Shared Responsibilities in Fighting the Plague in Moldavia, 1800–1830

Abstract

Abstract The plague was the epidemic disease that had the deepest impact upon the lives and memories of the people who lived in Moldavia up to the mid-nineteenth century. By investigating a series of anti-epidemic measures, this paper aims to emphasise the shared responsibility for care during the plague epidemics. The tasks of coordinating and financing these anti-epidemic efforts were assumed by the reigning leaders. Their authority, in some situations, was substituted by representatives of the Russian military administration, at times when the Romanian Principalities were occupied by Russian troops. The anti-epidemic mobilization gathered all available forces to fight the spread of disease: amongst others, the boyars, merchants, and local authorities. The physicians of the times represented a discrete, but sometimes, an essential presence. More numerous but scarcely involved in the 1828–1830 epidemic period, doctors played a decisive role especially in the context of the medical-administrative transformations after 1830. The role of the Church should also be noted, as priests had the task of popularizing the anti-epidemic measures within their communities and of persuading their congregations to accept public health measures.