The Management System of Medical Institutions of the Russian Empire of the Late 19th – Early 20th Centurу (on the Example of Eastern Siberia)

Abstract

The medical sphere of Eastern Siberia was distinguished by a number of features. As for the entire Russian Empire, it was characterized by an extremely large number of departments and organizations that had their own medical organization. In Siberia, there was no zemstvo, which allowed archaic institutions to survive in the form of public charity decree and rural medical units, which were criticized for their inefficiency. City governments were reluctant to develop medical facilities, which encouraged private initiative. There were independent medical institutions for employees of the railway, water transport, mining departments, the cabinet of his Imperial Majesty, the army and the Trans-Baikal Cossacks. Siberia was the land of hard labor and exile, which provoked the emergence of medical institutions in prisons and in hard labor. The agrarian reform of P. A. Stolypin contributed to the resettlement of peasants to the east, including to Eastern Siberia. Medical services were created especially for them both on the way to Siberia and at the places of their new residence. In the cities, a number of public organizations (the Russian Red Cross Society, the Society of Doctors, the All-Russian League against Tuberculosis) created their own medical institutions.