Drugs and the Early Soviet City: Mapping Cocaine, Opiates, and Cannabis in Petrograd/Leningrad in the 1920 s (Workshop Geschichte)

Abstract

Introduction: The early Soviet period witnessed a substantial increase in the number of drug addicts and the proliferation of drugs into wider social strata. However, in contrast to popular contemporary 'black market' image of drugs, in the 1920 s cocaine and morphine were rather semi-legal ('gray market') substances, since the everyday practice of too many areas of public health greatly depended on the use of these medicines. In early Soviet Petrograd/Leningrad drugs were present on literally every corner: in most pharmacies, hospitals, dentist's rooms, maternity houses and other health care institutions. The city depended on very large amounts of cocaine and opiates, and indeed the regional office of medical supply and trade (Gubmedsnabtorg), located in the very center of Petrograd/Leningrad, accumulated tens of thousands of morphine ampules and hundredweights of opium for the needs of whole North-Western Russia.