Public Works in an Autocratic State: Water Supplies in an Imperial Russian Town
Общественные работы в автократическом государстве: водоснабжение в имперском русском городе
2005-08-01
SCID: 54.1/xgbdax57
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Great ReformsImperial Russiapublic healthpublic workswater supplies
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Abstract (AI)
Abstract In the 1830s and 1840s, Russians became particularly interested in water as a public health issue. Despite the attention of the state and the tsar, localities like the town of Kazan were largely unable to affect changes in public health due to bureaucratic obstacles and financial constraints. After the modernising Great Reforms, private interests helped bring older plans into reality. However, their success caused Russia to lag further behind the West, where private interests were ceding ground to public ones in the face of new understandings of contamination and hygiene.
Key Findings
1
After the Great Reforms, private interests helped implement previously stalled water-supply plans in Kazan.
2
In the 1830s and 1840s, water became a prominent public health concern in Russia, attracting attention from both society and the state.
3
Kazan was largely unable to improve public health because bureaucratic obstacles and financial constraints impeded local action.
4
Private-sector success widened Russia’s gap with Western countries, where emerging contamination and hygiene concepts were shifting water provision toward public control.
Research Object
Water-supply public works in the imperial Russian town of Kazan
Research Subject
The development and implementation of urban water-supply and public-health initiatives under autocratic bureaucracy, financial constraints, and changing roles of private and public interests
Publication Details
Publication Date
2005-08-01
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