Control of smoking by teaching and legal community in the reformatories of the Russian empire at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries

The paper revealed the attitude of Russian teachers, educators worked at reformatories and legal experts to smoking as a social problem. The lack of historical studies on this issue and the social disease surge explained the relevance of the research. The author considered the social scientific approaches of Russian teachers and lawyers to devising a set of anti-smoking measures by identifying the causes of the mass prevalence of tobacco consumption, developing and implementing public initiatives against it in practice. Control of smoking and problems in this regard were reviewed in the context of the social and economic development of the society. The research was based on the proceedings of teaching congresses in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The author identified why smoking was so popular among young people and presented methods for reducing it. The paper demonstrated the views of most active teachers and lawyers who took part in the above-mentioned congresses.