Commissar for Health He looks out for you / at home and on the streets / so that you’ll be healthy / and not sick and weak (like a wet chicken).

One significant accomplishment of the Soviet Union was to decrease child mortality substantially. Before the revolution, around 1⁄6 of children died before turning 5 years old. This figure worsened during the troubled years of the USSR, but eventually was reduced markedly: the life expectancy for a newborn pre-revolution was about 30 years, but by the 1950s this improved to over 60. Improved infection control, public sanitation, and antiseptics used in childbirth and surgery were leading contributors to this improvement. Source: https://voxeu.org/article/soviet-economy-1917-1991-its-life-and-afterlife

While child health improved substantially, citizens above the age of 40 saw almost no improvement in life expectancy over the history of the Soviet Union. The USSR failed to leverage new science of the era pertaining to degenerative and non-infectious diseases that often affected these populations, and widespread smoking, drinking, and polluted air contributed negatively to health outcomes for the middle-aged population. For instance, around 15 percent of the Soviet population lived in towns where air pollution was greater than 10 times normal levels. Sources: https://voxeu.org/article/soviet-economy-1917-1991-its-life-and-afterlife https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1025801/?page=3

Unlike in the U.S., medicine was largely a low status profession in the Soviet Union. Soviet physicians were low-paid, earning only 70 percent of the average non-farm Soviet worker’s salary. Additionally, the majority of physicians were female. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.10.3.71 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1025801/?page=3

Established in 1920, the Soviet healthcare system was highly centralized and fully public. Free healthcare was universally available, at least in places like Leningrad. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.10.3.71 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1025801/?page=4

Santaorium (Санаторий), a health retreat: Near the end of the Soviet period, the USSR had a greater number of health facilities and workers thant the US (e.g. almost twice the number of physicians per capita and more than three times the number of hospital beds per capita), but the level of spending, quality of the system, and health outcomes were inferior by most measures (for example, the percent of the GNP used of health was only 3.4% in 1989, as compared to 11.4% for the US, and the life expectancy at birth was around 5 years less than in the US. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.10.3.71

Interestingly, the artist’s depiction of healthcare in this image emphasizes preventive rather than palliative care. The early Soviet healthcare system made many strides in some preventative areas, like providing immunizations and combating infectious disease and epidemics. On the other hand, there was an overemphasis on hospitals in the Soviet system and it could have arguably benefited from more emphasis on preventive care. As of 1988, around 78% of Soviet health spending was on hospitals while sanatoria and public health activities (the subjects of the illustration) made up only 9% of the budget. For comparison, the U.S. at this time spent around 40% of its health budget on hospitals. https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.10.3.71

The scarf worn by the boy is characteristic of the Young Pioneers, an organization for children aged around 9-15 that aimed to mold youth into ideal Soviet citizens. The organization also served a role in preventive health as well: each year, children in large cities like Leningrad were sent to Pioneer summer camp to get away from the unhealthy environment of the city and instead be exposed to the fresh air and sunshine of the country. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1025801/?page=2

Despite the exercise equipment depicted, there was inadequate attention to fitness in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, for the average citizen who experienced a stroke or heart attack, emphasis was placed on physical therapy and rehabilitation rather than vascular surgeries (though this was in large part since more advanced medical procedures for surgery were often not widely available). https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.10.3.71 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1025801/?page=3