Review by Choice Review
A former senior scientist and administrator with the Soviet Union's massive biological weapons program, Alibek exposes in great detail "the darkest conspiracy of the Cold War." The Soviets began experimenting with biological weapons in the 1920s. Evidence points to the use of tularemia against German troops at Stalingrad in 1942, a scheme that apparently backfired and caused thousands of Russian deaths. Although the US virtually abandoned its offensive biological weapons program in 1969 and both Washington and Moscow signed the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972, the Soviet Union embarked on a massive modernization effort in 1973. At its peak in the late 1980s, the Soviet program employed 60,000 people in the research, testing, and production of biological weapons and had an annual budget of some $1 billion. It produced tons of more potent forms of anthrax, plague, smallpox, and other nasty killers, which could be placed in the multiple warheads of SS-18 missiles. Alibek, who defected to the West in 1992, is convinced that a large portion of Soviet biological weapons continue to exist despite Moscow's denials. Also, the knowledge developed in the program is now available to nations sanctioning and supporting terrorism. This sobering and convincing look at the destructive ability of human beings bodes ill for the fate of humanity in the 21st century. All levels. W. M. Leary University of Georgia
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Biological weapons in the former Soviet Union; where are they now? (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Library Journal Review
