Health and Society in Revolutionary Russia

For the last century social and political dimensions have figured prominently in our understanding of medical practices; few would attempt to account for developments in medicine by reference to biology alone. From the first days of the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks declared that Soviet medicine would reject the individualistic, patient-centered practices of the capitalist West and would respond instead to the medical needs of the proletariat. Yet, reform of Russian medicine under state auspices had already begun in the tsarist period. The ten original essays included here, all based on primary research, focus on the social and political aspects of public health and medical reform in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia. Among topics covered are social influences on psychiatric theory and practice in late Imperial Russia, the regulation of urban prostitution by the tsarist regime, tsarist and early Soviet efforts at providing health care to peasants deeply suspicious of modern medicine, Soviet experiments in eugenics, and the administration of health insurance and industrial hygiene. The book reveals, on the one hand, the breadth and commitment of the Soviet regime to innovative approaches to health care in a revolutionary society and, on the other, the formidable array of obstacles encountered by the reform effort—institutional rivalries, scarcity of economic resources, the entrenched interests of the medical profession, and conflicting political priorities. An important resource for students of Soviet social history and the history of medicine and public health, Health and Society in Revolutionary Russia will also interest readers following the current crisis of health care in the Soviet Union.