Book review: Stalin’s Secret Weapon, by Anthony Rimmington

It’s no surprise that Joseph Stalin’s obsession with weapons of mass destruction included the promotion of biological weapons (BW), but the background to his regime’s development of this type of warfare, with its triumphs and failures, makes for eye-opening and sometimes grim reading. Anthony Rimmington’s book pulls together his 30 years of research and specialist articles, showing first how Russia’s interest can be traced back to the late 19th century when a St Petersburg guards officer was bitten by a rabid horse. The officer’s treatment led to the establishment of groups of physicians and veterinary surgeons studying ways to combat the likes of brucellosis, glanders and rabbit fever, as well as diseases that affected humans, such as smallpox and pneumonic plague. During the First World War the focus shifted to military uses of this knowledge: horses and mules deliberately infected with dangerous bacteria could disrupt entire campaigns, and many of these animal diseases could transfer to enemy troops.