Fighters for New Life: Doctors, Medicine, and Modernity in Soviet Central Asia, 1925-1953

This thesis examines Soviet medicine in Central Asia from the mid-1920s until Stalin's death in 1953, using this subject to explore the tensions and contradictions of Soviet socialism in the region. Previous studies have demonstrated how Soviet rule in Central Asia could appear simultaneously as a form of empire, reifying differences between ruler and ruled, and as a universalizing project of modern statehood, aimed at transforming diverse peoples into a homogeneous citizenry. Yet scholars have rarely explored why and how these contradictory tendencies could coexist within the Soviet project. Through the lens of medical discourse, this thesis examines the nexus of colonizing and modernizing impulses within Soviet power, arguing that these tendencies proved interrelated and even mutually supporting within the Soviet imagination of Central Asia. Considering medicine as an important element of socialist construction, it explores the seemingly colonial structure of the universalizing, anticolonial project of Soviet modernity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

European, Russian and Eurasian Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Eby, Marek

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2016 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2016-11217

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/39290