These days, when the mysterious coronavirus is raging almost all over the world, and especially in the information field, many experts are asking many questions. What are the causes of the pandemic? Are we exaggerating the danger of the virus? Why did Europe find itself in such a difficult situation, despite decades of victorious reports about the level of medicine, pharmaceuticals and social security? And all this is crowned with the ridiculous phrase "the world will never be the same," although the world is always the same.
But the main question is only what internal (at the moment imperceptible) processes are taking place in the world. And with what losses will all players of geopolitics emerge from the viral rush. And since history is politics overturned into the past, some events related to epidemics that have already taken place should be recorded. It is difficult to find a place that is more colorful in terms of population than the Caucasus, as well as a more politically open region.
A plague on all your mountains
The Caucasus is extremely specific climatically and epidemiologically. Once the Emperor Nicholas II himself planned to build a summer residence in Abrau, but he had to abandon this idea because of the "feverish climate", which was fatal for the Tsar's children. Indeed, the epidemiological situation in the Caucasus in the past centuries was extremely difficult. Plague and cholera, typhoid fever and various types of fever (including malaria), etc. raged here. But, of course, the greatest changes both in the composition of the population and in the political map were made by the "black death".
There have been three plague pandemics in total on the planet. The first, the Justinian plague, raged in the middle of the 6th century throughout the Mediterranean. A second plague pandemic raged in Europe in the mid-14th century. The last time the "black death", born in China, wiped people off the face of the earth at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. At the same time, sporadic plague epidemics between pandemics regularly shook the Caucasus.
In 1706, 1760, 1770 and 1790, a number of plague epidemics swept across the Caucasus, decimating the inhabitants of auls and villages in the valleys of the Kuban, Teberda, Dzhalankol and Cherek. After the epidemic, many settlements were no longer recovered, therefore, in almost every region of the Caucasus, one can find gloomy legends about the “black aul”, from which no one else came out into the world. Deadly, but local epidemics raged in large settlements. For example, outbreaks of plague swept across Mozdok in 1772, 1798, 1801 and 1807. The plague epidemic of 1816-1817 struck a vast area of the modern Stavropol Territory, the Karachay-Cherkess and Kabardino-Balkarian republics. At the same time, outbreaks were regularly recorded in individual auls and cities, even such as Kizlyar and Derbent.
Currently, there are five relatively active plague foci in the North Caucasus: the Central Caucasian high-mountainous, Tersko-Sunzhensky, the Dagestan plain-foothill, the Caspian sandy and the East Caucasian high-mountainous. All these foci are different in the activity and pathogenicity of the infection.
War and her friend is an epidemic
It is noteworthy that the outbreaks of epidemics were both the result of the intensification of hostilities, and the reason for the outbreak of these very hostilities. Thus, Lieutenant General and Director of the Military Topographic Depot Ivan Fedorovich Blaramberg believed that several successive plague outbreaks in the North Caucasus in 1736-1737 are a direct consequence of the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739, when the Turks actively collaborated with some peoples of the Caucasus. That is why periodically well-founded suspicions arose that the Turks deliberately introduced the disease to territories close to the Russian Empire, because the epidemic could easily spread to the Cossack villages.
Another doping for the plague epidemic was the Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774. Then the epidemic covered not only the Caucasus and Moldova, but also reached Moscow, where a real plague riot broke out.
But a major epidemic that swept over the Caucasus in 1790, itself became a doping to intensify hostilities. The contradictions that had accumulated for many years between the tfokotls (peasant farmers, one of the most powerless and poor castes of Circassian society), the Abadzekhs and Shapsugs and their own aristocracy, after the plague swept through, only intensified. The peasants, who were hit by the epidemic, could no longer endure the hardships of the extortions of the nobility.
As a result, the Circassian aristocracy was expelled from the territory of the Abadzekhs and Shapsugs by the Tfokotls, depriving them of their land and property. At the same time, the Bzhedugi (Bzhedukhi), the neighbors of the Abadzekhs and Shapsugs, remained faithful to the ancient customs and their princes, preserving the feudal system. Moreover, the Bzhedug aristocracy was hospitable to the emigration of the Shapsug and Abadzekh nobility to their lands. A new war was brewing, the apogee of which was the Battle of Bziyuk.
Sometimes epidemics in alliance with the war completely erased the once viable subethnos occupying fertile soil from the historical and cultural scene. Thus, the Khegiki and even the Zhaneevites, who, during their heyday, could have fielded up to 10 thousand soldiers, including cavalry, finally weakened and were completely assimilated by the neighboring peoples.
It is generally accepted that the periodic epidemics that destroyed the population of the North Caucasus became "allies" of the Russian troops in the fight against the hostile highlanders. But this conclusion does not hold water. First, the interaction between the Russians and the mountaineers has always been extremely close and far from always hostile, so the outbreak of any disease from one side or the other was a disaster for everyone.
Secondly, even during active hostilities, the plague fettered the movement of Russian troops. For example, General Aleksey Aleksandrovich Velyaminov, leading long bloody campaigns to build roads for the empire, was sometimes forced by the plague to abandon the traditional purchase of provisions from the local population and foraging near the plague-ridden villages. This slowed down the troops and claimed many soldiers and officers' lives. And if the infection penetrated the ranks of the troops, then the detachments burdened with a swollen infirmary would completely go over to the defense or were forced to retreat.
Thirdly, the systematic struggle against deadly diseases in the Caucasus began precisely with the arrival of the Russian troops. In 1810, in connection with constant outbreaks of plague epidemics along the entire length of the Caucasian cordon line from Taman to the Caspian coast in the Kizlyar region, a network of "quarantine yards" was extended. Their duties included not only not to let the disease pass through the borders of the empire, but also to introduce quarantine between the ethnic groups of the local population. So, at the beginning of the 19th century, it was the "quarantine yards" that had to forcefully separate the Abaza auls infected with the "ulcer" from the Nogai auls.
So, if the plague was someone's ally in the Caucasian War, it was only death itself.
Not one single plague
However, the plague was by no means the only scourge of the Caucasus. The most diverse types of fevers and intestinal infections mowed down the ranks of both Russians and highlanders. Numerous floodplains, rivers with swampy banks and stagnant bodies of water filled the air with clouds of malaria mosquitoes and miasma. More than half of all patients in the infirmary suffered from malaria in the Caucasus. The main methods of combating "swamp fever" were improving the nutrition of personnel, strict adherence to sanitary and hygienic standards and quarantine measures. Sometimes it was impossible to physically observe all this, therefore, the basis of salvation was often the only medicine - quinine (cinchona powder), which was added to decoctions or wine.
Such intestinal infections as typhoid fever or dysentery did not yield their positions, although cholera was also encountered. Sometimes outbreaks occurred through the fault of the fighters themselves. For example, after a long half-starved raid in Staraya Shemakha (now Azerbaijan) in 1830, the famous "Tengins" (soldiers of the Tengin regiment), famous for their resilience, pounced on the fruits, which the region was rich in, and water from the irrigation ditches. As a result, in less than five months, due to typhoid fever, the regiment lost five hundred men.
Major General August-Wilhelm von Merklin recalled how, after the capture of the village of Dargo as a result of the famous Dargins campaign, soldiers, exhausted by battles and starving, pounced on unripe corn and water that was not even the first freshness. As a result, "the infirmary was packed to the brim."
All this led to dire consequences. There were not enough doctors, who themselves quickly became victims of infections, and the functions of paramedics fell on everyone who could stand on their feet. Healthy fighters were forced to take on all the duties of the sick, so sometimes they simply did not have time to comply with hygiene requirements and soon, naturally, replenished the company in the infirmary.
Discipline and quarantine: all recipes are as old as the world
Hygiene and quarantine measures on paper are amorphous and vague. In practice, everything was more complicated and harsh. For example, the appearance in its ranks of Lieutenant Colonel Tikhon Tikhonovich Lisanevich became the salvation for the already mentioned Tengin regiment. This officer limping due to injury, already a Caucasus veteran by the age of forty, with extraordinary energy took up an attempt to stop the epidemic of "Lenkoran" fever and cholera, raging both among the "Tengins" and throughout the Caucasus in the 1830s. Separately, it should be noted that Lisanevich had to act in the complete absence of experienced doctors due to their shortage in the entire region.
What did a professional soldier without medical skills do almost two hundred years ago? To begin with, he broke the infirmary separately from the rest of the garrison, which was immediately taken under strict guard from all directions. Consumption of any raw vegetables or fruits is prohibited. The infirmary was kept perfectly clean. If the patient's pulse weakened and the temperature dropped, then he was immediately put into a hot bath, and then rubbed with cloth towels and vodka with vinegar. At the same time, only a special team could communicate with the patients, whose clothes were immediately sent to boiling water.
Patients were given a tincture of half a teaspoon of baking soda, a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar, and boiled water every five minutes. A healthy garrison in the morning before going to work was supposed to have hot meals, regardless of the eater's wishes, and a portion of vodka infused with various medicinal herbs. A special order was issued separately for all officers in the regiment of Tikhon Tikhonovich, which read:
"To calm down the lower ranks, so that they are not afraid of this disease, because fear acts more in this case to the disease."
The result of Lisanevich's inhuman efforts was the rescue of over 50% of the sick garrison in the complete absence of medical personnel and bringing the regiment into a combat-ready state. Almost two hundred years have passed since those times.
