Abstract

The Doctor in Soviet Russia

The article discusses the position of the doctor under socialized medicine in Soviet Union. It states that as in many other spheres of Russian life, there were in medicine the most diverse extremes of backwardness and enlightenment in general. Standards of medical education were high and certain experimental laboratories and institutions stood at the very forefront of the scientific world. Soviet Union's high achievements in medicine in cities, clinics and hospitals varied in their efficiency and distribution. Good hospitals could be found in all of the larger and many of the smaller cities, but there was no organized effort on the part of the government, either local or central, to insure medical attention to the mass of the people.