November 26, 2021

Catherine the Great Wants You to Get Vaccinated


Catherine the Great Wants You to Get Vaccinated
See, if we all rode horses, we'd almost always be six feet apart. The RussianLife files.

A very timely letter has just been unveiled in Moscow in which Catherine the Great tries to convince people to get vaccinated against smallpox. She was the first person in Russia to get the vaccine; given her power and resources, she asked a doctor to come from England and give her the jab.

Catherine called it "barbarism" to die of smallpox in the modern eighteenth century with all of its science.

She addressed the letter to authorities in Ukraine on April 20, 1787. It will be for sale at MacDougall's auction in London on December 1. Its value is estimated at $1.6 million (along with a portrait of Catherine).

The letter emphasizes how dangerous smallpox is to "ordinary people" and outlines how to establish a vaccination campaign. It recommends setting up beds in monasteries for those who feel sick after getting the vaccine.

Catherine was careful not to mandate the vaccine, feeling that the Russian people would resist a mandate. In the twenty-first century's COVID-19 pandemic, not much has changed as the majority of the population is yet to be vaccinated. Although now we have QR codes.

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