Universality under Stalinism? Late Stalinist Healthcare and the Ghost of the Postwar Welfare State, 1945–1953

Abstract

The author offers the new reading of Soviet history of Late Stalinism and opens the implicit trend of creation of Welfare state in them. It displayed on the postwar reformation of Soviet Health Services, the transition from industrial principle to district principle of medical service to population, the accessibility of medicine not only to the working class, but to the civil, which are not associated with the industry. The transformation caused the ardent discussions within administrative ranges, and these were the illustration of the struggle of different welfare principles, i.e. work performance oriented aid and universalizing aid. In author’s opinion, the triumph of the last principle was in many respects predetermined by the aspiration of Soviet Health Care Ministry to find employment for huge army of doctors in the condition of postwar demobilization.