I propose to write the first solo-authored monograph in Russian or English to explore the history of tobacco use and government-initiated cessation programs in Russia in the context of the country's complex social, cultural, and political changes of the past 130 years. In Cigarettes and Soviets: The Culture of Tobacco Use in Modern Russia, I will describe the unique history of tobacco consumption and control in Russia, including policies initiated since the fall of the Soviet Union. In addition to being a resource for historians, the monograph will provide public health researchers and policy makers an unprecedented look at the effects and effectiveness of government-initiated tobacco control efforts, with careful attention to the individual, community, and governmental factors that contributed to each success and failure and how these make Russian tobacco consumption distinctive. The goal of this project is to create an ambitious and encompassing social, cultural, and gendered history of tobacco in Russia. Expanding beyond policy reports and internal ministry memos, the monograph will reconstruct the culture of tobacco using newspapers, journals, industry publications, etiquette manuals, propaganda posters, popular literature, films, cartoons, and advertising images. The book will engage global histories to show where Russian tobacco use both reflected and differed from world-wide consumption trends, highlight the reaction of Russian state and medical authorities to new understandings of tobacco's dangers, and contribute to historical arguments that emphasize Russian and Soviet science's global connections. The methodology also utilizes cutting edge anthropological theory and sensory history approaches creating a unique vision of smoking that balances the warnings of tobacco's dangers with the historical conceptions of its benefits. The Bilateral Presidential Commission's Health Working Group coordinates programs between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development, including tobacco control initiatives. Understanding Russia's distinctive history may suggest different strategies and may provide important lessons for policy makers and health workers seeking to implement U.S. policy initiatives. The unique history of tobacco in Russia suggests that programs undertaken by the Health Working Group may fail if they are based solely on policy shown to be effective in other countries. It may also give valuable insights for public health officials in the U.S., Russia, and beyond as governments and independent healthcare organizations grapple with the complicated history of tobacco use and control.
Cigarettes and Soviets: The Culture of Tobacco Use in Modern Russia will be the first scholarly monograph in Russian or English to detail the explosion of Russian tobacco consumption over the last 130 years and examine the cessation efforts from government, medical, and religious authorities. Understanding Russia's distinctive history may suggest different strategies for U.S. policy initiatives such as those undertaken by the Bilateral Presidential Commission's Health Working Group, which coordinates programs between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development. Further, this monograph will provide insights into the successes and failures of government-led tobacco control efforts that can be applied to similar efforts in the U.S. and elsewhere.
| Starks, Tricia A (2017) Propagandizing the Healthy, Bolshevik Life in the Early USSR. Am J Public Health 107:1718-1724 |
| Starks, Tricia A (2017) A Revolutionary Attack on Tobacco: Bolshevik Antismoking Campaigns in the 1920s. Am J Public Health 107:1711-1717 |
