- cross-posted to:
- til@lemmy.world
- videos@lemmy.world
- lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- til@lemmy.world
- videos@lemmy.world
- lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
Why YSK: This incident revealed the existence of Aralsk-7, a secret Soviet bioweapons facility located on what became known as Plague Island. There, Soviet scientists developed and tested weaponized pathogens like smallpox, plague, and anthrax—a direct violation of international treaties.
The 1971 outbreak, caused by exposure to an aerosolized smallpox release, was quietly contained and covered up. It only came to light decades later through declassified intelligence and testimony from Soviet defector Ken Alibek.
It’s important to know because it highlights how close the world came to an accidental pandemic—and how dangerous hidden bioweapons programs can be, even today.
You must log in or register to comment.
There’s a good book on the history of chemical and biological weapons since WW1 called “A Higher Form of Killing”[1]. The sections on Anthrax are particularly scary because the fallout from widespread Anthrax bombing is harder to clean up than nuclear weapons - while nuclear fallout decays at a predictable rate and the immediate radiation danger decays rather quickly, Anthrax spores are much more resilient to the environment. They can remain dormant in the soil and resist heat and cold. You can’t just wait for them to go away; you need to deliberately clean them up.
The British actually started to lean on Anthrax as their “Plan B” in case of a German invasion during WW2. If German troops made landfall in Britain, Churchill’s plan was to essentially carpet bomb Germany with 500,000 Anthrax cluster bombs he ordered from the United States (though the US never produced that many).
This would, in effect, be an intentional genocide of all of Germany. The country, most likely, would have become uninhabitable even to this day.
They tested their bombs on Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland, and it took them 50 years to clean the place up and declare it decontaminated.[2]
[1] https://jeremypaxman.co.uk/book/a-higher-form-of-killing
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_Island#Biological_warfare_testing
That’s a chilling but fascinating piece of history — a grim reminder that biological weapons can be even more devastating than nukes, especially long-term. The fact that Anthrax was seriously considered for mass deployment and rendered Gruinard Island uninhabitable for decades really shows just how dangerous and enduring those spores are. “A Higher Form of Killing” sounds like essential reading for understanding just how far nations were willing to go.
This video sounds so overdramatic its hard to listen to it. It gives the vibes of “Monster Bug Wars” rather than a serious historical essay