Tomsk Diocesan Sheets about health education organization in Tomsk Province in the 19th - early 20th centuries

In this article the author scrutinizes the organization of health education in Tomsk Province in the 19th - early 20th centuries. Tomsk Diocesan Sheets (Tomskie eparkhial’nye vedomosti) became the main historical source for the article. In pre-revolutionary Russia clergymen took part in the process of formation of people's sanitary culture. This practice was set in Russian legislation. That is why Tomsk clergymen took part in health education organization in Tomsk Province. So, Tomsk Diocesan Sheets is one of the important sources in this question. The author viewed all articles in Tomsk Diocesan Sheets and revealed clergymen's forms of work in the organization of health education. They are popularization of medical care, reading recommendations in hygiene to people, compliance with sanitary requirements in the religious rites, working in abortion of epidemics, conversations about sanitation and hygiene with the congregation, publishing articles about treatment and disease prevention. All this work was done more actively during epidemics. For example, there was a cholera epidemic in Tomsk Province in 1892. At that time Bishop Makariy (Nevskiy), the head of Tomsk Diocese, published his address to the congregation. He urged people to call physicians for medical aid in cases of disease in it. This address was read everywhere in Tomsk Province. People did not trust doctors, so such addresses were necessary. In this article, using the materials of Tomsk Diocesan Sheets the author writes about the level of Tomsk clergymen's medical knowledge. As we know, parsons tried to form people's medical culture actively that is why this question is very important. Using the historical source the author concluded that the level of Tomsk clergymen's knowledge in medicine, sanitation and hygiene was not high enough in some cases. Sometimes they demonstrated ignorance in these questions. However, the problem of clergymen's medical ignorance was discussed and tried to be solved. For example, special lecture courses were organized in Tomsk and popular science articles were published in Tomsk Diocesan Sheets. The author concludes that clergymen's working in health education was not only Tomsk, but also pre-revolutionary Russian specific situation. Not only parsons but also articles in the newspaper Tomsk Diocesan Sheets formed a higher level of Russian people's medical culture. It is hard to evaluate results of this action, but, undoubtedly, this work had positive results in the organization of health education in Tomsk Province in the 19th - early 20th centuries.

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