XPQ9+Q3 Kronstadt District, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Louis Barthélemy Carbonnier (also known as Lev Lvovich Carbonnier) developed a project in the 1820s for two sea forts to strengthen the defense of the southern fairway. The forts were designed in the shape of the upper part of a horizontally lying torus, so that at any point the fortress wall would have a surface of double curvature, which was supposed to cause round cannonballs to ricochet. On the walls facing the inner side of the fort, loopholes were planned to fight against possible enemy landing attempts. In the basement part of the walls, rooms were intended for the placement of rocket launchers. However, this original project was not implemented, although the walls right at the waterline of the constructed structure received a concave shape, which significantly protected them from the surf wave. Subsequently, all newly built forts were designed with consideration for the placement of rocket installations.
After Carbonnier's death, in 1836, a special committee headed by Engineer Lieutenant General of the Corps of Communications Jean-Antoine-Maurice Destrem reviewed the plan for the new fortress. Construction began in 1838 after the new project was approved by Emperor Nicholas I under the leadership of Engineer Colonel Mikhail von der Weide. To strengthen the ground under the entire fort, 5,335 twelve-meter piles were driven in, and the space between them was filled with concrete based on hydraulic lime. Granite blocks were laid on the concrete. In the summer of 1842, the laying of walls from specially selected bricks began. Then the fort was clad in granite all around the perimeter. The ceremonial transfer of the fort from the construction department took place on July 27, 1845, and the fort was named after Nicholas I’s brother — Emperor Alexander I.
This was a typical casemated sea fort of that time. It resembles the well-known Fort Bayard on the west coast of France, whose construction was completed several years after Alexander I. The fort was an oval building measuring 90 by 60 meters, with three floors and a courtyard in the center. On the Kronstadt side, the builders erected a pier and a service building for the staff and personnel. Like all defensive structures of that time, Fort Alexander I was picturesquely decorated: in the inner courtyard there was a half-tower with spiral cast-iron staircases, gates adorned with lion heads, anchors, and flags. There were also rooms for cannonball heating furnaces. The total area was over 5,000 square meters. The fortress had enough space to hold a garrison of up to 1,000 people. The fort was armed with 103 guns, including the latest three-pood bomb cannons, which at that time were the most powerful fortress artillery. The purpose of the fort was to control the Southern fairway with a system of crossfire together with the forts Peter I, Risbank (Pavel I), and Kronschlot. The fort never took part in combat operations, but it played a certain role in the Crimean War when it defended the naval base in Kronstadt from attempts by the Royal Navy and French fleets to advance toward the capital of Russia. In 1854, during an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Kronstadt fortress, several British steamships were damaged as a result of underwater explosions of Russian naval mines developed by Jacobi.
Fort Alexander I was put on full combat alert three times: in the summer of 1855, when the Anglo-French fleet tried to conduct minesweeping raids using small steamers; in 1863, when there was a possibility of confrontation with the British Empire; and during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. In 1896, it was removed from the list of defensive structures.
The current pandemic in the world, as is known, is far from the first. A similar situation occurred at the end of the 19th century, only then the threat to peace was the plague. Constant outbreaks occurred both in southeastern Russia and elsewhere, and the government at the time decided to establish production of an advanced plague vaccine. The laboratory was located in a secluded fort in the Gulf of Finland, practically next to the then capital of the Russian Empire — Saint Petersburg. Let us recall the history of the "Plague Fort," which resonates with the present.
“The plague was and remains a particularly dangerous human infection and one of the most epidemiologically significant natural-focal diseases. Only from 2010 to 2015, 3,248 cases of plague were registered, including 584 fatal cases,” says Doctor of Biological Sciences, chief historian of the Institute of Experimental Medicine Yuri Mazing. The end of the 19th century was a very epidemiologically complex situation worldwide; humanity faced the threat of the beginning of a plague pandemic, which most likely came from India. This was a time when communications between different parts of the world had already appeared — steamships and railways. So the plague quickly reached Europe. Russia traditionally had its own disease foci — for example, the Volga region and territories bordering China. This was indeed a serious threat. Before more advanced vaccines and, most importantly, antibiotics were used, this disease was much more serious than it is now. And outbreaks occurred regularly. Constant plague outbreaks in southeastern Russia forced the government to create in 1897 a special body responsible for all anti-plague measures. By imperial decree, the "Special Commission for the Prevention of the Introduction of the Plague Infection and Combating It in Case of Its Appearance in Russia," or KOMOCHUM, was established. The commission was headed by a member of the State Council and senator Prince Alexander Oldenburgsky, a widely educated man who corresponded personally with Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. One of his main achievements was the creation in 1890 of the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine (IIEM).
It was the IIEM that was entrusted with the creation of the plague serum and vaccine. Initially, production was located on the grounds of the IIEM estate on Lopukhinskaya Street in Petersburg. Production of the anti-plague serum began in early 1897, and from 1898 the first anti-plague vaccine was produced.
At the end of the 19th century, the plague pathogen was discovered, and in 1896 Vladimir Khavkin, a graduate of Novorossiysk University in Odessa and an employee of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, during a plague epidemic in India, produced his anti-plague vaccine, which was called "Khavkin's lymph." This innovation was then at the forefront of science. It was the first effective remedy intended directly to combat the plague.”
In simple terms, Khavkin's lymph is a bacillus grown in a test tube on an animal "broth," heated under special conditions to a temperature of 65 degrees Celsius. This is called pasteurization: slow heating to a temperature below boiling. The bacillus itself dies (this occurs at 54 degrees, as was then believed), but the "killed" bacillus stimulates the production of antibodies. Thus, a vaccine was created that cannot cause a fatal disease but creates the person's own immunity. The serum is still used in case of plague outbreaks. It is extracted from the blood of recovered patients, which already contains ready antibodies, and injected into a patient in the acute stage of the disease.
Soon after the start of vaccine production at the IIEM, located in Prince Oldenburgsky’s estate, it became clear that production had to be moved. The increased demand for anti-plague drugs required expansion of their production. But setting up mass production of epidemiologically dangerous products in the center of the capital of the Russian Empire was risky. Oldenburgsky realized that special conditions were necessary for such work and began searching for an isolated facility outside the city limits. He managed to obtain from the Ministry of War the decommissioned Fort "Emperor Alexander I," located in the waters of the Gulf of Finland 2.5 km from Kronstadt.
However, the IIEM received the fort in the form of bare brick and granite walls, which were clearly unsuitable for laboratories. During reconstruction, which cost 170,000 rubles, the fort was equipped with plumbing, electric lighting, steam heating, a cremation furnace, and sewage. After organizing the laboratory there, the fort became known as the "Plague Fort." All rooms were divided into two parts: infectious and non-infectious, connected through specially equipped boxes.
On the second floor of the fort were rooms for doctors, staff, and two formal rooms for receiving guests and holding conferences. In addition, there was a machine room, laundry, and bathhouse. There were about 30 employees in total — doctors, paramedics, locksmiths, a telegraph operator, stable workers, laundry workers, and a cook.
Communication with the outside world was maintained by a special vessel, appropriately named "Microbe." Cargo was left at the fort’s special pier. Security was strictly monitored, so fort employees could not leave it. The laboratory was well equipped and continuously supplied with animals; it had a library, and leisure was brightened by billiards. Employees lived in separate rooms. But the isolation and monotonous routine made staying at the fort exhausting. It was especially hard for the junior staff, among whom tuberculosis began to appear, including a rapidly progressing form with a fatal outcome.
Here is what newspapers wrote about the "Plague Fort": “A gray, stern fortress made of granite slabs, against which the waves crash. A small platform — a pier. We were very warmly welcomed by the head of the Plague Fort — the laboratory — V. Vyzhnikevich. He was a handsome, elegant tall brunette about 35–40 years old. Led by Vyzhnikevich, we toured all the laboratory premises… It was terribly, to be honest, to look at rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs infected with plague. It felt like walking near death. We also inspected all the animal quarters, stables, and the cremation furnace for burning animal corpses. At the end of the tour, Vyzhnikevich drew our attention to a magnificent metal coffin and explained that it was for the case of someone dying of plague.” He himself became the first doctor victim of plague in the laboratory.
The head of the Special Anti-Plague Laboratory of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Vladislav Ivanovich Turchinovich-Vyzhnikevich, fell ill on January 3, 1904, with an acute febrile illness accompanied by severe chills and vomiting. His temperature rose to 40°C by the evening and remained at that level with slight fluctuations for the next day. Doctors Shreiber, Padlevsky, Gryglevich, and Shurupov were present with the patient; they laid him in bed and on the evening of January 4 sent a telegram to Petersburg calling Dr. Zabolotny. Immediately after the true nature of the disease was discovered, the director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Vinogradsky, ordered emergency measures. Temporary management of the special laboratory, care for the sick, and general supervision of the sanitary condition of the staff were entrusted to Zabolotny. By order of Alexander Petrovich Oldenburgsky, Major General Prince Orbeliani was appointed commandant of the fort; he arrived on the evening of January 6 and remained until January 22, the day the quarantine was lifted and the fort declared plague-free. From interviews with staff, Zabolotny learned that from December 28 to 31 the patient was conducting experiments infecting animals via the lungs with aerosolized cultures and participated in preparing plague toxin by grinding plague microbe bodies frozen with liquid air. Both experiments could have caused Vyzhnikevich’s infection. The autopsy confirmed the diagnosis. On the day of Vyzhnikevich’s death, two employees — paramedic Poplavsky, who cared for the patient, and clerk Mirvis — showed elevated temperature and malaise. Further course showed Poplavsky’s illness was plague. Thanks to early, vigorous serum treatment, he recovered. He had acute lung symptoms. Attempts to isolate plague bacillus from sputum by cultures and animal inoculations failed. However, a blood agglutination test was sharply positive in Poplavsky. The second case (Mirvis) was unrelated to plague and was an intestinal disease.
Three years later, Dr. Shreiber became a plague victim at the fort. According to Berestnev, his infection occurred under the following circumstances. On February 12, 1907, Shreiber was collecting emulsions of plague microbes from agar cultures to accurately determine the bacterial mass obtainable from one tube with slant agar. For this purpose, Pasteur pipettes with two cotton plugs were used in the lab when working with plague pathogens. However, due to the large number of experiments, Shreiber, having used all such pipettes at hand, instead of requesting new ones, continued working with ordinary pipettes and accidentally soaked the cotton with a large amount of plague bacilli emulsion; microbes likely entered his mouth. Shreiber rinsed his oral cavity with mercuric chloride but told no one and did not inject serum. That same day he went to Kronstadt and got severely chilled. On the evening of February 14, Shreiber felt general malaise, chills, leg aches, slight runny nose, ate nothing for dinner, and at 9 p.m. had a temperature of 39.4°C, but still did not reveal the pipette incident, so his malaise was attributed to a cold. He received news of the sputum test result calmly but remarked, “Now you’ll send me upstairs, then take me downstairs to the furnace.” Just before falling ill, Shreiber was preparing a chapter on plague serotherapy for his dissertation and was well aware of the outcomes of plague pneumonias. Therefore, he strongly protested against serum injection, recognizing its uselessness in this form of plague. Dr. Shreiber died on February 17.
During Shreiber’s autopsy, Berestnev was assisted by Dr. Padlevsky, who after the autopsy felt burning near the nail of the right index finger, where he noticed a small hangnail but kept silent. The next day by evening, Padlevsky felt aching in his right arm and right side of the body, which he attributed to heavy muscle work clearing snow in the morning. The second patient, Dr. Padlevsky, was placed in the same room where Shreiber had been, but it was thoroughly disinfected beforehand.
Although he posed no danger to those around him, a 10-day quarantine was only started after his temperature dropped, buboes completely resolved, and he was considered fully recovered. On March 15, the quarantine ended, and the fort was declared plague-free. During quarantine, thorough disinfection of the fort and burning of low-value items that had contact with patients were carried out; other items were disinfected with steam or formalin. Throughout isolation and for two weeks after, all healthy inhabitants of the fort had their temperature measured twice daily, morning and evening. The ashes of one of these two doctors are kept in the Museum of the Institute of Experimental Medicine.”
Horses played an important role, their blood processed with plague toxin provided a life-saving remedy against plague. Up to 16 horses were kept in the stables, and anti-plague serum was obtained from some of them for up to three years. Horses were chosen because they could survive plague. Also, horses were common and relatively inexpensive to maintain at that time. Experiments with reindeer were also conducted at the "Plague Fort." The anti-plague laboratory was then the only place in Russia producing both Khavkin’s lymph and anti-plague serum. Khavkin’s lymph had a limited shelf life, about a year, so to supply regions where regular vaccination was needed, it had to be produced in very large quantities. Moreover, the laboratory was also a commercial entity, and since the lymph and serum produced there were of very high quality and cheaper than those produced in Europe, the fort’s products were in demand both domestically and internationally.
The anti-plague laboratory at the fort operated until January 1, 1918. With the start of World War I, scientific research almost ceased, and most scientists were drafted into the army. After the events of 1917, Oldenburgsky left his position as trustee of the IIEM. At the same time, the acute need for serum preparations in the country remained. The last head of the "Plague Fort" was Alexey Berdnikov, who later moved to Saratov University, where he was elected head of the epidemiology department.
On his initiative, the Microbiological (Anti-Plague) Institute "Microbe" was created in Saratov, which exists to this day. It is now part of Rospotrebnadzor and is the largest research institution for sanitary and epidemiological protection of the territory of Russia from the import and spread of especially dangerous infectious diseases.
Since 1923, the fort was again under military control, which created a warehouse for mine and minesweeping equipment there. By 1983, the fortress was abandoned. Around that time, during the filming of the movie "Powder," the fort burned down due to a fire required by the plot. In the 1990s, Kronstadt authorities repeatedly rented out its territory for rave discos. In 2004–2005, TV series "Favorsky" and "Sea Devils" were filmed on the fort’s territory.
In 2020, a restoration project was developed for the fort, including the arrangement of a hotel and a microbiology history museum. In early 2021, restoration and reconstruction work began with the involvement of the Ministry of Defense as part of the "Island of Forts" project.
Sources:
T. V. Andryushkevich, T. I. Grekova: Plague Fort
M. Supotnitsky: Essays on the History of the Plague: In 2 vols. Vol. II: Plague of the Bacteriological Period. Laboratory Plague at Fort "Alexander I" (1904–1907)
