Surprisingly, people in different historical epochs behave in the same way, despite the different levels of education and culture of society. Plague in Russia in 1770-1771 first caused panic and fear, and then an outbreak of violence and the Plague Riot in Moscow.
Black Death
Plague is one of the most ancient diseases. Traces of the plague stick were found in the remains of people who lived in the Bronze Age (five thousand years ago). This disease has caused two of the deadliest pandemics in human history, killing hundreds of millions of people. The disease spread quickly, destroying the population of entire cities, devastating countries and regions. Some of its forms caused almost 100% mortality. No wonder one of the four biblical horsemen of the apocalypse is pestilence. The plague was overcome only with the invention of antibiotics and vaccines, although infectious outbreaks still occur in various countries.
The plague is known from the Bible, which describes an epidemic among the Philistines and Assyrians, which destroys entire cities and armies. The first major pandemic is the Justinian plague (551-580), which began in North Africa and engulfed the entire "civilized world", that is, Byzantium and Western Europe. In Constantinople, from 5 to 10 thousand people died every day, in the capital of the empire two-thirds of the population died. In total, up to 100 million people died. In the XIV century, a terrible epidemic of "black death", brought in from Asia, went through Europe. It also inflicted great damage on the Muslim countries of the Middle East and Africa. According to various estimates, she killed between 100 and 200 million people. In Europe alone, from 30 to 60% of the population died. Plague from the Baltic region penetrated into Russia, through the trading cities of Pskov and Novgorod, and spread further. Some settlements and towns became extinct completely. Among the dead was the Grand Duke of Vladimir and Moscow, Simeon the Proud.
Then several more major epidemics swept across the world, which claimed many lives. The third pandemic originated in China in 1855. For several decades, it spread to all continents, its echoes were noted until 1959. In China and India alone, millions of people have died.
People in the Ancient World and in the Middle Ages did not know the cause of the disease. They associated it with "divine punishment", an unfavorable arrangement of heavenly bodies, or a natural disaster (earthquake). Some doctors believed that the plague was associated with "miasms", "bad fumes" from swamps, the seashore, etc. Medieval methods of fighting the plague (use of aromatherapy, perfumery, precious stones and metals, bloodletting, cutting or burning bubo ulcers etc.) were ineffective, often contributed to the spread of the disease. The most effective method was quarantine (from the Italian quaranta giorni - "forty days"). So, in the largest shopping center in Europe, Venice, merchant ships had to wait 40 days before entering the port. The same measure was used against people who arrived from the contaminated areas. City councils hired special doctors - plague doctors who fought the disease, and then also went into isolation.
The true cause of the black death was discovered only thanks to the discovery of the father of microbiology Louis Pasteur in the 19th century, who proved that infections are caused by microorganisms, and not by miasms and disturbances in the balance of the body, as people continued to think until that time. Pasteur developed methods of treatment for anthrax, cholera and rabies, and founded an institute to fight dangerous infections. The creator of the first vaccines against plague and cholera at the beginning of the 20th century was the Russian scientist Vladimir Khavkin. The final turning point in the fight against plague occurred in the middle of the 20th century, when Soviet scientists began to use antibiotics in the fight against the disease.
Plague in Russia
The first message about the sea in Russia can be found in the annals for 1092. The source reports that in the summer of 6600 (1092) “there was a wonderful miracle in Polotsk: at night they heard a clatter; with a groan like people, demons roamed the streets. If anyone leaves the horomina, wanting to see them, the demons invisibly hurt him, and therefore he died. And people did not dare to leave the chorus. … People said that the souls of the deceased were killing Polotsk citizens. This disaster came from Drutsk. " The disease was an unprecedented phenomenon, the suddenness of the infection and the quick fatal outcome so amazed contemporaries that they looked for the cause in a miraculous phenomenon - "God's punishment".
In the XII century, two more epidemics were noted in Russia. One disease struck Novgorod. "There was a lot of pestilence," the chronicler says, "in Novgorod in people and horses, and it was impossible to pass through the city, not to leave the field, because of the stench of the dead," and the horned cattle will die. " In the 1230s, an epidemic struck Smolensk, Pskov and Izborsk. The mortality rate was very high, thousands of people died, and mass graves were dug at churches. Outbreaks of pestilence were noted in 1265 and 1278. It can be noted that almost all infectious outbreaks were in Kiev, Smolensk, Polotsk, Pskov and Novgorod, which were then large shopping centers. Obviously, mass diseases, which in the XIII century. noted throughout Europe, brought to Russia by traffickers from the West. Diseases at this time were attributed to "divine punishment" for the sins of people. Later, superstitions appeared that the pestilence was caused by witchcraft or evil people, for example, the Tatars poisoned the water. A similar situation was in Europe, where during epidemics "witches", "sorcerers" and "Jewish poisoners" were persecuted.
In the XIV century, several more epidemics were noted in Russia. The most terrible is the "black death", which struck the whole of Europe. It was distinguished by its enormous scale and the highest mortality rate. First, the plague appeared in the Crimea, struck the possessions of the Horde, then appeared in Poland and Russia. At the same time, the pestilence came to the Russian lands not from the Horde, but from Western Europe. In the summer of 1352, the "black death" came to Pskov. The mortality rate was terrible, the living did not have time to bury the dead. Fear gripped the city. In search of salvation, the townspeople sent ambassadors to Novgorod to Archbishop Vasily, asking him to come to Pskov to bless its residents and pray with them for an end to the disease. The archbishop fulfilled their request and walked around Pskov with a procession of the cross. But on the way back he fell ill and soon died. As a result, the disease got to Novgorod - the Novgorodians themselves brought the body to the city and buried it in the Cathedral of St. Sophia. An epidemic began in Novgorod, which from here spread to all large cities and all of Russia.
In the 1360s, a terrible disease manifested itself in the lower reaches of the Volga, began to rise along the river and covered the Volga-Oka interfluve. A large number of people died. In the 1370s, another wave of epidemic swept across Russia and the Horde. In 1387, the pestilence wiped out almost the entire population of Smolensk, then hit Pskov and Novgorod. In the 15th century, several more epidemics swept across the Russian land. Sources note "pestilence with iron" - apparently a bubonic form of plague, and "pestilence" orcotoyu, apparently, it was a pulmonary form of plague, with hemoptysis. The northwestern regions of Russia suffered the most. A similar situation existed in the 16th century. At this time, quarantine measures were first noted in Russia. So, in 1521-1522. Pskov again suffered from a pestilence of unknown origin, which killed many of the townspeople. The prince ordered to close the street on which the pestilence began, with outposts at both ends. Obviously, it helped, a terrible disease raged only in Pskov.
In 1552, the plague came from the Baltic States and struck Pskov, and then Novgorod. Novgorodians, when news of the sea in Pskov appeared, set up outposts on the roads connecting Novgorod with Pskov, and forbade the Pskovites from entering the city. Also, the Pskov merchants who were already there were expelled from the city together with the goods. Those merchants-guests who tried to resist were taken out by force and their goods were burned. The Novgorodians, who were hiding the Pskovites, were beaten with a whip. This is the first news in Russia about a large-scale quarantine and interruption of communication between regions due to illness. However, these measures, apparently, were belated. A terrible disease struck the area. In Pskov alone, 25 thousand people died in a year, and in the Novgorod land - about 280 thousand people. According to the Pskov Chronicle, people died with "iron".
Since that time, quarantine measures have become common in Russia. In particular, Ivan the Terrible interrupted communications from Moscow and places that were exposed to infection. People who died of the infection were forbidden to be buried near churches, they were taken away from settlements. Posts were set up on the streets and roads. The courtyards where a person died from the pestilence was blocked, sentinels were posted, who passed the food from the street. The priests were forbidden to visit the sick. The most severe measures were taken against quarantine violators. It happened that violators were burned together with the sick.
A major pestilence struck Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Moscow alone (including refugees from rural areas where famine was rampant). This epidemic became one of the prerequisites for the Troubles. Another terrible disease struck Moscow and the country in 1654-1656. People died in thousands, whole streets. The royal family, the patriarch, all the nobility and officials simply fled from the capital. Even the rifle garrison scattered. As a result, the entire control system in Moscow collapsed. The mortality rate was appalling. According to various estimates, half of the capital's population (150 thousand people) died.
Plague riot
Under Peter the Great, the fight against plague finally became the function of state bodies: the Senate, the medical board and the quarantine service. True, quarantine remained the main method. Mandatory quarantine has been introduced in seaports. In places of an infectious outbreak, quarantine outposts were set up. All people who were traveling from the contaminated area were quarantined for up to 1.5 months. They tried to disinfect clothes, things and products with the help of smoke (wormwood, juniper), metal objects were washed in vinegar solution.
Under Catherine II, quarantine posts operated not only at the border, but also on the roads leading to cities. As necessary, these posts were reinforced by doctors and soldiers. As a result, the pestilence became a rare guest in the Russian Empire. Hotbeds of infection were usually quickly blocked, preventing them from spreading across the country and killing more people.
A large infectious outbreak occurred at the end of 1770 in Moscow. The epidemic peaked in 1771. About 60 thousand people died. The epidemic entered Russia from the Turkish front during the war with the Porte. Obviously, the plague was brought by soldiers returning from the war, and goods brought from Turkey were also sources of infection. In the Moscow General Hospital, people began to die. Senior physician Shafonsky established the cause and tried to take action. However, the Moscow authorities did not listen to him, they considered him an alarmist. Local authorities tried to hide the scale of the disease, assuring the population that the disease was not dangerous. As a result, the disease took on a large scale. Already infected people fled the city, spreading the disease around. First of all, the rich fled from Moscow. They left for other cities or their estates. The mayor, Count Saltykov, fled, followed by other officials.
The big city froze. There were practically no medicines for the poor. The townspeople burned fires and struck bells (their ringing was considered curative). There is a shortage of food. Looting flourished. During the peak of the epidemic, up to a thousand people died a day, many remained for a long time in houses or on the streets. In the funeral service, prisoners began to be used. They collected the corpses, took them out of town and burned them. Horror gripped the townspeople.
Johann Jacob Lerche, one of the doctors who fought the infection in the city, noted:
“It is impossible to describe the terrible state in which Moscow was. Every day on the streets one could see the sick and the dead, who were taken out. Many corpses lay in the streets: people either fell dead, or the corpses were thrown out of their homes. The police did not have enough people or vehicles to take out the sick and the dead, so often corpses lay in houses for 3-4 days."
Soon, fear and complete despair gave way to aggression. There was also a reason for a riot. There was a rumor in Moscow that at the Barbarian Gate there is a miraculous icon of the Bogolyubskaya Mother of God, which will save people from infection. Crowds of people kissed the icon. Archbishop Ambrose ordered to hide the icon and aroused the wrath of superstitious people who were deprived of their hope of salvation. On September 15, 1771, the townspeople sounded the alarm, armed themselves and called to save the icon from the "thief-archbishop". The rebels destroyed the Miracle Monastery in the Kremlin. On September 16, even more people took to the streets. They destroyed the Donskoy monastery, found and killed the archbishop. Other mobs vandalized quarantine homes and hospitals. General Eropkin quickly suppressed the riot.
Following these tragic events, the government took extraordinary measures. Empress Catherine II sent a guard under the command of G. Orlov to Moscow. A general commission was established, headed by Prosecutor General Vsevolozhsky, which identified the most active rioters. Count Orlov, with the help of strict quarantine measures and improvement of the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Moscow, brought down the wave of the epidemic. In honor of the Empress's favorite, a medal was struck with the inscriptions: "Russia has such sons in itself" and "For the deliverance of Moscow from an ulcer in 1771".
