Geriatrics and Ageing in the Soviet Union: Medical, Political and Social Contexts

This book explores aging in the Soviet Union, covering geriatrics, gerontology, and the experience of growing old. It examines Soviet aging in medical, political, and social contexts, and highlights the challenges faced by the USSR in the post-war decades. The contributions in the book offer a model of response to the aging population.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 09 February 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This open-access book brings together a diverse group of scholars from related disciplines to explore aging in the Soviet Union. It covers the practice of geriatrics, the science of gerontology, and the experiences of growing old. The book's chapters focus on concepts and themes that analyze Soviet aging in its medical, political, and social contexts, both within the Soviet Union and internationally.

Ageing was hardly a uniquely Soviet phenomenon: over the past fifty years, moreover, governments and societies have been dealing with steady increases in their aging populations. Almost paradoxically, however, societal focus on this aging population, its lives, and its social impact remains extremely limited.

Compared to most sciences, gerontology is pitifully underfunded; geriatrics is amongst the least prestigious branches of medicine; and while the world's population is growing undeniably older, great disagreement remains over what can and should be done in response. These were the same challenges that the USSR faced in the post-war decades (1945-1991), and the contributions included in this volume help to flesh out and contextualize the example of Soviet gerontology and geriatrics as one possible model of response.

Geriatrics and Ageing in the Soviet Union captures the growing interest in this important subject, demonstrating the influence of aging on Soviet science and society and the impact of Soviet gerontology and geriatrics at a global level. The book is available under a CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Wellcome Trust and Liverpool John Moores University.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350273795