Russia in the Time of Cholera : Disease Under Romanovs and Soviets

"As the nineteenth century drew to a close and epidemics in western Europe were waning, the deadly cholera vibrio continued to wreak havoc in Russia, outlasting the Romanovs. Scholars have since argued that cholera eventually fell prey to better sanitation and strict quarantine under the Soviets, citing as evidence imperial mismanagement, a 'backward' tsarist medical system and physicians' anachronistic environmental interpretations of the disease. Drawing on extensive archival research and the so-called 'material turn' in historiography, however, John P. Davis here demonstrates that Romanov-era physicians' environmental approach to disease was not ill-grounded, nor a consequence of neo-liberal or populist political leanings, but born of pragmatic scientific considerations. The physicians confronted cholera in a broad and sophisticated way, essentially laying the foundations for the system of public health that the Soviets successfully used to defeat cholera during the New Economic Policy (1922-1928). By focusing for the first time on the conclusion of the cholera epoch in Russia, Davis adds an indispensable layer of nuance to the existing conception of Romanov Russia and its complicated legacy in the Soviet period."-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Major Contributions Russia's Vulnerability to Cholera The Russian Intellectual Framework Tsarist and Soviet Anti-Cholera Strategies Cholera's Departure from Russia Historiography Sources Organisation 1. Cholera and its Environs: The Case of Russia Transportation and Disease in Russia Russian Science and Cholera Immunology and its Reception in Russia Conclusion 2. Tsarist Russia and the First Five Pandemics, 1817–94 The First `Time of Troubles' The Tambora Volcano and First Pandemic, 1815 – 23 The Second Pandemic and `Hungry' Forties: 1829 – 49 The Crimean War and Third Pandemic: 1852 – 9 The Fourth Pandemic, 1865 – 73: The Great Reforms, Famine and Preventive Medicine The Krakatoa Volcano and the 1892 Cholera Epidemic The 1892 Epidemic: Its Course and Characteristics Erismann and Russian Bacteriology The Pasteurisation of Russia, 1883 – 1928 Conclusion 3. The Sixth Pandemic Enters Russia, 1902–7 `The Troubles' Begin, 1902 – 7 The Siberian Epidemic of 1902 The Tsarist Cholera Rules, 1903 The Persian Expedition of 1904 The Cholera Epidemic in Saratov, 1904 The SEC Railroad Sub-Commission, 1904 The Saratov SEC, 1904 Gamaleia's Investigation of the 1904 Epidemic The 1905 Revolution and Pirogov Cholera Conference Zemstvo Physicians versus Koch Conclusion 4. Cholera Returns to Russia, 1907–13 Cholera Reappears in Russia: Samara, 1907 The 1907 Cholera Epidemic and Investigation in Samara The MVD Returns to the Volga, 1908 – 9 The Tsarist Railroad and Cholera The Threat of Cholera on the Russian Railroad and the Muslim Hajj, 1907 – 9 Gamaleia and the Great 1908 Epidemic in St Petersburg The 1910 Epidemic Conclusion 5. The Troubles Continue: World War I, 1914–17 The Outbreak of World War I and Russian Public Health, 1914 The Pirogov Society and the Threat of Cholera, 1914 Organisation of the Russian Military-Medical Apparatus, 1914 – 15 The Tsarist Retreat and Moscow Cholera Epidemic of 1915 The Progressive Bloc The Beginning of the End, 1916 Conclusion 6. The Revolutions, Civil War and War Communism, 1917–21 Russia's Second Bloody Sunday: The February Revolution, 1917 Lenin Returns to Russia, 1917 The Provisional Government and Public Health, 1917 The Bolsheviks, War Communism and the Unification of Soviet Public Health, 1917 – 18 The 1918 Epidemic in Russia Cholera Comes to Petrograd, 1918 An Impending Crisis Applause from the West Moscow versus Petrograd Bolshevik Vaccination General Shortages and Other Problems Conclusion 7. The New Economic Policy (NEP), 1921–8 The Troubles in Saratov Province, 1921 Social Hygiene and General Hygiene Lenin Confronts Cholera, 1921 Weaknesses in the NEP, 1921 – 2 Conclusion 8. The End of `Classical' Cholera Epidemics in the Soviet Union Cholera Wanes in Southern Russia, 1921 Sanitation in the Ports of Southern Russia Disinfection on the Soviet Railroad Soviet Microbiology, Epidemiology and Famine during the NEP, 1922 – 7 The Role of Soviet Vaccination in Cholera's Withdrawal The Sixth Pandemic Departs Europe: 1923 – 7 Conclusion Conclusion Glossary of Terms and Organisations Notes Bibliography Index The book establishes marriage as a pervasive idiom for the construction of collective identity in Syria, which is appropriated by individuals, sects, states and intergovernmental organizations alike. Its conclusions are relevant to scholars of Middle East studies, sectarianism, anthropology and politics.”