7.1. THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY. HEALTHCARE IN RUSSIA BEFORE THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION OF 1917
There is no common vision among historians on what period of time to call the contemporary period (or even what event to consider the beginning of contemporary history). Domestic experts decided to consider the year 1917 (the Great October Revolution), the event that fostered a new era in the humankind history, to be the beginning of that period. That being said, some think of the contemporary period as a time that started in the ealry 20th century. That is the way it is going to be; we will devote the last chapter to the 20th century.
It must be said that this is the most difficult period to describe; the events that happened then are not even comparable to other epochs.
In the 20th century, the third stage of the scientific and technical revolution full of events and new knowledge took place. This revolution literally rushed into medicine and brought a mass of information, 80% of all facts, theories and all the new that had been known to science and technology before the 20th century.
The 20th century was full of the greatest geopolitical events, revolutionary changes in the field of politics, society and economics. As part of this textbook, we will go with the most important events and founders of the biggest schools; we will try to summarize theoretical and practical facts on the medicine and health care of the 20th century.
Passing over the details of the well-known historical events in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (the pre-war recovery of industry, the rise of social-democratic workers' parties, the February Revolution of 1905, foreign intervention on the threshold of October Insurrection, the civil war, the devastation, famine and other tragic events in the Russian history at the convergence of two centuries), we will discuss some facts from the healthcare of that period of time.