Features of the formation of European medicine in the indigenous population of Transbaikalia (XVIII-end of the second decade of the XX century)

Batoev Sergey Dashidondokovich, Karpenko Igor Vladimirovich

The historiography of healthcare of Trans-Baikal region contains an opinion that during the period before revolution, indigeneous Buryat people were deprived of the state medical care and used techniques and methods of folk medicine and traditional Tibetan medicine only to manage various diseases. The purpose of this article is to reveal the conditions and factors that had a direct impact on the nature and timing of the introduction and development of European medicine in the Buryat population in the pre-revolutionary period. In our opinion, the efficient healthcare system, also covering the indigenous people on the eastern periphery of the Russian Empire, couldn't be rapidly organized due to the objective reasons. That was a new medical care, which had to prove its advantage in the context of competition of completely different systems of human health improvement. But, the first state task to protect the health of the subject population in the form of mass smallpox vaccination, which was of actual importance for the life of the Buryat people, was perceived positively at the beginning of the XIX century. Only a gradual solution to the problem of a significant shortage of medical personnel, the organization of urban and rural medical institutions during the XIX-early XX century made it possible to organize a wider coverage of state medicine for all residents of Transbaikalia. It should be noted that the pre-revolutionary government did not ignore for a long time the task of providing medical care for the indigenous ethnic group, and even more so, did not set the goal of weakening its health and gradual destruction. . As a result of constantly conducted state administrative-territorial and social measures, a unified system of medical care was created for all segments of the population, which guaranteed effective socio-economic development and strengthening of the strategically important border territory for solving Russia's geopolitical problems.

Keywords:pre-revolutionary Russia, Trans-Baikal region, European medicine, smallpox vaccination, Buryat people.