Health care in Zabaikalskaya Oblast during the regime of Ataman G.M. Semenov (fall 1918 - spring 1919)

The article is devoted to the history of public health in Zabaikalskaya Oblast from the coming to power of Ataman G.M. Semenov to the normalization of relations between him and Admiral A.V. Kolchak in May 1919. The work is written on the basis of the first published archival materials, memoirs of contemporaries and data of periodicals. The attempt of the Zabaikalskaya Oblast administration to return to the model of health that emerged after the February revolution of 1917 is discussed. On the basis of extensive factual material the author reveals the essence of the 1918-1919 reforms in the medical field. The cause-and-effect relations of the occurring changes are analyzed. Information about military medicine and mobilization of health personnel in the Separate Eastern Siberian Army is considered. Attention is drawn to the conflict between the regional Zemstvo and the Zabaikalsky Cossack management; it led to the formation of an independent medical service for the Cossacks. The work of private practitioners is also described. Activities of foreign health workers is comprehensively studied. Information on establishing logistics in the region with medicine and medical goods is given. An important role in this work was played by the American Red Cross, the Young Men Christian Association, the Japanese Society for Economic Aid to Siberia and a number of other public organizations. Much of their work was to combat the epidemics in the winter of 1918-1919. In this regard, the causes of diseases, the scope of the disaster, mortality and control measures are analyzed. Information is provided about the sanitary cleaning in the cities, the opening of washing houses, the delivery of clean water to the population, the promotion of healthy lifestyles. Insufficient funding, lack of medicine, mobilization of health workers, mass migration of people, apathy of the military and civil administrations of Zabaikalskaya Oblast had a negative impact on fighting the infection. Despite the death of many health workers, belated, but effective measures were taken by the spring of 1919 which could cope with the flow of the diseases and suppress the epidemic. The article also provides data on social work: the condition of the kindergartens, the work of prisoners of war during the First World War, the legalization of prostitution. It also covers the scientific activities of the Zabaykalsky Society of Doctors. In conclusion, it is noted that the return to the democratic model of health organization, created after February 1917, did not happen. Zemstvo and urban self-government were pressed by the administration and due to financial dependence could not make independent decisions. Medical forces were weakened by the fact that medical institutions were passed on to different departments. Some positive facts do not change the overall picture of the decline and collapse of the system of health care in the remote Russian province.

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