1770–1772 Russian plague
The Russian plague epidemic of 1770–1772, also known as the Plague of 1771, was the last large-scale outbreak of
Outbreak
Russian troops in
Medical
Moscow plague
When
Catherine II inherited the throne in 1762 and recognized the social concerns her empire was facing, such as the drastic increase in pollution and decrease in living standards. In 1767, her government decreed that the polluting factories, slaughterhouses, fish markets, and cemeteries be removed from the city, that it was illegal to pollute the waterways, and that dumps be established. Her goal in this was to westernize Moscow as well as St. Petersburg. She contended that by eliminating the foul smells associated with the city, the health of the inhabitants would improve; during the 18th century, the miasma theory (that disease came from bad smells) was prevalent. By moving the factories out of the city proper, Catherine also ensured a dispersal of the peasants and serfs, whom the city considered to be the source of the putrefaction, and therefore bring the source of the disease outside the city as well.[9] As her memoires indicate, Catherine herself saw the stench and filth of the city as evidence of its being rooted in the past, before Russia became westernized.[8] She hated Moscow, and before the plague outbreak, Moscow had no formal boundaries, there was no population count, and no real city planning.[9] This lack of planning was also evidenced by the fact that the city was mostly still built from wood, despite the government urging change to stone structures in this department. While there were some stone buildings, they tended to be located in the center of the city, and the use of stone showed no real sign of spreading.[9] There were fires, there was a high crime rate, the filth was unimaginable; the state of the city was a set up for disaster. Catherine attempted to fix these problems through pardons, case reviews, creating jobs for the unemployed and homeless, and strengthening the local government.[citation needed]
Despite her efforts to change the city, Catherine found herself facing an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the Russian Empire in 1770. The plague was somewhat of a constant threat in early modern Europe; no one could be sure where or when it would strike. In 1765, rumors circulated that the plague had traveled north from the Ottoman Empire into Poland.[10] The same rumors echoed over the course of the next year, with the plague also supposedly appearing in Constantinople and the Crimea. There was a false alarm of the plague entering Russian territory, and another false alarm of supposed plague around Moscow that turned out to be smallpox. There were efforts made to keep plague out of Russia by creating quarantine stations on the southern border, but these proved to be ineffective.[10]
In December 1770, a Doctor A. F. Shafonskiy, the chief physician at the Moscow General Hospital, identified a case of the bubonic plague and promptly reported it to German doctor A. Rinder, who was in charge of the public health of the city.[11] Unfortunately, Rinder did not trust the former's judgment, and ignored the report. The next day, the Medical Council met and established the fact that the plague had entered the city, and informed the Senate in St. Petersburg. The response of the national government was to send military guards to the hospital in order to quarantine the cases. However, Shafonskiy and Rinder continued to stand on opposing sides, until Rinder denied Shafonskiy's claim in January 1771. Shafonskiy submitted a report in February[citation needed]
Riot
The plague peaked in September 1771, killing an estimated thousand Muscovites a day (20,401 confirmed dead in September), despite the fact that an estimated three quarters of the population fled the city.[7] Many deaths escaped the statistics: residents, fearing that the infested properties would be destroyed by authorities, routinely concealed the casualties, burying the dead at night or simply throwing them on the streets. Authorities set up chain gangs of prisoners to collect and bury the bodies, but their forces were insufficient even for this single task.[citation needed]
Governor Saltykov, failing to control the situation, preferred to desert his station and fled to his country estate; the police chief followed suit.[6] Jacon Lerche, the newly appointed sanitary inspector of Moscow, declared state of emergency, shutting down shops, inns, taverns, factories and even churches; the city was placed under quarantine. Masses of people, literally thrown into the streets, were denied their regular trade and recreation habits.[7] On September 15, 1771, Moscow residents revolted against the authorities. The mob perceived any emergency measures of the state as a conspiracy to spread the disease. In particular, archbishop Amvrosy, who removed a revered icon from the public to curtail transmission of the disease by worshippers, was accused of conspiracy, hunted down and killed as an "enemy of the people". Active rioting continued for three days. The remaining unrest was finally subdued by Grigory Orlov in the end of September.[citation needed]
Emergency measures post infection out-break
When the riot was still unwinding, empress Catherine dispatched Grigory Orlov to take control of Moscow; it is not clear whether her choice was an assignment in good faith or an attempt to get rid of a former lover and a leader of an influential political clan.[6] Orlov, accompanied by Gustav Orreus and four regiments of troops, arrived in Moscow on September 26, immediately calling an emergency council with local doctors. They confirmed presence of both bubonic and septicemic forms of plague.[7] Orlov established and supervised an executive medical commission charged with developing the ways to check the epidemic. More important, he succeeded in changing public opinion in favor of the state's emergency measures, at the same improving the efficiency and quality of medical quarantine (in particular, varying quarantine duration for different groups of exposed but yet healthy people, and paying them for the quarantine stay).[1]
The epidemic in Moscow, although still rampant in October, gradually reduced through the year. November 15 Catherine declared that it was officially over, but deaths continued into 1772. Estimates of total death toll in Moscow range from 52 to 100 thousand out of total 300 thousand.[1]
Month | September | October | November | December | January 1772 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deaths (Moscow)[12] | 20,401
|
17,651
|
5,235
|
805
|
330
|
Consequences
The plague stimulated local research in disease prevention, which was boosted by discovering indigenous plague in newly conquered territories of the
Immediate political effect
Devastation caused by the plague forced the government to reduce taxes and military conscription quotas in the affected provinces; both measures decreased the military capabilities of the state and pushed Catherine to seek
City planning
In a move to control disease, authorities banned any burials in the traditional parish cemeteries inside the city of Moscow. Instead, they set up a chain of new cemeteries outside the city limits. This ring of cemeteries, established in 1771 (
See also
- List of epidemics
- Second plague pandemic
Notes
References
- Alexander, John T. (2003). Bubonic plague in early modern Russia: public health and urban disaster. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 978-0-19-515818-2.
- Gorelova, L. E. (2004). "Chuma v Moskve 1771–1773 (Чума в Москве (1771–73 гг.)" (in Russian).
- Melikishvili, Alexander (2006). "Genesis of the anti-plague system: the Tsarist period" (PDF). Critical Reviews in Microbiology. 36 (1): 19–31. S2CID 7420734.
- Mertens, Charles de (1977). "An account of plague which raged in Moscow 1771 (facsimile of 1799 edition)". Oriental Research Papers. 8 (2): 37–127. PMC 1082449.
- Sergey Solovyov (1872). History of Russia from the Earliest Times. Vol. 28.