“Quarantines nearly incited revolt in 16 provinces”: government, physicians, and the Russian public in the fight against cholera epidemics (19th - early 20th centuries)

The article analyzes measures to combat cholera epidemics, which was a threat to Russia’s national security in the 19th - early 20th centuries. During this period the Russian Empire had suffered from seven big epidemics with a high number of registered cases and an extremely high mortality rate. Counter-epidemic measures were conducted by central and local authorities, and after the introduction of local self-governments by municipal and zemstvo authorities with an active participation of medical community. Finally, members of business community joined in. Resorting to the example of the Upper Volga region, the article uses archive documents to show the weak coordination between the activities of the government, self-government and medical community. This situation resulted from the existing medical care system, the level of sanitation and sanitation culture in cities and towns, the actions of bureaucracy intended to limit the participation of self-government and the public in resolving acute social problems as well as the lack of scientific knowledge and awareness in the sphere of epidemiology. All this rendered the joint efforts in combating the cholera epidemics rather inefficient. Awareness was growing in Russian society of the fact that the fight against cholera as well as other epidemics should not be based on the latest achievements alone, but, first of all, it should be carried out on the basis of fundamental transformation in the life of the general population.