Foreign representative offices of the Soviet Red Cross in the 1920s and 1930s in the context of the international health policy of the USSR*
Keywords:
history of medicine, history of healthcare, international relations in healthcare and medicine, Soviet Red Cross,Russian Red Cross SocietyAbstract
This article examines the activities of the foreign representative offices of the Soviet Red Cross in the 1920s and 1930s in the context of the international policy of both the People’s Commissariat of Health (PCH) of the RSFSR,and the Soviet state as a whole. Having initially taken the form of humanitarian work relating to famine relief and recovery in the RSFSR, the international activities of the Russian Red Cross Society (RRCS) soon took on addi-tional unstated but politically important aspects. The RRCS in the 1920s and 1930s was not a structural division of the RSFSR PCH, but a separate institution with its own budget. The foreign missions of the RRCS and the PCH remained independent of each other until 1929 when they were merged following a change in Soviet government policy. In general, the foreign missions of the Soviet Red Cross in this period were not just a tool in the interna-tional activities of the RSFSR PCH, but had particular functions, which changed over time. This study draws on materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation (on the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR,the Alliance of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the USSR, the Central Committee of the RRCS, and the All- Union Bureau of Foreign Health Information of the RSFSR PCH).
Downloads
References
let Krasnogo Kresta v nashey strane [100 years of the
Red Cross in our country] (1967) Ed. G. A. Miterev.
Moscow: Meditsina. (In Russ.)
Abramov V (2005) Evrei v KGB: Palachi i zhertvy [Jews
in KGB: Executioners and victims]. Moscow: Yauza,
Eksmo. (In Russ.)
Arunin MI (1970) S.Yu. Bagotskiy ‒ vrach, revolyutsioner
i obshchestvennyy deyatel [S.Yu.Bagotsky ‒ doctor, revolutionary and public figure]. Sovetskoe Zdra-vookhranenie [Soviet Healthcare] 5: 65–70. (In Russ.)Barynkin AV (2012) Sudba sovetskoy missii Krasnogo Kresta v Varshave v kontekste sovetsko-p olskikh ot-nosheniy na rubezhe 1918‒1920 gg. [e Fate of the Soviet Red Cross Mission in Warsaw in the Context of Soviet-P olish Relations during the Period from 1918 to 1920]. Vestnik Bryanskogo Gosudarstvennogo Uni-versiteta [e Bryansk State University Herald] 17–21.
In Russ.)
Bugnion F (2000) Mezhdunarodnyy Komitet Krasnogo
Kresta i Sovetskiy Soyuz (1917‒1991) [e Internation-
al Committee of the Red Cross and the Soviet Union
(1917‒1991)]. Translated from French. 2nd ed. Moscow:
MKKK. (In Russ.)
Dienko AV (2002) Razvedka i kontrrazvedka v litsakh:
Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar rossiyskikh spetssluzhb [In-
telligence and Counterintelligence in Persons: Encyclo-
pedia of Russian Special Services]. Moscow: Russkiy
mir. (In Russ.)
Eckart WU (1993) Medizin und auswärtige Kulturpoli-
tik der Republik von Weimar ‒ Deutschland und die
Sowjetunion 1920‒1932. Medizin in Geschichte und
Gesellscha 105–142.
Egorysheva IV (1973) Borba s golodom v Rossii i SSSR
i uchastie v ney Krasnogo Kresta [e Fight against
Hunger in Russia and the USSR and Participation of
the Red Cross]. Sovetskoe Zdravookhranenie [Soviet
Healthcare] 12: 65–69. (In Russ.)
Fayet JF (2014) VOKS. Le laboratoire helvétique. Histoire
de la diplomatie culturelle soviétique durant l’entre-
deux-guerres. Chêne- Bourg: Georg éditeur.
Fayet JF (2021) The Russian Red Cross in the Civ-
il War. Quaestio Rossica 9: 188–202. doi: 10.15826/
qr.2021.1.573
Forsythe DP, Rieffer- Flanagan BAJ (2007) e International
Committee of the Red Cross: A neutral humanitarian
actor. London: Routledge.
Ikuta M (2001) E. G. Spalvin v Yaponii [E. G. Spalvin in Ja-
pan]. Izvestiya Vostochnogo Instituta [Oriental Institute
Journal] 6: 28–34. (In Russ.)
Investigation of Un-A merican Propaganda Activities in
the United States: Hearings Before a Special Com-
mittee on Un- American Activities, House of Repre-
sentatives, Seventy- fifth Congress, Third Session-
Seventy- eighth Congress, Second Session, on H. Res.
(1939) Washington: U. S. Government Printing
Office.
Itogi borby s golodom v 1921‒1922 gg.: Sb. st. i otchetov
[e results of the struggle against hunger in 1921‒1922:Collection of articles and reports] (1922) Moscow: TsK Pomgol VTsIK. (In Russ.)
Korovine E (1920) Compte- rendu de l’activité de la Section
étrangère du Comité central de la Croix- Rouge russe,
du 1er décembre 1918 au 1er novembre 1919. Revue
internationale de la Croix- Rouge 18: 1082–1092.
Prokhorov DP (2005) Skolko stoit prodat Rodinu: predateli
v otechestvennykh spetssluzhbakh. 1918‒2000 gg. [How
Much It Costs to Sell the Motherland: Traitors in the
Fatherland Special Services. 1918‒2000]. St. Petersburg:
Neva. (In Russ.)
Ratmanov PE (2020) Predstavitelstvo Narodnogo komis-
sariata zdravookhraneniya RSFSR v Shveytsarii (pervaya
polovina 1920-kh gg.) [Representation of People’s Com-
missariat of Health of the Soviet Russia in Switzerland
(the first half of the 1920s)]. Trudy po istorii meditsiny
[Writings on the History of Medicine]. Opera medica
historica. Vol. 5. Ed. K. A. Pashkov. Moscow: M-Print.
–92. (In Russ.)
Toman J (2002) Rossiya i Krasnyy Krest (1917‒1945):
Krasnyy Krest v revoliutsionnom gosudarstve. Deya-
telnost MKKK v Rossii posle Oktyabrskoy revolyutsii
goda [Russia and the Red Cross (1917‒1945): e
Red Cross in the Revolutionary State. ICRC activities in
Russia aer the October Revolution of 1917]. 2nd ed.
Moscow: MKKK. (In Russ.)
Venediktov DD (1987) Sovetskiy Krasnyy Krest i zdra-
vookhranenie [Soviet Red Cross and Public Health].
Sovetskoe Zdravookhranenie [Soviet Healthcare] 11:
–44. (In Russ.)
Voronina TYu (2011) Sovetskiy Krasnyy Krest i borba za
sanitarnuyu oboronu v 1930-e gody [Soviet Red Cross
and the struggle for sanitary defense in the 1930s].
Medi tsina Rossii v gody voyny i mira: novyye doku-
menty i issledovaniya [Medicine of Russia in the years
of war and peace: new documents and studies]. Saint
Petersburg: Nestor- Istoriya. P. 433‒450. (In Russ.)
Voronov E (1929) Nekotorye itogi [Some results]. Sbornik
Soyuza obshchestv Krasnogo Kresta i Krasnogo Polu-
mesyatsa SSSR [Collection of the Union of Societies
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent of the USSR]. № 1.
Ed. N. A. Kost. Moscow: Ikrestpol. P. 20–22. (In Russ.)
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
