Drugs and Revolution

The crowds that made, defended, and extended the 1905 Russian Revolution contained some unexpected participants. Among those who do not fit our stereotypes of urban insurrectionists were pharmacists. They do not come to mind when historians conjure up the Slavic equivalents of Michelet's peuple, le peuple tout entier, 1 yet pharmacists played important and dramatic roles in 1905. Their history illuminates a dark corner of the Russian past where the middle ranks of men and women desperately sought to define a role for themselves. In less than a year pharmacists went from the nonaligned status of individuals, unsure whether they were professionals or hirelings or simply laboring intelligenty, to steadfast members of a militant union. This article focuses on Moscow. Pharmacists there gave startling evidence of radicalization during 1905. By the end of the year they readily lent their headquarters building as a meeting place for the Soviet of Workers' Deputies and had their union join that revolutionary body. Dozens of them tested their commitment to a proletarian vision of politics and society on the barricades. 2 For pharmacists, Moscow was a microcosm of the urban component of their professional world. Employment patterns were not unlike those elsewhere; there was a representative distribution of small, medium, and large apothecary shops. Moscow was peculiar, however, because as it was the capital of Holy Russia, the authorities placed special pressure on the many Jewish pharmacists. This gave dynamics of alienation and politicization an especially rapid spin. Moreover, the city possessed a few pharmacist-activists who provided energetic leadership. The union they helped organize became the model for local entities and a national union of pharmacists. Their professional journal, Farmatsevticheskii vestnik, promoted political activism and identification

Political science · Russian revolution · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Economic, Social, and Public Health Issues in Russia and Globally · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History

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