Collectivization and public health system formation in rural Russia

Abstract

Collectivization in the USSR, without any doubt, became one of the most difficult and tragic pages in the history of our country. Not denying the devastating results of the socialization of agriculture in the 1930s, some positive consequences, nevertheless, should be noted, especially in the public health service. In this paper the authors analyze changes in the public health service for rural residents from the late 19thcentury to the end of the 1930s. They use various types of historical sources, such as statistical data, studies of Zemstvo leaders, government officials and memoirs of contemporaries. The state policy in the public health, the availability of medical care and the provision of medical personnel, the attitude of the population towards doctors and official medicine and the sanitary and hygienic living conditions of the rural residents are examined in detail. It is concluded that the depressing situation in the public health service for the rural population in pre-revolutionary Russia, aggravated by ignorance, numerous superstitions and distrust of doctors, changed dramatically only after the establishment of the Soviet government. In the process of collectivization in rural areas, an extensive network of hospitals, medical sites, maternity hospitals and pharmacies appeared. As a result, in spite of numerous problems in rural public health, it can be argued that it was in the 1930s that general medical care became an integral part of rural life.