Mary Schaeffer Conroy Libros

Focusing on Soviet medicine during World War II, the book explores three critical areas: the state of healthcare, including pharmaceuticals and medical instruments; an analysis of the mid-level Soviet economy from 1938 through the war; and the role of narodnaia meditsina, a form of homemade medicine developed due to wartime shortages. Through interviews and pharmacology journals, it highlights how citizens adapted to challenges in medical care during this tumultuous period.

Putting privately owned Russian pharmacies and pharmaceutical factories under state control in 1918/1919 did not improve the output and the distribution of soaps, disinfectants, hormones, vitamins, and medicines. Newly available archival records show that managers appointed by the Soviet government to run sequestered factories employed business methods common to market economies to make the Soviet pharmaceutical sector profitable and productive. However, an inefficient macroeconomy and interference in day-to-day policy-making in the core industry by exogenous officials (frequent reorganization, limits on imports, and excessive exports) hindered production; this plus inefficient distribution shorted consumers. Inadequate amounts of pharmaceuticals undoubtedly contributed to high mortality during the civil war (1917-1921), collectivization and industrialization (1927-1938), and World War II (1939-1945).