Military epidemiology of Austria-Hungary in the occupied Serbia between medicine and propaganda. 1915–1918

Author(s):  V.V. Mironov, Dr., Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin, Tambov, Russia, mironov.vladimir@hotmail.com

Issue:  Volume 47, № 1

Rubric:  Topical issues of world history

Annotation:  The article considers the formation of the concept of public health in Western Europe in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries and due to its perception by the European medical community of Serbia as a dysfunctional state that took only the first steps towards improving the epidemiological situation. In the years 1914–1915 Serbia experienced a severe epidemic of typhus, the consequences of which were exacerbated by the complete disruption of the medical service as a result of the military disaster of 1915. To justify the military presence in Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian propaganda widely resorted to a «civilizational argument», which was to emphasize the contribution of the military physicians of the Habsburg monarchy to the «sanitary revival» of Serbia. Without denying the individual achievements of the occupiers in the fight against epidemic diseases, the author concludes that its main reason was the authorities' desire to protect them from their own military and civilian contingent, which was in close contact with the civilian population.

Keywords:  World War I, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, public health, military epidemiology, typhus, propaganda.

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DOI:  10.18413/2687-0967-2020-47-1-78-90

Reference to article:  Mironov V.V. 2020. Military epidemiology of Austria-Hungary in the occupied Serbia between medicine and propaganda. 1915–1918. Via in tempore. History and political science, 47(1): 78–90 (in Russian). DOI