Soviet Nightingales: Care under Communism

Susan Grant

Open Access Published by Cornell University Press 2022

Soviet Nightingales

Care under Communism

Susan Grant
Funded by: Liverpool John Moores University

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501762604

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Soviet Nightingales, Susan Grant tracks nursing care in the Soviet Union from its nineteenth-century origins in Russia through the end of the Soviet state. With the advent of the USSR, nurses were instrumental in helping to build the New Soviet Person and in constructing a socialist society.

Disease and illness were rampant in the early 1920s after years of war, revolution, and famine. The demand for nurses was great, but how might these workers best serve the country's needs? By examining living and working conditions, nurse-patient relations, education, and attempts at international nursing cooperation, Grant recounts the history of the Bolshevik effort to define the "Soviet" nurse and organize a new system of socialist care for the masses. Although the Bolsheviks aimed to transform healthcare along socialist lines, they ultimately failed as the struggle to train skilled medical workers became entangled in politics. Soviet Nightingales draws on rich archival research from Russia, the United States, and Britain to describe how ideology reinvented the role of the nurse and shaped the profession.

Author / Editor information

Susan Grant is a Reader in Modern European History at Liverpool John Moores University. She is the author of Physical Culture and Sport in Soviet Society.

Reviews

Tricia Starks, University of Arkansas, author of Smoking under the Tsars:

The first book to examine the long developmental arc of nursing during the entire Soviet period, Soviet Nightingales is well-crafted, important, and utterly unique.

Christopher Burton, University of Lethbridge, coeditor of Soviet Medicine:

Sure to appeal to historians of nursing and anyone interested in Soviet history, Soviet Nightingales follows the trajectories of junior- as well as mid-level Soviet medical personnel, a wholly original scope supported by impressive research and abundant insights.

In an ambitious history of Soviet Nursing, Susan Grant provides what will undoubtedly become a standard work on Russian and Soviet medicine. Soviet Nightingales is a tremendously valuable and meticulously researched monograph.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations and Glossary Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Note on Translation and Transliteration Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	1
1. War and Revolution Open Access Download PDF	17
2. Creating Order out of Chaos Open Access Download PDF	35
3. Black Star, Red Star: Finding the Soviet Way Open Access Download PDF	57
4. Proletarian Paradise: Medical Workers Rise Up Open Access Download PDF	74
5. Stalinist Care: Cadres Decide Everything Open Access Download PDF	94
6. Fortresses of Sanitary Defense: Preparing for War Open Access Download PDF	117
7. A Decade of War and Reconstruction Open Access Download PDF	137
8. Caring for the Mind Open Access Download PDF	157
9. Communist Morality, Activism, and Ethics Open Access Download PDF	186
Epilogue Open Access Download PDF	219
Coda Open Access Download PDF	223
Notes Open Access Download PDF	225
Archives and Libraries Consulted Open Access Download PDF	299
Index Open Access Download PDF	305

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 336
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 12
- Images: 12
- Other: 12 b&w halftones
Keywords: medical workers in the USSR; nursing in the nineteenth century; underfunding in healthcare; soviet nurses; 1920 medical workers; sisters of mercy nurses; Bolsheviks and health care

eBook

Published: April 15, 2022
ISBN: 9781501762604