How Soviet Social Hygiene and Central Asian Epidemics Shaped International Health Organizations (1920s-1950s)

• In Event: Soviet Science, Human Rights, and International Governance

Abstract

This presentation remembers the participation of the USSR in international health organizations: the League of Nations Health Organization and its successor, the World Health Organization (WHO) a century ago. Tensions led to the USSR’s withdrawal from the WHO, but periodic epidemics of plague continued in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other Soviet republics, and under Khrushchev the USSR rejoined the WHO. This paper analyzes two questions: How did the ongoing challenge of plague and other persistent epidemics in Central Asia contribute to the political maneuvering surrounding the USSR’s return to participation in the WHO and how did the memories of the traumatic 1920s and early 1930s shape the USSR’s decision to return to the WHO, and its determination to once again shape WHO policies?

Author

• Susan D Jones, U of Minnesota