44 days at the edge of the abyss. How Moscow was saved from the smallpox epidemic

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In 1959, exactly in the middle between the two great space achievements - the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite and the flight of Yuri Gagarin - the capital of the USSR was threatened with mass extinction as a result of an epidemic of a terrible disease. All the might of the Soviet state was used to prevent the catastrophe.

The trouble with a pretty name

Variola, variola vera - beautiful Latin words have terrified humanity for centuries. In 737 AD, the smallpox virus wiped out about 30 percent of Japan's population. In Europe, smallpox, starting from the 6th century, annually killed tens and hundreds of thousands of people. Sometimes whole cities became deserted from this disease.

By the 15th century, among European doctors, the opinion began to prevail that the disease with smallpox is inevitable, and you can only help the sick to recover, but their fate is entirely in the hands of God.

Introduced by the conquistadors to America, smallpox became one of the reasons for the total extinction of representatives of the historical American civilization.

British historian Thomas Macaulaydescribing the realities of the 18th century in England, he wrote about smallpox: “A pestilence or plague was more deadly, but it visited our coast only once or twice in the memory of people, while smallpox persistently stayed between us, filling the cemeteries with the dead, tormenting constant the fear of all those who have not yet been sick with her, leaving on the faces of the people whose lives she has spared, ugly signs, like a stigma of her power, making the child unrecognizable for his own mother, turning the beautiful bride into an object of disgust in the eyes of the groom."

In general, by the beginning of the 19th century, up to 1.5 million people died from smallpox in Europe every year.

The empress's example did not help. It took commissioners in dusty helmets

The disease did not make class distinctions - it killed both commoners and royalty. In Russia, smallpox killed a young Emperor Peter IIand nearly cost a life Peter III … The consequences of the transferred smallpox affected the appearance of the Soviet leader. Joseph Stalin.

The fight against smallpox by introducing a weakened infection to a person in order to develop his immunity was practiced in the East even in the time of Avicenna - it was about the so-called method of variolation.

The vaccination method began to be used in Europe in the 18th century. In Russia, this method was introduced Catherine the Great, specially for this invited from England physician Thomas Dimsdale.

A complete victory over smallpox could be won only on condition of universal vaccination of the population, but neither the empress's personal example nor her decrees could solve this problem. Vaccination methods were imperfect, the mortality rate of those vaccinated remained high, the level of doctors was low. But what can I say - there was simply not enough doctors to resolve the issue on a national scale.

In addition, the low level of education led to the fact that people have a superstitious fear of vaccinations. What can we say about the peasants, if even in St. Petersburg vaccination campaigns were carried out with the help of the police.

Conversations about the need to solve the problem in Russia continued throughout the 19th century, capturing the beginning of the 20th century.

However, only the Bolsheviks were able to cut the Gordian knot. In 1919, at the height of the Civil War, a decree was issued by the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR "On compulsory vaccination."

The commissars in dusty helmets and leather jackets began to act on the principle of persuasion and coercion. The Bolsheviks did much better than their predecessors.

If in 1919 there were 186,000 cases of smallpox, then in five years - only 25,000. By 1929, the number of cases fell to 6094, and in 1936 smallpox was completely eradicated in the USSR.

Indian voyage of the Stalinist laureate

If in the Land of the Soviets the disease was defeated, then in other countries of the world, especially in Asia and Africa, it continued to do its dirty deed. Therefore, Soviet citizens traveling to dangerous regions were required to be vaccinated.

In 1959, the 53-year-old graphic artist Alexey Alekseevich Kokorekin, a propaganda poster master, laureate of two Stalin prizes, was preparing for a trip to Africa. As expected, he needed to be vaccinated against smallpox. There are several versions of why the prescribed medical procedures were not carried out - according to one, Kokorekin himself asked for this, according to the other, something went wrong with the doctors.

Graphic artist Alexey Alekseevich Kokorekin. Frame youtube.com

But, be that as it may, the fatal circumstance was that the mark on the vaccination was affixed to him.

The trip to Africa did not take place, but a few months later the artist went to India - a country where at that time blackpox was widespread, like buckwheat in Russia.

Kokorekin's journey turned out to be eventful. In particular, he visited the cremation of a local Brahmin, and even bought a carpet that was sold among other things of the deceased. For what reason the Indian lost his life, the locals did not speak, and the artist himself did not consider it necessary to find out.

Ten days before the new year, 1960, Aleksey Alekseevich arrived in Moscow, and immediately generously presented his relatives and friends with souvenirs from India. He attributed the malaise that appeared upon his return to fatigue from travel and a long flight.

Yes it is, my friend, smallpox

Kokorekin went to a polyclinic, where he was diagnosed with influenza and given the appropriate medications. But the artist's condition continued to deteriorate.

Two days later, he was admitted to the Botkin hospital. Doctors continued to treat him for a severe flu, attributing the appearance of the strange rash to an allergy from antibiotics.

The situation was getting worse, and desperate attempts by doctors to change anything the result did not give. On December 29, 1959, Alexey Kokorekin died.

It happens that in such cases, doctors quickly draw up documents on death, but here the situation was somewhat different. Not anyone died, but an honored art worker of the RSFSR, an influential and famous person, and doctors could not give a clear answer to the question of what exactly killed him.

Different witnesses describe the moment of truth in different ways. Surgeon Yuri Shapiro in his memoirs claimed that pathologist Nikolay KraevskyBaffled by the strange results of his research, he invited his colleague from Leningrad, who was visiting Moscow, for a consultation.

The 75-year-old veteran of medicine, glancing at the tissues of the unfortunate artist, calmly said: "Yes, my friend, variola vera is black pox."

What happened at that moment with Kraevsky, as well as with the entire leadership of the Botkin Hospital, history is silent. To justify them, one can say that by that time in the USSR, doctors had not met with smallpox for almost a quarter of a century, so it is not surprising that they did not recognize it.

Race with death

The situation was disastrous. Several people from the hospital staff, as well as patients, showed signs of the disease, which they managed to catch from Kokorekin.

But before getting to the hospital, the artist managed to communicate with a lot of people. This meant that a smallpox pestilence could begin in Moscow within a few days.

The state of emergency was reported to the very top. By order of the party and government, the forces of the KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Soviet Army, the Ministry of Health and a number of other departments were used to suppress the development of the epidemic.

The best operatives of the country within a matter of hours worked out all of Kokorenin's connections and tracked his every step after returning to the USSR - where he was, with whom he communicated, to whom he gave what. They identified not only friends and acquaintances, but also members of the customs control shift who met the flight of the artist, the taxi driver who was taking him home, the district doctor and employees of the clinic, etc.

One of Kokorekin's acquaintances, who talked to him after his return, went to Paris himself. This fact was established when the Aeroflot flight was in the air. The plane was immediately returned to Moscow, and everyone on board was quarantined.

By January 15, 1960, 19 people had been diagnosed with smallpox. It was a real race with death, in which the cost of falling behind was equal to the lives of thousands of people.

With all the might of Soviet power

A total of 9342 contactees were identified, of which about 1500 were primary contactees. The latter were quarantined in hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region, the rest were monitored at home. For 14 days, doctors examined them twice a day.

But this was not enough. The Soviet government intended to "crush the reptile" so that it would not have even the smallest chance of rebirth.

On an urgent basis, the production of vaccines began in volumes that were supposed to meet the needs of the entire population of Moscow and the Moscow region. The still not forgotten military motto "Everything for the front, everything for victory" was again in demand, forcing people to squeeze the maximum out of themselves.

26 963 health workers were put under the gun, 3391 vaccination centers were opened, plus 8522 vaccination teams were organized to work in organizations and housing offices.

By January 25, 1960, 5,559,670 Muscovites and more than 4,000,000 residents of the Moscow region were vaccinated. Never before has such a large-scale operation been carried out to vaccinate the population in such a short time.

The last case of smallpox in Moscow was recorded on February 3, 1960. Thus, 44 days passed from the moment of the introduction of the infection to the end of the outbreak of the epidemic. It took only 19 (!!!) days from the moment the emergency response measures began to completely stop the epidemic.

The final result of the outbreak of smallpox in Moscow is 45 cases, of which three died.

More variola vera did not break free in the USSR. And detachments of "special forces" of Soviet doctors, swarmed with domestically produced vaccines, attacked smallpox in the most remote corners of the planet. In 1978, the World Health Organization reported - the disease was completely eradicated.

Soviet children were vaccinated against smallpox until the early 1980s. Only after making sure that the enemy was completely defeated, with no chance of returning, this procedure was abandoned.

In the Soviet Union, it was not customary to write about such emergency situations. On the one hand, it helped to avoid panic. On the other hand, the real feat of thousands of people who saved Moscow from a terrible disaster remained in the shadows.