On the issue of the state of health care in the daily life of rural residents in Central Kazakhstan in 1964-1985

Abstract

The healthcare sector is closely connected with all aspects of life since it is the main need of a person as a living being. The study attempts to determine the state of health care in Central Kazakhstan and to assess the peculiarities of its development, achievements, and shortcomings in the studied period. The article used the documentary materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, and the Central State and Regional Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan. A comparative analysis of archival data with the materials of oral interviews conducted by the author with medical specialists (doctors, nurses) who worked in the healthcare system during the study period and Kazakh villagers of Karkaraly, Ulytau, Shet, Zhanaarkinsky, Nurinsky, Aktogay and other districts of the region was carried out. Summing up, the authors noted that the health care of the rural population in the 1970s - 1985 and its level grew every year and had positive dynamics. But the contradictions arising in connection with the specifics and complexities of Kazakhstan's rural life have largely not found their solution. The fact that the State focused on health care only on the problem of combating the consequences of diseases, and not on identifying and eliminating the causes, led to the fact that the issues of systemic provision of an adequate level of medical care to the rural population, especially in remote areas, were not resolved and gave rise to new problems and difficulties. The processing and analysis of published studies and sources were carried out using general scientific and special methods of historical science, which allowed us to characterize the health status of the villagers of the Central Kazakhstan region and the influence of the Soviet Kazakh rural health care on it in everyday life