Thammasat University students who are interested in the allied health sciences, sociology, Russia, cultural and social anthropology, demography, economics, and related subjects may find a newly available book useful.
Geriatrics and Ageing in the Soviet Union: Medical, Political and Social Contexts is an Open Access book, available for free download at this link.
The TU Library collection includes other books about different aspects of geriatrics, or medical care for older adults. Gerontology is the study of aging, including biologic, sociologic, and psychologic changes.
As TU students know, Thailand is among the fastest ageing countries in the world. Thailand is expected to become a super-aged society by 2029 with more than one-fifth of its population at or over 65 years of age while the birth rate drops, according to Kasikorn Research.
The publisher’s description of the book notes:
This open access book brings together an eclectic cast of scholars in related disciplines to examine ageing in the Soviet Union, covering the practice of geriatrics, the science of gerontology, and the experience of growing old. Chapters in the book focus on concepts and themes that analyse Soviet ageing in its medical, political and social contexts, both in 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 ageing populations. Almost paradoxically, however, societal focus on this ageing 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 ageing on Soviet science and society and the impact of Soviet gerontology and geriatrics at a global level.
The book’s introduction begins:
This book is about ageing in the Soviet Union: the medical practices of geriatrics, the science of gerontology and the experience of growing old. Chapters in the volume focus on concepts and themes that examine Soviet ageing in its medical, political and social contexts, in both the Soviet Union and internationally. 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. This volume’s chapters speak directly to some of these concerns. The epilogue also brings together some of the key issues addressed in the chapters and examines them in an international context, comparing the Soviet Union to the British and US experience. Initially, however, we introduce some of the main themes in the volume and contextualize the Soviet case. These include demographic trends; science, medicine and the place of the individual; women and ageing; and attitudes to and perceptions of ageing. Demographics As the USSR aged over the decades, so too did its populace. Like populations across the world during the twentieth century, moreover, the Soviet people seemed to age faster than the passage of years would attest. A statistically young nation in the 1920s – only 6.7 per cent of the population was over sixty in 1926 – by the 1960s the USSR found its populace aligning with the broader ‘demographic shift’ observed across Europe and elsewhere, where an increasingly large proportion of populations had crossed the mark of ‘old age’. By 1975 approximately 13 per cent of the Soviet Union was now older than sixty.1 As elsewhere, this demographic shift had been caused by a combination of factors, from declining birth rates to increased standards of living and improving healthcare. Yet whatever the causes, it was undeniable that the USSR was starting to grey around the temples.
Ageing is universal: one of the few aspects of human existence that can, at least today, be expected and shared across class, national and geographic borders. This is in many ways something to be celebrated, since, as the American geriatrician Louise Aronson has put it, hardly anyone would choose the alternative to growing old. But for individuals and societies alike, the unavoidable toll of the years brings with it challenges and the need for change. Ageing bodies require individuals to confront the feeling of ‘circles growing smaller until they cease’ that the poet Donald Hall noted, while states are faced with reductions in working populations, lowered tax receipts and the need to provide additional services. The chapters in this volume show both the reduction in personal circumference experienced by older Soviet (and socialist) citizens and the state’s attempts to balance the needs of older citizens with its own ideological and economic priorities. […]
The USSR’s struggles to balance the statistical ageing of its population against the needs of particular older individuals mirrored that of the West. As ‘critical’ gerontologists have argued in regards to the latter, this frequently aligned with the position that older and not infrequently infirm pensioners were at essence a ‘problem’ or ‘crisis’ to be solved: an existing or expected lack of workers or budget funding or a massive outlay of expenditure on rising medical costs. This sense of ‘crisis’, these critical voices have highlighted, has stopped many Western countries from addressing the demographic shift of the twentieth century as a space of opportunity or possible change – that is, a chance to rethink economy structures and even ‘work’ around the newly growing older population. Instead, as the Russian philosopher Anatoly Baranov has said, the focus has remained on the outdated concept of industrial labour and the idea that after sixty-five most workers are no longer a positive asset on the balance sheet.
An article published last year by one of the book’s editors has the following summary:
Like most developed nations, the Soviet Union faced an unprecedented demographic shift during the latter half of the twentieth century, as its population aged and life expectancies grew significantly. Facing similar challenges as the USA or the UK, this article argues, the USSR reacted similarly and equally ad hoc, allowing biological gerontology and geriatrics to develop as sciences and medical specialisations with little central direction. When political attention was focused on ageing, moreover, the Soviet response remained largely comparable to the West’s, with geriatric medicine slowly overtaking research into the foundations of ageing and yet remaining sorely underfunded and underpromoted.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)