Making Soviet Medical History: an Article by Ilya Strashun for the 1936 Encyclopedia

The “History of Medicine” as an independent scientific discipline took shape in the Soviet period and became an autonomous research space. The main and first text describing the disciplinary rationale and main scientific principles of medical history was the encyclopedic article “Medicine”. It was written by Ilya Strashun for the first edition of the Great Medical Encyclopedia and was published in 1936 in volume 17. This text was the result of a Soviet experiment in disciplinary construction in which medicine was articulated in a new system of coordinates. In this article, drawing on the methods of discourse analysis proposed by Michel Foucault and Umberto Eco, the author attempts to examine the history of the text and to relate it to pre-existing narratives on medical history. The author analyses ways of adapting the existing practices of describing the history of medicine to the new Soviet language. Particular Attention is paid to the identification of the discourse’s types included in the text of the article and the emergence among them of discursive elements unconventional for the Soviet text. The concluding section there is a reference to the role of historical science in the creation of the encyclopedic text and the cumulative status of the history of medicine. The I. D. Strashun's role in establishing a new discourse order and the systematization of the accumulated knowledge of medical history is revealed.

Keywords

history of medicine, Ilya Strashun, Great Medical Encyclopedia, disciplinary history, history of ideas, discourse analysis, Soviet history

Received

15.09.2022

Publication date

15.06.2024

Number of characters

30915

Cite

GOST	Belik K. Making Soviet Medical History: an Article by Ilya Strashun for the 1936 Encyclopedia // ISTORIYA – 2024. – V. 15. – Issue 4 (138) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840031362-7-1 (circulation date: 01.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031362-7
MLA	Belik, Kseniya "Making Soviet Medical History: an Article by Ilya Strashun for the 1936 Encyclopedia." ISTORIYA 15.4 (138) (2024) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031362-7
APA	Belik K. (2024). Making Soviet Medical History: an Article by Ilya Strashun for the 1936 Encyclopedia. ISTORIYA 15(4 (138)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840031362-7

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 5

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Bogomazova O. V. Sovetskie ehntsiklopedii 1920—1960-kh godov kak istochnik istoriograficheskikh predstavlenij // Vestnik Chelyabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2014. № 22 (351). S. 161—166.

2. Bol'shaya meditsinskaya ehntsiklopediya: v 35 t. / otv. red. N. A. Semashko. M., 1934. T. 17.

3. Brokgauz F. A. Ehntsiklopedicheskij slovar' / pod red. prof. I. E. Andreevskogo. SPb., 1890—1907. T. 18a: Maloletstvo-Mejshagola. 1896.

4. Brusilovskij L. Ya. Kak sozdavalas' Bol'shaya Meditsinskaya Ehntsiklopediya. M.; L.: OGIZ BIOMEDGIZ, 1936.

5. Vol'fson M. B. Malaya sovetskaya ehntsiklopediya — novoe dostizhenie proletarskoj diktatury. M.: Sovet. ehntsikl., 1929.

6. Gorelova L. E., Kasimovskaya N. A. Osnovateli pervykh kafedr istorii meditsiny i sotsial'noj gigieny v SSSR // Problemy sotsial'noj gigieny, zdravookhraneniya i istorii meditsiny. 2015. № 3. S. 56—59.

7. Zatravkin S. N., Vishlenkova E. A. «Kluby» i «getto» sovetskogo zdravookhraneniya. M.: ShIKO, 2022.

8. Instruktsiya avtoram Bol'shoj Meditsinskoj Ehntsiklopedii. M.: AO «Sovetskaya ehntsiklopediya», 1928.

9. Lenin V. I. Tri istochnika i tri sostavnykh chasti marksizma. Polnoe sobranie sochinenij. T. 19.

10. Marks K., Ehngel's F. Sochineniya. T. 23. M.: Politizdat, 1960.

11. Orlova N. V. Ehntsiklopedicheskaya stat'ya: tri diskursa odnogo zhanra // Zhanry rechi. 2015. № 2 (12). S. 63—71.

12. Fuko M. Arkheologiya znaniya. SPb.: Gumanitarnaya akad., 2012.

13. Ehko U. Skazat' pochti to zhe samoe: opyty o perevode. SPb.: Simpozium, 2006.

14. Zatravkin S., Vishlenkova E. A. Ghost Textbook on the History of Medicine: A Case Study of the Legacy of a Stalinist Scholarly Canon // European Education, 2020, Vol.52. No. 3. P. 257—270.