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.>

About the author

John P. Davis is an Assistant Professor of History at Hopkinsville Community College, Kentucky, USA.

Product details

• Authors: John P Davis, John P. Davis, John P. (Hopkinsville Community College Davis, Davis John P.
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9781350130111
• ISBN: 978-1-350-13011-1
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: Library of Modern Russia
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Geography, Russia, Epidemiology & medical statistics, European History, 20th Century, Social & cultural history, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Russian Revolution, MEDICAL / History, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, History of Medicine, Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions, Social and cultural history, c 1910 to c 1919, Human Geography, Historical Geography, Epidemiology and Medical statistics, HISTORY / Russia / General