They tried to use biological weapons back in ancient Rome, when, during the siege of cities, the corpses of those who died from the plague were thrown behind the fortress walls in order to cause an epidemic among the defenders. They did the same in medieval Europe. In the mid-1920s, for the first time in the world, a group of Soviet bacteriologists began creating biological weapons. In the late summer of 1942, it was used for the first time at Stalingrad. The second attempt was in 1943 in Crimea. However, Stalin never decided to use it on a large scale. But during the Cold War, the warring parties were not only ready to use it, but also constantly improved it. For the first time, the story of the world's most powerful secret Soviet military-biological research and production archipelago, which included about 40 institutions - institutes and factories, will be told.< /p>