The typhoid epidemic in Novonikolaevsk in summer 1918 - autumn 1919

The article studies the outbreak of typhoid fever in Novonikolaevsk city during the Russian civil war. The research is based on the wide range of sources found in the federal and regional archives and libraries. They include previously unknown statistics that were published by the newspaper “NarodnayaSibir” (“People's Siberia”) as well as newly discovered telegrams from A. K. Skvortsov, the mayor of Novonikolaevsk, to the Tomsk governor reporting about typhoid outbreak. The article examines the causes of the infectious diseases in Novonikolaevsk in the summer of 1918 - fall of 1919, how much the typhus epidemic affected them, how fast it was developing, and what impact it had on people’s livelihood. Novonikolaevsk, established at the end of the 19^thcentury, had been serving as an important transportation hub since the first years of its existence. Due to its favorable geographical position, the population of the city had been growing rapidly, and by September 1917 it reached the impressive number of 110.9 thousand people. However, the development of urban infrastructure lagged noticeably behind the dynamics of the population. At the beginning of the civil war, there were still no water supply and sewerage system. Overcrowding and insanity were the main causes of infectious diseases in Novonikolaevsk. The article shows that during the civil war typhus and relapsing fever caused by various types of lice severely jeopardized the people of Novonikolaevsk. Among the main carriers of typhoid fever were military personnel, refugees, and prisoners. Overcrowded and poorly equipped hospitals also badly affected the situation in the city. The number of patients with all types of typhus had been increasing very quickly: in June 1918 there were 33 cases, in November 1918 -416, in January 1919 - 762. In the spring of 1919, the epidemic plateaued with the number of diagnosed cases of typhus of all types decreased to about 400 and remained at this level during the first half of the summer of 1919. However, in August 1919, a new and even more severe wave swept across the city: between July and November 1919 the number of cases increased from 493 to 1973. The gradual decline of the number of cases at the end of 1919 was due to the evacuation of part of the population from Novonikolaevsk to the east. Nevertheless, even after the establishment of Soviet power in the city, the sanitary conditions and the epidemic situation remained critical. The article concludes by arguing that the waves of various types of typhus in Novonikolaevsk were correlated with a change in the front line of civil war and the massive movement of military personnel and civilians from west to east. Being a disease of soldiers and various marginalized layers of the population in peacetime, typhus massively affected city dwellers of different social status, nationality, and age during the civil war. This fact allows to assess the typhoid outbreak of summer 1918 - autumn 1919 as one of the largest catastrophes in the history of the city.

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