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In the first book to chart late Imperial and Soviet health policy and its impact on the health of the collective in Russia's former capital and second "regime" city, Christopher Williams argues that in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg radical sections of the medical profession and the Bolsheviks highlighted the local and Tsarist government's failure to protect the health of poor peasants and the working class due to conflicts over the priority and direction of health policy, budget constraints and political division amongst doctors. They sought to forge alliances to change the law on social insurance and to prioritise the health of the collective. Situating pre- and post-revolutionary health policies in the context of revolutions, civil war, market transition and Stalin's rise to power, Williams shows how attempts were made to protect the Body Russian/Soviet and to create a healthier lifestyle and environment for key members of the new Soviet state. This failed due to shortages of money, ideology and Soviet medical and cultural norms. It resulted in ad hoc interventions into people's lives and the promotion of medical professionalization, and then the imposition of restrictions resulting from changes in the Party line. Williams shows that when the health of the collective was threatened and created medical disorder, it led to state coercion.
List of contents
Introduction 1. The "Body Russian" in Tsarist St. Petersburg 2. The Health of the Petrograd Collective Under War Communism, 1918-20 3. Health, Class and the Market Under N.E.P., 1921-27 4. Health Plans, Medical Disorder and Repression: The Health of the Collective in Crisis, 1928-41. Conclusion
About the author
Christopher Williams is former head of the Department of History and Politics and former Professor of Modern History at Liverpool Hope University, UK.
Summary
Using declassified archival material and health propaganda, Williams argues that the Bolsheviks, tsarist and Soviet physicians were determined to prioritize the health of the proletariat and peasantry. They sought to create a collectivist attitude towards health, to eradicate key diseases and in the process build a socialist welfare state. This
