Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- 19 The Discourses of Practitioners in Africa
- 20 The Discourses of Practitioners in India
- 21 The Discourses of Practitioners in China
- 22 The Discourses of Practitioners in Japan
- 23 The Discourses of Practitioners in Ancient Europe
- 24 The Discourses of European Practitioners in the Tradition of the Hippocratic Texts
- 25 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Ninth- to Fourteenth-Century Middle East
- 26 The Discourses of Practitioners in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- 27 The Discourses of Practitioners in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe
- 28 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century France and Germany
- 29 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Spain
- 30 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- 31 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century North America
- 32 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France
- 33 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Spain
- 34 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany
- 35 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth- to Twentieth-Century Russia and Soviet Union
- 36 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain and the United States
- 37 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Modern and Contemporary Islamic Middle East
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
35 - The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth- to Twentieth-Century Russia and Soviet Union
from PART VI - THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- 19 The Discourses of Practitioners in Africa
- 20 The Discourses of Practitioners in India
- 21 The Discourses of Practitioners in China
- 22 The Discourses of Practitioners in Japan
- 23 The Discourses of Practitioners in Ancient Europe
- 24 The Discourses of European Practitioners in the Tradition of the Hippocratic Texts
- 25 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Ninth- to Fourteenth-Century Middle East
- 26 The Discourses of Practitioners in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- 27 The Discourses of Practitioners in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe
- 28 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century France and Germany
- 29 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Spain
- 30 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- 31 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century North America
- 32 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France
- 33 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Spain
- 34 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany
- 35 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth- to Twentieth-Century Russia and Soviet Union
- 36 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain and the United States
- 37 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Modern and Contemporary Islamic Middle East
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
For historical and geographical reasons, medical ethics in Russia prior to the Revolution of 1917 has distinctive characteristics. As Peter Chaadaev wrote in 1829 “we lived and continue to live only to give a certain important lesson for generations to come which will be able to understand it; in any case, at the present moment we constitute a gap in a moral universe. I cannot but be amazed by this unusual emptiness and uniqueness of our social being” (Chadaaev 1906, 14). For centuries Russia was a backward rural country. Obshina (community) was the basis of social life. One can track from this origin of the emergence to supremacy of the community over the individual, the state over the personality. Such terms as sobornost and soviety (“The Soviet power”) are absent from other European languages (Makshantseva 2001, 112–19). Correlatively, one does not find a Russian analog for privacy – this term simply does not exist in the language.
Christianity was adopted in Russia in 988 in its Byzantine or Orthodox version. From the thirteenth to the fifteen centuries, Mongolian hordes occupied most of the country. These two factors contributed to a prolonged isolation of Russia from the mainstream of European civilization. Complicating matters further, from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries, Russia was at war 329 of 525 years (Makshantseva 2001, 114). Under these circumstances the value attributed to human life was significantly eroded. Severe spiritual and political censorship hindered the development of secular philosophical thought.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics , pp. 439 - 445Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
- 1
- Cited by