When Typhus Rode a Red Horse: Weaponizing Disease During the Polish-Bolshevik War

Abstract

This work explores the role of the Red Army in the spread of typhus on Polish lands during the Polish-Bolshevik War, 1919–1920. As a result of the Bolshevik style of war, one of the results of the Soviet advance into Poland was the anti-typhus effort along the border and throughout the country. Polish efforts, supported by American humanitarian groups, had made great strides in eradicating typhus however, much of this was undone with the Bolshevik offensive of 1920. Through both active and passive means the Bolshevik advance drove typhus victims and refugees across the Polish lines, while at the same time Bolshevik forces destroyed or removed sanitation equipment and supplies across the frontier.