Fort "Alexander 1" ("Plague"): description, history, how to get

More than 10 years ago, on the April day of 2004, residents of St. Petersburg were shocked by the report of the find. One of the Kronstadt forts, namely the fort "Alexander 1", for a long time kept its terrible secret in the form of a sealed glass ampoule. In an ancient vessel with an engraved Latin letter "T", a scorpion and a royal coat of arms, a strange liquid splashed.

Find

A few days later the digger who found this ampoule tried to sell it, putting it up for auction under the name "plague in a test tube". And, naturally, they were very quickly interested in the competent authorities. The ampoule was seized.

But how is the sea fort and the ampoule with terrible contents connected?

About the plague

The largest and first ever plague epidemic was in the 6th century AD. In Europe, under the reign of Emperor Justinian I. By the middle of the 14th century the plague again manifested itself, moving along caravan and sea routes from Asia to Europe, on the way erasing cities from the face of the earth. She also reached Russia. Then about 75 million people died of "black death".

The third largest epidemic was in the late 19th century. In Russia they knew about the advancing adversity and tried to prepare for it.

Production of the first anti-plague preparations was decided to be carried out on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, but later, fearing that the deadly virus could break free, the research was moved further away to Fort Alexander 1. Even now it is difficult to get there: in the summer on water, and in winter - on the ice of the frozen Gulf of Finland.

Where is the fort "Alexander 1"

This is very interesting. At the southwestern shore of the island of Kotlin, that in the Gulf of Finland, 5 km from Kronstadt is an abandoned fort "Alexander 1". Almost 200 years ago, the Navy decided to strengthen the southern group of forts Kronstadt. In 1838, a defensive fort began under the leadership of Colonel-General Fan der Weid. In its form, the structure is similar to a bean with dimensions of 90 × 60 meters. 150 guns, located on 3 tiers of the fort, provided defense for 360. And inside you could place a half-thousand garrison.

"Alexander 1" is a fort in Kronstadt, Was built more than 10 years. In its foundation were clogged larch 12-meter piles, which required more than 5000. The space between them was covered with sand and stones. The external brick walls, faced with granite, had a thickness of 3 meters. The granite blocks were woven and adjusted in place, in the forte itself. More than 1.5 million rubles were allocated from the state treasury for this construction.

In 1842, August 14, Emperor Nicholas I made a visit to the fort "Alexander 1".

Description of the fort

In 1845, on July 27, there was a solemn opening and lighting of the fort, named "Alexander I". Several forts - "Paul I", "Peter I", "Kronslot", the battery "Constantine", and together with them "Alexander I" - constituted an insurmountable obstacle to the enemy fleet and defended the fairway with artillery fire.

The forte was equipped with powerful 11-inch guns, and all approaches to it were mined. But here's the paradox: for his nearly 200-year-old "life" from the fort did not fire once.

In 1860, with the advent of weapons of new power, 3-meter walls could no longer serve as a reliable defense. Therefore, in 1896, a military decree was signed by the Minister of War, excluding the Forts "Perth I", "Kronslot" and "Alexander I" from the defense structure. From that moment a new secret page was opened in the life of the fort, with which a deadly ampoule was connected.

The emergence of a laboratory

To prevent and control the plague, in January 1897, by decree of Nicholas II, a special commission was created, headed by Finance Minister Witte and Prince Oldenburg. It was the prince who financed the laboratory, he also found an isolated and remote place - the fort "Alexander 1". In the same year, permission was obtained from the commandant of the Kronstadt fortress and the Minister of War. After that, the fort was transferred to the Institute of Experimental Medicine. This was a precedent: for the first time a philanthropist has been allocated funds for scientific research, from the molecular to the population level. There was no analogue to such an institution anywhere: neither in Russia, nor in the world.

This was the first and only anti-plague laboratory in Russia: then the Kronstadt residents feared even the winds that blew from there, and the laboratory itself was nicknamed "The Plague Plague".

In the Middle Ages, various drugs were used to treat plague: they were wiped off with vinegar, garlic. Exotic medicines were used: the heart of a toad, the skin of a snake and the horn of a unicorn. An excellent remedy was the scent of a goat. Doctors at that time wore strange leather masks to protect themselves from the disease. It was discovered that the one who had once suffered the disease, the second time it was not sick. Such people took care of the sick and cleaned the dead bodies of the dead.

It was at this time around the world that the discoveries of infectious agents of various infectious diseases began to occur: Louis Pasteur in France began to develop a vaccine against rabies and anthrax; Robert Koch in Germany put his dangerous experiments with a tubercle bacillus; Ilya Mechnikov worked on the theory of immunity. And, finally, in 1894 the French and Japanese bacteriologists Jersen A. and Sibasaburo K. discovered a plague wand.

Four years later, the fort "Plague" got a laboratory. Here were brought doctors with families, service personnel. Unique equipment was delivered and assembled. Only a limited circle of people could enter the fort, and the connection between Kronstadt and the laboratory was maintained with the help of a small steamer, the "Microbe." It was an autonomous unique center, which had everything necessary for a full life.

In a special laboratory, doctors were busy not only producing an antiplague vaccine: specimens of deadly diseases were regularly delivered from different epidemic foci. Doctors every day engaged in fights with microscopic killers to improve and improve new drugs. Very soon there were vaccines against typhus, tetanus and cholera. But the most dangerous was still the plague.

Vivarium and vaccine

In the forte was located a vivarium, in which were the experimental animals: guinea pigs, monkeys, rabbits and rats. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, a camel and reindeer were brought to the fort. But the main animal that produced the vaccine was a horse. On the second tier there were stalls in which 16 horses were placed. Many of them developed a vaccine against the plague for several years.

In order to receive the vaccine, weakened, but living microbes were introduced into the blood of the animal. The body began to resist their actions and developed immunity. It was from such a blood that the vaccine was made to inject the sick people in the future. The risk of doctors and scientists working at the fort was justified: drugs developed by them, stopped many epidemics. In 1908 cholera was stopped in St. Petersburg, in 1910 - plague in the Volga region, in the Far East, Odessa and Transcaucasia, in 1919 - typhus in Petrograd.

Fee for the vaccine

In 1904, on January 7, Petersburg was shocked by the death of a young head of a special laboratory, Dr. VI Turchinovich-Vyzhnyevich, who died of bubonic plague. Foreseeing a fatal outcome, Vladislav Ivanovich bequeathed himself to cremation. His last will was fulfilled.

After 3 years, another doctor died, Maniul Schreiber, also from the plague. The sick doctor who opened the body of Schreiber, colleagues managed to defend themselves against the "black death". Until now, no one knows exactly how many doctors gave their lives for getting a vaccine, and where their ashes rest.

In the crematorium, built in the fort for burning corpses of diseased animals, people were cremated.

What's in the ampoule

In the Institute of Experimental Medicine there is an urn in the ashes of VI Turchinovich-Vyzhnyevich, transferred there from the fort in 1920, when a special laboratory was closed.

The ampoule, found in 2004, is considered to be the youngest exhibit in the museum of the institute. Perhaps, inside it is an antiplague vaccine, but it is impossible to say with certainty. What does the Latin letter "T" mean and the scorpion depicted on the glass? There is no data about this, even in the archives of the institute.

To determine what is poured in the ampoule, it must be opened and investigated. It's quite expensive, and there's no one willing to do it. If the ampoule is opened, it will lose its historical value, so it was sent to the regiment for the museum. Next to it is located a similar bottle, found 15 years earlier, also with an unidentified fluid.

Closure of the fort

In 1918, the fort was disbanded, the equipment was disassembled and sent to Saratov, to the established institute "Microbe".

In the 1920s, there was no trace left of the laboratory on the Plague. The fort was poured with kerosene and set on fire to get rid of the infection.

During the Second World War, the fort again rose to serve the Fatherland. Here they made "sugar pots," a small but important part of a naval mine.

During the reign of Khrushchev, looters in the forte cut and carried out all the metal, and it was then that he acquired his present appearance. From the complete looting it saved a terrible reputation.

Fort Alexander 1 - how to get there?

Each summer at the fort they hold the "Rave Party" - detached discos. Large columns are installed in the courtyard, lighting effects are adjusted. Guests get to the fort by water, by boat.