42 Chapter 1
included lessons in science, technology, and foreign languages—and meals
taken whenever the rester felt hungry, not by the bell.^79
Having settled in and learned the rules of the kurort regime, the patient began
a course of treatment, which consisted of three elements: medical procedures,
diet, and cultural activities. Sanatoria scheduled medical therapies for the
morning hours between breakfast and midday dinner, all administered accord-
ing to the doctor’s prescription in the patient’s medical booklet. (Stakhanovites
received the best treatment times.)^80 At balnealogical resorts such as Mineral
Waters, these therapies might include mineral water or mud baths. Drinking
mare’s milk ( kumys ) was the featured treatment in the resorts of central Asia
and Kazakhstan. Patients might also receive electrotherapy, light therapy, or
massages. Most widespread, of course, were the so-called climate therapies: sun
baths, sea bathing, outdoor rest away from the direct sunlight, and breathing
fresh sea breezes and the aromas of plants. Medical staff strictly monitored the
length of time the patients received these treatments, told them when to turn
over, and chased them out of the water at the end of their prescribed swims. A
patient could enter the water or lie on the beach only with a doctor’s order.
Toward the end of the 1920s, health advocates recommended more active
forms of treatment be added to the health resort regimen. “Medical physical
culture”—supervised calisthenics and sporting activities such as volleyball—
slowly gained acceptance in the 1930s. Controlled walks and excursions to
local sites of touristic interest also complemented the strict application of
mineral water and sun. A fi nal element of a patient’s cure, “labor therapy,”
provided a transition back to a normal work routine. In the 1930s, some pa-
tients were permitted to engage in ten to fi fteen minutes of light garden work.
Doctors were supposed to supervise every aspect of the patient’s treatment;
they visited the patients’ wards every day, and they monitored the progress
of the cure with extended examinations every fi ve days.^81
In Soviet health establishments, the pleasures of the table became one
more element of the therapeutic regime. “The intake of food should be con-
sidered a medical procedure on which depends the success of the cure; one
should focus all attention on this procedure, do not engage in superfl uous
conversation, reading, arguments and do not arrive for meals in an overly
fatigued condition.” In both rest homes and sanatoria, the success of the va-
cation was measured by the amount of a patient’s weight gain, testimony to
the imperial legacy of poverty and the limited access to nutritious food by
ordinary Soviet citizens in a culture of rationing.^82- GARF, f. 5528, op. 4, d. 131, ll. 75–76; d. 132, ll. 1–2, 21, 247–251 (quote, ll. 247–248).
- GARF, f. 9493, op. 1, d. 24, l. 14.
- GARF, f. 9493, op. 1, d. 2, ll. 69, 79; d. 24, ll. 71–72, 13; d. 8, l. 46; B. Ia. Shimshe-
levich, “O rezhime bol'nykh v Kislovodske v sviazi s primeneniem fi zkul'tury,” Voprosy ku-
rortologii , no. 3 (1937): 112–115; Gol'dfail' and Iakhnin, Kurorty, sanatorii i doma otdykha ,
92–96, 185–188, 264–265. - Gol'dfail' and Iakhnin, Kurorty, sanatorii i doma otdykha , 470 (quote); Lifshits,
“Mediko-sanitarnoe obsluzhivanie,” 39–40; GARF, f. 9493, op. 1, d. 24, l. 63; op. 3, d. 1478, l. 16.