In this interesting and sophisticated analysis, Tatiana Chudakova intervenes in the study of medicine in Russia in several important ways. The book's focus on the southeastern Siberian region of Buriatiia pulls away from the more researched, western, urban centers. Further, Chudakova's theory-driven exploration of Tibetan, alternative, and folk medicine challenges conventional delineations of biomedical care, muddying the strict binaries that are often used in western-centered definitions of “integrative” medicine. The detailed exploration of the administrative challenges of the post-1991 legal and medical landscape provides important understanding of the administrative structures that tailor care, and finally the reliance upon extensive field work gives voice not just to practitioners but also centers the experience of patients, whose personal voices are often absent from data and state centered accounts of medicine. The result is a set of new and exciting observations of the varied landscape of care available in the post-Soviet space.

Mixing Medicines emerged from extensive anthropological field work in Buriatiia and Moscow taking place from 2006–17 and encompassed interviews with practitioners, patients, administrators, scientists, and religious leaders. To contextualize these interviews, Chudakova dips into historical, institutional, and even legal analysis as well as extensive discussions of medical technology and technique and the power of medical and administrative terminology. She begins by outlining the ways in which medicine in Buriatiia emerges from a cultural, ethnic, and religious heritage influenced by the colonial expansion of the Russian state, then later the political priorities of the Soviet government, to then finally become offered through unique institutions like the East-West Medical Center, a creation of the Buriatiia Ministry of Health Protection. Chudakova notes the pull of nonbiomedical healing in both the old urban centers of Moscow and Buriatiia's capital Ulan-Ude, teases out the differences of Tibetan medicine from other techniques, and documents the attempts to integrate these traditions with other types of health care delivery. Her tale of Tibetan medicine intersects with concerns as diverse as tourism—as local authorities try to “sell” the unique therapeutic traditions of the region—and technology studies: when medical apparatus makers work to create mechanical means of pulse monitoring to approximate the Buddhist techniques. The legal and administrative problems of following Tibetan medicine when it was not recognized by the Russian medical establishment as legitimate shows the tenuous nature of these regional claims and the lingering resistance to alternative healing traditions.

Chudavkova interprets the reception of Buddhist medicine in the 1990s and 2000s as embedded in historical and intellectual traditions from before the collapse of 1991 and even well back into the imperial frames of the early twentieth century. She is mindful, however, of the deeply personal reasons given by patients for their pull to Tibetan medicine and clear on the ways in which practitioners and medical authorities interpret the pull and the legitimacy of other forms of medical care. Along the way discussions of the changing concept of the ideal body and its relationship to its environment, the legitimacy of different therapeutic techniques and the origin of illness, and even the meaning of what are legitimate ingredients for the formulation of medicine, create points for contemplation of what exactly makes for healing and health.

Personal accounts are interwoven with strong historical sections as well as hefty doses of theory. The strong focus on theory makes this book more appropriate for experts on Russian medicine or for use in graduate level courses, and the well-founded analysis of Tibetan medicine make this essential reading for all who wish to understand the full array of healing practiced in modern Russia.