THE SMALLPOX VACCINATION OF TRANSBAIKALIAN REGULAR COSSACK ARMY

Abstract

The death rate from smallpox outbreaks during the prerevolutionary period was enormous. Both newborns and elderly people were getting sick. The extremely high death rate in the Transbaikalian region persisted due to the socio-economic, ethnocultural, and territorial peculiarities. Both the native and alien population suffered from regular smallpox outbreaks. Thus, the population loss and unstable epidemiological situation in the border area of the Transbaikalian region acquired military and political significance, especially in the field of the Far East diplomacy of the Russian government. Under these circumstances, the establishment of the Transbaikalian Cossack army in 1851 aimed to protect the Russian-Chinese border and to maintain internal order in the region. The need for the regular operational readiness of the Transbaikalian Cossack army consisting of the Russian, Buryat, and Tungus men required providing the conditions for efficient medical protection of the military officials and their families against smallpox outbreaks. That is why the preservation and strengthening of the gene pool of the Transbaikalian region inhabitants was the state’s top priority. So, in 1885, the statute for smallpox vaccination in the Transbaikalian region was prepared and signed by the Emperor. It provided the aims, objectives, and the methods for achieving the effective smallpox vaccination.