Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Governorate: Epidemic Diseases, Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries

Introduction. The article examines the understudied issues of how and to what extent epidemic diseases used to spread across Kalmyk uluses (‘districts’) in the late 19th – early 20th centuries, with special attention be paid to employed control and monitoring methods. The problem was covered in a number of published reports delivered at the First Congress of Astrakhan physicians to have worked in Kalmyk-inhabited lands during the period under study, and the former contain their shared their experiences and valuable findings. Historians hardly ever approached the topic in just a few papers. Goals. So, the work aims at a detailed survey of epidemic diseases in the Kalmyk Steppe of Astrakhan Governorate in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Materials and Methods. The study employs a set of general scientific and specific historical research methods. The observance of the historicism principle made it possible to avoid modern misinterpretations of the century-old events examined, while system-analysis techniques and interdisciplinary approaches resulted in that certain specific events of Kalmyk life were analyzed as parts of an overall picture. The article mainly explores and newly introduces materials of the Medical Department — a healthcare agency within the Kalmyk People’s Administration — currently stored at the National Archive of Kalmykia. Results. Despite the remoteness of Kalmyk nomadic settlements (Kalm. khoton) from administrative centers and first-aid stations, healthcare practitioners still were efficient enough to promptly respond in case of epidemic outbreaks. Besides treatment proper, the medical, administrative and police personnel were largely responsible for quarantine and disinfection activities, medical examination and supervision of people living around the periphery of the effective disease area. Conclusions. The analysis of materials dealing with the issue reveals Kalmyk districts were widely affected by epidemic diseases, such as typhus, smallpox, measles, diphtheria and others, while cholera and plague were not that often. It should be admitted that the frequent occurrence of those diseases in medical records across the Kalmyk Steppe was determined by their endemicity to have resulted from a number of reasons. 

1. National Archive of the Republic of Kalmykia.

2. A Life Sacrificed for Others: Commemorating Dr. S. R. Zalkind. Jubilee Collection of Papers. Kalmyk Humanities Research Institute (RAN), Ministry of Health and Social Development of Kalmykia. Elista: Kalmyk Humanities Research Institute (RAN), 2010. 95 p. (In Russ.)

3. Abramov G. D. Typhus in the Kalmyk Steppe. In: Schmidt N. Ya. (ed.) The First Medical Congress of Astrakhan Governorate. Proceedings (Astrakhan; September 25 – October 4, 1903). Astrakhan, 1905. Pp. 192–195. (In Russ.)

4. Avliev V. N. History of epidemic variola: Kalmyks under nomadic way of life (early XIX c.). Modern Problems of Science and Education. Online scientific journal. 2014. No. 6. Available at: http://science-education.ru/120-15994 (accessed: October 5, 2020). (In Russ.)

5. Baduginova M. V. Healthcare in Kalmykia: Late 19th – Mid-20th Centuries. Cand. Sc. (history) thesis abstract. Grozny, 2018. 29 p. (In Russ.)

6. Dushan U. D. Medical and sanitary conditions in the Kalmyk Steppe: a general review. Kalmytskaya oblast’. 1925. No. 2, pp. 50–75; no. 3, pp. 30–51. 1926. No. 1(4), pp. 78–94. (In Russ.)

7. Dushan U. D. Medical and sanitary conditions in the Kalmyk Steppe: a general review. In: Kalmyk Oblast over the Revolutionary Decade. Astrakhan: Kalmizdat,1927. Pp. 35–51. (In Russ.)

8. Dushan U. D. Selected Works. V. Batyrov, T. Sharaeva (comps.). Elista: Kalmyk Humanities Research Institute (RAS), 2016. 376 p. (In Russ.)

9. Komandzhaev A. N. Healthcare system, early 20th century. In: Maksimov K. N., Ochirova N. G. (eds.) History of Kalmykia: From Earliest Times to the Present Days. In 3 vols. Vol. 3. Elista: Gerel, 2009. Pp. 576–581. (In Russ.)

10. Komandzhaev A. N., Badmaeva S. E., Matsakova N. P. Experience of combating epidemics in Kalmykia: a case study of the 1914 plague outbreak. Oriental Studies. 2020. Vol. 13. No. 3. Pp. 533–545. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.22162/2619-0990-2020-49-3-533-545

11. Palmirsky P. V. Suppressing plague, cholera and smallpox in the Kalmyk Steppe, Astrakhan Governorate: conditions revisited. Izvestiya obshchestva astrakhanskikh vrachey. 1909. No. 2 (February). Pp. 1–7. (In Russ.)

12. Smirnov P. I. About syphilis among Kalmyks. In: Schmidt N. Ya. (ed.) The First Medical Congress of Astrakhan Governorate. Proceedings (Astrakhan; September 25 – October 4, 1903). Astrakhan, 1905. Pp. 59–60. (In Russ.)

13. Takehiko Inoue. Revisiting the development of Smallpox Vaccination Guidelines for Kalmyk-Inhabited Districts (1839): a case study of epistolary intercourse between I. S. Timiryazev and P. D. Kiselev. In: Readings on Astrakhan History and Lore. Collected Papers. Astrakhan: R. Sorokin, 2013. Vol. 5. Pp. 191–195. (In Russ.)

14. Zalkind S. R. Medical staff in the Kalmyk Steppe. In: Schmidt N. Ya. (ed.) The First Medical Congress of Astrakhan Governorate. Proceedings (Astrakhan; September 25 – October 4, 1903). Astrakhan, 1905. Pp. 214–218. (In Russ.)

15. Zalkind S. R. Smallpox vaccination in the Kalmyk Steppe. In: Schmidt N. Ya. (ed.) The First Medical Congress of Astrakhan Governorate. Proceedings (Astrakhan; September 25 – October 4, 1903). Astrakhan, 1905. Pp. 134–139. (In Russ.)