Restoring Vacations after the War 151another, “is our product.” Each head doctor reported on the medical condi-
tions and outcomes for the patients: whatever condition they had arrived
in, patients were supposed to return to work not just rested but measur-
ably healthier as well as heavier—weight gain continued to be a marker of
physical well-being in these years when famine still lurked in memory and
experience.^56
Expansion of the right to this therapeutic rest required not just more beds
for more laboring people but also more and better medical services. Patients
and doctors hailed the appearance of dental clinics because healthy teeth
contributed to improved digestion, warding off disease. In Yalta, 80 percent of
patients by 1954 used the services of the resident dentist.^57 Some physicians
also pointed to the usefulness of psychotherapeutic services as part of the va-
cation regime. Patients themselves expected to receive thorough instructions
from physicians for their medical regime, they complained when the medical
- “In our sanatoria,” GARF, f. 9493, op. 3, d. 77, ll. 126–129 (quote, l. 129), 161; “The
health of the individual,” TsGAMO, f. 7223, op. 1, d. 949 (head doctors’ conference, June
1953), l. 48; d. 329, l. 10; d. 920; d. 949. - GARF, f. 9493, op. 3, d. 77, l. 162; TsGAMO, f. 7223, op. 1, d. 443, l. 13; d. 679, l. 15;
GARF, f. 9493, op. 3, d. 1955 (trade union sanatorium offi cials’ conference, January 1955),
l. 18.
Relaxing on the terrace of the railway workers’ union rest home at Khot'kovo, Moscow
oblast, July 1952. Photograph by Evzerikhin. RGAKFD g. Krasnogorsk, no. 0249400. Used
with permission of the archive.