Public Healthcare System in Early 20th Century Kalmyk Steppe

Introduction. The article discusses the urgent issue of the development of health care in Kalmyk uluses in the early 20th century. Its relevance is obvious, granted the scarce historiography in the field: very little has been published on the subject, some recent papers describing briefly and schematically medical care offered to the Kalmyk nomad. Purpose and objectives. The article aims to analyze how Kalmyk health care services were developed in the Astrakhan provinces. Accordingly, the authors undertake the analysis of a variety of prevalent diseases in the region, the state of medical and paramedical care, and the activities of hospital facilities during the period. Materials and methods. The research is based on a complex of general scientific and historical methods. The principles of historicism and systematism help approach the issue in its development and interaction with other structural elements of the life of the Kalmyk society. Importantly, an interdisciplinary approach and the chronological method contribute to drawing a coherent picture of the multilateral process. The work is based on archival sources introduced for the first time; these are mostly office records of the Department for Kalmyk Affairs kept in the National Archive of Kalmykia. Results. Based on the available materials, the study sheds light on the development of the health care system in the Kalmyk uluses of the Astrakhan province in the early 20th century. It highlights the stages of development, characteristics, and the structural elements of health care: health care personnel, facilities and material basis, scale of activities, prevalence of endemic diseases, and methods of their control. Conclusions. During the period under study, Kalmyk nomads were provided with a functioning health care system. The steppe was divided into four medical districts headed by doctors, each ulus (also a number of aimags) having paramedics with dispensary and pharmacy with free dispensing of medicine to the sick. The system was able to deal with major epidemic diseases in the region, as well as at times prevent them.

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