Despite the fact that the past of the Buryat people is now and then idealized, many scientists, including those from Ulan-Ude, admit that the Soviet government actually saved the people from the demographic catastrophe that threatened them at the beginning of the 20th century.
The main threat is tuberculosis and genital infections
Historian Vsevolod Yuryevich Bashkuev from the Institute of Mongolian Studies, Buddhology and Tibetology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences says in his works that at the beginning of the 20th century a lot of misfortunes hit the Buryat people: the number of fertile women decreased, infant mortality increased.
The head of the Buryat national movement, Matvey Innokentyevich Amagayev, after conducting a survey of the population, indicated that the Buryats were threatened with extinction. It turned out that in 1914 almost 12% of Buryats were sick with tuberculosis, infection with gonorrhea reached 32%, and syphilis - 52% (on Olkhon this figure reached 61%).
At the same time, according to the "Russian Journal of Skin and Venereal Diseases" for 1907, among Russians, only 0.7% of the population had syphilis, but in some military units the number of patients reached 12%.
Are the evil tengri spirits to blame for everything?
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The Buryat leaders attributed the plight of the country to the lack of medical care, hospitals and dispensaries, and difficult living conditions. The Russian tsar and land reforms were blamed, while completely oblivious to the fact that syphilis was mainly transmitted sexually due to the licentiousness of the population. Russians became infected with syphilis in brothels, and Buryats entered into promiscuous sexual relations.
The spread of syphilis was facilitated by unsanitary conditions: at the beginning of the 20th century, the Buryats led a traditional nomadic lifestyle, practically did not wash, did not know linen, and did not wash their hands. They had an idea of disease as a misfortune sent by Tengri spirits, shamans or gods.
So, for example, in the 18th century there was smallpox, which the Buryats previously knew only sporadically, as a disease that came from China. After smallpox began to spread from the west, they called it the white goddess (Sagaan Burkhan) and believed that it was sent by the deity Tsagaan Ebugen to collect a “sacrifice”. The Buryats left a relative sick with smallpox in the steppe, while they themselves wandered away.
Tibetan medicine was widespread, and the Buryats turned to it out of habit.
All this, plus illiteracy about diseases, could lead to disastrous consequences for the people. It is fair to say that Russian doctors vaccinated Buryat children against smallpox, and this made it possible to avoid epidemics.
Civil war - time of disease
During the Civil War, the situation worsened, the doctors of the Baikal region were expecting typhus from Russia and plague from Mongolia.
The period when the Buryats entered the Far Eastern Republic complicated the situation even more - the healthcare system was completely decentralized, and powers were transferred to the localities.
According to Amgaev's report, in 1922 there were two hospitals and five outpatient clinics in the Buryat-Mongol Autonomous District. Each hospital had 57,300 Buryats, and one outpatient clinic had 16,300 Buryats. At the same time, hospitals accepted only 30 people a day, refusing to admit another 40 patients, outpatient clinics could only accept 3,000 people a month.
Hope for Soviet power and vein brigades
The hope for the improvement of the people appeared after the Bolsheviks, realizing the impossibility of advancing the revolution to Europe, decided to turn their attention to the east and make the autochthonous peoples of Siberia the conductors of revolutionary ideas, strengthening their national identity.
In 1923, the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created, a year later, "venotryads" went across the republic to examine the population. They found that almost 80% of Buryats begin sexual activity at the age of 14–16, sexual intercourse before marriage and outside of marriage, extramarital pregnancies are in the order of things. The second route of transmission was the household route: people ate with patients from the same dish, shared pipes with them, and slept in the same bed. They lived crowded, no one washed or washed clothes, and in case of health problems they went to shamans and lamas.
In the Anginsky aimag, 49 of 155 Buryat families were healthy, almost half of the syphilitics were men and women of childbearing age - such data are given in the article "Elimination of syphilis in Buryat-Mongolia as an element of the national region modernization program" by the historian Bakushev. 49% of children due to syphilis did not live to 12 years of age.
Venotryadam had not only to conduct a survey of the population, but also to conduct propaganda, explain where diseases come from and how to avoid them. Doctors have clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of drugs based on bismuth, mercury and neosan-versan.
Hit on syphilis with agitation and science
In 1928, an extensive Soviet-German expedition was carried out, during which scientists had to face opposition from lamas, who frightened the Buryats that doctors were taking blood from them "for spoilage." Things got better when doctors began to raise the bedridden patients, whom the local clergy had already sentenced to death. After that, the doctors managed to enlist the support of the lamas and things went smoothly.
In the city of Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), the Institute of Hygiene was created, which dealt with the problems of the birth rate of the Buryat people, 7 venereal and 3 tuberculosis dispensaries appeared in the republic.
Active propaganda was carried out in the Buryat language through newspapers, radio, doctors went to the aimaks with lectures, and weeks of combating venous diseases were announced.
Soviet universities trained a whole generation of Buryat doctors, whom the local population trusted more. Programs for the social adaptation of homeless women were introduced, hostels appeared for them, and labor artels were organized.
Treatment of syphilis has become widespread - over 3 years, about 100,000 visits were registered at the Verkhneudinsk vending dispensary.
Doctors consider the company for treating syphilis in Buryats as one of the most successful examples of the fight against diseases, which has led to the improvement of the people and an increase in the birth rate. Some, however, see in this approach to the autochthonous peoples of Siberia an element of social eugenics, a kind of "early experiment of the Bolsheviks."
However, we must admit that such a rational approach justified itself, and the disease receded.
Maya Novik