In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• T he densely layered poster "People's Health Care in the USSR" (192629 ) presented the primary methods and goals of an idealized N arkomzdrav (plate 2). A red scroll across the top emphasized that though the workers had rights as citizens, they also had duties, declaring: "The protection of the health of workers is the responsibility of workers themselves:' Underscoring this dependence upon prophylaxis over treatment, the most prominent spot on the poster featured education in the person of a doctor lecturing to a group of workers. Beneath the doctor a scroll unfurled to disclose the merits of sanitary enlightenment in the creation of a new life. The layering of the poster and its didactic friezes imitated the style of iconography. Whereas an icon might have shown Christ the teacher, the propaganda poster glorified a new savior and his gospel: the doctor and the message of science. Taken together, the slogan and pictures indicated that the state's most important programs were packaged in the least expensive forms available-self-help, prophylaxis, and propaganda-rather than being accompanied by a slew of new facilities or expensive therapies. The second and third rows of the poster showcased those programs, which sought to bring health propaganda into the insular life of home and family. Under the slogans "Children Are Our Future" and "The Nursery Frees the Woman Mother;' the second row featured the all-encompassing care promised to children by the state. In the center the newly founded Soviet institution, the consultation for mothers and infants, monitored children's health and offered preventative care. To the left toddlers benefited from the professional care provided by the nursery, and on the right youth enjoyed the opportunity to build Soviet life as members of the Pioneers. At bottom-center a nurse-inspector, pictured visiting a peasant home, called to mind the work of thousands of women 37 'The State who went door to door spreading the message of health. In both the efforts of the consultation and the nurse-inspector, the emphasis was on providing lasting change to daily life by urging citizens to take care of themselves and thereby prevent illness. At the very bottom of the poster, charts revealing birth and death rates reflected the international concerns spurring Narkomzdrav's programs. The poster's borders, however, suggested that not all health progress was so easily measured. In the margins glimmered the hoped-for political and cultural results of health education and the justifications for state expenditure in health. Smokestacks belched out the promise of a strong industry in the upper-left corner. In the upper-right corner a rally showcased a populace engaged in the highest form of culture-political participation. The pantheon of worker and peasant, soldier and national minority, man and woman tied health care to the leveling, unifying forces of the revolution. Narkomzdrav programs educated the population and linked health care to the cultural, industrial, and political transformation of the state. Though the poster emphasized worker self-help, Narkomzdrav created a series of institutions to guide the Soviet citizen's transformation through universal , prenatal-to-grave care. Utilizing international example and exercising their paternalistic desire to order and perfect workers, Narkomzdrav doctors experimented with natal care, outpatient education centers, residential treatment facilities, and outdoor care. Consultation and dispensary doctors, nurses, and inspectors educated their patients and entered their homes even as they monitored pregnancies or treated illnesses. For those whose condition required more drastic intervention, the sanatorium system provided treatment, supervision, and education. To spread the message to even the healthy, the House of Leisure was designed to allow workers to vacation in doctor-supervised, hygienic surroundings during their state-mandated two-week break. With the victory of the Bolsheviks, prerevolutionary authorities and revolutionary activists united in a quest to cleanse the population and join the order of modern, industrialized nations. Due to its importance to political orthodoxy and the creation of communism, the spread of hygienic ideas could not be left to chance. Narkomzdrav used the disciplinary techniques of the modern state to extend medicalized hygiene to all aspects of life, thereby joining an international movement for multifaceted state power in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because of the peculiar mating of politics and purity in Soviet ideology, however, the strength with which these ideas were applied, and the pervasive methods of observation, were uniquely Soviet.While the Bolsheviks, like their European and tsarist counterparts, implemented health [18.119.131.72] Project MUSE (2024-04-24...

Share