February 07, 2020

Health in the Soviet Sanatorium


Health in the Soviet Sanatorium
Jermuk resort in Armenia. Katrina Keegan

This is where Armenian president Pashinyan came to feel well, our taxi driver proudly told us as we drove over a bridge that straddled a cliff-lined river, past fluttering clotheslines strung between pink stone houses. The tiny town looked like it could have been anywhere in Armenia, except for the large marble estates embossed with various combinations of the golden words Jermuk, resort, spa. The driver’s implication was clear: if the top man in the country enjoyed his rest here, so will you. 

Before the Russian Revolution, only elites could afford long stays steeping in hot springs at the mountain-or-sea surrounded corners of the Empire. Inspired by the tradition of hot spring healing in Western Europe, Peter the Great started to research Russia’s mineral waters and opened the first resort. Mineral waters unite not only time, but also the post-Soviet space, from  Nikolai Gogol’s small hometown in Ukraine, surrounded by birch groves and sunflower fields, to Mikhail Lermontov’s summer retreat in the foothills of the Northern Caucasus. 

Mineral waters in Kislovodsk
Many resort towns, such as the Russian city of Kislovodsk (literally: sour water) have “galleries” where you can sample waters ranging from refreshing, salty and bubbly, to so hot and heavy it feels it might drop right through your stomach. | Katrina Keegan

Equality of relaxation became a Soviet ideal, enshrined as the right to rest in the 1936 Stalin Constitution and facilitated by a vast network of sanatoriums. Now, the same destinations have been rebranded as “spas,” are adorned with Latin letters and offer oxygen cocktails alongside lukewarm mineral water baths. These are unheated, presented the exact way the water came out of the ground, a healing ritual virtually unchanged for hundreds of years. 

Jermuk hot spring
Around Jermuk, Armenia, hot springs are so common that we found this one on the side of the road. | Katrina Keegan

Just like the use of mineral waters, the central idea of sanatoriums has remained the same: wellness and relaxation are inseparable. Meanwhile, the Western model of medicine is based on double-blind, placebo-controlled experiments, explained William Nickell, a University of Chicago scholar with a forthcoming book, The Soviet Cure, who teaches on medical aesthetics and has studied resort towns like Sochi. The Soviet sanatorium is thoroughly unconcerned with separating effects into “placebo” and “real,” he said. The data they primarily collected at the sanatoriums were exit responses to a single question: do you feel better?

As a result, proponents of modern medicine may, at first glance, scoff at what Nickell calls “fossilized” treatments. According to Wikipedia, electric showers were discontinued in the early twentieth century. Nickell purchased one from a Sochi sanatorium in 2010 and was reassured that it was one of the best working examples in the area. When I was undergoing a “gums hydromassage” – a gentle sprinkler in my mouth – in the Armenian sanatorium, I struggled to control a fit of laughter at the absurdity of it all, causing the warm, salty water to spray all over the sink and my clothes. 

Jermuk sanatorium
This treatment felt rather like snorting a humidifier. | Katrina Keegan

Yet the treatments are beside the point, at least in isolation. According to Nickell, they are inseparable from the fresh air, the time off work, the group hikes or excursions to historically interesting sites, communal dinners, and social dancing in the evening. Given the time to rest and socialize, it’s no wonder that the Armenian president and countless Soviet citizens filling out exit surveys felt “well.” The sanatorium system wasn’t seeking to “treat” specific ailments so much as prevent health problems holistically. But perhaps even prevent is too negative, too illness-centric of a word.

“Be healthy,” the Armenian doctor told me as I finished my consultation and he signed my medical card full of treatments like salt caves and “gynaecologic irrigation.” I did, in fact, feel healthy after my visit to the sanatorium. I don’t know if that was caused by enjoying the beauty of a local waterfall, the intense exercise of a harrowing stair climb up a cliff from the waterfall, time spent lounging around the hotel with someone I love, the gums hydromassage, or my uncontrollable laughter during the gums hydromassage. The source of my wellbeing doesn’t matter. According to sanatorium philosophy, I feel, therefore I am. 

Myrhorod birch grove
Finding peace in a birch tree grove on the grounds of the sanatorium in Myrhorod, Ukraine | Katrina Keegan

 

Just for fun:

Trip Advisor's list of recommended resorts in Russia.

You Might Also Like

Sochi 2014: Russia's New National Idea
  • September 01, 2007

Sochi 2014: Russia's New National Idea

Some 90 years after the first modern Winter Olympics, Russia, likely the country most identified with winter, will finally host its first Winter Olympic Games. Now it's time to get building.
A Southern City By the Sea
  • November 01, 2005

A Southern City By the Sea

Had the tide of history turned just a bit differently, Taganrog could have become Russia’s new capital instead of St. Petersburg. Take a visit to this sleepy southern town on the Sea of Azov.
The Pull of Stalin's Riviera
  • May 18, 2019

The Pull of Stalin's Riviera

On the foundation of Intourist and some of the beautiful posters they used to entice tourist to Soviet Russia.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
Driving Down Russia's Spine

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955