Timeline of healthcare in Russia

This is a timeline of healthcare in Russia. Major events such as crises, policies and organizations are described.

Big picture

Year/period	Key developments
Tsarist Russia	During the times of Slavery in Russia, the health conditions of the population range starting from a calamitous level. Generally, lack of preventive measures against diseases results in a very high mortality rate among both adults and children. Severe sanitary neglect, filth and unhygienic living conditions prevail. Six epidemis of Asiatic cholera strike Russia and claim over 2 million human lives in the country.[1]
1922–1991	Soviet Russia builds a totally socialist health care model (Semashko system) with a centralized, integrated, hierarchically organized with the government providing state-funded health care to all citizens. All health personnel are state employees. Control of communicable diseases have priority over non-communicable ones. On the whole, the system tends to primary care, and places much emphasis on specialist and hospital care. Universal healthcare is established in 1930s and 1940s as part of rapid modernization and industrialization.[2]
1991–2000	Period following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Russia’s statist political economy implodes, and its healthcare system is thrown into crisis. Public expenditures on health decline dramatically, following a decade-long decline in the economy. Health indicators plummet. Male life expectancy decline to below 60 years. Infectious diseases re-emerge and spread, and even childhood immunization programs collapse temporarily in parts of the country.[2]
2000–2010	The Russian healthcare system recovers substantially in terms of financing, performance, organizational coherence and health outcomes. Rapid growth the economy from 2000 to 2007 allows growth in spending for public healthcare[2][3] and by 2006 the figure exceeds the pre-1991 level in real terms.[3] Also there's an increase in life expectancy from 1991-93 levels, and a decrease in infant mortality from 18.1 in 1995 to 8.4 in 2008.[4] By 2010, the worst effects on health indicators reverse.[2] However, health in Russia remains well below the levels of developed countries.
2010–present	Today, Russia's healthare system has recovered substantially from the crisis conditions of the 1990s. However, it is still characterized by its low efficiency, with outcomes similar to those of countries far less developed. As of 2016, life expectancy in Russia is lower that those of countries like Belize, Nepal and Bangladesh.[2][5]

Timeline

Year/period	Type of event	Event	Location
1601–1603	Crisis	The Russian famine of 1601–03 is considered the Russia's worst famine in terms of proportional effect on the population, with deceases estimated at two million people. The famine is part of worldwide record cold winters and crop disruption, which in 2008 geologists linked to the 1600 volcanic eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru.[6]
1748	Organization	City hospital No. 40 is founded.[7]	Saint Petersburg
1758	Organization	I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is established.[8]	Moscow
1770–1772	Crisis	1770–1772 Russian plague. It is the last massive outbreak of plague in central Russia, claiming between 52 and 100 thousand lives in Moscow alone (1/6 to 1/3 of its population). Originated in Moldova.[9]	Central Russia, Moldova, Ukraine
1814	Organization	Kazan State Medical University is founded.[10]	Kazan
1891–1892	Crisis	Russian famine of 1891–2. Originated along the Volga River, it spreads as far as the Urals and Black Sea. Between fourteen and twenty million people are estimated to be affected, of which 375,000 to 400,000 died, mostly of disease.[11]	Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Ryazan Oblast, Ryazan Oblast, Republic of Tatarstan, Ulyanovsk Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Penza Oblast, Samara Oblast and Tambov Oblast.
1897	Organization	First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg is established.[12]	Saint Petersburg
1906	Organization	The Russian National Research Medical University is established.[13]	Moscow
1910	Organization	Lesnoye Sanatorium is founded. Its main focus is tuberculosis treatment.[14]	Tolyatti
1915	Organization	The Anglo-Russian Hospital is founded. It is set up during the First World War. Closed in 1918.[15]	Petrograd
1920	Organization	Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy is founded.[16]	Nizhny Novgorod
1920	Organization	The Medical Faculty of the Siberian Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Zoology is founded. Today Omsk Medical Academy.[17]	Omsk
1921–1922	Crisis	1921–22 famine in Tatarstan. It is calculated that more than 2,000,000 peasants starved, particularly in Arsk, Sviyazhsk, Mamadysh, Menzelinsk, Spassk, Tetyushi and Chelny cantons.	Tatarstan
1921	Organization	The Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry is founded. The institution has garnered negative publicity because many Soviet dissidents were examined there and then sent to psychiatric hospitals.	Moscow
1922	Organization	Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry is founded.[18]	Moscow
1925	Organization	Saint Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University is established.[19]	Leningrad
1935	Organization	Kursk State Medical University is established.[20]	Kursk
1935	Organization	Novosibirsk State Medical Academy is founded as Novosibirsk State Medical University.[21]	Novosibirsk
1935	Organization	Stalingrad Medical Institute is founded.[22]	Stalingrad
1936	Organization	Leningrad Dental Institute is founded. Later transferred to Tver and renamed Tver State Medical Academy.[23]	Leningrad
1938	Publication	Military Medical Business (Военно Санитарное Дело) is launched as a professional medical journal of the Worker's and Peasant's Red Army.[24]
1944	Organization	The USSR Academy of Medical Sciences is founded.[25]
1944	Organization	Yaroslavl State Medical Academy is founded.[26]	Yaroslavl
1947	Organization	The Federal Biomedical Agency is formed. It is the national public health institute of the Russian Federation.[27]	Moscow
1951	Organization	The Leningrad Special Psychiatric Hospital of Prison Type of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs is founded.[28]	Leningrad
1955	Publication	Zdoroviye (Russian: Здоровье; literally "Health") is founded as a health magazine.[29]
1955	Policy	Abortion is legalized for medical reasons (and for overall reasons in 1968).[30]
1956	Organization	Bakulev Scientific Center of Cardiovascular Surgery is founded. It is one of the leading cardiovascular surgery-related facilities of the Russian Federation.[31]	Moscow
1956	Organization	Vladivostok State Medical University is established.[32]	Vladivostok
1957	Organization	The Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation is founded.[33]	Moscow
1971	Organization	The Russian Ilizarov Scientific Center for Restorative Traumatology and Orthopaedics is founded. The center is the largest in the world that specializes in the treatment of complex orthopaedic problems.[34]	Kurgan
1977		People's Doctor of the USSR (Russian: Народный врач СССР) is established as an honorary title conferred by the Supreme Soviet's presidency on behalf of the Ministry of Health. Bestowed to individual medical doctors and nurses but also to health care structures as general hospitals, sanatoriums, maternity wards or preventive medicine centers.
1979	Crisis	Sverdlovsk anthrax leak. Spores of anthrax are accidentally released from a military facility. This accident is sometimes called "biological Chernobyl". Approximately 100 deaths are estimated.[35]	Sverdlovsk
1987	Policy	After the first case of AIDS is confirmed in Russia, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union passes the strictest anti-AIDS law in the world, making the knowing transmittal of the infection a criminal offense punishable by up to eight years in jail.[30]
1988	Organization	Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex is founded by Russian eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov.[36]	Moscow
1988	Organization	The Fyodorov Eye Microsurgery Complex is founded as a clinical and research ophthalmological center.[37]	Moscow. Branches in Cheboksary, Irkutsk, Kaluga, Khabarovsk, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Leningrad, Tambov, Volgograd, and Sverdlovsk.
1989	Organization	The Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia is founded. It first psychiatric association in the USSR not controlled by the State.[38]	Moscow
1992	Organization	The USSR Academy of Medical Sciences is succeeded by the newly founded Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.[39]
1992	Organization	The MSU Faculty of Fundamental Medicine is founded.[40]	Moscow
1993	Policy	Article 41 of the 1993 constitution confirms a citizen's right to healthcare and medical assistance free of charge.[41]
1993	Policy	The 89 Russian regions share responsibility for health policy with the federal government. Nine supra-regional economic groupings are formed with no political or administrative power.[42]
1995	Policy	New law stipulates that all visitors remaining more than three months must provide documentation proving that they are not infected with HIV.[30]
1996	Policy	Government health facilities are allowed to offer private services.[43]
2001	Organization	Humanitarian Action is founded as a non-governmental charitable organization. It carries out programs and outreach for HIV/AIDS prevention, and aiding street children, intravenous drug users, and sex workers.[44]	Saint Petersburg
2003	Organization	The Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being (NDPHS) is formed as a transnational cooperative effort of nine governments, the European Commission and eight international organisations to tackle challenges regarding health and social well-being issues in the Northern Dimension area.[45]	Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden
2003	Organization	Saint Petersburg Children’s Hospice is founded as a non-profit institution of pediatric palliative care for minors under 18 years.[46]	Saint Petersburg
2005	Campaign	Following a relatively high rate of infection, the Russian government starts a massive increase in expenditure against HIV/AIDS, and a network of regional AIDS centers is established.[2]
2006		The Minister of Health Mikhail Zurabov and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Health Protection Nikolai Gerasimenko propose reinstating the Soviet-era tax on childlessness, which ended in 1992.[47]
2006	Campaign	The Russian government launches a national projects plan that approved an additional $3.2 billion in spending on health care, covering the salaries of doctors and nurses, the purchase of medical equipment, and the construction of eight high-tech medical centers in Russia’s outlying regions.[36]
2007	Report	Russia experiences the highest birth rate since the collapse of the USSR.[48]
2010	Policy	The Russian Government adopts a National Anti-Tobacco Policy Concept, based on ratification of the WHO 2008 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.[2]
2011		Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announces a large-scale health-care reform and pledges to allocate more than 300 billion rubles ($10 billion) in the next few years to improve health care in the country.[49]
2011	Policy	Private providers start to provide services to the state-insured.[43]
2011	Organization	The Federal Center of Neurosurgery is founded.[50]	Tyumen
2012	Organization	The Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation succeeds the former Ministry of Health and Social Development.[51]	Moscow
2012	Policy	Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signs the May Decrees which includes a plan to double the wages of healthcare staff by 2018 and gradual privatization of state health services.[43]
2013	Development	United Medical Information and Analytical System of Moscow (EMIAS) is released as a complex information system that automatises the booking of hospital visits and work of medical professionals.[52]	Moscow
2014		Wage rises in Moscow leads to the closure of 15 hospitals and 7000 redundancies.[43]	Moscow
2016	Report	Life expectancy in Russia is estimated at 67.42 years, being ranked 171th out of 228 political subdivisions.[5]

See also

• Healthcare in Russia
• Timeline of healthcare in Germany
• Timeline of healthcare in France
• Timeline of healthcare in Italy

References

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