Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796

Chapter 29 029 Pay attention to hygiene in life

Soloviev's family lives in Laundry Lane. Although this place is not very eye-catching, there is one thing worth noting, that is, there are public baths and laundry rooms nearby. People who love cleanliness always go there to wash to be healthier.

However, the sanitary environment sometimes does not rely solely on personal good hygiene habits to avoid problems.

Soloviev probably knew how many people were killed in a wave of cholera outbreaks in Europe more than 30 years later, but he was not very clear. This time, the spread of cholera came from India, and it took more than ten years from Persia to the Ottoman Empire and Russia, and then to France and Britain, causing considerable damage and panic wherever it went.

Even more than the resistance army of the Polish uprising at that time, it killed many senior generals of Prussia and Russia who led the army to suppress the Polish uprising. This result is more than some anti-French alliances killed allied generals, and the quality is also higher.

Those who were taken away at once include Gneisenau, Clausewitz, Grand Duke Constantine and Langeron. The destructive power is shocking.

And Vibrio cholerae is an important source of disease. Solovyov does not want to delve into this aspect. After all, microorganisms are not his direction. If he studies it, he still needs to establish a medical school for prevention.

In fact, this is difficult to do in St. Petersburg now. The only formal "Imperial University" in Russia is the Moscow Imperial University. After 1917, everyone is more familiar with the name of Moscow State University. Other Russian higher education institutions have no shadow at this time. If they are to be established, they have to wait until the next tsar ascends the throne and issues an edict. A large number of higher education institutions have been established in Russia one after another.

Even in St. Petersburg, the environment is somewhat suspicious of burning books and burying scholars. It is obviously a cultural center, but the predecessor of St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg Imperial University, has not even a shadow. Many European scholars came to the court, including those from the Euler and Bernoulli families, but they were rarely seen living here for a long time. Euler's descendants moved here together, but the number of universities in Russia is still a little less.

To be honest, at this moment, if Solovyov wants to put down his work and find a university to study, going to Moscow may not be faster than going to Vilnius and Königsberg.

Of course, Tsar Paul allowed the delivery of petitions, whether real or anonymous, and the Russian Tsar would regularly respond to some issues in official newspapers, and this response was for the whole people.

It's strange to say that Paul looks like a reactionary despot, but his behavior seems to have jumped to the opposite camp. His mother, Empress Catherine, looks open-minded, but is actually more reactionary. Mr. Voltaire could hear the truth about "squeezing orange juice" from Frederick the Great, but in St. Petersburg, it can only be used to decorate the facade. No wonder he later preferred to live on the Swiss border.

If you really compare them, Louis XVI is a good person, but he was born in the wrong country and era.

And many of the methods that Paul learned during his two trips to Europe have begun to be gradually tried out in St. Petersburg.

But there is one thing that Paul ignored. Among the core contents of his reforms, reducing the exploitation of serfs is the core, but the serfs are the largest in number and want to say something to their "Little Tsar Daddy" the most, but they can't read. The content from the peasants is the least in the petition, and many of them are written by local priests. The petitions from the nobles are the fastest, which is a channel effect.

It is impossible that Paul himself did not know anything about this, but he had no way to deal with this kind of Russian national conditions.

However, he interacted well with the citizens. These people were literate and had some economic foundation. They could interact with the Tsar himself on petitions and open letters, which also proved that the method he learned when traveling in Italy could still be used.

When he traveled to Milan and Florence, he saw the "Lion's Mouth" petition box, which was open to citizens.

Solovyov decided to write an anonymous letter and changed his handwriting because his handwriting had appeared on the bid. Now he is not so careful about his writing habits. Changing the handwriting will not be easily exposed when writing letters.

The content of his letter was to establish an academy in St. Petersburg, set up medical schools in major cities in Russia, and teach nuns more nursing knowledge in monasteries under the church.

As for whether Tsar Paul himself could see it, he also asked about it. People often came to collect letters from the petition box on Million Street, so he delivered it on this street, and it was a short distance away from the laundry lane where he lived.

In this way, it is not easy to be discovered. Anyway, he does not want to be more famous in other places. Now he just delivers this letter, which also explains some situations.

Sanitary conditions were not taken seriously at that time. Don’t listen to a song that says that the Elbe River is clean when Emperor William returns. In fact, when you drink raw water, you don’t know what pathogens are in it.

For this content, Solovyov actually mainly talked about three parts. The first part is about drinking water hygiene, the existence of possible pathogens, and also involves some basic content of microorganisms; the second part is about hospitals. Regarding the environment, he explained one point, believing that medical supplies should be strictly sterilized. The example he cited was very ancient. During the plague in Athens, Hippocrates discovered that blacksmiths were always in high-temperature areas and therefore rarely got sick. However, the content of disinfection is mainly discussed from the perspective of surgery and maternal care.

In fact, in the 19th century, Austrian doctors noticed that two hospitals in Vienna with similar conditions had a huge difference in the proportion of mothers suffering from puerperal fever after delivery, which were 2% and 20% respectively. The disease rate was lower in the hospital in Vienna. That store uses a lot of disinfection measures.

However, Solovyov cannot provide data now, but in theory it should be supported.

The third part involves the nursing situation in the army. Tsar Paul still attaches great importance to this aspect. In this part, Solovyov mainly mentioned the establishment of a medical system with "voluntary" contributions from the nobles. Taxes can already sustain the operation of some schools.

After these contents are presented, I hope there will be some results.

Then he returned to the military camp, because in the next period of time, even though none of his chasseurs had arrived, the officers still had to participate in the routine roll call and duties.

In this environment, in November 1797, news came from Vienna and Paris that France and Austria had signed a peace treaty, and Europe might be in a state of peace for a short period of time, but in fact it was hostile. Only Britain and France, other countries are either making peace, or Russia is preparing to take the lead in armed neutrality organized by the Nordic countries.

The first armed neutrality was proposed by Empress Catherine. At that time, France, Spain, and the Netherlands went to support the United States in the War of Independence. During this period, countries such as Russia, Prussia, and Austria formed armed neutrality. In fact, it was against the United Kingdom. The blow to people was still not small. Paul adopted this method again this time because some British policies had indeed harmed Russia's interests.

Moreover, judging from the intercepted letters sent to the country by the British Ambassador in Petersburg, he tried his best to belittle Tsar Paul. This approach also angered the impatient Tsar himself and led to the ambassador's expulsion.

The Tsar would not care what was said in diplomatic letters, but after such private letters were intercepted, such content appeared, which was obviously unacceptable to the Russian Tsar.

After he issued the deportation order, he actually did not refuse it. It was like a "small punishment" for playing ice hockey. He only banned the ambassador from diplomatic activities for a short period and returned to the UK to "reflect on it." At the same time, the Russian ambassador to London The ambassador, Count Vorontsov, was also active in London.

At this time, Russia did not yet have the assassination conspiracy group formed in Petersburg, and Tsar Paul's own policies had not yet reached the level of abstraction that they would become in the future. After learning that France and Austria had made peace, he also wrote to the British Prime Minister respectively. , the director of the French Directory and the Austrian Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire expressed their hope to promote peace in Europe. There should be no more wars in the future, and diplomatic norms must be established, etc.

This is not the last time the British Ambassador's problem has arisen. There will be bigger problems in the future.

Lord Whisworth's attempt to influence Paul through pro-British Russian Foreign Ministry officials was somewhat effective. At least Paul, between England and France, was still committed to dealing with France at this time due to the practices of the Directory and his past visits to Europe with Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette.

The British knew this very well. Even if Czar Paul had objections to Lord Whisworth, who had been in Petersburg for a long time in 1797, he would not ruin Anglo-Russian relations.

Of course, if the British's diplomatic efforts did not use real money, it would be difficult to achieve anything in Petersburg.

Regarding the outrageous diplomatic accident of the British ambassador, when Tsar Paul saw the petition, he thought of "sponsoring" Petersburg from all aspects. Of course, he himself would also allocate funds to prepare for the project in 1800. To build a school in Petersburg, the British would be willing to pay this amount of money.

After all, if the British want to contain France at sea, they can only find allies on the European continent and send money continuously to solve the problem. Otherwise, if Prussia, which is fierce and loves to take advantage, switches sides and goes to its opponent, Hanover may The old nest is gone.

They are now thinking about the Czar's whims and want the British to sponsor a sum of money to establish a school in Petersburg. Since it seems that the cost is not much, it is still acceptable.

As for the issue of disinfection and sanitary environment, Tsar Paul himself attached great importance to this aspect, especially as it related to the health of his soldiers.

Although Solovyov's petition was not signed, the content was very reasonable. He obviously understood Paul's mental state. He was eager for quick success and wanted to achieve something to prove that he was a qualified emperor of all Russia. , it is not a problem for the ongoing plan to improve the treatment of soldiers, coupled with the construction of military hospitals and medical and health systems.

However, when Paul was carrying out the financial reform, he exempted a large amount of arrears of head taxes, which amounted to 7 million rubles, equivalent to 3.5 million taels of silver, but he also recovered a lot of money from other places. He was very clear about the large taxes owed by the nobles.

After getting back the arrears of taxes, Paul did not spend much on himself. The luxurious palaces and various expenses left by his mother were enough for him. The king usually wore Prussian black military uniforms, and then wore Russian medals, holding a cane to patrol the palace and military camps. The expenses in this regard were obviously only partly invested in artworks and palace maintenance, and the expenses had been greatly reduced.

Although palaces, gardens, and cities were also being built, some palaces had been converted into military camps. In addition to the Prussian Guards who could live in the Winter Palace, the garrisons in various places moved into the vacant palaces as military camps. Some nobles thought that this affected their lives, but the soldiers were concentrated and did not actually cause trouble on the streets. Usually, the distance between these garrisons and their original garrisons was not too far, and the small vendors were not greatly affected.

So Paul completely ignored the nobles' opinions on the army moving into the palace as a barracks, and the soldiers also supported him more. After all, the garrisons now had warm winter houses. Although they had to rely on themselves for heating, the environment was much more spacious than in the homes of citizens or in the wild barracks, and they could even put more personal belongings.

But in the eyes of some people, this was a destruction of "culture".

But think about those great nobles, their manors were on open land, and they actually only had a small table in the empty reception room for dining, and there was a serf band in the garden to accompany them while walking. What do they think about this?

On the contrary, those retired generals expressed strong support for the Tsar's actions. Soldiers really need a better living environment. In addition to military pay, improving treatment also includes other treatments.

And the army began to set up rear hospitals and train doctors and nurses in the governor's district, which was also a huge progress.

Solovyov received a reply to his letter on November 25, 1797. The Tsar himself also published a page in the designated newspaper to explain the importance of sanitary environment for this letter from an "anonymous person".

Just like Peter the Great cutting his beard in the past, the nobles had no objection this time. In addition to paying money, it seemed to be good for them, especially for those who did not have wives and children. There were many who went to the army. Having a hospital in the barracks could also improve conditions. When doctors were needed on the battlefield, officers could get in line first.

This was also the least resistance when Paul implemented reforms.

He also set an example. As early as when he was still the crown prince, in order to thank the doctor for his superb medical skills and make him recover, he had been sponsoring the operation of Pavlovsk Hospital on the basis of the empress's order. This hospital was established in 1763 and was the first "civilian hospital" in Moscow.

This time, after replying to the letter, he also issued an edict, requiring the new health regulations to be implemented in the Pavlovsk Hospital. He also encouraged the nobles to establish hospitals for medical and charitable purposes.