Throughout the novel, STDs are mentioned. I
believe this is the first time that STDs are mentioned so strongly in any novel that
we have read so far. Like on page 4, a woman from the Film Institute is said to
have gonorrhea. Petrushevskaya writes,
“…she’d got a summons on the post from the VD clinic, saying she’d missed one
of her regular injections for gonorrhea…” (Petrushevskaya 4). I was curious why
all of a sudden we see the emergence of STDs. Anna also shares a fear that her daughter will contract an STD.
I found a paper by Julie Stachowiak entitled Russia and the Former Soviet Union in
which she discusses the outbreak of STDs soon after the fall of the Soviet
Union, around the same time period as this novel.1 She claims that
many diseases, not only STDs, such as “diphtheria, cholera, and hepatitis B” reached
epidemic proportions because “the collapse brought further damage to an already
inadequate public health system”. Regarding STDs, there was an increase of STDs
between 200 and 500 percent in syphilis and chlamydia. This increase was also
paired with an increase in prostitution due to the decrease in local currency
and foreign business people began arriving.
Interestingly, the Soviet Union believed that they would
never have to worry about HIV infections because “homosexual activity and
injecting drug use were illegal under Soviet law”. In 1987, discovery of 300
cases of HIV among children infected in medical settings in the cities of
Elista, Volograd, Krasnodar, and Rostov-na-Donu brought upon the formation of
the Soviet Union’s first national program for AIDs prevention and control. Of
the 142 million exams taken from 1991-1998, only 4% of the tests were reported
as being voluntary or consensual. The Soviet Union took extreme measures for
those individuals that tested positive. Stachowiak writes, “If an individual has a positive test result,
post-test counseling is in the form of a document that he or she is required to
sign stating: "You are the carrier of a deadly disease and are criminally
liable for any contact that would pass that disease to another person."
After reading this article, I better understand why STDs had
such an influence on these later 20th century novels.
1Stachowiak, Julie. Russia and the Former Soviet Union. http://www.thebody.com/content/art14037.html
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ReplyDeleteI honestly did not notice the mentioning of STDs, though I believe it has more to do with the day and age/modernization of Russia in general versus the Soviet Union. Or even in Russian history venereal diseases are mentioned when talking tsar's affairs.
ReplyDeleteThough I find it interesting that this stigma that was present during the USSR still exists today; To obtain a Russian visa (longer than 90 days) you have a negative HIV test
That is really interesting that the fear is so strong still today!
DeleteI'm in health geography at the moment, and that HIV response by the Soviet Union is striking. The story, at least as it goes in the US I suppose, is that HIV was never a "gay disease" in Africa, but it was medically identified in those circles in the States, and so it garnered that stigma. It seems strange to think of this American misconception spreading to the Soviet Union mid Cold War. It makes me wonder how much medical and other knowledge was still bouncing between professionals of the time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point! Today, I know it is definitely encouraged to share new medical advancements openly but I would think that wouldn't be the case during the Soviet Union.
DeleteI read most of this book not realizing that it was set at the very end of the Soviet Union's rule in Russia. Anna's mention of AIDS is very helpful in placing the book in the Russian chronology. I find it very interesting that except for her mentions of AIDS and a few other things, the book could have been set pretty much any time in Soviet history. Thanks for sharing the information from that article.
ReplyDeleteI kind of missed that part too until it was mentioned in class. I definitely started to get a different read on it after changing to that perspective. Hope you enjoyed the article!
DeleteMaybe the fear of STDs comes from the female perspective of the novel? We've seen some womanizing ways (think Pechorin) before, but sexual repercussions have not really been discussed, other than the obvious Anna Karenina, but that was a different kind of consequence. While STDs are certainly not a gendered thing, maybe the female perspective of sex brings more maturity to the table than the few male perspectives that we've seen. Admittedly, those were mostly 19th century attempts to immaturely "win the woman," but maybe the female perspective adds something different to the general conversation, especially given the time and context of STDs in Russia as discussed already here.
ReplyDelete