Is it true that Catherine II was the first in the Russian Empire, who vaccinated against smallpox?

There is a widespread opinion that the Empress was the first in the country to vaccinate in smallpox in order to inspire people with her example. We decided to check if this is so.

Information that Catherine II was the first to test the variration from natural smallpox on themselves can be found in various media: they write about this Deutsche Welle, "Arguments and Facts", "Russian newspaper". This was stated by the former Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and former chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko. There is also a mention that the empress was the first person in the Russian Empire to be vaccinated, there is an official resource on the fight against coronavirus, on site State Museum "Tsarskoye Selo" and on the page Rospotrebnadzor.

Medicine historians have not yet agreed on the time of the appearance of smallpox. Descriptions of a similar disease are found in Bible, and c Qur'an. Scientists suggestthat the virus of natural smallpox could isolate from its progenitor between 68,000 and 16,000 years ago. Unlike the plague, which happened to separate outbreaks, natural smallpox was constantly in the population. At the end of the 16th century, the English medic Kilwai in his treatise on Ottop celebratedthat there is no need to "go into a detailed description of this disease, since it is well known to everyone." Brought from Europe, disease I became The cause of death is not one hundred thousand Aztecs and Indians. Mortality in some epidemics I reached up to 90%.

One of the first written references to OSPI in the Russian state dates back to 1427 - in the Nikon Chronicle Describedthat "the mor is great in all the hails of Russians in all lands, and they froze ...". During the reign of Fedor Alekseevich, in 1680 he was published decree, forbidding to appear at the court to those who had a suffering from a “firing or fever and osopa or other serious diseases” in the house. Presumably, precisely because of Violations In 1730, this decree was Prince Sergey Petrovich Dolgoruky, who had children at home, and the grandson of Peter I, Peter II, died.

Catherine II is very feared The smallpox, especially taking into account the fact that her husband Peter III was ill in adolescence and had characteristic ottest marks on his face. “I was scared: all the ladies invited with us for lunch to General Apraksin, now and then scurried back and forth from the room of this sick child to the chambers where we were. But this time I got off with fear " - Describes Catherine II her visit to General Apraksin, whose daughter at that moment was ill with smallpox. On May 28, 1768, Countess Anna Petrovna Sheremeteva, Freilina Catherine II, died of smallpox just a few days before her wedding. Then the empress made the final decision. She invited Tomas Dimsdale from London from London. Understanding that adults after variration is quite high in the risk of getting ill, the doctor initially invites her to put experience and instill several people of her age and physique. However, the empress was already decisively configured, and on October 12, 1768, Dimsdale instilled in her OSPU taken from the hand of a six -year -old boy Sasha Markov. It is worth noting that the empress was by no means sure of a favorable outcome. This testifies to her order Keep the horses harness constantly in time, so that Dimsdale can leave the country and avoid lynching.

However, it would be the first to say that Catherine II was the first to dare in such a procedure in the Russian Empire. Planting from smallpox method was practiced in separate provinces much earlier: in Little Russia, Kazan province, Turkestan Territory. For example, Circassians have always been instilled in children, as soon as they reached six months of age. However, this practice did not have spread among the nobility. Over ten years (in 1756) before historical vaccination, the variration began practice Tartu Dr. August Wilhelm Shulenius in the Livonia province. The local landowner, captain Karl von Liphart, handed over to the doctor two peasant children in order to test the variration in Europe gaining popularity in Europe. Information about this left Friedrich Konrad Gadebush in the Treatise "Livonskaya Library in alphabetical order" in 1777. After a successful experiment, Schulenius also instilled in Liphart's children (son Rhingold and seven daughters, including Efrosinya-Ulrika- Grandmother Natalia Goncharova, wife of Alexander Pushkin) and younger children pastor Eisen, whose older children died from smallpox earlier. It is known that in the Livonian province Shulenius Spent 1023 varioculation, having lost only one patient whose relatives hid that he was already sick at the time of vaccination. He also varied two sons and Daughters Fabiana Adam von Stackelberg, in the marriage of Orlova, maids of honor and close friend of Catherine II.

Pastor Eisen also learned to conduct variration and opened at the local church school the courses of the dispute, on which he trained 45 rural mothers, who then had to practice her in their villages for children from the same age. Eat intelligencethat the Tallian doctor Peter Friedrich Kerber has practiced variration before 1760, and since 1763, Frederick (Fedor) Ludwig Ryul also begins to conduct it on an ongoing basis. So more than one thousand children were vaccinated much earlier than the empress.

Moreover, variration was carried out in the capital. She began practice In 1764, Andrey Gavrilovich Bacherakht, Summing up The intermediate results of their activities in the brochure of 1769 "Description and instruction on the vaccination of smallpox." He is in her reportsthat “we have in Livonia and in St. Petersburg, although the Osopa was also known for several years and many with the desired success were made, in Livonia through Mr. Schulenius, and in Petersburg in 1764, the headquarters of Kelhen through me and Mr. Kelhen, but so small and especially produced experiments were by no means strong. use. A strong example was required, which is a great Catherine <...> shown. "

And in 1766, the scientific secretary of the Medical College of Christian Beijing did The report "A way to be destroyed by rural inhabitants in OSP." A year later, on December 11, 1767, deputy of the medical board Dr. Grigory Fedorovich ASh at a meeting of the commission told On the successes of disputing in Estonia and Livonia, saying that "an artificial infection of this disease should be recognized as the right means to protect the Russian population from ottest epidemics."

Already in the last year of the Empress’s life, British doctor Edward Jennner May 14, 1796 Spent The first experiment to instill a healthy person with the contents of the pustule from the patient not human, but cow smallpox. This method of vaccination gradually replaced the variration.

Thus, Catherine II really set an important example to the country's population, however, it is incorrect to call it the first -vaccinated against smallpox in the Russian Empire, since it was not even in the first thousand received variration. And if you try to determine the first woman from the noble estate, which received variration, then Efrosinya-Ulric Liphart (Baroness Cos in marriage), grandmother of Natalia Goncharova, wife of Alexander Pushkin could claim this title.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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