HEALTHCARE IN THE TURGAY REGION AS DOCUMENTED IN THE TURGAYSKAYA GAZETA(LATE 19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY)

Abstract

The article reveals the features of the formation of the healthcare system, the directions of sanitary policy, and epidemic control measures in the Turgay region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, based on a comprehensive source-critical analysis of the materials of the Turgayskaya Gazeta (1895–1910). The purpose of the study is to determine the state of medical care, the development of regional medical infrastructure, and the relationship between traditional Kazakh healing and European medicine through the publications of the region’s main official newspaper. Research tasks: to systematize regulatory and statistical medical documents in the newspaper; to analyze the spread of smallpox, plague, and cholera epidemics; to trace the training of the first Kazakh medical personnel at the Orenburg Feldsher School; and to examine the practical activities of the 1st Aktobe and 3rd Kustanai medical districts. Based on newspaper materials and archival records of the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it is proved that the regional health network was primarily oriented towards imperial security and establishing a "sanitary cordon" rather than civilian needs. The acute shortage of physicians is revealed through the example of the 3rd district of Kustanai uezd, where over 46,000 residents were served solely by a feldsher. The colonial stereotype regarding the nomads' alleged religious prejudice against medicine is refuted using the 1896 eyewitness report by the prominent Kazakh intellectual Akhmet Baitursynov. The paper highlights the intellectual dialogue between folk remedies (warm animal skin wrapping, henbane fumigation, head massage) and academic medicine (principles of A. Paré and N. Pirogov). It is concluded that Turgayskaya Gazeta is an indispensable historical source for studying regional medical history.