Olga S. Nagornykh, Nataliya P. Shok
The article is devoted to the study of organization of the Soviet doctors and specialists’ business trips to China in the 1950s-1960s. The goal is to determine the tasks of trips, their features, and results. The work also demonstrates previously unknown facts in historiography, based on archival data, concerning the continuation of cooperation in the field of medicine after the rupture of diplomatic relations between the USSR and China. The content of the work is based on the materials of the Central and regional national archives. There is a contradiction in the assessment of the described events from the Soviet and foreign historiography’s point of view. The content of Soviet doctors’ trips organized by the Ministry of health of the USSR is considered. On the basis of business trips’ reports of participants, the personal impression and views of the historical situation is noted. Issues of cooperation in the field of epidemiology, production of antibiotics, organization of sanitary traffic were touched upon. Through redefining attitude towards the value of traditional methods of treatment and diagnosis, the points of intersection and interaction of traditions and Soviet innovations in the Chinese health system of the 1950s are determined, as well as the approbation of Chinese medicine methods in the practice of Soviet doctors (on specific historical examples). The significance of these methods is discussed, as well as the relevance of their application in modern history in the historical and socio-cultural context. This article notes that in the framework of bilateral agreements on scientific and technical cooperation between the countries, Soviet specialists regularly came to China to build medical campuses, assist in the organization of hospitals, and regulate anti-epidemic measures. But cooperation in the field of medicine concerned not only doctors’ trips to China. Trips of technical specialists from the USSR were also an important part of organizing assistance with health care, medical and pharmaceutical industries in China. They provided significant support in the development of medical infrastructure, establishing the production of pharmaceutical industry (mainly antibiotics, etc.). Taking into account a need to reduce any ties and contacts between medical workers of both countries, the Soviet side continued to insist on the expediency of continuing the exchange of such delegations. It is important to note that cooperation was resumed later in the 1980s. The fact of cooperation’s start in the field of medicine, which began earlier than the restoration of political relations, is interesting from a scientific point of view. It is revealed that the ethical component of the Chinese medicine combined the ideological basis of socialism and national spiritual values.
