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.

Totally — classic CIA move: paranoid, bold, and just reckless enough to work.

Yep — big difference:

UK (Gruinard Island):

Tested anthrax in WWII

Publicly acknowledged

Quarantined for decades

Decontaminated by 1990

USSR (Vozrozhdeniya Island):

Secretly tested smallpox, anthrax, plague

Denied everything

Caused a deadly smallpox outbreak in 1971

Covered it up for years

One island had warning signs. The other had a cover story.> The UK, meanwhile, made it very very clear which island they used for their anthrax testing in WW2.

Having not watched the video, was the leak a real accident or one of those times where governments decide to experiment on their own soldiers without telling them they’re in an experiment? The 1971 smallpox outbreak was likely an accidental release, not a deliberate human experiment. A Soviet ship sailed near Vozrozhdeniya Island—home to the secret bioweapons lab Aralsk-7—and passed through a cloud of aerosolized smallpox from a recent test. A lab worker onboard got infected, and the virus spread, killing three people.

Though it wasn’t an intentional exposure, the Soviet government covered it up and only decades later did whistleblowers and declassified files confirm the outbreak was caused by weaponized smallpox being tested in the open.