ACTIVITIES OF MOBILE MEDICAL UNITS AT THE FAR NORTH-EAST OF THE USSR IN 1920-1930

Abstract

Academic medicine for a long time remained inaccessible to the population of the Far North-East of the USSR. The organization of mobile medical units was the initial stage in the promotion of medical care for nomadic and settled indigenous population. We summarize the information on the activities of mobile medical units operating in the 1920s-1930s in the Far North-East of the USSR. With the receipt of information about the state of health, the nature of the disease of the surveyed aboriginal population, the features of the organization of medical care in the study area, the directions of the groups changed. Work units were conducted in several areas: health, ethnographic, geographical, social. We identify the difficulties in the organization of effective work of the units, give an overall assessment of its results, trace the state policy in providing native peoples with medical care. Medical workers changed the way of life of the nomadic and settled population. They introduced aboriginal population to the academic medical culture. Activities of the mobile medical units helped to study the character and peculiarities of the diseases of the aborigines, to identify foci of epidemics and to develop methods of dealing with them, primarily to examine the inhabitants of the tundra and to develop necessary recommendations to the health authorities.