Lisa Walker, US Department of Health and Human Services
AbstractIn the early 1930s, as Stalin’s transformation of the Soviet economy entered its stride, laborers in the Soviet Far East taiga were felled by a mysterious disease that initially defied treatment. After five years of struggle, an expedition of Moscow scientists was deployed and quickly provided a resolution. The accepted historical narrative of the events surrounding TBE does not match the documentary record. This paper offers new analysis and explores some of the distinctive features of public health in the Soviet periphery in the 1930s.
Three moments in the initial investigations of the emerging infection are highlighted. The paper concludes that physicians and scientists based in the Soviet regions were hampered by two significant regional handicaps: a dearth of specialized medical expertise, and poor institutions and institutional relationships. A cultural gap and considerable difference in experience divided public health activity in the Soviet regions from biomedical research that was conducted in the center.