80, Private. Case B-070.

A look into the past: “3rd floor. On the right, the first door is the office of the "group" workers on duty. The second door on the right is the utility room of "visiting servicemen", but there were filters at the very end of the corridor. Sergei Telenkov, 1978-80, private. Case B-070.

Opened from the windows good review territory PNIL-52.

The next point in line was the zone of abandoned bunkers. Under such a mysterious name, this object was listed on a well-known cartographic resource. The shepherd mentioned him, warning us about the possible danger coming from him. In fact, the "bunkers" were ordinary stand-alone cellars, hiding large bottles, boxes for them and filters.

And if the laboratory complex was surrounded by a solid high picket fence, then the platform with the cellars was protected by a wire fence on concrete pillars. Perhaps dangerous substances were stored here, but in last years the existence of the Barkhan test site, this site was more of an auxiliary character.

Gigantic shadows from our figures eloquently warned of the imminent sunset.

Hull, have we checked everything?
- Probably, yes. The main targets have been visited.
- How about going back?
- I completely agree. We don’t have time to get to the airfield, and we didn’t really want to.

We entered the city again at dusk.

A look into the past: “Departure from the town. We walked to these gates on foot, and then drove to the GAZ-66, to the site. But sometimes they ran after the car ... 3 km. Sergei Telenkov, 1978-80, Private. Case B-070.

Noticing the green hull in the saxaul thickets, I headed there and found a gutted infantry fighting vehicle.

A look into the past: “Once it was mine ... 1st company 1978-1980. When we received it, it had a sign "Antifreeze" on it. As it got colder, and they began to drain the water from the cars at night, we were warned - do not drain the antifreeze! Well, she stood with a proud sign - "ANTIFREEZE". And the first time they rushed when they decided to ride it to the airfield. There were four of us: Major Lebedev, Deputy Commander, with a soldier (I don't remember his name), Leshka Pleshakov, and myself. Halfway to the airfield, I heard water pouring under the hood. Lebedev shouts: "Stop!" We open it ... And there, from under the head, water whips like a fan! Outside minus, snow and windy. Well, what to do? The lid was closed, the soldier was sent to the unit for technical equipment, and the hatches themselves were battened down and we are waiting. Smoking hunting - do not pass! But when it's dark, it's dark. Finally, he saw that we were toiling without smoking, and he himself began to freeze too. “Smoke here,” he says. We lit a cigarette, let it go a little. And it's getting dark outside. Later came technical assistance with warm water. Filled and forward at full speed, until the water all flowed out. Lebedev has already sat down at the mechanic. We stopped several times - topped up the water so that the engine would not be screwed up. So we got there. Then they were already driven into a warm box. Here is a story about antifreeze ... "Sergei Denisenko, 1978-80, 1st company, 2nd platoon, deputy commander.
“It can be seen that she was unlucky: when she was being transported on a DPshka, they got into a storm. She got wet all over." Victor Polonchuk, 1978-80, 7th company, driver-mechanic.

Marauders cleaned up the engine and troop compartments and tore off the turret.
- Oh, barbarians! There is no price for such equipment in the economy!

They sighed ruefully and returned to the main street of the city.
It began to get noticeably colder, and we sped up, not forgetting, however, about caution.

The city followed us with thoughtful glances from empty window sockets.

On the outskirts we made a short halt. Max began to warm himself with thermal underwear, and I left a modest treat for the Black Stalker in the form of two sweets on the cracked windowsill of the barracks.

Looking around the city for the last time, I mentally said goodbye to it. Of course, this can be called sentimental nonsense, but when you visit abandoned villages, towns and cities, you get the feeling that you are communicating with a living being, personifying the place where people used to live. After their departure, this creature falls into a lethargic sleep, and comes out of it for a short time in order to receive guests, albeit not invited. It tells about the past life, conducts tours through the deserted streets and houses, shows pictures of the past. When the hour of parting comes, it smiles sadly and distractedly, and then again plunges into hibernation ...

We decided to stomp along the dirt road as long as possible. This facilitated the process of orientation on the ground and made it possible to develop a decent speed, which means to warm up on the move.

An hour later, moonlight flooded the surrounding space, and it became almost as bright as day.
They tried to brighten up the long road with conversation. Exchanging impressions from what they saw, they moved on to discussing questions about the laboratory.

What do you think, Hull, were there experiments on people? - asked the partner.

I think no. Infected test subjects must be kept somewhere. We need examination rooms, bathrooms with an isolated water supply and sewerage system. An entire floor would have to be allocated for such a facility. We have not found anything of the kind. There were not even couches with straps for rigid fixation of patients and those same gynecological chairs that some sources mention.

They must have been taken by marauders.

May be. But why did they leave three-legged chairs, tables and other more practical furniture? Or is the demand in Uzbekistan for ordinary interior items lower than for gynecological chairs? It seems that they were not in PNIL-52 at all. Why test viruses on humans when you can get similar results on animals? Of course, I feel sorry for the animals. But more people are sorry. It is hard to believe that the team of scientists at Barkhan was staffed by followers of Josef Mengele. The same people worked there, just like you and me. Only more educated and with higher moral standards.

You're idealizing, - said Max. “They were developing weapons of mass destruction, not medicines.

Right. Weapon. But it is not the weapon that kills, but the person. The brainchild of academician Sakharov was also intended for mass murder, but in the end, due to its destructive power, it became a deterrent nuclear war. The same song with bacteriological weapons. It should have been developed, because the potential adversary was conducting research in the same direction. Moreover, in addition to the strains of viruses themselves, vaccines were developed.

What do you think about the anthrax burial?

Little like the truth. Judge for yourself, what is it worth finding these containers here and digging up? There is no security or surveillance. Whatever you want, then do it. Even from a satellite, local excavations are difficult to see.

The containers were brought here in 1988, when the Barkhan was still working and guarded, - the comrade objected.

Let it be. But then, when Barkhan was disbanded, the anthrax would have been taken out of here.

Why are you so sure of this?

Firstly, you have to be a complete dumbass to throw such a “toy”. Secondly, the containers would have already been reached by interested persons with terrorist inclinations. A metal detector or a ground penetrating radar, a trench tool, working hands, and containers with a virus have been obtained. And then the pink powder scatters all over the planet. As for the expeditions of Americans to the island to check the burials, their true goal lies on the surface - to survey the remains of laboratories to collect information about the research carried out there. Otherwise, if they found a burial ground with anthrax, they would have taken it from the island long ago. However, my hypotheses remain hypotheses and do not pretend to the status of truth… Oh! Comrade Max!

Congratulations on your successful double crossing of the Kazakh-Uzbek border!

Ahh, Max smiled. Are we full-fledged repeat offenders now?

What to do? Not we such, Life is such. And why didn't Uzbekistan give Barkhan to Kazakhstan?

Hull, why didn't we go through Uzbekistan?

Long time on the train. Wouldn't fit in two weeks. On a plane with our equipment is not an option to fly at all. In addition, Uzbek customs officers are not as loyal as Kazakh ones.

We returned to camp at 2:00 am. Having wandered a little in search of a cache with backpacks and water, we set up a tent and fell asleep.

For almost 45 years, on a godforsaken island in the middle of the Aral Sea, there was a Soviet center for testing biological weapons. A residential town with a school, shops, a post office, a canteen, scientific laboratories and, of course, a testing ground where large-scale tests of deadly biological agents were carried out, including anthrax, plague, tularemia, brucellosis, typhus. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the USSR, the military abandoned both the city and the training ground in the Aral sands. Onliner.by tells about the history and present of the top-secret Renaissance Island, which the environmental disaster in the Aral Sea has turned into a ghost peninsula.

Back in the late 1920s, the command of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was preoccupied with choosing a location for a scientific center for the development of biological weapons and a testing ground for it. The task of spreading the proletarian revolution to the whole world was still on the agenda, and shells with deadly strains inside could accelerate the construction of a state of workers and peasants on a planetary scale. For this good purpose, it was necessary to select a relatively large island with a distance of at least 5-10 kilometers from the coast. They even searched for a suitable candidate on Baikal, but in the end they decided to stop at three sites: the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea and the single islands of Gorodomlya on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdeniye in the Aral Sea.

The main pre-war center for the study of this important issue was the island of Gorodomlya, located in the Tver region, which was in relative proximity to the capital of the USSR. In 1936-1941, it was here that the 3rd test laboratory, transferred from the Suzdal monasteries and subordinate to the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army, was located, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons. However, the Great Patriotic War convincingly showed that such institutions should henceforth be created much further from the borders of the USSR with potential adversaries.

Renaissance Island was ideally suited for this task. This deserted piece of land in the Aral Sea, a drainless salt lake on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was discovered in 1848. The lifeless archipelago, where there was no fresh water, for some unimaginable reason was called the Tsar's Islands, and its constituent parts - the islands of Nikolai, Konstantin and Naslednik. It was Nikolai, optimistically (and perhaps ironically) renamed the island of the Renaissance, who after the war became a top-secret Soviet base-testing ground for testing deadly diseases put at the service of the motherland.

This island with an area of about 200 square kilometers at first glance met all the safety requirements: practically uninhabited surroundings, flat terrain, hot climate, unsuitable for the survival of pathogenic organisms.

In the summer of 1936, the first expedition of military biologists landed here, led by Professor Ivan Velikanov, the father of the Soviet bacteriological program. The island was taken away from the jurisdiction of the NKVD, the exiled kulaks were evicted from here, and the following year they tested some bioagents created on the basis of tularemia, plague and cholera. The work was complicated by the repressions that the leadership of the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army was subjected to (Velikanov, for example, was shot in 1938), and were suspended during the Great Patriotic War in order to be resumed again with even greater zeal after it ended.

In the northern part of the island, the military town of Kantubek was built, officially called Aralsk-7. In general, it was similar to hundreds of its other analogues that arose in the vastness of the Soviet Union: a dozen and a half residential buildings for officers and scientific personnel, a club, a canteen, a stadium, shops, barracks and a parade ground, and its own power plant. This is what Aralsk-7 looked like in a picture taken by an American spy satellite in the late 1960s.

Near the village, a unique airfield "Barkhan" was also built, the only one in the Soviet Union that had four runways, reminiscent of a wind rose in its location. A strong wind always blows on the island, sometimes changing its direction. Depending on the current weather, the planes landed on one or another runway.

In total, there were up to one and a half thousand soldiers and their families here. It was, in essence, an ordinary garrison life, the only features of which were the special secrecy of the object and the not very comfortable climate. The children went to school, their parents went to work, watched movies in the officers' house in the evenings, and on weekends they had picnics on the shores of the Aral Sea, which until the mid-1980s still really looked like the sea.

Kantubek in its heyday. With the nearest city on the "big land", Aral, sea communication was carried out. Barges also brought fresh water here, which was then stored in special huge tanks on the outskirts of the village.

A laboratory complex (PNIL-52 - 52nd field research laboratory) was built a few kilometers from the village, where, among other things, experimental animals were kept, which became the main victims of the tests conducted here. The scale of research is illustrated by the following fact. In the 1980s, a batch of 500 monkeys was purchased especially for them in Africa through the USSR Foreign Trade. All of them eventually became victims of a strain of the tularemia microbe, after which their corpses were burned, and the resulting ashes were buried on the island.

The southern part of the island was occupied by the test site itself. It was here that shells were blown up or pathogenic strains based on anthrax, plague, tularemia, Q fever, brucellosis, glanders, and other especially dangerous infections were sprayed from an aircraft, as well as a large number of artificially created biological agents.

The location of the test site in the south was determined by the nature of the prevailing winds on the island. The aerosol cloud formed as a result of the test, in fact, a weapon of mass destruction, was carried by the wind in the opposite direction from the military camp, after which anti-epidemic measures and decontamination of the territory were carried out without fail. The hot climate with regular 40-degree heat was an additional factor that ensured the safety of military biologists: most bacteria and viruses died from prolonged exposure to high temperatures. All the specialists who participated in the tests also underwent mandatory quarantine.

Simultaneously with the post-war intensification of military scientific work on the island of Vozrozhdeniye, the Soviet leadership laid an imperceptible at first beginning of an ecological catastrophe, which ultimately led to the colossal degradation of the Aral Sea. The Amudarya and Syrdarya were the main sources of food for the lake-sea. In total, these two major rivers Central Asia was supplied to the Aral about 60 cubic kilometers of water per year. In the 1960s, the waters of these rivers began to be drained by reclamation canals - it was decided to turn the surrounding deserts into a garden and grow cotton, which is so necessary for the national economy. The result was not long in coming: the cotton harvest, of course, grew, but the Aral Sea began to rapidly shallow.

In the early 1970s, the amount of river water reaching the sea was reduced by a third, after another decade, only 15 cubic kilometers per year began to flow into the Aral Sea, and in the mid-1980s this figure fell completely to 1 cubic kilometer. By 2001, the sea level dropped by 20 meters, the volume of water decreased by 3 times, the area of the water surface - by 2 times. The Aral was divided into two unrelated large lakes and many small ones. Subsequently, the process of shallowing continued.

With the shallowing of the sea, the area of Vozrozhdeniye Island began to increase just as rapidly - and in the 1990s it increased almost 10 times. The Tsar's Islands first merged into one island, and in the 2000s it merged with the "mainland" and turned, in fact, into a peninsula.

The collapse of the USSR finally "buried" the test site on Vozrozhdeniye Island. Weapons of mass destruction turned into an entity of little relevance in post-Soviet realities, and in November 1991 the Aralsk-7 military biological laboratory was closed. The population of the village was evacuated within a few weeks, the entire infrastructure (residential and laboratory), equipment were abandoned, Kantubek turned into a ghost town.

The place of the military was quickly taken by marauders, who in their own way assessed the wealth of the former top-secret scientific center left by the army and scientists. Everything that was of any value and at the same time could be dismantled and transported was taken from the island. Kantubek-Aralsk-7 has become an elusive dream for lovers of abandoned cities.

The streets of the town of Soviet military biologists, where a little more than two decades ago garrison life flowed measuredly.

Residential houses.

The kids will never go to this school again.

A reservoir for fresh water delivered from the "mainland".

Former store Voentorg.

One of the most famous images of the Vozrozhdeniye Island test site, taken by the American KH-9 HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite at the height of the Cold War.

23 years ago, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, by his decree, closed one of the most secret military facilities in the Soviet Union. It was located in an extremely remote and sparsely populated region, then still a huge country - on an island in the center of the Aral Sea, which is still called Renaissance Island.

Kazakh journalist and blogger Grigory Bedenko published unique materials from his archive, which may somehow explain the phenomenon of the Aralsk-7 facility.

The idea of creating a scientific center for the development of biological weapons in the USSR arose in the 1920s. The military already then began to think big and flirt with weapons of mass destruction. In 1915, in the area of the town of Ypres, the 4th German Army first used the spraying of chlorine from cylinders. Bacteriological weapons had a much older history - for example, in the ancient world, plague corpses were thrown over the walls of besieged cities to cause an epidemic among the defenders. And H.G. Wells described an attempt to change the world with the help of cholera in the story "The Stolen Bacillus" in 1894.

The scientific center needed a place that would be sufficiently remote and isolated from other settlements. On the one hand, these are the requirements of secrecy, on the other, security. An island would be ideal. Three "candidates" were selected: one of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, Gorodomlya Island on Lake Seliger and Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea. We stopped at Gorodoml. Here, in 1936-1941, the main Soviet center for the development of biological weapons was located - the 3rd test laboratory, subordinate to the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army. Previously, she occupied one of the Suzdal monasteries.

This is what the Aral Sea was like in the 60s of the 20th century. The red arrow points to Renaissance Island. Then its area was 260 square kilometers, the island was isolated from inhabited places by tens of kilometers of water surface and a very harsh desert desert. An interesting fact, the island was discovered by the outstanding Russian geographer Nikolai Butakov in 1848 and named it in honor of Emperor Nicholas I. The modern name of this place appeared a little later. The most secret Soviet training ground was located there.

And this is how the Aral Sea looks now. There is practically no water left, no islands either. The white line marks the state border of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Tests were also carried out on rabbits, sheep and horses. They were grown specifically for "laboratory needs" on the Kulandy Peninsula, located nearby.

“The laboratory building and the barracks adjacent to it are unusual and mysterious,” writes the own correspondent of the newspaper Trud. Tashkent” by Valery Biryukov in the article “Secrets of the Renaissance Island” (“Trud”, October 25, 2001). — Judging by the well-preserved inscriptions and tablets, women mostly lived in other barracks. Moreover, judging by the conditions of their detention, they were most likely prisoners. In the laboratory building itself, several rooms, similar to examination rooms, are equipped with gynecological chairs. The room next to them has only one hermetically sealed door. From the ceiling, about a meter short of the floor, a stainless steel pipe descends. In another room, several dozen beautifully executed male and female mannequins with bendable arms and legs are stored. A rich library on biology and a huge warehouse of all kinds of flasks and special utensils have been preserved. The iron doors to most of the basements are welded on and have not been opened to this day. Safes of various sizes are scattered everywhere.

And now the most interesting. The Aralsk-7 polygon, or the village of Kantubek, as it was called on all maps, is located here (shown by an arrow).

The island was connected with the "mainland" by sea and air traffic. Fresh water, food and equipment were brought here by barges. The runway, equipped back in 1949, later turned into the Barkhan airfield. This building, unique for the USSR, had four runways. The choice of one or another lane was determined depending on what kind of wind was blowing. Renaissance Island was distinguished by strong winds.

For some time, Aralsk-7 was empty. Then the marauders were pulled into it.

The polygon consisted of three main zones: 1 - airfield; 2 - residential area; and located at a considerable distance from these objects, absolutely closed - laboratory zone 3. A few kilometers from the landfill there was a pier where ships and barges came with cargoes necessary for the life of the landfill.

This image shows that the concrete slabs from all four runways of the airfield have been removed.

Administrative and residential area of the landfill. Almost half of all buildings are where they always were. Some buildings are half destroyed, others are completely destroyed.

1 - soldiers' barracks and headquarters of the training ground. 2 - residential area, high-rise buildings for officers and their families.

Partially destroyed laboratory area. It was located two kilometers from the administrative office, and was completely isolated by several rows of barbed wire.

Three-story building of the main laboratory. It was here that the main and most dangerous experiments related to biological weapons were carried out.

So, the path to the training ground begins from the ex-peninsula of Kulandy, where there is a large village and a rather large horse farm for these God-forgotten places. Camels are also bred here

It is known that the main types of experiments with WMD were carried out on horses. And these horses were supplied to the landfill by the Kulandy horse farm.

And this is Renaissance Island itself - a pier for ships and barges that delivered all kinds of cargo and fresh water here.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the landfill became the "property" of two new independent states: the pier on the island and the Chaika support base, located not far from Aralsk (now there is nothing left of it - the locals smashed it brick by brick), went to Kazakhstan. The airfield, the administrative and laboratory zone of the test site became part of the territory of Uzbekistan.

By the way, we got there by agreeing with the "foreman" of local stalkers. There was only one condition - not to remove them. Two teams dismantled the facilities of the landfill - one worked on the island, the second took out building materials, pipes, diesel fuel and other useful things towards Aralsk. Local fishermen on their old motor boats transported all this through the strait. In 2001, it took about three hours to sail along it. The island joined the mainland sometime in 2009. The stalkers had at least two highly passable trucks - a three-bridge Ural to Kulandy and an old GAZ-66 abandoned by the military on the island. Its stalkers restored it to operational condition by bringing spare parts to the island.

The range was covered by military boats.

Project T-368 patrol boat with serial number 79 was built in 1973. This is one of the modifications of the Soviet torpedo boats. Enterprise G-4306 - Sosnovsky shipyard. It is located in the city of Sosnovka, Kirov Region, Russian Federation. The plant stands on the banks of the Vyatka River, a tributary of the Volga. Apparently, the boat got to the Aral Sea by rail from one of the Caspian ports.

And on these self-propelled barges, fresh water was delivered to Vozrozhdeniye Island.

The administrative area of the landfill.

A mysterious room with a very complex air intake and ventilation system. It can be assumed that there were powerful diesel generators. Apparently, they provided energy for the landfill.

Alley with street lighting in the administrative area.

The remains of a powerful compressor.

Building built in 1963.

Polygon communication node.

There was a military hospital and a polyclinic on the Renaissance Island.

Arch at the entrance to the living area of the landfill.

Two-storey kindergarten building. Military microbiologists lived on Renaissance Island with their wives and children.

The living area of the landfill is solid houses made of silicate bricks. They are the best preserved.

View of the administrative zone from the roof of a residential building. You can see the soldiers' barracks and the headquarters building.

The administrative zone also consisted of the same type of one-story panel houses.

Obviously, the peak of research on biological weapons came in the late 70s and early 80s. It was then that the number of military specialists and members of their families permanently residing on Vozrozhdeniye Island reached, according to various sources, 1,500 people. For these people, the most comfortable environment for those times and in those conditions was created. They were in a very ambiguous position. First, in 1972, the Soviet Union joined the so-called Nixon Pact. This international document prohibited the research, development and testing of all types of WMD based on biological weapons. However, research was secretly carried out both in the USA and in the USSR.

In addition to the personal belongings of the military, fuel depots, vehicles and much more were actually abandoned at the training ground. True, as the stalkers say, the food stocks turned out to be unusable, as they were covered with bleach and filled with lysol. Before leaving the training ground, the military conducted a large-scale disinfection of all facilities.

And this is the dungeons of the main laboratory complex. There were powerful autoclaves for heat treatment of equipment.

Everything was washed and washed in ordinary cast-iron bathtubs, however, except for two taps with cold and hot water, a third one was connected to them - with a disinfectant.

The "explosive chambers" are located on the second floor of the complex in a fully isolated room with sealed doors.

And this room is a "stone bag" - three sanitary checkpoints lead to a room without windows.

Here is a camera, type 5 K-NZh, number 254, released in 1974. Such devices are used to work with radioactive materials. Aralsk-7 specialists apparently adapted it for biological experiments.

Materials for experiments were fed into the chamber through this shutter.

Biohazard sign on the sealed door to the second floor.

In these cabinets, apparently, the packaging of biological agents was carried out. It could be, for example, a vaccine against a particularly dangerous infection.

And this is perhaps the most interesting image! On the door to another "stone bag" is written the following: "Danger! T - 37, T +27. Specialists say that a temperature of minus 37 degrees Celsius is optimal for storing bubonic plague strains, and plus 27 for anthrax or anthrax spores. This is, to some extent, an explanation of what exactly they worked with at the training ground. The graffiti in the upper left corner of the door is already a new "cultural layer". The stalkers left him.

The officer Mironin A.V. was responsible for the male sanitary checkpoint.

And for the dangerous furnace No. 6 V. P. Dushaev. What was burned in this furnace, one can only guess.

The room for experiments - a thick porthole, like at a nuclear power plant, a centrifuge, a bathtub, and a steel box with a powerful lock of some incomprehensible purpose. Everything is painted in an unpleasant protective color.

This is what the main laboratory complex looks like from the inside…

... and this is how it is outside ...

What else do we know about this mysterious place?

However, there is something wrong with this whole story. And the events of the last decade confirm this.

2003 year. The SARS epidemic is literally decimating people in China. In different countries of the world, several thousand people die from this mysterious disease, for which there is no vaccine or medicine. Scientists (at the official level) puzzled over why a harmless coronavirus that does not affect humans has become so aggressive towards this biological species. On the unofficial one, it was about biological weapons: the coronavirus went through the process of genetic modification. A piece of DNA was built into it, a very dangerous disease for adults - measles. And interestingly, the children did not get sick with SARS. As a result, the virus disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. And, without any consequences. And now let's remember what the world's largest event took place in 2003 - the US invasion of Iraq to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. And throughout the world, thousands of anti-war actions took place on the streets of cities.

Just a coincidence?

2007 year. Another epidemic of a viral disease from which it is impossible to protect yourself is bird flu. The most aggressive strain was H5N1. And here, by a miraculous coincidence, the only effective means of fighting the infection is found in the world's only pharmaceutical company, the Swiss F.Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd - a drug called Oseltamivir with the trademark Tamiflu. Her income in a matter of months grows to astronomical amounts.

Aralsk 7 closed ghost town. Biochemical test site in the Aral Sea: Vozrozhdeniye Island

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