Escaping the 'Whirlpool of Chauvinistic Frenzy': Transcaucasia’s Efforts to Collaborate on the Fight against Malaria after Soviet Annexation

• In Event: Circulation of Medical Knowledge in Imperial Russian, Soviet, and Post-Soviet History

Abstract

On June 27, 1922, representatives from all over the Caucasus and Russia convened in Tiflis to address the ongoing malaria epidemic at the First Anti-Malarial Conference of the Caucasus. One delegate argued that malaria had managed to rise in prevalence above all other diseases because, “The working people of Transcaucasia, isolated from each other after the October Revolution, plunged into a whirlpool of chauvinistic frenzy.” This paper uses archival records, published medical journals and reports, films, and newspapers to evaluate the circulation of knowledge about malaria within the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.

Author

• Molly Walker, Harvard U