The Soviet Sanatorium: Medicine, Nature and Mass Culture in Sochi, 1917-1991

Abstract

In this study, I trace the development and influence of a network of concepts, practices and ideas about nature and health in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 that I call "turning to nature for health." Turning to nature for health sought to reform and re-frame the processes of urbanization and industrialization in Soviet culture. It provided a vocabulary that framed these processes in terms of their influence on health. "Nature" (priroda) was constructed as an antidote to the modern city. In nature, sanatorium visitors sought relief from various "maladies of civilization," understood to result from the poor material conditions, "Americanization," and alienation from nature of urban life. Nature was conceptualized as a source of spiritual renewal, aesthetic pleasure and rest as well as healing and medical therapy. At the center of the culture of turning to nature for health was a constructed division between the profane urban world and the idealized world of nature.